Spoiled Waters by Kenya Ferrand
Written by Kirk Duplessis
Edited by Cassey Toi
Illustrated by Kenya Ferrand
Difficulty: medium
Magic: medium
Keywords: dim lighting
Terrain: temperate forest, water
Treasure: medium
The moon reflects brightly from the still waters of the reservoir, making it easy to see the windblown trees on the small island offshore.
Background
Brother Ptolemy has decided that fortune favours the bold; instead of passively converting the sick and downtrodden, he has reasoned that by cursing the city’s water supply to make people ill, he can hasten the supply of willing converts. To that end, he has dispatched a nine person team to the city’s water supply with a powerful ritual to do just that. The city’s water is drawn from a large reservoir 5 miles away; the water is pumped (magically or otherwise) into an aqueduct connected to the city.
Ptolemy’s team consists of a three person casting team to handle the ritual (1 each arcane, divine and natural) along with six guards (three melee, one ranged, one sneaky, one healer). The acquisition of the ritual components – a leper, some blood from a descendant of one of the city founders and various miscellaneous rare and expensive ingredients – has attracted the attention of the PC’s or of someone willing to hire them.
The ritual itself requires fifteen caster rounds to complete, meaning that it can be completed in fifteen rounds by one caster, or in five rounds by three casters working together. The casting of the ritual will continue as long as at least one caster continues to work on it. For instance, assuming that someone else has continued to cast the ritual during the second round, the wizard can cast as part of the ritual during the first round, cast fireball in the second round and then rejoin the ritual in round three. Any round during casting is disrupted does not count toward the total count needed.
If the ritual is interrupted completely (all three ritual casters stop casting), a glowing, twisting knot of magical energy appears above the island. After ten rounds, this light descends into the reservoir and detonates, fracturing the 60ft high dam holding back the reservoir.
During the course of their investigations the PC’s have the opportuinty to discover a counter-ritual; this ritual also requires rare and unusual components. If the party fail to stop Ptolemy’s plot, they may use the ritual to cleanse the reservoir. The ritual may be used to contain the magical nexus of the failed ritual. The counter-ritual operates on the same principles as the first: requiring fifteen rounds to complete, allowing for casters to work together and disrupted rounds not included in the total round count. However, if the party fails to complete the ritual, the magical energy of their ritual simply dissipates.
Objectives
The party is travelling to the reservoir to halt the poisoning of the city’s water source, by whatever means necessary.
Ptolemy’s team is intent on completing the ritual; the ritual casters will single-mindedly pursue the completion of the ritual, stopping only to defend themselves or if they are killed.
Tactics
Ptolemy’s team starts combat in a defensive formation, to protect their ritual casters. If the party starts the counter-ritual, they will shift to offensive action, with the casters occasionally interrupting their casting to support a push against the counter-ritual.
Environmental Effects
Ptolemy’s team will make use of an island in the middle of the reservoir. The flat-topped, almost barren island is roughly circular in shape, 40ft across, has steep sides and is 80ft from shore. The ritual will be attempted at night under the full moon creating dim lighting.
Development
Though the fight is mostly a knock-down drag-out fight, tactics are likely shift as each side tries to interrupt the other’s casting.
If the dam is damaged, it can be partially repaired through magical or mundane means. While this will not completely fix the dam, it will buy the party time to arrange the evacuation of the city.
Awards & Findings
There are several distinct possible outcomes to this encounter:
Victory
The party successfully halts the team or casts the counter-ritual and gathers the evidence necessary to discredit the monks completely.
Partial victory
The party interrupts the casting of the ritual, but does not complete the counter-ritual in time, resulting in damage to the dam.
- This leads to a race against time, to evacuate the city before the dam falls.
- To add to the already tense situation, there are two 6-person maintenance sleds at the top of the aqueduct; the chase mechanic is up to the GM.
Failure
The party fails to either counter or disrupt the ritual, resulting in the poisoning of the entire reservoir and all water passing through it.
- This treatment causes dysentery in any person who consumes water or any food that has been treated with water from the reservoir or aqueduct.
Spoiled Waters by Nevermet Press is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.nevermetpress.com/contact.
