Perils of South Wood is a continuation of the first adventure
Marlock's Tower. It is an original campaign (written by me). Here is a summary of what happened in the first adventure.
Ashe, an urchin from Waterdeep, travelled to Merrywater following a rumour of an empty wizard’s tower with untold riches. In the village centre she met first Falgur, a dwarven sellsword who was looking for work, then Belteshazzar (better known as Shazza), who was expecting to begin an apprenticeship with the resident of the mage tower — one Marlock, who they all learned had gone missing.
Not only Marlock, but a local farmhand named Duggan was also missing. Bree Seleen, a girl who had been raised by a local druid, joined the trio and explained she had come searching for Marlock because of a vision she had seen. A tip-off from a local beggar made Bree believe that the two missing persons were connected.
They were introduced to the farmer who offered them gold in return for searching for Duggan, with more promised upon their return if they brought him back with them; alive or dead.
They followed up on a lead of murdered pigs and picked up a trail of blood leading into South Wood. They were confident that this was the work of kobolds. The trail led them into a cave where they found a trap and were also attacked by piercers, which they fought off easily.
At the back of the cave they discovered a tunnel. They went down the tunnel and were met by three kobolds. One of them was wearing a pig’s head which had created the trail of blood. They dispatched the kobolds and realised that they now had no reason to believe Duggan had come this way.
Continuing along the tunnel they came to a mysterious cellar with a sleeping kobold inside. They captured the kobold whose name was Kax and interrogated him. They learnt that this was Marlock’s tower and the kobolds were using an artefact to summon a dragon. They forced Kax to come with them.
They managed to work out a puzzle designed to ward off intruders and climbed the steps of Marlock’s Tower. On the first floor they found a ransacked workshop. Ashe inspected a chest which turned out to be a juvenile mimic! They fought the mimic and killed it but Kax ran away during the battle.
Two kobolds came down from the upper floors during the battle but ran back upstairs to warn the others. Ashe decided to pursue Kax instead. She caught up with him as he was being eaten by a spider in the tunnel.
Bree searched the next floor of the tower which was unoccupied. She heard chanting come from the top floor of the tower. Ashe returned and they all went to stop the kobolds together. They fought the group of kobolds led by a kobold sorcerer named Kark. They were victorious.
They rested but in the night they woke to find out that the dragon was coming. They fought the wyrmling valiantly and killed it. Falgur chopped off its head. Shazza then used a scroll they had found to free Marlock, for he had been turned into stone by the kobold sorcerer.
Shazza joined Marlock as his apprentice. The others went in search of Duggan. They finally found him with the dryads, who promised his release in return for their eliminating a strange creature that lived in the pond. After a difficult battle they won out and freed Duggan, who had been imprisoned with charm spells when he tried to cut a strand from a dryad’s hair as an engagement present to his sweetheart.
The heroes returned to Merrywater where they were showered with gifts and adulation. But they soon learned from Marlock that his experiments on the artefact had released an evil presence into the wood and awoken something in the northwest region.
There was something lurking beneath the ruins. Something dangerous...
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This message was last edited by the GM at 10:28, Sun 24 Dec 2023.
