The Ettin's Riddle

This was another of WotC's online adventures that they published for free. It's not exactly a sequel to The Burning Plague, but it could be so used; it's written for 2nd-3rd level characters, so those who conquered the Duvik Mines may well be ready for this adventure already.

The Ettin's Riddle is an 18-page PDF that comes with two maps (also available for download with the adventure as separate files). There's a two-page background, whereby Kyrnyn, a young cleric of Heironeous, survived a battle with an evil wizard but was polymorphed into an ettin. Now his god won't grant him the dispel magic spell he needs because the cleric needs to learn some humility first. Leaving him as an ettin doesn't seem like the best way to teach him that lesson, but I'm not a god, so I'll defer to the Invincible One's better judgment.

Anyway, there's a riddle that has to be solved in order to break the curse, and it's going to be up to the PCs to figure it out since the ettin/cleric is losing the battle with his second head for control of the body. Again, not the best way to punish someone, but that's not my call. Heironeous would seem to be in agreement, though, since he's nudging a group of adventurers to go that way to deal with the problem more directly.

Here's the adventure synopsis from the PDF.

The adventurers arrive at the hamlet of Newkeep just after an ettin has destroyed the only bridge over the nearby river. Unable to cross until the bridge is rebuilt, the adventurers have nothing better to do than listen to tales about the ettin.

While the adventurers are waiting to cross the river, the ettin appears again, this time moving stealthily through the hamlet. The villagers ask the adventurers to help them slay the creature, explaining that if they must do it themselves, they will have no time to rebuild the bridge.

Once the adventurers get on the track of the ettin, they can either try to unravel the mystery of the riddle, lay a trap for the ettin’s next visit, or track the giant to its lair. When they finally encounter the ettin, Kyrnyn gains control of his ettin body and explains who he really is, and his dilemma. He begs the adventurers to help him lift his curse—if only by slaying him before his other half, Muck, takes any more innocent lives.

While the adventurers are deciding what to do, the villagers have taken matters into their own hands, and are moving in a mob to attack the marauding ettin. The adventurers have only a short time before the villagers arrive, and once they arrive, an even shorter time to solve the riddle before Muck beats them to death—or they’re forced to kill the poor cleric Kyrnyn.

**********************

So, that's the basic outline of the plot of the adventure. It's not just a hack-and-slash adventure (which is good, since 2nd-3rd level characters have no business whatsoever going up against a pissed-off ettin).

The adventure also includes a full write-up of the Ettin which will almost certainly be appearing in the Monster Manual next month. Surprisingly, they are only a CR 5, which seems low to me. But then, I don't really understand the CR system yet. We shall see when the MM comes out.

There are a couple of maps, as I said: Newkeep, and Oldkeep. Not exactly bursting with fantasy flavor, but it is what it is. Newkeep is the village where the Ettin has been seen lately; Oldkeep is the ettin's lair.

There is enough information for a novice DM to run the adventure with reasonable skill and ability. I haven't run it, but it should provide a decent challenge for new players as well.

Next time, a new online feature: Cliffhangers.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

May 2000

Image
Again, two things on the list as we get closer to the release date. This time, the online character is  Tordek, the Dwarven Fighter . He's got the usual 1st, 4th and 7th-level writeups. His first-level sheet shows that he's using an Exotic weapon, the dwarven waraxe. He had to take the proficiency for it as a separate feat. He also took Weapon Focus (dwarven waraxe), which according to the previous Countdown article means he's getting a +1 to his attack rolls with it. We get the dwarven special abilities here of darkvision (replacing infravision, but different from what the elves got), Intuit unusual stonework (+2), which is undefined at this time, as well as a saving throw bonus vs. poison and spells and a +1 bonus to hit goblinoids and orcs. Other than that, not much else of interest here. On his 4th-level writeup we see how the fighter bonus feats add up quickly; he now has five feats, adding Improved Initiative, Dodge, and Specialization with his dwarven waraxe. His 7th...
Read more

Dungeon Master's Guide Chapter 7

Image
Okay, so now we get to look at the real reason people go on adventures: The Rewards. This chapter covers experience points, treasure, and other rewards. It's another short one, so let's jump right in. First, XP. This is how you level up. I've already seen the basics of the XP system in the 2000 Survival Kit in the back of the Player's Handbook . The system is basically unchanged in the DMG. First of all, every encounter has a Challenge Rating. Monsters, NPCs, and traps all have CRs which indicate how tough they are to overcome, and how many XP the party receives from overcoming them. Note that XP for treasure is no longer a thing. That's a big part of the old system removed, but on the other hand, leveling up is a lot faster now, and the rules suggest that characters should be advancing roughly one level per adventure now. Which is going to shorten campaigns, since if you're reaching the highest levels of play after only twenty or so sessions, you're not goi...
Read more

June 2000

Image
Closing in on the release date, and we've got a bigger batch to go through today. In addition to the Countdown article, Dragon had its annual 'dragons' issue, including our first look at a 3rd edition monster writeup. But first...we have  Ember, the Human Monk  to look at. They formatted this sheet differently from the prior ones. It's not spaced out very well, and everything is listed in a column format without abbreviations. It's the same information as the previous characters, but it just feels off. And the artwork makes it clear that Ember is not from the far East, but rather the Dark Continent. Interestingly, the levels on this sheet are 1st, 3rd and 7th. I'm not sure why they did the switch, but there it is. For 1st level, Ember's top stats are Strength and Wisdom, and she's skilled in acrobatic-type skills. At 3rd, I noticed that her movement speed went up, and I don't see a magic item to explain that, so I'll assume it's a class featu...
Read more