One Last Riddle

This should have been posted last night, but life happens. This short adventure was made available online on Feb 2, 2001. It's called One Last Riddle, and it's only six pages long. It's for characters of betweeen 5th and 7th level. That's a bit unusual for 3rd edition; most of the adventures I've seen have a specific level in mind, rather than a range. Oh, and it doesn't use a map. It's about a sphinx that died last night.

The adventure starts when the party is just chilling out somewhere by the road. Any road; this adventure fits in any campaign and any setting. Sure, why not? Suddenly, the ghost of the dead sphinx shows up, challenging the party with 'the last riddle of Ujaset'. That's the dead sphinx's name. The riddle is as follows:

“What is half of dragon,
but has not a wyrmling’s strength?
What is half of canine,
but has not a mongrel’s length?
What is it that is of two halves,
but has but half to stand on?

If the party can figure it out, the ghost is happy and asks them to avenge his death and take his treasure from the creatures that took his life. If they can't, he's pissed off and demands they avenge his death or he'll haunt the hell out of them. Either way, they're going hunting for the murderous beasts.

Oh, the answer? Kobold, of course.

Yes, a pack of kobolds took out a sphinx. That in itself should warn the party that these kobolds will not be typical pushovers. Fighting the ghost sphinx is a bad idea; even mid-level characters are likely to get smoked by a CR12 incorporeal sphinx ghost. Hopefully, they will just go along with the sphinx's request and go to his former lair to deal with the intruders.

On the way, they get to fight a wyvern before they reach the lair. Inside, they'll find one solitary teenage kobold who slept in while the other looted the sphinx's treasure and left him behind. Assuming the party doesn't just kill him and is able to communicate with him, the kobold will agree to exchange information for its life. That will lead the party to the kobold warband camp, where they can fight more than a dozen kobolds along with a pair of dire weasels. These kobolds are mostly wimps, but there is a 3rd-level warrior (the sergeant) and a 5th-level kobold fighter (the war leader). This should still not be too difficult a battle for experienced characters, but then they still have to find the sorcerer who actually killed the sphinx. Assuming they are able to find him (his in town in disguise, selling off the sphinx's stuff), he's an 8th-level sorcerer who will happily spam lightning bolts, magic missiles and cones of cold to beat on the party. Still, it's just one kobold sorcerer, and a decent group of players should be able to take him down. There's not much treasure left, unfortunately, but there is still a bit that can be salvaged.

And that's it. It's a really quick adventure that shouldn't take up even a full session of play to finish. It's practically a side quest, in fact. But, it's a fun little diversion. I'd give it a try with a group of players.

Next up, I'll review the next issue of the Living Greyhawk Journal. See you then.

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