Premade Campaign 19: The Broken Clocktower (1/3)
The Broken Clocktower is intended for Heroic level characters and is Part One in a Three Part series.
During the night a man runs into the city screaming about a Red Dragon he saw flying towards the city several minutes ago. The guards let him in and lead him to the center of town, where the Guard Captain brings him to the top of the Clocktower to get a good view of the area. They arrive at the top and see the dragon flying towards them from the distance. While trying to escape the tower, the dragon begins to charge them, but vanishes before he is able to collide. Throughout the next few weeks, citizens begin to complain about missing people and items, thought to be kidnapped or stolen by a group of traveling bugbears who had recently arrived. They leave, and the Mayor asks the party to follow them into the forest and see if they can find any of the missing. They are tracked to an encampment, with a group of bugbears camping near a fire. When approached, they leap up and defend themselves from the adventurers, trying to protect a sheet of paper and screaming that they must “get to the safe area” in Goblinoid. Once slain, the party is able to find the paper and see a circle around a cave with “Safe Spot” written in common.
When the party arrives at the marked spot on the map the cave entrance is open, but once inside a rock slides in front of the entrance and a small skirmish can be heard from outside.
Once the rock is moved aside the party can leave the cave to find the bodies of several dead Trolls, stripped of belongings. All that is left is a small watch, which displays two times on its face. The way their bodies were standing make it look like they were surprised themselves while trying to ambush the party. The trip back to the town is uneventful, and the party is able to explain the finds (or lack thereof) to the guards. A passive perception of 17 should be able to notice that the clocktower seems to be broken, and is displaying the wrong time. The guard captain seems to be surprised they have come back so soon, insisting it has only been a matter of minutes since they left, and every few seconds he seems to be shocked to see them, yet again. After a few minutes it is apparent that he is stuck in a loop, and so is the entire town. If they check their watch, they can see that one clock is moving normally and the other seems to be resetting every few seconds. Several screams can be heard from different areas, and the party should best split up if they want to save as many people as possible from this strange fate.
This campaign is actually a modified version of one I ran in the past, with a focus on character development and a long spanning, epic story. When the rules for 4E were announced I realized how easy it would be to adapt the story to the new restrictions, and much of the campaign is up to the DM to take advantage of the circumstances. For the first ten levels the players should spend most of their time in/around the city of Urbeth on the island of Thursult, which lies just above the Jungles of Chult. The maps below are of the city and island, with as much detail as necessary to show players.
Some events that should occur in the Heroic Tier are as follows:
The players should travel to the Temple of Umberlee, where the patrons are involved in an everlasting loop of binge drinking, which is beginning to take its toll. The people are drinking themselves to death, and the only way to stop this is by destroying all of the alcohol in the building.
There should be a group of bugbears that appear and attack the party and seem like they are not affected negatively by the time-loop. In fact, they actually get an extra move action each round due to it, so the party best be on guard. When leaving the area they should find the bodies of powerful trolls, goblins, and giants who were slain by unknown attackers.
After the above attack, the party should hear a scream from inside of a nearby armory building, which causes their watch to let out a whistle as they approach. When they try and enter through the only entrance they are stopped, and by the time they are able to break down the metal door they find a man with his neck cut and a bugbear rummaging through his belongings. If they kill the assailant they find a key on his belt that opens the door they just passed. If they check their watch they will notice that the clock that was stuck is moving when near a certain spot, but several minutes before. They are able to drop the key into that area, which will allow them to receive it earlier and rescue the man inside the building. This sort of interaction can be fairly common in this campaign.
There are plenty of fun opportunities to be had in this town for the first few levels, but once they have some power it is time to leave Urbeth and find the cause of this strange occurrence.
Be sure to check back tomorrow for the Paragon continuation to this Premade Campaign.
FemJesse says:
i remember this. the “safe spot” on the map originally read “Don’t Go here” in goblin and the only person who read goblin said we had to go there.
Then he went back in time and the map said “Go here”, and he wrote the “Don’t” in.. knowing his future self would be a defiant dick.
Good times.
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:59 am
Premade Campaign 19: The Shipwreck : : says:
[...] After cleaning up Urbeth and assuring that no one’s loop is going to end in their own death, the party can move out of the city and explore the rest of the island. There are plenty of places to visit during the Paragon tier, and between the levels of 11-20 there isn’t much they shouldn’t be able to handle. The two remaining cities on the island are areas the party will likely explore, and the mysterious castle to the west is another area of interest. Either way they should make their way south at one point, maybe after someone unaffected by the time-loop tells them of a group of Barbarians moving around near the coast. When they make their way to the ocean they see dozens of footprints and a group of adventurers face-down in the sand, slowly being dragged back to sea (and their clock should be going backwards, slowly). the bits of broken boat around them are also being pulled back, and some of the splintered wood and ripped sales are being mended by mysterious means. If the party is able to pull them away from their location and revive them from unconsciousness they can find that the party on the shore is the group from “Premade Campaign 17: The Book of Time.” [...]
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Gnome Rodeo: Special Early and Late Edition - Gnome Stew, the Game Mastering Blog says:
[...] Pen and Paper Portal: Coop’s Premade Campaign series continues with The Book of Time, The Broken Clocktower and The [...]
July 5th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Premade Campaign 21: One Last Spell (3/3) : : says:
[...] and the party should have had a fantastic campaign. The prologue can be found here, part one is here, and part two is [...]
July 7th, 2008 at 10:42 pm