Masque of Dreams

Issue: 142

Level: 1

Campaign: Mystara

Author: B Matthew Conklin III

Teaser: A masquerade ball at a remote desert oasis turns tragic when the party is crashed by goblin minions of a priestess of Zargon. Can the PCs rescue the kidnapped guests before they vanish into the desert, the latest victims of the Lost City of the Valley of Death? A D&D adventure for 1st-level characters.

Resources

Errata

The Map of the Manor lists Neheshru's room when in fact it should be listed as Policrates room. Indeed in the original manuscript Neheshru (who was a man to avoid comparisons with Lady Vestang) takes a personal hand in the abduction plot and Policrates is naught, but a drug addled fool.

The Scaling Sidebar lists a squid in the wellhead, which is absent from the text for that area. Originally the wellhead had a DM-only paragraph that read like this:

The well itself connects to the oasis just outside via a two-hundred-twenty-feet of submerged tunnels. There are multiple divergent tunnels some of which double back on themselves, while others delve deeper into the ground. Navigating this area will require Spot checks (DC 18) to find the sediment-camouflaged tunnels or Survival checks (DC 15) to maintain one’s bearings (remember also that there is no light in the tunnels). Finally the tunnel narrows for the last twenty feet just before the oasis (which it self is about 10 feet deep). Medium-sized characters traversing this portion will have to squeeze through.

In the well itself lurks an aggressive freshwater squid. It hunts subterranean anglerfish by springing from hidden nooks to catch its prey unaware; it uses the same tactic on any Medium-sized or smaller prey swimming in the depths of the well.

Squid: hp 13; Monster Manual 281.

The Area Map lists a locale called the Lake of Dust. This should be Death's Oasis.

The Expanded Dancing Tabi

The sounds of pipes and merry-making issue forth from this stone building as freely as the scent of herbal tobacco. Above the front door a sign hangs, portraying a capering flute-playing monkey with wings. Within its dim confines one finds many stout hardies enjoying a good song.

The Dancing Tabi serves some of the finest meals (often smothered in gravy) and heady teas this side of a noble’s table. From midmorning to well-past dark the place is home to off-duty guards, wanderers, mercenaries searching for employment (either as caravan guards or bandits), and the people who wish to hire them. The Dancing Tabi is well known for its singing owner Skowls. Skowls likes to say that he is “a hobgoblin by birth, a shopkeeper by inclination and singer by ability.” Should anyone deride any of these attributes they may find out that Skowls was also “a murderous bandit by proclivity of youth.” Skowls enjoys his current situation too much to toss it away on idle murder in his own shop, but isn’t above tricking the PCs out into the desert and then killing or stranding them there. Also most of Skowls’ regulars like the raucous off-key hobgoblin and would jump to his defense if a fight were to break out.

Usually the Dancing Tabi serves a crowd of two to twelve customers at any given time, but the weeks leading up to the party finds up to four times that number crammed in and around its’ walls. During this period Skowls supplements his usual staff (three 1st-level human commoners) with temporary workers. Among these temps is Haerekoe Alsufarran a 14-year-old urchin boy and guide with a smiling face and swarthy skin (see below). He is deferential to those of higher status, but open and friendly with everyone else. A daydreamer he is often harshly scolded by Skowls for thinking more about epic adventures than his job.

Skowls, male hobgoblin fighter 5: hp 47; Perform (sing) –1; Dungeon Master’s Guide 117.

Development: Skowls’ initial attitude is indifferent. Should the characters challenge Skowls’ crooning ability in a Performance contest, and win, the hobgoblin’s attitude shifts to unfriendly. If at anytime a character just flat out insults the hobgoblin he becomes hostile, he keeps his temper though, planning his revenge for when there aren’t so many witnesses about.

Skowls closes shop to attend the marchioness’ party and picks a mask depicting a laughing pre-fall Cynidicean. While under the effects of the elixir of dreams he believes himself to be a court minstrel in service to Queen Zenobia (Lady Vestang) and takes one of the hired musician’s harps to complete the delusion.

Expanded NPCs:

Some of the following characters did not make the final cut. Additional notes are provided on some characters.

Cabrok Niphils, male human expert 2: hp 8; Profession (moneychanger) +8; 500 gp in jewelry and gold teeth; see typical merchant below. Renamed Nyral in the module. In the pre-edit verion he is always accompanied 2-3 typical flunkies (see below).

Niphils is a short, bald, overweight, shabbily dressed and thoroughly unattractive man with more gold on his fingers and in his mouth (including several lip-rings) than many minor nobles carry in their purse. Niphils is the moneychanger (Dungeon Master’s Guide 140) and usurer in the thorp. He also secretly runs small illegal gambling dens here and in a pair of nearby towns. In dealing with locals or regulars he usually charges 10% for his services but when dealing with strangers he thinks he can bully he often hikes up his rates to 15% or 20%.

Two or three well-paid thugs always accompany Niphils wherever he goes, but on those rare occasions where force does not work he resorts to deception, using his own pathetic appearance to illicit pity until he can gain an advantage. At which point he has his flunkies exact vengeance for him.

Niphils attends the party dressed in a fine courtier’s outfit wearing a rust monster mask. His three thugs go unarmed and dressed in normal clothes, but wear masks depicting an ape, a dog, and a mule respectively. After they are drugged the thugs stay close to Niphils protecting him as they normally would, but now behaving (and fighting) like the animals depicted on their masks. Niphils wanders the party constantly prodding characters carrying noticeable amounts of metal with his mask’s feathery antennae, while whining about how hungry he is. Characters can rid themselves of the bothersome moneychanger by throwing some metal objects in his path.

Duke Gunrad Sallin, male human aristocrat 1: hp 5; Perform (weapon drill) +3; ducal rod (light mace), masterwork rapier; see “typical visiting aristocrat” below.

Haerekoe Alsufarran, male human expert 2: hp 6; Profession (guide) +8, Sleight of Hand +0; see typical merchant below.

Iccanti Dustreader, female elf expert 2: hp 9; Survival +8, elf traits, see typical merchant below.

Kella Woodwain, female human expert 2: hp 7; Profession (teamster) +8; see typical merchant below.

Kella Woodwain is young woman who inherited her mother’s caravan business a year ago when the elder Woodwain’s entire caravan disappeared while traversing the desert. Kella has had a tough time of it since. Forced to rebuild her mother’s business from scratch she is just now starting to regain the company’s old clients. Kella attends the party to make contacts and perhaps hire some guards. All the local guards are too superstitious to work for her since her mother’s disappearance.

"Honest" Loomis, Kalia and Jarrod, human expert 2: hp 6 each; Handle Animal +8; see typical merchant below.

Loomis and his cousins deal in horses, camels and mules and though they are for the most part honest business folk they tend to be a gregarious lot and are more likely to give deals to people they consider “talkative.” To their way of thinking people who talk don’t have anything to hide.

Loomis, and his cousins, Kalia and Jarrod, all go wearing camel masks and brown capes. They chat up everyone in sight until after the toast at which point they walk silently about villa in a single line occasionally going to the oasis to drink their fill of water. If anyone interferes with their progress they spit on the offender and run away without saying a word.

Mabriel Soems: hp 5; Perform (dance) +3; see typical aristocrat below.

Ruggles and Rihgel Ironbeard, dwarf expert 2: hp 10, 8; Craft (blacksmithing) +10, dwarf traits, see typical merchant below.

Ruggles Ironbeard and his son Rihgel handle most of the oasis’ metal work, everything from tinkering, and smithing to barrel making, and wagon construction. Ruggles is a deeply pious and traditional middle-aged dwarf who sees a divine hand in all of creation. He has tried to instill his beliefs in his son without success. Rihgel knows his father means well but would much rather hang out at the Dancing Tabi than sit through another lecture describing his place in the world as a dwarf. Ruggles and Delvis, the Lady’s guard captain, have stubbornly disliked one another since the moment they first met and refuse to speak to the other.

At the party both dwarves wear masks depicting thoughtful bearded men. After they have drunk the elixir of dreams though Rihgel starts building a “flying machine” out of the dining room table. He plans to use it to fly to the heavens to give the reigning immortals there a piece of his mind. His father meanwhile retrieves a hammer from his shop and then roams about the grand hall breaking objects that don’t live up to his idea of good dwarven craftsmanship, including many of the Cynidicean art objects recovered from Zenobia’s Vale.

Sanjin and Mati Falfor, human expert 2: hp 8 each; Profession (shopkeeper) +8; see typical merchant below.

Sanjin Falfor, a thin balding man with swarthy skin and a gray moustache, has been the proprietor of the Storehouse (the oasis’ general store) since most folks this side of Ruggles Ironbeard can remember. Sanjin likes to haggle and sometimes does it just for fun. He is quite the traditionalist, and frowns upon hooliganism, laziness, magic-use and an excess of anything (beyond storable provisions and water of course). His stout wife Mati is quite the local gossip.

Mati talks her husband into attending the masquerade and both pick up bird masks at the door. After the toast Mati hangs out with the other “birds,” but Sanjin ironically imagines the manor is under eminent threat of attack. He pulls everything off the kitchen shelves and makes a small fort (or nest) in the middle of the floor. He implores the characters to find his wife (“She flew off with some noisy gulls!”) so that they can hide from the monsters that are coming to get them.

Sir Gennardo Kendler: hp 6; Perform (storyteller) +3; see typical aristocrat below.

Typical Flunky, male human warrior 1 (2-3): hp 8 each; Possessions: usually carry clubs or daggers instead of the weapons listed below; see typical guard below.

The pre-edit version of "Masque of Dreams" used the following generic stats for many of the minor NPCs:

TYPICAL VISITING ARISTOCRAT CR ½

Human aristocrat 1

N Medium humanoid (human)

Init +0; Senses Spot +0, Listen +0

Languages Common

AC 10, touch 10, flat-footed 10

hp 5 (1 HD)

Fort +0, Ref +0, Will +2

Spd 30 ft.

Melee longsword +0 (1d8/19-20)

Base Atk +0; Grp +0

Abilities Str 10, Dex 11, Con 11, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 11

Feats Negotiator, Persuasive

Skills Bluff +4, Diplomacy +4, Intimidate +4, Knowledge (royalty and nobility) +3, Perform (any one skill) +3, Ride +3, Sense Motive +4, Swim +3

Possessions courtier’s or noble’s outfit, jewelry worth 3d20 gp.

TYPICAL GUARD CR ½

Human warrior 1

N Medium humanoid (human)

Init +0; Senses Spot +1, Listen +1

Languages Common

AC 12, touch 10, flat-footed 12

hp 8 (1 HD)

Fort +3, Ref +0, Will –1

Spd 30 ft.

Melee halberd +2 (1d10+1/x3) or scimitar +2 (1d6+1/18-20) or dagger +2 (1d4+1/19-20)

Ranged light crossbow +1 (1d8/19-20)

Base Atk +1; Grp +2

Abilities Str 13, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 8

Feats Alertness, Toughness

Skills Climb +4, Intimidate +2, Jump +4, Ride +3

Possessions melee weapon usually a halberd, light crossbow, 20 bolts, leather armor.

TYPICAL MERCHANT (OR ENTERTAINER) CR 1

Human expert 2

N Medium humanoid (human)

Init +0; Senses Spot +7, Listen +7

Languages Common

AC 10, touch 10, flat-footed 10

hp 7 (2 HD)

Fort +0, Ref +0, Will +3

Spd 30 ft.

Melee dagger +1 (1d4/19-20)

Ranged dagger +1 (1d4/19-20)

Base Atk +1; Grp +1

Abilities Str 10, Dex 10, Con 11, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 11

Feats Alertness, Skill Focus (any one Craft, Perform, Profession, Handle Animal or Survival)

Skills Craft, Perform, Profession, Handle Animal or Survival (any one) +8, Appraise +5, Diplomacy +7, Knowledge (Local) +5, Listen +7, Spot +7, Sense Motive +5

Possessions coin purse with 2d10 sp inside.