Mike_Lemmer
2006-12-31, 11:41 PM
"She appeared out of the dark one night; the crackle of the campfire fizzed out and was replaced by a babe's crying. The note on her cradle asked us to protect and care for her, and we did. The open road's no place for a child, but she couldn't be in better hands.
"She grew like a weed and soaked up everything we taught her like a sponge. We cradled her, fed her, cared for her, and trained her. She's not just a hired hand or a mercenary on our pay, she's family.
"So if you think you can just ask for her back like a sack of potatoes we were holding for you, you are sorely mistaken..."
-Talos Palisad, Dwarven Defender and Foster Parent
[hr]
Late one night, the PCs receive an alien child and a cryptic note asking them to protect and train her. The child grows rapidly, and within a few months she's fighting and casting right alongside them. She knows she's being trained to fight in an interplanar war, and she's resigned herself to her fate. Will the PCs be willing to give her up and leave her for certain death, though?
Background:
The war against the mind flayers has not been going well. They have established numerous bases on worlds throughout the Material plane, and the githzerai have already lost too many warriors trying to fight them on such strange ground. Githzerai elders have decided the problem is a lack of experience on the Material plane; the githzerais' isolation has left them ill-prepared to handle the dangers of the Material plane. What they needed was a generation of warriors, born and trained to fight on the Material planes.
And so, they gathered up the githzerai newborns, cast a spell on them on them to accelerate their development, and teleported them to adventurers across the Material plane. Perhaps under their tutelage, the githzerai children would learn how to fight the mind flayers on their own turf...
Introduction:
One night, the group's campfire is extinguished with a small, muffled explosion (no damage). In its place is a human-looking baby, with yellow eyes, wrapped in swaddling and placed in a portable crib. A note in Common is attached to the crib:
Travelers,
They come for my child and I can not protect her myself. Please defend her while she grows up and train her in the art of combat, so she may protect herself when the day comes.
-Father
The only other object in the crib is a metallic puzzle cube. "For her on the cusp of adulthood" is inscribed in Common on one side. It radiates a moderate divination aura. A DC 30 Disable Device or Knowledge Arcana check reveals it's on a timed-release mechanism to activate; another DC 30 Disable Device check can either deactivate it completely or activate it immediately.
The First Months:
The child grows rapidly. She's walking within a week, talking within a month, and can help around the camp and study under her guardians within two months. (Treat her as aging a human year every six days.) After the third month, she has reached adulthood and takes a level in one of the classes her guardians taught her.
Her Race: The child is a githzerai, although it's hard to tell while she's young. The Knowledge (Planes) check to tell she's a githzerai is DC 30 in her first month, DC 25 in her second month, and DC 20 in her third month. Her stats and powers are the same as regular githzerai, but her automatic language is Common, not Githzerai, and her bonus languages are the other languages her guardians speak.
Early Stats: The child's stats are 4 below normal for the first month, and 2 below normal for the second month.
The Cube: At the end of her third month, the cube activates. It opens, telepathically speaks to the child, and then falls to pieces. The child won't tell anyone what it told her (saying it was private), but she will become more somber and take her studies more carefully.
The cube tells her that she is actually a githzerai and she was put under the protection of these adventurers so she could learn about their world and train with them. Within a year, the githzerai will come for her, and she will be drafted to fight the illithid menace on the Material plane to protect the githzerai race.
If the cube's activated while she's still an infant, it still transmits the message, but she's too young to understand it. It then falls to pieces; the message is lost.
Her Career:
Unless they treat her badly, she stays with her guardians, contributing to the group and training under them. Treat her as a cohort under the control of the party, not a player. She rapidly advances in levels, earning triple XP until she reaches 10,000 XP. She takes levels in the classes of her guardians, unless they encourage her to get training outside of the party.
Now that she knows her heritage, she'll also take a few precautions. She'll insist on being disguised (or altered into) a human when they visit civilization to avoid drawing attention to herself. She'll also show an interest in mind flayers and the planes.
They Come for Her:
After about a half-year, she will begin making preparations for her departure. She might announce she wants to go off on her own now and leave her guardians, stay with them and try to brace them for her departure, or leave in the dead of night to spare them the sight of her being taken.
Somewhere between a half-year and a year after her arrival, a rrakkma of githzerai (MM p.129) will meet her and tell her it's time for her to join the fight. If she's still with her guardians, they reveal themselves to her guardians and explain she was sent to train for the illithid war, and now she must return to fight for the githzerai race. They thank her guardians for her protection and care and offer a small reward (CR 7 treasure) to them.
In most cases, the child will readily accept their offer, resigning herself to her fate. In the few cases she refuses, they try to knock her unconscious and draft her by force.
The githzerai aren't prepared for any paternal instincts the PCs might have with their "child". In their minds, it was almost too much to ask them to tolerate a child of a different race in their midst; the idea that they would treat her like their own child, to defending her at swordpoint if necessary, is alien to most of them. If the PCs refuse to give her up to them, they offer a larger reward (CR 9 treasure), try to negotiate some other deal, and then resort to violence (using nonlethal force if they can). They'll retreat from combat if one or more of them is killed or near-death; it's no use losing two warriors just to gain one.
If the PCs prevent them from taking her, they'll continue harassing the PCs from a distance, putting obstacles in their way and performing ambushes, always retreating before the PCs can kill them. Their harassment only stop when they retrieve the child, the child is killed, or the PCs make a deal with them. (See below.)
If She is Taken: If the githzerai successfully draft her, they will continually send her, with other githzerai children raised by adventurers, on missions against the illithids. These missions are extremely dangerous; she will eventually die on one of them.
Dealing with the Githzerai: The PCs can convince the githzerai to stop trying to take their child on one condition: they fulfill their child's role in the illithid wars. They will have to perform 1-3 missions against the illithids on worlds across the Material plane. Once they have completed them all to the githzerais' satisfaction, they will leave the child alone. However, they will explain that due to the child's rapid aging, she won't be around long. (See below.)
Stopping the Aging:
Sooner or later, the PCs might become concerned about her rapid growth and aging. A few days of study in a magical laboratory, plus a DC 30 Arcane Knowledge check, reveals that at her current rate of aging, she will die of old age within a few years. Another week's worth of study, plus another DC 30 Arcane Knowledge check, reveals a way to stop it. The ritual requires 2,000 gold worth of materials, plus a few items related to youth and longevity. (Such as a bottle of water from a fountain of youth, a handful of scales from an ancient dragon, or exposure to a portal to the Positive Plane.)
If the ritual is successful, the Agefast enchantment on her is broken, and she resumes aging at her normal rate. If her aging has stopped and she has been released from service to the githzerais, she is now free to live her life as she wishes, and can become a permanent cohort to the PCs.
[hr]
Complications:
Aside from the usual complications of bringing an alien into medieval society, if the PCs encounter any mind flayers or githyanki on their journeys, they'll surely investigate the child's presence in the party.
To make matters worse, if rumor gets out about how the child appeared to the PCs, a religious order might decide it's a prophesized savior. Then the PCs have to deal with not only its githzerai brethren, but very insistent cultists. But why stop with just one order? Send a half-dozen orders after the child and watch the PCs escape the carnage.
Variation:
Change the race of the child to change the tone of the PCs' arguments with its brethren. If it's a githyanki, for instance, the negotiations will be much more violent. Genies could also work well, especially if the PCs are higher level. (How do you take care of a baby that can fly and plane shift, anyway?)
Using This in a Campaign:
The githzerai child is a major plotline, culminating in a special cohort and foster child for the party. It also serves as a good introduction to the Illithid War, mind flayers, the githzerai & githyanki, and planar travel. It's recommended for 5th- thru 12th-level parties.
This can be inserted into an existing campaign with minimal preparation; as long as the campaign world can access the Astral Plane and Limbo, and mind flayers, githyanki, and githzerai exist, you have everything you need to start this plot thread.
[hr]
New Spells:
Agefast
Transmutation
Level: Sor/Wiz 9
Components: V, S, M, F
Casting Time: 12 hours
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: Will negates
Spell Resistance: No
Agefast speeds up the physical & mental development of a creature, at the expense of its lifespan. The affected creature ages 100 years in a year, but learns the skills necessary to be a functioning adult within weeks. (In game terms, its XP gain is tripled until it reaches 10,000 XP.)
The spell was originally created by githzerai wizards to quickly bring the next generation of warriors to maturity. Githzerai infants treated with this spell age at the following rate:
Adulthood: 90 days
Middle Age: 1 year, 70 days
Old Age: 1 year, 240 days
Maximum Age: 2.5 years
Material Component: 1,000 gold worth of specially prepared water from the River Styx.
Focus: A worn child's toy.
Sources of inspiration:
The Nativity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativity_of_Jesus)
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Bamboo_Cutter)
"She grew like a weed and soaked up everything we taught her like a sponge. We cradled her, fed her, cared for her, and trained her. She's not just a hired hand or a mercenary on our pay, she's family.
"So if you think you can just ask for her back like a sack of potatoes we were holding for you, you are sorely mistaken..."
-Talos Palisad, Dwarven Defender and Foster Parent
[hr]
Late one night, the PCs receive an alien child and a cryptic note asking them to protect and train her. The child grows rapidly, and within a few months she's fighting and casting right alongside them. She knows she's being trained to fight in an interplanar war, and she's resigned herself to her fate. Will the PCs be willing to give her up and leave her for certain death, though?
Background:
The war against the mind flayers has not been going well. They have established numerous bases on worlds throughout the Material plane, and the githzerai have already lost too many warriors trying to fight them on such strange ground. Githzerai elders have decided the problem is a lack of experience on the Material plane; the githzerais' isolation has left them ill-prepared to handle the dangers of the Material plane. What they needed was a generation of warriors, born and trained to fight on the Material planes.
And so, they gathered up the githzerai newborns, cast a spell on them on them to accelerate their development, and teleported them to adventurers across the Material plane. Perhaps under their tutelage, the githzerai children would learn how to fight the mind flayers on their own turf...
Introduction:
One night, the group's campfire is extinguished with a small, muffled explosion (no damage). In its place is a human-looking baby, with yellow eyes, wrapped in swaddling and placed in a portable crib. A note in Common is attached to the crib:
Travelers,
They come for my child and I can not protect her myself. Please defend her while she grows up and train her in the art of combat, so she may protect herself when the day comes.
-Father
The only other object in the crib is a metallic puzzle cube. "For her on the cusp of adulthood" is inscribed in Common on one side. It radiates a moderate divination aura. A DC 30 Disable Device or Knowledge Arcana check reveals it's on a timed-release mechanism to activate; another DC 30 Disable Device check can either deactivate it completely or activate it immediately.
The First Months:
The child grows rapidly. She's walking within a week, talking within a month, and can help around the camp and study under her guardians within two months. (Treat her as aging a human year every six days.) After the third month, she has reached adulthood and takes a level in one of the classes her guardians taught her.
Her Race: The child is a githzerai, although it's hard to tell while she's young. The Knowledge (Planes) check to tell she's a githzerai is DC 30 in her first month, DC 25 in her second month, and DC 20 in her third month. Her stats and powers are the same as regular githzerai, but her automatic language is Common, not Githzerai, and her bonus languages are the other languages her guardians speak.
Early Stats: The child's stats are 4 below normal for the first month, and 2 below normal for the second month.
The Cube: At the end of her third month, the cube activates. It opens, telepathically speaks to the child, and then falls to pieces. The child won't tell anyone what it told her (saying it was private), but she will become more somber and take her studies more carefully.
The cube tells her that she is actually a githzerai and she was put under the protection of these adventurers so she could learn about their world and train with them. Within a year, the githzerai will come for her, and she will be drafted to fight the illithid menace on the Material plane to protect the githzerai race.
If the cube's activated while she's still an infant, it still transmits the message, but she's too young to understand it. It then falls to pieces; the message is lost.
Her Career:
Unless they treat her badly, she stays with her guardians, contributing to the group and training under them. Treat her as a cohort under the control of the party, not a player. She rapidly advances in levels, earning triple XP until she reaches 10,000 XP. She takes levels in the classes of her guardians, unless they encourage her to get training outside of the party.
Now that she knows her heritage, she'll also take a few precautions. She'll insist on being disguised (or altered into) a human when they visit civilization to avoid drawing attention to herself. She'll also show an interest in mind flayers and the planes.
They Come for Her:
After about a half-year, she will begin making preparations for her departure. She might announce she wants to go off on her own now and leave her guardians, stay with them and try to brace them for her departure, or leave in the dead of night to spare them the sight of her being taken.
Somewhere between a half-year and a year after her arrival, a rrakkma of githzerai (MM p.129) will meet her and tell her it's time for her to join the fight. If she's still with her guardians, they reveal themselves to her guardians and explain she was sent to train for the illithid war, and now she must return to fight for the githzerai race. They thank her guardians for her protection and care and offer a small reward (CR 7 treasure) to them.
In most cases, the child will readily accept their offer, resigning herself to her fate. In the few cases she refuses, they try to knock her unconscious and draft her by force.
The githzerai aren't prepared for any paternal instincts the PCs might have with their "child". In their minds, it was almost too much to ask them to tolerate a child of a different race in their midst; the idea that they would treat her like their own child, to defending her at swordpoint if necessary, is alien to most of them. If the PCs refuse to give her up to them, they offer a larger reward (CR 9 treasure), try to negotiate some other deal, and then resort to violence (using nonlethal force if they can). They'll retreat from combat if one or more of them is killed or near-death; it's no use losing two warriors just to gain one.
If the PCs prevent them from taking her, they'll continue harassing the PCs from a distance, putting obstacles in their way and performing ambushes, always retreating before the PCs can kill them. Their harassment only stop when they retrieve the child, the child is killed, or the PCs make a deal with them. (See below.)
If She is Taken: If the githzerai successfully draft her, they will continually send her, with other githzerai children raised by adventurers, on missions against the illithids. These missions are extremely dangerous; she will eventually die on one of them.
Dealing with the Githzerai: The PCs can convince the githzerai to stop trying to take their child on one condition: they fulfill their child's role in the illithid wars. They will have to perform 1-3 missions against the illithids on worlds across the Material plane. Once they have completed them all to the githzerais' satisfaction, they will leave the child alone. However, they will explain that due to the child's rapid aging, she won't be around long. (See below.)
Stopping the Aging:
Sooner or later, the PCs might become concerned about her rapid growth and aging. A few days of study in a magical laboratory, plus a DC 30 Arcane Knowledge check, reveals that at her current rate of aging, she will die of old age within a few years. Another week's worth of study, plus another DC 30 Arcane Knowledge check, reveals a way to stop it. The ritual requires 2,000 gold worth of materials, plus a few items related to youth and longevity. (Such as a bottle of water from a fountain of youth, a handful of scales from an ancient dragon, or exposure to a portal to the Positive Plane.)
If the ritual is successful, the Agefast enchantment on her is broken, and she resumes aging at her normal rate. If her aging has stopped and she has been released from service to the githzerais, she is now free to live her life as she wishes, and can become a permanent cohort to the PCs.
[hr]
Complications:
Aside from the usual complications of bringing an alien into medieval society, if the PCs encounter any mind flayers or githyanki on their journeys, they'll surely investigate the child's presence in the party.
To make matters worse, if rumor gets out about how the child appeared to the PCs, a religious order might decide it's a prophesized savior. Then the PCs have to deal with not only its githzerai brethren, but very insistent cultists. But why stop with just one order? Send a half-dozen orders after the child and watch the PCs escape the carnage.
Variation:
Change the race of the child to change the tone of the PCs' arguments with its brethren. If it's a githyanki, for instance, the negotiations will be much more violent. Genies could also work well, especially if the PCs are higher level. (How do you take care of a baby that can fly and plane shift, anyway?)
Using This in a Campaign:
The githzerai child is a major plotline, culminating in a special cohort and foster child for the party. It also serves as a good introduction to the Illithid War, mind flayers, the githzerai & githyanki, and planar travel. It's recommended for 5th- thru 12th-level parties.
This can be inserted into an existing campaign with minimal preparation; as long as the campaign world can access the Astral Plane and Limbo, and mind flayers, githyanki, and githzerai exist, you have everything you need to start this plot thread.
[hr]
New Spells:
Agefast
Transmutation
Level: Sor/Wiz 9
Components: V, S, M, F
Casting Time: 12 hours
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: Will negates
Spell Resistance: No
Agefast speeds up the physical & mental development of a creature, at the expense of its lifespan. The affected creature ages 100 years in a year, but learns the skills necessary to be a functioning adult within weeks. (In game terms, its XP gain is tripled until it reaches 10,000 XP.)
The spell was originally created by githzerai wizards to quickly bring the next generation of warriors to maturity. Githzerai infants treated with this spell age at the following rate:
Adulthood: 90 days
Middle Age: 1 year, 70 days
Old Age: 1 year, 240 days
Maximum Age: 2.5 years
Material Component: 1,000 gold worth of specially prepared water from the River Styx.
Focus: A worn child's toy.
Sources of inspiration:
The Nativity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativity_of_Jesus)
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Bamboo_Cutter)