Mysterious Lights of Witch Mountain

Jerry Stratton

Tractor Feed Adventures

Character Levels 2-4

Notes

I don’t recall, but I can’t believe anyone didn’t recognize that there were aliens involved, given the similarity in titles to “Escape to Witch Mountain”. On the other hand, what does Mysavak the Wonderful have to do with the aliens? Who summoned the Mist of Evil, or did the Mist somehow summon the aliens?

I clearly wrote this after reading Stephen King’s short story “The Mist” in Dark Forces. That’s what inspired the Pink Horrors, Fire Spiders, and the Mist of Evil; possibly also Crazy Crabs. I don’t know why I didn’t include stats for them under the wandering monster chart, but you can find stats later in Mist of Evil. You can see their current incarnation in the Gods & Monsters Encounter Guide.

I had obviously started including natural weather events in wandering monsters charts pretty early.

Scenario

Some strange lights have been buzzing the town of Savta and appearing all over the place. They seem to be coming from the west, in the middle of the Witch Mountains. This has been occurring for 3 weeks, but nothing else has happened.

Dungeon Master’s Notes

The lights are results of atmospheric teleporting in a region of low dimensional differential. Some aliens crashed on the moon, and used a small life-ship to travel to earth orbit. The ship is in stationary orbit over the aliens’ makeshift HQ. The teleporters only work if there is only atmosphere between the destination and start.

Savta and Kartel

Savta

Savta was founded in the Last Hills on the land path between Corunglain, Akesoli and Akorros, the second three largest cities in the Republic of Darokin. Placed just on the edge of the Broken Lands and the Land of Glantri, Savta is pretty much surrounded in the north by monsters, and only the Republic Patrol holds in the largest monsters.

Savta itself is fairly small: 400-600 permanent residents, but it is frequented often by travelers, adventurers, and merchants attempting to make Akorros or Akesoli, and even very rarely the Atruaghin Clans, on foot. It is also the stopping over spot for travelers from the Land of Glantri.

The town is governed by a mayor and 3 councilmen: an official of the nearby fortress, a merchant, and any traveller who can be picked up off the streets.*

There are 3 inns/taverns in Savta, and one tavern. The simple tavern is most frequented by townspeoples, and while the food is not superb, it is well-priced. The others cater to the travelers, and generally charge a bit more than normal.

Kartel

Kartel is larger than Savta (about 800-900 people), for it can support a larger number of permanent residents. It has many inns, stores, etc. The magic-user guild has a spot here, which it does not in Savta.

The Adventure

In the mountains, movement is 2/3 normal.

Wandering Monsters

On the map, ‘O’ is an Ogre lair, ‘B’ a Bugbear lair, and M is the Mist.

Bugbear Lairs

Bugbear Lair #1 (MeisterSmiters)

16 male bugbear, using morning stars.

1 leader (25 hp, AC4, +1 damage) using a footman’s flail

3 females kept extremely busy

5 kids

1) Entrance: 4 bugbear are in the two trees in front of the entrance. They will, depending on the size of the party, attack, attack and warn (with a bird call of a non-existent bird) or just warn. In 6-10 rounds, 1-2 bugbears will come out each 1-3 rounds for 5 rounds. On the sixth round the remaining will come.

2) There will be 3-12 bugbear fighters here.

3) This is the pantry: worse food than co-op.*

4) The women and children will be here.

5) Main Room: The remaining bugbears will be here.

6) Treasure Room: Small box with a poison lock, with a 220 gp jade necklace and silver thread, and two 170 gp gold anklets. More is piled around: 500 sp, 1,000 cp, five 10 sp boxes, urn of garlic worth 100 sp, urn of pepper worth 50 sp, urn of salt worth 20 sp, and an urn of mustard worth 40 sp. Each urn weighs about 20 lbs.

Bugbear Lair #2: Backsnappers

15 total, using sword or scimitar

1 leader, using his hands (24 hp, AC4, +1 damage)

4 women

3 children

1) 60% chance in each room of meeting 1-4 bugbears.

2) 75% chance to meet 1-4 women, 1-3 children.

3) the remaining bugbears will be here.

4) Treasure!? A box, shabbily made, with a 10 gp malachite (green, white) a 10 gp blue azurite, and a 60 gp small jet.

Bugbear Lair #3: Bistruns

20 normal, using natural weapons

1 leader (22 hp, AC4, +1 damage)

5 female

5 kids

1) Guard Cavern: 3 bugbear on each side. They will fight, fight and warn, or warn.

2) Dining Quarters: 1-4 bugbear in each. These will usually run.

3) Storage: grass, food, grass food.

4) The full bugbear force, if they have a chance, will have mustered themselves here. Otherwise, they will have taken the other way out.

Ogre Lairs

Ogre Lair #1

2 ogres: AC5, MV9, HD4+1, hp 25, 19, at1, D1-10, 2-8.

1) 50% chance for each to be here. If one is attacked, the other will come in one round.

2) 60 gp under a rock. There is the same chances as above for the ogres.

Ogre Lair #2

3 ogres: AC5, MV9, HD4+1, hp 22, 17, 21, at1, D1-10, 2-8, 1-10

1) Dump Room: There is a new body here, smashed and only partly eaten. It is an alien.

2) 60% chance that they will be here. 80 gp, laser gun (3 shots) in pile of bones.

Mist of Evil

This is simple a very thick mist. Vision is reduced to 2-8 feet. It is about 1/2 miles E-W, 1 mile N-S. For wandering monsters, roll once every turn on a 1 in 4.

Ruins

Origin

A magic-user from Glantri, at least 500 years back, probably 1,000 to 2,000, built this place in the mountains. He left after becoming even more powerful.

Rooms

1) Entrance: these large doors (20 feet up, 20 feet each) will be closed (they automatically close) and will open with no difficulty, inwards. On the doors are
Welcome Friend Away With Foe
Enter Now Be Thou Laid Low
Such Is Love Such Is Death
Follow Me No Longer Breath
Above the right side is a large, lion’s face, roaring, obviously hungry. On the left is the same lion, content.

2) Entrance Hallway: Grand Mosaics of weird art (no real pattern) cover the walls. The floor and ceiling are perfectly white/black (according to the doors). At the point at the head of the hall is a head sticking out, like the ones at the door, with no expression. When someone walks within 10 feet of it, it will demand: “Fast! Who Enters Unbidden The Hall of Mysavak the Wonderful?!”* That’s it.

3) Large Banquet Room: Tables are stone and have skeletons sitting around them: these are not yet undead, and will not be turned. Upon entering by a secret door, ALL skeletons will have animated*, forming 2 lines. AC7, MV12, HD1, hp 5 each, at1, D1-6, SD: 1/2 from sharp weapons.

A) Bas-Relief of a wizard fire blasting orcs and hobgoblins: army. In reality, this is a secret door, opens by force: strength of 200.‡

B) Painting: dull, but still entirely visible, of a night scene. It shows a graveyard and sky, but the sky is weird: rings and nebulae, planets, etc.

4) Kitchen: C’est Ca.

5) This was a bedroom/barracks for the wizard’s servants.

6) This was a pantry.

7) TRAP! It will immediately be seen that the walls are laced with holes: spider holes. There are 10 spiders total. If the holes are poked around in by more than 4 feet, they will come out, but at a rate of 1 per round per round. If they ignore the holes, but continue down to the end of the corridor, they will turn around to see all these creatures coming at them. The poison is saved at +3, due to genetic weakness over the years. Huge spiders: hp 8 each, HD2+2, AC6, MV18, at1, D1-6, SA: poison.

8) Whoops! Seems to be light at the end of the tunnel! Walking through the opening sends them to the top of the mountain. The portal is only one way, but lets light in the other way.

9) This room is magically lit. No paintings are on these walls, simply light bas-reliefs. The statues are of magic-users in action poses and are extremely life-like.

10) What’s this? Another trap! This doesn’t work anymore however. When the floor is stepped on, 10 arrows come out from the two sides, but the mechanism is so rusted that the arrows will simply fall out.

11) This secret hall is empty: it was for moving heavy stuff around and storing it.

12) Guest Room: Drab, completely empty.

13) Wizard’s bedroom: There is an illusion here which used to protect the wizard but is now fairly weird. Nothing is here but the illusion is of a bedroom, the bed made, a cabinet, and a night table.

14) Hallway: A Demos Magen is at each end of this hallway. AC7, HD2, hp 16, 13, MV12, at1, D1-8 (sword).

15) The room is now empty, but a sheet phantom: AC3, MV6, HD3, at1, D1-4, SA: suffocation for 1-4 each round, hp 18.

16) This was a library, but nought but dust is on the table. In the chest, however (which is locked and made of metal) is a strange apparatus: a long, heavy tube with two glass ends. It is covered with weird symbols, similar to those over the graveyard picture. It is in reality a telescope about 10X.

17) Two stone tables and an old iron pot. There is some smashed glass on the tables and some smashed pottery.

18) Empty; he never used this room.

19) A continual light spell is on this room.

20) A fire spider was thrown between dimensions to here: AC7, MV10, HD4+3, hp 28, at2, D2-12/2-5 for 2-5 rounds, SA: poison, web.

Cavern Complex of the Aliens

The aliens are completely evil. Their mother ship crashed on the moon, and they escaped in their short distance craft, which cannot radio back. They are attempting to build a hyper-torp* to send the message that there is a planet ripe for the plucking…

All they need to make this is parts available in their ship and a substance usually found with gold.

Aliens

Weapons

Rooms

On the south side of the dotted line no wandering monsters will be met.

1) Infinite number of small bats.

2) Spiders (large) have completely blocked this way with their webs. There is 5 gp, 10 sp in there, somewhere. There are 25 spiders: AC8, MV6*15, HD1+1, at1, D1, SA: poison, hp 6.

3) The aliens! There are 8 aliens total, 3-6 will be in the cavern, plus two guards; There is a pile of melted gold in here, worth 1,000 gp.