NextDungeon

Bourn's Nose on Klee - First Dungeon Thoughts

Gods, Klee Map,
The Comming Cold is almost done. I give it a month or less and it will be done, so I need to begin work on a new adventure.
Since the common monsters are not a sufficient challenge to the party, I will start looking in the Epic Monster list.
The first thing I see are Abominations. How about a dungeon where a god (a particularly nasty one) has been indulging a predelection for multiple race sex which has resulted in a place people with abominations. The god thinks this is very funny and has gone out of his way to give them what they need to live and the motivation to keep them constantly attacking one another. The god has fucked everything in sight and it is in his power to cause life to spring from every time he has congress with a creature.
How about a valley in some remote location that may be entered only by a single passage. This would allow me to have them encounter a bunch of animal abominations before they even get to the dungeon.

How about a Cow Abomination? Dire Abominations!

This could even be another Beourn adventure! If I place this on some other planet, it could be that it is inhabited only by creatures that are "Dire" in their size. It would be so cool to have the characters (as powerful as they are) sized like liliputions!

Since switching over to D&D 3.5, I have not used the campaign type materials from the Player's Handbook and the DMG. I need to pick a planet that the party hasn't been to and that I could switch the diety and other configurations to use the ones in the 3.5 rules.

To this end I examined the layout of the Planets of SOS and discovered an interesting place that I have not used before. It's the moon planet called Klee. It is orbiting Greld. The players have seen it (they will remember the strange dark green moon). I haven't detailed much of this planet if anything. When I looked at this planet on the Quest of 15 master page I see it is associated with the Nose, but nothing else is detailed. Given this, there are two options for the adventure - reintroduce Beourn and the Quest or build a different adventure. I am liking the Beourn thing. I have been thinking about his return and this might be a good opportunity to do so. However, if I do something dfferent, I would get to bring back Dio Mas. I wish I could get a way to bring them both back. Maybe something will come to mind.

So far I have forest planet, abomination dire animals, monster abominations, undead abominations, 3.5 gods and other details.
Here's all I have on Klee, but it looks good! A ha! Here it is. Beourn returns and is very sane, higher level than the party and used creatures he found in hell to get one of the other body parts. The part he wants however is right down the partys alley as they have been to Greld and Beourn knows the only way to get through the foliage

KLEE - The Green Eye
The Terra-forming of this moon, while admittedly the second time around for the clerics, went vastly better than the first. Most attribute this to the fact that Druids who had been forbidden from working on the first moon, were asked to participate in the creation of Klee.
TLD 904,000 - Terra forming begins on Klee
TLD 941,665 - Contact between Roon, Klee and Greld re-established Klee is tide locked to the rotation of Greld.
There is no technology at all allowed in the civilized areas of Klee. It is considered to be unholy, dirty and disgusting. Their attitude toward any form of technology or any use of same much as American society regards sodamy.

The outside of this planet is almost completely absorbed in trees. They are of a pecular type of tree called "Dhole" that grows into an umbrella shaped bush about 10' in diameter after only a couple of years. Thereafter, it never grows bigger around, but the trunk of the tree grows to 500' high. There is stops growing upward and again begins to send out branches that twine around the limbs of it's neighbor trees. They become tightly packed with the dead branches locked forever with living ones to create a true ceiling. This has the effect of preventing oxy/water from leaving the low gravity (1/2 normal) and generating more by oxydizing the iron of the surface.
Druids are highly respected. Steel must be obtained from very deep in the ground and so is very expensive. There is a lot of magic on this planet, but it is mostly clerical in nature.
There are a large number of intellegent animals. Goostaflak is the major city near the souther pole.

This actually isn't a bad starting spot. Imagine a planet that was the first one terraformed by the old scientists of Greld. They did it by creating a fusion engine inside the core of the planet. This heat radiates through the ground and provides energy to the habited areas. The trees that completely enshoud the planet gather the solar energy with their leaves and transmit it back into the biosphere. The branches that lead up to space form an airtight seal keeping the important gasses in. There is no standing water. It is harvested from certain trees that reach down into the ground water and percolate it up to the surface. The gravity on this planet is considerably lower than what the players are used to. It's only outward charastic is that it will increase the party's jumping skills by 50%. This has a second effect; giantism. All the creatures are from 2 to12 times larger than normal. Most of the animals the party meets will be dire or giant. All the people on the planet are giants. Yay! This will be great!

Beourn has found out that the Nose body part is located somewhere on Klee the Forest Moon of Greld. No one that Beourn knows of has ever been able to get into Klee from the outside. The problem is when a hole is made through the protective covering of leaves and wood, it is like putting a hole in the side of a space ship. The escaping gas creates a wind to strong for anything to get through and might possibley allow the atmosphere is a sizable part of the planet to be lost. Beourn knows the people of Greld owe the party a favor or two and will ask them to take him to Greld, please with them to use the dJebble to teleport them to Klee and bring them back.

Geographically, Klee is very uninteresting. It is a VERY old moon. By the time terraforming started, most of the mountains had been reduced to dust. There are only 2 any higher than 1 KM. There are no bodies of water. There is no easy way to tell distances and direction so the only maps that exist even on the planet itself are just trail maps. They simply list where the trails go to and how long they are. This will greatly simplify the process of creating this world. I won't really have to! All I need to do is get the party from one place to another and describe what they see on the way! The most common landscape feature is a crater. The most common creatures are arborial. With the gravity being lower it is easier for creatures to fly or glide from tree to tree. Non-arborial creatures live in the craters and the trails all lead from one crater to another. The areas between the craters are impassably solid with trees. The rim of the craters are always thick with trees.

The Rift City
The party will be transported from the Kebble to the city Beriftia. This is the original city built as the planet was being terraformed. It used to have a metal dome over it, but as the trees grew up over it, the dome was removed and re-used so some buildings will be adorned with strange metal acoutrements. It's buildings are a collection of newer larger structures compared to the original ones that are more normal sized. A special place is reserved for those who arrive via the Jebbel which is regarded as a Holy Place. The people of Klee have very mixed exmtions about those coming from Greld. They respect them as Holy Persons, but also see them as unevolved and "scientific" where they consider themselves as "Magical". As such, they will be very surprised to see the party as they are obviously not Greldians and not from Klee either. The party is also "magical" which is very different from the Greldians too. They will be a mystery to the leaders of the city. They will have the party followed and won't trust them at all until they see how they handle themselves.
The city is a place where the surface of the planet ripped open as it cooled (kind of like a muffin). It goes far down into the planet and was the spot of original entry to plant the fusion sun in the center of the planet. To this day the temp rises the deeper into the bottom of the city you go.

Common Ancestry
Unlike a normal planet where life began on it own and develped infinate diversity, this planet was lifeless. All the lifeforms were transported here during the terraforming. Over time however, these creatures mutated to fit into all the ecological niches the planet provided. The original features of the creature they descended from are clearly visible however. I need to select 40 or 50 different creatures then mutate them into the oversized creatures that populate the wilderness areas.

The Big Mountain
The Greldians don't like messing with other civilizations or peoples. Particularly if they don't gain anything from it. When the party comes to them asking to get to Klee, the Greldians will want the party to "do a little job" for them in exchange for getting them to the planet and back. In this case, an instrument pack was left many centruies ago on the top of the highest mountain of Klee to monitor "certain vibrations" over a long time. It's experimental purpose has not yet been fullfilled, but it has stopped working. Based on the last telemetry from the device, it ran out of energy prematurly. They can fix this, but no Greldian wants to go to Klee to replace the battery. "If the party would be so kind ...". Naturally, it is in one of the most inaccessable places on the planet; at the top of the highest mountain on Klee. To return to Greld the party must provide proof of their task by putting the exhausted batteries in the "Spot of Keenly Directed Desire". Once per month they will examine this area and if the batteries are found, they will bring the party back from the place immediatly or, if they are not there when they find the batteries, the next month.

The Nose Dungeon
The Nose is located in the center of the planet where the fusion sun burns forever. The party will need to go through the protected passage ways for hundreds of miles to get to where the Nose has been left in an area constantly heated to an incredable temprature by the artificial sun. Naturally the creatures guarding the passages underground are Battle Beasts who never get enough food. Along the way they will see wonderous spots abandoned by the people in the Dark Milenium as a response to the polarization of Tech/Magic. The ancient leaders decided to come down on the side of Magic forces and at first put religious stricures against going underground where all the tech was. Thus, the people of Klee don't know that their's is one of the few where both magic and tech work equally well. They have volentarially forgotton completely about tech.
Once restored to Beourn, his charisma will go up 2 points. With his new god like power, he will remove the ancient stricture against technology and allow the people of Klee to better benefit from the scientific marvels that are underground

Random Notes
Wandering Druids and the Water Trees
The water tree are the only place where standing water is found. These trees bring the water up and it seeps from their bark and collects in pools formed in their roots. These are common gathering places and are regarded as "Holy Water" by the Druids. Sometimes creatures and giants will hang around a pool waiting for prey. The druids consider it their job to see that this doesn't happen. They will have a route from one water tree to another in the wilderness. They stay at one tree for a week to make sure it it healthy and not one is using it as a trap. If a druid finds this happening, they will either influence the creatures using their special power granted by their God which is called "Animal Anamatha". This spell like ability allows them once per day to make a single place anamatha to a single creature per level per day. At 3rd level they get the spell like ability called "Protection from Person" once per level over 3 per day. This spell is cast on a person that will make it uncomfortable for the person to stay around the ensorcled spot.

Things to do
Update Beourn and Ulla to 19th level 3.5 characters. I will start with their original characters and bring them up one level at a time.
Figure out just what they have been doing the last couple of years.

Klee Humanoid Races

Monster Name	Type	CR	Klee Environment	LA	Special Qualities
Ettin	Large Giant	06	High Craters	+5	Low-light vision, superior two-weapon fighting
Giant, Cloud	Huge Giant	11	Normal Craters	—	Low-light vision, oversized weapon, rock catching, scent
Giant, Fire	Large Giant	10	Low Craters	+4	Immunity to fire, low-light vision, rock catching, vulnerability to cold
Giant, Hill	Large Giant	07	Everywhere	+4	Low-light vision, rock catching
Giant, Stone	Large Giant	08	Normal Craters	+4 (elder +6)	Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, rock catching
Ogre	Large Giant	03	Normal Craters	+2	Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision
Ogre Mage	Large Giant	08	Mountains	+7	Darkvision 90 ft., low-light vision, regeneration 5, spell resistance 19

Creatures Transported During Terraforming - No insects or reptiles. Tiny mamals and birds

Carnivore - Land	Omnivores	Scavengers	Herbivore
WolfWolf TigerTiger OwlOwl BaboonBaboon	BearBear MonkeyMonkey DogDog CatCat Boar	RavensRaven BatsBat RatsRat Rabbits/Weasel	Cows/BullsBison Stag/Deer/Horse Cupabara/Mule Donkey/Pony
Arboreal Carnivore	Arboreal Omnivore	Arboreal Scavenger	Arboreal Herbivore
EagleEagle	Blue Jay	Hummingbird	Sparrow

Magical/Mutant Creatures

Good Magical
Land

Evil Magical
Land

Good Mutant
Above Ground

Evil Mutant
Underground

Magical/Mutants

Centaur
Minotaur
Gnome
Dwarf

Duergar
Grimloc
Harpy
Troglodyte

Dryad
Nymph
Sprite, Pixie
Troll