MPNP Forest of the Id

The Forest of the Id is a challenging, high-level adventure module that has players facing off against a nameless Shade, confronting it inside an evil forest, and (hopefully)killing it. The adventure was inspired by Michael Muranaka.

ok so the idea with this dungeon is each player gets shipped off to their own chamber of horrors

Basic Outline

• Enter the forest
• darken the phylons
• confront the id
  • party is split into individual chambers
    • One chamber contains steadily rising water
    • One chamber

To battle the Shade

The module has four stages:

The Haunted Forest

The locals have directed your party to the haunted forest, in order to "investigate". The forest is full of blood beasts and other dark monsters. The locals have lit several ceremonial pylons all over the forest in order to keep the darkness at bay. If you wish to confront the shade, your first task will be to darken these pylons.

Enter the Darkness

Once all the Pylons have been darkened, the party will be ambushed by a horde of blood beasts. It would be wise to find a defensible position. This is an invasion-style battle, in which mobs will keep spawning for a series of "rounds". Once the battle is complete, the way into the shade's Domain will be opened.

The party must walk the path to the domain, along the way, party members will randomly disappear, locked in their own private prisons. Each prison will include some unique challenge for the character to survive. At the end, whoever is left, must enter the domain and face the Id.

Once the party has been separated, the WorldShaper will roll 1d6 for the survivor. On a 1, he encounters the Id. Each time 5-6 is rolled, the other party members each get one chance to try and escape their various prisons. If a 1 is rolled before anyone escapes the last survivor will be forced to face the shade alone, and each round of combat, the other players will receive 1 chance to escape.

Prisons

In standard MRPG form, each room will be themed elementally. Note: with the exception of the Wind room, the kill everyone changes don't start until the final character reaches the Id.

1*Earth The character is presented with a puzzle and a riddle. The ceiling starts lowering down on them. If they fail to complete the riddle in time they will take 6d6 damage per round until the phylactery is broken. The character is trapped in a room with a locked door and presented with a low alter containing 3 identicale pots, and a rock to break them. An inscription informs the character to "choose wisely, one pot contains the key, and only one pot speaks the truth."

Each pot is inscribed:

Pot 1: "The Key is not in this pot."

Pot 2: "The Key is in this pot."

Pot 3: "The Key is not in the second pot."

The key is in Pot #1. If they break any other pot, the ceiling starts coming down.

2*FIRE The character is presented with another riddle while be suspended by their wrists and swinging back and fourth like a pendulum. On one side of the swing, they are over a cauldron of boiling oil; on the other, over the raging fire the heats the cauldron. The character is presented with writing scrawled on a wall: "Speak the words and choose your fate. If the words you speak are false, you will be boiled in oil. If the words you speak are true, you will be burned in the fire." The correct answer is for the character to say "I will be boiled in oil." - if they really did fall in to the oil, that would make their statement "true", but since a true statement gets them burned in fire instead, they will simply be let free. If the player refuses to make any statement, when the Id is encountered, the oil in the cauldron will ignite and they will take 6d6 damage per round until the phylactery is broken.

3*Wind The character finds themselves trapped in a box. The box is small and non-decrypt, but has 3 switches on the wall in front of them. The character must turn all three switches to the Up position, which will open a hatch in the ceiling and allow him to escape. If at any time all three switches are turned down, the floor drops out and the character takes 10d10 damage and is left with broken legs.

4*Water One room has water that is steadily rising towards a small hole in the ceiling. The character must plug the hole or drown. In case the water overtakes them, they will take 6d6 damage every round until the phylactery is broken.

If a character dies in their challenge, the phylactery breaks on its own. This dungeon is special in so far as the bodies will never be recovered, players will have to roll new characters.

Battle the Id

The Id takes the form of a mirror duplicate of the last character. To win, you are essentially fighting yourself. During the battle, the character will have the opportunity to break the Phylacteries of the other party members, thus freeing them from their prisons and allowing them to join the fight. If the Id is destroyed before all of the Phylacteries are broken, the other characters will remain imprisoned until the nameless shade has been destroyed.

Battle the Shade

Once the Id has been defeated and the party more or less reunited, they can proceed to the final battle. The shade will be waiting for them.

Rewards and XP

If the players fail to defeat the shade, no XP should be awarded. Plus, they should probably die trying, so there's that.

If the shade IS destroyed, the characters will have the opportunity to break the Phylacteries of any that are allies still trapped.

Loot and XP rewards will be added as loot and XP systems are developed.

See Also

• Mage Wars RPG