Hollowhill

For years when I've run a D&D campaign my tradition has been to have a Ravenloft adventure at Halloween. I continued that tradition this year but with a new twist.

I created a demiplane of horror all my own. It owes more to the works of Manly Wade Wellman, Stephen King, and H.P. Lovecraft than to Bram Stoker or Mary Shelley.

Like Ravenloft, the goal for adventurers who stumble into this realm of horror is to survive and escape hopefully with most of the mind and body intact. This demiplane is called Hollowhill.

So when a heavy cold rain overtakes the adventurers and hail follows, they know that Hollowhill is pulling them in. If the adventurers ever want to get home again, they must defeat the machinations of the ancient unhallowed supernatural beings that aim to manipulate each of them into madness and death.

Hollowhill sleeps without rest. It hungers for vital life and fresh souls. The adventurers will either find their way out and away from Hollowhill (for now). Or they will join the thousands of lost souls who haunt its ancient pine forests, crumbling mines, and decaying cabins.

The master of Hollowhill welcomes all weary souls to come and join him. Forever.

Death Frost Doom

I ran Hollowhill using LotFP Death Frost Doom. It was a simple as swapping in D&D monsters and magic items. I really liked how ghosts work in D&D Next, with resisting possession being a simple saving throw. It felt like demon possession from the TV show Supernatural but with a chance to resist.

One thing I learned while running Death Frost Doom is that I made the world of Driven too bleak. The PCs actually liked the sound of staying in Hollowhill more than returning to their blasted homeland! At that point, I knew that I wanted to move the campaign somewhere new.

Again turning to Lamentation of the Flame Princess, I decided to allow the PCs to escape Hollowhill and have the chance to travel to Qelong.

Qelong

Written by Kenneth Hite, Qelong is a classic exploration adventure set in a wet, poisoned sandbox. Two elder being fight a war above the once-rich land of Sajavedra, a war of mighty spells and magics beyond human knowledge, for all that it brings mortal magi and warlords in its train. One minor cantrip from this reality warping war misfired and fell to earth in the Qelong River valley. This Cylinder has begun to deform the river valley with leaking arcane contamination.

Qelong is a sandbox with the Cylinder in the center. Divine patrons will ask the PCs to attempt what is essentially a controlled demolition of the Cylinder. The PCs will explore Qelong from levels four to around eight. If they succeed in disposing of the Cylinder, I plan to move them on to another world after that.

The Port Town of Qampong

Qampong is where the PCs will arrive in Qelong. They can buy gear here for double price and look at the boats for sale in case they want to use the river to get to the Cylinder.

Characters traveling up the Qelong River will sail through rice paddies as they leave the settlement. Dwelling in the river are naga-kin, corrupted humans contaminated by the Naga (a powerful spirit that corrupts those in the valley). For naga-kin, I plan to use lizardfolk stats. In addition, the naga-kin can sneak attack underwater as a 2nd-level rogue. Anyone the naga-kin drown must make a Charisma save DC 12 or come back as a naga-kin. Some naga-kin are wizards as well.

The PCs will also encounter starving and robbed refugees sailing down from the village of Jamqar Long. Jamqar Long is controlled by the Varangians who loot all those who try to sail past them down to Qampong. Those refugees the Varangians let pass will warn friendly PCs of the danger.

The Varangians are tough mercs and foreigners like the PCs. Some have undead grafts or alchemical modifications performed by Hagan, their dwarf alchemist necromancer. Dealing with the Varangians will always be dangerous. I think of them a lot like the soldiers on the island that Oliver Queen was trapped on in the TV show Arrow.

I'll use the human war chief and the human warrior veteran from the Slavelords for these mercs.

Myrmidons

Another dangerous army the PCs may encounter is the myrmidons. Humans now controlled by ants with a hive-mind, the myrmidons are a gruesome and terrifying foe. Getting killed by them would be better than be chewed into by ants and having your mind slowly eaten away so you can become a slave warrior to the hive mind.

These creatures are warriors and I'll use the same stats as for the Varangians. Myrmidons also are immune to anything that affects or attacks the human mind. When two myrmidons attack the same foe, they get one extra attack a round.

In addition, the myrmidons leave colonies of hive ants in rotten biological matter. These ants function like a trap, attacking unwary humans or demihumans who come near.

I think the myrmidons are quite interesting. A straight up battle always carries the danger of being infested with hive ants and a long slide into mindlessness and slavery to the hive mind. Creepy.

Other Encounters

D&D Next has carnivorous monkeys. I have to use them. I'll include them as an honor guard for a carnivorous ape and unleash both on the PCs.

Qelong has many other encounters tables as well. As the adventure develops, I will convert more of these encounters into D&D Next stats.

Upcoming Columns

Getting an adventure done for the campaign always wraps up late (usually the Monday night before the game). I am learning to be flexible. I don't know what direction the campaign will go in next. Right now, I am starting to realize that I may not have Qelong all ready to go by game night. If that happens, I will likely use the D&D Next module Vault of the Dracolich instead of Qelong for 4th-level and see how things develop after that.

I am considering using some old school modules for future adventures, including the Slavelords serious and some of the S modules. Depending on what modules I use, the PCs could hop from the Forgotten Realms to Qelong to Greyhawk or to other places. I'll detail their travels here as I continue to build a campaign using D&D Next.

Drive on,
Charlie