Edgar Sluice’s Horrid Quest

Edgar Sluice’s Horrid Quest

A one-page adventure by Luke Hauge
and Clair Willden for the fifth edition of
a popular fantasy RPG.
sadgoosecoop.blogspot.com

Edgar Sluice owes you 100 gold pieces. He feels so bad
about it (really!) that he told you he was going to go
directly to his stash in the sewers and get it for
you–yesterday. Well, he’s not back yet and as a matter
of fact, no one’s seen him since yesterday morning.
Time to go track Edgar down.

GM Only

Edgar hasn’t run out on the party–in fact, he’s in his hideout now with the money in hand. Unfortunately, his hideout is a series of booby-trapped rooms which were abandoned by smugglers long ago and now full of unpleasant creatures. Edgar finally got unlucky last night, and is experiencing the creepiest dreams of his life while in the stomach of a Big Ol’ Ghost. The party will only get the money if they make it to the end, so good luck to them.

Edgar Sluice’s Horrid Quest relies on the base rules of DND 5e. So, in that spirit, you should have a d20, some d6s, and some characters–all of whom should have some kind of bond with both one another and Edgar.

Before you begin, refer to the party questions.

Party Questions

Ask the party member directly to your left to answer the first question. Ask each new player a new question in turn. When you run out of players, stop asking questions.

1. Why does Edgar owe the party this money?
2. Where did the party first meet Edgar?
3. Is this strictly business, or do you possibly like Edgar just a little bit?
4. What tavern did you last meet Edgar in? Is the party staying there?
5. Which underworld or legal connection tipped you off that Edgar
hasn’t been around?

Edgar Sluice’s Horrid Hideout

1. Sewers

From the moment your boots touch the bricks of the sewer walkway, there’s a bad feeling in the air and an even worse smell.

If the players want to make it to the hideout without falling in the sewer canal or stepping in anything disgusting, ask them to make a DC 10 check with an appropriate skill of their choice. Acrobatics is certainly acceptable, Arcana probably isn’t. Those who fail will make it to the hideout just fine, but they won’t feel clean for three days, no matter how hard they try. Give them a temporary -1 to charisma until they take a bath.

DANGER! Stink Elemental

At the end of a dead-end passageway, you find a little iron door set into the wall, right where Edgar said it would be. Between you and the door hovers a stink elemental, a humanish, green vortex of foul gases and liquids about four feet high. It’s feeding on a clump of something congealed, maybe grease or industrial waste. Formed from sludge and bad vibes, stink elementals are barely intelligent, always hostile, and have little to no talent for self-preservation. This one hasn’t noticed you yet.

Stink elementals are easily dispersed by wind or similarly clever effects.
Special Attack: all creatures within 5 feet must roll a DC 12 constitution save or be stunned for one round by horrible stench

2. Atrium

The door groans open to reveal a fiber doormat, on which has been embroidered “Hey! I’m Mat.” You enter a 15×15 room, built from the same cobblestone of the sewer, but significantly cleaner and with a patterned carpet on the floor. In the center of the room is a large brown rat which is chewing on a bit of carpet. Someone has dyed the pointy bits of its fur platinum blond. The room is sparsely decorated otherwise, containing a wrought iron bench which was clearly stolen from a public park, a bookshelf, and a coat tree. There’s a plain wooden door at the back of the room, but it doesn’t have a handle or keyhole.

The door is enchanted, and only opens when the password (BIG MONEY, but you gotta shout it real loud) is spoken. It can be taken off its hinges (or similarly disabled) with a DC 10 dexterity check, or smashed with a DC 15 strength check.

The rat is enchanted, speaks common, and has the intelligence of a mildly inebriated bar patron. After escaping from a wizard several years ago, it became one of Edgar’s best friends. The rat is loyal to Edgar and doesn’t want him to be disturbed by scallywags, but is vulnerable to flattery and persuasion. The rat knows Edgar is home, but was asleep when the Big Ol’ Ghost entered and can only describe a chilly rush of wind as something swept into the atrium late last night. The rat also knows the secret password, and WILL taunt the players with that knowledge. When players act impolitely, it addresses them in the common tongue. The rat’s taunts may, on occasion, deal psychic damage.

The rat’s name is Nikolai Dolokhov the Rat.

3. Anti-Ghost Room

Through the door, you enter a low tunnel of bricks and wooden planks. After 30 feet, you see a stone tablet set into the ground. Etched in the tablet is: “Caution: Anti-Ghost Room Ahead. I don’t know how the traps work. Love, Edgar.” The earth around the edges of the tablet is loose. The tunnel opens up about ten feet ahead, revealing a large natural cavern. The floor is rough and covered in rubble (movement occurs at half-speed on this difficult terrain). Hanging about the cavern are many deposits of cracked quartz crystals which spark at erratic intervals, sending arcs of lightning across the cavern. A small pedestal stands thirty feet into the cavern. A few inches above it floats a fist-sized glass sphere which glows with a soft, friendly light. On the other side of the cavern–about sixty feet–you can see numerous small tunnels.

Moving the stone tablet reveals a small wooden box containing a note which reads, “Wacky Wally’s Wavy-Gravy Anti-Ghost Amulet. One use. Throw at ghost to deal 3d6 damage. Also wards off bad dreams.” The box is large enough for two amulets, but only one is present. The amulet is a little glass bauble hanging from a twine cord. It glows with a faint lavender light, and inside there’s a sprig of dried rosemary.
When the big ‘ol ghost passed through this room, it activated the anti-ghost quartz crystal array. The crystals could plausibly be individually destroyed, magically manipulated, or their firing pattern predicted, but these are very difficult and time-consuming activities. When a character ends their turn in the cavern, roll 1d6. On a roll of 1-3, DC 12 dexterity save or be struck by lightning for 1d6 damage.

When activated by touching the ball or speaking directly to it, it plays a recorded voice: “We’re having trouble verifying your humanity. Please select all pictures that have fire hydrants in them to confirm that you are not a ghost.” The puzzle starts at a DC 18. With every success, the DC reduces by 5 until the players clear the puzzle completely. When you complete the puzzle, the ball says “Righteous!”

Completing this puzzle allows safe passage through the room.

4. Smuggler Tunnels

You’re facing several tunnels made from packed earth and gravel. These dark, cramped tunnels branch off at irregular angles and their walls are covered in symbols etched long-ago by small-time criminals. A piece of wood is fixed to the wall outside the tunnels. It reads, “My hideout is this way. Edgar.” It’s unclear which tunnel the sign indicates. Every sound you make echoes horribly and occasionally you hear a low, distorted voice from deep in the tunnels. You need to make 4 successful skill checks of your choice to navigate the tunnels. You can’t make the same action more than once. If you get 5 failures, whatever is in the tunnels will find you.

Assign DC 10 or 15 for plausible actions. Be generous, reward creativity, and consider offering a free success if players are able to find narratively compelling reasons to expend a first-level spell slot or sacrifice an item. If players talk too loudly or fail a roll, immediately give them one failure and narrate something slightly spooky, like an unattended item levitating or a distant light manifesting in the tunnels you came from. Describe progress (like uncovering a hidden tunnel or recognizing something Edgar’s dropped) on a success and setbacks (like a promising route turning into a collapsed tunnel or the party looping back into a previously visited cavern) on a failure. If players succeed, they reach Edgar’s hideout safely.

If players fail, they will be attacked by the ghost of a rock gnome with very large eyebrows and an extremely bad attitude. The gnome ghost followed the big ol’ ghost in, he likes the peace and quiet of these tunnels, and has no desire to negotiate with intruders. He knows the way to Edgar and all about the big ghost, but won’t tell unless compelled. If the players dispel the ghost, they’ll eventually find Edgar’s hideout after stumbling around in the tunnels for a little while longer.

5. Edgar Sluice’s Hideout

After hours underground, your eyes aren’t ready for the intense light which shines from the inside of Edgar’s hideout. Behind a thick curtain of stalactites, you can see that Edgar has illuminated a 40×40 clammy, high-ceilinged cavern with everburning torches. The cavern is furnished with several large, tavern-style tables and a variety of mismatched chairs, one of which is magically inflatable. One wall features a rack of dried meat as well as a darts board. On a shelf, there is a glass cylinder in which floats a shifting purple ooze. Your adventurers recognize his interior design sense as VERY early 1310s. Tacky. There’s a small wooden door on the far side of the room.

It looks like Edgar is the only person who has ever been here, with the exception of a ten-foot tall, enormously swollen ghost which now floats in the center of the room, three inches above one of the wooden tables. The ghost may once have been human, but has consumed far too much essence and has now largely become an unstable mass of ectoplasm and undissolved matter, including striking amounts of human clothing and green beans. The ghost reaches out a disturbingly long arm to grab a slab of cured meat, then throws back its head and devours the meat with a single bite. As it turns toward the party, you can see, through its enormous, semitransparent mouth, Edgar’s hand (which you can identify by his knuckle tattoos that say “LIVIN’ LARGE”).

If the party succeeds in killing the ghost, Edgar will wake up as he falls out of the ghost’s disintegrating body. He’ll be covered in ectoplasm, delirious, and has, from the long period spent in the ghost’s stomach, acquired Ghost Eyes and Spooky Voice, unfortunate ailments he’ll suffer from until he can get a cleric to cure him.

6. Edgar Sluice’s Horrid Hideout

At the very back of the cavern is Edgar’s office, a dank 10×10 room. You can tell it’s his because he’s got his name on a placard on the door. Inside the office is a small desk which is covered in pots filled with damp soil and cave mushrooms. He’s pinned a motivational poster to the inside of the door. It has of a mountain lit by a beautiful autumn sunset, and reads: “Like this mountain, you ROCK.” A small, unlocked iron box is on the floor in the corner of the room.

The box contains the 100gp Edgar owes the party and a small pouch containing five feather tokens (mushroom). Edgar happily gives the money and pouch (“a special gift to my best friends!”) to the party. When activated in a suitable place, the feather token vanishes and an extraordinary number of edible cave mushrooms begin to rapidly grow at the place the feather token was used, reaching full size (8-10 inches in height) within 30 seconds. The GM might also consider adding a quest item which leads into another adventure or campaign–Edgar will be happy to give it away as it creeps him out, whatever it is.

The PDF of this adventure is available, in tri-fold print-n-play format, HERE.