Elder Evils

CHAPTER 4
THE HULKS OF
ZORETHA
and Nilaenish’s rival is violently insane. The PCs retrieve the
item as requested and return it to the scholar’s safekeeping.
She promises to lock the book away safely where no one will
ever read it again.
EL 10 (Faint Sign): Tempers are on the rise everywhere
when the PCs’ old employer, Soelma Nilaenish, contacts
them again. She expects trouble at the building where she
meets with her scholarly society. She fears that someone
wishes to break into the society’s artifact collection,
which contains a copy of the Zoretha Scrolls. The PCs
arrive to find a riot outside the building and must help
authorities to calm or disperse the mob. Nilaenish pays
them handsomely and seems not to fully understand how
or why the riot started. There is no further trouble, but
the society increases magical security on its collection
of artifacts.
Around the same time, the PCs first hear rumors of a band
of evil cultists led by a giant called Soulbiter. Soulbiter’s followers
have been raiding settlements and causing havoc in
the far north.
EL 15 (Moderate Sign): Distressed by a recent discovery,
Soelma Nilaenish contacts the PCs to act as her bodyguards
on a long journey to the far north. There, she explains, an
evil giant is attempting to awaken an ancient evil that she
associates with the recent violent behavior of the common
people. Near the end of the journey, the PCs encounter
Janwulf the Soulbiter and his followers. Janwulf is familiar
with Nilaenish and acts as if she has betrayed him somehow.
After his defeat at the PCs’ hands, Nilaenish leads
the party into a death trap, reveals herself to be a powerful
and evil wizard, and leaves with Janwulf’s followers in her
service. She also leaves full payment for the PCs’ services
as a joke.
EL 18 (Strong Sign): After learning where Nilaenish
has gone, the PCs arrive just in time to interrupt her ritual.
Assuming they defeat her, they recover her copy of the
Zoretha Scrolls. Since the Hulks are still quiescent, the PCs
seem to be victorious. A blank page is torn out of the end
of Nilaenish’s book, however, and one of Janwulf’s more
memorable cultists was not present at Nilaenish’s final battle
(encounters 4–1 and 4–2, pages 58 and 60).
By this point in the campaign, most major nations are at
war with one another. Fighting is constant everywhere the
PCs go.
EL 20 (Overwhelming Sign): Whether or not the PCs
attempt to track down the missing page and cultist, they
arrive back at the Hulks too late to stop the second ritual.
The cultist used the original, crumbling Zoretha Scrolls
and ritual instructions scrawled on a scrap of parchment
from the back of Nilaenish’s copy. The Hulks awaken, and
the PCs must fight all five to save the world (encounter 4–3,
page 62).
THE HULKS OF ZORETHA
IN EBERRON
In Eberron, the Hulks of Zoretha are located somewhere
on the unnamed landmass north of the Bitter Sea. With
the aftermath of the Last War so recent, the violent effect of
the Hulks’ blood moon might dredge up old conflicts more
quickly than might happen in another setting.
In addition, the prevalence of practical magic in Eberron
allows more useful advances than most settings enjoy. The
crudeness and squalor of the Temple of Zoretha is therefore
all the starker to adventurers in Eberron. Not since the
Last War have the PCs seen living conditions so base and
impoverished.
THE HULKS OF ZORETHA
IN FAERÛN
The Great Glacier is the perfect place for the Hulks of
Zoretha to have lain hidden for thousands of years, and
the dangerous normal inhabitants of the area explain the
natural toughness of the cultists defending it. Carcasses of
slain local creatures, perhaps even that of a young white
dragon, might be an interesting addition to the cultists’
food storage area.
Soelma Nilaenish should be considered a moon elf unless
some other race would help her fit into the campaign.
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SIGN: BLOOD MOON
The blood moon sets tempers on edge, making people aggressive
and angry.
Faint: The starting attitudes of all living, intelligent creatures
and characters are reduced by one step (see Influencing NPC Attitudes,
PH 72). If a creature’s attitude drops to hostile, it immediately
attacks the closest living creature until it deals damage.
At that point, it reverts to its normal starting attitude.
Moderate: As faint, but starting attitudes drop by two steps.
Strong: As moderate, but living creatures also risk flying
into an uncontrollable fury. Each day when it awakens (or at
the beginning of the day if it does not require sleep), a creature
must succeed on a DC 10 Will save or enter a rage identical
to that of the barbarian (PH 25). Unlike a barbarian, a creature
remains in this state until it kills another creature or is
itself killed. At the end of the rage, the creature (if it survives)
is fatigued.
Overwhelming: As strong, but the DC of the Will save increases
to 15. The rage intensifies to an insane frenzy, granting a
+6 bonus to Strength instead of +4 and imposing a –4 penalty to
AC instead of –2; the other effects of a rage remain unchanged.
In addition, the frenzied creature can make one extra attack
when taking a full attack action, and it takes 2 points of nonlethal
damage each round. At the end of the frenzy, the creature
(if it survives) is exhausted.
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