Adventure Site Contest 2: The Lair of the Lamia

Illegal stuff on map page, but none of it needed to run the adventure.

​Written by J. Blasso-Gieseke.
OSR, levels 4-6
Monastery in a monadnock in a forest.
  A 6-mile hex of pine forest with a monadnock raising its bare granite mass 5,000' in the air at its center: a travelers landmark known as the Watcher that local legends claim is haunted by devils. From the road running along the southeastern border can be seen six large “birds” (perytons) circling on thermals and, on clear, windy days, a red flash winking from the summit. In a cave at the base is a leucrotta den. They lure travelers from the road with anguished cries and ambush them amongst the trees. They are controlled by the lamia, Xenia, lairing in the abandoned monastery within.
  Hullo, here’s the mysterious J. Blasso-Gieseke again, fresh off winning yet another adventure contest.  Nothing is known about this shadowy scrivener beyond the fact that he’s equipped with far and away the classiest trade dress. I like to think he’s got a magnificent moustache. In Lair of the Lamia, we have some of the less-commonly-used monsters troubling us, a welcome chance to pull out the Monster Manual and try to not get perytons confused with hippogriffs.
  The premise is pretty much there on the front blurb, with the added hook of the local merchants paying a kingly 25k to “clear yon dungeon”. The monastery in the monadnock (now THAT is a TITLE) once belonged to an astrology cult and if being put to honestly rather shabby use by a lamia as her home base to ambush merchants from, using her five leucrotta allies as the muscle and the aforementioned perytons as her emergency escape/defense system. So, a monster lair behind a monster lair underneath a monster lair. I can dig it.
  The map is simple but does what it needs. Well-annotated, we can clearly see what’s going on, and the exterior diagram of the monadnock is what we needed for the fantastic outdoor location. It’s not a location with any real exploratory potential, it could have just as easily been a linear sequence of cave->cave->cave->cave, with the secret vaults as little lumps on the side. This is fine, it’s 7-8 locations. I really like the environment, a big granite monadnock that can be climbed (with preytons assaulting as you go) is a very neat visual image and it’s being done right before ubiquitous flying makes that a breeze.
  Since this is a layer of lairs, the most important part is less the map and more the monsters, and those are well-chosen (influenced by Glass Cannon Podcast’s run of the third book in the Giantslayer Adventure Path, I suspect). The leucrotta pack have good lure, ambush, and retreat tactics, their lures described very graphically and the field of bones around their den makes them good and scary. The perytons aren’t a big threat at first but if their nest gets neared or they’re bumped into during the lamia’s retreat they’re a nasty threat. The lamia is well-characterized, bolstered by pitiful human thralls as fighters or shriekers (noncombatants just kept in cells to panic if intruders come by). A couple saves vs. charm person will really matter in the projected combat with her, she has a very detailed tactical plan for intruders but it’s going to be a very swingy combat. Nothing wrong about that for a detailed lair encounter, and there’s a potential enemy there for the PCs if she does successfully get away.
  Easily the most controversial part of this site will be the Montgomery Gordon Haul present here. I dare not shorten the 236,855’s name to mere “Monty”. The thing is, the two biggest chunks of the loot are quest items in an of themselves, a 50k ruby hidden in a peryton nest that’s basically the Arkenstone to dwarves and a huge chunk of pure “star metal” hidden beneath the Boss Fight Arena if a slightly obscure constellation puzzle gets solved. Take out that 140k and the rest of the haul is a bit more reasonable given the dangerousness of the monsters present, but those two suckers should be quests in and of themselves. Which is good, but also scope creep if you sign up for that. Magic items are also silly, the heavy presence of cursed items doesn’t really make up for it to me. This thing is like a casino game, where a bust has you all dead, but the jackpot is ridiculous. So, it’s specifically a bankrupt casino.  
  Outside of any concerns about the economic impact, this one would be a pretty easy to insert into any campaign. It’s a big monadnock in the middle of a pine forest, there’s monsters, they’re eating people, now go. Anyone with a geological objection to a solitary granite upwelling in the middle of your Fantasy World Forest will be given mandatory swirlies.

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