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Underwater Ruined Crystal Palace 40x30 Battlemap | VTT and PDF
🕑 Added 2021-11-22 11:16:14 +0000 UTC
If you ask a tavern owner if there’s any work to be done in the local area, she’ll explain that a local artificer is looking for some people for an underwater job. Apparently, it pays well. If you’re interested, she’ll tell you where he lives so you can go talk to him?
Should you go visit the artificer, you’ll find the old man lives in a small hut away from the town, in a clearing in the forest. The hut is partially overgrown with ivy and flowering vines, and there’s lots of bird feeders and a birdbath out front.
If you knock on the door, a small slit will open up and an old man will suspiciously ask who you are. If you explain, he’ll chuckle and warmly invite you in. The house is cluttered on the inside, with bookshelves lined with scrolls absolutely covered with strange artifacts, animal skulls, bugs in frames and of course tools.
He’ll clear a bunch of letters and used mugs of his small kitchen table and invite you to sit down, explaining that he’s looking for a rare, giant pearl to make into a scrying ball. He’s located one of the few remaining giant clams, and would like you to go down there and get the giant pearl for him. If you do, you can take your pick of some of his existing wares—most of which were custom made. He usually has adventuring types come back to pick them up once they’re ready, but sometimes he never hears from them again. Nature of the work, the old man supposes.
If you agree, he’ll give you a pearl of breathing and directions to get to the giant clam, which should be in an underwater temple. He advises you they are particularly fond of singing and belly rubs, but you’ll understand what he means when you get there. He does warn, however, that the clams are highly hunted beneath the sea, so they make friends with other sea animals who surround and protect them. He advices you to try not to injure the animals, as that tends to make the clams a bit… uncooperative.
With that, the old man will bid you farewell and usher you out of his house, saying he has more work to do.
After a journey of about a week to the coast, and a couple days sailing via boat, you’ll arrive above the temple. Once you dive down to it, however, you’ll find that it’s filled with monstrous fish-people, who aggressively begin to attack you with their weapons. Inside the rooms are the butchered remnants of sea creatures, such as giant crabs and shrimp, drifting about on the currents.
In one of the rooms is a living hermit crab hiding in a conch shell, which is absolutely terrified. If you manage to coax him from his shell, he will be shaking with fear and nuzzle into your clothes for protection.
When you arrive at the giant clam, you find a group of the fish people attacking it with chisels and weapons, though it’s tightly sealed. There are score marks over its shell, however, so they have obviously been trying to pry it open for some time now.
If you manage to kill the group and then sing, the clam will open a little bit, and a pink woman’s face will curiously peep out at you. Then it will slowly open some more, and you’ll see a shy, young, beautiful woman made of the flesh of the clam inside. She thanks you in a high-pitched voice for clearing away the scary monsters, and asks, wide-eyed, if any of her friends survived.
Should you show her the hermit crab, she’ll be very happy to see him—and the crab will jump off to snuggle up to the giant clam. As thanks, she will abashedly offer you her giant pearl, which is hidden within the folds of pink flesh inside the clam. She will be very excited and happy if you accept it, and will blush slightly, flattered. The pearl has a gold color to it.
When you return the giant pearl to the old man, he’ll chuckle slightly, saying that he doesn’t want to know how you got it, but he’s never had a pearl this gold before—and he knows that the golden hue only comes if the clam is… well, suffice to say, “exceedingly happy”. He says she must have thought you were very handsome, chuckling.
Because the golden pearl will fetch a much higher value, he lets you take twice as many artifacts.
GM’s Notes:
If anyone successfully seduces the giant clam, her shell will close around them for a while. However, the bard player will need to make a successful fortitude roll afterwards, or else catch clam’idya.
