Hommlet: Wheels Within Wheels, Now With More Werewolves!

In the Temple of Elemental Evil Gygax wrote “If [the heroes] need more seasoning before continuing to the greater challenges, you may – and should – design and develop other adventures in the area”. Thus, this entry in my series on Ultimate Greyhawk. Much like how comics and movies will reboot a franchise with a new take on an old concept, this is my personal re-imagining of the Greyhawk Campaign Setting beginning with the venerable town of Hommlet. 

The following location is numbered based on how it appears on the map of the village of Hommlet found in T1-4: The Temple of Elemental Evil. You can see the rest of the entries in the Ultimate Greyhawk sidebar of the blog.

26. Hyrkull Wheels & Wainwright

Thad the wainwright makes wheels and repairs carts and wagons. His main source of income is from the Teamster Viktor Albreck of Albreck's Cartage & Transport (Area 14). Thad’s wife Shelby died giving birth to their young daughter Adele. His nephews Ryker and Silven help him and all three are part of militia and worshippers of St. Cuthbert.

Adventure Seed: Wheels within Wheels

Ryker and Silven are generally good men. But they both work to line their pockets with extra cash by running a gang bandits. These bandits refrain from hurting people and animals if at all possible. Instead they will steal the whatever light to carry and untraceable goods they can, as well as at least one wheel from the cart or carriage they are robbing. Thad has no idea his nephews are doing this.

Who is the Wheel Werewolf killer in Hommlet? See what I did there!?

Adventure Seed: Will the Wheel Werewolf Please Stand Up?

Thad has a dark secret. He is the werewolf that infected Roderick’s wife Ida and killed Till’s wife Oxana (See area 25, The Sheep Farm). He doesn’t remember actually doing the act, but in the aftermath of the situation it didn’t take long for him to realize that it must have been him. Thad is torn up inside about this and has been trying to make reparations to the family by helping out whenever he can. Unbeknownst be many in town Thad is good friends with Ulrik and he is the only one who knows about Thad’s “condition”, but he doesn’t know about the his attack on the sheep farmers. During times of a full moon Ulrik and go out together to an abandoned farmhouse and locks up Thad in a cell in the basement. The truth is Thad is not the killer he thinks he is. There is another werewolf on the loose…

Tyranny of Dragons: Actual Play (Sessions 7- 8)

It’s been a while since I’ve updated the campaign log. We are still playing and last night we had our eleventh session. This is what has happened so far.

Session 7: Dungeons and Doppelgangers

When I voiced these guys, I told my players they
sounded like the aliens from the District 9 movie.

After defeating the were-boars the group rested and discovered the hoard of treasure the two brothers had accumulated in the dungeon. After they struck out to find the exit to the surface and the Yawning Portal. Along the way they found a throne room with a dead orc in it and a scorpion shaped throne studded with gem stones. Wisely the group decided that it would be smarter to not to mess with the throne and continue to try and find a way out. As they came to a cross road they heard deep voices in the dark planning to ambush them, once again the party decided to avoid confrontation and took the southerly route instead. Shortly after taking this path they were attack by spider-men monsters. As the group went to engage they entered a room that had two sacs (presumably the webbed bodies or possibly egg sacs) hanging from the ceiling. As they engaged some giant spiders joined the fray! It soon became clear that the party was going to win the battle when suddenly Kyhber and Skaar attacked their own party members! Before the group could subdue them they fled leaving behind a small amount of weird living luminescent blue ooze. When the web sacs were cut open the bodies of Khyber and Skarr were discovered naked inside!

DM Note: The players of Khyber and Skaar had missed some sessions so I had their characters disappear in Undermountain for a while and then reappear later when they could play. I asked the players if they would be willing to play along and they were. The grou was really surprised but said they enjoyed the trick. I also decided that they haven’t seen the last of these mysterious shape shifting creatures…

Session 8: The Yawning Portal

They finally made it out of Undermountain!

After the surprise attack the party hunkered down and barricaded themselves into a small room to rest up. Once rested they continued their mission to escape Undermountain. The party was determined to not let any distractions hamper them from getting out. That changed when they ended up hearing a ruckus going on in a nearby chamber and the sounds of a familiar voice. The voice was none other than Randal Dawnbringer the cleric of Lathander, who they had last encountered way back in Greenest! It turned out that Randal had been told by his “Brother” (Randal believes that the God Lathanader is his brother) in a dream to find the heroes by going to the raiding camp and through the same portal that brought the heroes to Undermountain. While traveling through the dungeon he met and joined up with a Halfling woman named Jamna who told him she was scouting for a Temple to Tiamat somewhere in Undermountain. Along the way they encountered a band of Hobgoblins who were about to capture them when the party arrives. The group fought the Hobgoblins and reunited with their old friend. Raven, the groups rogue had a conversation with Jamna who was also curious as to what the group was up to. After hearing their story and that they were trying to get to the Yawning Portal, she lead them there and after paying their gold pieces up they went. In the Yawning Portal the group was hailed as great heroes and now they have quite a reputation in Waterdeep!

DM Notes: This session I wanted to sow the seeds to reintegrate the Tyranny of Dragons storyline back into the campaign. In my mind one of the richest treasure hoards in all of the Realms is the City of Splendours herself and that nothing less than the city itself would appease Tiamat! At some point I plan on having the characters discover a grand temple to Tiamat in Undermountain. But for now the seed is planted for the future and I think the whole group was ready to move on to other adventures outside of the dungeon.