Opportunity Actions: Tarrasque Workshop #3 – Campaign Design

 

***WARNING!!! Long post ahead, but worth the read***

Ok, now that our Tarrasque is the right size, and it’s got itself a few new faces, let’s let this monster tell a story.I find one of the biggest problems with the Tarrasque is that it’s not a drop-in monster. It is a centerpiece for a campaign. To make matters worse, it’s also not all that bright, so multi-layered mysteries are that much tougher to even consider, let alone implement.

But, we’ll give it a spin. Remember, every campaign is different, so, if you plan on using what I’ve put down here, always flavor to taste…

Basic Information

I see this game as being an extended gag. I set it in a town where every event destroys a portion of the town. It’s a symphony of collateral damage. In the end, maybe the heroes have defeated the ultimate beast, and acheived immortality, but the town they’ve sworn to protect is now a pile of rubble.
What kinds of creatures can we use for this? There aren’t a lot of creatures that play well with the Tarrasque. Initially, there should be a lot of low-level elemental creatures, demons, and other things that could serve primordials, if so inspired. As we progress through heroic tier, more intelligent races get involved as cults start so pop up, and wizards and other sages of ancient lore begin to gather knowledge about the strange things that are happening.

Heroic Tier

Image property of Corbis Images

A mysterious boulder appears in town, destroying the local temple to Erathis, and unearthing the local cemetary.  It erupted from the ground, killing the local priest as he tended to the garden. People from all around are gathering to see this curious, roughly spherical rock formation that has suddenly sprung up in town.

This gets the PCs together, as investigators, tourists, people under the employ of investigators, etc.  An event happens that brings them together, say a rich patron bribes his way close to the object, and, when he does, an unidentified creature appears, killing the patron on sight. The PCs arrive, assess the situation, and, though it should seem fairly obvious, realize that there’s something not right about this.

This sparks a search throughout the temple’s catacombs, the only parts of the temple that remain.  All manner of bizarre and twisted creatures have taken up residence down here, and it’s revealed that the priest was secretly attempting to fulfill the prophecy of the Great Arrival, a primordial event that would spark a new Dawn War.  The prophecy reads, “Death will come from the earth, and the Heavens will burn.”

Toward the end of Heroic Tier, runes are discovered on the boulder, and when those runes are activated in a ritual left behind by an arcane villain that has come to the site, the boulder explodes, levelling the neighborhood containing the now identified egg, although the species is, as of yet unknown.  A large, groutesque creature appears (a Rasqueling), and starts demolishing anything it sees, including the PCs. When it seems as though it will be deafeated, it burrows into the ground, disappearing into the Earth.

Paragon Tier

After the dust has settled, a young woman named Martha comes to town, claiming to have tamed the beast. Amid much derision and scoffery, she proves her claim by bringing a subdued monster to the town. The villagers, too frightened to believe her, begin attacking the beast, led by a Paladin of Erathis. It responds by going berserk, killing and devouring Martha and several townsfolk before being interrupted by the PCs. The fight is interrupted when the Rasqueling is bloodied, or one or more PCs are knocked out, by an angel of Erathis, who chides the townsfolk and the PCs for their lack of faith in Martha’s miracle. The Paladin flees in fear of the angel. The angel’s lecture is ill-timed, however, as the Rasqueling bites the angel in half, and runs into a nearby forest, leaving a path of destruction and uprooted trees in its wake. The twonsfolk are growing increasingly weary.

About midway through Paragon Tier, after attempting to find a way to face this thing, the PCs find it fighting a small group (enough to build an encounter) of Bulettes.  Imagine the scene where the battle takes place on a couple of different levels, as the Rasqueling and Bulettes have been burrowing around each other, creating a system of tunnels (I picture 3 battlemats creating 1 encounter area, it is Paragon, after all). The battle ends when the PCs bloody or kill the Bulettes, and the Rasqueling is reduced to zero hit points.

The Rasqueling plunges itself into the ground, in the direction of the town, but seems to go to incredible depths.

The PCs return to town to find it held hostage by a team of Drow. Their homes in the Underdark have been destroyed by an enormous burrowing monstrosity that has sent tremors through the Underdark, and killed many Drow. The PCs must negotiate to save the townsfolk from this new threat.

This leads them to the Underdark, where the PCs find the Drow have been annihilated by the burrowing Rasqueling.  While down there, they meet a powerful undead that is connected to all its victims. Perhaps a Drow NPC joins the party.

Toward the end of this tier, an angel appears, chained and appears to be two parts roughly attached together, saying, “The King Who Crawls requests an audience.” PCs may recognize this angel as the one that chided the town over Martha’s miracle.

Epic Tier

Epic Tier begins with an audience with an angel of Torog, who speaks for him until taking them to a vast torture chamber where angels of Torog face their torments. Instead of speaking directly to the PCs, every time an angel is wounded on some torture implement, their howls of pain begin to sound like speech, and the PCs realize that this is how he is communicating.

He asks that the PCs bring him proof that “the Beast” can be tamed. He needs the PCs to recover a piece of the egg that birthed the Rasqueling. He tried to convince the party that this creature will only cause death and destruction if allowed to remain free, and that he has plans for it in his torture pits. The grand ecstasy of its suffering will keep Torog occupied for millenia.

The party returns to the surface, to find the people in dismay. Their town is in ruins, and the droves of travellers who once came from afar now avoid this place, and many have removed it from their maps, considering it to already be an empty wasteland.Dark clouds hang over the town, and, in the place where Eratis’s temple stood, the townsfolk have built a monument to their suffering. Torog’s influence has made its presence known.

It is time, once again, to face the catacombs of the old temple, where the previously mentioned Paladin of Erathis has imprisoned various insane demons. The demons killed him as he warded the exits against their escape, and they now stand between the PCs and the portion of shell the party is trying to retrieve.

Assuming the party gets the shard, they venture back to Torog’s audience chamber/torture den, only to find Torog not there. His angels say he grew impatient, and summoned the (now named) Trarrasque so he could subdue it himself. He was wrong, and the Tarrasque beat Torog’s already broken body until there was seemingly nothing left.

The angels, who have been set loose, blame the party for unleashing the Tarrasque, attack. In the ensuing fight, a Huge bloodclot appears, rising out of the ground. It explodes, coating the area in gore, and sending a psychic shockwave throughout the chamber. When the PCs recover, they are face to face with Torog. He commends them on delivering such formidable anguish to his realm. He offers to return the favor someday, and before the party can refuse, they are back on the surface in the ruins of the town, where stand the town’s last vestiges of civilization.

Very few inhabitants remain, and those that do do so only because they have nothing else to live for. They await death.

Torog’s newest exarch (who now calls himself the Lord of the Ruins) is seen hovering overhead. He has made a bargain with the Drow that the town can be theirs once all its inhabitants are driven out or killed. A cadre of Drow emerge from various sinkholes with a score of creatures from the Underdark. A battle ensues. Partway during the battle, the chains that bind the angel shatter, and the halves of his body separate, spraying gouts of flame across the sky. A group of angels appear to aid the first angel’s erupting body, and they join the battle as more Drow and Underdark denizens climb out of the ground. After the battle, night descends.

In the morning, an angel of Torog appears, offering to repay Torog’s debt. Before anyone can refuse, the ground shakes, and the Tarrasque erupts from the ground, destroying the last standing house, and the final battle occurs.

Epilogue

In the aftermath of the battle,it is seen that the monument to the town’s suffering has been toppled. A handful of the remaining townsfolk go to the ruins of the temple, and erect a makeshift shrine to Erathis. The angel of Erathis appears, approving of the shrine, and swearing that Erathis’s angels will see the town rebuilt. As for the PCs, their service has been recognized, and they can attain immortality with Erathis’s blessing, now that the Tarrasque has returned to the Earth.

So, there’s just one camapaign idea involving the Tarrasque. In some places, I went into heavy detail, while in others I left it wide open. This is meant to serve as a background, and any who decide they want to use it can fill in as necessary.

In our next Tarrasque Workshop, I’ll show you how I’d build one or more encounters that I have described above.

Comment below!

Links (Updated 11/4/10)

• Tarrasque Workshop #1 – How Big is the Tarrasque?
• Tarrasque Workshop #2 – Retooling
• SlyFlourish has has posted a great examination of the Tarrasque over at his site. Check out “Pimp My Tarrasque“!