[Story] Round 4; the Grand Finale: Ion2Atom vs hippo

[hvg3akaek]

Round 4; the Grand Finale: Ion2Atom vs hippo

Originally Posted by Chairman Haga

Where sixteen once stood (and a handful more lurked to the side), now there are but two!

The battlefield has been reset, the floors bleached clean, and the fallen challengers mere memories. The Oblivious Challenger has waded through battles that took down others, and was even taken down himself, only to be raised up, born anew like the phoenix of legend. Will this flaming pachyderm continue its stampede ahead? Will hippo launch himself into victory?

Or will the solid, defensive moves of Ion2Atom prove too hard to break past? Will the Protective Challenger's embankment stand up to another attack? His fortifications have proven worthy so far, with many challenger's broken remains scattered around the buttressed stronghold. Will such a thing as a flaming hippopotamus tear down these stockades?

Only one thing is for sure: there will be but one challenger remaining after this match!

As has happened many times before, you will now face off against each other. Only by using the following ingredients, and crafting an encounter or adventure with your own talents can you hope to survive! One of you can finally rest, but for the other, you must spend the next year wearing the heavy burden of being titled: Iron DM 2014!!

The judges for this round are:

• Everyone!!!

The ingredients for this round are:

• a Busker!!
• the Last to Lose!!
• a Nymph Necromancer
• Steam-Powered Scissors!!
• a Tabernacle!!
• and a Tyrannosaurus Rex!!

If you so dare, you can also pick from the following optional ingredients. Bonus marks are awarded for their use, but take care not to over-season your dish!

• 12 Angry Women!!
• an Embarrassing Secret!!
• a Gnomish Army!!
• and a Whole Stuffed Camel!!

Let the Dungeon Mastering....BEGIN!!

Rules You are to write an encounter or general short-adventure arc using the five items / concepts above. All rules found here are to be followed. The entry is to be no longer than 3,000 words, which includes *everything* you put into the post, aside from any ingredients description (as per rule #3). Judges are instructed to stop reading at that time, or to deduct points if you go over. The use of a spell check and word count is highly recommended. You have 7 days from the time this post is made. It is not expected that you use all this time - the extra time has been given to ensure that, no matter what your timezone, your schedule, your sleep habits, your work or student life, or emergencies that could crop up, you should have ample time to complete your adventure. Posting when you are done, and not waiting until the end, is also recommended. You should post a simple post in this thread when you first read it, to let the judges know you are on board. Failing to do this will be one of the triggers to call in an alternate, so please make sure you do it! You should post your entry into this thread (in a separate post!) within the generous timeframe, and ensure it is secreted (to hvg3akaek and relevant judges) and spoilerbuttoned. Feel free to also PM your entry to the judges at the same time if you wish. If your post is not made within the 7 days, you will be automatically disqualified. If you have issues, be sure to PM or hvg3akaek at gmail dot comemail hvg3akaek *before* your round is closed. Do not edit your posts. The use of the "preview" function is thus also highly recommended. The winner of this round will be crowned the Iron DM of 2014! Be certain to put in your best, and make sure it is on time

[hippo]

The obliviously flaming pachyderm steps forward and bows to the assembled masses, the judges and his worthy competitor.

OOC Good luck Ion2Atom! Fun set of ingredients we have here.

[Ion2Atom]

The protective challenger looks out from his ramparts at the obliviously flaming pachyderm with a calm and collected visage on his face. Now was not the time to doubt the bulwarks that protected him, despite the impressive array of ingredients laid out betwixt the two challengers.

He knew better than to ask for his opponent's surrender. The challenger had come back against too many odds to give up so easily now. Instead the protected on intones flatly, "I have been waiting for you oblivious one. No quarter shall be given and I expect none in return.

Now... let us see who has the most iron in their blood!"

With that, and a quick nod to the darkened booth with the onlooking judges, the protective challenger selects his first ingredient.

[Ion2Atom]

The protective challenger wearily straightens up holding his dish in both hands. Stained from the flurry of many ingredients, he approaches the judging platform slowly, uncertain what reaction his creation will illicit from the ruthless judges. Doling out each slice, the protective challenger cautions, "This meal is, perhaps, best enjoyed cold."

Waiting in guarded silence, the protective challenger awaits the approach of his fellow chef and the final verdict from the handsome, intelligent, and highly regarded judges.

 

A Dish Best Served Dead
A 3.5 Adventure for 5 level 10 characters
(2,998 Words)

Non-Core Materials: Libris Mortis (LM)

Background A series of racially charged civil wars, called the Black Wars, rage in the north creating thousands of refugees from all walks of life. Bound together by race and persecution, many of the gnomish refugees have partaken in a mass migration to the vast untamed jungles to the south. The dense jungle is rich in natural resources, and far removed from the conflict. There they have established a new city, Nu’Lawtempor’kalindromil, or NuLaw for short. The city is overflowing with war weary refugees, and yet in the short time it has existed, NuLaw has become a place of wonder. It is a town of gleaming copper, fanciful inventions, and many prevalent public artworks. Perhaps because of their recent experiences, the persecuted gnomes seem to have gone out of their way to be friendly, upbeat, and positive. This haven has come at a cost though. All of the building materials have been harvested with abandon from the jungle in an attempt to construct secure housing for the refugees. There have been some minor problems with aggressive wildlife and dryads attempting to block the gnomes’ progress, but nothing the refugees couldn’t handle. With their steam powered machinery, the industrially minded gnomes have cleared a large area around NuLaw showing little regard for the natural beauty of the area, and only seeing it as a ready supply of raw resources. As the nearby trees disappeared, so too did the pesky tree spirits, and the citizens of NuLaw considered the matter over.

Recent Events Before the logging, there had been four small groves of three dryads each which tended to their section of the jungle with care and love. Bound to their region, the greatest fey spirit, a Nymph named Nina, had traveled between the small covens to exchange news and generally enjoy the company of her sisters. They had been a family of sorts, and Nina felt the loss of each of her “sisters” keenly. Now Nina is the only one left to bear witness to invasion of her home, an experience that has driven the once gentle nymph quite mad. Determined to retake her home Nina has tried to thwart the gnomes, but has had little success on her own. The citizens of NuLaw have obliviously chalked up her initial efforts to the natural dangers of a frontier town. Sensing opportunity and guided by his god, Gerold, a powerful servant of Nerull, has sought out the distraught Nymph. In exchange for the power to destroy NuLaw, Nina has merely to swear herself to Nerull, an offer the mad nymph quickly accepts. Building an unholy shrine to Nerull to anchor Nina’s newfound powers, the pair quickly moves on to constructing a small army of undead to assault NuLaw. Amongst many animal skeletons, Nina has also disinterred some of the jungle’s mightiest guardians to bolster their assault force. As the pair work together, Gerold finds himself falling in love with the beautiful fallen Nymph despite his best efforts to the contrary; an infatuation he keeps secret from even his god. In anticipation of their attack, Nerull has instructed Gerold to weaken NuLaw from the inside with the aid of Gerold’s familiar and mount, an undead camel named Sid. When Gerold created Sid, he implanted a specially crafted tumor in place of his hump; see Mother Cyst(LM28), and yet to the casual observer Sid appears to be nothing more than a taxidermied camel. Reluctantly separating from Nina, Gerold has taken on the guise of a traveling performer and entered the city with Sid in tow as a prop in his “Act”. For the last week Gerold has donned a cornflower blue cape, and has been performing a combination ventriloquism/slapstick comedy act on the streets of NuLuw with his “Stuffed Camel”. Surprisingly skilled at his performance, Gerold has won over many of the gnomes in NuLaw by bringing laughter and joy to the town; an irony that doesn’t escape the malicious necromancer and his evil god. Acting as if he controls Sid through a series of near invisible threads, Gerold uses the act to cover his more nefarious purpose. Using a virulent substance produced by the malignant tumor in his hump, Sid spits in the face of audience members to gales of laughter. Little does victim know that they have just been infected with a malignant substance that will form a smaller necrotic tumor in the victim’s brain. Using the tumor, Gerold and Sid can mentally dominate the audience member at their leisure, slowly adding to a growing army of sleeper agents. Gerold functions as a level 12 wizard/cleric/True Necromancer(LM51), and Sid is a Stitched Flesh familiar(LM30). Nina functions as an ECL 11 Nymph/cleric/Master of Shrouds(LM47)

Beginning The adventure begins with the party coming across a work crew widening the road to NuLaw using a large steam powered machine with two massive blades that swing together like an oversized pair of shears. The machine is clearing trees, vines, and underbrush at a prodigious rate. With only one operator, the other nine gnomes’ primary job seems to be clearing the cut vegetation away. If asked, the gnomes will explain that the new design is much more efficient than the single bladed version, which had difficulty with the flexible underbrush of the jungle. The work crew will cheerfully chat up party providing basic background information until they are abruptly interrupted by the appearance of several skeletal animals. If anyone can make a DC 35 Listen check prior to this interruption, they will detect the stirrings of many things pushing their way through the dense jungle over sound of the cutting machine. The attack consists of twenty assorted animal skeletons, but led by the animated fossilized bones of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Many of the animal skeletons are tropical birds, which ride within the chest cavity of the undead megaraptor, flying out between the rib bones to attack and retreating back undercover of their larger companion. With instructions to kill the work crew and destroy their machine, the skeletons will attack the gnomes exclusively until the party engages them, at which point they will defend themselves. Each of the skeletons has been bolstered by Gerold’s dark arts to be extraordinarily strong and release blasts of negative energy when destroyed making them deadly even in defeat per the Corpse Crafter(LM25) and Destructive Retribution(LM26) feats. The logging machine operator will be one of the skeleton’s first victims causing it to wildly spin out of control as he is dragged from his perch. A character can take control and operate the machine as a full round action though there is a 25% chance each round that they will operate it incorrectly resulting in unexpected actions per the DM’s digression. The machine does 4d10 slashing damage, and has 40 hit points. Knowing the skeletons alone would have difficulty with destroying the machine, Gerold has imbued the Tyrannosaurus Rex with the ability to shoot beams of fire from its eyes to compensate; an ability the skeleton uses liberally. Mechanically, use two scorching rays that must be aimed at the same target. If destroyed the logging machine will exploded in a blast of searing steam as per a level five fireball. When the battle is over, the surviving gnomes will entreat the party to come back with them to NuLaw. They will say that the council of elders would be highly interested in engaging the obviously capable party to help get to the bottom of this unexpected attack. If the party wishes to find the source immediately, skip to the tracking section.

NuLaw Arrival When the party arrives they will be immediately be shown to the council of elders. It is soon apparent that other crews have been assaulted, but only the one that accompanying the party survived. Shocked and puzzled by the attacks, the council will ask for the party’s aid. If the party needs additional incentive to help, the council will promise the party several artifacts that they escaped the Black Wars with. The party will be shown to the only “Big folk” hostel, where Gerold is currently performing. Performance Seeing the party and recognizing them as a threat to his plans, Gerold makes a point to draw in a couple party members into his act, especially the camel spitting routine. Use the Necromantic Cyst spell(LM68). If they become infected with a necromantic cyst, the party member in question will experience a headache for a few hours the next day, with no other apparent aftereffects. Gerold has taken precautions against discovery, including casting undetectable alignment, magic aura, and non detection for himself and Sid. However, the necrotic cysts growing in the populace have no such protections. A detect evil or other relevant spell will easily detect them, but a DC 35 Arcana or Religion check is necessary to identify them for what they are. A DC 35 spot check during the performance will reveal that Gerold’s pantomimed movements to “move” Sid are actually slightly after Sid’s “reactions”. After the performance, Gerold will be friendly with the party, feeding them false rumors and lies as they talk to misdirect them. Throughout the party can make opposed sense motive checks potentially raising suspicion of Gerold’s activites. Gerold's Room The gnomes are incredulous if the party attempts to finger Gerold, having been won over pretty thoroughly. They will point out that he has been in town for some time before the undead appeared and it is more likely that some ancient tomb was disturbed by one of their mining crews. With some convincing, the gnomes will allow the party to search Gerolds room while he is gone, or alternatively the party can take the risk of breaking in. Inside his room, the party will find conclusive proof of Gerolds involvement, including his journal which is recorded with scientific precision until recently. Though it does mention enough of his plans to give the party an idea of what he is up to, more of it is devoted to sketches of Nina, bad love poems, and a haphazard fantasy of making Nina his queen over an undead new NuLaw. A DC 30 nature check will identify the drawings as being of a nymph if the party has not yet found Nina. The party will also find a silver locket with some of Nina’s hair that warms when the bearer is facing her direction; this grants a +10 survival bonus to tracking Nina.

Nina Tracking The party can backtrack from the various undead attacks using a repeatable survival checks each day. The party can optionally encounter additional groups of skeletons as random encounters, providing a fresh trail for them to follow. This and each finding below grants a cumulative +2 to survival checks for finding Nina. DC 25 The party finds various sites that show where the animal skeletons have been disinterred. A pair of two non-skeleton tracks diverge here, one set leading further into the jungle, and the other back into town. DC 30 The tracks heading into the jungle are female and the other male. Both are about a week old. DC 35 The party finds a massive hole as if an entire chunk of the jungle had been yanked from the ground. Nearby there are many parallel slashes on branches in the trees of the jungle about a quarter inch deep. DC 40 The party finds Nina. Preparations While Gerold has been subverting NuLaw, Nina has not been idle. Not wanting to stray far from the shrine that still anchors her newfound powers, Nina has used a combination of her new and old powers to create a strange fusion of an oversized wooden planter and rows of skeletal monkey arms on the sides resembling reverse centipede. Ensconcing her shrine to Nerull in the middle of the planter, the entire contraption swings from tree to tree above the dense jungle underbrush. Now mobile, Nina has travelled to each of the destroyed dryad groves and relocated the stumps into her construction, surrounding her shrine on all sides. Using her new powers over death, Nina has raised her slain sisters, binding them to newly grown sickly gray saplings rising from the ruins of the salvaged stumps. This explains the cut branches and large holes in the ground that the party has encountered thus far. Treat the shrine as a huge animated object with a 40 foot climb speed. Confrontation Unless there is a gnome in the party, Nina will initially talk with the party hoping for more potential allies like Gerold. The party can make social skill checks against a hostile NPC to draw details out of the nymph, including Gerold’s identity. Nina is not deceptive in the slightest, and doesn’t dissemble. As they talk, Nina will attempt to convince any in the party, especially any animals they brought with them, of the righteousness of her cause. However, she remains steadfast in her desire to annihilate NuLaw. Combat When the conversation gets to the point that Nina believes that the party is on the side of NuLaw, Nina will clap her hands, and call for her sisters to defend the land. Glowing with fell energy, the stumps on the platform will bring forth twelve dryad-wraiths to confront the party. The dryad-wraiths do not fear the sunlight, though they are bound to their perverted saplings on the platform as they were bound to their trees in life. Being killed is not final for Nina’s undead guardswomen, after 2d10 rounds slain wraiths will return to unlife. Destruction of the shrine that binds them is the only way to permanently slay the dryad-wraiths. Attacking with all the fear and anger from their final moments in life, the wraiths screech wrathfully at those who would harm their lone surviving sister and jungle protector. The dryad-wraiths fight as they did in life, each grove of three fighting in concert and focusing on the party member closest to the region they originally protected (North, South, West, East). A DC 35 Nature, Arcana, or Religion check will reveal much of this information to the party. Wraiths that exceed a normal dryad’s distance from their tree disappear immediately, to reappear at their sapling. The shrine itself does not engage in battle, but actively avoids the party. Nina will meanwhile try to disrupt the party’s attempts to organize. Damage to Nina is mystically redirected to the closest guardian, however this ability, and her added class levels, both disappear once her shrine to Nerull is destroyed.

Gerold Confrontation When the party confronts Gerold they can get him to admit his guilt in a couple ways. Making fun of his love poems making him flustered, telling him they have killed Nina making fly into a rage, or by having accurately determining his current plan. In response, Gerold will telepathically instruct Sid to activate their sleeper agents. The party can continue to engage Gerold throughout the battle about his infatuation with Nina, breaking Gerold’s concentration and further enraging and flustering him. Sid's Role Using the master cyst in his hump, Sid will mind control the infected gnomes sowing chaos throughout the city. Each round the sounds of civil unrest will increase throughout NuLaw, and 1d12 new level 1 mind controlled commoners arrive under Sid’s mental control. Sid will continue to pretend as if it is inanimate while standing out of the way, attempting to appear innocuous. As the battle continues, mind controlled gnomes begin utilizing the powerful logging machines to wreak devastation throughout the city. Every 1d6 rounds one of the gnomes arriving under Sid’s control is operating one of the logging machines making kamikaze runs on the party. Destroying or disabling Sid at any time will break the mind control of the Gnomes, at which point Gerold will attempt to kill then animate as many as he can to reestablish his massed defense of expendable minions. Gerold's Tactics This gives Gerold the room he needs to take counter actions against the party. If a party member was encysted earlier, Gerold will attempt to use that against the party, potentially even turning them against their fellows using the Necrotic Domination spell(LM68). If Gerold believes that he is about to be defeated, he will call a halt to the fighting after making a brief but brutal demonstration. Using the Necrotic Bloat Spell(LM67), one of the nearby gnomes to go into a seizure before the necrotic cyst explodes in a blast of gore killing the hapless gnome instantly. Lying to give himself an opportunity to escape, Gerold will state that not only has he infected the gnomes here, but thousands of others all over the world. If the party doesn’t desist, he will do the same to all of them. What is the price of his freedom compared to the lives of thousands of innocents? A DC 35 Arcana check will impart that while such a thing is technically possible, it would be difficult to do on such a scale. The party can make opposed sense motive checks, but Gerold will explode another gnome if they appear to be on the fence to further drive home his threat.

Epilogue The elders will hail the party as heroes and deliver on their promises. This reward should be reduced depending on if, or how many, gnomes were killed by the party during the course of the adventure. If Gerold was killed, then the party can also take his gear as an added reward, though special precautions need to be taken with the body to prevent him from rising into unlife in the future. If Gerold is ‘alive’ in any form, he will make an especial point to make life difficult for the party going forward. If the party is defeated, Gerold and Nina, recognizing the benefits of having powerful adventurers under their control, will enslave the party through the use of mind controlling tumors and/or raise the party as undead to continue their life under their control.

Ingredients Busker - Gerold's cover as a street performer while secretly encysting and enslaving the gnomes Last to Lose – Nina, the final fey spirit to die from the settlement and expansion of NuLaw Nymph Necromancer - Nina a nymph driven to an unholy pact for necromantic power to get her revenge Steam Powered Scissors - How the gnomes have been logging so fast. A wild card used in both the introductory attack and the mind control fueled riot in NuLaw Tabernacle - Nina's unholy mobile shrine to Nerull and Japanese style ancestral shrine to her fallen sisters; the foundation of much of her necromantic power. Tyrannosaurus Rex - An animated T-Rex skeleton made of fossilized bones, and a former guardian of the jungle, perverted for use in Nina’s bid for revenge underscoring how far she's fallen Extra 12 Angry Women - The dryad-wraiths enraged at the gnomes destruction of their former home, and Nina's undead guards-women Embarrassing Secret - Gerold's secret growing infatuation with Nina, which clouds his judgement Gnomish Army - a gnomish army of refugees, and later a mind controlled army of gnomes Whole Stuffed Camel - Sid, Gerold's undead familiar and carrier of the mother cyst used to mind control the gnomes

[hippo]

 

A Flickering Beacon
A Champion Tier 13th Age Adventure for 4 5th Level Characters

Overview
The undead are spawning from the Priestess’s enclave in Drakkenhall, increasing tensions and threatening the stability of the fragile alliance between Drakkenhall and the rest of the Empire.

Drakkenhall, the City of Monsters
By far the strangest and most deadly of the seven great cities in the Dragon Empire, Drakkenhall is the seat of the Blue Dragon, mother of sorcerers and part of the trinity of evil dragon icons: The Three. Built on the ruins of High Rock, the City of Monsters grants citizenship to all manner of creatures, under her strict rule.

Drakkenhall is divided into many manors – little fiefdoms of power only moderately subordinate to the Blue. Outside the civilization of the Blue’s Tower, only the manors truly rise above the rubble and ruins of the city.

Law and disorder haphazardly enforced by the local constables. The Glinting Legion, an elite force of kobolds answerable directly to the Blue, handles any more serious issues. The Lancers are the most fearsome of the Legion, and ride upon massive reptilian behemoths.

Beacon
Beacon is the diplomatic manor established by the Priestess in Drakkenhall, calling all creatures of good will to the glory and guidance of the gods of light. The Sanctuary is the heart of Beacon and serves as a refuge for those in danger or those wishing to escape the influence of the dark gods. In the holy tabernacle of the Sanctuary, those afflicted may ritually sever their connections to the dark gods with the dwarved forged and steam powered Soul Shears. Then they may seek redemption from the gods of light.

Recently this light has dimmed after a series of undead outbreaks have terrorized Beacon. Some have crossed over to nearby areas of Drakkenhall, causing much consternation.

Iconic Hooks
Appropriate reasons for the player characters to investigate the turmoil can be determined by their Icon relationships. Many Icons take a keen interest in Drakkenhall and the envoys each has sent to the Blue. Positive or negative relations with the Icon in question could lead the players to want to assist or thwart these goals.

• Crusader – always looking for a weakness in the forces of the gods of light, the Crusader welcomes an opportunity to gain an advantage over the Priestess
• Diabolist – the opportunity to corrupt or disrupt the Priestess’ operations is too good to pass up
• Emperor, The Three (possibly the Archmage, Dwarf King, Elf Queen) – the relationship between Drakkenhall and the rest of the Empire is uneasy at best. Any further deterioration should be avoided at all costs. Uncovering the truth of the situation and defusing the growing tension is in everyone’s best interests.
• Great Gold Wyrm – the Three are evil and must be stopped
• Lich King – either a breakdown in relations between the city and the Empire, or further undead incursions and destabilization of Drakkenhall itself would suit the Lich King’s needs.
• Priestess – something is clearly wrong with the delegation, someone must go and investigate.
• Prince of Shadows – the Prince is interested in any and all secrets, especially those that might be used as leverage in his ongoing bouts with the more “heroic” icons.

The High Druid and Orc Lord are much less likely to take a keen interest than the other Icons.

Arriving in Drakkenhall
The adventurers most likely arrive in Drakkenhall by ship, either from one of the other major ports or on a ferry across the Koru Straits. From the waterfront district up to the city proper the companions will cross through all manner of neighborhoods – from kobold and goblin hovels built in the ruins, to mercantile enclaves, all the way up to the decadent manor houses of the elite in perfectly civilized city blocks. The citizenry run the gamut as well – with kobolds, dragonics, and gnolls making up large portions of the population, with more traditional races rounding out the population. Even a smattering of the intelligent undead can be found in the less savory districts.

Passing through the various districts the presence of the Glinting Legion is obvious, and picks up considerably the closer to Beacon the party gets.

Montage: Have the players describe their passage through the city toward Beacon, creating any particularly interesting or challenging aspects of the trip. This is an opportunity for their characters to be awesome and to help invent and describe cool aspects of the city.

A Musical Interview
On the outskirts of Beacon a kobold Bard busks for small donations, playing his cittern and singing draconian in an unexpectedly sonorous voice. As the party draws near, he finishes his song with a bow, collects the take from his outlandish hat, and quietly addresses the heroes. Introducing himself as Melkree, he explains his awareness of their investigation and offers his services.

Melkree Kobold Bard. Agent of the Prince of Shadows and the Three. If party came through their Iconic connection to the Prince or the Dragons he will know exact details about them and their mission. Otherwise he explains he has learned of the difficulties in Beacon and acts unofficially as a representative of whichever of the two icons is most likely to encourage the party’s cooperation. Melkree’s interest is to discover the source of undead outbreak causing the escalating tension between Beacon and Drakenhall.

As a musician, Melkree gains temporary access to many establishments and manors, even the Blue’s Tower itself. He serves as a spy, information broker, even a diplomat on occasion. He has not had the opportunity to play at Beacon Sanctuary yet, but has been welcomed throughout the rest of the fiefdom. Melkree offers his assistance in exchange for the party’s help granting him access to the Sanctuary proper for a performance.

Should the players take Melkree up on his offer, they can learn the information marked below as known by Melkree. They can also gain a +2 bonus to their investigation rolls related to Streetwise, Persuasion, and Intimidation.

Investigating in Beacon
The players will likely undertake an investigation of Beacon and the strange circumstances. This may precede their official arrival at the Sanctuary, and will undoubtedly continue afterwards.

General

• Aldeth is Archpriestess due to winning the most recent theological competitions. (M)
• Lephice is Underpriestess due to losing to Aldeth in the most recent theological competitions. (M)
• All other members of the Sanctuary are acolytes (M)

Archpriestess Aldeth

• Fears the undead outbreaks are deliberately provoked by Drakkenhall, or at least unofficially sanctioned. (M)
• Is increasingly belligerent towards the local authorities and resentful of interference with her missionary work. (M)

Underpriestess Lephice

• Lost her most recent lover to a plague
• Took up Necromancy to attempt to revive her lover.
• Corrupted from too much time in Drakkenhall.

More information needed here.

A Welcome of Sorts
When the companions present themselves at Beacon Sanctuary they are met by the Archpriestess Aldeth and her Underpriestess Lephice. Archipriestess Aldeth is a elderly halfling with a bright smile and imposing presence. Underpriestess Lephice is a stunningly beautiful nymph with a hint of sadness about her. Both are dressed in the traditional white robes befitting members of the Priestess’ spiritual and diplomatic delegations.

The degree of welcome the party receives depends greatly on how they introduce themselves. As the designated sanctuary in Drakkenhall, the party will be granted refuge for a single night, regardless of their intentions.

• If the party presents itself officially as representatives of the Priestess, the Great Gold Wyrm, or the Empire (Emperor, Dwarf King, or Elf Queen) they will be welcomed graciously and offered full cooperation. Aldeth has waited and prayed for some deliverance. Investigation checks will be at an Easy (DC 15) or Normal (DC 20) difficulty.
  
• Should the party represent the Three as an unofficially official delegation, the welcome will be considerably more restrained. Cooperation will be grudging at best. Investigation checks will be at a Normal (DC 20) or Hard (DC 25) difficulty.
  
• Should any hint of the companions’ positive relationship with the Crusader, Diabolist, or Lich King leak out the Archpriestess will be openly hostile. Investigation checks will be at a Hard (DC 25) or Ridiculously Hard (DC 30) difficulty.

Regardless of the degree of welcome, Lephice is instructed to house them in the guest quarters, see to their needs, and provide appropriate assistance to their investigation.

Undead Outbreak
The evening of the party’s arrival in Beacon another undead outbreak occurs. Screams come from all across the manor’s fiefdom. Most of the undead are very low-level zombies and skeletons; no match for the heroes, but of considerable concern to the population at large. A few of the undead are more potent and target the companions directly.

Montage: If the heroes attempt to deal with the outbreak (the default assumption) have each player describe in detail the challenges to the team and the rescues of the population they enable. This is a golden opportunity for role-playing and expressing the power of the characters. This may happen either before and/or after the direct combat.

Combat: 1 13B page 98Ghast, 1 SRDBig Zombie, 2 SRDBlackamber Skeletal Legionnaires, 1 13B page 97Ghoul Pusbuster, 2 13B page 97Ghoul Licklash, 1 13B page 110Flaming Skull

After the combat and the montage the characters discover the outbreak was not fully contained. Some undead escaped Beacon and entered the other neighborhoods of Drakkenhall.

It is also quite clear the source of the undead is aware of the heroes and targeted them specifically.

Patrol
An hour or two after the undead outbreak a patrol of the Glinting Legion calls at the Sanctuary. The elite kobold lancers astride their behemoths responded to the outbreak, losing one of their members in the conflict, and tracked it to the source. They demand immediate access to the Sanctuary to investigate. They imply that Drakkenhall’s patience is wearing thin and that force and flame may be required to stop another outbreak.

Archpriestess Aldeth and Underpriestess Lephice push back mightily at the possibility for trespass at the Sanctuary. The players have only a few viable options:

1. Convince the Legion to let their investigation continue. This requires a skill challenge for each player against a Hard DC (25). If half the party makes the check the Legion will retire until the morning. If the party is officially representing the Three or has acquired Melkree’s assistance each player receives a +5 on the check.
2. Should the players fail (or choose not to try) to convince the Legion to depart they can attempt to persuade Aldeth to allow the Legion access to Sanctuary. This is another Hard DC (25) check based on diplomacy, religion or etiquette. If the party has uncovered information about Lephice’s involvement with the undead they may share this knowledge to gain a +5 on their rolls. Again half of the party must succeed to convince Aldeth of the need for the Legion’s presence.
3. The party can attack the Legion to prevent their report from reporting to HQ. Combat: 2 see belowGlinting Lancers

If the Legion departs the investigation continues, with additional support from Aldeth for their efforts. If the players convince Aldeth of the need for the Legion to remain, they are shown to the stables and rooms and promise to call upon the heroes shortly thereafter. If the heroes implicate Lephice, Aldeth places her under house arrest while the interrogation is prepared.

Glinting Lancer A kobold riding a T-Rex? Run away! Huge 6th level wrecker [Beast & Humanoid] Initiative +10 Ravenous Maw +11 vs AC 50 damage Natural even hit: Additional 20 damage from the kobold’s lance Tail slap: An enemy which fails a disengage check from the Lancer is dazed until the end of its next turn. Incidental damage: When an enemy makes an opportunity attack against the lancer, hit or miss, that enemy takes 2d10 damage from the kobold’s lance. Uncontrollable: If an enemy inflicts a critical hit on the Lancer the kobold is killed. Ignore extra damage from the kobold’s lance. The Lancer gains the escalator ability and adds the escalation die to its attacks. Also its crit range increases by 2 (18-20). AC: 22 PD: 20 MD: 16 HP: 270

Confronting Lephice
Regardless of outcome, Lephice moves quickly to take charge of her situation. If left free she comes to the heroes that night and lures them to the Sanctuary tabernacle with promises of a breakthrough in their investigation.

If the Legionnaires are allowed to stay, Lephice slaughters them (escaping from house arrest first if she was exposed). When the party discovers their demise, they hear unholy arcane chanting coming from the tabernacle and likely move to investigate.

Upon reaching the most holy rooms of the Sanctuary the heroes discover Lephice incanting over the fresh bodies of a dozen of the female sanctuary acolytes. With a snarl she finishes her incantation and the bodies arise flush with necromantic energies and rush the party. A roar comes from the other direction as a torn and rotting behemoth crashes towards the party.

Combat: use the Swarm Prince stats 13B page 121Lephice, 12 13B page 121 flavored as undeadWoven, 1 Use Ogre Berserker stats 13B page 149Zombie T-Rex, 1 SRDWraith

Anyone in the party with the ritual casting ability, or a non-negative icon relationship with the Priestess, Great Gold Wyrm, Archmage or Dwarf King may attempt to use the Soul Shears to attack the undead. As a quick action once per round make the following attack:

Soul Shears +10 vs MD. 5d6 damage and the target is vulnerable to attacks from the party.

Should the party wish for Lephice to succeed they may be able to stop combat.

Ingredients A Busker - Melkree the Bard providing key insights into Beacon Last To Lose - Lephice was the last to lose the theological competitions, thus is second in command. Also most recently lost her lover. Nymph Necromancer - Lephice Steam-powered scissors - The Soul Shears, basis for Sanctuary's rituals. Tabernacle - final confrontation site and place for Soul Shears Tyrannasaurus Rex - Glinting Legion foes 12 Angry Women - Undead acolytes in the final battle.

[EngrInAZ]

 

Judge EngrInAZ looks down at the offerings before him, two seemingly tasty treats but one’s eyes can be deceiving. It takes more than just a look to determine if these contestants have what it takes to be the Iron DM.

EngrInAZ pulls the first concoction over, looking over the constancy and texture. "Interesting, solid and well formed." He lets the gentle aroma from the creation waft up through his nostrils, allowing the scent to prep his palette, "Yes, the Nymph Necromancer, Steam-Powered Scissors, Busker and Last to Lose are all nice and powerful.". Cutting into the offering, EngrInAZ picks through the submission, looking closely at the ingredients incorporation. He then takes a bite, allowing the morsel to linger as his taste buds explore the mixture. He shakes his head, "Could have used some more of the Tabernacle and the T-Rex, but still is nice. Oh, and the addition of the 12 Angry Women, Gnomish Army and Whole Stuffed Camel just take this to another level."

EngrInAZ takes a few more moments to savor the dish, "All in all, nice consistency and fairly balanced. Good usage of most of the ingredients, though a little light in a couple of areas. All in all, this is an excellent submission, worthy of Iron DM."

The judge pulls over the second entry, examining the dish closely. "Good substance to this one, something to bite into." He takes a deep breath, pulling in the aroma from the offering, "Well, Busker, Nymph Necromancer and Tabernacle come through strongly, nicely done." He shakes his head, "I’m just not getting Last to Lose or Steam-Powered Scissors."

He pulls apart the dish, digging through the creation before taking a bite, "As I got from the aroma, Busker, Nymph Necromancer and Tabernacle are integral and well done." He continues to chew, "The T-Rex could use a little more punch, but there is only a hint of Last to Lose and Steam-Powered Scissors. I like the 12 Angry Women addition as well." EngrInAZ stops, " Overall it is a nice dish, well thought out and put together. Interesting and flavorful." He shrugs his shoulders, "It’s disappointing that not all the ingredients were incorporated and that you didn’t try to utilize the bonus ingredients more."

Judge EngrInAZ pushes the two plates away, "Well, my decision comes down to the usage of the ingredients. As I stated at the start of the competition, the ingredients and how they integrate with the story is crucial. So, my judgment is for Ion2Atom and his tying of the ingredients to his story makes him the Iron DM!"

 

I am using a 1-10(Ingredients) 1-5(Game Play & Writing) point scale with 1-2 Bonus Points for Bonus Ingredients.

A Dish Best Served Dead – Ion2Atom

Category	Score	Comments
Ingredients
Busker	9	Cool idea of the street performer and is central to the story.
Last to Lose	8	Being the last of her cohort is motivation for Nina’s actions.
Nymph Necromancer	10	One of the main characters is a nymph that becomes a necromancer, nice little twist and explanation.
Steam-Powered Scissors	10	I like the creation of the steam-powered logging machine. It’s great that the PCs have an opportunity to fight with it.
Tabernacle	6	Nina has a shrine to Nerull and it is a source of her power, but just seems to be lacking in the story.
Tyrannosaurus Rex	5	Like how it was tied into the necromantic aspects of the adventure, rather than being a live T-Rex out of place. It’s just not important to the story.
Bonus Ingredients
12 Angry Women	2	Like the use of the dryads.
Embarrassing Secret	0	It’s a secret, just not sure how it is embarrassing.
Gnomish Army	2	The gnome citizens that are under necrotic mind control, nice.
Whole Stuffed Camel	2	Very inventive and adds to the story.
Game Play
Story Concept	5	I like the concept and would be an interesting adventure
Technical Details	5	There are a lot of details about the mechanics for the game.
Writing
Grammar/Spelling	5	No issues.
Cohesion/Structure	5	The adventure is well laid out and easy to retrieve information.
Total Points	74/80	93%

A Flickering Beacon – hippo

Category	Score	Comments
Ingredients
Busker	10	I like that the street performer is the PC’s contact and information source.
Last to Lose	3	The loss of a loved one doesn’t fit here, and the competition loss is only a mention. Seems just added on, not important to the story.
Nymph Necromancer	8	Lephice is a Nymph Necromancer and is the antagonist. Not particularly original usage though.
Steam-Powered Scissors	3	No reason why the Soul Shears are steam-powered, no explanation of what they are.
Tabernacle	10	The sanctuary is the center of the story.
Tyrannosaurus Rex	5	Not sure where the zombie T-Rex came from.
Bonus Ingredients
12 Angry Women	2	Like the Woven idea.
Embarrassing Secret	0	N/A
Gnomish Army	0	N/A
Whole Stuffed Camel	0	N/A
Game Play
Story Concept	5	Cool adventure that would be a lot of fun to play.
Technical Details	5	A lot of technical information.
Writing
Grammar/Spelling	5	No issues.
Cohesion/Structure	5	The adventure flows nicely and it is easy to find information.
Total Points	61/80	76%

[Embrodak]

 

hippo - A Flickering Beacon
VS
Ion2Atom - A Dish Best Served Dead

Busker - Hippo used the ingredient, but the Kobold didn't have to be busking. Ion2Atom had it a core part of his story blended with the camel.
The Last to Lose = Both used well
a Nymph Necromancer Both used, but Ion2Atom's blended well with the story
Steam-Powered Scissors hippo's artifact could have been anything. Ion's blended with the gnome army, and was the hitch to get the players in.
a Tabernacle - Ion's entry built to it. You could see how the dryads came back and their unholy screaming from 12 angry women.. Come on. Great use. I had trouble seeing it in hippo's entry.
A Tyrannosaurus Rex First I must say Ion's use was predictable. That is the first thing I thought of when I read the ingredients, but having the birds sneak attack from it.. Fire eyes.. Coolest encounter ever... hippo's entry. The Kobold could be riding anything. The t-rex seems out of place with all the talks of dragons.
12 Angry Women Both used, but I didn't see hippo's use as well as Ion's
an Embarrassing Secret - Great idea to have Gerold infatuated with Nina, and give the PC's a chance to use against him.
a Gnomish Army - Great use by Ion. It powered the whole story.
and a Whole Stuffed Camel - I do not have LM, so I assume all that mechanical stuff is valid. I must say it was a great job.

In Embrodak's eyes, the winner is Ion2Atom, hands down one of the best entries I have ever read.First, all the ingredients including the bonus ones were used. Not that using everything is needed, but it was a masterfully done job of blending each and every ingredient. Not one thing didn't work well.
hippo's entry was good, but some things were not organic. Why a Kobold busker, why a Kobold riding a t-rex. Why the soul sheers. Ion2Atom blended everything and they all belonged there, not just because they were in a list of ingredients.

[RonarsCorruption]

 

Writing The most subjective ingredient, I often find it hard to describe why I like or dislike someone's writing. Generally, I prefer lots of action and effective use of wordcount. Wordcount, by the way, is a much more telling metric of a writer's quality than you might think, and I'll be looking at it carefully this year.
Runability Looking at the adventure from a GM's perspective, I'm interested in how easy it would be for a GM to run. I understand there's not space for full statblocks, but that's what references are for. You don't have to explain what a wraith is, if you can tell me to look it up in the bestiary, for instance. But if you neither explain what a Caecilian is or describe it, that's when there's trouble. (a Caecilian, by the way, is a wormlike creature that is biologically an amphibian. The more you know!)
Playability Here I'll be looking at this from a player's perspective. Would I like to play in this adventure? Is there anything that I don't think I'd enjoy? Do I think I'd be hooked? Here, largely, I'm looking at player agency and their hook. That is, what makes the player care about this adventure, and what do they get out of it?
Ingredients Each ingredient will be judged as it's own individual category, but in general I'll be checking to see if it was relevant or important to the adventure, was it creatively used, and was it understandable or recognizable as it was supposed to be. Those last two are a bit of a trade off, I know, but they can both be hit at once.
Bonus Ingredients Much like judging ingredients, each bonus will be their own separate category. However, unlike regular ingredients, bonus ingredients will be beginning at 0 – which means if I don’t like your use, it’ll push you into negative points, and if you omit it, you’ll stay at a flat 0.

 

judgement Writing 3 -1 even from the get-go, your writing’s flow is a little shaky. Mostly grammatical stuff; like not using hyphens for compound words (war-weary, steam-powered), or places that could really use a comma but don’t have one. -1 Sloppy formatting: skills should be capitalized (i.e. Spot) and aren’t, and spells should be lowercase and italics (i.e. necromantic cyst) and they aren’t either. -1 spelling and grammatical errors. “a repeatable survival checks” +1 spot-on in terms of wordcount. Runability 3 +1 Calling out non-core sources right at the get-go is a classy move. +1 I appreciate the breakdown of each of the main villains. However, the statblocks should appear in the section the villains are most-likely encountered – and each should be on their own line. -1 While it’s nice that you make dramatic, creative battles, I don’t think the rules as supplied are quite good enough for a GM to successfully run some of these encounters. The one in the beginning, for example, you would be better off listing those feats under Gerold’s statblock, and just quick-noting their effects in the encounter. As it is, it looks like you need at least four pages open to run the encounter successfully (t-rex, birds, skeletal creatures, and the feats, not counting the adventure itself). That’s two or three too many. And you need to include a hardness for the machine and details for the eye-lasers (another page? Possibly). -1 sloppy mechanics language, you give PCs a “+10 survival bonus to tracking Nina”. It should be a “+10 circumstance bonus to Survival checks made to track Nina”. Also, you keep referring to ‘Arcana’ checks, where you should be saying Knowledge: arcane (or Knowledge(arcana)) -1 if you have to include the phrase “This explains the…”, you’re describing something poorly. -1 in your encounter with Gerrold, you fail to give any details as to the statistics for the gnomes or the logging machines. Are they more steam-powered-scissors? Playability 3 -1 You need a hook better than “the PCs are attacked on the road to town X”, because that assumes a lot about player motive. -1 a 25% chance to do something wrong is silly. Put a DC in there, even if it is just an Intelligence check. +1 steampunk is in right now, and the setting is neat, if a little trope-ey. -1 Your skill checks are too high. At level 10, your PCs probably have a +15 to +20 bonus in something they’re highly trained in, and a +5 to +10 in one of their less focused skills. The vast majority of your skill checks are DC 35, requiring a specialized PC to roll a 15-20, which is too tough for how important most of these checks are to knowing what is going on. DC 35 should be reserved for hard, not-required-for-advancement checks. At level 10, the majority of checks the PCs should be doing are DC 25, with hard ones at DC 30, and ones they need circumstance bonuses to overcome at DC 35. +0 While you do a terrible job of explaining what the reward is, the description of the reward is pretty nice, and I like how it’s dependant on how well the PCs do in the final battle. I guess it’s a wash in the end. Busker 5 +1 an interesting use of this ingredient, and central to the story -1 he’s not really a busker if he’s performing at taverns and so on. Busking implies playing on the street. Last to Lose 3 -1 I see how you played it, but I don’t think she’s the last to lose. Maybe the last over the course of the adventure, but the PCs might not kill the undead nymphs until later, and there’s more destruction undoubtedly to come. -1 Also, she doesn’t really lose, either. She dies, probably. Nymph Necromancer 6 +1 Love the double-play on this ingredient. A nymph who is a necromancer of other nymphs. Steam-Powered Scissors 7 +1 I really liked how you justified steam-powered scissors over chainsaws. +1 Giving the PCs options to use them in battle was a great decision. Mechanics are thin, but I already dinged you for that, above. Tabernacle 5 +1 while it only bears a passing resemblance to the tabernacle, it is certainly an interesting thing. -1 considering the parallels between the jews in the desert and the gnomes in this adventure, I think you missed a huge opportunity in having them have the tabernacle. Tyrannosaurus Rex 5 +0 pretty basic use. It’s an encounter, and nothing more than that. Bonus Ingredients: 12 Angry Women 0 +0 I actually wasn’t clear on the 4 groups of 3 in the intro – I thought you meant 4 OR 3, and the other was a typo. Seeing this, I kinda get it. However, technically there are 13 angry women, as the 12 appear in the same encounter as that other one. Embarrassing Secret 2 +1 Made more than a spot appearance. +1 I like how it was used in battle. Gnomish Army -1 -1 a figurative army is not an army. They’re more like persecuted refugees. And later, they’re more like an environmental challenge, rather than an army. Whole Stuffed Camel 1 +1 I like the animated taxidermy camel as a mount of a cleric of the undead -0 At first, I mistook the spitting-in-the-faces-of-the-audience as something Gerold was doing, not Sid. I guess it’s clear enough, but I did have to do a double-take. overall: 42 The core of your adventure is a pretty traditional ‘man versus wild’ adventure, and I like the setting and motivations of the character. (well, the villains, but there are no other real characters). You included some creative encounters, but your sloppy rules-language turned every one of those potential wow moments into something I ultimately dinged you for. If this had been cleaned up a little better, it would have been fantastic rather than decent.

 

judgement Writing 2 +0 Your title could be a little snappier. Not that it’s bad, but even turning ‘a’ to ‘the’ would be an improvement. Minor nitpick, yes, but this is the finals. -1 some spelling errors, such as “dwarved forged”. I assume you mean ‘dwarven forged’? You also need a lot more commas than you use. -1 You left in a placeholder “more information needed here”. Oops! -1 some sloppy formatting. One montage is italic, another is not. You missed bolding a header for one section, etc. +1 your writing was interesting, and kept my attention. -1 you were way under on wordcount. You had fully 700 words you could have spent. Runability 5 +1 As someone not familiar with 13th age, I think you do a good job of providing the necessary background for a perhaps-first-time GM. +1 Having the DCs of the investigations be based on the PCs allegiance is a stroke of brilliance. I love it. -1 of course, you never actually USE that information, as far as I can tell. +1 Providing page references for your combat encounters is excellent. -1 However, you didn’t include any details on the difficulty of such encounters other than ‘some are no trouble, others are more powerful’. +1 fun statblock for a custom monster! -2 No resolution? It feels like it just ends at the end of an encounter. It almost feels like you leave off in the middle of an encounter. That’s really disappointing Playability 8 +1 I really like the description of the setting. You pick a very evocative place where I can just feel adventure around every corner. +1 I guess it’s part of 13th Age, but I think the way you provide your hooks is fantastic. +1 Players will love how you introduce them to the city, with the instruction of “help the players be awesome”. +1 A kobold riding a T-rex? That’s fun and awesome! -1 so, there’s no real resolution here for the PCs. Busker 7 +1 your busker is a good character, interesting and well-rounded. +1 I really like how he’s a street performer, but also acts as a spy, and tries to get something out of the PCs by offering them in information. Last to Lose 6 +1 The last to lose being the person who ended up second place is a great take on this. -0 It doesn’t detract from this, but the bit about the lost lover doesn’t really apply. Nymph Necromancer 6 +0 She’s there, a nymph who is a necromancer, but it doesn’t feel vital that she is either. +1 I guess the necromancy bit is important to the story. Steam-Powered Scissors 4 -1 They’re there, but they feel really tacked on. Tabernacle 6 +1 important area to the adventure, though nothing particularly interesting about it. Tyrannosaurus Rex 3 -1 An optional encounter, -1 Also, they’re not clearly identified as t-rexes until the statblock. I assumed more like giant monitor-lizards. Bonus Ingredients: 12 Angry Women -1 -1 They’re just undead, and have no real reason to be angry. (well, I guess being made undead is a reason…) Embarrassing Secret 0 Does not appear Gnomish Army 0 Does not appear Whole Stuffed Camel 0 Does not appear overall: 46 You started out so strong, but it felt like you ran out of time and submitted 80% of a good adventure. I’m disappointed, and I think you could have done a lot better.

 

I wish I could say I was enthralled and amazed by the finalists this year. But I was not. I was entertained, but both were sloppy and unpolished – one was even unfinished! I know the competition has been going on for some time, but you knew the timeline going in.
That said, I have to choose one of these adventures to be the winner. So, begrudgingly, I’m giving my vote to Hippo. Despite being unfinished, what you did provide was more fluid and polished. 80% of a good adventure rates higher in my books than 100% of a sloppy one.

[Melchior]

 

Ion2Atom's 'A Dish Best Served Dead' Story: This adventure looks like it would be pretty fun. The back story and general setting are good enough, but where this adventure truly shines I find is in its characters, specifically Gerold. Gerold is both interesting and memorable - a ventriloquist with a stuffed camel that spits on the audience? That's the kind of thing that players remember long after the game is over - and his infatuation with the nymph woman grants him a bit of depth that dnd antagonists all too often lack. Best of all, you manage to keep away from the evil, megalomaniacal necromancer stereotype. I am not particularly fond of necromancy and the undead, but Gerold's plan is so unique that I can put aside my prejudices. Yes there are skeletons and zombies, but for once we have a necromancer who isn't at the head of some boring faceless horde. There are many more tricks is the necromancy bag than animate dead, and its nice to see them get used for once. I do have to say though, for a level 10 adventure, the stakes here are not really all that high. PCs of that level are used to dealing with threats that menace entire countries and perhaps even entire worlds, and here we have them dealing with a necromancer and his camel. Gerold is a level 12 wizard, it just seems like he could be doing better things with his time than screwing around with one city's worth of gnomes. I guess love makes fools of us all. The actual adventure is fairly straight forward: investigatory work punctuated by a few battles against lazer-eyed bone T-Rex, nightmare wraith shrine, and a necromantic and his cancer camel respectively. The fights themselves look like they'd be great fun with none of them being just straight-forward stabfests. All in all, I think that this would be great fun to play, and is a worthy entry for the Iron DM finals. 9/10 Technical: Everything flows nicely and overall I don't think that it would be terribly difficult to run this adventure. Encounters are clearly laid out, pertinant information is given, and there is enough here to be challenging without making it impossible. You use a lot of information from the Libris Mortis, which is not a book that I am especially familiar with, so I appreciate how you clearly referenced everything for ease of use. There were a few typos and grammatical errors that I noticed, that's really all I can ding you for. 9/10 Ingredients Busker: I felt you made excellent use of this. Gerold's cover as a street busker is important to the plot and interesting. 8/10 The Last to Lose: Nina is the last of her sisters remaining, providing her motivations for the plot. Fairly predictable but handled well. 6/10 A Nymph Necromancer This is pretty much exactly what I was expecting from this ingredient, but you incorporate it well. 6/10 Steam-Powered Scissors: Gnomish logging contraption. Sure, why not? Better than what I was expecting for this ingredient. 6/10 A Tabernacle: An unholy shrine with a bunch of skeletal monkey arms grafted to it so that it might swing through the jungle whilst harboring the bound souls of a dozen forsaken women. I think you might have given me some new nightmare fuel, because that sounds horrifying. 7/10 Tyrannosaurus Rex: Skeletal tyrannosaurus that shoots fire from its eyes. Yes. 8/10 Bonus Ingredients 12 Angry Women:They're women, they're angry and there's twelve of them. Though the number is rather arbitrary I do like how you worked them in and justified them by having the wraiths be the dryad spirits that used to inhabit the region. +3 Embarrassing Secret: Not going to lie, the evil necromancer doodling in his manifesto and writing sappy love poetry about his crush amused me far more than it probably should have. +4 Gnomish Army: I found this a little weak truthfully, but it works well enough, I suppose. +1 A Whole Stuffed Camel: I really liked how you used this ingredient. An undead stuffed camel that spread tumors around by spitting as part of a ventriloquist act: that's kind of a brilliant plan, if only because it's so insane that no one would ever think of it. +4 Total: 71/80

 

hippo's 'A Flickering Beacon' Story: At it's core, the story you have here is solid enough, but I can't help but find it kind of bland and uninspired. You spend all that space and words setting up the intro, but once the adventure actually gets going, it is over almost as quickly as it begins. The antagonist has almost no characterization, and virtually nothing is given of her motivations beyond the 'dead lover' cliche. I have no idea what she hopes to accomplish because you don't actually say. Near as I can tell she's just pissed off at the world and is summoning undead for the evulz. It would probably be unfair of me to call it a bad adventure, per se, but there is nothing here that I haven't seen done elsewhere and better. Truth be told, this feels more like a skeletal first draft, drastically calling for several layers of polish before it could be considered a proper entry. 4/10 Technical: With how prominent its been in this year's contest, I'm starting to think that I need to find out what the devil this 13th Age game is all about. I'm not really familair enough with the system to judge on the mechanics, but I do think that that final fight looks a little rough compared to everything else the party has faced up to that point. Things flow naturally enough, and you break everything down such that it's more or less easy to follow, even with my unfamiliarity to the system. I do think you are a little bare-bones, there are several points where you gloss over events with very little details and I feel you might have been better served by tightened your scope back and fleshing out the details more. There were a few typos and grammatical errors here and there, and by my count you were quite a lot under your word count. So far under your word count that it hurts your entry because there are quite a few places that I could point out that could have really used those words and you have no excuse for not using them. 6/10 Ingredients Busker: Melkree serves his purpose as an exposition dump, but once this is done he doesn't really play much of a role. 5/10 The Last to Lose: Honestly, this ingredient is just kind of confusing and terrible. You did as well with it as could be expected I suppose. 5/10 A Nymph Necromancer: Serves as the principle antagonist as expected, but that Lephice is a nymph is completely irrelevant. She could be a hobgoblin and it wouldn't make one iota of difference. 4/10 Steam-Powered Scissors: Plays virtually no roll in the adventure, and just feels tacked on because you needed to include the ingredient. 2/10 A Tabernacle: Kind of bland, but more or less what I was expecting. 5/10 Tyrannosaurus Rex: Where did they get these T-Rexes? They just kind of show up out of the blue. However, I am willing to let this slide on the grounds of Tyrannosaurus-mounted kobold lancers. 7/10 Bonus Ingredients 12 Angry Women: You don't even bother trying to justify why there are twelve of them, and as reanimated undead I don't think that they would be capable of feeling any emotions at all. They're basically just corpse puppets. -1 Embarrassing Secret: Not used. +/-0 Gnomish Army: Not used. +/-0 A Whole Stuffed Camel: Not used. +/-0 Total: 37/80

 

Ion2Atom!!!

[hvg3akaek]

Originally Posted by Chairman Haga

As the dust settles, as the crowds take a collective breath of anticipation, all eyes are on the judges. Which of these two great DMs will be crowned the Iron DM for 2014?

The battlefield has been reset, the floors bleached clean, and the fallen challengers mere memories. The Oblivious Challenger has waded through battles that took down others, and was even taken down himself, only to be raised up, born anew like the phoenix of legend.

But the Protective Challenger's fortifications have proven worthy so far, with many challenger's broken remains scattered around the buttressed stronghold. The battle proved to be a sturdy one, but as always, only one victor can survive.

With a hard-fought victory of 3-1, Ion2Atom has claimed the title of Iron DM for 2014!! Congratulations!

Well done to hippo, too, as well as each and every participant in each of the other rounds. Thanks to the judges who took the time out, without reward, to carefully read each match, and present such levels of judgement and feedback! And thanks to the crowds who watched and read each entry! Do continue to train and use those skills, and come back next year to challenge Ion2Atom for your own chance of becoming....the Iron DM!!