Gator Hunt
There are sewers beneath the cobbled stone streets, carrying the filth of society away, rather than letting it pile up into steaming heaps of refuse. Something has moved into the sewers and is now coming to the surface to feed.
The city has always had problems with the sewers, nests of rats, dead bodies being dumped in them, clogging and drainage problems. The Sewer guild, often near criminals themselves work ceaselessly to keep the drains open. Without them, the city would be knee deep in waste, human and otherwise. The city and its rulers pride themselves on the cleanliness and health of their city as it has been discovered that piles of garbage lead to disease.
When Sewer Guild workers turn up dead, savaged mauled and half eaten, or perhaps an errant limb washes out into a fishermans net, little notice is taken. They are only a step above criminals and some are criminals, working for the guild rather than languishing in a prison. Problems with the sewers increase as the guild is becoming hesitant to send men to their seeming death. Even armed sewer rats, as the guildsmen are called don't come back, or come back half crazed with fear.
The city takes notice as waste starts piling up in the drains, overflowing into the streets. Then, some night folk, drunks and whore start vanishing. They have the same fate as the sewer rats, dead bloated with water, their limbs jerked out of joint and great chunks of flesh missing. Still no significant action is taken until a captain of the nightwatch is attacked on his patrol, leg ripped clean from his body. He dies but not before telling of some horror coming our of the drains.
The PCs are consulted to deal with the problem with sword and steel and spell if necessary. The city wants this handled quietly and as quickly as possible. The threat of a night hunter that rips its prey apart could severely cut back the number of travelers who come to the city, and thus take money out of the city coffers. They are willing to pay handsomely for concrete proof of the monster, and its demise.
Possibilities
Alligators in the Sewer - There is a lone alligator that has been living in the sewers unseen for a long time. something has eliminated the hunting in the lower part of the sewers (perhaps an effective anti-rat campaign) and the beast has moved up for better hunting. The challenge will come from very tight quarters, some tunnels requiring the PCs to crawl on hands and knees, possibly eliminating the ability to wear heavy plate armor, and the rot and stink of waste in the sewer. The hunt for the gator could be more perilous than the actual confrontation. Claustrophobia central!
In darkness Bred - Years ago, one of the Sewer Rats escaped, a mage of middling power. He ensorceled a baby gator he found, and it now does his errands, hunting his enemies and foes. He knows of the PCs coming to eliminate him and his pet. Does he prepare a trap for them, or does he make good a vanishing act, leaving them crawling in dank tunnels reeking of human waste?
Call Animal Control - A noble raised a gator as an exotic pet, but when he tired of the beast, he discarded it into the sewer drain. It was a burden to feed, and only lazed about. Now, driven by hunger and reptilian cunning the gator has shown the rest of the city that it will survive without its care. What do the PCs do when the monster has a collar and answers to its name? Is the lord responsible for the deaths inflected by his pet? Do the PCs blackmail him, turn him into the authorities? They can gain a great enemy this way if the lord can buy or talk his way out of the matter.
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? Responses (11)
Ah, the old 'monster in the sewers' plot. Excellent written, as always, and at first I think it's a 5 for sure. But when you come to the possibilities it is as if the climax I was kind of anticipating doesn't arrive, and I am left slightly disappointed. (just a bit)
Still it is pretty darn good. A great version of the old sewer monster plot. 4/5
Could it be something more than a gator? I wouldn't go intothe 'horror from beyond' category, but imagine the terror when the PCs finally put down a poor gator, only to have a THING emerge in a gush of sewage behind them just as they were about to rejoice in their victory. Perhaps some tentacle thing connected all the bodies of the murdered who were tossed into the sewer into a single malicious mass, or ... anyone saw Dogma? The Golgothan Shit Demon!
I ran with the idea of the alligator in the sewer, role-playing out a mundane threat that seems to be greater than it actually is. If you want to have a John Carpenter-esque tentacled shit-monster boil out of a drain tunnel, rock on! None of this is set in stone, and was fully intneded to folded, spindled, crushed and mutilated until it fit whatever need.
It does seem anti-climactic, but it might serve well as a foil to treasure heavy romps with spell slinger bad guys and supernatural monsters. Danger can doesnt have to come from far far away, or from things not meant to be known. (wink wink, it still can maties)
It seems to me to be the perfect adventure to trounce on heroes who are getting to big for their britches.
After all, nothing like a nice, fragrant crawl through waist deep sewage and corpses, tromping miles through dark tunnels under the city, only to find that the expected huge monster was just an alligator!
5/5!
Now this is a good, realistic plot. And it can easily be changed....Me Likes!
This is realestic and if the GM wants then there can be something nastier then a gator down there as well.I would not recommend LARPing with this quest.
A good write-up of the 'monster below' plot. I like that it's rough and can handle some editing. And the open end can be easily handled by a 'wing-it' GM. I did notice a few typos though. Great work Scras. Easy to use in a flash in any city the PCs might be in.
Edit- Just wanted to add that this is also a plot I will remember and will thus use when I need it without the need of the write-up. And I love that. When plots have this fundament which is easy to use and handle.
Fun sewer romp, that is for sure. Plagued with a few spelling errors that ruin the flow a little but I can see the draw of this old adventure line. I like it!
Old but a goody. :) An excellent low level adventure to break up the monotony. Once the Heroes find and deal with the beast, it would be cool if they had to also find out who was responsible.
Another interesting thing of note is that alligators grow much faster in darkness.
I actually used this one at one point, so here I am, finally commenting on it.
It went great. I was running a pretty hack-n-slash AD&D game at the time, and this was a great plot to run, as it was fairly quick, easy to drop in, and highlighted a lot of character that doesn't normally come through. After running a bunch of adventures that took place in unpleasant places, it was fun to run one that focused on the unpleasantness.
Two thumbs up.
An excellent, simple adventure. It could lead to more if the PC's happen to find something interesting while searching the sewers for the monster.