The God in the Lake

Possessions: bracers of armor +6, headband of intellect +6, ring of protection +4, amulet of proof against detection and location, lesser rod of metamagic (quicken).

T HE GOD IN T HE L AKE

The sleepy village of Raven’s Lake has a secret: A terrible god lives in the depths of the settlement’s namesake. The citizens of Raven’s Lake know that something lives in the lake. People who go out on the lake after dark go missing far too often and frequently turn up weeks later with no memory of where they’ve been. The local church of St. Cuthbert has been abandoned no fewer than seven times in the last two years, each time its lone cleric packing hastily and fl eeing town without a word. Adventurers who come to Raven’s Lake have a habit of vanishing forever. The truth is that something does indeed live in Raven’s Lake, but it is far from a deity. It’s an exiled aboleth by the name of Zlorthishen.

Adventure Hooks

The PCs could be drawn to Raven’s Lake for a number of reasons. An associate might have visited the town and disappeared. A PC cleric might be asked by a superior to investigate why clerics of St. Cuthbert never stay in the town longer than a month. The PCs could just be passing through town and catch wind that something’s wrong by the way the locals regard them with such sadness. Raven’s Lake could also serve as the genesis of a new campaign. The PCs could all be locals who slowly uncover the sinister secret that festers in the lake and the tunnels below town. No map of Raven’s Lake is provided, so you can more easily place the village in your campaign world. Detailed below is the home of Huck One-Eye, an old hunter who lives in a simple one-story house with a solid foundation.

Huck One-Eye’s House

Huck One-Eye is an old human ranger who was the fi rst person the aboleth Zlorthishen enslaved after arriving in Raven’s Lake fi ve years ago via an underground river. The aboleth knew that its survival depended on its quickly establishing a secret stronghold under the unknowing eyes of the locals, and it enslaved Huck as he wandered alone by the lake edge. Over the last fi ve years, the aboleth has managed to secretly enslave nearly half the town, including all of its leaders and prominent members. Its slaves created a set of underground tunnels that connected the lake to Huck’s basement, and recently the aboleth has started to breed skum in these tunnels. After some investigations in town, the PCs should eventually be led to Huck’s home. No one talks, but careful observation allows the PCs to note that despite the amount of traffi c that goes in and out of Huck’s home, there never seems to be much noise or clamor coming from inside the building. 1. Entrance

This building is fairly unassuming. Its wooden walls and wood shingle roof are spotted with lichens and fi laments of fungus, and the solid stone foundation is thick with moss.

Worn paths around the exterior of the house lead to the back door (area 7) as well as to the nearby lakeshore.

2. Storeroom

This room is completely cluttered with a fantastic amount of junk. Coils of rope, old bows, barrels, crates, boxes, fi shing poles, broken bear traps, and more assault the eye.

None of the equipment here has seen any use since Huck was enslaved; his hunting days are over.

3. Washroom

This dirty, foul-smelling room could serve as a washroom only for the bravest soul.

Huck’s personal hygiene has always been a topic in town, and his habits have not improved as a result of his enslavement.

4. Antler Storage

This room seems to have once been a bedroom, but before it can serve as such again, someone needs to clean out the hundreds of antlers stacked in tangled piles.

Huck had a liking for antlers: deer, elk, moose, peryton (see Monsters of Faerûn) —anything he could knock off and keep, he tossed in here. He planned to sort them and keep only the best, but he never got around to it. The antler collection has taken over this room completely; Huck now sleeps on a pile of rugs next to the stove in his living room (area 5).

5. Living Room (EL 3)

This room is warm but cloying; the air is thick with the scents of unwashed fl esh and smoke. Pieces of old, worn furniture sit in the corners of the room, including chairs, a desk, shelves, and an empty bookcase. A cast-iron stove sits to the north, and a fi lthy pile of rugs and blankets lies heaped in front of it.

This is where Huck sleeps, eats, and whiles away the hours as he waits for his master below to contact him with a new task. Huck’s hearing isn’t as good as it used to be, so chances are he won’t hear anyone who knocks on a door, or even anyone who breaks into his home. If startled here, his initial attitude is hostile. He yells and curses, hoping to drive the intruders off, unless his attitude is adjusted at least to friendly, in which case he calms down and engages in idle chatter. If made helpful, he invites his visitors to dinner (water from rusty bowls and rabbit stew that’s a bit off ). He won’t reveal the presence of the skum or the aboleth downstairs, but anyone who speaks to him and makes a DC 15 Sense Motive check

realizes that he’s being magically controlled somehow. In any case, Huck uses his telepathic link with Zlorthishen to warn the aboleth of intruders. If the PCs get too nosy, the aboleth tells Huck to lead them down to the caves so the skum can take care of them. Huck has done this many times before; he pretends to panic and runs through the secret door in area 8 and into the caves below, leading the adventurers into a skum ambush in area 11. If freed from magical control, Huck’s eyes clear and he tries to fl ee. He knows that the aboleth is doubtless sending skum up the stairs at that very moment to collect him, and he wants nothing more than to vanish into the wilderness. He’s right, too; 2d4 rounds after the enslavement is lifted, a group of fi ve skum bursts into the room to investigate, recapture Huck, and bring him downstairs for reenslavement. 6. Kitchen

This kitchen seems quite well organized, but everything is covered with a thick layer of dust except for a pathway of footprints between the east and west doors.

Since his enslavement, Huck hasn’t used his kitchen to cook food. He instead moved the wood-burning stove into his living room and cooks on it as the mood strikes him.

7. Skinning Room

This large room contains several long tables and tools used in skinning animals and preparing furs. Everything here is covered with a thick layer of dust, except for an obvious pathway of footprints leading between the west door and the north door.

Huck One-Eye: Male human ranger 3; CR 3; Medium humanoid; HD 3d8–6; hp 7; Init +1; Spd 30 ft.; AC 14, touch 11, fl at-footed 13; Base Atk +3; Grp +1; Atk +2 melee (1d4–2/19–20, masterwork dagger) or +6 ranged (1d8+1/×3, masterwork longbow with +1 arrows); Full Atk +2 melee (1d4–2/19–20, masterwork dagger) or +4/+4 ranged (1d8 +1/× 3 , master work longbow with +1 arrows); SA archer y combat style, favored enemy (animals +2); SQ wild empathy +6 (+2 magical beasts); AL CN; SV Fort +1, Ref +4, Will +3; Str 7, Dex 12, Con 6, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 13.

Skills and Feats: Cra ft (leatherworking) +6, Handle Animal +7, Hide +9, Knowledge (nature) +6, Profession (hunter) +6, Ride +3, Survival +8 (+10 above ground in natural areas); EnduranceB, Point Blank Shot, Rapid ShotB, Stealthy, TrackB, Weapon Focus Huck tries to draw visitors into the skum’s waiting ambush(longbow).

Language: Common.

Favored Enemy (Ex): Huck gains a +2 bonus on his Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Survival checks when using these skills against animals. He gains the same bonus on weapon damage rolls.

Possessions: +1 leather armor, masterwork dagger, masterwork longbow with 7 +1 arrows, 13 masterwork arrows, potion of cure light wounds. Huck tends to use the smaller back door in this room to come and go from his house. The door leading to the stairway down is stuck shut, and a DC 22 Strength check is required to open it. Up to two people can work together on the door. 8. Pantry This small room contains racks of dried meat and two barrels of tepid, nasty-looking water. The secret door in the south wall can be discovered with a DC 20 Search check. If Huck fl ees through here in an attempt to lure the PCs downstairs, he leaves the secret door open. 9. Root Cellar This large area is supported by numerous wooden beams. A tangle of hundreds of strangely shaped gourds hang from above, and stacks of fi rewood and old dried fruit sit near the stairs. The room is otherwise empty. A character who passes within 5 feet of the wall separating the root cellar from area 10 can make a DC 15

Knowledge (architecture) check to realize that it is only a few years old and made of different stone than the rest of the cellar walls. 10. Prison

This room reeks of algae-choked water. Thick green puddles of the stuff are pooled on the fl oor. Several brick-lined cells with rusting

Illus. by M. Cotie

iron bars line the walls of this room, and a dripping, jagged hole in the wall to the east opens into a cavern passageway.

Any PCs or NPCs captured by enslaved townsfolk are brought here, where they are imprisoned naked in a cell until the aboleth is ready to enslave them. The gates to these cells are rusty and decrepit; a DC 23 Strength check is good enough to rip one open. Unfortunately, prisoners are always tied with ropes by a skum (Use Rope +1) as well. Generally, a prisoner has to wait only 1d4+1 hours for the aboleth to call.

11. Interrogation Cavern (EL 7 if ambush is prepared)

This large cavern is humid and a bit chilly. Pools of brackish water glisten on the fl oor, and a single stout chair with manacles built into the armrests and front legs sits in the middle of the room.

This chair is used to restrain the few individuals that the aboleth has diffi culty enslaving (such as nonhumanoids). Its skum minions take turns questioning and beating the victim to fi nd out what it knows, and once the victim divulges what the skum want to hear and is too battered to defend itself, it is dragged into the cavern to the southeast to be killed. If the PCs make it this far without being seen, there’s a 40% chance that 1d4 skum are here when they arrive. If Huck telepathically warns the aboleth of the PCs, all fi ve skum (including Toruk) are here, hiding in the cave and prepared to ambush the group. They do their best to bull-rush the characters into the water to the east, where the skum have the advantage.

12. Disposal Cavern (EL 4)

The fl oor of this long cavern angles steeply away in a 10 -foot drop. The fl oor of the cave itself is spotless.

The aboleth, Huck, and the skum managed (with great diffi culty) to catch and herd a gray ooze into this cavern. The ooze cannot climb out of the pit, and the skum use it to get rid of victims who’ve been interrogated. A victim is tossed off the ledge into the pit for the ooze to eat; the skum stick around to watch unless they’re needed elsewhere.

Gray Ooze: hp 31; Monster Manual page 202.

13. Skum Pond (EL 7)

This large cavern is fl ooded completely with cold, dark water.

Zlorthishen has managed to breed only fi ve skum so far, but one has already become a 2nd-level fi ghter. This skum is named Toruk and serves as the leader when the aboleth is elsewhere. If the skum haven’t been encountered elsewhere in the caves, they are encountered here. The water in this area is 10 feet deep, so the skum prefer to fi ght enemies here.

Skum (4): hp 11 each; Monster Manual page 228.

Toruk: Male skum fi ghter 2; CR 4; Medium aberration (aquatic); HD 2d8+2 plus 2d10+2; hp 24; Init +5; Spd 20 ft., swim 40 ft.; AC 14, touch 11, fl at-footed 13; Base Atk +3; Grp +7; Atk +8 melee (2d6+4, bite); Full Atk +8 melee (2d6+4, bite) and +2 melee (1d4+2, 2 claws); Space/Reach 5 ft./5 ft.; SA rake 1d6+2; SQ darkvision 60 ft., amphibious; AL LE; SV Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +3; Str 19, Dex 13, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 6.

Skills and Feats: Hide +5, Intimidate +0, Move Silently +6, Listen +3, Spot +3, Swim +12; Alertness, Improved Initiative, Power AttackB, Weapon Focus (bite)B .

Language: Aquan.

Possessions: amulet of natural armor +1, 2 potions of cure light wounds.

14. Breeding Cavern

This cave smells of sickness and rotten food. Several shallow pits line the northern wall, and blood-stained manacles dangle from iron hooks driven into the wall above the pits.

Female prisoners who are enslaved and won’t be missed by anyone in town face a truly terrible fate here. Zlorthishen uses them as incubators for new skum. The birthing process is nearly always fatal, and the remains are fed to the skum or the ooze in area 12. If the PCs are searching for a missing female NPC, she might well be imprisoned here.

15. Zlor thishen’s Lair

This large, underground lake ripples softly, almost as if some unseen thing were writhing just below the dark surface.

This large cavern is where Zlorthishen the aboleth lives. If the PCs arrive without alerting the aboleth, there’s a 75% chance it is here. If it knows the PCs are coming (as is the case if Huck warns it telepathically), it creates an illusory wall over the southern section of the cave, and then creates a persistent image of a kopru swimming in the main cave. It hopes to trick the PCs into using some of their resources against the illusion, which the aboleth tries to control in a realistic manner. The image of the kopru quickly “tries to escape” through one of the passages to the east. If the PCs follow, Zlorthishen uses project image to send an image of itself into the cave behind them and tries to enslave them via the image. Any PC who approaches the image is hit with hypnotic patterns. If the aboleth is discovered, it fi ghts until reduced to below half its hit points, at which time it fl ees into the depths of Raven’s Lake to heal and plot revenge. A search of the southern section of the cave uncovers a respectable amount of loot that the aboleth collected from other adventurers and victims. The spoils consist of 4,120 sp, 1,003 gp, two thunderstones, a masterwork light wooden shield, a spyglass worth 1,000 gp, a potion of bear’s endurance, a wand of bull’s strength (20 charges), a +1 scimitar, and a pair of boots of striding and springing.

Zlorthishen: Aboleth; hp 88; Monster Manual page 8.