The 1987 Anniversary Adventure

March 18, 1987

By receipt of this notice, you are hereby acknowledged as a member (honorary or otherwise) of the Snell-McNary Hall Lounge Rats. As a benefit of said membership, you are welcome to partake in the Second Bi-Annual Lounge Rats Beach Trip which will occur the weekend of April 11th and 12th.

This year the motivating factor behind organization of this excursion is the return (albeit temporary) of a wayward member (one Mr. Roy Guisinger) to our fold. Mr. Guisinger has been suffering in the wilds of Florida for several months now and is clearly ready for a re-introduction to the beauties of Oregon weather. What better location than the balmy Oregon coast in the month of April?

For those of you with a propensity for requiring exacting details (translation: Brian Bishop), I hereby dictate the parameters under which this year's expedition will be undertaken.

Recently, my parents have acquired a comfortable second residence quite near Manzanita, Oregon. Said residence is open to my immediate family and as the membership of our lounge rat organization has not in the past been known to wild, destructive parties, we have been approved for a temporary stay. Said domicile has two real beds (one of which I claim host privileges to) and two fake beds. Obviously, this is insufficient to accommodate our needs so you are encouraged to bring sleeping bags and/or blankets.

The arrival of members on the morning of Saturday April 11th is encouraged. Activities will commence until the afternoon of Sunday the 12th at which point the house will be cleaned and abandoned by all members.

For detailed instructions on how to navigate to said abode, I suggest that those who will be drivers should contact me at the below address as soon as possible.

Jim & Val Seymour 1308 SE Division Portland, OR 97202

continued…

It is with great pleasure that I formally announce my second annual Anniversary Dungeon. Now, two years after the Dark Mage met his apparent end, and one year after he met his true, final end, I will run a fantasy adventure in celebration. The date shall coincide with the previously announced Second Bi-Annual Lounge Rats Beach Trip and will occur the evening of April 11th.

This time, the game will be Fantasy Hero not Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. “What?” you shriek, “I won't be able to run my mega-death ultra-character that I've spent the last five years developing?!” Wrong! In order to properly emulate the established AD&D characters in my campaign, I have decided that this game will be played with legal Fantasy Hero characters built on a 300-point base. Yes, I said 300! (By 300, I mean 300 plus Disadvantages. However, since FH Disadvantages are not worth all that many points, the characters will most likely be no more than 325 points total). This will allow established players to construct reasonable approximations of their AD&D characters as well as let players without established characters to build an interesting one-shot character.

If you are unfamiliar with the Fantasy Hero game mechanics, then you have two options: 1) Do not play or 2) Find a player who knows what they are talking about and ask him or her. As for the first option, I would really like to say that I feel it to be unacceptable, but in all fairness this game has the potential for fifteen to twenty players and any excuse to cut this down is appreciated. As for the second option, I of course am available to answer questions if you are Portland-based. Those of you who are Corvallis-based should probably track down Chris Bezodis or Pete Norton.

You must tell me if you are interested in playing. If I do not receive an RSVP, then I cannot plan your character into the adventure. If you are going to play, please send me a letter and tell me what character you are going to be using. Those without established characters (or those unfamiliar with the rules) can opt to let me provide you with a character, but this must be stated in your RSVP.

I will make one pass through the rule book and quickly jot down the appropriate rule changes that I have incorporated into my campaign so far.

Skills:

In addition to the Brawling skill, I have included the Martial Arts packages from Danger International. Costs and effects are as listed in that game with no modifications.

Swimming costs one point for the first inch, and two points for each additional inch. (This is merely a clarification).

Spell Effects:

Accuracy and Protection can be considered the same effect, but the amounts in each cannot be changed unless the Variable Results advantage is used. (Similar to PD and ED in a Shield).

Extra-planar evil and good can be considered types for use with the Detect Type effect. This will not work on a mortal creature (even orcs and elves), but will register on such things as demons.

Heal may be applied to individual wounds if the Hit Location option is used. Thus, a 2d6 Heal could easily heal ten body points if they were spread out in five two-point wounds.

The advantage Full DCV while Flying (as outlined in the monster section) is perfectly valid on the Levitate effect.

The Locate effect is to be replaced by the Champions Mind Scan power. This allows a +1 to the roll for +3 points and does not require Line-of-Sight.

Spell Modifiers:

The END Reserve limitation recharges at a faster rate in my campaign. Instead of 3 hours and the +½ and +1 levels, the rate is 1 END per 10 minutes. At the +1½ level, the rate is 1 END per 3 hours and at +2 it is at 1 END per day.

Innate Power is a new limitation, though it is worth no bonus (consider it +0). The spell is considered Independent, but cannot be dispelled.

The Champions advantages Armor Piercing, Attack with No Normal Defense, Autofire, and Based on Ego Combat Value may be used but only with permission from the GM!

Miscellaneous:

Creating Magic Items should be done the “long-hand” way. In other words, for a magic sword, figure out the Blast effect with Fast, Easy, and No Magic Roll advantages and the Material, Independent, and STR Min limitations. The last of these is not strictly +1. Instead, it is figured from the Melee Weapon Limitation chart on Page 107. A similar procedure applies to Armor, Missile weapons, Shields, and Scrolls. I do not recommend constructing Potions as they are detailed on page 108.

The Follower and Restricted Magic disadvantages may be used without a specific package deal associated with them. They must make sense to the character conception, though, and are subject to GM veto.

April 8, 1987 – under Fantasy Hero

The date is July 21, 1131. It is a warm summer evening, but the weather belies the evil events about to unfold. For that evening, a flaming meteor will enter the atmosphere, lighting up the twilight sky like the best of magical fireworks. This meteoroid, though, is not the typical metallic variety. Rather, this is a crystalline fragment of pure chaos.

The Chaos Fragment: At the end of all things, a terrible battle will take place, pitting the lords of chaos versus the combined peoples known by the mortals as gods. So devastating and so universal will this battle be, that all things physical and non will be rendered in pieces, their fragments scattered throughout existence. This, however, is the ultimate goal of the lords of chaos, as this represents the ultimate in chaos: dismemberment of all ordered things.

These fragments did not simply scatter through space, but also through time. One such fragment was found by Sorgul and the rest of The Chosen on November 22, 1104. It was this fragment that released the hidden power Sorgul held in his mind.

The Effects of Chaos: The crystal fragment, after burning through the atmosphere, will impact in the eastern mountain range on the eastern continent. Before landing, though, it will pass over the Spindrift Islands, depositing smaller dust-like fragments in a hundred mile-wide path for over a thousand miles. In this area of effect, all life will experience detrimental effects. Sentient beings will have unsettling dreams, animals will behave erratically, and plants will start to die, withering to dust by the following evening.

Magic can protect against the chaos effect, though it will only delay the inevitable.

Through means unique to each of the participating characters, the party should get together to investigate the chaos. If no organization occurs, then the NPC Esham, one of the elder members of the council of wizards. Esham is the mage governing Psionic-based magic, having beaten out Pelham when the seat became available. Esham's talents involve travelling through the alternate planes of existence, thus gathering up the party will prove an easy task. Though he does not know each of the characters well, he knows of their reputation and will travel first to Sorgul and ask who else should be gathered.

When the meteor is traced down, the land around its crater will seem to shift oddly. This effect can first be felt at about a quarter mile, though it can be seen for several miles. When very close to the crater (within a hundred yards), a dizziness will be upon the group such that each character's DEX will lower immediately by 1d6 and thereafter by one point per three segments until it is one-half of their original value. Also perception rolls must be made each phase in order to focus on any individual object. A failure means that character's OCV is reduced by as many points as the perception roll was missed.

The crater itself is about ten hexes across, irregularly shaped. If the party tries to destroy the crystal, treat it as if it had DEF 10. Any BODY damage done will chip it away some and the dizziness effect will fluctuate, though not significantly reduce. Continued assault, though, will cause a Lord of Chaos to appear. As it turns out, the meteor holds a Lord of Chaos. Since he is surrounded by an ordered world (life being the ultimate in order), his powers are weakened due to his need to project his own chaos into the surrounding world. His ultimate goal is to revert the entire world to its primal state: chaos.

The Lord of Chaos is a formidable foe, but he can be defeated. In order to preserve his status, and further chaos, he will fight any who would interfere with him. His combat stats are as follows:

When he speaks, all who hear him will take a 1d6 Mind Attack, though this will only happen if he performs no other action that phase.

If he finds himself losing the battle, he will escape by teleporting back in time, taunting the heroes before he goes. “Your victory is also your defeat,” he will boast, “for now I will revert this world to what it once was and not one of you has the power to stop me!”

At this point, Claira will appear, flying in wearing bracers identical to Sorgul's (complete with the flight powers as well). Being a time-traveller, she became alerted to the event when she sensed a paradox. She will arrive and inform the heroes that unless she is mistaken, the entire world is now a paradox. Something dreadful has happened in the past!

Claira's powers have increased linearly over the years and so it is now within her powers to transport the entire group to the past. However, such an excursion is extremely tiring and will leave her so physically exhausted, that she will be unable to do anything else (Her Long-Term Endurance will be reduced to 0). Also, her powers are not exact enough to be 100% accurate. While the group will remain in the same physical location, they will miss the target time by several hours, arriving before the Lord of Chaos is to appear.

The date now is April 11, 1107 and since the party's younger selves exist at this time, they are now a paradox. Thus, the Time Lord Parádoxa will appear, judging them paradoxes and requesting that they leave immediately by the most expedient means available. Without Claira, though, no means exists.

Parádoxa, being the Lord of Time, knows what will happen when and so will not believe that a paradox will exist in a few short hours because, to his perceptions, it will not happen. Even were he to shift forward in time, no paradox would exist, because he would be following the original timeline, not the one altered by the Lord of Chaos. Thus, the party will be unconvincing and unless they surrender, he will be forced to resort to combat.

If Parádoxa is defeated by the party, then he will be unable to stop the Lord of Chaos from affecting the timeline as he is scheduled to do. Thus, it will be up to the party to battle him again. The outcome, however, will be no more decisive than the first combat. If near defeat, he will escape through some fantastic means.

If, however, Parádoxa is not defeated, then he will be able to deal with the Lord of Chaos. The two are about evenly matched, but Parádoxa will succeed in a prolonged battle due to the Time Lord's small-scale time tricks. The Lord of Chaos knows that Parádoxa is more of a match for him and so will distract the party with a more mundane challenge:

Note: This page was a hand-written addition included after the last page of the printed adventure.

(← Ozzie Meets Parádoxa) (Back to Adventures Index) (Castle of Nestor →)