AI Assistance

With this latest session, we start into the 77th adventure of this Swords & Wizardry campaign. I just wanted to say a short word about how I find and prepare. At first, the campaign was about playing some classic dungeon. The first dungeon was In Search of the Unknown, and the second was the Ruined Abbey (Dungeon of the Fire Opal) from the 1st Edition DMG. In these cases, I re-wrote the adventures for the Swords & Wizardry rules and to account for my player's characters. Later I went through re-writes of a lot of Swords & Wizardry adventures published by Creations Edge Games. Recently, I have used the plot and bare bones of a number of Advanced Adventures from Expeditious Retreat Press. All were rewritten to fit our play style. A few adventures covered specific events in the campaign.

As the player characters get into higher levels (9-12) this has been a lot harder. I did run some adventures designed for high level and I modified some mid-level adventures to be high-level. Now I am running out of adventures that I think will work. For one thing, high-level adventures often have plots that involve "saving the world". I do not want to save the world to become blase for the players.

The latest adventure (and the next 2 I have written) were suggested by AI (ChatGPT). I do not mean that the AI wrote them. What I did is use a series of prompts like, "Suggest a plot for an adventure for my dungeons and dragons group involving a hydra". Then I refined the prompt until I had the basics of a plot in a few paragraphs. All that remains is to draw the maps and fill and write up the adventure. This is how "The Hydra's Heart" came into being.

Session 132: The Hydra’s Heart

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Alrix (couatl sorcerer), Aldus (human cavalier), Domago (human cleric NPC), Brovin (human thief NPC), Ian of Darkhollow (human cavalier Alt-PC), Apprentice August (human magic-user Alt-PC)

The members of the Company of the Black Dragon are resting and recovering in the town of Edgerton their current home.

Lakima goes into the town’s artisan street looking for a skilled glassblower. He finds such an artisan in Marcel Kubik. Lakima explains that he needs ground and polished lenses of a certain size in a platinum setting. Marcel quotes a price of 1,200 gold which Lakima happily accepts. That night while sleeping in the manor Aldus, Eathwund, and Lakima have bad dreams. Eathwund awakens in the middle of the night from a dream in which he kept falling into a pit, Aldus dreams that a stone golem snaps his sword in two leaving him defenseless to its huge stone fists, and Lakima dreams he is in a room full of fine sand deep underground when he falls into a sandpit and is dragged under.

When the sun rises Lakima finds his wife Alayna in the water closet scrubbing her hands repeatedly. She complains of a bad dream in which she spilled acid on her hands. Lakima asks other companions over breakfast about their sleep and each tells him of troubling dreams. Only Alrix had an untroubled night. Even the staff at the manor tell their employers of troubling dreams.

Suspecting that the dreams might portent some evil threatening their home Lakima checks with some neighbors finding they also had bad dreams. He suggests going to the Dwarven or Elven embassies to check with them. Lakima, Eathwund, Alrix, Domago, and Brovin head over to the Elven Embassy. The elves tell them that they had just sent a messenger to the manor asking for a meeting. They immediately take them in to speak to Wynather, the elvish ambassador. Before Wynather can explain why he wanted to see them, Lakima asks if the elves were troubled by nightmares. Wynather is puzzled and professes to know nothing about troubled dreams.

Eventually, Wynather asks them if they would recover a magical artifact taken from a high elven village by a hydra. The village is in Haven (Kingswood) and is populated mainly by elves from the feywild who have come back to the area now that Princess Argenta has returned. The object stolen is called the Heart of Radiance. When questioned, Wynather explains some of the objects reported powers. These include warding from negative energy. Alrix wonders aloud if this artifact could have something to do with the nightmares people have reported.

Lakima tells Wynather that they will get back to him with an answer in a few days. He suggests checking with locals at a nearby village some miles from Edgerton. Aldus and Ian join them as they ride out to Easthollow. This is a small farming village. Arriving in the village they make their way toward what appears to be a tavern. The tavern keeper Clafin tells them no one has had bad dreams here.

“No bad dreams here – except for Bif” he says.

He points out the village drunk. But he admits Bif always has bad dreams. The company stops for some drinks and then rides back to Edgerton. Lakima and Alrix head over to see Wynather again and tell him they will try to recover the Heart of Radiance. Wynather re-introduces them to Sienna a wood elf ranger they had met a few times before. She will lead them to Willowbrook, the elven village that is difficult to find for non-elves.

The next day Sienna arrives with her horse ready to ride.

“We will be flying not riding,” Lakima tells Sienna, and then points out the flying ship hovering over the manor. Sienna’s horse is taken to a nearby stable. The entire company boards the flying ship and set out for the Kingswood. Sienna clearly enjoying the trip takes a position on the bow leaning out over the railings to direct them. At one point they see a golden eagle following them but when Alrix calls out to it in a few different languages it dives down out of sight. Soon they arrive in Willowbrook.

Sienna introduces the company to Alric, the village loremaster, and to Daemarin the town elder. They tell the company about the hydra attack two weeks earlier. The evidence is clear to see. One section of the wall of the village hall where the artifact was kept is torn open. There are large tracks leading into the woods and trees and undergrowth have been pushed aside or flattened. As her task is complete, Sienna says her goodbyes and leaves the village.

Lakima suggests Brovin (the party's new trap finder) lead the way following the tracks left by the hydra. Looking at the obvious trail Brovin states that anyone could follow this trail. They follow the trail for a mile until it reaches a swift-flowing wide stream. There is no indication of what direction the hydra went.

“Maybe it was a wizard that polymorphed or teleported away,” Alrix suggests.

Lakima says that Alrix’s suggestion might be the case but more likely it just headed into the stream to hide its tracks. Alrix suggests that all of this behavior does not sound like that of a hydra.

“Hydra are simple-minded beasts,” Alrix says.

Lakima uses the arrow of direction and asks for the location of the hydra they are tracking.

“We should have asked for the Heart of Radiance,” Alrix says.

The arrow points downstream so they follow the stream. After half a mile they see a clear, recent trail smashed through the underbrush on the other side of the stream. They cross the stream and pick up the new trail. After a few miles, they see a large circular cave mouth. The cave entrance has been recently widened and stones excavated from the cave are piled outside the opening.

Lakima waves at Brovin and tells him to lead the way. Brovin complains about the darkness so Lakima casts light on Brovin’s sword. He also casts light on the top of his staff. August has the continual flame staff that already casts light.

Brovin leads them down the wide tunnel checking the floor carefully. They pass three narrow side tunnels but decide to stick to the main tunnel. The tracks of the hydra clearly head down this central tunnel. As they near a bend in the tunnel Brovin signals for silence and hand signals a large cave ahead. The lights from the spells reveal the entrance to a cave full of animal bones and debris. Alrix whispers a warning that he can see an enormous hydra with many heads (he cannot tell how many) resting with some eyes open and some closed. It is far bigger than any hydra he has seen before.

“What do we do?” Alrix asks.

Lakima shrugs, and says “fireball?”

Alrix summons a ball of fire and directs it into the chamber to strike atop the surprised creature. There is an enormous blast of flame followed by a large cloud of smoke. They can see movement in the smoke and when it clears they see the hydra’s body thrashing about. They see a number of heads, perhaps all of them, have been burned off of the hydra. As they watch heads begin to grow out of the blackened stumps. This is all that Eathwund and Aldus need. They both rush forward to hack away at still-forming heads. Ian the squire joins them. Lakima throws some darts but they have little effect. Eathwund is bitten by a newly formed head, as is Lakima, and August. But the fighters manage to chop off the remaining heads and the creature finally ceases moving.

Domago casts healing on Lakima and August. Alrix tosses aside a bent shield he is standing near and discovers a cloth bag full of gems, and coins. Alrix suggests tipping the hydra over to look under it. The dead hydra is lying on a heap of animal bones. Brovin suggests looking in its stomach for the Heart of Radiance. He cuts open the hydra but finds only the remains of a deer in its stomach. After much effort, Eathwund and Aldus manage to move the enormous corpse of the hydra so that everyone can look underneath it but there is nothing to find.

“It's not here”, Lakima says. “Let me try the Arrow.”

Using the Arrow of Direction Lakima asks for the location of the Heart of Radiance. The arrow does not move. This has happened before when the thing they wanted to find either did not exist or was warded from detection. Lakima suggests checking another tunnel. Brovin leads that way down a narrow tunnel that circles back onto the main tunnel near the entrance. They try another tunnel that leads to a small cave where they find the remnants of a recent camp. Under an overturned empty crate, Eathwund stumbles upon a torn piece of parchment with part of a note written on it. He cannot make sense of the cursive script. Lakima examines it and sees it is written in Elvish. He reads it out to everyone:

“…retrieve the Heart of Radiance for me and then

we can be together my love. My heart cannot

rest until we are together again. I whisper

Kaelin the fair on the wind.”

Lakima asks if anyone knows a Kaelin. The name sounds elvish so they decide to return to Willowbrook to ask. As the sun begins to set, they arrive back in Willowbrook. Alric says that Kaelin was the former loremaster before him. She used to spend a lot of time in the forest for weeks at a time. Eventually, she wandered off and never returned. That was two years ago. He tells them that she used to spend a lot of time at the Temple of Whispers a few miles from the village. He suggests looking for clues there.

Since the night is approaching, the elves offer the company the hospitality of the village. They have a guest cottage well outside the center of the village. Inside is a small kitchen and plenty of beds for the company. Eathwund tells the crew of the flying ship that they are staying in a cottage for the night. The crew elects to stay on the ship.

The next day Alric introduces the company to a mature elven woman named Elysia Silverwind – the best ranger in the village. Elysia tells them that she can lead them quickly and safely to the temple. She tells them that it is a human-built temple that must have been raised during the years when the elves left Kingswood.

Elysia leads them quickly through the maze of animal trails in the woods. At one point they circle around an area when Elysia warns of an owlbear. After almost two hours they see the ruins of the temple rising above the trees. The temple is overgrown with vines and only the walls remain. The roofs have long since collapsed. Brovin carefully leads the way entering the temple. In the nave, they find a large statue of a woman with long, wild hair. Domago moves up to look at it more closely.

“I believe this is Merriva,” he says, “A goddess of the wind”.

As he is looking over the statue, a dead tree that appears to have grown up out of the stone floor suddenly shifts and lashes out at Domago. He is startled but gets his shield up in time to block the strike. Domago cries out in surprise. The other adventurers see what happened and run to help Domago. Eathwund and Aldus attack with their swords. Alrix uses the Sword of Dancing to chop off branches of the tree. The animated tree lashes out with multiple branches.

“It’s a Ygg!” Elysia shouts.

The adventurers hack away at the tree until Ian and Aldus coordinate their attacks and smash through the central trunk. The tree topples over in a heap on the stone floor.

“What did you call it, a Ygg?” Alrix asks Elysia. Elysia explains that a Ygg is a magical tree from the feywild. Usually encountered in the area controlled by Winter.

“I suspected that,” Lakima says.

Meanwhile, Brovin has been listening at a nearby wood door. He motions for silence and then whispers that he can hear a woman sobbing on the other side. Aldus shoves the door open and they look into a chapel. The roof is still intact over the altar. Kneeling before the altar is a white-haired elven woman.

“Kaelin!” Elysia exclaims and runs forward to the woman. The woman starts when the name is shouted and then stands up and turns towards them. Her eyes are red from crying. She reaches out and then chants a few words and there is a burst of light which strikes Elysia knocking her out cold.

“All is not lost,” she says, “Perhaps your death will win me his favor.” She looks over the company arrayed before her with a look of madness in her eyes.