Down the River of Snakes
A 2 Hour Convention Created Content for Tier 1 Released by Mount Ogden Gaming Company on October 2, 2017
The yuan-ti have a demented scheme to bring the most vulnerable denizens of the small town of Ylraphon under their sway. Can the adventurers traverse the Flooded Forest, one of the most dangerous areas of wilderness in all Faerûn, in time to stop the machinations of the serpent god’s fanatical priest?
Available on Dungeon Masters Guild.
Items
- Foxblade (Shortsword, +1) Uncommon
- 10 x Arrow, +1 Uncommon
- 1 x Potion of Healing Common
Story Awards
Guild Delving Downtime
Immediately before or after an adventure set in Ylraphon, you may spend up to 30 downtime days (minimum 10) to attempt to research, find, and explore some of the ruins of Outer Ylraphon in search of treasure. In the presence of the DM, roll percentile dice and add the number of days spent on this downtime activity, comparing the total to the Treasure Seeking Results Table on this page.
| d100 + Downtime Spent | Result |
|---|---|
| 1–35 | A fatiguing and fruitless cavern exploration. You spend 10 gp on expenses and gain 4 levels of exhaustion. For each downtime day you spend recovering before your next adventure, you remove one of these exhaustion levels. |
| 36–50 | A difficult and taxing trudge through the Flooded Forest. You gain 2 levels of exhaustion. For each downtime day you spend recovering before your next adventure, you remove one of these exhaustion levels. |
| 51–65 | A strange and discouraging affair. You make only enough to recuperate half of your lifestyle expenses. |
| 66–79 | A lengthy but unremarkable overland trip. You recuperate half your lifestyle expenses and gain 2d12 gp. |
| 80–89 | A profitable expedition to the Underdark. You recuperate half your lifestyle expenses and gain 1d4 x 10 gp. |
| 90–99 | An exciting delve into a lost dwarven tomb. You recuperate half your lifestyle expenses and gain 1d6 x 10 gp. |
| 100–109 | An unexpected discovery of a long-lost merchant house compound. You recuperate all your lifestyle expenses and gain 1d8 x 10 gp, as well as a book on the history of a Sword Coast city or town. (Have your DM select a title for it.) |
| 110–119 | A lost shrine. You recuperate all your lifestyle expenses and gain 1d10 x 10 gp as well as a holy symbol for a deity of your choice. |
| 120 or Higher | Altar of the Ghost Hound. You find a millennia-old shrine to a god you cannot identify, with treasures laid upon an altar deep beneath the ground. You recuperate all your lifestyle expenses and gain 1d12 x 10 gp as well as a potion of healing. If this is the first time you have rolled this result: You also gain a shining copper cloak-pin bearing the image of a flaming spirit hound. Write down “Copper Pin of the Spirit Hound” as a separate story award on your logsheet. |
Local Pursuit: Healing the Sick
You have spent time working with the healers of Ylraphon to help people recover from the Serpent’s Kiss. Record the story award Local Pursuit: Healing the Sick. Immediately before or after an adventure set in Ylraphon, you may spend 5 downtime days helping the city healers. Once during your next game session after this activity, you may inform your DM you are using this benefit to roll a Wisdom (Medicine) check to stabilize a target within 5 feet as a bonus action instead of an action.
Local Pursuit: Swamp Guide
Your experience navigating the shifting landscape of the Flooded Forest can be put to good use guiding others who need to travel through that deadly wilderness. Repeated return trips to the area give you an instinctive for keeping your footing on treacherous terrain. Record the story award Local Pursuit: Swamp Guide. Immediately before or after an adventure set in Ylraphon, you may spend 5 downtime days guiding hunters, scavengers, and others through the nearest parts of the Flooded Forest. Once during your next game session after this activity, you may inform your DM you are using this benefit to gain advantage on a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to jump over an obstacle, climb natural terrain, keep your balance, or avoid falling.
Took Too Long: Short Rest Only
You took too long to reach the tower, and do not have enough time to complete it by activating the magical candle you were given at dawn unless you do not take a long rest. Take the benefits of a short rest, then record your current hit points, spell slots, uses of features and traits, and other resources that might be restored to some degree by a long rest. You begin your next adventure in this exact state (subject to any expenditures of downtime or any benefits to gaining a level if you gain one).
Took Too Long: Unprotected by the Candle
You took too long to reach the tower, and do not have enough time to complete it by activating the magical candle you were given at dawn unless you do not take a long rest. You can take a long rest, but you do not benefit from the magical candle’s protections against the defenses of the temple. (If you play the adventure SRCC-01-03 The Altar of the Smoldering Eye, this will be a major disadvantage.)
Ylraphon Adventurers Guild
The Adventurers Guild of Ylraphon is a loose-knit league of “dungeoneers, tomb-robbers, errant crusaders, swashbuckling mercenaries, and sundry formidable scalawags of all races and vocations” (according to its charter). It represents adventurers’ interests in town and helps regulate the profitable exploration of the surrounding ruins.
To initially join the Adventurers Guild of Ylraphon, a character must speak to Jotan Silverhammer, lieutenant guildmaster and volunteer sergeant of the Town Watch. There is no cost if you discovered the cause of the illness affecting the Old City, or if you obtain one of the Local Pursuit story awards, due to your substantial contribution to prosperity of the Old City. Otherwise, initial dues are 50 gp, with additional payments of 12 gp a month. These costs are waived, however, for volunteers either who work three shifts a month for the Town Watch. In game terms, this means a character must spend 50 gp to join, and to remain a member, whenever they spend downtime, they must spend an additional 4 gp for every 10 downtime days they spend (though you may be able to substitute downtime for this cost, see below).
If a character who owes these dues fails to pay them as soon as they spend downtime, they must pay them by the end of their next game session or they lose all benefits of guild membership, and must pay the 50 gp initial dues again to regain them.
Members of the Adventurers Guild may delve local ruins in search of treasure. They gain access to the Guild Delving downtime activity before or after any adventure set in Ylraphon.