The Quarryton Calamity
Adventure Summary
Note: This summary contains major spoilers about the adventure. Proceed with caution!
Note: This Summary contains major spoilers about the adventure. Proceed with caution!
The adventuring party has been summoned by the Sorrowbarrow twins, a baron and duchess ruling the town of Greyvale. The town of Quarryton has gone dark, and rumors of monsters emerging from the village have been reported by caravans attempting to trade with the town in the last week. They have asked that the adventurers attempt to rescue their cousin, who is also in possession of an urn, an artifact that has been in the Sorrowbarrow family for centuries.
The Sorrowbarrow’s home is odd. Lady Sorrowbarrow wears a dark veil, and it is impossible to see her face. Observant party members note some small, odd deformities on the many cats that roam around the home’s feast hall.
Upon arrival, the party discovers only a smoldering crater in the place where Quarryton once stood. In the center of the crater is a black-smoke-filled hole. The party may explore the area and find some recently awakened giant frogs, now sentient and psychic; a madman dressed in a strange silver suit; and a cemetery of undead pets controlled by strings of an odd-black ooze.
Additionally, they will uncover a strange, chirping treasure chest filled with familiar weapons with bizarre, mechanical handles.
If the adventurers explore the smoking tunnel, they will discover that the crater was caused by a silver craft (a spell-jamming vessel) and that the ship’s energy source is pouring into nearby underground rivers.
Once the town is searched, they uncover clues that lead to the Quarryton slate mines, which sit at the edge of the forest, untouched by the explosion that destroyed the town. In the mines, the adventurers will encounter obstacles and puzzles to overcome, as well as the Thing in the Dark, an adolescent girl possessed by the black “trauma ooze” who has been consuming villagers, intent on adding the party to her mass.
Eventually, the party arrives at the Unearthed Giant, a long-dead frost giant, whose skeleton has been unearthed in a section of the tunnels marked “New Line.” Shortly after the party’s arrival and inspection of the giant, a trauma ooze emerges from the rocks and reclaims the skeleton, causing the new line section of the mines to cave in.
Exploring the old line, the adventurers will discover more horrors, including:
The last survivor of the spell-jamming crew (now puppeteering townsfolk to facilitate a recovery meditation).
A trapped room with a false floor that causes unlucky adventurers to tumble into a pit full of crabs.
A rat king.
While exploring, the adventurers will also discover that their newly acquired weapons (in the treasure chest near the site of the calamity) seem to gain power when near contaminated water or the ooze.
At the bottom of the “Old Line,” the party encounters a giant psychic centipede consuming one of the last surviving Quarryton villagers. It has been completely consumed by the black ooze, and its exoskeleton plates pull back to reveal the faces of other villagers (including the Sorrowbarrow cousin). Defeating the centipede and searching its corpse uncovers the urn that the Sorrowbarrows have sent the party to recover.
Upon returning to Greyvale, the Sorrowbarrows celebrate the adventurers’ success by throwing a feast at their home for them. The party is shortly interrupted by the giant skeleton, now dragged by the trauma ooze arriving in Grayvale. Screams sound outside the house, and the adventurer’s newly acquired weapons light up. The battle is extremely difficult, but the adventurers can activate their weapons' “self-destruct” mode to inflict massive damage on the giant. They can also end the fight abruptly by returning the urn to the ooze before it slinks back into the night.
The Truth
The Sorrowbarrow’s cousin had uncovered the urn from a giant skeleton’s corpse and sent a note to his cousin about the discovery, including a small box with a sample of the ooze. The ooze is a “trauma ooze” and is dormant, barely reactive to touch or interaction. But it has a pervasive, corrupting effect on the organic biology it is exposed to (thus the Sorrowbarrow’s deformed cats).
When Quarryton went dark, the Sorrowbarrows knew the urn might have something to do with it, that it was valuable, and that it could be sold for a large sum of gold (they are, in fact, broke, and have about 100 gold pieces remaining in their coffers from the prior tax season).
In reality, Quarryton was not destroyed by the urn’s discovery alone, but in fact also by the crashing spelljammer ship, which had released a nuclear explosion when it collided with the town. The explosion and the wave of death awakened the dormant psychic ooze in the urn, and it used the trauma of the calamity to power its evil body-corruption within Quarryton.