“Doppelgangers”
Difficulty: This adventure is for 4 to 6 level 3 characters with a run time of 1 to 2 hours.
Special Notes: Remember the Black Pudding's immunities and split reaction.
Summary
In a strange clockwork ship, the group's guide is pulled into muddy waters by a strange creature. Trying to rescue him they are transported to a strange place similar but different from where they were, where they meet their doubles and are accused of being doppelgangers.
Setup: The Ship
The party is led to a crashed clockwork ship by Hunter Towerfall(Commoner) who has hired them. Upon investigating the ship, a pool of strange black liquid (Black Pudding MM241) fills the lower portions of the ship. The guide approaches it a creature lurches up from out of the liquid and grabs Hunter. Hunter grabs a lever on the wall trying to save himself, but is dragged into the ooze. After the lever is pulled, lights in the ship flash, alarms ring, and a voice in Primordial counting down from 20. After 3 rounds the flashing stops and the black pudding is now just water. Floating in the water is a plastic mannequin of Hunter. A group enters the room, asking 'Who's there?' in common. The group that enters are all look identical to the party members except dressed in tight fitting uniform clothing.
Investigation: Doppelgangers?
The Crew of the ship are peaceful unless attacked. They have no knowledge of the PC's world or culture. The Crew's names are the same as their PC equivalents, but they are all astronauts aboard a ship that has crashed on an alien world. They had been attempting to repair their vessel when the alarm sounded and they found the party here. The Crew no nothing of magic, dragons, or fantasy and come from a steampunk/cyberpunk civilization. The crew have scanners that indicate that the party members are alien life forms. The captain of the crew will also review the security footage, which shows the party members as featureless black humanoid blobs. Even when reviewed live, the security cameras show the party members this way. Some of the crew accuse the party of being doppelgangers, and the captain orders the party to be locked in the brig until the situation can be figured out. If the party attacks the crew, then whenever a crew member takes damage, have their corresponding party member look-alike take the damage and feel the pain as well. This should prevent a fight. If they investigate, they find out that any wound or pain inflicted on one of the crew or party, affects the look-alike in the other group.
Counter Attack: Leewoogs
Shortly after being locked in the brig, or while the a member of the crew is trying to lock them up, if the party resists, an alarm sounds in the ship, different from the last alarm. Something is outside the ship trying to break into it. If the party is locked in the brig, then the power to the ship fails and the automatic lock opens, letting them out. Outside the ship are creatures, called Leewoogs, which are humanoid. A strange plant material is growing all around the rocky
cliffside that the ship is lodged in. The plant material looks like multicolored foam. The leewoogs are tackling each other and stuffing handfuls of the stuff into each other's mouths. They tackle a crew member that investigates outside and stuff some into their mouth. Immediately that crew member begins acting in the same way, grabbing fistfuls of the plant material and attempting to shove it into the mouth of any humanoid near it. Use contested athletics checks if they attempt it on any PC. Any PC that gets the stuff in their mouth must make a DC17 Wisdom Saving throw or be charmed. A charmed PC can still move and use free actions or bonus actions, but must use their action to attempt to feed the plant matter to another humanoid near them. If restrained from doing so, they must make an unarmed attack against the party restraining them. At the end of a PC's turn, they may attempt the saving throw again. A PC that makes this save is immune to the plant's affects for 1d6 rounds. There are an endless number of Leewoogs, but have only enough assault the party at one time to make the fight interesting. The rest are happily force-feeding each other. Leewoogs have 1 hp and +5 to their athletics check to force-feed a player. Have the captain of the crew order a retreat to inside the ship after a few rounds if the players don't choose to retreat.
Climax: Engine Repair
The science officer of the crew has determined that there is a parallax dimensional vortex that is affecting the ship, and that the party members have been pulled here from an alternate reality. If the ship can make it's jump into hyperspace, then the resulting quantum wash should push the PCs back into their home dimension. The problem is that there is a strange corrosive ooze that is eating their fuel cells and damaging the warp stabilizers. They must destroy this thing before it destroys the ship. The ooze is the Black Pudding(MM241). The fuel chamber is filled with acid mist and everything in the room takes 1d4 acid damage at Initiative 20. The entire room is difficult terrain due to the clockwork structure of gears and wires that the players must maneuver through inside the chamber. It is 50ft by 50ft and the ooze begins in the center of the room. The ooze is not hampered by the difficult terrain an gets its full 20ft movement. On initiative 0, any player adjacent to the ooze makes a dexterity saving throw DC15 to dodge the falling debris as pieces of the engine corroded by the ooze fall around them. They take 1d8 damage on a failed save and are knocked prone.
Wrap-Up: Returning Home
After the ooze is defeated the engines begin to go into melt-down from the damage. Have the crew shout orders to them to help them repair the engines, and have each player roll skill or ability checks DC15. The group continues to take 1d4 acid damage each until they get successful checks. After the 4th success, they can all exit the chamber and the engines start up and the ship can take off. As the ship fades out, the party is transported back to their home plane of existence in a cave filled with strange objects from all over time and space. They find their treasure here.
Treasure: Roll once on Treasure Hoard: Challenge 0-4 on DMG p.137.
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