“OrcaNado: The Red Eators Tail”
Difficulty: This adventure is for 4 to 6 level 1 characters with a run time of 1 to 2 hours.
Special Notes: The Plot of this adventure was decided by picking the top comment of a Reddit post that said only "Whales can fly now." Thanks to u/cthulhu421 for the comment.
Summary
From the top of a giant whale skull in the side of an active volcano billowing red smoke, the dark artificer named Ahk Uamahn is using a magically enhanced Trident of Fish Command to direct swarms of flying sharks, and is demanding tribute be paid to him or face the Sharknado.
Setup: A Whale of a Tail
The party is minding their own business when they hear screaming and people looking up into the air. At first people are screaming about dragons, but then the giant shape looms into view out of the clouds above. It's a giant white sperm whale with massive wings shaped like fish fins flying through the sky. Behind it, thousands of killer whales, sharks, dolphins, and quippers soar through the air toward the town. The sharks and orcas and quippers begin swooping down and attacking people, biting them in half. Blood rains from the sky as partial corpses are carried off into the air and devoured. All the townspeople run inside terrified. Everyone rolls a stealth, athletics, acrobatics, animal handling check, or any valid skill that would help them avoid being attacked DC12 if they fail they get attacked by a flying Shark(Reef Shark MM336 with Fly speed 60) with a flyby bite attack +4 for 1d8+2 piercing damage and have to roll stealth again or retreat back inside. PCs out of cover roll this check every round.
Investigation: Hide Inside for a whale.
The party can find out the following information with investigation checks.
The mouths of the fish and whales are colored bright red, but not because of the blood from their victims. The flesh and bone and skin in the mouth is all the same shade of red. Cutting into shows that it is more than just skin deep.
A messanger is among the refugees hiding in the buildings. He was coming from the ocean. He saw the sea turn red and then all these fish and things started flying up out of it into the air.
There have been rumors sailors seeing strange things in the air at night when out at sea.
Red smoke has been constantly billowing out of the top of a nearby mountain all day.
The crazy mad scientist that lives on the top of the volcano was seen pulling something out of the ocean onto his steam ship last week.
Lightning has been striking the top of the volcano with regularity recently.
There is an underground passage to the volcano alonge the old, defunt adqueduct.
Counter Attack: Ascend the Aquaducks
The aquaducts are a tight squeeze brickwork tunnel slanting gradually uphill for miles to the top of the volcano. It's slick with few handholds but isn't slopped steep enough to be a problem. The aquaduct is difficult terrain for all PCs.
While the party is traveling in the aqueducts they are attacked by a Swarm of Quippers(MM338) with a fly speed of 60ft. If the battle get's to the 5th round, the Swarm of Quippers dies of asphyxiation, revealing that the flying fish still need water to breath. If the party attempts to communicate with the fish, they can hear the voice of the mad artificer in their head telling them to leave him alone, go away, get out of his aqueducts. When they arrive at the top of the Aquaducts, they are met by 8 Ducks(Vulture MM339) that charge the party and attack. Whenever a duck is killed, it collapses into a puddle of water leaving no remains. In front of the party is a huge whale skull that serves as the entrance for some sort of building or cave carved into the volcano. The mad artificer's voice rings out over a loudspeaker. "You may have defeated my Aqua Ducks, but you're no match for me!"
Climax: All’s whale that ends whale.
Ahk Uamahn uses the stat block of Xvart Warlock of Raxivort(VGtM200) with the following changes:
Instead of bats and rats, he can communicate with all fish.
Speaks Deep instead of Abyssal, also speaks common
He uses a trident instead of a scimitar. -1 to hit for 1d8-1 piercing damage.
He has a fly speed of 60.
At Initiative 0, all players roll a skill check to avoid being bit by the flying fish swarming around the battlefield. (DC12, 1d4 damage on a failure.) Ahk Uamahn taunts the party while flying high above them with his rocket shoes and shooting at them with his eldritch blast from tiny wrist cannons and urging his 'pretty pets' to devour the intruders. When Ahk Uamahn dies all the fish immediatly fall to the ground and his trident disappears. It starts to get dark, like the clouds are covering the sun. If the players look up they see a looming shape falling towards them. A giant blue whale is falling right towards them. Everyone has to make skill checks DC10 to avoid being splattered by the whale.
Wrap-Up: Whale that’s about it.
The party enter Ahk Uamahn's secret lair to find the trident fused into a giant magical machine of some kind. It is being powered by steam and heat from the aquaduct and volcano, and seems to be focusing some sort of magical power into the trident. A DC20 strength check, or two people working together, can pull the triden free from the machine. This results in an explosion that deals 3d6 damage to any creature in a 10ft radius. A DC15 Arcana check allows a character to detach the trident from the machine without causing an explosion. A character with a passive arcana of 15 can see that it is dangerous to remove the trident the wrong way. If the party sets off the explosion, the cave begins to collapse. The Trident is undamaged when disconnected from the machine and thereafter functions as a normal Trident of Fish Command. The party also find various treasure in the base if they choose to loot the treasure before triggering the explosion. If they have to get the treasure out of the cave after it collapses, the excavation will cost them 2d6 x 100 gold before they can roll the Treasure Hoard.
Treasure: Trident of Fish Command and Roll once on Treasure Hoard: Challenge 0-4 on DMG p.137.
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