The Churn-Pits, Taps Below the Mounds

GM guide for this adventure. The full guide is hidden below as a spoiler.

What is going on here (GM only)

Sharna Licksilt says this job is chitin. That is true, but it is not all of it. Her real buyer is Oth Venmair, head archivist of the Varlas Breeder’s Archive. He pays her for clean chitin, and he pays 100 gp more for each Gutgrinder egg cluster. He wants to breed a tame Gutgrinder that turns heartwood into rich mulch for the Barley Fields. Nobody in the Barleys has told the Cudgel.

Nine days ago Sharna Licksilt sent a green crew in for eggs through The Tenrow Crawl, an old collapsed tunnel whose far end opens into the lowest chamber of the pits. Rett Vinlow was on it. The crew broke a fresh mound, the Gutgrinders came, and Sharna Licksilt cut her losses and ran. Everyone thinks Rett Vinlow died in the Crawl. He did not. He is wedged in a dry crack above the fresh mounds with a torn leg, living on drip water and fungus. He taps on the stone when he hears people.

Garn Sivet knows about the egg money. Sharna Licksilt offered it to him on his last run, and he said no. He does not know Rett Vinlow is alive.

The people and what they want

• Garn Sivet, the guide. He wants everyone out alive and his rules obeyed. Every trip he leaves a mark on the wall where his old teacher's lamp was found. He has never left a body down here he could carry.

• Sharna Licksilt, the broker at Delvers' Post. She wants her chitin and, if she can get it, an egg cluster. She never lies, but she never tells everything.

• Rett Vinlow, a young fighter from The Reach. He wants out, and he hates being pitied.

• Oth Venmair, the buyer. He wants eggs and does not care much who carries them.

• Captain Orin Vellak, at Emberhook Hall. He sent Cudgel members on this job quietly to learn who is buying.

How It Can Unfold

1. The old piles. The Churn-Pits, 1379-04-12, 02:00. Filling a sack from an old pile takes 10 minutes and a DC 12 Dexterity (Stealth) check. Each 10 minutes roll 1d6. On a 1 the ground shakes. Anyone who keeps moving, or who fails the Stealth check, draws 1 Gutgrinder up out of the floor. Encounter math. One level 3 character has Moderate 225, and 1 Gutgrinder is 200 XP. Garn Sivet steps in only if it goes badly. Any flame lights the gas in the low air. Everyone within 20 feet makes a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw, taking 3d6 fire damage on a failure or half on a success, and every Gutgrinder in the chamber comes.

2. The taps. The Churn-Pits, the lower ledge. Garn Sivet stops to scratch his mark on the wall. A DC 13 Wisdom (Perception) check hears three slow taps on stone from below. It is the crew signal for "alive". Garn Sivet knows it and goes pale. A DC 12 Intelligence (Investigation) check of the ledge finds a dropped crate lined with warm moss, sealed in wax with the mark of the Varlas Breeder’s Archive. A DC 13 Intelligence (Nature) check knows it is built to carry eggs. Garn Sivet then tells what he knows about the egg money.

3. Behind the fresh mounds. The Churn-Pits, the lowest chamber. Rett Vinlow is in a crack 15 feet up the far wall, with 6 of his 25 hit points. Reaching him means crossing 60 feet of fresh mounds where Gutgrinders guard their eggs. Crossing takes a DC 14 Dexterity (Stealth) group check, and Rett Vinlow has Disadvantage on the way back. Lowering him takes a DC 13 Strength (Athletics) check. Garn Sivet's rules say leave. A DC 13 Charisma (Persuasion) check gets him to help, and so does going without him. Encounter math. If the crew is found, 4 Gutgrinder rise from the mounds. One level 3 character (Moderate 225) and Garn Sivet at level 5 (Moderate 750) give a budget of 975. 4 Gutgrinder are 800 XP, Moderate. Four foes against two is fine. Each one deals about 13 a turn. Rett Vinlow does not fight. If Garn Sivet stays back with Rett Vinlow, only 1 Gutgrinder chases the player character and the rest stay on the eggs. Gutgrinders near their eggs do not break.

4. The eggs. The lowest chamber. Lifting an egg cluster from a fresh mound takes a DC 13 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check. Success or failure, the Gutgrinders know within a minute. Every Gutgrinder in the pits screeches and gathers. This is not a fight. It is a run for the vent, and each round anyone not at the rope makes a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or is caught and takes 2d10 slashing damage.

5. The climb. The air vent. The rope is 40 feet of waxed line. Climbing takes a DC 12 Strength (Athletics) check, or DC 15 while carrying a full sack or Rett Vinlow. Garn Sivet can haul from the top. A failure costs a round.

6. The pay. Delvers' Post, 1379-04-12, 06:00. Sharna Licksilt pays 10 gp a sack, up to 3 sacks each. Seeing Rett Vinlow alive shakes her for a moment. Asked straight out who the buyer is, she will not lie, but she answers only after a DC 14 Charisma (Persuasion) or Charisma (Intimidation) check, or if shown the Barley crate. A Cudgel member then reports to Captain Orin Vellak at Emberhook Hall. He thanks them and takes the matter to Jezabel Varlas himself. What to say about Garn Sivet is the player's choice.

If the Players Do Nothing

• 1379-04-12, 03:00. The crew climbs out with its sacks. The taps stop.

• 1379-04-14. Rett Vinlow dies of thirst.

• 1379-04-16. Sharna Licksilt sends a new crew in through The Tenrow Crawl for eggs. They break a fresh mound.

• 1379-04-17. The Gutgrinders swarm and chew through part of the Cudgel wall. Emberhook Hall locks down the middle tunnel routes, and Delvers' Post closes for two weeks.

• 1379-04-30. Two egg clusters reach the Varlas Breeder’s Archive.

Endings

• Good. Everyone is out with chitin, Rett Vinlow comes home, no eggs leave the pits and the buyer is named.

• Mixed. Rett Vinlow is saved but the buyer stays hidden, or the buyer is named but Rett Vinlow is lost, or an egg is taken.

• Bad. Someone dies in the pits, or the Gutgrinders break loose.

Rewards

• Sharna Licksilt pays 10 gp a sack, up to 30 gp each.

• Captain Orin Vellak pays each Cudgel member 25 gp from the Hall for the buyer's name.

• The dead crew's dropped gear holds a Climber's Kit and a Potion of Healing.

• Garn Sivet gives a pot of Tunnel Wax and will guide the player character again at no fee.

• Rett Vinlow becomes a loyal contact. Jorrim Dunn at The Splintergrove Ring trains anyone who brought him home and asks nothing for it.

• Captain Orin Vellak offers a place on a Cudgel rescue team to anyone who carried Rett Vinlow out.

• Heroic Inspiration for bringing Rett Vinlow up the vent alive.

After the Adventure

• The breeder. Oth Venmair still wants eggs. He sends a polite note offering double, and he signs it.

• The old clearing. The gear of the Cudgel crew that failed to clear the pits five years ago is still in the lowest chamber, and its families want it back.

• The stamps. Garn Sivet sells his own chitin at The Slough to a man who stamps it as Ashcoat work. The Ashcoats offer a reward the same week to anyone who catches him.