D&D: The Fall of Cahokiantep

As promised, here is “The Fall of Cahokiantep.”  For those keeping score, this is my fifth short role-playing adventure, though it’s the first one that’s not set in some kind of fantasy version of Bar Harbor, Maine.  Instead, Cahokiantep is modeled on Savannah, Georgia, where I was stationed as a young lieutenant in the 3rd Infantry Division.

The purpose of this adventure is twofold.  It introduces Cahokiantep as a potential location for future content—either Sketch in My Notebook-style stories or else future RPG content—and it provides a bridge from a traditional swords-and-horses style campaign to a plane-hopping campaign that incorporate elements inspired by science fiction.  I wrote this piece specifically because the stuff I’ve done on Spelljammer lately has been super-popular, but it doesn’t seem like Wizards is doing much with the setting these days.  I’m hoping that leaves a little room in the market for Cahokiantep, but we’ll see how that goes.  If this adventure is well received, I have a sequel in mind, tentatively titled “Cahokiantep: Journey to the End of the Universe”.

Amine Discovered with the Goule.
If you read last week's post, you already
know that this piece contains some ghouls.

I’ve written this adventure in the style of Dungeons and Dragons’ 5th Edition because that’s what I play.  However, I doubt you’ll have much trouble adapting it to other systems, especially since there is exactly one monster stat block given in the entire write up.  It may take a little creativity to adapt the skill DCs to Pathfinder (or Fate or whatever), but I’m quite sure that it’s possible.  You just need a bit of patience.  If anybody out there does that, let me know how it goes, okay?

Overview

The Empire of Aquarius is having a holiday.  The great Planetary Alignment has come at last, and in response, the Emperor declared a feast day.  In the capital city of Cahokiantep, people are out in the streets laughing and drinking.  It’s a glorious time.  

Then the Event happens.  A rift opens in the fabric of reality, setting the sky on fire and unleashing a horde of monsters from beyond the stars.  Madness grips the city.

Though the party is safely underground at the time of the Event, they must fight their way free and emerge into the dying city.  They learn eventually of the Ars Arcanum and of the Cosmo Reconduction Device, Cahokiantep’s last, best hope to set things right.  To get to the device, however, the heroes will have to fight their way through streets filled with rift-maddened citizens, bizarre monsters from beyond reality, and piratical lizardmen descending from a flying pirate ship.  

The city of Cahokiantep will never be the same!

The Fall of Cahokiantep (PDF via Google Drive)

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Acknowledgements:

I got the basic idea for Salazaar Il Park's superpowers from a blog post by The Angry DM titled, "The Volcano Dragon: Some July Fourth Fireworks!"  In general, I think Angry's paragon monsters concept is really, really cool.

Samuel Wilton gave me quite a bit of constructive feedback on an early draft of this adventure.  Among other things, he helped me refine that basic idea for Park into an actual working solo monster and talked a bit about how his high-level group has tackled similar problems.  His comments were supremely helpful.

Charles Akins read this thing and said that he liked it.  If there's anything wrong with this draft, I'm pretty sure you can blame him.  Feel free to tell him that I said so.

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Support this Blog

I write these adventures because I like gaming but also as a way to attract interest in this blog and in my writing in general.  My book, Sneakatara Boatman & the Priest of Loki, is out for the Kindle App and on Patreon.  The follow-up, Sneakatara Boatman & the Crown of Pluto, is out as of November 29, 2015.  Both are D&D-style fantasy adventures; they use the same WTF-style plotting that I use in my RPG content.  If you liked any of my RPG stuff, you will probably like my fiction, too.

I’m not asking you to buy anything right now.  However, if you’re looking for something to read on the beach this summer, and you have a tablet, please at least consider checking out some of the Sneax stories.  There are several free ones up on my Patreon page.  If you like those, and you want to support this blog, then buy my book(s).  That is by far the best way to support my writing.

Thanks in advance.

Additional Adventure Articles

 -- The Mystery of Malven Manor (blog post & PDF)
 -- The Fall of Cahokiantep (blog post & PDF)
 -- Race to the Temple of Storms (adventure PDF & AAR blog post)
 -- The Disappearance of Jaxon Carrows (adventure PDF & AAR blog post)
 -- Journey through Crocodile Crossroads (blog post)
 -- Story Starter: The Demon’s True Name (blog post & PDF)
 -- The Mystery of Mordecai’s Monster (En5ider article, $2)
 -- Expanding Mordecai’s Monster (blog post)
 -- Zeke's Mine (blog post & PDF)
 -- Christmas with the Orcs: The Red Man Comes! (blog post & PDF)