Lights, Camera, Action!

Volcanic Gas

Lights: The party have been sent to a town (or hired by the local villagers) to investigate a mysterious monster which is killing livestock, wild animals, and — more recently — people. It leaves no marks on its victims and leaves their bodies untouched out in the wood.

Camera: The village has many farms and they surround a large area of woodland. During the last couple of weeks, livestock that had wandered away from the grazing fields into the woodlands have been found dead, with not a mark on them. The villagers have also found dead foxes and rabbits in the area. Two farmers whose cattle had been killed decided to keep an overnight vigil in the area — but they didn't return the next day, and their bodies were found in the same condition as the animals. They looked as if they had been strangled, but there were no marks on their necks. The party can also find out there was a large earth tremor and appalling roar about a month ago; the people are blaming a supernatural creature (probably a dragon) for it and they think it is to blame for the deaths. The villagers are too afraid to go near the woodland and they want the party to kill the monster for them.

Action: The earth tremor and roar was not a monster at all, but rather a small fissure in the earth that has opened up. The fissure is less than a foot wide and looks like a deep crack in a rocky outcrop in the woodland area. It is, however, very deep and every couple of days, usually early in the morning, it spews forth a small cloud of poisonous invisible gas that chokes anything in the immediate vicinity. People or animals caught in the cloud will become sleepy and short of breath and after a couple of minutes eventually fall unconscious and die. Animals don't realize what is happening and the two men were caught by it when they were asleep. It is a heavy gas and stays close to the ground; people can escape it by getting out of its area of effect (for example by holding their breath and running out of the gas cloud, or by going above it by climbing a tree). The gas dissipates about an hour after its release, leaving dead animals and a puzzling problem. The answer is to avoid the area around the fissure or to seal it up.

by Tonia Walden

Back to Lights, Camera, Action selections