TWA6

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 THE RELIC
CREDITS: Cartography: Derek Ruiz

Designer: Jon Hild “Maztica Alive!” Logo: Cliff Wolter

Cover Art: Wagnerf http://yardarkwood.deviantart.com/gallery/

https://wagnerf.deviantart.com/

Watermark: Zeezee Canning

http://zeezeeazc123.deviantart.com/gallery/

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MAZTICA ALIVE! BACKGROUND
The Maztica Alive Community continues to Of all the nations and peoples of the True
produce supplements and adventures for the World, the Green Folk still remain the most
“True World” continents of Maztica, Lopango, distrustful and outwardly hostile towards
Anchorome and Katashaka. outsiders, particularly the light skinned folk of
Well over a dozen books by a number of mainland Faerun. Most are content to remain
authors create a consistent story collectively hidden in the southern jungles as long as they
known as the Maztica Alive Campaign. All are left alone, but others would actively seek to
Maztica Alive products can be found in the bring harm to the outside would.
DMsGuild at: A century ago, one of the tribes ignored
cultural taboos and entered ruins once forbidden.
In those ruins they found a way to defeat the
http://www.dmsguild.com/product/171534/TWC
light-skinned invaders and return to their lives.
1-The-Maztica-Campaign-Guide
This new weapon was a ritual of unknown
origin, coupled with a mushroom-like spore that
INTRODUCTION grows only in the forbidden ruins. With the
ritual and red spores, they have learned to
transform a man or woman into the dreaded
TWA6 The Relic is a short, site based adventure kothoggo.
that gained its inspiration from the 1997 movie The kothoggo is a creature whose lifespan is
also known as The Relic. It is a supernatural remarkably short – but in that short time it can
horror film directed by Peter Hyams and it stars decimate entire villages.
Penelope Ann Miller, Tom Sizemore and Linda When a human consumes the spores from the
Hunt. The movie itself is based on the novel of ruins and the ritual is performed he or she slowly
the same name by Douglas Preston and Lincoln begins to change and in five days becomes the
Child. kothoggo. The creature loses almost all
The adventure utilizes the creature featured in semblance of its humanity but does not need to
the movie (known there as a kothoga but here kill as long as it is fed with the rare mushroom
altered to kothoggo) and tries to recreate events that spawned it. When the tribe stopped feeding
and the sense of horror that occurred in the the creature it sought out the closest source of
movie. The setup is different however, and the the compounds found in the mushroom – which
ordeal that the players will have to go through is can only be found elsewhere in part of the
only designed to last for one session of human brain.
adventuring. Knowing this, the Green Folk tribe eradicated a
The adventure is ideally designed for four settlement of Cordell’s men who set themselves
players who should be around 5th level. The up to plunder the region of its resources. Now,
main battle is a CR7 encounter. over a century later, the settlement has remained
The creature in this adventure is exclusively as ruins, but the Green Folk returned to occupy
Maztican and can be found in TWC7 True the surrounding area. Unfortunately, an exile,
World Bestiary III, but is provided for easy shunned because of his experimentation with
reference. dark forces has performed the ritual on an
The adventure could also be used as a sequel to unwitting simpleton, and the kothoggo has come
the 2016 adventure TWA1 The Ruins, also again.
based on a horror movie and set in the same This is the scenario that the PCs stumble upon
region of Maztica. when they find the Green Folk village, its
multitude of headless corpses, and notice an
entrance in the nearby rock face.

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The village itself is small and poor. It perhaps into the complex and has not since returned.
could have been occupied by a half dozen Inside the PCs will find what was once a small
families of hunters and gatherers. The most barracks for guards that would have defended
notable feature is the sheer rock wall behind the the complex for Cordell’s missionaries from
village. A door leading into the wall lies to the rebelling natives. A few rusted weapons can be
side, crushed by some tremendous pressure. found that have not held up well in the humid
jungle climate. One longsword gleams brightly
Room 1. Fifteen headless bodies are strewn amidst the rot, however. That is because it is a
about the main entrance. Despite the heat +2 longsword, a true rarity in these lands.
outside the room feels uncomfortably cold. This
is because one of the dead has become an Room 3. This door is unlocked but warded with
undead wraith and inhabits the room, desperate a magical trap that blasts cold in a 10 foot cone
to snuff out whatever life it can find. In life, he and does 11 (2d10) cold damage to any that
was a cruel torturer who made pacts with dark open the door. Along with the blast of cold, an
forces that have no place in the True World, and audible “whoosh” can be heard as the room’s
his current condition is the end result of those vacuum seal is broken. A DC 15 Intelligence
pacts. The wraith rises from among the bodies, (Investigation) check discovers the trap and a
dark and wispy. Similar to the corpses, the DC 15 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check can
wraith is missing its head. remove it (a failure sets it off and opens the
door.
Room 2. The door to this room is locked but Inside, there appears to be a small library. Its
easily forced open with a DC 12 Strength old books and scrolls have held up remarkably
(Athletics) check as the lock is badly rusted. well due to the room’s vacuum seal. The books
The kothoggo ignored the door to move further tell the history of Amn, up to and including

6a 6b 6c

5 3
1

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Cordell’s subjugation of Nexal and the True the kothoggo is caught unaware, the PCs catch it
World. In addition, there is a manual of stone with its long prehensile tongue deep in the eye
golems. The resident wizard was going to use it socket of a severed head.
to construct a powerful guardian before the There is a gold offering plate (75 gp) in front of
Amnians were all slain by the first kothoggo. the headless statue that has a variety of small
gemstones (one small ruby, two topazes, an
Room 4. A 15 ft. ladder leads to a hallway emerald and three sapphires each worth 50 gp).
whose walls are gouged by the kothoggo’s If the PCs replace the head on the statue, it
claws. The marks are on both the walls and the magically fuses to its original position and the
ceiling - it doesn’t seem that the creature stayed PCs each gain inspiration. If they simply take
on the ground at any point. the loot and don’t replace the statue head, Helm
About 30 feet into the hallway, there is a large curses them to suffer disadvantage on their next
spiked pit trap. If a PC walks across it and fails a saving throw or skill check.
Dexterity saving throw, the floor drops out
beneath them resulting in 5 (1d10) bludgeoning
damage from the fall in addition to 13 (3d8)
FURTHER ADVENTURES
piercing damage from the spiked floor. The
spikes used to be poisoned as well, but the The Relic could easily be expanded. The Green
poison has since worn off. Folk exile could still be at large inhabiting the
ruins where the spores were first found. Also,
Room 5. The door to this room is locked and the village did not consist of only the 15
rusted, but it is not as fragile as the one found (headless) humans found at the entrance. Where
leading into Room 2. A Strength (Athletics) are the survivors?
check of 20 can break it, but it is better picked
with a DC 14 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check.
This room was once the abode of a high priest
of Helm. Candles and holy symbols of Helm
still remain in the room from over a century ago.
One of the candles is a lawful neutral candle of
invocation in a golden holder worth 50 gp. There
is also a loose stone (DC 15 Wisdom
(Perception) to notice, where the past resident
hid 25 gold quills (125 gp) he stole from the
natives.

Room 6. These are the bedrooms of other

former residents of the structure. Not much
remains as they fled and took their belongings
when the first kothoggo attacked a century ago,
but it is obvious that 6a and 6b were the
residences of wizards and 6c was of some type
of warrior. The walls are covered in once
beautiful tapestries that are now moldy and
worm eaten. Some sort of leak in the ceiling has
put 6a in the worst condition, and 5 violet
fungus have sprung up from the rot.

Room 7. This is where the kothoggo has chosen

to lair. A statue of helm stands at the northern
end of the hallway and has had its head
removed, likely by the bite of the kothoggo. If