Slaad Hospital
Slaad base. Lean into horror science station trope. Chaos in the first room, dead scientists wearing Fresenius Research lab coats. Find journal entries from junior scientist with increasing concern. Advance through rooms, find scattered Slaads and more dead bodies. Should be clear that Head Researcher slowly lost his mind and let them in. They find the head researcher in last room with junior from journal entries strapped to table, about to inject with final formula — Mind Flayer venom — like Slaad venom, it will turn victim into a Mind Flayer. Head Researcher is secretly a mind flayer.
Introduction
TODO
Welcome to In Dire Need, a D&D Adventurers LeagueTM adventure, part of the official D&D Adventurers LeagueTM organized play system and the Storm King’s ThunderTM storyline season.
This adventure is designed for three to seven 5th-10th level characters, and is optimized for five 7th-level characters. Characters outside this level range can’t participate in this adventure. A player with an ineligible character can create a new 1st- level character or use a pregenerated character.
The adventure is set in the Hartsvale region of the Forgotten Realms, predominantly in the Ice Spire Mountains.
Adjusting the Adventure
Throughout this adventure, sidebars provide information to assist you in making adjustments for smaller or larger groups and characters of higher or lower levels than the adventure is optimized for. This is typically used exclusively for combat encounters. These adjustments aren’t required, nor are you bound to the suggestions made by the adventure—they are recommendations provided for guidance and convenience.
This adventure is optimized for a party of five 8th level characters. To figure out whether you need to adjust the adventure, do the following:
- Add up the total levels of all the characters.
- Divide the total by the number of characters.
- Round fractions of .5 or greater up; round fractions of less than .5 down.
You’ve now determined the average party level (APL) for the adventure. To figure out the party strength for the adventure, consult the following table.
Determining Party Strength
| 3-4 characters | 5 characters | 6-7 characters | |
|---|---|---|---|
| APL < 8 | Very Weak | Weak | Average |
| APL = 8 | Weak | Average | Strong |
| APL > 8 | Average | Strong | Very Strong |
Average party strength indicates no recommended adjustments to the adventure. Each sidebar may or may not offer suggestions for certain party strengths. If a particular recommendation isn’t offered for your grou
Adventure Background
TODO
Adventure Overview
This adventure is divided into X parts.
Part 1. TODO
Adventure Hooks
TODO
Hook. TODO
Designer Notes Sidebar
TODO
Courtyard
Dead Githzerai guards and Slaad
Unlike other observation stations, this base has a protective ring wall with heavy gates, that now stand unlocked and open. In the courtyard are the bodies of 8 dead Githzerai guards and about 20 dead Red & Blue Slaad. The fighting ended quite awhile ago, and there are only a couple bored-looking Red Slaad wandering around, poking at the bodies.
The heavy blast doors to the facility itself are still closed and locked. Near the door is a keycard reader with a green circle.
Also in this area are a few outbuildings, including a large barracks with around 50 bunks, and a cafeteria with a fully stocked waffle bar that has been miraculously spared in the fighting.
Investigation of the cafeteria reveals the bodies of several human scientists, all killed by Slaad. Each of the scientists are carrying a green keycard.
In the middle of the courtyard is a folded up paper airplane containing the intern’s journal entry. On the back of the torn-out page, in frantic scribbles, is written “HELP US! TRAPPED ON LEVEL FOUR.”
Facility Level 1: Code Green
Above the board slaad research
The first floor of this facility is an open-plan laboratory. The only exits are the main doors you just came through and another door on the opposite wall with another keycard reader, this one with a yellow circle.
This area is entirely devoted to scientific research on Slaads. There are diagrams of Slaad anatomy tacked to the walls, whiteboards covered with theories about how to interrupt the Slaad reproductive cycle, and all sorts of scientific equipment from microscopes to bunsen burners and sample jars. Along one wall are a series of cages, all large enough to hold a Slaad, all open and empty.
Scattered around the facility are the bodies of the scientists, in various states of dismemberment. Also here, easily surprised, are three Red Slaad and two Blue Slaad. They will fight until three Slaad have died, then the survivors will attempt to flee out the main door.
Investigation reveals one scientist is still alive. He is unconscious, but can be roused. However, he can only answer a couple questions before a chestburster scene happens and a Slaad Tadpole bursts from his chest, killing him. He is the floor supervisor, and in his pocket is a yellow keycard.
One of the tables has a folder with the intern’s name on it. Inside is a torn-out sheet from the intern’s journal.
Facility Level 2: Code Yellow
Unethical research on unwilling human subjects that could be slaad
After ascending the stairs, you emerge onto the second floor of the facility. It is similar to the first floor, but it is clear the research on this level is being conducted on human test subjects. On the back wall is a door with an orange keycard rader. The floor is divided into two areas, one clearly focused on the effects of a Slaad egg on the human system, showing how the egg gestates and eventually hatches. The other half of the floor is looking into the Chaos Phage illness, charting its progression and the host’s inevitable conversion to a Slaad. There are notes on the conditions that lead to different color Slaad and what conditions might inhibit (or encourage) the progression.
Downstairs the cages had clearly been used to hold Slaad. But up here, each cage contains a gurney, with heavy-duty looking straps. Nearly every bed holds the body of a human wearing an orange prison jumpsuit. They’re all dead, with the tell-tale burst rib cages that mark the emergence of a Slaad Tadpole. On some of the gurneys, the straps have been broken, as if the prison became inhumanely strong.
As downstairs, there are the bodies of mauled scientists. Unlike downstairs, the bodies have been gathered in the back corner, near a makeshift nest containing six Slaad Tadpoles. The bodies are being fed to the tadpoles by adult Slaad.
Unlike downstairs, however, the Slaad on this floor appear younger, leaner, and are wearing the tattered remains of human clothes. Guarding the nest are two Red Slaad, wearing prison jumpsuits, and a Blue Slaad, wearing a lab coat. They will fight to the death to defend the nest. In the Blue Slaad’s lab coat there is an orange keycard.
Treasure: The research here can be collected and delivered to the Limbo Drakeguard medical team to advance their research. On one of the tables is another torn-out sheet of the journal.
Facility Level 3: Code Orange
Research on other scientists who objected, clear signs of mindflayers
The third floor of the facility is more dimly lit, mostly from table lamps at various work stations around the room. The keypad on the opposite door has a red circle. The science here is harder to interpret.
As below, the room is full of the bodies of dead scientists. However, on the lower floors, they had been torn apart, or chest-bursted by Slaad Tadpoles. The bodies on this floor show broken bones and clear evidence of blunt force trauma, as if they were toys thrown across the room by a child having a temper tantrum.
Kneeling over some of the bodies, having broken open their skulls and devouring their brains, are three former scientists wearing blood-splattered lab coats. These Slaad seem… wrong. They all share the same sickly purple hue to their skin. They have odd growths and protuberances that remind you of ocean creatures. Their pupils have elongated into horizontal bars that all now stare at you. It is clear their minds have been broken by their transformation, and snarling, they all now hurl themselves towards you.
The notes and charts you see seem to document the progression of a disease similar to Chaos Phage …perhaps derived from it? There is no discussion here of curing or delaying the effects of the disease, only notes on how it affects the subjects and their resulting transformation.
In the pocket of one of the bodies that’s had it’s brain eaten, you find a red keycard.
Below a table lamp in the corner of the room, you find another torn-out journal page.
Facility Level 4: Code Red
Full-on human to mindflayer experiments directly supervised by head researcher
This floor is smaller, about half the size of the lower floors. It is even more dimly lit than the third floor. On the far wall is a set of double doors, cracked out, a shaft of red light spilling out.
There are several cages against one wall, and only a single workstation. In one of the cages, with a barred window looking down on the courtyard, you find the intern’s journal, with one last entry.
The desk belongs to the head researcher. The notes are written in Undercommon. If anyone can read them or translate, they describe the culmination of a project to reverse engineer Chaos Phage to produce a disease that will forcibly convert a host into an Illithid. There are a series of ticks next to various completed tasks, with one remaining unchecked: Test on Githyanki subject.
Operating theater
Head researcher is unveiled as mind flayer testing his mind flayer venom on a gith subject before he peaces out
Beyond the double doors you find an operating room. The lights glow a sickly red, and reveal a Githyanki youth strapped down to a table, looking terrified. Standing over him, injecting a fluid into an IV bag already connected to the kid’s arm, is a kindly-looking human scientist. There is a strong air of illusion magic around him.
He doesn’t move, but keeps his hand on the knob that will start the drip. He will try to smooth talk them, get them talking. The whole time, he’s using telekinesis to move needles full of the poison to inject into the players. If anyone succeeds on a DC 30 Wisdom (Perception) check, they’ll notice the needles. Otherwise, have the group make a Dexterity saving throw to avoid being infected with Illithid Phage.
While infected, the target can’t regain hit points, and its hit point maximum is reduced by 10 (3d6) every round. If the disease reduces the target’s hit point maximum to 0, the target passes out and must make death saving throws to avoid being transformed into a mind flayer.
If the players move to attack, the mind flayer will open the knob and flee out the back door (opens to a balcony) telling the players that they can either stop him or save the boy.