[osr Challenge] The Underwater Boat

 

The Underwater Boat: A Get Ready, Get Set, Go! Labyrinth Lord adventure set in the Ashford Valley.

Get Ready:
The second return of Nikola the inventor, with his new invention - the underwater boat.

Get Set:
The PCs find themselves near Clifton and run into their old friend Nikola the inventor (see issues #34 and #37 of my Switching to Guns 'zine). The PCs could have sought out Nikola for a new invention or to repair something that the PCs have found.

Nikola is currently working on a boat that will go under water (without drowning the crew). When the PCs show up, he's got his crew to test it out!

Go!:
Nikola has an underwater boat and he wants to test it in the pools below the Ashfalls. The boat actually works but he's careful so he gives each PC a potion of water breathing in case a problem occurs.

The problem shows up in the form of a giant octopus that lives in the largest pool (the one he wants to test in). The octopus won't attack until the boat is underwater and then he encircle the boat in his tentacles and attempt to crush it (the boat has AC 7 and only 15 hit points before it starts filling with water and 10 more hit points before the PCs are trapped in the wreckage).

The boat has two exit hatches, which allow one PC out per round. If the boat collapses, it will take an additional 2 rounds for PCs to free themselves while taking 1d4 damage from the crush (A cruel GM may require three ability checks vs. Dexterity to escape, with the total number of successes subtracted from 4 rounds to determine how fast the PC makes it to safety - 1 round for a complete success and 4 for complete failure, with each round taking more damage!)

The giant octopus will retreat to it's underwater lair (a series of caverns underneath the Ashfalls) if it is reduced to half or less of it's total hit points. How the octopus actually came to be here, in this pool, is a possible further adventure for the PCs. Perhaps it escaped a laboratory hidden deep under the Ashford Valley that fed into the pool.

Notable NPCs:
Giant Octopus; No. Encountered: 1; Alignment: Neutral; Armor Class: 7; Hit Dice: 8d8, Hit Points: 48; Attacks: Tentacles x 8 (1d3 per tentacle) or Bite (1d6); Save: F4; morale: 7; Special abilities: tentacle crush (2d8 additional damage if at least 4 tentacles successfully hit the same target in the same round).

Nikola the inventor (Normal Man); No. Encountered: 1; Alignment: Lawful; Armor Class: 9 (robes); Hit Dice: 1d8, Hit Points: 4; Attacks: dagger (1d4); Save: NM0; morale: 6; Special abilities: mechanical genius; ring of water breathing and enough potions of water breathing for each of the PCs.