Hidden Agenda
by Jay Carlisle
Came across a good idea recently while going through the Encyclopedia Magica. A high level magic user sends the party off to get him some potion supplies, and is paying a fortune for it. Some of the supplies are kind of strange, like a quart of blood from a unicorn killed with wyvern poison. The adventure requires the players to fulfill several tasks in order (gotta get the wyvern before you can catch the unicorn and kill it with the wyvern's stinger).
The magic user is actually trying to make a potion of lichdom. It's his third try: the first one made him deaf and the second one made all his hair fall out. (Note: he talks real loud and complains that nobody enunciates anymore, everybody mumbles.)
Should the characters finish this first part of the adventure he will be successful with this third potion, and lose a level of experience. To regain it he will employ the party to accompany him on a quest to regain the lost level. He has already completed his periapt, and it is safe at home (it's a diamond ring sized to fit an ogre -- all diamond, that is; it's carved out of a single stone, no metal).
The MU actually doesn't expect to survive the trip and has on him a "will" granting the bearer of the note his entire fortune, complete with a map through his lair and a big X on the treasure room. The only thing is, most of the traps in his lair aren't on the map, and his "treasure" is mostly his collection of cursed weapons and magic items. He is attempting this scam on the party to get a big half-ogre type character near to his periapt before all the traps kill the character (he wants to be the first "ogre-lich").
(Originally appeared in Re:Quests!, issue #40, April 1996, p. 23; Mary H Kelly, editor.)
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