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Smuggler’s Friends under Zobeck

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Smuggler’s Friends under Zobeck

It’s Midgard Monday! Each week, we visit a corner of the wide world of Midgard. Look for standalone content you can drop into your campaign—whether it’s in Midgard or your own homebrew. Find new inspiration each Midgard Monday!

In the shadowy Cartways beneath the sunny streets of Zobeck, lurk conniving kobolds, secretive smugglers, and their colluding colleagues.

Cloacina (“The Sewer Queen”)

In a shadowy cul-de-sac of an abandoned sluiceway that abuts onto the Cartways, is the camouflaged lair of Cloacina, a sewer druid, a friend and ally to the smugglers of the Cartways.

Cloacina assists smugglers in many ways. She can be bribed to allow them to use pass without trace. She can hide caches of smuggled and illegal goods using her ability to shapeand alter stone and water. She can even guide and guard smugglers making their way through the more dangerous and obscure parts of the Cartways.

The druid is rumored to be insane from her time among the stench and poisons. The payments she demands for her services are unusual, and the difficulty in obtaining the rewards is commensurate with the difficulty of the task she is being asked to do. For example, for casting a simple spell, she might ask for a full chamber pot from a tannery shop. For help smuggling a giant statue of the goddess Rava out of the city without being seen, she might want a bottle of perfume, stolen from the vanity table of a vampire princess of Morgau.

CLOACINA

Medium Humanoid (Elf-Marked Human), Neutral Evil
Armor Class 15 (leather armor)
Hit Points 119 (14d8 + 56)
Speed 30 ft., swim 60 ft. (drowned or watery form)

STRDEXCONINTWISCHA
14 (+2)14 (+2)19 (+4)14 (+2)16 (+3)9 (-1)

Saving Throws Dex +7, Con +9, Wis +8
Skills Animal Handling +8, Arcana +7, Athletics +7, Insight +8, Intimidation +4, Perception +4, Nature +7, Stealth +7, Survival +11
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages Common, Elvish, Kobold
Challenge 16 (15,000 XP)                 Proficiency Bonus: +5

Darkvision. Cloacina has darkvision out to 120 feet.

Fey Ancestry. Cloacina has advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and she can’t be put to sleep by magical means.

Flow of Knowledge. Once per long rest, if touching a body of water, Cloacina can cast commune with nature or scrying as a 5th-level spell, without requiring material components or expending a spell slot.

Poisoned and Drowned. Three times per long rest, Cloacina can wild shape as a bonus action into a gaunt, pallid form, resembling a drowning victim. In this form, she is immune to the paralyzed and poisoned conditions and poison damage. In addition, any melee attack that hits her splashes poison on any creature within 5 feet of her, dealing 5 poison damage. She also emits a powerful stench. Any creature within 10 feet of this form must succeed on a DC 17 Constitution saving throw or become poisoned until the end of its next turn. After that, the creature is immune to the stench for 24 hours.

Watery Form. Once per long rest, Cloacina can wild shape into a polluted watery form, similar to a water elemental, but made of sewage water. In this form she can squeeze through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide. In this form she can make Slam attacks and retains the immunities and abilities of her “drowned” form (see above).

Spellcasting. Cloacina is a 14th level spellcaster. Her spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 17, spell attack bonus +9). Cloacina has the following spells prepared:

Cantrips (at will): druidcraft, poison spray, produce flame, resistance
1st level(4 slots): charm person, create or destroy water, entangle, fog cloud
2nd level (3 slots): barkskin, heat metal, hold person
3rd level (3 slots): meld into stone, plant growth, wind wall
4th level (3 slots): blight, control water, stoneskin
5th level (2 slots): contagion, insect plague
6th level (1 slot): wall of thorns
7th level (1 slot): fire storm

ACTIONS

Multiattack. Cloacina can make two Staff attacks or two Slam attacks, if in her watery form.

Slam (Watery Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) bludgeoning damage. If a creature is successfully struck by two Slam attacks in one round, it must make a successful DC 17 Strength saving throw or become restrained. While restrained, the creature is unable to breathe unless it can breathe underwater. Any creature that begins its turn restrained by Cloacina takes 10 (2d6 + 3) poison damage. At the beginning of a restrained creature’s turn, it can attempt another saving throw to escape. If it succeeds, it is immediately ejected into an unoccupied space within 5 feet of Cloacina’s watery form. If Cloacina ends her Watery Sewage form, the restrained condition also ends immediately.

Staff. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 2) bludgeoning damage.

Gladius Gutterfang (“The Smuggler’s Merchant”)

In a smelly, humid offshoot of the Cartways, an unusual dry goods store does business. It is run by Gladius Gutterfang, a kobold veteran of the underground fighting pits. He is a fanatical follower of Marena, the Blood Goddess. Use the statistics for gnomish knife cultist (see Creature Codex).

Besides fencing ill-gotten goods, Gladius sells the typical supplies you might expect a smuggler to need: rope, footpads, padded chains, and manacles (for transporting prisoners and hostages), hooded lanterns, face- and boot-black, and dark hooded cloaks.

What makes his business infamous however, are his one-of-a-kind “darkway carts.” These small, two-wheeled carts are painted a deep black color. And the leathers and padded wheels are lubricated with a special grease that Gladius makes from rodent fat.

These treatments allow the carts to move goods quietly through the cartways or other darkened areas (such as a forest at night). If all accompanying creatures are suitably unencumbered, while using these carts, they make Dexterity (Stealth) checks with advantage.

Another feature of the carts is that Gladius has bred and trained enormous dire weasels to pull them. They are obedient to the reins of their driver and trained to be silent, even in combat. Use boar statistics to represent these unique draft animals. Anywhere from 2–8 draft weasels can be bridled to a cart.

Gladius usually charges 10–50 gp per night per cart, depending on how many draft weasels the renters want per cart, and how desperate the greedy kobold thinks the customers might be. Each additional pair of draft animals beyond the first increases the speed of the cart by 10 feet per round, but the carts lose their stealth quality if driven at top speed.


Get into Midgard with the Midgard Worldbook! This acclaimed campaign setting is rich and deep, with a decade of support from Kobold Press. A more focused start is the Zobeck Clockwork City Collector’s Edition! This detailed sourcebook includes a set of adventures all within the Clockwork City itself!


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