TEXT: Dungeon Crawl Classics #4.5
  My Friend the Formian
  By Joseph Goodman • Illustration by Mark Parsons • Cartography by Jeremy Simmons
  Remember the good old days, when adventures were
  underground, NPCs were there to be killed, and the
  finale of every dungeon was the dragon on the 20th
  level? Those days are back. Dungeon Crawl Classics
  adventures don't waste your time with long-winded
  speeches, weird campaign settings, or NPCs who
  aren't meant to be killed. Each adventure is 100%
  good, solid dungeon crawl, with the monsters you
  know, the traps you remember, and the secret doors
  you know are there somewhere.
  My Friend the Formian is a short adventure designed
  for 4 characters of 5th level. The party should include
  at least two strong fighter types. I wrote this as an
  interlude on a night when our regular 5th player
  couldn't make it to the game. The whole adventure
  can be played in a little over an hour. It's really a one-
  trick pony with an interesting gimmick that adds a
  twist to interaction with formians. That said, it's a fun
  one-trick pony that changes the way the characters
  approach the situation (and forces them to fight out of
  a dungeon rather than in, for a change).
  Adventure Summary
  The characters have been employed to shut down a
  formian hive that has recently put a stop to the local
  town's mining operations. Among other things, the
  formians have kidnapped several townspeople and
  are forcing them to work. An old, crippled mage in
  the town has managed to capture one of the formian
  workers via charm monster, and has uncovered
  an interesting side effect of their physiology: if he
  communicates with the creature via R.'s telepathic
  bond, he can tap into the hive mind messages that
  constantly run through the formian's thoughts. (As
  one of my players put it, "It's like listening to ant
  radio!")
  Thanks to the mage's discovery, the town has learned
  an unsettling fact: the formians have opened a direct
  portal to their home plane in their rapidly-growing
  hive, and plan to bring many more formians through.
  A direct assault on the hive would be doomed to
  failure, since they have literally endless waves of
  reinforcements waiting on the other side of the
  portal. But the mage has a plan. The characters are
  to travel with the charmed formian back to the hive.
  The mage will make sure his friend the formian knows
  the characters are also friends. As long as possible,
  the group is to maintain a ruse of being new slaves
  captured by the worker. They are to find the portal,
  close it (hopefully before attracting reinforcements),
  and then clear out the hive and rescue the slaves.
  To facilitate communication, the mage gives the
  characters a pair of magic tiaras which, when worn,
  link the wearers via R.'s telepathic bond. One such
  tiara is to be worn by the formian, and the other by a
  character.
  Getting the Players Involved
  This adventure can be set in any town with a mining
  operation, or any other sort of digging: city expansion,
  archaeological excavations, or early construction on
  the king's new castle.
  The easiest way to hook the characters is the old
  classic: payment. In my campaign, the old mage
  offered them each a few low-level potions, and
  told them he'd craft a more powerful magic item
  to their specifications as long as they supplied any
  rare material needs. Payment via gold or gems is of
  course an acceptable substitute. He needs the magic
  tiara back, by the way.
  Another hook are the slaves. Good characters should
  be motivated to free them. Make one slave the
  mage's nubile young daughter and every red-blooded
  adventurer ought to motivated to free her.
  Background Story
  Really, do you need it? It's a one hour adventure that's
  meant to be a drop-in dungeon. Make up something
  on the fly and go with it.
  The Formian Hive Mind
  The formian hive mind is a funny thing, it turns out. It
  really is like "ant radio." Anyone opening telepathic
  communication with the formian is overwhelmed
  at first as they hear literally thousands of disparate
  thoughts floating around in there. These are primarily
  other workers "gossiping" in their own way. Each
  worker is mentally connected to his boss (usually a
  soldier) and has a vague connection to his boss's boss
  
  (usually a myrmarch). An extremely faint awareness of
  the queen is buried in there somewhere, but except in
  rare circumstances she never communicates directly
  with the workers.
  After a few minutes, the listening character can
  filter out the hive mind and tap into the thoughts of
  the formian he's directly connected to. The mage's
  formian friend, whose name is something like Qrtzz
  tjk'nk'nkgh'tssssssag (pronounced "Bob"), isn't very
  smart (Int 5, lower than usual). He communicates with
  the characters in simple concepts, not sentences,
  but he can still convey most of the information they'll
  want to know:
  • Where is the portal? Where are the slaves?
  (Answered with mental urges of the right directions
  to go.)
  • What does the hive look like? (He can't answer this
  in a useful manner, having never seen a map, though
  he can get across that it's symmetrical and that he
  can guide them through it.)
  • How many formians are there in hive? (He can
  answer precisely, at least since he was last there.
  If the characters know about the formian social
  structure, he can answer questions about how many
  formians of each rank are there.)
  And so on. Remember that every creature in the hive
  mind is aware of every other creature, though it's often
  by way of the social hierarchy. Soldiers eavesdrop on
  workers all the time, but they rarely sound the alarm
  unless they get an alarm signal from the worker. Thus,
  as long as the characters don't alarm their formian
  friend, or start making him send thoughts to the
  hive mind that are really scary (like asking him, "Do
  you mind if we slaughter your friends?"), the hive
  will basically ignore their conversations. If they stop
  being friends with the formian, however, it could all
  change fast.
  Player Beginning
  Start the adventure by reading or paraphrasing the
  following to your players:
  Unless the characters are really dumb about it, let
  them pass as slaves. Presumably, they've sheathed
  their weapons and acquired some shovels or picks.
  If they really didn't try to look like slaves at all, the
  adventure ought to end right here. Give them some
  hard-to-beat Bluff checks and sic some formians on
  'em!
  The soldiers aren't in charge and don't know what the
  deal is with the slaves, so they start "talking" (via the
  hive mind) with the taskmaster in area 5 about them.
  It will take a few rounds for taskmaster to sort out
  why there are more slaves coming. He certainly didn't
  The Formian Hive
  The map shows the layout of the formian hive. All
  walls are simply hard-packed dirt (hardness 0).
  Anyone can cause a cave-in with enough effort (100
  hp damage to any wall). The hive is symmetrical (it's
  the formian way), except for the unfinished southern
  sections.
  The symbols on the map indicate the locations of
  the hive's residents: workers (W), soldiers (S), the
  taskmaster (T), and the enslaved human commoners
  (C). Most of the map locations don't need specific
  descriptions, so simply go with the location of
  creatures as indicated. The rooms labeled 1-5 have
  special circumstances that are described below. The
  rough edges of the southwest and southeast corners
  of the map are unfinished tunnels.
  This adventure really isn't long enough to have much
  in the way of wandering monsters, but if you want to
  include them, there are always 1d4 worker formians
  out and about. Often they are carting dirt from the
  southern edges of the hive down the long tunnel to
  the dirt pile.
  Area 1 - Formian Guards
  Read or paraphrase the following:
  The tunnel goes for several hundred feet until it
  terminates in a 25-by-25 room of hard-packed
  dirt. Two larger, more menacing formians stand in
  the middle of the room, on guard. You hear them
  speaking with your friend the formian through ant
  radio as he explains who these soft-skins are.
  He says you are captured slaves. They pause
  for a moment, then wave him on. As you walk
  past, you are keenly aware of the sharp stingers
  and powerful claws of the creatures. Over the
  ant radio, you hear the beginning of a dialogue
  between the guards and their boss, as the guards
  inform him that your friend the formian has
  brought more slaves.
  Once again the mantle of the hero has been
  placed on your shoulders. The old mage has led
  you down the winding tunnels to an enormous
  pile of loose dirt. Beside it is a 5 foot wide tunnel
  carved roughly from the raw earth. The mage
  tells you that the formian hive is down this tunnel
  somewhere. He gives you the magic tiara that
  allows you to communicate with your formian
  friend, then bids you adieu.
  
  arrange for them... and it's his domination ability that
  keeps the rest around.
  The players now have 5 rounds before the taskmaster
  decides something is wrong and sends the hive after
  them. They can sense the growing apprehension
  on the ant radio as he concludes that there are
  interlopers. Until then, the characters have a "hall
  pass" to wander the hive, as long as they look like
  slaves, stick with their formian friend, and don't do
  anything alarming. Their friend can lead them right
  toward the portal as needed. However, still make the
  characters painfully aware that they're in the lion's
  den. Perhaps the workers at the second checkpoint
  inspect them carefully to see if they're suitable for
  labor...
  Area 2 - Food Supplies
  This is indeed the food supply. Taking from the food
  supply without permission is a no-no, which the
  characters' formian friend can tell them. The two
  sleeping formians are off duty; this is where they
  come to rest.
  If the characters are being expeditious, they will
  probably bypass this room on their way to area 5.
  Area 3 - Slave Labor
  These are three of the four human slaves (human
  Com1, AC 10, hp 2). The slaves show no sign of it
  if they see the characters, nor any desire for freedom.
  They are dominated. The fourth slave is in area 5.
  The corresponding area in the southwest corner of
  the map is similar - the tunnel to the west is only half-
  complete, and the workers are busy digging away.
  This room is piled high with food supplies, most
  of it quite repulsive to your palette. It looks like it
  has all been chewed up and regurgitated, then
  rolled into compact little balls for storage. There
  must be two tons of reconstituted vegetable
  matter and meat in here, along with four workers.
  Two workers are tending to the food, while two
  others appear to sleep.
  Area 4 - Inner Guardpost
  By the time the characters reach here, the hive will
  probably be on alert anyway. Either way, no one's
  supposed to be coming in here, so they're going to
  get trouble. Read or paraphrase the following:
  The formian friend is caught in a bind. He has two
  sets of friends, human and formian, and doesn't want
  them to fight. He'll argue with the soldier that these
  are his friends and they shouldn't be harmed. That
  alone is enough to set off the hive mind. Now it hits
  the fan!
  As of round 5, or one round after the characters
  enter this room, the hive mind goes into high alert.
  The soldier here charges into combat. The soldier
  in the next guard room joins the fight, as does the
  taskmaster from area 5. Additionally, the rest of the
  hive starts moving toward the characters.
  If the characters have good tactics, they'll be able to
  bottleneck the passages to fight opponents one at a
  You've entered a 10-by-15 north-south room
  with a formian soldier in the opposite corner. He
  immediately begins a hostile interrogation of your
  formian friend over the ant radio.
  This 
  irregularly shaped 20-by-20 room
  looks like it's still being built. The whole
  southeastern corner is only half-carved
  from the dirt walls. Three human slaves
  dig steadily with shovels while two worker
  formians shape and finish the walls that are
  already carved.
  
  The players probably won't think of this, but the hive
  mind knows the portal's command word. It would take
  a Gather Information check (DC 25) or Bluff check
  (DC 30) by the character with the tiara to persuade
  the hive mind to give such important information to
  a lowly worker with no real need to know. But if the
  characters find it, they can simply say the word to
  close the portal. Of course, they still need to destroy
  it, because another formian can re-open it with the
  same command word. But closing it's a good way to
  stop the apparent immediate threat.
  The portal is a physical doorway that can be destroyed
  more easily than a solid door. It is iron: hardness 10,
  hp 30, break DC 26. If subjected to spells or magic,
  it saves at +10 (created by the queen, a 17th level
  caster).
  Once the portal is destroyed, the image flickers a few
  times, then flashes off. The characters are left looking
  through a broken iron doorway into yet another wall
  of dirt. Once they escort the slaves out of the hive,
  they'll collect the reward and be on their way.
  If the taskmaster is dead, no formians will be coming
  through for at least 15 minutes. But don't let the
  players know that; they're facing an endless swarm
  and need to do something fast!
  You've gallantly fought your way through to the
  final chamber of the formian hive. This long 15-
  by-20 room is rough-hewn dirt, like the rest of the
  hive. But in the center of the far wall is a solid iron
  doorframe. Through the doorless frame, you see
  an impossible scene: an endless vista of massive
  mechanical gears slowly turning in place, with
  millions - perhaps even billions - of swarming
  formians as far as the eye can see. This hive
  clearly has a lot of reinforcements. You better
  take down the portal fast!
  Read or paraphrase the following, altering it if there
  are still enemies in the room:
  time. If they do this and then focus on forcing
  their way through to area 5, they should be
  OK. If not, they'll be overrun by formians and
  probably perish.
  But the real problem is getting to the portal in
  area 5. As long as the taskmaster is alive, he will
  send for reinforcements. Since the hive is in high
  alert, the characters will hear his commands
  over ant radio in a much more vocal fashion than
  before. In fact, whoever wears the magic tiara
  will hear him ordering the hive around. With a
  standard action, that character can concentrate
  to determine the location of every formian in the
  hive! As a free action, he can catch pieces of
  conversations and determine the hive's general
  attitude ("charge and kill the intruders!").
  Reinforcements: Reinforcements arrive through
  the portal in area 5. Each round there is a 25%
  chance that another soldier comes through. This
  continues as long as the taskmaster is alive.
  Once the taskmaster is dead, this branch of the
  hive mind is effectively cut off from the rest of
  the hive mind. Mentally, these formians are still
  connected, but the chain of command is broken,
  and that chain matters a lot in formian society.
  The formians now have no commander, so
  they aren't sure what to do. This doesn't affect
  combat (they still fight to the death), but it means
  no more reinforcements for at least 15 minutes
  (until the hive mind can allocate a myrmarch or
  taskmaster to re-establish command), which
  should be more than enough time to destroy the
  portal.
  Area 5 - The Portal
  
  Appendix: Creature Statistics
  Refer to the MM for full stats and details on special
  abilities.
  Formian Worker
  CR 1/2; Small outsider (lawful, extraplanar); HD
  1d8+1; hp 5; Init +2; Spd. 40 ft.; AC 17, touch 13,
  flat-footed 15; Base Atk +1; Grp -2; Atk +3 melee
  (1d4+1, bite); Full Atk +3 melee (1d4+1, bite);
  Space/Reach 5 ft./5 ft.; SQ Cure serious wounds.
  hive mind, immunity to poison, petrification, and
  cold, make whole, resistance to electricity 10, fire
  10, and sonic 10; AL LN; SV Fort +3, Ref +4, Will
  +2; Str 13, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 6, Wis 10, Cha 9.
  Skills and Feats: Climb +10, Craft (any one) +5,
  Hide +6, Listen +4, Search +2, Spot +4; Skill Focus
  (Craft).
  Formian Soldier
  CR 3; Medium outsider (lawful, extraplanar); HD
  4d8+8; hp 26; Init +3; Spd. 40 ft; AC 18, touch
  13, flat-footed 15; Base Atk +4; Grp +7; Atk +7
  melee (2d4+3 plus poison, sting); Full Atk +7 melee
  {2d4+3 plus poison, sting), +5 melee x2 (1d6+1, 2
  claws), and +5 melee (1d4+1, bite); Space/Reach
  5 ft./5 ft.; SA Poison (Injury, Fort DC 14, initial
  and secondary 1d6 Str); SQ Hive mind, immunity
  to poison, petrification, and cold, resistance to
  electricity 10, fire 10, and sonic 10, SR 18; AL LN;
  SV Fort +6, Ref +7, Will +5; Str 17, Dex 16, Con 14,
  Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 11.
  Skills and Feats: Climb +10, Hide +10, Jump
  +14, Listen +8, Move Silently +10, Search +7, Spot
  +8, Survival +1, Tumble +12; Dodge, Multiattack.
  Formian Taskmaster
  CR 7; Medium outsider (lawful, extraplanar); HD
  6d8+12; hp 39; Init +7; Spd. 40 ft.; AC 19, touch
  13, flat-footed 16; Base Atk +6; Grp +10; Atk
  +10 melee (2d4+4 plus poison, sting); Full Atk
  +10 melee (2d4+4 plus poison, sting), +8 melee
  x2 (1d6+2, 2 claws); Space/Reach 5 ft./5 ft.; SA
  Dominate monster, dominated creature, poison
  (Injury, Fort DC 15, initial and secondary 1d6 Str);
  SQ Hive mind, immunity to poison, petrification,
  and cold, resistance to electricity 10, fire 10, and
  sonic 10, SR 21, telepathy 100 ft.; AL LN; SV Fort
  +7, Ref +8, Will +8; Str 18, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 11,
  Wis 16, Cha 19.
  Skills and Feats: Climb +13, Diplomacy +6, Hide
  +12, Intimidate +13, Listen +12, Move Silently +12,
  Search +9, Sense Motive +12, Spot +12, Survival
  +3; Dodge, Improved Initiative, Multiattack.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/Books/3p/Goodman/Goodman - Adv - 04.5 - My Friend the Formian.pdf