Blackrock Brothers Abroad adventure Pt.1
This is a very large document for an adventure that I found. Please feel free to copy only under non-profit copyright as stated. Link for part two: /channel/dungeons-n-drags/Blackrock+brothers+abroad+adventure+pt2/sljbLfy
The Blackrock Brothers Abroad, an AD&D adventure for characters level 3-5
**************************************** ***************************************
This module is designed for use with the AD&D(tm) game from TSR, Inc. and contains references to trademarks and/or copyrighted material owned by that company. The original portions of this works are (c) copyright 1994 by Keven Simmons and is being offered free of charge under the following conditions:
1) You may not sell this material for your own profit
2) If this material is redistributed, either electronically or in printed form, it must include this copyright notice.
3) You may modify details of this material for your own purposes, but only the original can be redistributed.
Correspondence regarding this material can be sent via U.S. Post to:
Keven Simmons, POB 351, Sherburne NY 13460
or via the internet to: simmonsk@norwich.net
**************************************** ***************************************
This material may contain references to non-TSR monsters, spells and magic items. If you would like information on non-standard spells or items used in this module, write or e-mail me at the above addresses. I will be happy to share whatever information I can.
Feel free to make modifications as you deem necessary in order to make the module playable in your campaign. If the GIF-format maps for this adventure were not included, or you are unable to read them, I will provide paper copies free of charge to anyone who sends a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the address above. Please mention the module name (and version number if applicable) when requesting maps.
abbreviations and other notations used:
th or thaco = to hit armor class 0
hd = hit dice
hp = hit points
ac = armor class
d = damage
mr = magic resistance
str = strength
con = constitution
dex = dexterity
int = intelligence
wis = wisdom
chr = charisma
pp = pick pockets
ol = open locks
frt = find / remove traps
hs = hide in shadows
ms = move silently
hn = hear noise
cw = climb walls
rl = read languages
Some spells, magic items or monsters may have a notation following them similar to this: find familiar [P 134]. The information in the brackets is a book and page number reference for locating the item's description. The following are the book abbreviations used in these references:
P = Player's Handbook (2nd edition, first printing)
T = Tome of Magic
D = Dungeon Master's Guide
A = Unearthed Arcana
M = Monster Manual
F = Fiend Folio
S = Monster Manual II (first edition)
C = Creature Catalog Supplements
K = my own compiled reference manuals
If you eventually use this module, I would like to hear how it turned out.
enjoy!
---keven
**************************************** ***************************************
Background
Even though moral turpitude is one of the defining characteristics of hill giant nature, there are still a few rules that all hill giants follow; rules like "The Clan Chief is Always Right", or "Don't Throw Boulders at the Shaman While He's Meditating". These simple codes of conduct allow the members of a hill giant clan to live together, if not in harmony, at least in partially controlled anarchy. In this respect, the Blackrock clan was much the same as any other hill giant tribe, and like other tribes there were some members that were less inclined to follow the rules than others. In the Blackrock clan, the prime troublemakers were the brothers Snagtooth and Bearbreath, named for their distinctive dental features and culinary tastes respectively. Ever since they were old enough to throw rocks, these two had been a plague on the rest of the clan. Even other hill giants considered them to be lazy, bothersome pests. It came as no surprise then when they were caught breaking the tribe's most sacrosanct rule: "Never Steal the Clan Chief's Favorite Club".
The Blackrock tribe is lead by an ugly brute of a chief called Crunchjaw whose most valued possession in the world is his collection of clubs. All of the clubs were carefully crafted by Crunchjaw himself from the strongest trees; hand-picked for their tightly spaced limbs which he sharpened into deadly spikes. It would be safe to say that he valued his clubs more than he did his wives, offspring or even his collection of gold coins. His favorite club he named Big Stick (intelligence is not a requirement for being hill giant chief) and he prized it above all the others. It was with Big Stick that he defeated the former chief of the Blackrock tribe and was thus granted the title he now carries. So when Snag and Bear were caught pilfering it, his response was hardly unexpected. After beating them both within an inch of their lives, he banished them and declared them clanless. (They probably would have been killed outright if they hadn't been his sons).
After being exiled, the giant brothers wandered aimlessly for weeks in search of food and a new place to live. Eventually they left the mountains that had been their home and began to travel through more populated areas. Their first encounter with the inhabitants of this land came when they stumbled across a small elven village. The giants, upon seeing the elven tree houses, began to play a rather destructive game of rock throwing, the object of which was to see who could knock the most elves out of the trees. The giants killed many of the villagers before being driven away by a host of concealed archers. Their next encounter was with a herd of centaur. Snag was always fond of horse meat, which was rare in the mountains, and thought that these beasts would make a fine meal. The brothers killed several and retreated with the bodies while under fire from the remaining centaur. While the meal sated their hunger the giants, being unused to fending for themselves, thought that chasing down their dinner was far too much effort, particularly when dinner had a habit of shooting arrows at you, and so they continued on in search of easier game.
Meanwhile, the elven village had organized a posse to hunt down the giants and exact vengeance for their attack. The group began tracking the giants, a relatively easy task, but found themselves falling behind due to the giants faster rate of travel. They had almost decided to abandon the chase when they happened upon the remains of the centaur herd. After talking to the centaur, the elves discovered they now had allies in their quest and more importantly, allies that could match the pace of their quarry. Unfortunately, there were only a handful of centaur willing and able to pursue the giants so an advance force of 5 centaur ridden by 5 elves continued on while the rest of the elven force (12) followed behind.
The giants, unaware that they were being stalked, continued their wandering until they crested a small rise and saw below them a pastoral valley with farms dotting the land along the a meandering river and sheep pastures on the higher slopes. Even their limited intelligence was sufficient for them to realize that this was the perfect place to make their new home. They first raided a flock of sheep and were delighted when neither the animals, nor the shepherd showed the slightest hint of resistance. The next day they scouted the hillsides until they found a suitable place to make camp and by luck, rather than design, selected a ravine whose entrance was partially concealed from casual view.
Over the next couple of weeks the giants explored their new home, raided several farms for livestock, and built a crude lean-to in the back of the ravine. Their only trouble came when they raided a small cottage and horse barn they found in the forest. What looked like easy pickings turned into a rather nasty battle when the inhabitants turned out to be well armed and proficient fighters. The giants prevailed however and made off with four horses but the experience had dulled their enthusiasm to some extent and they decided to lay low for a few days while their wounds healed.
At the same time that the giants were returning to their camp to hide out, the centaur/elven posse arrived at the valley. They proceeded to search the valley but while signs of the giants' presence were everywhere, they were unable to track them back to their lair because of the abundance of crisscrossing trails left by the brothers during their raids and exploration.
Willowvale's Background
The peaceful valley of Willowvale has had very few problems since it was settled 120 years ago. The first humans to move into the valley were sheep herders who found the hillsides to be perfect land for grazing and the lowland along the river to be easily cleared and farmed. Craftsmen soon followed and the village of Willowville grew to be a small town. The villagers never formed any formal government, and there is no peace-keeping force resident in the valley. Any disputes that cannot be worked out locally are taken before the nearest magistrate, who is located in a town several days journey away.
Over the years the residents have had to deal with wolves, a stray owlbear or displacer beast or the like, and were plagued by a band of kobolds for a period of time, but otherwise have had little disturb their quiet life.
Recently however, the peaceful nature of Willowvale has been shattered by two hill giants who have been raiding farms and flocks and destroying the homes of Willowvale residents. The folk who have made the valley their home were totally unprepared to deal with this calamity, and now spend most of their days watching the horizon with fear, ready to run at the slightest hint of trouble. A few of the braver souls have talked about defending themselves against the giants, but they are just not trained or equipped well enough to put up much resistance and the one person in the vale who could pose a threat to the invaders, the sorceress Sharelle, has refused to get involved. The villagers have sent an agent to the nearest city to see about hiring mercenaries, but the wages demanded are far beyond Willowville's means. The folk of the vale are thus resigned to dealing with the problem themselves but have yet to come up with a plan that any of them feel has a chance of success.
Sharelle's Background
The foxwoman called Sharelle has lived for nearly two centuries, although she has only recently (15 years ago) settled in Willowvale. Before moving into her current home, she had lived for a time among a tribe of elves hoping to find a suitable young girl to "adopt" and raise as a foxwoman. She had identified a prospect but while attempting to abduct the child was discovered and driven off. Only by assuming her nimble fox form was she able to escape with her life.
Since settling in Willowvale, she has not done anything to raise the ire of her human neighbors, although her effect on the male population has caused a considerable amount of grumbling and gossip among the women. Most of them refer to her as "that elven trollop", particularly after a couple of the local hunters began living at her cottage, and she earned the permanent disfavor of the unmarried girls in the area by stealing the vale's most eligible bachelor, a young soldier named Samuel. Despite these social blemishes, Sharelle has become an accepted, if not universally liked member of the community. She rarely visits the town in person, preferring to let one of her house-mates deal with the humans and when she does go into Willowville, she is always accompanied by two of her companions. She does not hide her elven heritage, and has publicly performed some minor feats of magic so the villagers have come to see her as a reclusive elven wizard. While some of the women believe her companions to be ensorceled, they assume it is a result of her wizardry and no one suspects her true, lycanthropic nature.
When the giants started causing trouble in the valley Sharelle, like her neighbors was concerned, but true to her self-centered nature, refused to assist them in defending against the brothers. As long as she was not inconvenienced, she felt no obligation to cooperate in eliminating the common threat. That attitude changed abruptly when the giants appeared on her doorstep, stole her horses and killed all three of her male companions. She escaped into the woods in her fox form, but now harbors a deep desire to see that the giants pay for their affront, preferably with their lives.
NPC Motivations
When running this adventure, it is important to keep in mind what the NPCs ultimately want to achieve. Their motivations are the driving force behind the decisions they make, and how they will respond to the player characters.
Snagtooth & Bearbreath
The giant brothers have very simple goals: they want to live the easy life, taking their meals from the livestock in the area, occasionally smashing a building or two and terrorizing the human population of the valley. They believe they have found the perfect place to live and will fight to protect it, although they would not die for it. If things ever go bad for either one of the brothers (i.e. reduced to less than 20% of their hit points), they will flee and not return and neither one will risk his own life to protect the other (these giants' blood, it seems, is not thicker than water).
Elves & Centaur
The elves and centaur are on a mission of vengeance and will not be deterred from their goal of seeing the giant brothers dead. All of them have lost friends or family to the brothers' attacks and most of them will die to avenge their deaths. Neither the elves nor the centaur are fond of humankind and only in extreme circumstances would they join forces with them. In fact, most humans the band encounters (PCs included) will get a cold, if not hostile reception from the posse.
In addition to their desire to see the giants killed, the elves also have good reason to want Sharelle's hide as well. It was from their village that the foxwoman attempted to kidnap her new foster-child and the elves will shoot her on sight. Unfortunately, they will assume that anyone traveling in her company is her ally, or charmed companion, and will deal with them in the same manner. The centaur know nothing of Sharelle and will be confused by their comrades' actions towards her. If the elves are attacked however, the centaur will fight alongside them, although they will not fight to death with anyone other than Snagtooth and Bearbreath.
In any event, if Snagtooth and Bearbreath are killed, the elves and centaur will return to their respective homes. If the giants flee, and they are able to pursue, the posse will continue to hunt them down.
Sharelle
Sharelle's desire is to see the giants killed or permanently driven away so that she can return her peaceful lifestyle. She will certainly not put herself in mortal danger to accomplish this, but she is willing to take a few risks. Only in the most extreme circumstances will she reveal her lycanthopy because doing so would likely result in her being forced out of the valley, or even hunted down and killed by the locals. If she does reveal her true nature and it is possible to cover up the knowledge, by charming or killing the witnesses for example, then she will do so.
A secondary goal of Sharelle's is the replacement of her male companions who were killed by the giants. She is primarily interested in men who will provide physical protection and who can do menial chores. Given these requirements, almost any male PCs would be perfect as it is unlikely that she will find any better replacements among the villagers.
A suggestion to the DM: If you have the luxury of knowing what PCs are going to be playing in the adventure, take aside those players whose characters will be charmed by Sharelle (males with wisdom less than 14) before beginning play. Tell them that at some point in the game they will encounter the most beautiful woman they have ever seen and that they should consider themselves to be <charmed> by her. Remember that the charming effect of a foxwoman affects elves as well and that there is no saving throw. This will help to prevent the other players from becoming overly suspicious when the group encounters Sharelle and will make for smoother role-playing.
Villagers
The villagers goal is to get the giants out of their valley, whether by killing them or driving them off. They do not have the monetary resources to offer any reward other than free room and board to any potential giant hunters and so are not particularly pleased with their prospects for getting rid of the beasts.
The Blackrock Brothers Abroad, an AD&D adventure for characters level 3-5
**************************************** ***************************************
This module is designed for use with the AD&D(tm) game from TSR, Inc. and contains references to trademarks and/or copyrighted material owned by that company. The original portions of this works are (c) copyright 1994 by Keven Simmons and is being offered free of charge under the following conditions:
1) You may not sell this material for your own profit
2) If this material is redistributed, either electronically or in printed form, it must include this copyright notice.
3) You may modify details of this material for your own purposes, but only the original can be redistributed.
Correspondence regarding this material can be sent via U.S. Post to:
Keven Simmons, POB 351, Sherburne NY 13460
or via the internet to: simmonsk@norwich.net
**************************************** ***************************************
This material may contain references to non-TSR monsters, spells and magic items. If you would like information on non-standard spells or items used in this module, write or e-mail me at the above addresses. I will be happy to share whatever information I can.
Feel free to make modifications as you deem necessary in order to make the module playable in your campaign. If the GIF-format maps for this adventure were not included, or you are unable to read them, I will provide paper copies free of charge to anyone who sends a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the address above. Please mention the module name (and version number if applicable) when requesting maps.
abbreviations and other notations used:
th or thaco = to hit armor class 0
hd = hit dice
hp = hit points
ac = armor class
d = damage
mr = magic resistance
str = strength
con = constitution
dex = dexterity
int = intelligence
wis = wisdom
chr = charisma
pp = pick pockets
ol = open locks
frt = find / remove traps
hs = hide in shadows
ms = move silently
hn = hear noise
cw = climb walls
rl = read languages
Some spells, magic items or monsters may have a notation following them similar to this: find familiar [P 134]. The information in the brackets is a book and page number reference for locating the item's description. The following are the book abbreviations used in these references:
P = Player's Handbook (2nd edition, first printing)
T = Tome of Magic
D = Dungeon Master's Guide
A = Unearthed Arcana
M = Monster Manual
F = Fiend Folio
S = Monster Manual II (first edition)
C = Creature Catalog Supplements
K = my own compiled reference manuals
If you eventually use this module, I would like to hear how it turned out.
enjoy!
---keven
**************************************** ***************************************
Background
Even though moral turpitude is one of the defining characteristics of hill giant nature, there are still a few rules that all hill giants follow; rules like "The Clan Chief is Always Right", or "Don't Throw Boulders at the Shaman While He's Meditating". These simple codes of conduct allow the members of a hill giant clan to live together, if not in harmony, at least in partially controlled anarchy. In this respect, the Blackrock clan was much the same as any other hill giant tribe, and like other tribes there were some members that were less inclined to follow the rules than others. In the Blackrock clan, the prime troublemakers were the brothers Snagtooth and Bearbreath, named for their distinctive dental features and culinary tastes respectively. Ever since they were old enough to throw rocks, these two had been a plague on the rest of the clan. Even other hill giants considered them to be lazy, bothersome pests. It came as no surprise then when they were caught breaking the tribe's most sacrosanct rule: "Never Steal the Clan Chief's Favorite Club".
The Blackrock tribe is lead by an ugly brute of a chief called Crunchjaw whose most valued possession in the world is his collection of clubs. All of the clubs were carefully crafted by Crunchjaw himself from the strongest trees; hand-picked for their tightly spaced limbs which he sharpened into deadly spikes. It would be safe to say that he valued his clubs more than he did his wives, offspring or even his collection of gold coins. His favorite club he named Big Stick (intelligence is not a requirement for being hill giant chief) and he prized it above all the others. It was with Big Stick that he defeated the former chief of the Blackrock tribe and was thus granted the title he now carries. So when Snag and Bear were caught pilfering it, his response was hardly unexpected. After beating them both within an inch of their lives, he banished them and declared them clanless. (They probably would have been killed outright if they hadn't been his sons).
After being exiled, the giant brothers wandered aimlessly for weeks in search of food and a new place to live. Eventually they left the mountains that had been their home and began to travel through more populated areas. Their first encounter with the inhabitants of this land came when they stumbled across a small elven village. The giants, upon seeing the elven tree houses, began to play a rather destructive game of rock throwing, the object of which was to see who could knock the most elves out of the trees. The giants killed many of the villagers before being driven away by a host of concealed archers. Their next encounter was with a herd of centaur. Snag was always fond of horse meat, which was rare in the mountains, and thought that these beasts would make a fine meal. The brothers killed several and retreated with the bodies while under fire from the remaining centaur. While the meal sated their hunger the giants, being unused to fending for themselves, thought that chasing down their dinner was far too much effort, particularly when dinner had a habit of shooting arrows at you, and so they continued on in search of easier game.
Meanwhile, the elven village had organized a posse to hunt down the giants and exact vengeance for their attack. The group began tracking the giants, a relatively easy task, but found themselves falling behind due to the giants faster rate of travel. They had almost decided to abandon the chase when they happened upon the remains of the centaur herd. After talking to the centaur, the elves discovered they now had allies in their quest and more importantly, allies that could match the pace of their quarry. Unfortunately, there were only a handful of centaur willing and able to pursue the giants so an advance force of 5 centaur ridden by 5 elves continued on while the rest of the elven force (12) followed behind.
The giants, unaware that they were being stalked, continued their wandering until they crested a small rise and saw below them a pastoral valley with farms dotting the land along the a meandering river and sheep pastures on the higher slopes. Even their limited intelligence was sufficient for them to realize that this was the perfect place to make their new home. They first raided a flock of sheep and were delighted when neither the animals, nor the shepherd showed the slightest hint of resistance. The next day they scouted the hillsides until they found a suitable place to make camp and by luck, rather than design, selected a ravine whose entrance was partially concealed from casual view.
Over the next couple of weeks the giants explored their new home, raided several farms for livestock, and built a crude lean-to in the back of the ravine. Their only trouble came when they raided a small cottage and horse barn they found in the forest. What looked like easy pickings turned into a rather nasty battle when the inhabitants turned out to be well armed and proficient fighters. The giants prevailed however and made off with four horses but the experience had dulled their enthusiasm to some extent and they decided to lay low for a few days while their wounds healed.
At the same time that the giants were returning to their camp to hide out, the centaur/elven posse arrived at the valley. They proceeded to search the valley but while signs of the giants' presence were everywhere, they were unable to track them back to their lair because of the abundance of crisscrossing trails left by the brothers during their raids and exploration.
Willowvale's Background
The peaceful valley of Willowvale has had very few problems since it was settled 120 years ago. The first humans to move into the valley were sheep herders who found the hillsides to be perfect land for grazing and the lowland along the river to be easily cleared and farmed. Craftsmen soon followed and the village of Willowville grew to be a small town. The villagers never formed any formal government, and there is no peace-keeping force resident in the valley. Any disputes that cannot be worked out locally are taken before the nearest magistrate, who is located in a town several days journey away.
Over the years the residents have had to deal with wolves, a stray owlbear or displacer beast or the like, and were plagued by a band of kobolds for a period of time, but otherwise have had little disturb their quiet life.
Recently however, the peaceful nature of Willowvale has been shattered by two hill giants who have been raiding farms and flocks and destroying the homes of Willowvale residents. The folk who have made the valley their home were totally unprepared to deal with this calamity, and now spend most of their days watching the horizon with fear, ready to run at the slightest hint of trouble. A few of the braver souls have talked about defending themselves against the giants, but they are just not trained or equipped well enough to put up much resistance and the one person in the vale who could pose a threat to the invaders, the sorceress Sharelle, has refused to get involved. The villagers have sent an agent to the nearest city to see about hiring mercenaries, but the wages demanded are far beyond Willowville's means. The folk of the vale are thus resigned to dealing with the problem themselves but have yet to come up with a plan that any of them feel has a chance of success.
Sharelle's Background
The foxwoman called Sharelle has lived for nearly two centuries, although she has only recently (15 years ago) settled in Willowvale. Before moving into her current home, she had lived for a time among a tribe of elves hoping to find a suitable young girl to "adopt" and raise as a foxwoman. She had identified a prospect but while attempting to abduct the child was discovered and driven off. Only by assuming her nimble fox form was she able to escape with her life.
Since settling in Willowvale, she has not done anything to raise the ire of her human neighbors, although her effect on the male population has caused a considerable amount of grumbling and gossip among the women. Most of them refer to her as "that elven trollop", particularly after a couple of the local hunters began living at her cottage, and she earned the permanent disfavor of the unmarried girls in the area by stealing the vale's most eligible bachelor, a young soldier named Samuel. Despite these social blemishes, Sharelle has become an accepted, if not universally liked member of the community. She rarely visits the town in person, preferring to let one of her house-mates deal with the humans and when she does go into Willowville, she is always accompanied by two of her companions. She does not hide her elven heritage, and has publicly performed some minor feats of magic so the villagers have come to see her as a reclusive elven wizard. While some of the women believe her companions to be ensorceled, they assume it is a result of her wizardry and no one suspects her true, lycanthropic nature.
When the giants started causing trouble in the valley Sharelle, like her neighbors was concerned, but true to her self-centered nature, refused to assist them in defending against the brothers. As long as she was not inconvenienced, she felt no obligation to cooperate in eliminating the common threat. That attitude changed abruptly when the giants appeared on her doorstep, stole her horses and killed all three of her male companions. She escaped into the woods in her fox form, but now harbors a deep desire to see that the giants pay for their affront, preferably with their lives.
NPC Motivations
When running this adventure, it is important to keep in mind what the NPCs ultimately want to achieve. Their motivations are the driving force behind the decisions they make, and how they will respond to the player characters.
Snagtooth & Bearbreath
The giant brothers have very simple goals: they want to live the easy life, taking their meals from the livestock in the area, occasionally smashing a building or two and terrorizing the human population of the valley. They believe they have found the perfect place to live and will fight to protect it, although they would not die for it. If things ever go bad for either one of the brothers (i.e. reduced to less than 20% of their hit points), they will flee and not return and neither one will risk his own life to protect the other (these giants' blood, it seems, is not thicker than water).
Elves & Centaur
The elves and centaur are on a mission of vengeance and will not be deterred from their goal of seeing the giant brothers dead. All of them have lost friends or family to the brothers' attacks and most of them will die to avenge their deaths. Neither the elves nor the centaur are fond of humankind and only in extreme circumstances would they join forces with them. In fact, most humans the band encounters (PCs included) will get a cold, if not hostile reception from the posse.
In addition to their desire to see the giants killed, the elves also have good reason to want Sharelle's hide as well. It was from their village that the foxwoman attempted to kidnap her new foster-child and the elves will shoot her on sight. Unfortunately, they will assume that anyone traveling in her company is her ally, or charmed companion, and will deal with them in the same manner. The centaur know nothing of Sharelle and will be confused by their comrades' actions towards her. If the elves are attacked however, the centaur will fight alongside them, although they will not fight to death with anyone other than Snagtooth and Bearbreath.
In any event, if Snagtooth and Bearbreath are killed, the elves and centaur will return to their respective homes. If the giants flee, and they are able to pursue, the posse will continue to hunt them down.
Sharelle
Sharelle's desire is to see the giants killed or permanently driven away so that she can return her peaceful lifestyle. She will certainly not put herself in mortal danger to accomplish this, but she is willing to take a few risks. Only in the most extreme circumstances will she reveal her lycanthopy because doing so would likely result in her being forced out of the valley, or even hunted down and killed by the locals. If she does reveal her true nature and it is possible to cover up the knowledge, by charming or killing the witnesses for example, then she will do so.
A secondary goal of Sharelle's is the replacement of her male companions who were killed by the giants. She is primarily interested in men who will provide physical protection and who can do menial chores. Given these requirements, almost any male PCs would be perfect as it is unlikely that she will find any better replacements among the villagers.
A suggestion to the DM: If you have the luxury of knowing what PCs are going to be playing in the adventure, take aside those players whose characters will be charmed by Sharelle (males with wisdom less than 14) before beginning play. Tell them that at some point in the game they will encounter the most beautiful woman they have ever seen and that they should consider themselves to be <charmed> by her. Remember that the charming effect of a foxwoman affects elves as well and that there is no saving throw. This will help to prevent the other players from becoming overly suspicious when the group encounters Sharelle and will make for smoother role-playing.
Villagers
The villagers goal is to get the giants out of their valley, whether by killing them or driving them off. They do not have the monetary resources to offer any reward other than free room and board to any potential giant hunters and so are not particularly pleased with their prospects for getting rid of the beasts.
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