This is a great little add for your next dungeon crawl.
As the party works their way through a dungeon, they hear deep vocals reverberating through the halls, shaking the rocks and stones around them. If they explore toward the noise, they will find a Xorn that appears concerned and frantically pacing around.
If the party approaches the Xorn, it will attempt to hide against the wall, using its Stone Camouflage to hide. DMs discretion, but as Xorn typically only speak Terran, the party can either attempt to communicate through grunts, or the Xorn can speak broken Common.
The Xorn goes by Brrrxn Glrghng.
Where’s My Sonnnnn, I’m All Alone
Through some form of communication the Xorn notes that its children wandered off from their home (a few more layers down into the subterranean cave system) after their Treasure Sense pinged for the first time. It looked away momentarily and next thing it knew the children were gone.
Treasure Sense. The xorn can pinpoint, by scent, the location of precious metals and stones, such as coins and gems, within 60 feet of it.
The Xorn is concerned because it knows that its Otyugh rival lurks in the halls, and it fears the worst for its children.
If the party is able to assist, the Xorn will reward one member of the party with Minor Earth Glide, a version of Earth Glide that only works for 30 feet into earth and stone. After 30 feet the user can only return the direction they came and can no longer move in additional directions.
That’s My Boy!
From here, the DM will need to determine where to place the Xorn’s children, who are likely third claw deep into some treasure. The party can attempt to track them through Investigation checks to find footprints of a three-legged creature.
While they will find the Xorn children, they are likely to track down the Otyugh as well (also has three legs), who is actively hunting everyone.
Along with the other baddies in this dungeon, the party must now protect the Xorn’s children until they can get them back to Brrrxn.
This encounter plays out like a large game of hide and seek, with the Otyugh sending terrifying telepathic messages to the party and the Xorn younglings, trying to lure them out.