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Nebulous's Keep on the Shadowfell (FR)
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<blockquote data-quote="Nebulous" data-source="post: 4658990" data-attributes="member: 31465"><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Adventure #11: Chief Krusk, Sir Keegan, and Traps Galore</span></p><p></p><p><strong>PART TWO</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong>The group discusses their options: rest or continue? They’re not terribly hurt now that they’ve rested, and the spellcasters are uninjured (as usual). They opt to continue, and head south down the only unexplored passage. They find a large iron door at the end and two unlit torch sconces. Listening at the door they hear nothing, but something about this area fills them with unease. They ask Splug what lies behind it, but the goblin doesn’t know. He’s never been down here, but he does know that Kalarel lives somewhere in the lowest level.</p><p></p><p><em>Kalarel.</em></p><p></p><p>That name gives them pause. Of course, the priest of Orcus would put his best troops in-between himself and intruders. They decide not to go in the door yet and finish inspecting the top level of the keep first. There’s still a room they haven’t entered yet, the one located at the Shrine of Bahamut just after the Skeleton Trap corridor. So they start heading back that way, and have just reached the room where they killed the boar Achilles when they hear weapons bashing against the door!</p><p></p><p>Sure enough, the hobgoblin patrol they evaded earlier has returned to find the entrance to the barracks blockaded. They’re smashing through, but the PCs surround the door and prepare an ambush. Hobgoblin deaths come swiftly (the hobbers were just six minions) and the group ascends to the next level, maneuvering through the fear maze and finally reaching the skeleton trap room. Erevan has already memorized the prayer necessary to deactivate the auto-trap, and sure enough, they can hear claws scrabbling inside the upright sarcophagi. The wizard rushes through while the others prepare to bash the skeletons that leap out. Undead warriors clatter into the hall, the lids banging open, and they’re met with a storm of metal from the heroes. But Erevan has piously bowed at the altar, recited the prayer, and the skeletons lower their swords and then crumple to the stone floor, disintegrating to dust until the next time they’re summoned. </p><p></p><p>The room is the same as they remember it, with the vaulted ceiling above displaying the mosaic of the platinum dragon of Justice, and the altars dedicated to Sir Keegan’s wife Isabel and his two daughters: </p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/keep/bahamut2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/keep/altar.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Now they have to deal with the door. </p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/keep/door1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>They listen at the cold metal, noting prayers to Bahamut scribbled around the perimeter. They don’t hear any sounds, and Irann doesn’t find any traps. Waiting won’t do them any good, so Helga tests the handle, finds it unlocked, and slowly pushes it open on squealing hinges. </p><p></p><p>A single, small cold chamber lies beyond.</p><p></p><p>Dust lies thick and undisturbed on the floor. At the back of the room sits a shallow dais upon which rests a stone sarcophagus. The warriors boldly enter, while Irann, Erevan and Splug wait outside. Brandis cautiously approaches the sarcophagus, wondering if this is the final resting place of Sir Keegan, the commander of the keep who went mad and slew nearly everyo—</p><p></p><p>And then the lid abruptly explodes off the casket. </p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/keep/keegan2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>A skeletal man emerges, a massive battleaxe clutched in his bony fingers. </p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.zikadik.com/shadowfell/keegan2.wav" target="_blank">“THE RIFT MUST NEVER BE RE-OPENED! STATE YOUR BUSINESS OR PREPARE TO DIE!”</a></p><p></p><p>From his left and right two apparitions appear through the walls and they repeat the same warning.</p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/keep/keegan4.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Helga, Kerric and Brandis don’t back down from undead hostility, although Kerric is quick to point that he is a follower of Kelemvor, and that their sole purpose in the keep is to prevent the Rift from opening again. Brandis echoes the statement, and Sir Keegan slowly steps down off the sarcophagus, practically oozing menace. But the group holds their ground, ready to strike if necessary. </p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/keep/keegan5.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>“I AM SIR KEEGAN…” the undead thing goes on to say, starting straight into Helga’s eyes. “I WAS COMMANDER OF THIS KEEP. IT WAS MY SWORN DUTY TO ENSURE THAT THE SHADOWFELL RIFT NEVER OPENED AGAIN. </p><p>I…HAVE FAILED.”</p><p></p><p>Keegan seems impressed that the heroes are here to make sure that the rift remains closed (although they’re fairly sure the rift is at least partway open; Kalarel’s been a busy necromancer). The dead knight asks them a few questions and insists that the spellcasters loitering in the hall enter the chamber as well. The PCs learn that long, long ago Sir Keegan was possessed by a demonic presence from the rift. It slowly asserted itself over him, and by the time anyone noticed, it was too late. Keegan became a murderous fiend, slaying his wife, his daughters, his lieutenants and friends. He will suffer here forever and cannot leave this chamber, nor can the two lieutenants who have agreed to stand with him in eternal vigilance. </p><p></p><p>But Keegan thinks the heroes have a chance of accomplishing what he could not do in life. He believes they are honorable, and to aid them, he gives the dwarf his magic battleax, Aceris, and says that it should serve her well. </p><p></p><p>Keegan slowly climbs back into the crypt, nods to the heroes, and the lid slams shut with a puff of dust. </p><p></p><p><span style="color: red">[GM Note: This was supposed to be a big Skill Challenge where Keegan asks each player questions that are keyed off certain skills. Failure would entice Keegan to attack. Eh…either I just don’t understand skill challenges enough to make them compelling or I didn’t want to bother with it. I portrayed Keegan the way I wanted him to act, and the players asked the questions they want to ask and stayed in character, and that was it. Encounter over].</span></p><p></p><p>Well, the group now has only one choice—through the door on the hobber level, but they don’t want to do it just yet. They want to fight Kalarel at full strength, so they decide to return to Winterhaven to rest up, sell some items, maybe find some rituals, and return to the Keep the next day. </p><p></p><p>There is also some discussion regarding the FROG QUEEN and her mysterious request for Irontooth’s hands, but the next full moon is still several weeks away when the portal to the Feywild on Jade Hill will open under the moonlight. </p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/keep/frog.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Back in Winterhaven, the heroes are instantly surrounded at Wrafton’s Inn by curious villagers. Word of their deeds and bravery has spread far and wide, and a few folks are surprised to see them return alive. Questions about the haunted castle abound, and the group is peppered by inquiries. Lord Ernest Padraig shows up and embraces his son Brandis. Thair Coalstriker is here, and he just wants to know how many goblin heads the PCs brought back. He is VERY pleased with the final count. Elian the Old is here with his pet pig, and already well toasted by the time the party arrives.</p><p></p><p>Erevan retreats to his chamber to study a Detect Secret Doors ritual and commit it to memory from a scroll, while Helga and Kerric decide to visit Ninaran the Half-Elf in the prison. They have a few questions that were not asked last time they encountered her in the graveyard with Lord Maw. </p><p></p><p>Helga plans intimidate answers out of Ninaran, while Kerric is there to play Good Cop / Bad Cop. It turns out that although Ninaran is sultry, depressed and despondent, she is not averse to answering questions.</p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/keep/nin.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>In a nutshell, this questioning turns up a few interesting tidbits:</p><p></p><p>1) Kalarel is a necromancer (they suspected this) who does not like to be around living people. He wants to be immortal and live forever, a gift promised to him by his master Lord Orcus. </p><p>2) Ninaran is the bastard daughter of Lord Ernest Padraig (the party also knew this), but it turns out that Kalarel is the bastard son of ERNEST’S father, Brandis’s grandfather! This makes Brandis and Kalarel loosely related, although the lineage cannot be proven. Regardless, Ninaran has no love for the Padraig family and suspects that Brandis’s morals and libido are just as despicable and she despises him just on principle.</p><p>3) Ninaran knows that there was a password to safely enter the Hobgoblin Barracks, but the party blasted through there without any such help. </p><p></p><p>And that sums up what she knows, or is at least willing to tell. The group leaves Ninaran under the careful watch of Rond Kelfern and whatever fate the townsfolk of Winterhaven will pass down on her. </p><p></p><p>The next day, refreshed and rearmed, they head back to the old keep.</p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/keep/keep.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nebulous, post: 4658990, member: 31465"] [SIZE=3]Adventure #11: Chief Krusk, Sir Keegan, and Traps Galore[/SIZE] [B]PART TWO [/B]The group discusses their options: rest or continue? They’re not terribly hurt now that they’ve rested, and the spellcasters are uninjured (as usual). They opt to continue, and head south down the only unexplored passage. They find a large iron door at the end and two unlit torch sconces. Listening at the door they hear nothing, but something about this area fills them with unease. They ask Splug what lies behind it, but the goblin doesn’t know. He’s never been down here, but he does know that Kalarel lives somewhere in the lowest level. [i]Kalarel.[/i] That name gives them pause. Of course, the priest of Orcus would put his best troops in-between himself and intruders. They decide not to go in the door yet and finish inspecting the top level of the keep first. There’s still a room they haven’t entered yet, the one located at the Shrine of Bahamut just after the Skeleton Trap corridor. So they start heading back that way, and have just reached the room where they killed the boar Achilles when they hear weapons bashing against the door! Sure enough, the hobgoblin patrol they evaded earlier has returned to find the entrance to the barracks blockaded. They’re smashing through, but the PCs surround the door and prepare an ambush. Hobgoblin deaths come swiftly (the hobbers were just six minions) and the group ascends to the next level, maneuvering through the fear maze and finally reaching the skeleton trap room. Erevan has already memorized the prayer necessary to deactivate the auto-trap, and sure enough, they can hear claws scrabbling inside the upright sarcophagi. The wizard rushes through while the others prepare to bash the skeletons that leap out. Undead warriors clatter into the hall, the lids banging open, and they’re met with a storm of metal from the heroes. But Erevan has piously bowed at the altar, recited the prayer, and the skeletons lower their swords and then crumple to the stone floor, disintegrating to dust until the next time they’re summoned. The room is the same as they remember it, with the vaulted ceiling above displaying the mosaic of the platinum dragon of Justice, and the altars dedicated to Sir Keegan’s wife Isabel and his two daughters: [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/keep/bahamut2.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/keep/altar.jpg[/img] Now they have to deal with the door. [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/keep/door1.jpg[/img] They listen at the cold metal, noting prayers to Bahamut scribbled around the perimeter. They don’t hear any sounds, and Irann doesn’t find any traps. Waiting won’t do them any good, so Helga tests the handle, finds it unlocked, and slowly pushes it open on squealing hinges. A single, small cold chamber lies beyond. Dust lies thick and undisturbed on the floor. At the back of the room sits a shallow dais upon which rests a stone sarcophagus. The warriors boldly enter, while Irann, Erevan and Splug wait outside. Brandis cautiously approaches the sarcophagus, wondering if this is the final resting place of Sir Keegan, the commander of the keep who went mad and slew nearly everyo— And then the lid abruptly explodes off the casket. [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/keep/keegan2.jpg[/img] A skeletal man emerges, a massive battleaxe clutched in his bony fingers. [url=http://www.zikadik.com/shadowfell/keegan2.wav]“THE RIFT MUST NEVER BE RE-OPENED! STATE YOUR BUSINESS OR PREPARE TO DIE!”[/url] From his left and right two apparitions appear through the walls and they repeat the same warning. [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/keep/keegan4.jpg[/img] Helga, Kerric and Brandis don’t back down from undead hostility, although Kerric is quick to point that he is a follower of Kelemvor, and that their sole purpose in the keep is to prevent the Rift from opening again. Brandis echoes the statement, and Sir Keegan slowly steps down off the sarcophagus, practically oozing menace. But the group holds their ground, ready to strike if necessary. [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/keep/keegan5.jpg[/img] “I AM SIR KEEGAN…” the undead thing goes on to say, starting straight into Helga’s eyes. “I WAS COMMANDER OF THIS KEEP. IT WAS MY SWORN DUTY TO ENSURE THAT THE SHADOWFELL RIFT NEVER OPENED AGAIN. I…HAVE FAILED.” Keegan seems impressed that the heroes are here to make sure that the rift remains closed (although they’re fairly sure the rift is at least partway open; Kalarel’s been a busy necromancer). The dead knight asks them a few questions and insists that the spellcasters loitering in the hall enter the chamber as well. The PCs learn that long, long ago Sir Keegan was possessed by a demonic presence from the rift. It slowly asserted itself over him, and by the time anyone noticed, it was too late. Keegan became a murderous fiend, slaying his wife, his daughters, his lieutenants and friends. He will suffer here forever and cannot leave this chamber, nor can the two lieutenants who have agreed to stand with him in eternal vigilance. But Keegan thinks the heroes have a chance of accomplishing what he could not do in life. He believes they are honorable, and to aid them, he gives the dwarf his magic battleax, Aceris, and says that it should serve her well. Keegan slowly climbs back into the crypt, nods to the heroes, and the lid slams shut with a puff of dust. [color=red][GM Note: This was supposed to be a big Skill Challenge where Keegan asks each player questions that are keyed off certain skills. Failure would entice Keegan to attack. Eh…either I just don’t understand skill challenges enough to make them compelling or I didn’t want to bother with it. I portrayed Keegan the way I wanted him to act, and the players asked the questions they want to ask and stayed in character, and that was it. Encounter over].[/color] Well, the group now has only one choice—through the door on the hobber level, but they don’t want to do it just yet. They want to fight Kalarel at full strength, so they decide to return to Winterhaven to rest up, sell some items, maybe find some rituals, and return to the Keep the next day. There is also some discussion regarding the FROG QUEEN and her mysterious request for Irontooth’s hands, but the next full moon is still several weeks away when the portal to the Feywild on Jade Hill will open under the moonlight. [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/keep/frog.jpg[/img] Back in Winterhaven, the heroes are instantly surrounded at Wrafton’s Inn by curious villagers. Word of their deeds and bravery has spread far and wide, and a few folks are surprised to see them return alive. Questions about the haunted castle abound, and the group is peppered by inquiries. Lord Ernest Padraig shows up and embraces his son Brandis. Thair Coalstriker is here, and he just wants to know how many goblin heads the PCs brought back. He is VERY pleased with the final count. Elian the Old is here with his pet pig, and already well toasted by the time the party arrives. Erevan retreats to his chamber to study a Detect Secret Doors ritual and commit it to memory from a scroll, while Helga and Kerric decide to visit Ninaran the Half-Elf in the prison. They have a few questions that were not asked last time they encountered her in the graveyard with Lord Maw. Helga plans intimidate answers out of Ninaran, while Kerric is there to play Good Cop / Bad Cop. It turns out that although Ninaran is sultry, depressed and despondent, she is not averse to answering questions. [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/keep/nin.jpg[/img] In a nutshell, this questioning turns up a few interesting tidbits: 1) Kalarel is a necromancer (they suspected this) who does not like to be around living people. He wants to be immortal and live forever, a gift promised to him by his master Lord Orcus. 2) Ninaran is the bastard daughter of Lord Ernest Padraig (the party also knew this), but it turns out that Kalarel is the bastard son of ERNEST’S father, Brandis’s grandfather! This makes Brandis and Kalarel loosely related, although the lineage cannot be proven. Regardless, Ninaran has no love for the Padraig family and suspects that Brandis’s morals and libido are just as despicable and she despises him just on principle. 3) Ninaran knows that there was a password to safely enter the Hobgoblin Barracks, but the party blasted through there without any such help. And that sums up what she knows, or is at least willing to tell. The group leaves Ninaran under the careful watch of Rond Kelfern and whatever fate the townsfolk of Winterhaven will pass down on her. The next day, refreshed and rearmed, they head back to the old keep. [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/keep/keep.jpg[/img] [/QUOTE]
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