Kalamar Encounters (from the Servants of the Swift Sword Campaign)

[Wicht]

Heart of Corruption -entry 6

Elias' Fort continued (2nd Floor)

8r – bedroom
One of the few rooms still whole on this floor, the room is nevertheless damp and the floor is rotten. Anyone walking in here has a 50% chance per round of falling through the floor to the room below, taking 1d6 damage in the process. A reflex save (DC 20) will prevent this. A spot check (DC 10) will reveal the leaking roof, but it will take sharper eyes (spot DC 20) to see the rotted nature of the floor before entering the room.

8s – linen closet (EL 4)
A Vampire spawn has hidden her coffin in what was once a linen closet and filled the hallway leading to the closet with clutter. Clearing the hallway outside of the linen closet requires 8 man hours worth of labor.

Vampire Spawn (Harmony): CR 4; Init +6; Spd 30 ft; AC 15; Attk +5 Melee (1d6+2+energy drain slam) SA Charm (Will Save DC 16), Energy Drain (DC 14), Blood Drain; SQ Undead, +2 Turn Resistance, Damage Reduction 10/silver, Cold and electricity resistance 10; Gaseous Form, Spider Climb, Fast healing 2; CE; SV Fort +1, Ref +5, Will +5; Str 12, Dex 14, Con -, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 18.
Skills and Feats: Bluff +10, Climb +8, Perform +14, Hide +10, Jump +6, Listen +11, Move Silently +11, Search +9, Sense Motive +13, Spot +11; Feats: Alertness, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Skill Focus (perform).
Possessions: Clothing, Masterwork Harp.
Roleplaying notes: A former bard, Harmony still plays music for Tarl. Her haunting melodies can sometimes be heard at night echoing over the hills. She relies more on charm and beauty to hunt than strength. She has learned to use her music to aid in charming her prey. A successful perform skill check (DC 20) on her part will add a –2 circumstance penalty to those who attempt to resist her charm.

8t – toilet
A permanent dimension door, at the bottom of a commode, opens up into a small ravine about a quarter of a mile north of the fort. Dimension doors in Tamil’s Castle and in Roanai’s old house open up in the same place, 25 years ago they created a small cesspool. Today the area is still rather disgusting.

A sink runs water from a cistern on the roof. The cistern is currently full and the sink has a steady leak resulting in a constant drip noise

8u – collapsed rooms (EL 1)
Parts of the roof here recently collapsed making three of the rooms on the second floor virtually inaccessible. It will take 20 man hours of labor to clear a path from the stairs from the first floor to the fireplace above the kitchen.

Four medium sized monstrous centipedes have taken to lairing in the rubble and there is a 50% chance per five minutes spent in or near a rubble filled room of attracting one of them.

Monstrous Centipede (4): CR ½; medium sized vermin (8 ft long); HD 1d8; 3, 3, 5, 5 hp; Init +2, Spd 40 ft.; AC 14; Atk +2 melee (1d6-1+poison bite); SA poison DC 13 1d3 Dex); SQ vermin; Fort +2, Ref +2, Will +0; Str 9, Dex 15, Con 10, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 2.
Skills and Feats: Climb +8, Hide +8, Spot +8; Weapon Finesse (bite)

8v – guest room
The bed in here is still servicable and the room has remained dry for the past 15 years. The trunk at the foot of the bed is empty and there are no sheets on the feather mattress.

8w – small guest room
Like 8v, this room is still serviceable, as is the bed.

 

[Wicht]

Heart of corruption - Entry 7

Elias' Fort continued (tower third floor and roof)

8x – Elias’ sitting room
This room evidences signs of recent repair. There is no furniture, but the floor has been repaired and the walls have been repainted. A painting of a red dragon (value 50 gp) is newly hung on the wall. A door in the ceiling will drop down a set of collapsible stairs leading to the roof. The stairs are quite rotten however and anyone climbing them will fall through.

8y – Elias’ bedroom (EL 6)
The bed to this room has been thrown out (it lies in one of the collapsed rooms) But the chair and desk, both in good condition remain. The walls are newly painted. There is a secret door on the north wall (spot/search DC 18). Behind the secret passage lies an empty room in which Tarl’s coffin lies (along with Tarl’s money).

Tarl (Vampire), Adept 5: CR 6; HD 5d12; 41 hp; Init +5; Spd 30 ft; AC 17; Attk +7 Melee (1d6+7+energy drain slam); SA Domination (Will save DC 14), Energy Drain (DC 14), Blood Drain, children of the night, create spawn; SQ Undead, +4 Turn Resistance, Damage Reduction 15/+1, Cold and electricity resistance 20; Gaseous Form, Alternate form, Spider Climb, Fast healing 5, vampire weaknesses; CE; SV Fort +1, Ref +4, Will +7; Str 20, Dex 12, Con -, Int 15, Wis 16, Cha 15.
Skills and Feats: Bluff +10, Hide +9, Listen +13, Move Silently +9, Search +8, Sense Motive +10, Spot +13, Knowledge Religion +10, Heal +10, Wilderness Lore +10; Feats: Alertness, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Dodge, Combat Reflexes, Spell Penetration, Power Attack.
Possessions: 2900 gp, 38000 sp, scroll (blindness, Protection from Arrows, Flaming Sphere). 4 gems (50, 120, 200, 800 gp)
Spells: Ghost Sound, Guidance, Read magic, Inflict Light Wounds, Obscuring Mist, Protection from good, Bull’s Strength, Invisibility.
Roleplaying Notes: Tarl is cocky and overconfident. However, if pressed he will summon any available vampire spawn to fight with him (along with his creatures of the night), or if necessary flee. Tarl has an extra coffin hidden beneath the forest floor north of the river.

8z – Tower roof
A broken ballista sits in the middle of this roof. The stonework is crumbling around the edge, but the tower still commands quite a view. Tamil’s tower (in which there is always a light shining now) and the temple can easily be seen from the tower, as can the castle above the falls.

 

[Darklone]

Applause, Wicht, real nice stuff.

 

[Wicht]

Thank you Darklone, glad you like it.

 

[Celebrim]

Beautiful examples of small dungeon design. Annotations are sparse but sufficient. Excellent 'first edition feel'. Professional presentation.

I love spatial awareness like room 8g. It shows that you are thinking as a designer when events in one room spill over into the description of adjacents rooms. To me nothing is worse than sounds/odors/light sources occuring in one room that are not mentioned in the next room. It tells me that the designer is plays D&D only at the level of 'open door/clear room/collect treasure/repeat'.

I'm very impressed.

If I had to have one small quibble it is that each description is 2-3 sentences too short. Sparse text like that is fine for a printed module when you are trying to get within a space constraint, but to me it really doesn't present the encounter in a way that a novice DM can run it well.

You have good 1st edition feel, but you don't have really strong 3rd edition feel. Mentioning some of the more like skill checks and thier DC's would go along way toward helping someone play it exactly as you intended it.

Limiting myself to Encounter #8:

What skill is used to determine that the water in the well is safe to drink? DC?

What are the skill(s) to determine to determine that the servant's lounge is safe? To notice that the ceiling in the small bedroom is dangerous? Would a craft check be appropriate here than a spot or search check? How about a craft(carpentry) check to detect the ruined nature of the floor? What is the maximum rate that they will hold before collapsing; that is, if I probe ahead with a pole will I poke through the floor or do I really have to put my weight on it to get it to collapse?

What is the DC to spot/hear the centipedes? What is the DC to spot the green slime? What skill is used to recognize it as hazard that it is? DC?

What is the DC of the appraise check to correctly value the painting in 8x? What is the maximum weight the stairs will hold without colapsing?

And could you think of other skill tests you could place to liven things up? The PC's spent points on them, you might as well give them a chance to make use of something other than listen/spot/search.

 

[Wicht]

Thanks for the input Celebrim.

I'll try to keep your suggestions in mind. It would not hurt, I know, for me to consider the various skills more than I do just from I designing aspect you are right.

Probably the reason the descriptions are not more lengthy is because of time constraints on my part (as opposed to space constraints). These are the notes I use when DMing and so I often have only about 1 or 2 weeks to type up a whole area or set of encounters. (The other reason is that I tend to write with my particular players in mind.)

My next set of notes however, The Towers of Daylight, are more extensive and I may go back through them this week and add some things so we will see.