This is part 7 of my ongoing account of the sandbox campaign I am currently running. Updates are frequent, if irregular, and at the end of each post I talk about one or more subjects pertaining to the adventure but more broadly applicable to all campaigns. You can find the previous parts here.
After a 16-hour rest, the party followed the only path remaining: deeper into the tomb. They discovered a bottomless tankard of ale in a sarcophagus and another room that was mostly destroyed by a cave in. After passing through some rubble, they came to a large set of double doors. Beyond them was a massive stone vault filled with dwarven sarcophagi, one wall broken out into an adjoining cavern by a collapsed pillar. Prowling the rows of the dead were a small pack of ghoul wolves and two skeletal ogres dragging greatclubs. At the far end of the room stood a skeletal grizzly bear and a dwarven barrow wight adorned in ancient bronze chainmail and wrought torcs, bearing Orc-Gutter (+1 dwarven waraxe, deals additional 1d3 points of bleed damage to creatures of the orc subtype). Beneath the ethereal blue lights that dimly illuminated the hall, he challenged the party: "I am Chief Krannax. I was the first dwarf to walk these halls, and I will be the last."
The party rushed in to meet the challenge. Zel soon found herself facing a pack of ghoul wolves and was paralyzed and tripped. Chernyx stood over her body and fought the wolves off, keeping her safe from the cursed canines. Kat used her whip to trip one of the ogre skeletons, which Monty quickly finished off with a swift blow from his cold-iron warhammer. Krannax sought to make good his promise to be the last dwarf to walk these halls by attacking Monty and draining some of his life force. The insanity-inducing gaze of the barrow wight failed to penetrate the mental defenses of the party until he turned his eyes on Rikkit, who promptly began babbling incoherently and beating himself. Even so, he managed during one moment of clarity to enlarge Monty. Kat suffered a skeletal bear-hug, dropping her down to 4 hp before Monty's powerful strikes against Krannax prompted the wight to redirect his bear's ire to the enlarged dwarf. Kat made use of the break to escape and trip the second skeletal ogre which was swinging wildly at Cameo the roc. Her twin sister Daphne, meanwhile, was also paralyzed and tripped by ghoul wolves, forcing Sigrid to come to her defense rather than flanking the bear with Monty.
Soon, the lupine and ogrish undead were disposed of, and Sigrid was able to leap in and drive her cairn blade deep into the skull of the grizzly, ending it. Monty then beheaded the wight Krannax with a mighty swing and promptly grabbed Orc-Gutter and his +1 bronze chainmail (-2 vs missiles).
The party crossed the room to another pair of double doors and found they led to an ancient dwarven underground trade road - perhaps the rumoured "secret pass" that Castle Morbis sought in order to gain a strategic advantage on the bandits to the north. In any case, the party decided to investigate that path later and instead explore the adjoining cavern that had been opened up by a falling pillar.
After climbing through several limestone passages, they reached a room littered with ancient bones - the remnants of some prehistoric hunter's midden. In a nearby cave, they found scattered human bones resting before a cave-lion skull on a stone altar. Among the bones they found a prehistoric greatclub studded with sabertooth teeth (+1 greatclub, piercing and bludgeoning. Heals user 1d4 hp whenever it slays a human).
In the next cavern, beneath streaks of ancient soot and bat guano, they discover crude paintings of hunters doing battle with aurochs, mammoths, wooly rhinos, and even a beholder. Unfortunately, they also disturbed a swarm of bats which Rikkit had to blast with color spray.
The bat swarm battle alerted a trio of ogres to the presence of the party, and they pushed a wall of loose rocks down on Rikkit and Monty as they tried to climb up to the next chamber. The party rushed up to meet the ogres, in so doing catching their first glimpse of sunlight in days, for this chamber opened up into the high mountain pass.
The ogres swung their giant greatclubs at the party, but they were no match for such hardened adventurers. Soon only one ogre stood. Sigrid critically hit the brute with her cairn blade, now named Grave Sealer, cutting a gash in the monster's belly. Monty followed up with another natural 20, which he confirmed with a second natural 20. Now, I play by the "instant death critical" rules, whereby rolling two 20s in a row and then confirming the second 20 means the target dies instantly. So I had Monty's player roll to confirm on the second 20. And he rolled a third 20. Monty swung Orc-Gutter with such might that the ogre vanished in a cloud of blood-mist which coated the cave and five feet of snow outside the entrance.
~~~~~~
A brief note: oftentimes it serves well to re-skin a monster in order to make it fit the dungeon better. I did this with the dwarven sentinels and mechanical tinkerers, actually re-skinned clockwork warriors (from the Tome of Horrors) and clockwork servants (from Bestiary 3). The dwarven draugar from the water room were simply draugar that I described as dwarven - the stat block serves perfectly well for such purposes.
After a 16-hour rest, the party followed the only path remaining: deeper into the tomb. They discovered a bottomless tankard of ale in a sarcophagus and another room that was mostly destroyed by a cave in. After passing through some rubble, they came to a large set of double doors. Beyond them was a massive stone vault filled with dwarven sarcophagi, one wall broken out into an adjoining cavern by a collapsed pillar. Prowling the rows of the dead were a small pack of ghoul wolves and two skeletal ogres dragging greatclubs. At the far end of the room stood a skeletal grizzly bear and a dwarven barrow wight adorned in ancient bronze chainmail and wrought torcs, bearing Orc-Gutter (+1 dwarven waraxe, deals additional 1d3 points of bleed damage to creatures of the orc subtype). Beneath the ethereal blue lights that dimly illuminated the hall, he challenged the party: "I am Chief Krannax. I was the first dwarf to walk these halls, and I will be the last."
The party rushed in to meet the challenge. Zel soon found herself facing a pack of ghoul wolves and was paralyzed and tripped. Chernyx stood over her body and fought the wolves off, keeping her safe from the cursed canines. Kat used her whip to trip one of the ogre skeletons, which Monty quickly finished off with a swift blow from his cold-iron warhammer. Krannax sought to make good his promise to be the last dwarf to walk these halls by attacking Monty and draining some of his life force. The insanity-inducing gaze of the barrow wight failed to penetrate the mental defenses of the party until he turned his eyes on Rikkit, who promptly began babbling incoherently and beating himself. Even so, he managed during one moment of clarity to enlarge Monty. Kat suffered a skeletal bear-hug, dropping her down to 4 hp before Monty's powerful strikes against Krannax prompted the wight to redirect his bear's ire to the enlarged dwarf. Kat made use of the break to escape and trip the second skeletal ogre which was swinging wildly at Cameo the roc. Her twin sister Daphne, meanwhile, was also paralyzed and tripped by ghoul wolves, forcing Sigrid to come to her defense rather than flanking the bear with Monty.
Soon, the lupine and ogrish undead were disposed of, and Sigrid was able to leap in and drive her cairn blade deep into the skull of the grizzly, ending it. Monty then beheaded the wight Krannax with a mighty swing and promptly grabbed Orc-Gutter and his +1 bronze chainmail (-2 vs missiles).
The party crossed the room to another pair of double doors and found they led to an ancient dwarven underground trade road - perhaps the rumoured "secret pass" that Castle Morbis sought in order to gain a strategic advantage on the bandits to the north. In any case, the party decided to investigate that path later and instead explore the adjoining cavern that had been opened up by a falling pillar.
After climbing through several limestone passages, they reached a room littered with ancient bones - the remnants of some prehistoric hunter's midden. In a nearby cave, they found scattered human bones resting before a cave-lion skull on a stone altar. Among the bones they found a prehistoric greatclub studded with sabertooth teeth (+1 greatclub, piercing and bludgeoning. Heals user 1d4 hp whenever it slays a human).
In the next cavern, beneath streaks of ancient soot and bat guano, they discover crude paintings of hunters doing battle with aurochs, mammoths, wooly rhinos, and even a beholder. Unfortunately, they also disturbed a swarm of bats which Rikkit had to blast with color spray.
The bat swarm battle alerted a trio of ogres to the presence of the party, and they pushed a wall of loose rocks down on Rikkit and Monty as they tried to climb up to the next chamber. The party rushed up to meet the ogres, in so doing catching their first glimpse of sunlight in days, for this chamber opened up into the high mountain pass.
The ogres swung their giant greatclubs at the party, but they were no match for such hardened adventurers. Soon only one ogre stood. Sigrid critically hit the brute with her cairn blade, now named Grave Sealer, cutting a gash in the monster's belly. Monty followed up with another natural 20, which he confirmed with a second natural 20. Now, I play by the "instant death critical" rules, whereby rolling two 20s in a row and then confirming the second 20 means the target dies instantly. So I had Monty's player roll to confirm on the second 20. And he rolled a third 20. Monty swung Orc-Gutter with such might that the ogre vanished in a cloud of blood-mist which coated the cave and five feet of snow outside the entrance.
~~~~~~
A brief note: oftentimes it serves well to re-skin a monster in order to make it fit the dungeon better. I did this with the dwarven sentinels and mechanical tinkerers, actually re-skinned clockwork warriors (from the Tome of Horrors) and clockwork servants (from Bestiary 3). The dwarven draugar from the water room were simply draugar that I described as dwarven - the stat block serves perfectly well for such purposes.
The dwarven skeletons required some slight alteration. I created a skeleton variant (called a Stout Skeleton) to be used when you want a skeletal creature that isn't as agile as your regular skeleton archer. I used it here for dwarves, but it applies well to many things: ogres, giants, bears, elephants, etc.
The following description in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. It is (c) Jonah Bomgaars 2013.
Stout Skeleton
A stout skeletons, less dexterous but hardier than the average skeleton, are the reanimated bones of slower, sturdier creatures like dwarves, giants, and elephants. In addition to the changes for the skeleton template, make the following adjustments to the base creature.
Abilities: A stout skeleton's strength increases by +2, instead of the regular skeleton's bonus to Dexterity.
Feats: A stout skeleton loses all feats possessed by the base creature and gains Toughness as a bonus feat, instead of the standard skeleton's Improved Initiative.
Dwarven Skeleton (Stout Skeleton) CR 1/3
XP 135
NE Medium undead
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +0
DEFENSE
AC 18, touch 11, flat-footed 17 (+3 armor, +2 shield, +1 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 7 (1d8+3)
Fort +0, Ref +1, Will +2
DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune cold, undead traits
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft.
Melee mwk warhammer +4 (1d8+3) or claw +3 (1d4+3)
STATISTICS
Str 16, Dex 12, Con —, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 10
Base Atk +0; CMB +3; CMD 14
Feats Toughness
ECOLOGY
Environment any
Organization solitary, pair, squad (3-10)
Treasure standard (broken chainmail, mwk warhammer, heavy steel shield, other treasure)
~~~~~
Well, hopefully that will help you deal with incongruously dexterous skeletal undead in the future.
-your big-boned d20 despot
XP 135
NE Medium undead
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +0
DEFENSE
AC 18, touch 11, flat-footed 17 (+3 armor, +2 shield, +1 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 7 (1d8+3)
Fort +0, Ref +1, Will +2
DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune cold, undead traits
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft.
Melee mwk warhammer +4 (1d8+3) or claw +3 (1d4+3)
STATISTICS
Str 16, Dex 12, Con —, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 10
Base Atk +0; CMB +3; CMD 14
Feats Toughness
ECOLOGY
Environment any
Organization solitary, pair, squad (3-10)
Treasure standard (broken chainmail, mwk warhammer, heavy steel shield, other treasure)
~~~~~
Well, hopefully that will help you deal with incongruously dexterous skeletal undead in the future.
-your big-boned d20 despot
Next time someone vaporizes a monster with three confirmed natural 20s in a row, the party should have to make Fortitude saves to not choke on the blood mist left by the monster. Hahaha
ReplyDelete#happiestmomentofmylife
-Monty