-
This inner walkway has a bad reputation
among the hobgoblins
in this fort. Work
parties have been in the past to clean
it out,
but they would come back nervous, and
usually with stories of one of their number
who had gone mad and had to be killed
before he killed them. A guard patrol
reported the same thing, and seeing a
ghostly shape that strangled the life out
of
one of the guards. For this reason, the
hobgoblins
will not enter this area and they
have learned to ignore strange sights and
sounds that come from here.
| You stand in a narrow, dusty corridor.
There is a door at the eastern end of the corridor. You have just climbed up a <Climb, WSG> crude rope made of knotted rags and in through a small open window. The window was once used to throw slops and nightsoil out into the warding ditch but it appears to have been some time since the window or this room has seen active use. Cobwebs cover the ceiling and walls. There is a single line of footprints in the dust, made by a naked human foot. They lead from the east and end at this window. The only light in the room <Vision and Visibility, WSG> comes from shafts of moonlight filtering <Fighting in Poor Visibility, WSG> in through the window and the arrow slits, spaced every 10 feet, that are cut in each wall. |
This corridor is empty. Characters with
a
Wisdom score
of 15 or greater will feel
vaguely uneasy, though there is no logical
reason for their unease.
| This room appears to once have been a
guardroom, but it has been long abandoned. There is a door opposite the door you used to enter. In the south end of the room, along the south wall, are stone stairs leading up and down. The ceiling and walls of this room are covered with dusty cobwebs, and shards of a brittle, white material litter the floor. Broken furniture lies scattered about. A line of footprints in the dust reaches from the door to the stairs. |
Closer examination by the party reveals
that the splintered
white material is bone,
and that there are brown
stains on the walls,
floor, and broken furniture.
<bucket, shelf, pegs, wood billets, shrine,
barrel>
<6 rats;
AC 7; MV 15"; HD 1/4; hp 1; D 1>
<THACO 20n1>
<XP 6 each>
| The stairwell is dimly lit by moonbeams
<Vision and Visibility, WSG>
flickering through arrow slits in the <Fighting in Poor Visibility, WSG> southern wall. The upper part of the stairs going up has been bricked up. At the foot of the stairs, partially hidden in darkness, is a barely discernible wooden door. |
The escaped slave
was apparently lucky
going up these stairs for starting halfway
down the steps are 3 trip wires placed
1 after the other at varying intervals.
If all
3 of the trip wires are not discovered
(requiring 3 find traps rolls to find all
3), at least 1 of the traps will be triggered.
2 large globes will
fall from the
ceiling where they were hidden in shadow.
1 will fall at the foot of the stairs and
explode with a blinding flash of light
and a
dull rumbling accompanied by the tinkling
of breaking glass. The flash will blind
all <Blindness, PH>
party members on the steps or in the room
for 4 rounds. The 2nd globe will fall
at the head of the steps and will burst,
releasing about 3,000 round glass beads.
If a
character is standing in that same spot,
the
globe will strike him for 1-6 points of
damage.
The beads bounce down the steps,
striking the characters' feet and legs,
scattering
all over. After 1 round it will be quiet
again. The first character to move without
stating his or her intention to be very
careful
will slip on the glass beads and go tumbling
down the steps, causing all those in front
to
fall also. Those who fall take 1-6 points
of
damage plus 1 point for each person who
falls on them. The players may avoid falling
by not moving while blinded or by stating
their intention to move cautiously, either
by
crawling or moving with a sweeping motion
to remove the heads in front of them. No
guards come to investigate the noise.
The door
at the foot of the stairs is latched
shut from the inside. Once all the party
exits
and steps into the outer courtyard a breeze
<wind = x>
springs up and slams the door shut, latching
it. There is no latch to open the door
from
the outside, so a dagger
must be used to
raise the latch. This takes 2 rounds
| This room appears to once have been
used for warding off invaders who had broken through the gate and were pouring through the passage below, as there are murder holes in the floor for pouring oil on invaders. Opposite the door used <Grenade-Like Missiles, DMG> to enter, is another door. The room is dusty and filled with cobwebs. There are no discernible footprints in the dust. The <Vision and Visibility, WSG> room is only lit by what little moonlight filters in through arrow slits. A thick paste of dust coats the floor. |
This room is empty. Several murder
holes
in the floor open into the avenue between
the drawbridge
and the outer courtyard. <link>
The chains and pulleys for raising the
portcullis
and drawbridge are in this room, but
will not budge as the winch below is locked.
<Open Locks, PH>
In one corner of the room is an old wooden
cask which contains about an inch of rancid,
black oil.
Beneath cobwebs against one
wall is a collapsed, rusty
iron tripod. The
dust in this room clings to a residue of
spilt
oil and makes a thick, gooey paste on the
floor. As the characters progress farther
into
the room, they hear a faint moaning coming
from somewhere beyond the far eastern
door. Party members with Wisdom
scores
of 14
or higher begin to get the feeling that
they are being watched.
-
| This room appears to once have been
used as a guardroom. About the room are broken benches and tables. In one <trestle table (x2), small table, low table (x2), long table> comer lies the ribs and iron rings of a sundered barrel. The furniture shows signs of having been hacked apart. The ceilings and walls are coated with dusty cobwebs, and shards of a brittle white material litter the floor. Shadows in the room are deep and velvety, despite the arrow slits. There is a door in the opposite site wall, while on the south side of the room appears to be a closet. |
Upon entering this room, all party members
must make a saving
throw vs. Spells.
Those individuals who fail notice nothing,
but those who save hear the song of the
crickets take on the din of a distant battle.
The battle noises have a dreamy and unreal
quality. These characters (who made their
save) also start to see motion out of the
corner
of their eyes, but when they turn to confront
it, there is nothing there. Loud noises
cause the strange sounds to cease, but
they
resume after a brief interval.
Behind a <low> table in the north end
of the
room lies a partial skeleton of a man:
his rib
cage, spine, skull and left arm. If the
room is
searched, the party will first notice its
bony
hand draped over the edge of the table.
The
white shards are
bones and this room is also
spattered with brown
stains. There is nothing
of value in the room.
The closeted space is open to the east and
has no door. It is a garderobe or latrine
which opens onto a pit beneath the wall.
3 Rats: AC
7; MV 15”; HD 1/4; hp 2;
#AT 1; D 1
THACO 20n1
XP 3
| The eastern wing of this wall walk is a
dusty, cobwebbed, narrow corridor with arrow slits every 10 feet in both walls. The corridor appears unused. At the end of the passage, stuck in a joint in the wall, is the burned out remains of a torch. A flickering light plays across the wall at the end of the uassare. |
As a party enters this corridor, a low
moaning begins and all characters hear
the
din of a distant battle
in the song of the
crickets. The pale flickering light
has no
apparent source, but this cannot be determined
until one gets closer to the light. The
corridor is cold
and the party's breaths will <temperature = x>
fog. Any light brought here will begin
to
flicker and the party will see their shadows
seem to take on the form of ancient warriors
in battle. In this room, long ago, a group
of
human guardsmen
made their last stand.
As the light
at the end of the hall is
approached it will be seen to actually
be a
glowing mist. The mist will slowly take
on
the shape of a wasted man with black
holes
where his eyes should be. The moaning will
echo from all around and the figure will
reach forward to touch a character. Any
attack on the figure will cause it to disappear.
2 rounds later the figure will reappear
between the party and the exit.
This figure is a haunt,
the restless spirit of
a person who died leaving a vital task
unfinished.
A haunt is required to remain within
6" of the place where the person died until
the haunt can possess a body in order to
complete the unfinished task. Since haunts
are tied to the area where they died, they
cannot be turned or dispelled by <priests>.
The touch of a haunt drains 2 points of
Dexterity
every time it makes a successful
hit on a character. As the character's
Dexterity
is drained, he becomes subject to the negative
adjustments due to low Dexterity (PH,
page 11). The victim feels an increasing
numbness. When the character's Dexterity
reaches 0, the haunt possesses the body.
Once possessed, the body's Dexterity
returns to normal.
Once the haunt
has possessed a person's
body, it tries to complete the mission
left
unfinished by its death.
In the new body the
haunt is no longer tied to the area of
its
death and may leave. However, if the possessed
body dies before the task is completed,
then the spirit must haunt the place
where the possessed body was slain.
Once a haunt
completes its task it returns
control of the borrowed body to the owner,
and passes on to its final REST. When the
haunt leaves a possessed body, the character
has a Dexterity
of 3. Lost Dexterity is
regained at a rate of 1 point per turn
of complete
REST.
If the character a haunt
is trying to possess
is of opposite alignment
(good vs. evil),
the haunt becomes furious and tries to
strangle the victim. The haunt fastens
its
ghostly hands around the character's throat
on a successful hit. The victim takes 1
point
of damage
the first round, 2 the second, 4
the third and so on, doubling each round
until the victim is dead or the haunt
defeated.
Haunts can
only be hurt by silver or magickal
weapons or by fire.
Silver
weapons
only
cause 1 point of damage
per hit, while magickal
weapons do 1 point plus any magickal
bonuses per hit. Normal fire
also causes
only 1 point of <fire>
damage per blow, hut magickal
fire causes full damage. When a haunt
reaches 0 HP
it dissipates to
reform in 1 week. Only an exorcism
spell
will destroy a haunt permanently.
Because haunts are tied to an area, the
best defense is to simply walk away. A
hold
person
spell will force a haunt to leave a
possessed body.
This haunt
was once a sergeant of the
guard named Jon. His task had been to
defend the inner walkway and the trapdoor
at its end from invaders, hut he died as
the
last man of his force, with the knowledge
that he had failed. In order to end his
existence,
Jon must successfully defend the area
against all intruders, either slaying them
or
driving the intruders off. Jon may enter
the
eastern guard post, but may not follow
any
further as this is 60 feet from where he
died.
Haunt: AC
0; MV 6”; HD 5; hp 23; #AT 1;
D drain 2 points of Dexterity;
AL LG
THACO 15
XP 267
At the end of the corridor in the ceiling
is
a wooden trapdoor.
There is no ladder leading
to the trapdoor, but the bolt holes,
where a ladder was once bolted to the wall,
can be seen. The trapdoor is barred from
above by the fearful hobgoblins.
If the party
attempts to open the trapdoor and climb
through, the hobgoblins will sound the
alarm and will be waiting to shoot
missiles,
at +4 to hit, at anything which comes up
lhrough the trapdoor.
If 1 of the party members is possessed,
he or she learns that an iron
box with 37 gp,
51 sp, 317
cp, and a ruby ring worth 200
gp
is buried under 1 of the floor’s paving
stones. The possessed person will be able
to
tell this to the party only after the haunt
is
destroyed or expelled. The box cannot be
discovered otherwise because the covering
stone is cemented
in place.
>>3.
