Episode 6: Break-In
By this point in the adventure, the PCs have discovered the entrance
to the
crypt, and have discovered that the orcs
and
goblins they'd left behind are not
so far behind
after all. In the climax to Treasure Hunt,
they must survive the dangers that lie behind
and before them and escape the island before
its final destruction.
The Current Time
The characters have been underground
quite long enough to have lost any real track
of Time. They know that it's
hours after they
descended; they also know it must not be
nightfall yet, or they would be dead. But they
have no way of knowing how much time is left
until nightfall, and the urgency of their mission
should be weighing heavily on them.
The Crypt
Here are pertinent details on the crypt, as
the characters find it:
14. Corridor Begins
The secret door at 8
opens inward into a
rough-hewn tunnel cut out of stone. The air
of the tunnel is danker and less wholesome
than that of the catacombs, but it is not completely
foul.
If the characters choose, they can pile up
crates in front of the secret door
before closing
it. This should camouflage it and keep it from
being discovered as quickly as it might.
The corridor, after only a few feet, makes a
turn southeast and runs straight for hundreds
of feet -- 450 feet, if the characters take the
Time and effort to pace it out.
Along its
course, it slowly rises; dwarf characters
think
that it gains about 30 feet of altitude by the
time it ends.
15. Corridor Ends.
The corridor makes a final bend to the
south and then opens into area 16.
16. Crypt Chamber
This is an enormous chamber, with a partially
smooth and partially rough-hewn floor,
and rough-hewn walls, not less than 90 feet by
80 feet, plus several chambers in a niche to the
east. A dwarf or a character with the
mining
secondary skill, after examining the walls and
floor, can tell that it was once a natural cave
but has been artificially widened by men.
The
craftsmanship is too crude for dwarves, far too
sophisticated for orcs or other, lesser
semihumans.
One section of the south wall (21) is smooth
stone; dwarf or miner characters can tell that
it's an artificial wall erected within an
artificially-widened opening -- perhaps the
exit?
The contents of areas 17, 18, and
19
are visible
to characters in area 16. The existence of
chamber 20 is obvious, but it is bricked up
and out of sight.
17. Empty Crypt
This crypt is identical to 18 and 19
except
that the northern wall is rough, not brick, and
it's completely empty.
18. Viledel's Crypt
This chamber is 30 feet deep and 20 feet
wide, with rough stone on the east wall and
brick walls north and south.
In the exact center of it, laid out on an upraised
slab of stone, is the body of a man bedecked
in rich blue garments (not tattered)
and dulled scale mail, with a mace
laid out beside <mace=x>
his right hand and a golden coronet on his
brow.
Roughly carved in the front of the slab is the
inscription:
Viledel
Sea King
Tamed the Islands
Laid Low by Pirates
Unknown to the characters, it was carved by
Keestake, 60 years ago, when he was still
young and grieving for his slain sovereign.
The flesh of Viledel is not decayed, as Keestake
predicted. It is pallid, with bruises and
cuts still showing vividly, though the blood in
the cuts is brown, not red. His eyes are open,
but do not move.
When the characters MOVE close enough to
get a good look at Viledel, see "Royal Greetings,
" following.
19. Queen Liala's Crypt
Laid out in fashion identical to Viledel is his
lady wife.
She looks about 40 years old and would be
attractive, but she is (understandably) cold
and pallid in death, with one great
brown
stain in the chest of her once-lustrous green
robe; her hair is blonde and shining, her eyes
open and still as they contemplate the ceiling.
Keestake's crude inscription on the front of
her slab reads:
Queen Liala
Laid Low by Pirates
Rests Beside the Sea King
Again, if the player characters come near to
her -- within 30 feet -- or near to her husband,
see "Royal Greetings," following.
20. Prince Horedel's Crypt
This crypt, of course, was set up long before
the destruction visited on the island; it is a
proper tomb. The body of Prince Horedel is
within a solid brick wall. On the front wall,
facing into area 16, is a bronze plaque, professionally
engraved (not like the crude inscriptions
made by Keestake):
Here lies Prince Horedel
Brought Down by Illness
In the Twentieth Year of Viledel's Reign
Within those walls is the boat designed to
carry the prince away when the dead are raised
by the gods. The boat is:
Small galley
Hull value 7
30 feet long, 8 feet wide
6-9 mph under sail, 5-8 mph under oars
The sail, oiled and bound, is in fair shape
and is sea-worthy; the oars are sound; the hull
seems to be sound, and is.
Dead Prince Horedel, wrapped up in the
linen dressing of the dead, lies in the center of
the boat. He's surrounded by grave goods:
plates and goblets and forks and spoons and
knives of gold and silver, a set of ordinary
chain mail, bastard
sword, dagger, and small
chests of coins -- about 600 gp <$6000> in
the chests.
The arms and armor are richly made and inlaid,
but otherwise are perfectly normal objects.
21. Sliding Exit
At the south end of the chamber is the way
out--an artificial wall, constructed with another
ingenious device like that at area 2.
When the lever to the right of the exit is
pulled, there is a great crashing sound and the
entire artificial wall breaks apart into its component
stones and tumbles forward into...
22. THE OCEAN
YES, immediately beyond area 21 is the
ocean. The instant the exit of 21 is opened, a
great blast of cold _ wind
and rain crashes into
the chamber--fresh air, but it's almost dark.
See "Launching," following.
Royal Greetings
Once the pPCs approach within
30 feet of either Viledel or his queen, both--
as the players might expect--sit up.
Yes, Viledel's ring, now long lost, was a ring
of wishes, and the imprecise,
agonized, and
foolish prayer that Keestake poured into it 60
years ago made the Sea King and his lady into
something other than human.
In effect, both the Sea King and his lady are
zombies, even though they are not rotting
and inelegant like normal zombies.
Viledel: AC 5 ; HD 2 (hp 10); MV 6" ; THAC0
15; #AT 1; Dmg 2-9; AL N. <footman's
mace?>
Viledel
AC: 5 (scale mail +1)
HD: 2
hp: 10
MV: 6"
#AT: 1
Dmg: 1d6+2 (footman's mace
+1)
THACO: 15
AL: N
Liala: AC 8; HD 2 (hp 6); MV 6" ; THAC0 16;
#AT 1; Dmg 1-8; AL N.
Liala
AC: 8
HD: 2
hp: 6
MV: 6"
#AT: 1
Dmg: 1-8
THACO: 16
AL: N
Having risen, they appropriately move out
among their new guests and try to kill them--
Viledel with his mace, Liala with her undead <mace=x>
strength. Though the characters may not realize
it, the Sea King and his queen are the final
real obstacle to their escape from the island.
Viledel and Liala fight until destroyed, and
then the characters can set about the final
preparations for their escape.
Getting At the Boat
To get at the boat, the characters have first
to break through the brick wall.
The brick wall effectively has AC 0 -- even
though a character can be presumed to hit it
automatically with every blow, only those
blows rolled with "to hit" numbers sufficient
to hit AC 0 cause damage.
Pounding-type weapons -- <bats>,
staves,
maces, etc. -- cause normal damage. All other
weapons cause only half damage.
40 points of damage create<s> a man-sized
hole into the chamber, and another 40 points
widen it sufficiently to get the boat out. The
characters will doubtless want to check out the
boat and its cargo -- just in case the bonny
prince decides to sit up and take action. (He
doesn't.)
Timing the Finale
If everything goes right, the finale should
work out something like this:
The PCs enter chamber 16 and
begin prowling around. When they get close
enough to the king and queen, those worthy
individuals get up and attempt to murder
them.
Once that combat is concluded, the
player
characters set about opening the exit and
breaking through the wall to the prince's
crypt. This takes a while. The sky gets darker
and the wind gets louder outside.
Once the hole is open wide enough, the
characters have to slowly and laboriously drag
the heavy galley out through the
hole and get
it to the mouth of the chamber.
But we've forgotten the element of pursuit.
How close are the orcs and goblins
on their
tail?
Determine this by gauging how damaged
and tired the characters are. If they are still
fairly undamaged and now possess new arms
and armor, have a mixed party of orcs and
goblins burst into the chamber just as the Heroes
are starting to get the boat into position.
Provide 2 enemies for every 3 PCs -- this will give the characters
the
option of ganging up on their enemies, or
keeping the odds even and using the remaining
Heroes to launch the boat.
Orc Leader
AC: 8 (leather)
HD: 1
hp: 6
MV: 9"
#AT: 1 (bardiche)
Dmg: 2-8/3-12
THACO: 19
AL: LE
Orc with bardiche
AC: 10
HD: 1 (bardiche)
hp: 3
MV: 9"
#AT: 1
Dmg: 2-8/3-12
THACO: 19
AL: LE
Orc with axe
AC: 10
HD: 1
hp: 4
MV: 9"
#AT: 1 (battle axe)
Dmg: 1-8/1-8
THACO: 19
AL: LE
Goblin leader
AC: 8 (leather)
HD: 1
hp: 2 <1>
MV: 6"
#AT: 1 (spear)
Dmg: 1-6/1-8 <-1 damage>
THACO: 19
AL: LE
Goblin with spear
AC: 10
HD: 1-1
hp: 2 <1>
MV: 6"
#AT: 1 (spear)
Dmg: 1-6/1-8 <-1 damage>
THACO: 20
AL: LE
Goblin with bow
AC: 10
HD: 1-1
hp: 4 <3>
MV: 6"
#AT: 2 (short bow)
Dmg: 1-6/1-6 <-1 damage>
THACO: 20
AL: LE
If the characters are tired and damaged, in
spite of their new goodies, let them launch the
boat, clamber in, and begin rowing. In fact,
let them get about 20 yards out on the roiling
water before the orcs and goblins -- A huge
force -- come bursting in. They launch a flight
of arrows at the Heroes, which stick in
the
mast, oars, benches -- even the characters on
especially good rolls, but it would be bad
sportsmanship to kill a PC at this <NO QUARTER>
point in the adventure.
Destruction of the Island
As the characters row away from the island,
they'll be tossed and buffeted by the mounting
fury of the winds and waves, enough
so
that the sailor characters may become worried
about their chances for SURVIVAL.
But they'll be able to see that things are
even worse on the island.
| The sky overhead is completely covered in
storm clouds, but you can still see the island -- it seems to be lit by a faint glow, enough for you to see what's going on<.> As you watch, tornados -- 10 or 12, at
Hurricane-force winds are scouring the
The orc and goblin
boats on the beaches
By the Time you're a quarter of a mile
And that's just what happens: by the
|
That's the end of the Treasure Hunt. The
Goddess has had her vengeance, the orcs
and
goblins are slain, and the PCs--
no longer a party of innocent prisoners, Now a
trimmer band of adventurers -- is free to sail
wherever they wish.
Epilogue
Let the characters row and sail where they
wish, over the next few days. They may wish to
make for the nearest large, semi-civilized port
(Dennik), sell their galley, and
go their separate
ways. Perhaps they'll stay together and
sail the seas as an adventuring party.
Ca$h Value of the Last Chamber
You can assess the cash value of the items removed
from the crypt of the Sea King as follows:
The expensive dinnerware: 1,000 gp total. <$10,000>
The prince's arms and armor:
chain mail: 150
gp <$1500>
shield: 30 gp <$300>
<shield=x>
bastard sword: 75 gp <$750>
dagger: 5 gp <$50>
The chest of gold: 600 gp <$6000> <chest=x>
Viledel's coronet: 500 gp <$5000>
The Prince's galley: 10,000 gp <$100,000>
Experience Value of Magical
Items
The characters who end up with these items
receive the experience total value for the
items
Viledel's Goods;
scale mail + 1:
500 xp
mace +1: 150 xp <mace=x>
Ca$h Value of Saved Treasures
If the characters saved some ov the items
found earlier in the adventure, they are
worth
Seal ov the Sea King: 1,000 gp
Map showing location of Westhaven on Pandira island:
500 gp (to authorities) <link>
The Reward for Melisana
Melisana, if she makes it back to Ventris
Island,
is true to her word and wheedles a reward
out of her father: 2,000 gp.
Unless otherwise persuaded, Melisana returns
to her original plan of taking over her father
's business when he retires. A particularly
persuasive or Romantic character interested in
her could convince her to remain with the
other characters. In either case, though, when
she achieves her 1st level, she becomes a
priestess (cleric) of The Goddess.
Experience
Assign experience as follows:
for the zombies:
88 points
for each slain orc
or goblin: 13 points
Add up the XP for the monsters
SLAIN and divide it equally among the
players
who participated in their death.
Add up the GP value of the last
chamber; that becomes the XP
total to divide among all characters who made
it alive out of that chamber.
The characters who ended up with the mace <mace=x>
and scale mail get the XP values
for them, as listed above.
Gold <Silver>
Korinn Archipelago custom is that all survivors
of such an expedition equally split the
gold value of the treasure haul.
If the characters
don't wish to do this, let them work it out
among themselves. Whatever the case, the
Home port of each character, unless the characters
think to keep these things very secret, demands
a salvage tax of 25 percent on all the
gold they bring out of the island of Viledel -- a
slight diminishment to their glory, but not
one that will affect the stories told about their
adventure.
That's the end of the adventure. The characters
have experience, wealth, companions,
and a whopping story to tell at the inn.
Some
of them, after the last batch of experience
from the treasure haul, probably have additional
experience levels as well.
If you wish to continue adventures in the
Korinn Archipelago with these characters,
Appendix 2 has some helpful information
along those lines.