A semi-ruined keep on the edge of the Stoneheart Mountains northward from Prymm is attracting attention and…
Draeliel wants to take it back to set up his Adventurer’s Guild there, and…
Alderman Krastigen wants to clear it out for fear that bandits are setting up within it at a staging ground.
Travel time day and a half by horse or nearly 3 days by foot, across the hills gaining altitude slowly, a few small bits of forest but mostly hills. Winds whipping down from the mountains to the west (left),
Come across small ruin on a hill with trees creeping in. Stuck stone door into a basement is all thats left other than shattered walls and scattered stones. Within the dilapidated two-room basement there is a Carrion Crawler and the corpses of a few adventurers. (450 xp)
Loot! The dead adventurers have 2d10 gold, 5D10 silver, 5d6+20 copper pieces. Candle of the Deep, 2x potions of healing, Potion of Climbing and Potion of Comprehension. Ruined arms and armor.
Once Cleared out, the group can sleep there and if there is a watch set, they can get the drop on the bandits that attack when they sleep.
If the group does not attempt to hide in the ruin, their camp is attacked by 6x Bandits and a Bandit captain (600 xp) and the bandits have advantage on initiative.
[puzzle] cresting a hill and the adventurers roll perception check DC12 to find a group of bandits resting, eating lunch, talking and one look out takin a piss. 3x scouts, 2x Toughs, 4x Warriors, 600 xp members have a Red stylized wolf paw somewhere on their person.
[setback] group surrounded and invited to dinner with the boss. Have to sit through a threatening but pleasant dinner.
The tower is three floors above the hill where it meets the sloping mountain. The first floor is the living space and dining table. The second floor is a workshop and minor smithy and the 3rd floor has a small, armory partially exposed, a broken ladder leads to the crenelated roof. The basement has living space, kitchen, and a tunnel that leads to a collapsed underground space.
Derricus the Dire, Merc Lieutenant, is seated at the head of the table with his wolf pet Nibbles at his side chewing on a chunk of what looks like a human lower leg. Hungry Tekurk the orge is standing behind him, arms crossed with his great axe at his back. Vainne the bandit scout lurks in the corner picking at his nails with a dagger. 4 Warriors wait along the walls.
Derricus waits until all are seated and wine is poured by a warrior before he starts talking. He is excited to introduce himself as Derricus the Dire, Lieutenant to talk about how they have protected the towns in the area, such as Keatonborough and the Village of Mistpoint from the Goblinoids.
Asks who sent them. Enquires if it was that fuckin lying dandy Dalael. Suggests that he is worse than Jarvald the Wolf Lord whom he works for. Jarvald will protect the land and all he asks for is sufficient payment and that those he protects do as he says. Prymm is just afraid. their sad sack of a mayor can’t even bother to care enough to leave his bottle behind and hire them himself.
Do they know what will happen if his men are not here to stop the goblins.
Ultimately he offers to let them leave if they won’t join him and take up with the Blood Wolf Brigade, he can help them take Prymm. Dralael is the only real opposition, the wizard probably won’t even care.
He also insults them as they leave trying to instigate the final fight. “like week schoolkids, walking away with your heads low, too afraid to finish the fight you started.”
[climax] “well, now the party finally begins” proclaims Derricus and a portcullis falls to hold them in unless someone can stop and do a utilize action two turns in a row (one for half, one for all the way and locking in the up position)
Loot! Derricus has two +1 daggers.
The third floor is the armory. lots of debris on the ground and signs of a long dead fire and has the Loot! 10x Walloping Arrows, rope of mending, perfume of bewitching, Cloak of Elvenkind, Vosian Shield of Charging, ersatz eye, orb of direction.
[resolution] If this adventure was played after Gone Fishin’: As the adventurers are leaving the tower, or, if they stay for a long rest after the fight, a messenger from the town of Keatonborough arrives. Looking for Derricus of the Blood Wolf Brigade.
If this was played before Gone Fishin’: He has a tribute from the town, and expresses his concern over whom will protect them. He defends the Brigade.
His name is MacClevin and he has a note from the council stating that they have seen goblins amassing just over the border of the Old World dangerously close to their farmlands and people.
Dralael has settled on a name for his guild. the Guild of Misadventure. Tankard the Calamitous Is on route with a pack of fledgling adventurers to occupy the ruin, which will be known as the Tower of Tribulation and stonemasons will be on their way as soon as word is back that the tower and the immediate lands surrounding it are secure.
This work is shared using the SRD V5.2.1 – Links to DnDBeyond will only work if you own the digital books
Tyson
Obsessive and neurotic collector of little plastic men, novels about the same little plastic men and paints to make the little plastic men pretty. Married to Kera, who puts up with him and pretends that she doesn’t hear him speaking to the little plastic men in between making pew pew noises in the hobby room. Requires adult supervision. A menace to himself but rarely to others. More beard than man