Temple of Zaphron, Goddess of Frogs

Encounter Table d6

1-3    Kobolds      1d6

4-5    Skeletons    2d6

6       Merak

Merak the Unexpected

MU4 AC9 MV9

Sleep

Polymorph

Lightning

Phantasmal Forces

Kobolds

HD1/2 AC7 MV6

Formation: Shields, Spears, Darts

Skeletons

HD1/2 AC7 MV6

Shields, helmets, spears

Reassemble unless burned / crushed

1 Treasure Chamber

Pit trap, 10' immediately before the door

Treasury

Chest, Treasure, Small, poison-needle on latch

1,500gp steel ring with adamant stone; weight 100pcs

2 Medium Diamonds 100 each (200 total); 4 Small Diamonds 50 each (200 total); 6 Small Rubies 50 each (300 total); 2 Small Pearls 50 each (100 total); 4 Small Sapphires 50 each (200 total); 2 Small Opals 50 each (100 total); gems total value 1Kgp; weight 200pcs

300gp; 400sp; total pcs value 500gp; weight 700pcs

Total value: 3Kgp

Total weight: 1Kpcs

Armory

Shield +1

Chainmail +1

Helmet +1

Sword +1: Windbiter (Common)

    Lawful

    Int: 8 Ego: 3, Empathy

    Detect Magic

    Detect Metal & What Kind

Dagger +1

Bow +1

Potion of Heroism

Potion of Invisibility

Scroll Protection Undead

2 Trick Exit Room

Two levers to left of large locked double doors

Lever Left Up: Green

Lever Right Up: Blue

Left  Down / Right Up: Green Lightning bolt

Left up / Right Down: Door open + Green Lightning bolt

Left Down / Right Down: Door open (no lightning)

3 Hidden Treasure Vault

Bucket, Acid, above secret door: avoidable if look up before entry

Chest, Treasure, Locked, Large

5K Brass Urn Studded with Tiger’s Eyes; weight 100pcs

Large Emerald 500gp; 4 Medium Diamonds 100each (400gp total); 2 Medium Topaz 50each (100gp total); total gems value: 1Kgp; weight 70pcs

1Kgp; 2Ksp; 4Kcp; total pcs value: 3Kgp; weight 7Kpcs

Total value: 9Kgp

Total weight: 7,170pcs

4 Connection

Empty: straw, mud

Merak flees through this room, gone by the time PCs unstick the door.

5 Tapestry Hall

Tapestry of Frog God Zaphron shooting green lightning bolts.

Unknown language says poem about Zaphron.

6 Merak’s Study

Merak (see above) attacks (if party noisy, Protection, from scroll, before arrival):

Sleep; Polymorph; Lightning; Phantasmal Forces

Leaves immediately upon taking damage: skips to phantasmal force as distraction; door stuck behind him.

Desk, chair, chez lounge, ash tray with cigar, side table with brandy snifter and glass; on Desk:

Parchment, ink-well, quill

lvl1 spell book, complete

Scroll Protection Magic

Scroll, Arcane: Detect Evil, Wizard Lock, Dispell Magic

Books, 3: Astrologous Minor, Herbiary Infernum, Amphibicon

Map to treasure: 3. Hidden Vault

7 Sanctuary of Zaphron

Door behind idol, stuck

Idol of hollow clay painted gold with two emerald eyes:

1K; 1K “The Eyes of Zaphron;” Magnetically attracted to one another; weight 100pcs each, 200pcs total

Pedestal triggers successive portcullises if treasure disturbed

Treasure chest with giant emerald latch serves as contribution basin

1K emerald latch (part of cask)

3K Frog Crown: Green Gold with Aquamarines; weight 100pcs

300gp; 300sp; 300cp; total pcs value: 525gp; weight 900pcs

Total value: 6,525gp

Total weight: 1,200pcs

Brazier of green fire

Doors, double, stuck

Portcullises left and right, two

Top left: empty; Bottom left: kobolds; Top right: skeletons; bottom right: empty

Note:

Just ran this for a middle school D&D club. I started them off in the main sanctuary, having already triggered the trap with kobolds bearing down. Instant combat. Had their attention! We rolled character information as we needed it! (I'll post how I did that in next post.) Next session: they explored and found the treasures / tricks. Final session: extraction with encumbrance issues (lucky kids had no random encounters!) Then we discussed character creation.

So, I went "backwards," and now they are hooked!

Next up: referees Workshop: Part I. Presenting; Part II. Preparing.

Fight on!

A Dungeon a Day Challenge

I found these great composition notebooks. They have graph paper on the top half of each page and lines on the bottom half. These beg to be used for dungeons, levels and lairs: map on top, key on bottom!

I've stalled out on my mini module project to do the paralysis that goes with perfectionism.

So I've decided to challenge myself. I am going to draw and key a dungeon (level or lair) a day! I already did yesterday and it was a lot of fun.

I really do not enjoy mapping (I do love keying, though!). So this is a challenge to build my chops and perhaps break through a barrier that is keeping me from enjoying something fairly essential to the game. Again, I think it is my perfectionism that keeps me from just doodling at maps. 200 sheets of paper in a cheap composition notebook should help!

I will share what I want to, when I want to, without any blog performance pressure! But I will update every now and then to let you know I am still going on this.

Perhaps this will get me closer to what I meant by the mini modules. And it may help me get back to that project.

Anyone care to join me?

Skeletons In The Closet

MM01 
A Haunted House Mini-Module for Normal Characters (Levels 1-3)

Introduction

Use this mini-module for character levels 1-3; in conjunction with other mini-modules use to represent dungeon levels 1-4. For use with higher-level characters, see end notes.

Background

A powerful Lady, forlorn of her true love fell prey to a trickster medium. She became a Wight through repeated attempts to contact her dead lover. The medium traps the Wight of the Lady in her abandoned house.

Referee Notes

• Describe features and furnishings as a typical victorian mansion
• Characters looking through windows see a grey-blue twilight world of forlorn ghosts and shades (see "exit," below)
• Determine level-based treasure according to relative level of use

All Closets:
2d6 Skeletons: burn or pulverize to prevent magical reassembly in 3 rounds; silver coin in each mouth
AC7 MV6 HD1/2

Underneath all beds hide
Hobgoblin:
AC5 MV9 HD1+1

Link to Campaign NPC

The Wight is ancestor to a powerful Lord who keeps it secret. If PCs inform others, the powerful Lord will prosecute them and ban them from his territories. If PCs put the wight to rest, keep the secret and inform the Lord, he will reward them accordingly.

Rumor Table

1. T Lord Campaign NPC Name don't want nobody knowing about that old place
2. F Nothing in there but rats and roaches
3. T There's a crazy old witch (medium) what lives in there
4. F If you go in there, you'll turn into a ghost yourself!
5. T Legend has it if you put to rest the old lady's Wight you'll get a share in her inheritance!
6. F All the treasure belongs to wicked hobgoblins

Unique Monster

Haunted Rocking Chair
Rocks incessantly of its own; voices of crying baby and lullaby-singing mother
Attacks upon touch; folds in on itself if sat upon (2d6 damage)
All touched: Save vs. "Fear"
AC7 MV3 HD2

Unique Magic Item

Ouija Board of Speak with Dead: Chaotic in alignment: harms characters as per magic swords with each use. Use up to three times per day to ask single question of deceased familiar or for ESP

Entry

Characters who enter through either front or back porch areas see only a dilapidated house full of decaying furniture and cob-webs. Characters who enter from another mini-module enter directly through the chimney or to the stairwell of the second floor if going down to this mini-module from above, or into the fruit cellar beneath the kitchen if going up to this mini-module from below.

Time Element

If characters do not engage Medium in seance, wight appears above table to search for characters 1 turn from their departure from the chamber

Exit

Characters who exit through windows or doors find that the grey-blue twilight realm disappears and that they are in the setting where the referee has placed the house. Referee allows hatch in cellar and attic door when stacking further mini-modules above or below this mini module. Ignore otherwise.

Map

Ground Floor

Second Floor

Key

Ground Floor

Dining

Large dining table set with silver platters and candelabras; dining chairs move of their own
Blow out or snuff candles: save vs. curse
Clues: Guest book on stand has a reminder to the butler "it is rude to have unlighted candles at table;" mural on the wall depicts angels holding candles and demons with snuffers; snuffer on the table cannot be picked up until candles extinguished by other means
Treasure: 12 dining sets of silver and 2 silver candelabras: level treasure in value

Kitchen

2d6 Zombies preparing and serving "meal" of dust and ashes between kitchen and dining
Will eat brains of fallen victims, rendering them zombies
AC8 MV6 HD1

Morning

Room filled with flowers, wreaths and sprays of Lady's funeral: Touch turns to ash

Bathroom

Chanting "Bloody Mary" staring at the mirror in the dark will conjure the Wight through mirror
If Wight already dispatched, wraith appears

Utility

Sinks with ashen and charred remains of previously blasphemous seances

Parlor

Chimney may be used to move between stories; also between mini-modules at referee's discretion
Portrait of Lady above mantle; behind portrait: safe:
Treasure: per level + magic sword
Clues: Portrait slightly crooked; Lady pictured with jewels in her lap; folded note on mantle reads "true riches hide behind mere representations"
Monster: Haunted Rocking Chair (See Unique Monster, above)

Stairwell Up

Trap: Stairs turn to slide (d6: 1-2) per ascending character; may be stopped by jamming something between stairs
Clues: sign in magic above stairwell entry reads "some may not ascend;" marbles on floor in front of stairs; painting to the side depicting children on a slide

Hall

Gas lamps light hall with cool eerie blue: If characters address house, lamps answer yes/no questions dimming once or twice; also alphabet or morse code per referee ability
Skeletons in Hall Closet defend huge sapphire (1Kgp): rings like crystal glass upon touch

Second Floor

Bedroom Top Left

The Lady's Bedchamber: canopy bed
Vanity with chair and mirror flanked by candles that never burn out until removed
Lady appears in mirror when character sits in chair
Jewelry box, save vs. poison gas (clue: poison symbol on lid), inside:
Treasure: per level & 3 gems (large agate 500gp, medium diamond, 500gp and medium pearl 500gp)
One item of Jewelry: The Lady's Elegant Hairpin: (7Kgp) Solid gold with large agate that glows on touch; save vs. geas: character must wear hairpin and seek the admiration of others

Bathroom Top Middle

As per "bathroom," above
Also medicine cabinet contains 1d6 poisons and 1d3 potions, all unlabeled

Bedroom Top Right

The Lost Lord's Bedchamber
Portrait of Lady's lost love: Eyes follow characters movement
Skeletons in closet defend magic armor

Hall

As per "hall" on ground floor, above

Stairwell Down

Trick: Stairwell actually leads up (d6: 1-2) per descending character: Grants access to next mini-module upwards when used in connection with others; Otherwise leads to widow's peak surveying haunted lands
Clues: sign in magic above stairwell entry reads "sometimes you've got to get down to get up;" Picture in hallway of widow's peak above house; bird feathers on the floor

"Bedroom" Bottom Left: NOT BEDROOM but: Seance Chamber

Chimney may be used to move between stories
Round table in area shaped as partial octagon
Ouija Board of Speak with Dead (see Unique Magic Item, above) in middle of table
Chandelier above
Medium sits at table; greets characters; invites to seance
Seance conjures wight over table; Wight attacks
Medium charms characters who resist
If characters dispel or, upon defeat, pray the Wight to Rest in Peace: Wight disappears in exhausted sigh, full level treasure + magic weapon issues from chandalier onto seance table, covered in ectoplasm
Medium MU Lvl 1; Silver Dagger; Spell: Charm
AC9 MV12 HD1
Wight: impervious to normal range-fire: successful attack = 1 life-energy drain; renders killed victim wight
AC5 MV9 HD3

Bathroom Bottom Right

As per "bathroom," above. Also treasure:
Shiny Golden Toilet Seat (500gp) attached to wire triggering guillotine trap from ceiling

NOT DEPICTED

Large fruit cellar accessible through hatch in kitchen and down ladder
Used in connection with other mini-modules, characters find hatch to next level under treasure
Treasure by level
Monster: 1d6 Ghouls emerge from earthen floor
AC6 MV9 HD2

Tiny attic door with ladder above second floor hall grants access to next mini-module when used in connection with others

Modifications for Heroic Characters (Levels 4-7)

Haunted Rocking Chair: HD6 2d6 normal dmg., 3d6 folding bite
3d6 Skeletons in closets wield rusty shields (AC6)
1d6 Hobgoblins under beds
Zombies become ghouls
Ghouls become Wights
Wight becomes 1d3 Wraiths (sisters, perhaps?)
Medium becomes Witch (Warlock, Lvl 8)
Adjust all treasures per relative dungeon level

Modifications for Super-heroic Characters (Levels 8+)

Haunted Rocking Chair: HD12 2 attacks, 3d6 dmg., folding bite poisonous
4d6 Skeletons in closest wear rusty armor (AC3)
Troll under beds
Zombies become Wights
Ghouls become Wraiths
Wight becomes Spectre
Medium becomes Necromancer (Lvl 10)
Adjust all treasures per relative dungeon level

FIGHT ON!