The Troubled Well - Blueholme Adventure

This adventure is for 1st - 3rd level characters for Blueholme.  It may end up being part of an expanded set of adventures.  Your comments are welcome.

INTRODUCTION

Strange noises have been coming from the old well.  The local townsfolk have been worried about the water supply.  A rash of farm animals have gone missing, which may be connected.  Hugo the local magistrate wants someone to explore the well and report back with their findings. 

All the underground area below the well is natural caverns, with rocky outcroppings and stlagtites.  A slow moving river runs through most of the dungeon.  Some of the rooms have been carved out by a seasoned miners hand, squaring up walls and flooring.  The map is 10 foot squares.  The ceilings are jagged and the heights vary.  

A.)  WELL ENTRANCE

The well is 60 feet deep.  A rickety basket holds an old corded rope for bringing up the water bucket.  The air from the well smells distinctly noxious, breathing it in makes you cough. 

    • Using the provided rope:  There is a 3-6 chance that the rope will break per PC using it.  Roll 1d6 to see how many feet they fall.  1d6 dmg per 10 feet. 

    • Using torches:  Any torch light in the well or at the bottom will cause a minor explosion of gas.  Anyone in the area of the well shaft, or bottom will receive 1d6 damage on a failed save vs breath.

    • Bottom of well:  The bottom of the well is about 4 feet deep with water, which flows to the east.  

B.)  MAGICAL MINE

The room is being excavated by large whirring machines that run by themselves.  There are belts, pulleys, levers all over the place.  The north wall has a large hole in it.  In the centre of the room is a pile of rubble that shines in any torchlight.  There are exits to the east and south.  The water flows thru this room, and is six feet deep in the middle.  

    • The excavating machines are magical, they can be stopped by dispel magic or by manually dismantling them.

    • There are a series of 6 tripwires spread out the room, above the water line.  While searching the room there is a 3-6 chance per round of setting one off, unless the PCs are being extremely careful.  Adjust to 1-6.  If any of the tripwires are set off a group of goblins will come to investigate.  

    • 4 Goblins, AC 6, HD 1d6, Att: Dagger, DMG 1d6, DEX 11, MV 15.  The goblins carry 10 SPs between them.  They won’t spill who is in charge of the machines, even if they face certain death.  

C.)  CARCASS CAVE

This natural cave is filled with rotting carcasses of woodland animals.  A web hangs from the ceiling.  The floor is bone dry.  You can hear nature sounds coming from the west passage.  

    • The west passage leads to the outside, on the outskirts of town. 

    • Giant Spider:  There is a giant spider resting down the west passage.  The passage is filled with webs.  If the PCs spend more than 2 rounds investigating the room, the spider will enter to check on its prized food. 

    • Giant Spider:   AC 6, HD 2+2, Att: Bite*, DMG 1d6, DEX 13, MV 25.  *On a successful bite the spider will secret a vast acting paralyzing venom.  Save vs paralysis.

    • Treasure:  Amongst the remains is the carcass of a human wizard, he carries 3 first level scrolls, 30 GPs in a pouch and a magical staff. 

D.)  BARRACKS & CELL

A ramshackle room containing a cell made of rusting iron bars, a few small cots and an oaken barrel being used as a table.  A few suits of leather armour hang from hooks in the ceiling.  

    • The room contains 6 Goblins, a tied up Gnome prisoner. 

    • The gnome is named “Xveev” claims to have been press ganged into helping the Goblins and a surly dwarf into opening an underground tomb.  He was the one who invented the machines, and keeps them running.  He says that his family is being held hostage deepr in the caves.  (He is lying, he is the mastermind of this operation. The reason he stays in the cell is because he prefers to have a guard near him at all times.) 

    • The goblins will be cautious, but attack if they feel threatened.  They have been told not to give anything away about the Gnome.  

    • 6 Goblins, AC 6, HD 1d6, Att: Dagger, DMG 1d6, DEX 11, MV 15.  

    • Xveev The Gnome, AC 9, HD 1d6, Att:  Dagger, DMG 1d6, DEX 14, MV 25.  The gnome has the following scrolls stashed in his pants.  Magic Missile, Charm person.  He has a key for room G.  It is brass and has a small rune etched into the side of it.  

E.)  UNEARTHED TOMB

Rubble and dust fill this room.  The sounds of pick axes striking stone emanate from within.  

    • There are two Gnomes tied up on a poll in the middle of the room.  They appear to be malnourished.  (Save VS Spell.  This is an illusion). 

    • There are two goblins and a dwarf working on clearing an area to the south.  This maybe the door to a long forgotten tomb.   

    • The dwarf wears a metallic collar.  This is a magical device that acts as a permanent charm person spell.  He is exhausted and moving slowly.  It looks as if he’s been working without sleep for days on end.  The collar can be pulled off with a feat of strength, this will cause the dwarf to take 1d3 of damage automatically.  Dispel magic will render the collar inert.  The dwarf has no recollection of how he got here and what he was doing.  

    • 2 Goblins, AC 6, HD 1d6, Att: Dagger, DMG 1d6, DEX 11, MV 15.  

    • 1 Dwarf  AC 9, HD 1d6-1, Att:  Pickaxe,  DMG 1d6, DEX 4, MV 10.

G.)  LOCKED ROOM

The door to this room is locked, and the door is quite sturdy.  

    • The gnome has the key to this room.  It can be broken down by at least 3 characters.  On a roll of 1 – 8 on a d10 they will be successful.  This will make enough noise to arouse a few more goblins to investigate. 

    • If the door is broken down rather than being unlocked, the pressure plate trap on the other side of the door will be operational.  Anyone stepping 10 feet into the room will cause the trap to go off.  Save vs paralysis for half damage.  A large wooden beam will come flying down from the ceiling doing 1d6+2 damage.  

    • Inside the room are 3 dwarves that are related to the dwarf in room E.  They are emaciated. 

    • The dwarves will happily hand over a treasure map that they found in return for safe passage to the surface.  

AFTERWARD

Xveev the gnome was trying to find a buried stone that could command elementals.  He was intending on bringing this back to his underground village.  His chieftan had commanded that it would help with their war against the dwarves.  In a previous skirmish the dwarves had killed the gnomish high priestess and this was to be used for revenge. 

O-SeRial level 1 room 11

11  The door to this room is ajar, the hinges barely holding on.  Peering inside you can see three green skinned bodies lying on the floor.  A makeshift table made of refuse leans against one wall.

If the goblins are examined, they are bodies are not disfigured from a fight.  However they have small puncture holes on their necks.  If a search for treasure is made, under a small flagstone is a bag of 30 CPs and 10 SPs.  The goblins do not have any decent weapons or armour.  Scrawled in goblin on one of the walls is the following:

Meet near the dwarves, infiltrate and take the gold.

New adventure in the works

Just started working on a new adventure this week.  I decided to use blueholme, as it's just a wonderful system to write for.  As well I went and mined Dyson's blog for a cool map.  (something that I am probably going to do more often!).

The adventure is inspired by a local metal band that I'm friends with.  I actually talked to them about it and they are super cool with it!  So there will be a little cross promo going on, which is going to be fun.

There is something that I really like about writing adventures for levels 1 -3.  Maybe its because a LOT of games start off that way.  Maybe it's the ease of having less rules, less damage, the very real possibility of character death (that's probably it actually).

I can't honestly wait for the new Blueholme Journeymanne Rules to be in my hands, however from a writers stand point the Prentice rules just turn my crank!

I'll keep you posted on the progress.  Thus far I have 19 rooms.  Now to just come up with a cool name for the series of adventures I have planned (yah I just said it... series.....).  Stay tuned!

Delve into the "Pyramid Of The Lost King"

I'm ecstatic that this has been released to the public at large!  Somehow I managed to wing myself into adding a table to this project and getting my name in the credits (this seems to be a Modus Operandi of mine).  When I first found G+ and the OSR community, one of the first people I talked with was +Johua De Santo and +Frank Turfler (super nice dudes! super supportive!).  We have this interesting friendship that has swirled around helping each other, discussing RPGs, our current products.  It's really nice to have people to bounce ideas off of.

I totally understand the process of creating something as expansive as POTLK, I've tried personally, and I've failed miserably.  It's not easy.  Taking a nugget of an idea and bringing it to fruition is one of the most difficult things to do.  The longer it takes, the more the end of the road seems so far off.  As a "writer" (I honestly shouldn't claim to be) I get it, you are always thinking about it, in some cases maybe you are loosing sleep over it.  Finally when its done and you birth this thing and give it out to the public and go "here! enjoy!" there is a sense of wonderment, amazement, nervousness and anxiety because you have no idea how its going to come across.  While we may not put these things out for our own vanity, it plays a bit of a role.  If someone tears you new one because you had a typo, or a inappropriate HD count for a monster you feel terrible.

I honestly can't wait to run this adventure.  I've read it, re-read it, saw it from its initial stages to re-writes, to final completion.  I've got excited over art, tables, reading it I've got ideas floating around in my head on what I want to do with it.

Whenever it's my turn to DM for our 5e group, I think this will be the module to run!  First because I really want to, second because I can mold it to the way i want to run it, and third because I know that the players won't grab a copy and spoil it for themselves (they are big fans of wotc and collect everything, despite my insistence that the DIY OSR scene is fantastic!).

So without further ado, here's the brief write up on the adventure.  The PDF is currently $10. Softcover $15.

You can grab the adventure here.

Millions of year ago the lands of Usarm were devastated by a great Cataclysm in the final days of the war between the Gods of Usa’arm and the demonish threat of the N’zi. In the wake of a final assault by the Usa’arm the very fabric of reality was torn asunder flooding the world with arcane energies and rips that sundered other worlds and realities … and in the process sank Usarm into the dark depths of ruin.

Now, Usarm is home to races and monsters dragged through those rips; refugees who now call a world ravaged by magic home. Wars between some races is common, and a dark threat rises in the North and another in the far south. A south that until now was left unexplored by the peoples of Usarm.

Intrigued by the prospect of riches the Merchants Guilds of Newrk stretch their arms and money into the great southern desert of the Saragubi hoping to find new peoples and new cultures to trade with and to grow more wealthy by.

Pyramid of the Lost King is designed for play with Frog God Games Swords & Wizardry and can be enjoyed by characters of the first to five level and is as much a campaign as it is an adventure. Within this book lay the trade city of Basq, the Rift Bridge, the Saragubi Desert, and hours of adventure for all who are foolhardy enough to venture into the Desert.