The Iron Keep Part Five- Oh god We're Done Keying the Keep
F0
16 Monster, no treasure
The Ruined Great Hall
The wall and ceiling here has melted and dripped, forming puddles and stalactites on the floor, patterned with the dark stone and the mortar holding them together. The tables have been overturned and even seemingly deliberately broken. The place smells of sulphur.
Hiding in the rubble are 6 Minor Spawns of Chaos. They hope to ambush passersby from under piles of rubble. They do so on a 4 in 6. The sulphurous smell emanates these creatures.
**Minor Spawn of Chaos **
AC: 8; HD: 1.
Move: 30
Attack 1; Damage: 1d6.
Save as: M-U 1; Morale: 9
Special: Half damage from nonmagical sources. Double damage from fire. If killed by fire, explode in a 10 foot radius (save v breath, 2d6 damage).
A 4 foot tall, roughly humanoid shape. Although it's humanoid in shape, its substance is not. It's whatever was hit by chaotic magic transformed into a living being. They smell of the foul magic that spawned them.
17 Monster, no treasure
Bakery
The Fort's bakery has a large oven standing at the back. a trough placed against a wooden screen and several old tables. Most notably hower is the smell of decay. Two corpses of hobgoblins are splayed out in the middle of the room in a far state of decay. There's a layer of fungi overgrowing their bloated bodies.
Two Violet Fungi (OSE) are hiding in this room waiting for their next victims. One is in the trough, the other in the oven.
18 Monster, treasure
Chapel to Saint Mithras
A stained glass window, still remarkably intact, displays Saint Mithras, protector of soldiers, masons and armorsmiths, ofering his sword to King Atrius. A statue of the same Saint slaying a bull is placed below the window on a dias, with a basin as part of the statue at the front, covered with the deep brown stains of dried blood. 8 wooden pews in 4 rows are placed in the room. Against the south wall there are shrines to three other saints; St. Miriam of the Knife, the battlemaiden, to Saint Clement, healer of wounds and lastly to St. Anna the Seeress, who guided Anatolius through the chaos mists back to his keep.
There are 4 zombies (B44) in this room, 3 wearing old leathers and one wearing tattered blue robes and what remains of the distinctive tall hat of an Academy member. Between them they carry 600 SP.
19 Empty, no treasure
Blacksmit's Workshop
Decayed, rusted and dulled tools are scattered over the floor. It seems that they were once on a rack overlooking a workbench, but time, or maybe some struggle had ripped that rack down off the wall. A small force and bellows are placed against the south wall opposite the workbench. In the east corner there are two tons, one rotted through, but the other still contains enough oil for four flasks.
20 Empty, no treasure
Atilliator's Workshop
Three workbenches are placed haphazardly around the room. Several sturdy 8 foot long piles, sanded smooth stand in a corner. Strips of leather and remains of massive arrowheads, near a pound each, are one one of the benches. Several large stone balls, 20 pound each are stacked up in a corner.
F1
16 Monster, Treasure
Armor Cleaning Workshop
The old armor cleaning workshop. Against the eastern wall there's three dummies still carrying old armors, though they have decayed so far as to be irrecoverable. Small bones of animals are strewn along the stairs, as if thrown out. A spider mutant (as per Tarantella, B43) has made its lair in here. She has a human face looking like a wizened old lady, 8 eyes along the forehead, which grows into a massive spider body.
The spider mutant has inserted gems into the eye sockets of two of the mannequins, and has left open holes in the last. These gems are a ruby worth 500 GP, an aquamarine worth 50, and two cats eyes worth 10GP each. Furthermore, there's gold and silver wire stored in one of the desk to the total value (and coin weight) of 200GP and 300SP resp.
17 trap, no treasure
Half-collapsed room
There's a rope-ladder on the floor, spiked into place and ready to be rolled out downards. The Dark Creepers in room 18 have a secret sign prepared to ask the other to roll down the ladder; cooing like a pigeon three times. If both of them are out, they attach a thin fishing wire a foot above eye level attached to the rope to allow it to be pulled down.
The room itself is in shambled. An old book case was in the path of destruction and has half melted away. It's precariously lurching over the edge but has not yet fallen. The books in it have been ruined. A sodden bed is in the south corner of the room.
The door from this room has been trapped. in the corridor there's a poisoned (save V poison, 4d6 damage, plus whatever damage from the crossbow) crossbow at stomach level aimed at the door. If there door is opened carelessly it'll fire at the person doing so. At the top of the foor there's a line of fishing wire, which when pulled unlatches the crossbow.
18 monster, no treasure
Dark Creeper Shelter
An old bedroom. The two mildewy beds in it have been hoisted onto their sides to make more space. There's a small firepit in the middle with a sootened kettle over it. On either side are two bed rolls.
IF NOT ENCOUNTERED ELSEWHERE Two Dark Creepers (OSE) have made a temporary reprieve here. They are looking for potent magical items rumored to lie below the keep, but have yet to find a way in. All they found so far is monetary treasure. In a large sack there's 4.000SP, 2 aquamarines worth 100GP each and a shield-shaped gunmetal coloured broach inlaid with a golden lion head; the sign of an officer in the Steel legion worth 1000GP.
One of the Dark Creepers is carrying in his pocket a a silver necklace with a marble-sized clear emerald worth 1300 GP, which he hopes to keep to himself. The other has a pouch with 350 gold, and carries a vial of venom for his blade or crossbow bolts ((save V poison, 4d6 damage, plus whatever damage from the crossbow, d6 applications left, each lasts 6 turns or one hit).
19 Empty, treasure
Ruined bedchamber. It looks like a wild animal has been let loose in here. Bedding has been torn open with knives, an old shelf has been upturned and the glass bottle s that were on it have been shattered. A desk has been thrown on its side and had its drawer ripped out.
What has been missed is a loose tile below the bed. Hidden in the cache below are 1.100SP, and four gems; a cut clear quarts crystal worth 50 GP, two small rubies worth 100GP each and a amethyst worth 500GP.
20 Trap, no treasure
Sitting room
A recliner stands to the north of this room, and a bench is placed up against the window in the south. The door to the west of this room leads out to a walkway that no longer exists. Along the east door into the hallway the Dark creepers in room 18 have spanned a thin wire at shin-height. If someone walks into the room carelessly he'll trip the trap; a vial of acid just above the door that'll pour over them (save V breath; d6 damage per round for 4 rounds. Water from a full waterskin can be used to was away the acid).
21 Empty, no treasure
Washing room
A verdigris copper washtub stands on a moldy rug in the middle of the room. Two large empty amphora stand in a corner next to a brazier. The amphora are large and cumbersome, but have been expertly decorated with ydillic scenes of women frolicking in a forest pond. They might be worth somethign to a collector (150GP). They take up twice as much coin weight and are relatively fragile.
22 Empty, no treasure
Kid's Bedchamber
A bed chamber of a small child once. This room has been tossed too. Several porcelain dolls have been thrown off shelves, most broke, but one stares at you accusingly.
F2
5 empty, no monster
South-eastern tower
The tower overlooks the devastation caused by whatever also melted the back part of the keep. The parapets are empty, and the crenelations intact.
Some small remarks on this final bit
Well that was a struggle. It took me most of the day ignoring it before I finally had a plan. Particularly F1 was bothing the hell out of me. Two traps close together... I could've done more collapsing floor/ceiling stuff, but I'd already done that elsewhere. In the end, against better judgement, I went for hand-picking the monster in room F1.18; something that could feasibly set traps. I'm not sure yet if I'm happy with it though, there's not a lot of sentient stuff here to try and loot these ruins, probably too much for what's effectively a medium-sized dungeon floor.
I also decided to create some new monster. Although I love BX, I do feel that compared to other editions its monster lists are a bit... Lacklustre. Luckily enough making new ones is easy as pie. I effectively just ported the Manes entry from the ADnD MM and added some weakness to fire, because that sounded fun.
Well is it really keyed to completion
Well, no. We're still missing wandering monster stuff, general overview descriptions and it would really benefit from an editor to remove my extraneous words and spelling errors. I do think it's complete for now. There's probably plenty wrong with it. I never even looked at checking loot, or particularly care about level, apart from generally rolling on L2/L3 dungeon stocking tables. Frankly, it needs some playtesting to probably figureo ut what else is wrong that I didn't think about.
Some of these things I hope to fix next month though. After mulling it over I decided I'll fill the outer parts of the keep first. I have a map for it, I have keyed locations, and it'll also give me a better idea of the wandering monsters over here in general. I'm not sure if it'll fill a month, but if not I can also use it to take a week or so to more properly plan things out. I've now done 47 rooms. That's a room and a half per day. So I could do nothing for half of the next month and still be on pace. I also think that after finishing the above-ground of the keep some kind of retrospective might be in order. Can't learn what I need to do better for the next parts if I don't look back and nitpick what I've done to death.