The Iron Keep Part Four- The North-eastern bit
This took a bit longer than I expected. Both because there were more rooms than I had imagined there would be, but also because I've been lazy. So without too much ado: here are the rooms.
F0
10 Empty, no treasure
The Low Hall
An old dining hall. Faded red streamers hang from the north wall flanking two fireplaces. A three large wooden tables pushed against each other reach almost the entire length, unadorned wooden benches lining it. Some of them have been hacked at and broken. Small piles of splinters and shaving surround these, undisturbed. An old rug has been pulled up off the floor and has now been piled in a corner of the room. It's left a discolouration where it used to be.
11 Empty, No treasure
The Kitchen.
A large kitchen. Again the eastern wall there is a massive oven. There's soot inside it, and some signs of recent used, if looked for. Four large tables are placed against the wall and in the room, in surprisingly good shape, though the surface bears deep knife marks. Several basked and barrels are stacked on either side of a thin wooden dividing wall that separates the main kitchen area from the stairs into the tower. Some appear to have been searched and overturned.
12 Trap, no treasure
North-eastern tower
The structural integrity of this tower seems to have been compromised. Deep cracks run through the stone interior walls and the stairs leading up. The guard room is in complete disarray; furniture overturned and a grey dust and small shards of stone cover everything.
If the walls of this room are shook, or the door is slammed shut loudly, there's a 3 in 6 chance of the ceiling partially collapsing. Anyone in the room must save vs breath or take 4d6 damage, or half on a succeeded save. The stairs are also not sturdy. They have a 1 in 6 chance to collapse per person on it.
13 Monster, no treasure
The Pantry.
All doors leading into the pantry have been spiked shut from the inside. A party of adventurers have taken this room to rest in.
Cillio Simpelveldt (3rd level Thief, short-cropped brown hair, leathers, tools hanging from his belt, Sword +1 of locate object)
Grutte Peer (3rd level fighter, 7 foot tall man with a zweihander, chain)
Jan Akerling (1st level fighter, shield and mace, leathers, large boil on his chin)
Ebbe Schoorlo (1st level fighter, missing an eye, large scar over it and most of his skull, spear, crossbow, chain)
Sybille Argenta (2nd level thief, dark grey clothes, padded boots, shortbow and daggers, a signet ring in her pocket of a noble house (1100gp))
They're divvying up 500 GP they found so far. Cillio has led the party here because he'd a few friends who went over here to find treasure they believed to be here, but never came back. He is planning to use his sword's Locate ability to attempt to find them.
14 Trap, Treasure
The Buttery.
On wooden racks there are several tons of wine which have emptied over the years. However, at the back of this room there are twelve smaller tons which contain mead, which surprisingly seem to have held up much better. Each of them would be worth 50GP, though they weigh 100 coin weight. There is a one in six chance for each of them opened however that the chaotic magic that blew a hole in the wall has transformed the mead into an ooze (as per the 2HD Ochre Jellies; B40). On the southern wall rack there are four rolls of Bordeaux-red linen with an intricate vine pattern in it in dark greens. They have survived surprisingly well because of the waxed paper they've been sealed in. Each of these is worth 50SP.
15 Empty, no treasure
East postern It's clear something odd happened here. The walls seemed to have become fluid and then resolidified. the ground to the east and in the breach is patterned with stone and mortar just like that of the walls, and stalactite-like structures hang from the smooth edge of this room. There's even patches of rusted red iron like what covers the outside walls.
F1
9 Trap, no treasure
The structural integrity of this tower seems to have been compromised. Deep cracks run through the stone interior walls and the stairs leading up.
A skeleton sits at a table, a piece of paper in front of him. There's red brown stains over it and a large part of the room. Though mostly illegible, there are a few words which are still visible on the paper in High Atrian. In reading order there are "Siege", "blasted demons" and "like water on the". Per person in the room, there's a 1 in six chance of the floor collapsing under them. The stairs are also not sturdy. They have a 1 in 6 chance to collapse per person on it.
10 Empty, no treasure
Night guard room
A four bunk beds stand against the western wall. There's a weapon rack with a few spears on it on the north wall. There's a table in the middle with four stools around it. A checkerboard has been carved in the table itself, but the pieces are spread all over the floor.
11 Monster, no treasure & 12 Monster, no treasure
The doors to these two chambers hang open, and a fuzzy yellow-brown carpet of fungus interconnects them via the hallway, and nearly to the archway into room ten and all the up to the door of room 14. The contents of these two rooms has been all but eaten up entirely by Yellow Mold (B44, 70 square feet) to the point where's there's little recognizable in any of them.
13 Special, Treasure
Solar
A wooden table with well constructed chairs stand in the middle of a room. Carved wood panels and faded murals of knights jousting decorate the walls. A hearth has been built into the eastern wall. Above it hangs a portrait of a bearded man with stern blue eyes, wearing a noble's military outfit. Two once-comfortable recliner are placed in the north-east corner next to a window, though they now look mildewy. Directly opposite of them is a wooden secretary desk. The desk itself is locked, but contains scraps of paper, and three leather pouches containing 400SP and 100 GP, 150 SP and 200GP, and 50SP and 300GP respectively. Behind the painting is a small alcove built into the wall. In it are two scrolls (first: (animate dead, dimension door, hold portal, sleep, infravision), second: (detect magic ©, light (darkness), cure serious wounds (cause serious wounds), speak with animals, bless (blight)), 12000SP, 300 GP and a diamond worth 1000 GP.
The party might get the feeling that the eyes of the stern gentleman are following them across the room. This is because they are. Should the party try to break into the desk, or attempt to take the painting a Spectre (X39) will fly out and attack them to defend his ancestral home and property. The spectre is wielding a flaming sword (+1), an ornamental cavalry sabre. The spectre will only chase the party until they're outside a 100 foot of the Solar, and then return to his painting. Should the painting be destroyed the spectre will start haunting the entire eastern section of the castle, walking over floors which are no longer there and terrorizing anyone in sight.
14 Empty, no Treasure
Small bedchamber. A single bed against the north and south wall. 28 wooden toy soldiers with faded paint in two colours (red, blue) are on the floor, in a battle scene.
15 Special, no treasure
Study
A desk is placed in front of a window overlooking the inner ward. Against the north wall is a closet containing many ledgers, detailing financial data of running the keep. It seemed there was a steady stream of money coming in from the old capital to keep this place running.
In a locked drawer of the desk there is an unfinished letter in High Atrian.
"Esteemed King, Lord Protector of the Realms, Ruler from the Sea to the Mountains,
By the Grace of the Saints I send you my report. The rails from the mines have been built as you commanded, though at no small cost, both monetary and in life. We've had several collapses caused by shale deposits. I took it upon myself to compensate the families of the minors from the treasury. I therefore request additional funds to make up the costs of this, as I will outline in the financial report later in this letter.
Though built as you commanded the importing of ore from the mines is now faster and safe from incursions from the outer realms, I must be so bold as to again point to the possible risks to the defence of the keep. We've effectively undermined ourselves, for our enemies to exploit. I therefore wish to beg of you once more the construction of a small garrison fort around the"
F2
4 Monster, treasure
North-east guard tower roof
Two Gargoyles (B35) hide on the roof of the guard tower. They've been surviving mostly on pigeons stupid enough to come and land on them as they sit still. However, recently a small group of adventurers came by and they took them by surprise. Their corpses are still lying there, their treasure undisturbed. The three adventurers were carrying 1700sp, 600gp and a silver circlet with jade inlay with 1500GP.
The stairs leading down are in a bad way. They have a 1 in 6 chance to collapse per person on it.
Some more unimportant words
I love how this came together. I got some interesting results off of the rolls, particularly by also taking a leaf from ADnD's DMG and using their dungeon encounter table to allow me to roll on higher/lower dungeon levels. It came out relatively high-level here, but I do feel there is a lot of reward to gain in this area. Furthermore, players could attempt to ally themselves with the adventurers in here. The rolls also just worked out. Two rooms on top each other both with traps? Two opposite rooms where I rolled monsters? It just kind of worked out to form a relatively cohesive part.
I do start to think that next time I should limit myself a bit in how many rooms though. Maybe it's also how it's the start of the year, but free time has been at a premium for me, so each week feels like a race against the clock. Going by my numbers I'll probably have done a dungeon level and a half by the end of the first month. I'm not sure whether it is my general overly optimistic nature that caused all of this (other people may call it hubris), but I need to scale it down a bit for the next month, so I feel less like I'm constantly just about to get in over my head. Don't get me wrong; it's fun, and people should learn to run before they learn to walk. however, we're in a marathon, not a sprint, and I do need to pace myself a tiny bit.