My group consists of a bunch of undead, including a dread zombie (who can command normal zombies) and a dread skeleton (who can command normal skeletons). All I can find about the fort is on page 29 of chapter one:
Ruined Fort: Currently the campsite for several gnolls of the Three Jaw tribe (see page 32), two hiden [sic] dungeon levels below are infested with undead.
This sounds like it could potentially be a lot of fun for my party, and possibly even a source of some short-term minions (until the skeletons and zombies perish). I'll shake it up a little, maybe tossing in a huecuva or festrog or something. I don't think there's anything incorporeal down there or the Three Jaw gnolls would either have dispatched it or moved out.
Anyone else done anything with this yet?
I'd like to see something for this too. Are there any details on who built/resided historically?
The only hint is the statue of Sarenrae pointing at the monastery. My assumption is that it was supposed to guard Kelmarane against very forces now occupying it. Presumably the undead in the basement are the animated remains of the forces who failed.
The only hint is the statue of Sarenrae pointing at the monastery. My assumption is that it was supposed to guard Kelmarane against very forces now occupying it. Presumably the undead in the basement are the animated remains of the forces who failed.
Keep talking while I... steal everything you say.
Okay, here are some ideas:
1. The guards stationed there twenty years ago are now mostly zombies, but there's a ghast in there (probably advanced, maybe with weapon focus and/or improved natural attack, or something) who was their commanding officer. He was slowly going insane, but all the activity above him once the gnolls moved in to be near Dashki has revitalized his interests. He started trying to get through the wreckage trapping all of them beneath the fort, and the noise nearly drove off the gnolls, but ultimately it proved futile. The gnolls are happy that he's not making noise, but that will stop once his skeletons finish the tunnel they're digging.
2. As part of the event that took out Kelmarane, a mohrg was sent to take out the fort. He got there and was wildly successful, but he was betrayed. He and his zombie minions (preferably with the Brain Consumption special attack from the Advanced Bestiary) were trapped beneath the fort, and he himself was pinned in place. His voice can carry through a small shaft, and if he hears anyone fighting the gnolls he calls out information (maybe even including a secret passage or a hidden weapons stash) to prove how helpful he is, then he begs for rescue.
3. The fort was built on a convenient foundation that pre-existed, and the undead are really old. Maybe mummies? Maybe Vampire Spawn, with an ominous coffin chained shut? Maybe something incorporeal with a Spike of Stay-The-Heck-Still driven into its foot?
I like the idea of the morgh. Perhaps the gnolls do follow his advice, and throw him down victims to sate his bloodlust rather than let him free.
Unfortunately, mechanically, morghs do nothing for me. The rawbones in Tome of Horrors 3 and the gutdragging lurcher in Hangman's Noose are both similar in concept and mechanically more interesting (and can be given create spawn).