EDIT FROM THE JUDGES: Please read this information about playtesting these encounters. We've also added hyperlinks from the encounter's short stat blocks to the full stat blocks in the PRD so you have the information you need to run the encounter.
Fort Walmor, The Slavers’ End
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Fort Walmor was a small depot for traders and treasure hunters travelling Sargava and the Mwangi Expanse. Situated at the eastern edge of the Laughing Jungle on the Lower Korir River, the fort was founded by the Rivermen's Guild to provide a much needed outpost for supplying ships and explorers headed further into the wilderness and moving goods back downriver to Port Freedom. The fort's manager, Bryon Hawthe, took a share of every bit of wealth that travelled through his warehouses and still sent enough trade to his masters to keep them happy with his methods. Treasures plundered from deep in the Expanse provided ample income, but the fort's most lucrative source of wealth for Fort Walmor was the slave trade.
The slaver barge Merrow's Scowl docked at Fort Walmor with a hold full of human cargo and strange plunder from the tribal homes of its captives. The captain of the ship, Pollus Loire, was particularly entranced by a strange and eerie idol in the shape of a demonic ape. The night the Merrow's Scowl arrived marked a violent and brutal slave revolt. The slave pits emptied, liberated slaves boiled out the docked ships. Guards retaliated with savage force. Every living soul in Fort Walmor fell upon one another, slaves turning on slaves when the last of their oppressors was slain, fuelled by ancient tribal enmities. When the sun rose the next day, Fort Walmor housed only the dead. Worse, the stones and timber of the fortress -- already permeated with the pain, anger, and sorrow of a slave camp -- came to house the concentrated rage and vengeful fury of the last fateful night of its inhabitants. The first unwary travelers that attempted to dock all met with terrible, violent ends. Fort Walmor is known locally as The Slavers’ End and is widely regarded as a cursed place, haunted by the souls of angry dead.
The strange idol brought into the fort by Captain Pollus was a minor artifact, called the ire of Angazhan. Though only marginally intelligent, the cursed artifact attempts to influence the emotions of living creatures around it, driving them to acts of brutal savagery. The idol rests in the former garrison, where the intelligent undead that stalk the ground pay strange homage to the artifact that engineered their fall and rebirth.
Several groups are currently contracting adventurers and explorers to investigate the fate of Fort Walmor. Chief among them is the Rivermen’s Guild, hoping to reclaim treasures languishing in Bryon Hawthe’s warehouses first and foremost and perhaps re-establish Fort Walmor as another crucial outpost in their river operations.
Traveling upriver to The Slavers’ End is difficult, but not impossible, and offers the best protection from heat dangers. Characters that risk the overland route will have to contend with the dense terrain of the Laughing Jungle and the risks the greater than 90°F daytime temperatures cause. For additional information, refer to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook Overland Movement (pg. 171), Forest Terrain (pg. 425), and Heat Dangers (pg. 444).
The Merrow's Scowl (CR 4 or 7)
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The interior of the Merrow's Scowl is dim and rank with the sickly-sweet smell of rot. Foodstuffs piled high against the walls of the ship have long since spoiled and become fertilizer for strange and unpleasant looking molds and fungi. The bottom of the ship has dissolved into the damp, silty mud of the Lower Korir River. Your first steps into the hold cause you to sink into muck; this provides the mixed blessing of allowing you to walk upright, but impedes your movements at the same time. Four support struts hang tenuously from the crossbeams above, connected by a corroded metal shaft that runs through them, anchored to the stern and aft. Rusted manacles hang from the rod, dangling into the muddy riverbank. Wedged awkwardly into the stern is a crumbling makeshift altar.
The eerie sound of drumming emitted by the haunt is easily audible outside the wreck of the slaver barge and characters that enter hold easily identify the altar as the source of the sound. Characters that approach the altar see a ghostly after image of the demonic ape idol that once adorned it, the ire of Angazahn. The image winks out as soon as the haunt triggers and does not reappear. The altar was constructed by Captain Pollus shortly after the idol began to have an influence on him. He hid it carefully among the tightly packed goods and visited it under the guise of surveying their supplies and the condition of the slaves.
Treat the mud that holds the remains of the Merrow's Scowl as shallow bog (Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook 427). The mud has sifted inside the ship and holds it fast against the surprisingly mild currents of the river. The support struts provide a +2 bonus to Armor Class and a +1 to Reflex saves to creatures fighting across them on a diagonal. The hull of the ship is deteriorating quickly in the humid climate of the Laughing Jungle; halve the structural hit points and DR of the wood for any attempts to break it.
Creatures: Two of the three undead in the wreck of lie in wait beneath the mud near the entrance, while the third hides closer to the haunt's proximity. The creatures bury themselves completely, granting themselves total concealment. When the shrieks and screams that accompany the haunt's activation fill the hold, the creatures rise and attack. The bloody skeletons attack the nearest PC, regardless of which PC the Savage Madness haunt targets with its murderous command. The juju zombies flank and kill those that appear unaffected by the haunt's confusion effect. Both the bloody skeletons and juju zombies defend themselves if unearthed or assaulted before the haunt has been triggered.
Both versions of the Savage Madness haunt manifest by filling the hold of the ship with the howls and shrieks of a bloody melee. Creatures affected by the haunt see their allies as Mwangi tribesmen with exaggerated demonic features or slavers garbed in infernal armor and wielding flaming whips. If no creature is in the haunt's proximity and the haunt has not yet been neutralized, the sounds of battle cease and the drums resume.
Low Tier (CR 4):
Savage Madness (CR 2) LINK
XP 600
CE persistent haunt (5ft. by 10ft. area in front of the makeshift altar)
Caster Level 2nd
Notice: Perception DC 15 (The sound of rhythmic tribal drumming, emanating from the altar)
hp 9; Trigger proximity; Reset 1 week
Effect When this haunt is triggered, the sound of brutal, bloody battle erupts from the altar, punctuated by shrieks and maddened ululations. Creatures affected by the haunt suddenly perceive allies as howling demonic savages or infernal oppressors. A single creature in the haunt's area is targeted by a murderous command spell (save DC 11).
Destruction The altar must be exposed to the noonday sun and anointed with holy water.
Bloody Skeletons (3) CR 2 LINK
Skeleton
XP 200 each
AC 18 (+4 armor, +2 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 6 each (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 250, 251)
Melee scimitar +2 (1d6+2), claw -3 (1d4+1) or 2 claws +2 (1d4+2)
Gear chain shirt, scimitar
High Tier (CR 7):
Savage Madness (CR 5) LINK
XP 1600
CE persistent haunt (10ft. by 10ft. area in front of the makeshift altar)
Caster Level 5th
Notice: Perception DC 15 (The sound of rhythmic tribal drumming, emanating from the altar)
hp 22; Trigger proximity; Reset 1 week
Effect When this haunt is triggered, the sound of brutal, bloody battle erupts from the altar, punctuated by shrieks and maddened ululations. Creatures affected by the haunt suddenly perceive allies as howling demonic savages or infernal oppressors. All creatures in the haunt's proximity are targeted by a confusion spell (save DC 16).
Destruction The altar must be exposed to the noonday sun and anointed with holy water.
Juju Zombies (3) CR 5 LINK
Zombie
XP 1600
AC 22 (+4 armor, +4 Dex, +1 dodge, +3 natural)
hp 15 each (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2 271)
Gear mwk chain shirt, mwk short sword
Development: The loud clamor the haunt produces when triggered acts as an alarm for the more intelligent undead dwelling within the fort. Alerted creatures prepare for the arrival of interlopers. If the sounds of the haunt persist for a minute or more, even intermittently, undead shamble from the fort to investigate, starting with the creatures currently inhabiting the slave pit (3).