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>I'll Start:
This Monday, one of the PCs is approaching a very small castle in a 10 mile hex he's been given by the Baroness. He's been told its been unused for some time, and the hex will need clearing if he wishes to keep it. The character is chaotic, the terrain is temperate fields mostly with a small lake at one edge, ocean coast at another, and a small wood to the north. The party is an 8th level Pathfinder RPG party.
Ideas: Spend the session investigating the small castle & battling beasts.
But What Beasts? What interesting background does the small castle have? Suggested maps?
Help me pimp my adventure! (Hurry!)
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Can't beat a manticore nesting in an old castle if you ask me. (À la Red Hand of Doom - so if they've played that it might not be a good idea.)
Nothing like flying, shootnig monsters with reach to give the party a bit of trouble.
A roving band of Varag mercenaries ( 5 x Varag Pack Leader (MM4)) would be a tough and fun encounter. They've found and 'claimed' the castle as their base. I love spring attacking monsters, and when they also have skirmish damage and a base move of 60 it's just icing on the cake.
A pair of Greenspawn razorfiends (MM4) in the lake could give them a run for their money too.
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The undead spirits of the previous tenants, who don't take kindly to trespassers.
If you want maps, they should still have loads here...
I'd go for atmosphere over very powerful monsters. Unless there's reason to, it's unlikely the Baroness has landed the pc with the lair of a powerful monster ... but there could well be reasons the castle and land are vacant.
Perhaps start out with the pc meeting some serfs from neighbouring fiefs and getting the old;
"You're the new lord of x manor?" Delivered with much pitying sucking of teeth and slightly fearful glances between themselves. Upon pushing the pc can get to here the local gossip about how the place is 'cursed' and has been for years.
They don't know much more than that, other than the last lord went mad and ended up taking a nose dive from the keep tower one stormy night.
If the pc seeks to investigate further (either in the local capital town/city, or perhaps in his new manor village) he can learn that the present tower was built a few hundred years back atop a mysterious pattern of small standing stones that had an evil reputation. People avoided the stones claiming they were evil etc and the castle included a chapel to (insert goody god here) to consecrate the ground.
The first lords were the Jeroway family, and they held the keep for generations, until about a century ago, without any known problems. However the last of the Jeroways, a wizard-lord according to local legend named Idriakis, murdered his wife after he caught her cheating with the local miller, who Idriakis also murdered. Idriakis was sentenced to be walled up alive in the keep and perished therein.
Ten years later local clerics sanctified the brooding ruin and a new lord was installed ... an adventurer (not unlike the pc) who rarely stayed there and who vanished while away some years later. After him were several brief tenures by lackies of the baronial family, all of whom seem to have been eager to get back to the capital.
Rumours of hauntings circulated, but repeated exorcisms by clerics produced no solid evidence any ghost was ever present.
The last lord before the pc, was a mage who was given the manor as a reward for services to the baroness ten years ago ... after he moved into the castle he began to become more and more reclusive and hermit like. After a year or two he never left the tower itself, having villagers carry food and drink for him up the hill and leave it at the gate. Some nights lights and strange voices issued up into the night sky from the keep, and the villagers below shook their heads and hid behind their doors. Until that last night when the mage screaming threw himself from the keep tower, to his death.
--- When the pc arrives he should find the castle in a state of mild decay, nothing a team of serfs working for a day or three shouldn't put straight though.
The truth can be one of several things, a haunting by the last of the Jeroways is a possibility; however I would personally go with the site being a minor planar nexus in ancient times, where points between the prime material and astral planes were weak and astral summoning was carried out.
The last lord before the pc learned this, and began trying to reestablish that link, however things went wrong and he was nearly killed when a Githyanki appeared. The mage banished the creature back to wence it came, but it left behind it's sword ... and from that point on the weakened and reawakened links between the planes began to slowly seep into the mage's mind causing him to dream of the astral plane and thereby eventually go mad from the sights he saw.
The mage sealed off the old wine cellar behind a secret door, cleared it out and began writing and painting bizarre magical diagrams, spells and gibberish across the walls, floor and ceiling. At the centre of this his 'Astral Sanctum' he drove the silver sword into a crack in the floor ... and it stands there yet.
--- The mage could have left a few traps, you could extend the Astral Sanctum into a mini dungeon perhaps with some minor planar bad guys, and the Githyanki might come back for his sword?
Wow, that's a pretty in-depth adventure background for the castle. Nicely done.
As for the surrounding lands, which the PCs will have to clear once they've secured the castle for a base of operations, here are a few suggestions based on the terrain:
* A colony of spiders has infested the wood, depleting the local wildlife and dangerously upsetting the ecology. Perhaps there is a local druid who will cooperate with the party. In exchange for their assistance in wiping out the spiders, she will assist in showing local resources which they can acquire for use or trade (assuming they observe her rules of conservatism, of course). Also, that will net them an ally that could provide information, healing, and other magical assistance.
*The road (if it can still be called that) leading from the castle to the abandoned coastal village is unsafe. A colony of ankhegs has set its lair nearby, and will come to investigate any significant movement along the road, expecting prey. Once eliminated, safer travel to the coast is obtained and repairs can be started.
* The coast must be cleared in order to reestablish fishing and sea trade. Perhaps the previous village located here has been occupied by pirates/slavers who use the long-unattended area as an out of the way base of operations.
By extension, there may be a village of sahuagin in the waters off the coast. They have formed an uneasy alliance with the pirates/slavers, helping to protect their base of operations from attack via sea in exchange for a portion of their profit (booty & prisoners in the case of pirates, or cast-off slaves from the slavers to be sacrificed on Sekolah's altar).
Perhaps the combined treasure of these linked encounters can be greater than normal, allowing the new lord of the castle to start a treasury to be used to revitalize the area (rebuild structures, repave the road, hire mercenaries to patrol for random monsters, and advertise for new colonists to take up residence as tax-paying citizens of the fief.)
The people still tell legends of Gashan the Bloody. He was the foul general (fighter? cleric?) of the (hobgoblin?) army which razed the borderlands with fire and steel for over a year before the knights of the realm lead the armies to victory against the tyrant. The prince, who rode at the head of the knights, claims to have cut the mortal fiend down himself, but ever since, peasants have claimed to see him on moonlit nights, riding his destrier through the night an heralded by a chorus of ungodly screams. The sightings are particularly common along the shore, under the shadow of the fortress from which the prince rode with his knights when he crushed Gashan's army by the crashing sea waves. No one dares spend the night there, or venture into the forest; they hear the screams more often there. Some never returned who once tried to travel those roads in darkness and seek shelter for the night in the castle.
But all that is just folklore, right?
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My bringing up Harn, had me thinking about my campaign, so I picked up Trobridge Inn (I needed a good large roadside inn). I also picked up Glenoth Keep, which after looking at it, sounds a lot like what you were wanting; a small castle...
Anyway...
Just thought I'd pass that along...
-That One Digitalelf Fellow-
My bringing up Harn, had me thinking about my campaign, so I picked up Trobridge Inn (I needed a good large roadside inn). I also picked up Glenoth Keep, which after looking at it, sounds a lot like what you were wanting; a small castle...
Anyway...
Just thought I'd pass that along...
-That One Digitalelf Fellow-
I recomend the Lerenil fan module for Harn. It's a brilliantly detailed Chybisan castle and (small) town.
I'm presently using it as the base for a low-magic D&D campaign.
It's downloadable here;
http://www.lythia.com/2008/02/lerenil/
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I recomend the Lerenil fan module for Harn.
That's a great resource for Harn! Thanks for sharing it...
Here is a link to the site's home page: lythia.com
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Thanks Corborundum,Digitalelf,Snorter,Rockheimr,Shadowborn,Saylor Van Merlin,Saern and Morgen.
I will now pass this thread to the next person in need of just-in-time ideas. A combination of these will do nicely.
P.s. Rockheimr: You're right... I love Harn, and for fan work, I see why it won the award. Also, I thank thee for a most excellent castle background. Much of that particular .pdf will do nicely. Its about the perfect size and locale.
Thanks everyone! If anyone has more "Clearing the Hex" ideas - please send them. Otherwise, feel free to ask about your next session.
Request #1 Status: Complete
Thanks Corborundum,Digitalelf,Snorter,Rockheimr,Shadowborn,Saylor Van Merlin,Saern and Morgen.
I will now pass this thread to the next person in need of just-in-time ideas. A combination of these will do nicely.
P.s. Rockheimr: You're right... I love Harn, and for fan work, I see why it won the award. Also, I thank thee for a most excellent castle background. Much of that particular .pdf will do nicely. Its about the perfect size and locale.
Thanks everyone! If anyone has more "Clearing the Hex" ideas - please send them. Otherwise, feel free to ask about your next session.
Request #1 Status: Complete
Let us know how it goes old fellow. :-)