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OK, so my players have finished the Haunting of Harrowstone close to 4th level. There were missed opportunities for XP, and a fifth PC joined near the end. So I figured they would need another encounter on their way north before meeting the Crooked Kin (They will probably end up getting into some sort of trouble in Tamrivena given that one of the PC's is a half orc) but I digress.
Rule of Fear has an interesting little blurb about Clover's Crossing, and since the group will pass nearby, I thought I would put together a little encounter. I just spent the last coulpe hours working on the next post. Our game night is Wednesday, so I was just hoping for some feedback if anyone sees this thread tomorrow.
Common Knowledge: The town of Clover’s Crossing has been an abandoned ruin for over 10 years after the church of Pharasma collapsed into a sinkhole, killing the priests and the faithful worshippers.
Spoken in whispers, it is said that the night after the collapse, screaming could be heard throughout the town as the remaining living townsfolk were dragged into the pit by humanoid creatures with long, sharp teeth, and pallid flesh stretched tightly over starved frames.
Families in the outlying farms abandoned their homesteads and moved to Ravengro. The investigators sent by the council from Tamrivena were never seen again.
The Old Road takes a wide swath around Clover’s Crossing, but one can still follow the old tracks to the town…
Summary: 12 Years ago Vauran Grimburrow's son Balthazar left Ravengro for adventure. Joining the army in Lastwall, Balthazar was trained in the Legion and became a victorious warrior specializing in close combat with the orc hordes. One night, however, his host was patrolling the hill country near the Path River when they were set upon by a horde of undead. Balthazar fought to the last man, and when his host was lost, he fell, expecting to wake in Pharasma's boneyard. But a cruel fate awaited him, for when he woke the hunger for human flesh consumed him. By night he journeyed through Ustalav's Canterwall County on a fevered mission to return home.
Some bit of control remained as he entered the Church of Pharasma in Ravengro, only to be spurned away by his brother, the good Father Grimburrow. Vauran could not destroy his ghoulish brother however, a shame that will haunt him always. Balthazar left, and discovered the cave system that led underneath the town of Clover's Crossing. It was there that his hatred of Pharasma burned deep, and he used his knowledge of engineering and his ghoulish minions to cause the sinkhole. He saved the town's priest however, and enslaved him to regenerate the flesh of the dead townsfolk week after week for 10 years to provide sustenance to Balthazar and his ghouls. The priest lives still, locked away in the darkness with a shattered mind, casting Restore Corpse on his former parishioners to forever feed the horrible undead.
In the ruined town I am going to have the recommended Yellow Muck Creeper and some Yellow Musk zombies, as well as a bat swarm.
Down below will be a brood of Ghouls and their "leader," the former fighter. I added 5 levels of fighter to a ghoul that I improved to ghast. I did this rather quickly and I am not 100% on the crunch, so some feedback here would be great also.
And hopefully someone else will want to use this idea, or the bones of it, in their own campaign...
Balthazar Grimburrow
Ghast (Advanced Ghoul)/Fighter 5 CR 6
CE Medium undead
Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +10
Defense
AC 23, touch 15, flat-footed 18 (+4 armor, +4 Dex, +4 natural, +1 Dodge)
hp 65 (2d8+4)+(5d10+20)
Fort +8, Ref +5, Will +8
Defensive Abilities channel resistance +2
Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee bite +10/+5 (1d6+8 plus disease and paralysis) and 2 claws +11/2 claws +6 (1d6+8 plus paralysis)
Special Attacks paralysis (1d4+1 rounds, DC 15)
Statistics
Str 18, Dex 19, Con —, Int 17, Wis 18, Cha 18
Base Atk +6/+1; CMB +10; CMD 18
Feats Weapon Focus (claw), Power Attack, Cleave, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Combat Reflexes
Skills Acrobatics +7, Climb +10, Knowledge (Engineering) +7, Perception +10, Stealth +9, Survival +9, Swim +6
Languages Common
Special Abilities
Disease (Su) Ghoul Fever: Bite—injury; save Fort DC 14; onset 1 day; frequency 1 day; effect 1d3 Con and 1d3 Dex damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Stench (Ex): 10-foot radius, Fort DC 17 negates, sickened for 1d6+4 minutes
Combat Gear: chain shirt, bastard sword (broken), tattered livery of Lastwall
Treasure: a rotted backpack contains 262 gp minted in Lastwall, Silver Holy Symbol of Pharasma (250gp), Balthazar's Journal.
500xp for returning the journal and/or the body to Father Grimburrow.
I am just going for a down and dirty combat encounter in a dark tunnel system with scary flesh eating monsters.
Thanks in advance to anyone who responds...
I like the backstory a lot. Definitely stealing this incase I ever get a chance to run Carrion Crown.
I think you have one too many feats, as a ghoul would lose its human racial trait bonus feat. Many more skill points to spend.
Bite would only get the first attack at +10 (pretty sure natural attack forms don't get iterative attacks) but his 2 claw attacks would be at +11 on a full attack.
CMD should be 25 (20 Flat-footed) (base 10, CMB 10, 4 dex, 1 dodge feat)
that's all I've spotted so far
For his skills I would suggest going with
Acrobatics 7 ranks (total +10)
Climb 7 ranks (total +13)
Know/Engineering 6 ranks (total +12)
Perception 7 ranks (total +14)
Stealth 4 ranks (total +10)
Survival 7 ranks (total +14)
Swim 6 ranks (total +12)
but its your creature! :)
And I dropped Spring Attack, as he is already quite a deadly foe, but which feat you drop is again your choice. But as is he will already be a challenging fight for 3rd level characters. Give him a regular ghoul or two to assist during the fight, and he'll probably kill off your party, lol.
Edit: needs three more languages, say Varisian, Orc, and Necril maybe
(Varisian is a shoe-in, and Lastwall focuses on the orcs a bit I believe, Necril being the language of ghouls in the underdark, and often spoken by agents of the whispering way as well i think.)
Nevermind on the feat issue, I see you got rid of his ghoul Weapon Finesse selection. That cleans up that issue. Sorry
I like him a lot though, a very deadly opponent.
His attacks would either be
Bite +10 (1d6+4), 2 claws +11 (1d6+4)
or with Power Attack
Bite +8 (1d6+8), 2 claws +9 (1d6+8)
Awesome, thanks very much for the analysis! I definitely glossed over the skill points issue and I was wondering about the iterative attacks myself. Much obliged!
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I'm doing soemthing similar, but I'm replacing the whole encounter with the Phase Spider and replacing it with the ghouls of Clover's Crossing who abducted the pinhead Aleece.
I think it's a good idea here to include a lot of physical foes for the PC's to beat up on as Harrowstone had so many encounters that lacked melee opponents. I'll be running a horde of ghouls, no beefed up leader as this should only be a CR 5 encounter (or in my case CR 6). A decent RP encounter in Tamrivena will round out the night to get my 6 PC's up to 4th level and into Trial of the Beast.
--Death Vrock
Heh, wished I'd come across this thread a few weeks ago...
One of the new characters that joined my game while they were transitioning from Ravengro to Lepidstadt, via Tamrivena, had the back-story that he was the Bard/adviser to the Aristocrat/headman for Clover's Crossing, so later on the road the group's campsite gets raided by a band of Ghouls led by a woman in rags that keeps calling his name. The PCs (after killing a few) managed to get them to stop to parlay (one of the PCs was a Death Mage with Control Undead), and they persuaded them to leave without the Bard (her "lost love, still at risk from the woes of mortality").
The party afterword has made noises of intent to go deal with Clover's Crossing once their done delivering books.
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So my group finished HoH and in the travel portion of ToB I replaced the encounter with the Phase Spider with the Ghouls of Clover's Crossing. The PC's meet up with the Crooked Kin near the Maidensnarl on the road to Tamrivena. The lead up to the encounter goes as written up until the point where they begin tracking Aleece. Here I replace her footprints with a pair of ghouls who've dragged her off.
Just outside the ruined village I explain the evening mists part to reveal a pair of shuffling ghouls dragging a limp form. At this point I laid out a Chase Encounter (modified longshot).
Each chase card represents the paths and structures within the ruined village of Clover’s Crossing. Each card costs 30 feet to cross and require a Skill test to exit, in most case costing a Standard action. Speeds greater than 30 feet give a +2 bonus to Skill tests per 10 ft. Speeds below 30 ft. impose a -2 penalty to Skill tests per 10 ft. Two different Skill tests are on each card and you may attempt either with varying levels of Success or Failure.
Success!
Failure
Shortcut Cards
There are three shortcut cards in the village that will allow you to gain significant ground on your quarry. A Shortcut card requires a Full Round action to attempt both listed Skill tests.
Success!
Failure
Treasures: Each item other than the 50 gp Gem award, treasures may be chosen only once.
Minor
- Gem (50gp)
- silver brooch w/ moonstones (100gp)
- small but heavy wooden box (?)
- potion of fox’s cunning (300 gp)
- masterwork artisan’s tools (your choice, 55gp)
- everburning torch (110gp)
- weapon blanch, adamantine (100gp)
- Footprint book titled: Beasts of the Forest of Webs & Fangs, a Shudderwood fieldguide by Rogeif Yarloc (50gp)
-magnifying glass w/ gold handle (100gp)
- walnut travelling case w/ 2 superior locks & keys sealed in wax (300gp)
True
- Shirt made of wolf-hair
- Black dyed masterwork backpack
- Ornate brass candelabrum
- Mithral chain shirt
- Leather and wood scabbard
- Silken pennon
The Chase involves the PC's moving through the ruined and overgrown village trying to catch up to the ghouls while avoid the Hazard, which is two Murder of Crows (swarms). Each chase card represets a building or obstacle in the village and the skill checks are a kind of choose your own adventure-esque way for me to cinematically describe the encounter. If the PC's fail on the chase cards they may suffer the Hazard, i.e. the Crows swarm damage and a save against their Eye-Rake ability which inflicts the Blinded condition for 1d4 rounds. The Ambush penalty is the paralyzed condition mimicking a hidden ghouls paralyzing touch on one of the three shortcut cards. The shortcut cards allow the PC's a slim chance to catch the ghouls and save the Pinhead Aleece (which is not an option in the original encounter). Each shortcut leads to the next one meaning any PC who can make all three may be able to cut off the ghouls.
If that happens a normal encounter ensues pitting two ghouls and a single Murder of Crows. Spells cast or ranged attacks made against crows or ghouls can impose penalties or reduce damage and ability DC's. For example our ranger used his calm animals spell on a crow swarm, which if successful would've reduced the Hazard damage by 1d6 and reduce the Eye-Rake ability save by 2. Killing a ghoul would impose a -2 penalty to the remaining ghouls skill checks to move along the chase cards. Defeating the ghouls and crows means the PC's find Aleece barely alive and infected with Ghoul fever.
After the chase the PC's can investigate the sinkhole and the swallowed Pharasmin chapel where I threw a Mad Monk haunt which if solved could save Aleece if she is still alive or may heal badly injured PC's. A roughly dug tunnel leads out the back of the chapel in the direction of the cemetery.
Beneath the cemetery an chamber opens up with half rotted and open coffins hanging from the ceiling (treat as pillars) and 6 giant maggots wait in the loose earth for passing characters. Two tunnels lead away from the earthen chamber, on leading to a man made brick tunnnel and the town well and one covered in luminescent fungus leading to the ghoulish cyst.
The cyst houses a slime mold, several normal ghouls and a 3rd level ghoul cleric of urgothoa.
The brick tunnel leads to a hidden chamber where a chest containing ledgers and a Wallguard uniform detailing attacks on caravans and travellers for payment from someone in Tamrivena.
I love the Grimburrow tie in
Im thinking he might ask them as a favor because of his shame of not killing his brother when he had the chance to
So my group finished HoH and in the travel portion of ToB I replaced the encounter with the Phase Spider with the Ghouls of Clover's Crossing. The PC's meet up with the Crooked Kin near the Maidensnarl on the road to Tamrivena. The lead up to the encounter goes as written up until the point where they begin tracking Aleece. Here I replace her footprints with a pair of ghouls who've dragged her off.
Just outside the ruined village I explain the evening mists part to reveal a pair of shuffling ghouls dragging a limp form. At this point I laid out a Chase Encounter (modified longshot).
** spoiler omitted **...
Awesome ideas! I'm thinking of going this route. You didn't by chance come up with any maps for Clover's Crossing?