The Hall of Refuge

Level One: The Hall of Refuge

Brognor’s Hall was built to be a refuge in the wilds during a turbulent age. As such the first level contains a lot of the shops one might find in a small village.

Wandering Monsters (1 on 1d6 check every 3 turns)

(1). Brognor’s Ghost - The ghost of Brognor appears drifting through the floor or a wall and threatens the characters, “Who dares to disturb my rest!” or “These Halls are under my Protection”.

(2). Centipedes, Giant (20): AC 9, HD ½, HP 2, MV 20’, #AT 1 bite, DMG Poison, SA NM, ML 6, AL Neutral. They are easily frightened off.

(3). Rats, Normal (20): AC 9, HP 1, MV 20’, #AT 1 bite per pack, DMG 1-6 + Disease, SA NM, ML 5, AL Neutral. The 20 rats represent 1 pack.

(4). Groaning Noise - a groaning noise is heard from nearby. The source is unclear, it could be wood on stone or the sound of the dead.

(5). Shudder - the walls of the room or hall shudder and some sand falls from the ceiling.

(6). Mysterious breeze - the characters feel a sudden cold breeze. It does not repeat and appears to have no source. Candles will blow out, lanterns and torches flicker.

(1). The Entrance

As has been described earlier, the entrance is an open archway 20 feet tall and 10 feet wide. It opens into a 15-foot long hall crowded with four enormous, weathered marble statues of lions. A charred, bare skeleton lies on the floor. The end of the hall is a stone wall with an enormous pair of doors. The doors are featureless and appear to be covered with gold leaf.

Touching the doors reveals them to be solid. They are magical and not made of gold. If the doors are touched magical, blue, glowing sigils appear on the surface. The doors cannot be forced open physically, cannot be picked open by a thief and are immune to magic spells other than the ritual designed to open them. Characters will also find that magic transportation spells do not allow entrance (teleport, dimension door, wizard eye, etc.). Only the ritual that Nerewin found will open the doors. Once the ritual is completed the doors stay open until pushed closed. Once closed the enchantment resets. They can be pulled open easily from inside.

If the marble lions are examined, a metal tube can be seen in the back of their mouths. Inside the tubes is a residue of soot. This was a magic fire trap but it has long since been emptied of fuel.

The Hall of Refuge

(2). Hall of Refuge

The largest room in the hall. The ceiling is 16 feet high, supported by eleven 2’ in diameter stone columns. The columns do not look entirely stable. Three wooden doors lead from the chamber. There is straw on the floor scattered about and the occasional piece of stone debris that has fallen from the ceiling. Unnaturally, thick spider webs droop from the ceiling and along the walls near the columns. They may not be immediately apparent to characters with poor lighting.

Hidden in the webs are eight black widow spiders who will drop down to attack. Hanging in the webs along the north wall between two columns (5 feet up in the air) is a corpse. If cut down, the corpse is dried out and mummified. It appears to be a human adventurer with a short sword still in his scabbard, 2 daggers and a backpack holding 50’ rope, moldy rations, an empty wineskin and 12 iron spikes. He does not appear to have been dead for very long (weeks). If Nerewin is still with the group this will be most upsetting to him as he assumed he was the first to discover how to enter the Hall. Actually, there are dozens of copies of the scroll he found scattered about the local region.

Black Widow Spiders (8): AC 6, HD 3, HP 20,18, 18, 16, 16, 15, 15, 14, MV 20’ in web 40’, #AT 1 bite, DMG 1-8 + poison, SA F1, ML 7, AL Neutral. Their bite is poisonous, save vs poison or die in 1 turn.

(3). Stables

This chamber is full of the smell of rot. It appears to have been a stable with 3 paddocks along the west wall. There is an enormous pile of dried out hay along the north wall. The leg and boot of a corpse poke out from under the pile near a pitchfork.

The clumps of hay turn to powder if disturbed billowing up and causing fits of coughing to all within a 5-foot radius (-1 to hit). If moved free of the pile of hay, the corpse appears to be that of a human fighter clad in chainmail that is marred by several holes. The corpse also clutches a sword. The human has been dead for many years. If the corpse is searched (touched) its eyes will open revealing sickly yellow eyes staring out at the characters. The creature gets to its feet and will attack. It is an undead wight.

Wight (1): AC 5, HD 3, HP 21, MV 30’, #AT 1 touch or 1 sword+1, DMG Energy Drain or 1-8+1, SA F3, ML 12, AL Chaotic. The wight was a human adventurer and he is still in the habit of attacking with his sword despite the fact that his energy drain is his most feared weapon. Once he is reduced to half hit points he will snarl in anger and begin trying to grab and drain his attackers. The Wight can drain 1 level of life energy with each touch of his bare hand.

The sword is a magical sword+1. The wight also has a pouch that holds 120 gold coins and 3 gems worth 500 gold each.

(4). Market

There are four small market stalls in this chamber. Each is just a table, two walls and a small “roof”, not unlike what you might see in a large town market. One table has piles of moldy blankets lying on it the others are empty. Hidden in between the blankets is a small bag holding a necklace worth 600 gold.

(5). Foodstore

The east wall of this chamber is piled high with wooden crates. Teetering precariously to a height of 12 feet. The crates average 2 feet square. Some of the crates are damaged or are broken open revealing large piles of something that might have once been food.

Hidden in the crates is a colony of giant centipedes. They will attack if disturbed. Combat in this chamber has a 1 in 6 chance per round of causing an avalanche of crates to fall. If this occurs all characters in the room must make a Dexterity attribute save to avoid the falling debris (1-6 damage).

Centipedes, giant (40): AC 9, HD ½, HP 2 each, MV 20’, #AT 1 bite, DMG Poison, SA NM, ML 7, AL Neutral. The bite of a giant centipede does not cause damage but the victim must save vs poison or become violently ill for 10 days. Ill characters move at half normal speed and cannot fight or cast spells. Only 3 centipedes at a time can attack each character in the room. But once killed the centipede attacking a character will be replaced by another until they fail their morale or are all defeated. The giant centipedes will follow characters and continue attacking even if the characters leave the room.

(6). Secondary Market

This room appears to be another market. There are another four market stalls like in area #4. Each of these stalls has moldy debris lying on the floor around them and piled high on the tables. Clothes, common tools (spikes, hammers, nails, saws, etc) and what looks to have once been food. Hiding behind the stalls are three rhagodessa.

Rhagodessa (3): AC 5, HD 4+2, HP 25, 23, 21, #AT 1 leg/ 1 bite, DMG 0/2-16, SA F2, ML 9, AL Neutral. Rhagodessa is a giant insect that looks like a huge, hairy spider the size of a small bear. They have five pairs of legs and enormous mandibles. The front-facing pair of legs end in suckers to grasp their prey. If the creature hits with its leg attack, the victim is considered held and will automatically be pulled to the creature's mouth and struck by the bite attack the next round. The victim can pull free after 1 round by using their full action to do so.

(7). Trapped Hall

The corridor ends in a blank hall. Characters who advance to the last 5 feet of the hall will trigger a natural trap. The hall is unstable and the weight of the character stepping into the final 10 feet will trigger a cave in. The entire final five feet of the hall ceiling will collapse. Stone blocks and debris rain down causing 1d10 point of damage to all within the area.

(8). Shops

This chamber has two large wooden tables. One three feet out from the west wall and one three feet out from the north wall. Clothes sit in heaps on these tables. Behind the tables are some wooden stools. Some lie on their side.

(9). Market Square

There are four large (4 feet diameter) round tables in this room. One has been pushed up against the northeast door. A pile of stools is also lying on the table against the northeast door. In total there are 14 stools.  It takes 5 rounds to clear the northeast door of the debris.

(10). Guard Room

This room has two bunk beds against the east wall and two wooden tables in the center of the room surrounded by six wooden stools. A backpack rests on one table. Various items have been taken from the pack and spread over the table. On the south wall is a weapons rack with 13 rusty spears still resting in place. In one bunk bed is a skeleton dressed in leather armor. The items on the table are 2 torches, an empty metal flask, 2 packets of dried rations that have gone to mold and a blanket. The backpack appears empty. But there is a secret pocket in the bottom holding 20 gold and a sharp needle coated with poison (save vs poison or die in 1 day). The skeleton looks to be that of a short human dead for decades.

This was an adventurer poisoned by spiders. His companions placed him in this room to recover while they moved on, promising to return.

(11). Grain Store

There is an enormous pile of dried out grain filling the west and north sides of this chamber. Any breeze or disturbance in the chamber causes a choking cloud of the grain to fill the room. If a torch or other open flame enters the chamber, the grain has a 1 on 1d6 chance of igniting and exploding for 2d8 points of damage in a thirty-foot radius. This chance increases to 1-3 on 1d6 if the grain has been disturbed.

(12). Guard Room

This chamber appears to be another guard room. There is a single weapon rack holding six spears and a one-handed ax. A table with three stools and an old, rusty lantern on the table. The lantern is usable but empty.

(13). Guard Hall

The east wall of this room has five wooden bunk beds pointed out into the room. The bunks are just wooden slats, no mattresses remain.

(14). Barracks

There are two tables in the center of this room. Four stools surround each table, two lying on the floor. At each table are two skeletons clad in rotted clothes slumped onto the table. Four more skeletons lie on the floor still grasping spears. Finally there are two pairs of skeletons standing limply at rest holding spears to either side of the west and east doors.

These are undead skeletons under the control of Brognor’s ghost. They are instructed to attack anyone entering the room and to pursue relentlessly. The skeletons are not former guards who died at their post. They were animated from the crypts on level four.

Skeletons (12): AC 7, HD 1, HP 6 each, #AT 1 spear, DMG 1-6, SA F1, ML 12, AL Chaotic.

(15). Warning

There are four pilanths in this room, set on three of them is a stone bust of a humanoid head. A fourth stone bust lies on the floor its nose busted off. The busts depict a human woman with an old, stern face, a human man with a smile and curly hair, a stern elven man or woman it is hard to tell and the one on the floor depicts a gaunt-faced man with with no hair with the exception of thin eyebrows (and a broken off nose). Scrawled on the west wall in chalk is the message, “BROGNOR UNTRUE”.

The broken bust is actually that of Brognor.

(16). Temple

This chamber appears to be a temple. Two full-sized statues of human gods stand against the north wall behind a stone altar. There are two metal candlesticks atop the altar. Four wooden pews sit before the altar blocking much of the room. On closer examination one of the statues has a hand axe stuck to its chest. The statues are living statues and will attack anyone who enters the temple. They will not follow beyond the temple if characters cease attacks.

Living Statues, Iron (2): AC 2, HD 4, HP 30, 26, MV 10’, #AT 2 fists, DMG 1-8/1-8, SA F4, ML 11, AL Neutral. If a non-magical metal weapon strikes a statue it has a chance to become permanently stuck (save vs spells). If stuck the weapon can only be removed once the statue is destroyed.

The statues are identifiable as two human deities of the local region. In the Stillwater campaign these are Estus (god of hope and refuge) and Toses (god of the mountains). The hand axe is a magical Hand Axe +1 of Returning (if thrown it returns to the user magically on the same round). The candlesticks are made of bronze and are worth 5 gold each.

(17). Office

This chamber has two desks facing the entrance and four stools. On the far (south) wall is a cabinet of many small drawers (16). Six drawers are pulled out, and eight lie on the floor.  The remaining 2 remain in the cabinet. Both are locked. They can be forced open or a thief could pick the lock. One drawer holds 12 sheets of blank parchment (fine quality a mage could use them). The other drawer conceals a trap. The drawer has no bottom and there is a clear glass bottle in the drawer containing a green liquid. If the drawer is forced open or picked and pulled open quickly, the bottle will fall to the floor and break open. The liquid will turn to gas and flood a 10’ in diameter area. The gas causes 2d6 choking damage.

(45). Cistern

Detailed in Level Three.

Level One Map