BF3 Strongholds of Sorcery

[Solomoriah]

Nice! I'm working my way down my part of the list. 31 needed more than just boxed text, but it's cleaned up now. Placed the other shoe buckle while I was at it.

[PapersAndPaychecks]

22. DRESSING ROOM:
[box]
Obviously a dressing room, this area has clearly long been neglected. The robes of taffeta and silk that depend from a rail along the back wall are in last century's fashions. They would once have been sumptuous and costly, but time and moths have taken their toll. There is a dressing table, on which are a range of seashells containing smudges and powder ---- presumably, these were once cosmetics of kohl and henna, now long since dried out and useless. There is a dusty mirror, a bone comb, a razor with a tarnished and rusty blade, and a badger-hair shaving brush.
[/box]

Long forgotten, in one of the dresses is a platinum pin in the shape of a rampant unicorn with a tiny sapphire for the eye (worth 1,100 gp). There is nothing else of interest or value in this room.

27. CORRIDOR:
[box]
As you open the door, a spider the size of a shield silently drops from the ceiling onto the lead character's back. Roll for surprise.
[/box]

(Insert stats for black widow that are already in the draft.)

There is nothing else of interest or value in this room.

32. OFFICE:
[box]
This was once an office. Historically, it would have been used by a scribe and a reeve ---- the master of the tower would have had an estate, and his staff would have kept records of the rents and tolls due to him. It has clearly been disused for many years. There are several dozen pigeonholes on the walls, each containing a bundle of papers, two desks with chairs, and a bronze brazier full of charcoal which stands on a metal tray.
[/box]

The bundles of papers are sealed with wax seals. If these are broken, each will be found to contain a lease, a cadastre, a rent record, but these are only of historical interest because the associated estate has long since been sold off and the deeds are now in the hands of the new owners. A professional historian of the area, or someone doing genealogical research, might be willing to pay 50gp for these papers at the absolute maximum.

If the party continues to open the parcels, the ninth one opened will turn out to relate to the tenancy of one Florencio which ended about fifty years ago. It includes an invoice for 2,000gp for one blood rose.

The seventeenth one opened contains a long-forgotten scroll of five magic user spells: Animate Dead, Fireball, Ice Storm, Magic Jar, and Teleport. The scroll must have been sealed up a hundred years ago or more and the ink is quite faded, although still clearly legible.

[PapersAndPaychecks]

36. STUDY:
[box]
This study contains a magnifying lens and a collection of geological specimens.
[/box]

The lens is worth 50gp. The geological specimens include 2 bloodstones (worth 50 gp each), a large, irregular chunk of blue quartz (worth 20 gp) and a small, rounded piece of chrysoprase (worth 50 gp). There are also assorted fossils.

38. LABORATORY:
[box]
This cluttered room contains three large tables. The northern one has several hundred tiny lead soldiers standing on it. They are animated, and as you watch, they can be seen marching about the table in drill formation. A tiny sergeant gestures with his swagger stick. In a glass-sided tank mounted on the wall nearby are several white rats, one of which bears the scars of wounds inflicted by tiny lead swords.

The eastern table has six pot plants on it. They have jet black flowers.

The last table, which is to the south, is of black granite. On it are several nuggets of unidentified black metal, a small bellows-powered charcoal furnace, a crucible, a small anvil and various tongs, hammers and other metalworking tools.
[/box]

The tiny lead soldiers will ignore the characters unless an attempt is made to take them from the room, in which case they will try to fight, although this is not very effective (they attack as one creature, as a magic user with a penalty of -1 to hit, and can inflict 1d2 hp damage to an unarmoured character). If actually taken from the room then they become inert lead figurines.

The table to the south is, of course, for making more of them ---- they are formed of a core of enchanted hepatizon which is dipped in melted lead. Enchanted hepatizon is very valuable and the small amount on the table is worth 1,500gp. There is a further 2,000gp worth of enchanted hepatizon in the enchanted toy solders, if the party can somehow extract it from the lead.

The pot plants on the table to the east are Agonax, a species native to a dark region in the plane of Tarterus. Their leaves have incredibly sharp edges, and glisten with some noxious substance. Anyone brushing up against the plant will take 1hp damage from the leaves and suffer a burning itch, which after 1d6 rounds will become intense, incapacitating pain. The pain lasts for 1d10+10 rounds during which time the character may either scream, or curl up in a foetal ball and whimper (player's choice but they can't do anything useful).

The black petals of the Agonax can be crushed up into a paste and dissolved into unholy water. If this is done and a darkness spell cast on the resulting fluid, it emulsifies and forms an ointment which can allow an undead creature such as a vampire to survive the sunlight (duration 2d4 turns). Two plants can make one dose. Predmore is aware of this but not clear on the exact procedure, and so is working on it at the moment.

39. PARLOUR:
[box]
Within this room is what appears to be a gate to another world. It is a free-standing arch of black stone with inset silver runes, about seven feet high and three feet wide. Within the arch you can see a space and then a rock wall --- it seems to open into a cave.
[/box]

This is indeed a gate to another world. It opens into a cave behind a waterfall. Beyond the waterfall is the Moonmist Moor. A human culture at about a Bronze Age level of technology lives there ---- fewer than a thousand people in total. They live in round thatched huts and herd cattle and horses.

The Moonmist Moor is dotted with standing monoliths called Spires. These are important because they keep the spectres at bay. When the sun sets on Moonmist Moor, spectres fly down from the night sky and hunt for human life force to feed upon, but they cannot approach within 300ft of a Spire. Thus each of the human villages on the moor is clustered around a monolith.

Nobody cannot pass through this gate without speaking the Secret Word. If the GM is interested in expanding on Moonmist Moor as an adventure locale then the party may be able to learn the Word ---- otherwise, it is merely Predmore's hunting ground. He thinks of it as his "larder".

[Solomoriah]

More good stuff! I've worked these into R30, with some variations; in particular, it was my intention that Florencio be merely a supplier of rare and dangerous plants, and not an actual tenant of the Coldarius estate. (I'm still thinking about an adventure that would involve Florencio's own now-abandoned estate, far off in the frontier wilderness...)

[PapersAndPaychecks]

Maybe he sold the Agonax.

[Solomoriah]

Hmm. I'm thinking the Agonax is maybe a more recent purchase. Predmore has "lived" in this tower for a very long time.

I made some additions to the description of the study, and extended the parlor a bit also... Predmore is a very competent wizard with a long career, but I decided it made the story more interesting if he stole that gateway rather than creating it himself.

This adventure is sprouting adventure seeds... cool.

I'm going to finish up the corridor with the flesh golem and post a new version tonight.

[Solomoriah]

R30 is uploaded. As of right now, these are the unfinished rooms in House of Coldarius:

31. BEDROOM: Just needs boxed text
35. LABORATORY: This is where Predmore is making his sword

WOW. Given that I've got to do 35, and I claimed 31, it looks like it's down to me. Besides these unfinished rooms, I need to find my notes on the unfinished sigils from the end of Castle D'Angelo and get them scanned, and that's it, the adventure will be complete!

Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll get those last two rooms done. Will have to do some searching for the missing sigil info.

[PapersAndPaychecks]

This is my fault:-

Room 32:- The bundles of papers are sealed with wax seals. If these are broken, each will be found to contain a lease, a cadastre, a rent record

should read

The bundles of papers are sealed with wax seals. If these are broken, each will be found to contain a lease, a cadastre, and a rent record.

Also, in room 39, I'm not sure about this next point. In American, is it spectre or specter? I would have thought you'd reverse the r and the e, as you do with centre and mitre and sabre. No?

[Solomoriah]

This is my fault:-

Room 32:- The bundles of papers are sealed with wax seals. If these are broken, each will be found to contain a lease, a cadastre, a rent record

should read

The bundles of papers are sealed with wax seals. If these are broken, each will be found to contain a lease, a cadastre, and a rent record.

Wondered about that. Hadn't gotten around to looking up "cadastre" yet. ... usually have to look up at least one word whenever you post a room.

Also, in room 39, I'm not sure about this next point. In American, is it spectre or specter? I would have thought you'd reverse the r and the e, as you do with centre and mitre and sabre. No?

In general you'd be correct. However, the Core Rules use the British spelling in this instance, so "spectre" is correct. There is a tendency among American writers to use British spelling for a lot of words (basically about anything other than the words we drop the "u" from, like armour or colour) when working in the fantasy genre, and I'm as guilty as any of us. We tend to use "saber" and "sabre" almost interchangeably, but would never consider using centre or mitre (except "mitre" when referring to religious headwear is the preferred spelling).

[PapersAndPaychecks]

I'm sorry. I like obscure words. I'm sesquipedalian.