A NIGHT ON THE ROB
An AD and D adventure suitable for a suicidal thief of about fourth level. An absurdly action packed romp across the tiles. This block of housing and businesses accommodation lies at the corner of thirteenth street, and Main. I would use Liverpool, but you could use anywhere. This dungeon has NOT been play tested, I dont have a group at the moment, so apologies if its lethal. It does not have any copyright so do what you will with it, as you probably will anyway. If you make any money, let me know, I could do with a job.
Wellard A Obbit, Spring 2001, Talysarn. wellardobbit@freeuk.com
*
And Hey,
lets be Careful out there.
GENERAL North is at the top on the maps.The main walls of the block are constructed from red sandstone, limestone or granite blocks, depending. Use granite blocks if you wish to give the Thief a hard time and sandstone if the Player is twelve years old or inexperienced in the game. (Sandstone is easy to hammer climbing spikes into and in desperate or extreme circumstances can be tunneled through fairly easily. It is difficult to tunnel through a two foot granite wall in anything less than a few days). The glass windows are similar to stain glass windows in that they are made from many small pieces of glass held in place with strips of lead. Shutters are usually wooden with the hinges fixed directly into the stone on the external face of the wall. Shutters are usually locked by a bolt which fits into a hole in the window sill. All chimneys are blocked at five foot intervals, by three half inch diameter iron bars set into the stone across the chimney flue. In the south east corner of the central yard is a communal well. The proximity of Winston to the well necessitates the boiling of the water before drinking it. Except for the roof of the student house, which is slate, the roof is tiled with pottery tiles. Either will happily support a humans weight. The chimney stacks/pots are perfectly safe to tie a climbing rope to. Doors usually open into the room.
PLAYER A Thief "I want to check for traps"
DM "Fine carry on"
PLAYER Picks up dice
DM "Put the dice down and TELL me how you are checking for traps. Are you going to look at it, are you going to smell it, where are you standing, are you wearing gloves, what are you poking it with". Assume that the "Find Remove traps roll" does not exist and make the player go through the routine. Incidentally I think its unfair for a Character to die because they missed a roll, but if the Character dies because the Player didnt think of pressure plates, then the DM can gloat for weeks afterwards. Make them work out what "thieves picks and tools" actually means.
GANG HOUSE Thirteenth Street Slashers. A street gang. They fill the same niche in the cities ecology as a small thieves guild would. Thieving, selling drugs, protection and mugging provide the gang with a small but steady income. They will attempt to mug/rob anyone in the area unless they are obviously poor, in which case they will try to sell them drugs. Carrying weapons on their street is considered an infringement of their territory and some testosterone crazed macho youngster will certainly issue the traditional challenge: "Oi Puff, think your hard do ya?"
There are twenty four gang members, twelve live at home with their parents and only visit the Gang House, the other twelve live there. A third of the gang is female, (no difference in stats), a third are fighters, the rest are thieves. Gang Colours, (uniform) consists of leather jacket and trousers, which acts as armor.
All are first level, all fight with knives.
Their leader Slasher McGee is in prison awaiting trial for murder.
Zombetts, a five piece zombie drum band. A zombie can keep the beat on a drum almost perfectly, and if care is taken to set them up, five of them can be set drumming at one, in tuneful harmony. The tune can get a bit repetitive but it cant be any worse than techno.
STOMPIN BOOTS AND SHOES Run by a Danny Stompin, a halfling. Shown on the map is a workbench and a curtained alcove at the back of the room, where he does paperwork and takes his breaks. He is a very skilled cobbler, that is also capable of repairing and making other leather goods like horse saddles. He cannot work with, or repair magical objects.
Danny does work on the cheap for the Street Gang who have promised to keep an eye on his shop at night. The oak door is locked with three normal locks.
Apart from his tools and some bits of fancy leather (50 GP total), the shop is not worth robbing.
THE QUEENS SHILLING Everyone calls the landlord of this tavern,"The Bosun", on account of him being the Bosun on the warship HMS Fireproof during the recent French wars, (or other, depending on the world). He is retired due to old age. The pub has a very strong Naval theme, the inside of the bar is paneled in planks to resemble "below decks" and various cutlasses adorn the walls. A big ships bell is used to call time and was taken from "La Juliette". On shelves around the walls are the Landlords pride and joy, thirty seven wooden models of English Navy ships in glass cases about a foot long. The model of the Fireproof has pride of place over the fireplace.
As you can tell from the map, this is only a small tavern, that doesnt do much business and only just about serves food. The Landlord can only cook Naval type food such as whole roast animal, Duff, which is a stodgy dough thing and ships biscuit, {which a Yank would call "Hardtack"}. If he receives complaints about the food he will proudly show you what looks like a piece of shoe leather kept in a small glass case, explain that this is a genuine British Navy slither of beef and that His ships biscuit doesnt have weevils in.
In any other Dungeon a Party staying at this Inn would be in severe danger of being Press ganged, which is forced Conscription into the Navy, but then Sweeney and the Lawyers would have nothing to do, so for once the Landlord is not putting knockout drops in the beer.
The Bosun is an sixth level fighter skilled in both boxing and the Claymore sword kept under the bar.
The ground floor map of the Tavern shows the bar, stools and some big tables. The fireplace is against the north east wall. Under the bar counter are kept the empty tankards. A locked trap door in the floor leads down to a simple cellar which stores about 750 GP worth of stock.
The first floor is split into guest rooms. The oval shapes are beds and the walls are wooden partitions about half an inch thick. The doors are locked with an ordinary lock.
The biggish common room in the north east corner has a big fire place in and stairs up to the Landlords room in the attic. This has a normal lock on the door and contains his bed and a wardrobe full of clothes.
OTHER GUESTS The following setup, Samurai and Drugs Bust, assumes that the Thief is staying at the Queens Shilling. If the Player (intelligently) elects to take a room elsewhere in the City, you may want to move the encounters or use them at a later date.
IMITATION SAMURAI At first glace there are four Samurai in full regalia laughing and joking in the main bar. By the way they stagger about they must be very drunk and none of them appear to speak any Common.
"Impolite" behavior towards them will be ignored, as they are actively avoiding trouble. An insult will have to be very clear indeed to be even acknowledged, by which time the Landlord will take out the Claymore from under the bar and intervene on behalf of the Samurai. For example if the Character were to accidentally spill beer over one of them, the Samurai will laugh and, bowing repeatedly, buy them a new pint. Verbal insults wont be understood in any case. Indeed any attempts at conversation will result in lots of bowing, laughing and one of the Samurai speaking very slowly, precisely, and clearly, but still in an obscure and unintelligible Oriental language.
They are of course not Samurai, (this Tavern has fleas, a real Samurai would not be seen dead in a place like this), but Drug smugglers from Thailand. They are moving a sample of pure opium to a Gangster in Belfast and will be leaving early the next morning. When encountered in the main bar their bags and baggages are heaped into a corner atop which one is always sat. When they do eventually go to bed, they will all sleep on the floor of the upstairs common room, (the one with no beds), arranged around the pile of saddle bags and rucksacks. Amidst the spare boots and blankets is ten pounds of opium. They dont wear armor when sleeping.
IMITATION SAMURAI four first level fighters.
THE DRUGS BUST An Informant, who shall soon be found floating in the canal, has correctly fingered the Queens Shilling but was a whole day late. Consequently the Drugs Bust happens when the smugglers are safely on their way to Eire.
At daybreak, thirty City Guardsmen will surround the entire block while three Paladins and a City Guard Officer, will batter the front door down with a sledge hammer, before arresting everyone in the building. Hopefully this will include the Player Character who will be subjected to both an ESP and a detect lie, during questioning. The Characters treatment will depend upon their attitude to the Paladins and whether they resisted arrest. The Paladins are only really interested in the drugs, but if they discover any other criminal behavior they will pass it onto the relevant authorities.
SIR OSWALD the unready, eighth level Paladin.
Sir Oswald wears full plate armor and uses a hand and a half sword. He can detect invisible things with a monocle that shows up anything magical.
SABASTIAN and JUSTINE fourth level Paladins Both carry long swords and wear full plate armor.
CITY GUARD OFFICER sixth level fighter, wearing chain mail and using a long sword.
CITY GUARDSMAN First level fighter, wearing chain mail and using a short sword.
TRAVELLING ALCHEMIST also staying at the Tavern. Has two potions of healing (2D8 +2 healing, 600 GP), and a potion of Invisibility for another 600 GP. At say, knife point, he will claim that he doesnt carry more than the 6D6 GP you will find in a pouch round his neck, he claims to use the Jewish banking system. He doesnt. He has a screw lock, steel tube, like a cigar tube but shorter, to carry his 6D4 50 GP gems. This he carries around stuffed up his bum. The unsold potions are carried around in a small padded wooden box. Other than this he is considered a normal person and does not find walking a problem.
MULTI STORY HORSE PARKING A boundary dispute with Patagonia Pets has forced the Landlord to build the stables up instead of outward. There are six stalls and a tack room on the ground floor and another six stalls on the upper first floor that is accessed by a ramp shown on the map. The entry to the ground is below the upper western end of the ramp. Both upper and lower sections are closed with a heavy wooden door and locked nightly by the Landlord.
The entire structure is made from tinder dry wood and roofed with pitch covered tinder dry reed thatching. A naked flame or even a spark, however generated, any where near the stables, has an eighty per cent chance of setting it ablaze. Which is unfortunate, since if measures are not taken IMMEDIATELY to prevent its spread, the fire will set off the oil in the Dwarfen Armored Personal Carrier, starting a blaze that burns down not only the Dungeon but half the city as well. A good fire is always worth a laugh.
BRIAN KRIPTONITE'S DWARFEN BLACKSMITHS Brian is a species facist. If you are not a Dwarf then you are no better than the dirt on his boots. He does not acknowledge the presence of non Dwarfs, except when waving a hammer about and shouting "Get out of my shop you {insert racist insult as applicable}"
He fights (if need be) with a blacksmithing hammer and wears heavy leather clothing when working.
Shown on the map is the forge against the north wall, two benches against the east and west walls respectively and the anvil in the middle of the floor. The Armored Personal Carrier is behind a thick black curtain in the southern half of the room.
The Dwarfen Blacksmith usually contains D4+2 of Brians drinking buddies who use the workshop as a social centre, or rather a place to escape their wives. Socializing extends well into the night and at least one is usually fast asleep when the blacksmith goes to bed. In such cases they are covered with a horse blanket and left in the workshop until morning. Brian is a very nice person, IF you are a Dwarf.
DRINKING BUDDIES
The Dwarfs are especially touchy and paranoid at the moment because, being made of aluminium, the Armored Personal Carrier is a well kept secret and almost certainly illegal. It is here for repairs to the back axle, which is why the main body is resting on bricks and the iron wheels are lent against the wall. Imagine a walk in Gipsy wagon made of sheet aluminium. The drivers seat is inside the wagon and it takes at least six horses to pull when fully laden with six armored Dwarfs.
Inside the revolving turret on the top, it has a system of hand pumps that are used to pressurize and squirt oil over distances up to ten yards. A wick pilot light at the end of the barrel, completes the flame thrower. It carries enough oil (two, yard high oil drums) for six shots. Reloading time is D3 rounds, but the DM rolls the dice.
WINSTON, A Vietnamese Pot Bellied Boar
In the yard, the Blacksmith keeps a pig in a metal pen. The pig which has left numerous teeth and bite marks on his five foot high pen, sleeps in a rough wooden hutch. Winston is a killer, he only needs the chance to prove it.
MAC GREGGORS Take away and restaurant. Fish and chips is the mainstay, but they do Haggis and chips as well as Deep Fried Battered Pizza and chips if you ask nicely.
They do a reasonable amount of trade, mostly in the early evening. They shut about one o'clock in the morning.
Marked on the map are three tables in the restaurant area, an Ager (oven) and a food cupboard against the north wall in the kitchen, and the counter in the take away department. The doorway between the restaurant and the kitchen is closed with a heavy yellow curtain.
OWNER Johnny Mac Greggor, serves in the restaurant area.
WASHER UP Also serves at the take away counter. An Orc.
COOK A normal human, also Scottish
THE OLD PIE SHOP Judging by the sign, "Ye Pie Shoppe" has been closed for at least ten years. The paint on the wooden sign is faded and peeling. Various Theatrical posters are still on the dirty wall from four or five years back. Even a blind thief should notice that where the door presumably is, there is what appears to be mud liberally smeared. On closer inspection this "mud" is as hard as rock. To seal both front and back doors, mud has been plastered over them to a depth of about three inches, and then the fifth level Magic User spell Transmute mud to rock has been cast on it.
A pentogram made from solid gold has been inlaid into the stone flag floor. It is not magical or evil in any way and if broken away from the floor, it will weigh one hundred pounds in weight. At the corners of the pentogram are the remains of five black candles covered in a liberal layer of dust.
There are six ordinary zombies armed with long swords in this room. They have been ordered to: "stay in this room and kill anyone who enters"
The west wall of the room has what appears to be three bricked up doorways. Surrounding the normal looking bricks, on what would be the frame are magical runes and symbols in a bright neon like electric blue colour. Touching one of these runes or symbols will deliver a D4 electrical spark. Above the doorways someone has written in blood the words "hades" "A M" "not!" in common.
If I was running this dungeon the Gates would go to somewhere "interesting" like Ankh-Morpork, (Disc World, Terry Pratchett), Hades, Valhalla or somewhere equally dodgy. But I aint detailing these here, so the Gates go somewhere the DM can cope with. If you have the rules, Calimport, Waterdeep and Ravens Bluff, if not pick three cities / towns / villages / fields / deserts, you can cope with. The Gates exit into a similarly locked and sealed room at the other end.
TELEPORTATION GATES Are permanent reusable teleport links between a wall at the entry point and a wall at the exit point. To operate a Gate the user casts a Knock spell on a doorway on either side and steps through the resulting doorway. The Gate stays open for 6D6 minutes once opened. During this time traffic is free to pass from either direction.
ELFEN CARPENTERS This shop is an ordinary Elfen carpenters. The doors are triple locked, with ordinary locks, carpentry tools and bits of rare wood totals about 500 GP. The carpenter lives elsewhere in the city. He pays a large amount of money to the Street gang to prevent burglaries.
SWEENEY TODD BARBER There is never anyone waiting for a haircut at the barbers, Sweeney, a normal human, considers two customers a good day. He usually sits on the doorstep talking to passers by. He only attempts to kidnap people he thinks wont be missed, someone on their own, far from home, is ideal.
"Puts some people right off so it does Sir, a one armed barber is Unnatural somehow, I mean, its not as if I did it shaving or anything, No Sir, this ere arm ere (waves a stump about), was ripped off at the elbow by a hill giant during the banana wars. Cor, thirty years ago that was Sir, blimey. {stares into space for a second or two}. Those were the days aye Sir..."
Sweeney will keep up a stream of innane drivel from the moment you catch his eye in the street. If your Player is into the role playing, then try and plant the idea that Sweeney may have information leading to the next dungeon. Magic items used in the banana wars perhaps. Your job as DM is to steer the Player Character into the barbers chair for either a haircut or a shave.
Once the Character is comfortably settled, Sweeney will step on the lever at the base of the barbers chair. This activates a mechanism which pulls a section of the facing wall down, at the same time as a huge spring catapults the Player Character into the secret room between the Lawyers and the Barbers.
The PC will incur a D6 damage from falling ten feet into a pit. This pit is enclosed at ground level by a cage, and has a thick layer of shiny green leaves at the bottom. The leaves give off a narcotic gas when crushed, or stood on.
Once more we (hopefully), have the PC at the DM's mercy. You may wish, (depending on your sense of humor) to have Sweeney throw the PC a potion bottle and say, "It rubs the lotion on its skin" [Silence of the Lambs], in which case the lotion would be lavender oil and pyrethrum flower. In any event, this situation is potentially fatal for the PC. If the DM is a sod (or the Player Experienced) then the cage at the top is made of inch thick bars of steel and the leaves cause unconsciousness. In such a case then I am sure the DM is capable of running the transfer of the PC by wagon across the city to a Necromancer, where if they are lucky they will (only) be made into Potions of climbing and jumping. (A little known use for thieves blood).
If the Player is twelve years old or the DM not a sod, then the leaves will only make the Character extremely drunk and the cage has rusty edges and a pickable lock.
Either way, Sweeney will close the shop and run round to the Lawyers. He needs to reset the spring on the chair with the winding gear shown on the map. The moveable partition between the Barbers and the secret room is five foot wide and six foot high, inch thick oak.
BEURKE AND HARE LITIGATION Beurke (the halfling) and Hare (the Gnome) are Ambulance chasing Lawyers. Their workload usually consists of inventing ways of Suing people and arranging the bribery of Judges and the Town Guard. If it wasnt for the money they get helping Sweeney kidnap people, they would have gone out of business ages ago.
The office is split by a wooden partition into two, the western most office itself with the fireplace in the north wall, and a bookcase against the partition. The posh carpet on the floor is from Morocco, (present from a smuggler client), Beurkes desk is mahogany, Hares' is teak. The door into the secret room is concealed by a huge picture of a ship being eaten by a sea monster.
The back room contains a counter in the south east corner on which is a large amount of fresh food, and a safe. The safe is a cubic yard in size with four Dwarfen locks (-20% to pick). It contains legal papers and two pounds of pure cocaine that the Lawyers are holding for a Client. A crocodile is hired nightly from next door to guard the back office. Both front and rear doors have one normal lock each.
GUARD CROCODILE
PATAGONIA PETS The sign says the shop is closed but the front and back doors are always unlocked, and during the day there is plenty of activity suggesting that the shop is open.
PYGMI GNOMES Are eighteen inches tall and superficially resemble small gnomes but are actually descended from dinosaurs. They are invariably clad in animal skins and body paint with a leg bone of some description through the nose. They do not speak any common or uncommon language but are happy communicating with gestures and sign language. Interestingly attempts to use the spell Comprehend Language always result in failure and the casting Mage spending a few days believing themselves to be a lizard. Indeed the inability of other races to communicate with these People has lead to large amounts of paranoia. There are Patagonian Pet shops in cities scattered throughout the known Universes, which appear to sell dangerous and exotic animals, "but", people say "businesses cant be that good, I mean how many Tyrannosaurus Rex can you sell a month?" The fact that they willingly pay ten times the going rate for captured or subdued Dragons also causes unease. Players need not worry, their plan for Galactic Domination is at least three hundred years away.
All Pygmi Gnomes are excellent animal handlers, and can persuade most animals to do almost anything. They never carry, or make things out of metal, even to the extent of not using gold, silver or copper coinage, for example the cages in the shop are made of bamboo poles.
At any given time there are D4 -1 Pygmi gnomes in the building. They come and go completely at random, ie, when the DM feels like it.
When pushed they fight with poisoned blowpipes and, in this case poisoned obsidian knives.
During the day the Guard Crocodile from the Lawyers is free to wander round the shop at will and all the cage doors appear to be if not wide open, then not securely fastened. As stated Pygmi Gnomes are excellent animal handlers and even the Tasmanian Devil would not dream of leaving the shop as its been asked not to. However it has been told that it can eat anyone coming into the shop at night, unless they are accompanied by a Pygmi Gnome.
WALT DISNEY TASMANIAN DEVIL Like the cartoons, (the Original ones, not the modern one)
The Tasmanian Devil runs around at three times normal speed allowing three bites a round from jaws that have an equivalent strength of eighteen double zero.
The Tasmanian devil lives in the northern most cage on the ground floor, the other cages contain two lionesses and a giant lizard.
LIONESSES 2
If both claws hit in any one melee round the back legs get a chance to do damage.
GIANT LIZARD
Also shown on the ground floor map, in the south east corner is a wood burning stove, not shown is a wood pile next to it. Its flue goes through the wall. This keeps the shop at tropical heat all year round.
UPPER FIRST FLOOR Most of the room is occupied by a large iron wood (mega hard wood), tank reaching to within twelve inches of the ceiling. It contains tropical plants and seven different types of poisonous arrow frogs. Light levels are raised to tropical levels with continual light stones. A rough bamboo ladder is used to get in the tank.
UPPER SECOND FLOOR Attic room
Shown are five hammocks, the stairs down and a fire place in the south wall. The floor is covered in two inches of compacted soil and the walls are completely covered with rush matting. This is the living quarters and they have made an effort to make it look like a mud hut. Cooking is done on the fire, boiling liquid in bamboo poles, or by dropping red hot stones into earthenware pots with liquid in them. The odd gecko scuttling around the walls ensures that this is the only building in the block without cockroaches.
STUDENT HOUSEHOLD There is usually somebody at home, but in the event that everyone is down the Ale house, the two inch thick, oak front door, has three ordinary locks on it.
This consists of a living room, three bedrooms on the upper first floor, and an attic room accessed by climbing the wall just inside the houses front door. Cooking is done on the fire against the north wall in the living room. Also shown here are three irregular shaped bean bag chairs and a round barrel of cider.
The bleached bones of a kobald have been wired together to form a whole skeleton that stands in the Northwest corner by the fireplace. As well as a purple wooly hat it is wearing a Queens Medical Collage scarf and is holding a club. It is non magical and will not animate.
The Alchemist and the Apothecary students are 0 level, ordinary people. Prince Nazim is a 2/2/2 Fighter, Magic User, Assassin, and Felix Blackbeard is a first level Fighter.
Due to the chaotic lifestyle of the students there is a 25% probability that they are in their room, irrespective of the time of day, and if in their room, half the time they are asleep.
Immediately south of the living room, is the bedroom of Gnormon Greybeard, a Gnome, doing Post Graduate research into plastics.
The shutters are bolted in the normal way and a hair thin titanium wire is attached to the base of the right hand shutter. Its other end is attached to the necks of two wine bottles that are wedged with a funny coloured rock at their base, so that when the wire is pulled, (by opening the window), the bottles are tipped over, mixing their contents and exploding for 3D6 damage. Save vs spells for half damage. A very heavy, double, leather curtain prevents the explosion damaging the room too much. The window sill is coated with a thick layer of dust, empty wine bottles and deep fried pizza boxes.
The desk by the window is being used to trap the blast curtain against the wall. Underneath the pile of fish and chip wrappers, homework and scribing gear (pens inks), is a half written thesis which details the production of simple plastics.
Under the desk is a London Metropolitan Police, plastic traffic cone. If you dont know what one of these are, dont bother with it.
Also shown on the map is a stool and a hammock. The floor is strewn with piles of dirty washing.
South of the Alchemist is the medical students room.
Apothecary Student. Michael Crippin.
As well as being locked with a bolt where they meet in the middle there are two traps on this shutter window. A wire at the base of the shutter leads to a spring which fires a crossbow at the window when the shutter is pulled open. The D6 crossbow bolt has a poisoned tip, save for half of 3D6 damage. It gets a to hit roll the same as an ordinary person ie THACO 20.
Underneath a rug on the floor by the window sill is a pressure plate connected to a spring loaded, large spike array. A three foot square frame holds sixteen, foot long, sharpened stakes. More than three pounds of pressure on the plate will pull out the pin holding the spring, and the whole spike array will sweep down from the ceiling doing 4D4 damage to anyone stood in front of the window.
The spikes are hidden behind a brightly coloured sheet pinned to the roof just above the window and in the centre of the room. There is another brightly coloured sheet dividing the room in two, hung at the base of the bed. The crossbow, on a tripod is in plain view.
The book case on the north wall by the window contains eight apothecary books worth 500 GP in total, and a Hill Giants brain preserved in a jar.
The most southerly of the rooms in the student house belongs to:
Felix Blackbeard, Finance and Accounting, whose dad is a pirate.
He favors the steel shutter and internal hinge method of keeping out thieves. He has had the wooden shutters replaced with eighth inch steel plate, which he locks from the inside with a padlock.
Shown on the map is a narrow bed and sea chest. Half of the space in the chest is taken up with carefully laundered expensive clothing, silks, furs etc. Other contents are his long sword, a stainless steel sextant (500 GP), a telescope, (250 GP), two pounds of homemade Vindaloo Curry Paste in jars and ten pounds of dried banana. The chest has a secret compartment that Felix doesnt know of, that contains some sort of treasure map.
Prince Nazim Singh, in the attic room is the nineteenth and youngest son in the family, 53rd in line to the throne, 2/2/2 Fighter/Magic User/Assassin, studying Politics and Philosophy
DM's NOTE: Notice firstly Winston, as he gazes up at you hungrily with those large intelligent eyes of his. Notice also the best Welsh slate on the roof of the students house, smooth as glass and covered in very, very slimy algae.
Prince Nazim has also noticed the algae and always throws lots of water out of his window to stop it drying out. He has also persuaded Gnormon to knock up a blast bomb for him. This is similar to the other exploding vials except that this one explodes when the vial is tilted from the upright. It is suspended vertically on string from a point about two feet back from the window. Another string with two inches of slack, runs from the base of the vial to the bottom of the shutter. When the shutter is opened the string pulls the vial towards the window and tilts it at the same time. Save vs breath weapon for half of 2D8 blast damage, specifically designed to blow a human sized body, standing just outside the window, far enough away from the roof that they land on top of Winston.
In case the window trap fails to work, Nazim keeps three explosive vials on the bookshelf by the hammock. These do 2D6 electrical damage when thrown at someone. Paranoia and fear of assassination is a way of life to a Royal Prince, and he is a very light sleeper. He wears a Ring of Immunity to Poison.
Shown on the map is the fireplace with two bean bag "chairs" in the northern half. His hammock is slung between the east and west walls. The bookshelf and the desk and chair by the window. Access to the rest of the house is via a trap door in the floor. There was a ladder once, but the students burnt it one day and Nazim is perfectly happy climbing up the wall.
Bookcase contains: The Kama Sutra, Who's Who for this city and world. Eight assorted Philosophy scrolls. Street map for Calimport. Spell book.
EMPTY ROOM For rent, 10 GP a month, apply to Beurke and Hare.
PIPEWEED STORE ROOMThe wooden shutter to this room has been nailed shut and other planks have been nailed to the frame. Large lumps of wood have been jammed into the window alcove to further barricade it.
The door into the corridor has two large padlocks keeping it closed.
The funny looking shapes are two hundred and fifty pound bales of top grade Halfling pipeweed. It has been stolen by the street gang and is being stored here until they can sell it, not that any of them will admit to it mind. Incidentally it takes two strong people a whole minute to squeeze a tight fitting bale through the door.
THE HIT CLOWN Before the Temple of Ilya was blown to pieces by a cart stuffed with Semtex, no one had even heard of The Monster Raving Loony Party. Since then this shadowy and secretive terrorist organization has been blowing up Evil Temples, freeing slaves and assassinating Nobles, Kings and powerful Mages in audacious and sometimes suicidal attacks. Its Valient Freedom Fighters always dress up as clowns, wearing make up, red noses, baggy trousers and oversize brightly coloured boots. Some say this is to strike fear into the hearts of their enemies but those in the know quietly point out that the Cease Fire Agreement does not carry the signature of Coco the Clown.
Sitting patiently watching Main street is the Hit Clown.
HIT CLOWN 3rd Fighter
The Clown is actually a knife thrower from a circus. He can throw three D4 knives a round with a +2 to hit from dexterity.
A loaded, expensive, Dwarfen crossbow is set up on a tripod pointing through the crack in the shutters up the street. Two spare bolts lie on a stool at the side. The bolts reek of magic, even without a detect magic you can see the dark purple glow of a magical field. The air smells heavily of Ozone, even outside the window. Brightly coloured tropical parrot feathers are attached to a black wooden shaft inlaid with silver script so fine you need a magnifying glass to read the name "Grunthos the Black", which appears no less than forty two times. The tips are made from mithril and are covered in a black, tarlike, sticky substance you would be ill advised to touch.
Party Mix Warhead - Explodes on impact for 4D8 Heat/Fire damage, also delivers 4D8 Electrical discharge on impact and a normal D4 damage from the head. The tarry poison covering contains powdered Plutonium (a poison in its own right, irrespective of any radiation) for a further 4D6 damage. Thats three saving throws, for half damage, and D4 weapon damage.
When fired at Grunthos the Black the bolt gets a plus thirteen to hit, when fired at anything/anyone else, it incurs a minus nine penalty. If held in the hand to jab someone it incurs a minus seven to hit penalty.
Eighteen perfectly balanced throwing knives are on the same stool as the spare crossbow bolts, easily to hand.
He has been given an eight day supply of amphetamine sulphate to keep him awake. This has a tendency to make him single minded about watching the street, so he might not notice small amounts of activity at the other window, which is closed and bolted. The shutter on the window he is looking out of has been jammed into this position and doesnt move about in the wind.
Apart from a very large pack lunch and a piss pot, the rest of the room is bare. He has pushed the double bed against the door, and doesnt have a fire lit.
EMPTY ROOM For rent, 10 GP a month, apply to Beurke and Hare.
HALFLINGS ROOM Shown on the map is a double bed in the North West corner, a babies cot at its base, a childs bed against the southern wall and three stools arranged around the fire place in the South East corner. This is the living accommodation for the Cobbler, his wife, two children and a baby. The house hold is poor, cooking is done on the fire and sanitation is out of the window. No window traps, but the room is always occupied.
DOPPELGANGER / SHAPE SHIFTER Mr Swifthammer appears to be a Dwarfen Clerk who claims to work at a shipping office somewhere in the city. If you meet him in the passageway or street he will be friendly and polite, but will soon start talking about his collection of shovels and has a tendency to lecture, at length, on the various meteorological phenomena found in his native Sweden. He can name and describe all thirty seven different varieties of rain found in the city.
He is not a Dwarf, he is a Doppleganger that has discovered the best form of concealment is to appear utterly boring. He does not work in the City, he spends his days as a kitchen help in the Manor house of a local lord, Lord Blenkingthorpe-Smythe-Winterton. He is gradually amassing the information he requires to take place of the Lord. Incidentally there is another four Dopplegangers in the city, all understudying important Nobles in the City.
On the map is shown, the fire place in the south west corner, a small chair, a big wardrobe between the two windows and a bed in the south east corner. His collection of thirteen shovels are arranged along the north wall. A series of five small oil paintings on the west wall depict five different cloud formations.
The wardrobe is made of oak and unlocked, hanging inside is normal Dwarfen clothing, all carefully laundered.
Underneath the bed in the extreme south east corner is a small invisible chest. A foot long and six inches high it contains 30 gems, each worth 100 GP and partially drawn plans of a very large house. Details of the private apartments are missing. A bit of thought and a few visits to possible houses will show which particular Nobles house it is. {But as Hammy used to say, "thats another story..."}
Due to the appalling lack of anywhere to hide anything in the room, the doppleganger has invested in a triple locked steel door and has installed steel window shutters inside the glass window. These all have the hinges inside the room.
MARLON THE MAGNIFICENTS THEUMATIC CONSULTANCY Proclaims a brass plaque on the door. Magician for hire is a good description of Marlon, who is not proud enough to turn down any job, no matter how small. He figures it good advertising to read a Circus poster to someone for a copper piece. Most of his income is from scribing and concocting black powder fireworks. His prices are entirely dependent on the customers apparent ability to pay. A street urchin with three copper pieces is liable to come away with a rocket ten times better than a Nobles son who paid a Gold. He will take a look at the clothes the Customer is wearing and settle on one of four cost structures, Charity, Minimum wage plus costs, Normal, Exorbitant. Casting a first level spell will cost a hundred Gold at normal rates.
He is always open unless he is out. He will happily see clients at three in the morning.
His flat is in three sections, Northern most is the workshop where he makes the fireworks, shown on the map is a workbench and a steel walk in cupboard where completed fireworks and black powder is stored. In the middle is his bedroom showing a bed and bookcase. The Office is the most southerly showing the fireplace, desk, two chairs and another bookcase. Except for his spell book, all the books are fictional.
MARLON THE MAGNIFICENT 2nd level MAGE
He can do most things you would expect from a low level Mage, and he has contacts in the city that could sort out anything too advanced for him, at a price.
The same trap is used on both shutters, the glass window does not open. A vial sized hole has been made in the lintel of the shutters window, close to the external face of the wall. A piece of stiff card has been glued to the top of the shutter. When the shutter is closed the card stops a vial from falling out of the hole in the lintel, when the shutter is opened, the card is pulled away and the vial drops. Marlon uses knockout gas, save vs poison or become unconscious for D8 turns.
Above the glass window and above each shutter, on the outside wall, Marlon has placed a Magic mouth spell that will yell "FIRE!" loudly and repeatedly if a humanoid comes in through the window.
CANDLE MAKERS Shown is a pot bellied stove by the bolted window, a hammock and a work bench in the southern half of the room. The room divider is a curtain. South of this is an oval workbench and a cupboard on the right (East) as you walk in.
The workbench is covered in steel melting pots, moulds and lumps of candle dye. The cupboard (simple lock) contains candle scents, nothing fancy or expensive, candle dyes, a huge fifty pound lump of candle wax and a wooden box with six, well made pure white candles scented with jasmine. These are the result of a little experimentation in collaboration with Marlon. The wick has been chemically treated so that the candle flame is a different colour from normal. It starts off blood red then changes to blue, green, orange and white as it burns down.
The front door has an ordinary lock but Eighty year old Molly Redsox carries her thousand gold piece life savings in gems around her neck in a pouch and is not that concerned with security.
Being a martial arts expert, Molly's walking stick is a lethal and deadly weapon. She is a master of "First Strike" (subtract 9 from her D10 initiative roll) and has a knowledge of all humanoid pressure points, which she hits with the end of her stick. This usually has the effect of paralysing a limb (saving throw allowed) for D4 rounds. If you know what a "dead leg" is you should have the right idea. She first hits her opponents sword arm, before dropping them on the floor with blows to their knees. She knows where the killing points are as well, whacks with the stick at these points do 3D4 damage.
You would probably have to convince Molly that you were aged, infirm and in need of protection for her to teach a Character anything useful.
She fears nothing and no one.
MOLLY REDSOCKS
KRIPTONITE FAMILY HOME Shown on the map in the north west corner is the bedroom and bed. Below that is a very small hallway (where coats are hung and muddy boots left), and the living room against the east external wall contains a pot bellied stove that has a flue (chimney) that goes out the window and four stools. The rest of this window is boarded up with oak. During the daytime Mrs. Kriptonites kitchen usually contains two or three of the wives married to her husbands drinking buddies. If need be use the Blacksmiths stats for Mrs Kriptonite. The door from the "hall" to the bedroom is half inch steel plate with three Dwarfen (-20% to pick) locks. All four walls and the ceiling of the bedroom are covered in glass mirrors and the sheets are made of leather. When not occupied the bedroom is always locked.
BOBIKIN IMPORTS This eighth of an inch thick, steel plate door has three Dwarfen locks on it, -10% to pick. The leaded stained glass window will not open and a magic mouth has been cast on the outside wall by it. The magic mouth will scream "Burglers, Help, Help, I'm being Burgled" over and over if a humanoid passes through the window. It is just possible that one of the Street Gang will remember that Mr. Bobikin mentioned this and that he would pay a reward of 500 GP for the body of such a burgler.
On the map is a desk and two chairs in the eastern end, a drinks cabinet directly opposite the door, a long oval sofa faces a fireplace in the south west wall. The picture in the stain glass is of a red dragon breathing flame.
The sofa is silk, the carpet is rabbit fur, the desk is topped with dragon scale and the rosewood drinks cabinet contains 800 GP worth of fine wine and spirits.
Bobikin is a gangster who uses the room as a meeting place very occasionally.
COUNT ALUKARD The Count is a refugee from central Europe and still vividly remembers the night sixty years ago when thousands of pitchfork waving peasants burnt down the ancestral home forcing him, and his young wife to flee the country.
Aged and infirm he spends his days dozing in a big armchair that faces out of the skylight.
Frank, the faithful family servant, has served the Alukard family since his construction by a ancestor 500 years ago. His skin is a patchwork of stitching and mending, often with different colours. He has a bolt through his neck and recharges himself with lightning by flying a tinfoil kite (kept under the masters bed), in thunderstorms. Sadly the details of his manufacture are lost in history.
FRANK N. STEIN Monster
The Count sleeps in a biggish four poster bed in the south of the room behind a black velvet curtain. A small fire place is in the east wall, another, bigger one is in the south west corner of the room.
THE SON, MAXIMILLION ALUKARD Is a member of the City Guard and a first level fighter with the same stats as the Guard involved in the drugs bust. He lives here with his ordinary, zero level wife. A curtain divides the room into an eastern bedroom, with bed, table and large fireplace, and a westernmost living room with another fire and some stools.
EMPTY ROOM For rent, 10 GP a month, apply to Beurke and Hare.
PLAIN TRUTH PRINTING PRESS The door to the room is locked with one normal lock and has a big "keep out" sign hung on it. Nothing can be heard at the door but a slight smell of Ink may be detected.
There has been so many Daemons and Foul creatures in and out of this room that any Character approaching within a foot of the front door, or either of the two attic windows will feel an almost overwhelming sense of dread, fear and bad foreboding. Save vs constitution or vomit up your last meal.
The large attic windows that open onto the roof are locked with normal locks and are made of mirror backed glass steel. From the roof a Character will only see their own reflection.
The room has been permanently silenced as per the spell. It contains a printing press, shown as a big square on the map, and a normal person who is a printer. The printer has "agreed" to print leaflets for the Daemons, and has six months left on his contract. The Daemons bring him food when they collect the leaflets. If he spots someone about to come in the room he will try to warn them off, but with the silence this is difficult.
A Character crossing the threshold of the door or either window will summon a Rapid Reaction Lawyer from one of the lower planes of Hell. If the Character manages to get into the room without crossing a door or window threshold, (eg. by a hole in the roof), NO Lawyer will be summoned.
RAPID REACTION LAWYER (Almost a God)
Once summoned there is no running away from the Lawyer, he will literally follow the PC anywhere.
A Demonic Lawyer usually manifests as a five foot high African Vulture that carries a brief case and wears a black bowler hat, but other forms are known. This one will be waving a piece of parchment and asking the Character to sign, in the Characters blood, or be pecked to death. The Characters death will be real, but, on the way to the afterlife the Lawyer will show up with a contract the same as before but promising to post six thousand, six hundred, and sixty six posters, if the Character signs they will be instantly Resurrected with no loss of constitution. If they dont sign this one then it is "tear up the Character sheet time". "Unfair" they will yell, but they were warned at the door, and besides putting up posters is hardly difficult...
The Contract:
I the undersigned, volunteer to paste six hundred and sixty six of the following Public Information Posters to walls or other suitable vertical surfaces, in a public place, within the boundary limit of habitations consisting of more than one hundred humanoids and at no time pasting more Posters than the number of Inns, Taverns, Alehouses, public water wells or places of communal entertainment, found in said habitations.
In the event that I should paste less than four posters in any one lunar month, I agree that my body be eaten by a lesser Daemon at a rate of one bite per day, every day I have not fulfilled my quota of four posters a lunar month.
The Poster:
We hold it to be a self evident truth that all humanoids (even Halflings) are created equal in the eyes of the Gods and that the system of Monarchy, where Power is apportioned purely by merit of birth is unjust and outdated.
We propose a system of Regular, Fixed Term Elections whereby the Monarch and the Noble Classes are selected by the popular CONSENT of the Ordinary People.
No more need we suffer under Cruel and Tyrannical Overlords, Common Peoples of the Worlds Unite, for you have only your chains to loose.
After signing the contract the Character will be given a foot square black leather pouch of holding, which contains the required number of self adhesive posters. The pouch weighs one pound only, has an internal volume of one cubic yard and can, be kept by the Character if they ever manage to finish the posters. It is what I call DM indestructible. Do what you like to it and the contents are unaffected. If it gets stolen (or, heaven forbid, lost) it will return unharmed by magic means.
DM NOTE: I have done my best with the wording of the contract, but like Wishes and the Law, the LETTER of the contract applies, not the spirit. Half the fun of this sort of thing is trying to squirm out of it. If it gets to the point where the DM thinks one thing, and the Player another then it goes to Judicial Review. An independent Judge is agreed upon, (Someones Mum, Girlfriend etc.) and the arguments written down and submitted. The Judges decision is Final.
The AJOINING ROOM South of the room with the printing press is used to store paper, inks and completed Posters.
AKBAR THE ALLEY CAT The roof tops are the personal property and hunting preserve of the enormous ginger tom cat that lives in the stables. He especially resents any human presence on the rooftops as this frightens the pigeons away. If he spots any one, he with raise himself to full hight, spit and yowl loudly. He will run off if the Character shows even the slightest hint of violence.
If he thinks he can get away with it, Akbar will spray the intruding human with acrid cat piss. Not as bad as skunk piss, but still very difficult to remove, even with washing it will take about a week for the smell to fade.