The Plot

Vorax and his wolves will stay quiet for some after their first attacks on the pc's, this helped the lycanthrope to evaluate the strength of his opponents. Vorax will make his next move at the beginning of the summer and will also notice the existence of Jivaldi for the first time.

The Company of Wolves

For some reason, any, the pc's are wandering in the forest. If you don't have any idea, maybe they are coming back from a side adventure (like i told you to do at the end of spring). Maybe they are coming back from town and unhappy about not finding any magical or silver weapon there. Or maybe Jivaldi sent them in the woods to find something like a plant or they were sent by the mayor because some villagers said the wolves came close to the village again.

In the woods, Vorax and six of his wolves are waiting for the pc's (last night it was a full moon). Vorax will send his wolves to the pc's so they surround them in a circle (more efficient against area effect spells). Just before the wolves gets to them in a circle, you can have them making a perception or surprise check. Vorax, as usual, stay away from the fight behind some trees. He will prepare a Shocking Grasp and will try to attack any spellcaster from the group, wizards before priests. The pc's can make a perception check to notice the lycanthrope approaching. Those back to Vorax have a perception at -4. Vorax will not fight for long, he will run away with his wolves if at least 3 of them are dead. This will be the real proof that the pc's are fighting against a werewolf, most of them will see him perfectly in details. If any of the pc's hit sucessfully Vorax, they will also notice that none of the weapon hurts him. It is a common knowledge that lycanthropy is a disease and that the transformation is linked to the full moon (not Vorax though). For the pc's now, the best thing to do is to talk to Jivaldi about that.

6 Wolves

Ac: 7	Thac0: 18	Attacks: 1	Damage: 1d4+1
Intelligence: 9 (6)	Size: Small	Alignment: Neutral	Movement: 18
Moral: 14 (10)	HP: 15, 13, 12, 11, 11, 10	Special: Save vs charm at +1

Intelligence and moral is modified by the near presence of their master (see Vorax).

Since Foswel is gone to the druid reunion, the pc's have to rely on Jivaldi for any vegetal or animal problems. And besides the priest Lehar, she is the only spellcaster in Dolmor. Jivaldi doesn't know much about that besides their hatred for silver and that there's a plant that can prevent lycanthropy, the belladona. She tells them that the herbalist in dolmor keeps some. She also heard about a lycanthrope story told a few years ago by the old Alfie who lives in the village. The story of a rich young man who was affected by lycathropy and went insane. If the pc's meet with Alfie in Dolmor, just go to his section in the dolmor description page.

The Belle and The Wolf (part one)

In the following days, Vorax will have is first encounter with the ravishing Jivaldi. from this point, he will put all his energy in attemps to capture Jivaldi.

Have the pc's going toward the druid's house one morning for this next scene.

You are reaching the clearing in which the druid's house is. It's a beautiful morning, the sun is shining, birds are chirping and bees are buzzing. Suddenly this natural melody is interrupted by a scream, even if you never heard her scream before you know that it's Jivaldi. You run toward the clearing (unless they do something else) and you see four wolves running fast toward you. You have reached the clearing and see the house a bit further away.

4 Wolves

Ac: 7	Thac0: 18	Attacks: 1	Damage: 1d4+1
Intelligence: 9 (6)	Size: Small	Alignment: Neutral	Movement: 18
Moral: 14 (10)	HP: 14, 14, 12, 11	Special: Save vs charm at +1

Intelligence and moral is modified by the near presence of their master (see Vorax).

Even if the wolves are outnumbered, they will try to keep the pc's from going into the house, or at least keep them away for a long time. If a pc is close to reach the house, one of the wolf will leave his opponent to go the that pc instead. In the house there is some kind of struggle between Vorax and Jivaldi, she is not hurt and Vorax is not interested in hurting her. Vorax is having a hard time with her because of the magical staff she is using. The pc's will probably get rid of the wolves (they run away if 2 of them are dead) and will get in the house. As soon as one of the pc opens the front door, read the following.

In the back of the house, near the back door, you see Jivaldi surprisingly striking the werewolf with a staff. The tip of the staff is silvery and emits a faint blue glow. Jivaldi hits the lycanthrope on the left shoulder and the staff glow gets brighter. The werewolf screams in pain after receiving the hit and puts his right hand over his left shoulder, at that time he turns around and see you in the open door. He then decides to run away by the back door (it's open) before you can do anything, Jivaldi is terrified and holds her staff very tightly. She then looks at you and starts to cry.

Vorax goes back in the forest to hide, with his speed and his magical boots the pc's will not be able to track him down again. Jivaldi was not hurt, but she is still in shock, she saw the werewolf from very close...too close. She will come back to her senses in a few minutes, rightnow she needs to be comforted.

It's probably the first time that the pc's will noticed the magical staff that Jivaldi used against Vorax. A very hard wooden quarterstaff (oak) with a pure silver tip and silver bands along the top, at least 15 inches of the staff if pure silver. This staff was given by his father for the time he is gone to the druid reunion. The staff can only be handled by druids, if one of the pc's want to touch it she will warn him. If the staff is held by anyone else but a druid, it will discharge 3 points of electrical damage that will bypass any magical or natural protection whatsoever (besides divine power). The staff is +2 to hit/damage and can detect evil in a 3' radius (the blue glow, it also intensifies when touching an evil person/creature).

For a few days Vorax will heal from his wound and will start planning a new way to get Jivaldi. Now that he knows she have a magical advantage, he will have to be more cautious. The pc's will then not hear about the werewolf and the wolves for a long time, until fall. During the summer they will be gone on an expedition to find the ruins of Greytower.

On the Road to Greytower

The pc's will quickly understand that they need to find that legendary sword (Silveredge) to get rid of Vorax if he comes back again. If they listened to Alfie's story and have with them the parchment and tiles, they are ready to go in the ruins. They need the tiles if they want to get the sword the easy way. If they do not have the parchement it's not a problem at all. Anyway, it would be very surprising that they got their hand on only one of them.

There is no real map available in Dolmor to see where the ruins of Greytower could be. Alfie gave the pc's a few clues about that already, they should start with that info. The pc's could use the dangerous way, going straight through the woods until they get to the Humpy Vale and find the ruins. Or if they go to Laria and find the old path that was used long ago to travel in a part of the forest. It follows the river and disappear in the nature after a few miles, nobody uses that path anymore besides maybe the goblins. The pc's should prepare for a long trip, they could be gone for almost a month. You should also prevent the pc's of finding Vorax's hideout at the foot of the Valley of Rocs, near the hills. Watch where they will be going and if they have still food and water available along the way. If they are intelligent a bit they should go to Laria, buy some stuff there and then use the old path west of town that goes in the forest. There is one chance out of four (1d4) that they can find drinkable water in the forest each day, if they are travelling along the river this will be an automatic success. It is also easier to find some if it rained recently.

The Golden Wood's Menu

On the dm's map, in the Golden Woods, there's a few special spots where the pc's could encounter some creatures: Goblins, Atomies and Jermlaines. At some point the characters will not have the choice but to travel through the woods for most of the trip to the ruins. They will have very good chances to encounter the above mentionned creatures. From time to time on a tracking skill roll (or perception) they will notice tracks in the woods, mostly goblins. They have probably never encountered Jermlaines and Atomies before, so they won't be able to tell that some of the tracks are theirs. A lot of the goblin tracks are along the river.

The four next encounters liste below all take place in the Golden Woods, they have to be played in the indicated order but the Dm can decided the period of time between each of them (at least one day between each). All of the encounters must take place before the characters finally discover the ruins of Greytower. As an "optional" rule, don't kill all your pc's with these encounters, brining in play new characters while in the middle of the woods is quite silly.

1 - Gob! Gob! Gob!

While the characters are preparing to set camp for the night, they notice some fire lights farther away in the woods. The fire is coming from a goblin camp, they are probably roasting some animals or small humanoids (Jermlaines and Atomies). There is 12 goblins in this camp, 6 are sleeping, 2 are on guard and the 4 others are on patrol. Like most goblins in this area, they go near the road sometimes and attack merchants for food and weapons (cash is useless to them).

If the characters approach the camp, there is one chance out of six (1d6) to come across the goblin patrol at anytime. If they get very close to the camp, the two goblins on guard should roll under their perception to notice them approaching (13 perception at night and 10 during the day). If the guards notice the pc's they will alert all the others. The sleeping goblins will take 2 rounds to be ready to fight and it will take 4 rounds for the patrol to come to the rescue. If the pc's have decided instead to stay away from the goblins, there will be only one chance out of 10 (1d10) to encounter the patrol. If the patrol notice them, they will go to the camp to alert the others, they will come back to the pc's camp 10 rounds later.

11 Goblins

Ac: 8	Thac0: 20	Attacks: 1	Damage: 1d6
Intelligence: 6	Size: Small	Alignment: Lawful evil	Movement: 12
Moral: 10	HP: 4	Special: Infravision 60 feet

They all have cheap leather armors, small wooden shields, short swords and spears.

Garook, Goblin leader

Ac: 6	Thac0: 19	Attacks: 1	Damage: 1d6
Intelligence: 8	Size: Small	Alignment: Lawful evil	Movement: 12
Moral: 11	HP: 7	Special: Infravision 60 feet

Leather armor, wooden shield, short sword and spear. He is wearing a bone necklace, made mostly from Atomie bones.

The goblins should have a moral check when they have lost at least 5 of their owns. I fmost of them fail their moral check they will run away in the woods. If one of them is kept as a prisonner he will not be able to tell much to the characters (if they understand the goblin language). He doesn't know where the ruins are but on an intelligence roll he could bring them to the goblin village instead (area #7 on the map). He will not tell where the other goblin camps are but will probably try to bring the pc's to them (areas #3 on the map) so they will be killed and eaten. Another thing about taking a prisonner, he doesn't speak the common language.

2 - Wolf Gang

Just to stay in our wolfesque atmosphere and to be sure that the pc's do not forget about them, they will encounter a pack of nasty wolves. Those wolves, to be a bit different, are not at all related to Vorax and his hounds, but the pc's don't know about that. There is chances that they will think they are being followed by the lycanthrope.

5 Wolves

Ac: 7	Thac0: 18	Attacks: 1	Damage: 1d4+1
Intelligence: 6	Size: Small	Alignment: Neutral	Movement: 18
Moral: 10	HP: 13, 13, 12, 10, 9

Make a moral check when at least two of them are killed, if the majority fail, they run away.

3 - Though Germs

The forest is inhabited by a clan of Jermlaines, a very small humanoid race from the family of Gremlins. They are presently at war with a clan of Atomies (and always fighting with the goblins). Jermlaines are malicious and nasty, they prefer to ambush their opponents instead of facing them, they capture them with nets hidden on the ground and tied into nearby trees. They despite Atomies mostly because of their magical powers, they are very jealous of them but they consider at least that they taste really good.

The first encounter with the Jermlaines takes place shortly after the sunset when the characters are looking for a place to set camp. Characters leading the group have a chance to notice that the ground before them was a bit disturbed, soil moved and some vegetation broken (slightly). To notice the trap (since it is getting dark) tracking is at -4 and perception at -6. But this roll can only be made by the leading characters (one or two). There is two nets hidden on the ground, they are not very big and can only support the weight of one human each. If the leading pc's fail their rolls, they will be caught in the nets and brought 20 feet in the air by ropes attached to the nets and the trees. If they notice the trap, the Jermlaines will attack them with darts from the trees.

The Jermlaines are very silent, the characters have a -5 penalty on their surprise roll before they start throwing darts. They will use all their darts before even thinking getting in close combat. If the pc's are too powerful for them they will run away in their village (area #5 on the map) by jumping from one tree to another. If the characters are in trouble, some Atomies will come to the rescue. There is 48 other Jermlaines in their village.

15 Jermlaines

Ac: 7	Thac0: 20	Attacks: 1	Damage: 1d2 or 1d4
Intelligence: 8	Size: Small (1 foot)	Alignment: Neutral evil	Movement: 15
Moral: 12	HP: 3	Special: Infravision 90 feet. Detect Invisibility. Camouflage: 75%.	Equipment: 3 darts (1d2) 1 spear (1d4)

Jermlaines are small grey brown ugly humanoids. Their skin is all wrinkled, like they were wearing oversized clothes. They have long fingers and toes and dirty fingernails. They speak with a very high toned voice, am incomprehensible squeaky language, a bit like monkeys.

8 Atomies (if necessary)

Ac: 4	Thac0: 18	Attacks: 1	Damage: 1d4 or 1d3
Intelligence: 10	Size: Small (one foot)	Alignment: Chaotic neutral	Movement: 12 (24/fly)
Moral: 12	HP: 4	Special: Infravision 90 feet. Can only be surprised on a roll of 1. Mimicry insects sounds. Invisible at will. Speak with animals and plants.	Equipment: 1 spear (charge for 2d4) 1 knife

The Atomie village (area #4 on the map) is a bit further north-east from the Jermlaine village (area #5 on the map). Both villages cannot be discovered by the characters (even if they cross the marked areas on the map). The characters will discover the Jermlaine village during their second encounter with them.

4 - Up and Atom (at them).

This encounter should take place not long before the characters reaches the Humpy Vale, again, the Jermlaines are involved. Early in the morning, after the characters have left camp, they will notice through the trees, a group of 10 Jermlaines carrying nets with three small creatures inside them (they know they are atomies if they met with them during the previous encounter). They are being carried to the Jermlaine village (area #5 on the map). If the pc's do not help them now, the Jermlaines will get to their village and it will be harder to rescue the Atomies. At their village, they will put them in a cage and will strip them of all equipment, they will probably torture them by ripping off their wings so they can't fly anymore. The cage will be tied to a big tree, 20 feet above the ground. It is very difficult to enter the Jermlaine village unoticed, there is always a patrol of 8 Jermlaines walking around the place. The pc's have 12 hours to rescue the Atomies before they are cooked and eaten.

All the Jermlaines live in the trees, it is very difficult to reach them. The patrol is always on ground, if they are in danger they will climb in some trees to alert the others. If the pc's are lucky and kill many of the Jermlaines, the remaining will flee in the woods and will never come back in this area again. If the characters are in a lot of trouble, you can send a group of Atomies to the rescue. Jermlaines have no treasures or valuables (neither the Atomies).

Jermlaines (48 total, but only 30 can fight)

Ac: 7	Thac0: 20	Attacks: 1	Damage: 1d2 or 1d4
Intelligence: 8	Size: Small (1 foot)	Alignment: Neutral evil	Movement: 15
Moral: 12	HP: 3	Special: Infravision 90 feet. Detect Invisibility. Camouflage: 75%.	Equipment: 3 darts (1d2) 1 spear (1d4)

Jermlaines are small grey brown ugly humanoids. Their skin is all wrinkled, like they were wearing oversized clothes. They have long fingers and toes and dirty fingernails. They speak with a very high toned voice, am incomprehensible squeaky language, a bit like monkeys.

10 Atomies (if necessary)

Ac: 4	Thac0: 18	Attacks: 1	Damage: 1d4 or 1d3
Intelligence: 10	Size: Small (one foot)	Alignment: Chaotic neutral	Movement: 12 (24/fly)
Moral: 12	HP: 4	Special: Infravision 90 feet. Can only be surprised on a roll of 1. Mimicry insects sounds. Invisible at will. Speak with animals and plants.	Equipment: 1 spear (charge for 2d4) 1 knife

Atomies have elven features, pale greenish skin and a double set of translucid wings in the back. They wear brown and green clothes. They speak a a very basic form of the common language with a buzzy tone of voice, like the buzz of an insect. They have been in the woods for a very long time, long before the Jermlaines came around and brought chaos. Their village is inhabited by 35 of their kinds, like the Jermlaines, they live up in trees.

The Humpy Vale

It is quite possible, if they are lost, that the pc's will stumble upon the Goblin village (area #7 on the map). The village is inhaboted by 62 Goblins, 40 of them are able to fight. It is recommended that the pc's do not approach the village too much, they don't have much chances against so many Goblins at their levels. If they get too close from the village, they is 1 out of 6 chances (1d6) that a Goblin patrol will cross their path. The characters should be after the ruins of Greytower, not the Goblins. The Humpy Vale got it's name from the numerous hills that can be found there.

Sight Seeing Tour of the Ruins

A bit south from the beginning of the Laria river (The name is not indicated on the map), at the foot of some hills is the ruins of Greytower. Read the following when the characters have a view of the ruins:

A path, covered with vegetation leads to the ruins' main entrance, a pair of old big wooden doors, emprisonned by vines. Greytower is made of four cubical structures with a tower in the middle of them. The tower and most of the buildings are extremly damaged and look pretty dangerous. You see that most of the outside wall have crumbled to pieces and that one of the buildings (on the left) have a collapsed roof. There is no signs of life around and it seems nobody was around here in many years. Eveything is calm and quiet, you can only hear the sound of the wind in the high grass around. Near the entrance, on the right side of the path, there is an old dark dead tree, it looks like a ghostly figure waiting for someone. It gives to the surrounding a more creepy atmosphere, a cursed place.

I Regenerate, Therefore I Am

Even if this place is very quiet, the pc's are not alone. When the pc's are in front of the entrance, have them rolling under their perception (or tracking). If one of them is successful, read the following:

On the left of the path, the high grass was trampled. There if no footprints but this was done by a big creature of many smaller ones. This path of broken vegetation leads toward the left building, and reaches the crumbled wall. This was done not very long ago, so something or someone was or is still around the ruins.

The creature living in the ruins is a Troll, he will notice the smell of the pc's a few rounds after they have reached the front doors. He lives in the back of the ruins and he is too stupid to even think of exploring inside Greytower. The Troll will be coming from the crumbled wall, so there is good chances that he will be face to face with the characters if they follow the path in the grass.

Troll

Ac: 4	Thac0: 14	Attacks: 3	Damage: 1d4+4, 1d4+4, 1d8+4
Intelligence: 6	Size: Large (9 feet)	Alignment: Chaotic evil	Movement: 12
Moral: 14	HP: 32	Special: Infravision 90 feet Regenerates 3 hp per round, starting 3 rounds after the first damage is done to him. Cannot regenerate fire based damage.

The Troll should make a moral check roll when he reaches 16 hit points or less. Even if he is successful, he will flee from combat when he will be under 10 hit points. He will run away so he can regenerate and come back later to the ruins.

In his lair there is bones from Goblins, Jermlaines and wolves. There is also a lot of troll dung, a rusty short sword, a wooden shield, 2 darts and 4 copper pieces. There is nothing magical to be found in the lair.

Into the Ruins, Without a Guide

The pc's can enter the buildings by two "openings" : The main entrance, double wooden doors or from the collapsed room to the north (north is on the left of the Greytower map). Click on the name of the rooms to see a drawing or map of the current area the pc's are in.

It's possible that one of the characters (a rogue) would like to climb the tower from outside. When he reaches the collapsed part he will be able to look inside the tower. There is rubbles everywhere at the bottom, a lot of them, a mix of stones, wood and tissues. On a perception roll he can notice that the wood was part of some furnitures and ceiling beams. The tissues were probably curtains or carpets. Oberon Greytower was living in that part of the domain, there was 3 floors of rooms, they all collapsed inside. There is also a lot of ashes and parts of the stones and wall are black. The rubbles seems to be piled up in a dome shape (because the floor under is a dome shaped ceiling from the Scorching Room - F).

Walking through these rubbles is very dangerous, the dome ceiling holding all the rubbles is very weak. If a pc walks down in the rubbles tell him that he can hear crackling noise comning from under his feet. If he is not careful he could fall down to his death with a few tons of rubbles inside the tower and probably blocking forever the only way in.

A - The Mirage Room

Though vines covers a pair of thick wooden double doors. The doors seems to be well preserved when compared to the rest of the buildings. The vines are innofensive and can be removed by pulling hard on them or by burning them. After the vines have been removed there is two big handles on which you can pull to open the doors but they are locked with a wood bin from the inside. Over the years the bin got very dry and can be broken after pulling a few times on the handles. Everytime the pc's pull on the door they will hear a cracking sound inside, roll a saving throw for the bin each time the doors are pulled. The first roll is an easy 5+, the second roll at 10+, the third at 15+ and the doors open automatically on the fourth try with a loud cracking sound from the wooden bin breaking in two pieces and falling on the ground.

When the doors are finally opened, a small cloud of dust falls down from the ceiling and envelopes the pc's (harmless dust). There is also an odd smell, due to the enclosed area after so many years, there is surprisingly no signs of humidity. Everything is dry and covered with a thin layer of dust. The only light available is the sunlight coming through the open doors, if the pc's enters at night they will have to provide some lighting. When the doors are open and the pc's enters the room (if they have some light) read the following:

The floor is made from dark grey flatstones, same color as the four columns disposed in the room, two on the left and two on the right. There is dust everywhere and no signs of footsteps, fingers or tentacules (in case someone ask), apart from maybe a few small insects. About 12 feet in front, toward the back of the room, there is a staircase. The staircase in made of only 3 steps but they go from the left wall to the right wall and they are about 2 feet tall each, also made from a dark grey stone. On the other level, there is a beautiful stone statue of at least 10 feet tall. The statue represent a warrior woman wearing a long robe, a winged helmet and a light armor. She as very long knotted hair and her arms are hold out toward the doors and she is holding, what seems to be, a real sword in her open hands (bastard sword). On each side of the satue there is an iron brasero, old and dusty. And finally, behind the statue on the wall, there is a giant weird looking spiral glyph, engraved in the stone. There seems to be no exits going in and out of this room besides the main entrance.

The statue rests on a circular stone pedestal, about one foot high. The statue is not magical and must weight around one ton, it is almost impossible to move it from it's pedestal (and useless). The sword she is holding is magical, a long sword that will reveal a shiny silvery blade if cleaned and polished. This sword is not Silveredge, it's a fake one, the magical enchantment just keeps the blade from rusting. Someone experienced in the making of weapon could roll under "weaponsmith" to notice that the weight is not really appropriate for a long sword (a bit too light) and that the blade is not made with silver. In combat, the sword is -2 to damage. ONLY a character with the "weaponsmith" skill can notice any of the flaws.

The brazeros aren't magical, they are empty and dusty. They are about 4 feet tall each and made of iron, they are pretty heavy, about 50 pounds each. The spiral glyph is not magical either, it was carved directly in the wall.

But there is at least one thing magical in the room, an illusion hiding a staircase behind the left brazero. The stairs go down 20 feet underground toward north, then a right turn toward east to another staircase. But this second staircase is completely covered with rubbles from the ceiling that collapsed in the room upstair (the iron room). A character searching the mirage room near the illusion must roll under his dexterity if he gets to close to the hidden staircase. The roll is at +4 because of the illusion, if a character falls down he will suffer 2d4 damage. If he rolls successfuly, he will notice something strange when one of his feet can pass through the floor.

If the characters decides to clear the buried staircase, starting from the bottom, it can be dangerous. Stones from the top can collapse down on them like an avalanche. If they do so there is 1 in 4 chances that 1d2 stones will fall down for 3 points of damage each. The collapsing stones have only a Thac0 of 20, so the pc's will probably avoid most of them.

B - The Iron Room

There is 2 access to this room : The first one from the collapsed west wall and the second from the Mirage Room.

Outside the west wall, at the bottom, there is a pile of stones. It is obvious that this pile is "man" made and was probably used to climb over the collapsed wall. From the top of the pile it's still impossible to see in the room, a character have to jump and get a grip on the edge of the wall (dexterity roll at +2). A rogue could use his "climb walls" ability or any characters can help another one climbing (no dex roll). The pc's can notice cracks in the wall and that it doesn't look very secure to climb it.

If someone jumps to get a grip on the wall and look over, there is chances that it will collapsed inside the room. Saving throw for the wall at 9+ each time someone jumps to get a grip on it. The saving throw is at 7+ if someone is helped by another to grip the top of the wall and go on the other side. Using ropes and hooks will give more pressure and stress on the wall, add +2 to the saving throws if the characters do so. If the wall collapses, the character hanging on it falls down in the room with the wall and gets 3 points of damage. Any characters under the wall while it falls must make dexterity checks. If the fails the get the wall on them for 8 points of damage each.

On the other side of the wall, inside the room there is an old forge and a lot of rubbles from the ceiling. When any of the characters have a view to the room, read the following:

As you could have guessed, the room is filled with rubbles from the collapsed ceiling and parts of the walls. There is moss on many of the stones on the ground and weeds growing between them, you see a few insects and tiny centipedes crawling under the stones. In the north-east corner of the room there is an old oven with a broken chimney, the oven is surrounded by rubbles. Next to that old forge, on the wall, there is still some very old broken and rusty tools. Over the years, the wall on which the tools are resting now shows rust spots that goes down to the ground. At the foot of the tools you can barely see an old anvil, with a layer of rust over it. On the right, there seems to be staircases going down but they are filled with rubbles. There is no signs of doors.

Left to the forge, hidden under the rubbles, there is at least 50 rusted iron lingots. They can be seen only if the characters starts searching the place, especially around the forge. Because of the rust, it is difficult to notice that each of the lingots are marked with a spiral glyph (the same as found in the Mirage Room), anyone picking up a lingot can make a perception check at +2 on the roll. There is nothing magical in that room.

If they start searching inside the oven they will wake up a small flock of Stirges sleeping in the chimney. Since there is now fresh blood around, the Stirges don't mind being awaken.

6 Stirges

Ac: 8	Thac0: 17	Attacks: 1	Damage: 1d3
Intelligence: Animal	Size: Small	Alignment: N/A	Movement: 18/Fly
Moral: 8	HP: 4	Special: When attack is successful it stays attached to it's victim and drain 1d4 hit points per round. This lasts until it as drain 12 hit points then it leaves the victim to digest.

If half of the Stirges are killed, make a moral check for the rest of them, if most of them fails, they will flee from combat. They will automatically flee from combat when there is only 2 of them left.

There is 2 staircases going down in this room, both of them are filled with rubbles. The western staircase goes down 20 feet then turns left to another staircase that goes up 20 feet toward south to an dead end (illusionnary ceiling that leads into the Mirage Room). The eastern staircase contains more rubbles and at the bottom there is also sand, fine and warm. It goes down 20 feet then turns right to another staircase that goes up 20 feet toward south to the Desert room.

If the characters starts removing the rubbles from the western staircase, it's gonna take at least one hour before they can make a passage. Depending on the speed and number of characters helping, this could take two hours.

If that characters starts removing rubbles from the eastern staircase they will soon discover (after about 30 minutes) that the rest of the steps are buried under sand. They will need shovels (or magic) to dig into that, impossible to remove enough with just hands. It's possible to use the old shovels in the forge but they will break after a few minutes of use. The sand on the top is a bit humid, after a few minutes of digging the pc's will notice that it gets dryer and warmer instead of the opposite. The sand is very fine and of a very ligh brownish golden color (with a very faint magical aura). If all or most of the characters help digging, it's gonna take at least one day of work before they can access the other room. Digging pc's with metallic armors loses 1 point of AC until they remove and clean them.

When the pc's are at the bottom of the stairs they will notice that it is alot warmer than outside, the sand is very warm to the touch. When they start digging toward the Desert Room (stairs going up) there will be a sandslide coming from the top that could bury some of the characters. The pc closest to the sandslide must make a constitution check to avoid swallowing sand (2 points of damage), he must make a dexterity check to avoid being totally buried by the sand. If he fails the roll he will automatically swallow sand and will have to be rescued before he suffocates.

After the sandslide, the pc's will be able to climb up to the desert room. The sand is now very hot, like it is on a beach under the sun. There is light coming from the room, a bit strange though because it seems to be sunlight. The temperature is also high, very hot, pc's in metallic armor should feel a bit uncomfortable if they stay long in that heat.

C - The Desert Room

The characters have now entered a room where the temperature is very high. A room with a thick layer of burning sand on the floor and a few cacti (plural of cactus). It really looks like a desert with small dunes. When any of the pc's are in, read the following:

You feel the heat as soon as you enter this room. The sand is very hot and you are glad you are wearing shoes (or boots). Those of you in metallic armors starts feeling uncomfortable in that heat. The room floor is filled with sand, there is 2 cacti growing in the room. The strangest thing about this place is that there is no wall at the end of the room, you can see that the sand goes far away in the distance, outside. You see more cacti outside the room and bigger dunes, the sunlight is coming from there, you remember that from "your" outside there is no desert and there was walls everywhere around the buildings (also weird if they have entered this room while it was dark in the real outside).

The desert extending outside the room is a very realistic illusion with sun, heat and cactus. If the pc's go toward the illusion they will hit a wall and notice that it was an illusion, the sand and the 2 cacti in the room are real though. Another magical thing is the floor that is enchanted to produce sand in very small amount, over the years it is now 4 feet high in some spots. There is 2 encounters in this room, one are the cacti and one other are the sand elementals.

If someone gets close to one of the cactus, it will send a flight of needles in every direction. The two cacti (sarbacactus) can send a maximum of 3 flights of 10 needles each. They will send their needles to anyone who gets inside a 4 feet radius of them.

2 Sarbacacti

Ac: 9	Thac0: 20	Attacks: 10 (max of 3 x 10)	Damage: 1 per needles
Intelligence: Plant	Size: Medium (4 feet)	Alignment: N/A	Movement: N/A
Moral: N/A	HP: 8	Special: They can send their flights of needles in a 20 feet radius area. After all 3 flights are sent it takes 3 months to regrow them.

A sarbacactus looks exactly like a cactus. It's a plant, nothing magical about it. When it sends a flight of needles, roll 1d10 to see how many have a chance to hit anyone in a 20 feet radius area. A character in metallic armor will get 1 point of damage per 2 needles that hits him, not one. The needles are a defensive system, not an offensive one. If someone digs at the bottom of a Sarbacactus he will notice that the roots are going through the stone floor.

At some point while the characters are searching the room they will feel a light breeze entering the room from the illusionnary wall. read the following when this happens:

You suddenly feel a light breeze coming from the outside (illusionnary wall). The breeze is strong enough to make the sand in the room move a bit, lighlty changing the shape of the dunes. Then 2 small dust devils forms from the wind in the middle of the room, sand seems to be packing up where the dust devils are swirling. They seem to be tracing a spiral sign in the sand (like the one in the Mirage Room) and then to rise up higher and transform into sand humanoids, both with a spiral glyph carved into them. They suddenly start sliding slowly toward you, they then fall into the sand and reappear very close to you.

2 Sand Golems

Ac: 6	Thac0: 18	Attacks: 2	Damage: 1d3/1d3
Intelligence: 6	Size: Medium (5 feet)	Alignment: Neutral	Movement: 18
Moral:18	HP: 12	Special: 1) On a to hit roll of 20 they inflict +1 damage because the target swallowed sand. Target must make a save vs. poison or receive an additional point of damage the next round. 2) Fire based attacks and spells causes no damage to sand elementals. They even regenerates them for 1d3 hit points per attacks to a maximum of their original hit points. 3) Fire based attacks and spells also hardens their body and improves their AC to 5 but drops their movement to 12.	Their movement is always done underground, they collapse on the sand in a small pile and move toward their target. Then they rise back from the sand in front of their target.

Sand Golems looks like bulky humanoids with no facial features or anywhere on the body, besides 2 arms and a spiral glyph carved on their belly. Their hands are shaped like big bowling balls and the bottom of their body is a constant flow of sand coming and going into the ground. They have the same golden brown color as the sand in the room, they are magical in nature and are used as animated guardians for the domain. When they die they just collapsed into a pile of sand.

In the south-west corner of the room there is another staircase that goes down 20 feet toward south, turns right and goes up 20 feet toward west into the Stone Room. This staircase is also buried in the sand and it takes at least 2 hours to dig so they can get a passage to the other side. The heat from the room doesn't help the characters digging, every 10 minutes all characters digging must roll under their constitution (pc's in metallic armor are +2 on their rolls). If the save fails they lose 1 point of strength, constitution and dexterity each time. When a pc reaches 5 or less points in each stats he must leave the room or he will fall unconscious from the heat and die from dehydratation. All points lost are recovered every hours after leaving the desert room. Each hour, 1 point in each stat is recovered.

D - The Stone Room

This room is lighted magically from the ceiling. The light can be easily noticed when coming up the stairs, when one or more of the characters are in the room, read the following:

Resting on the wall to your right there is a wooden ladder and on that wall, believe it or not, is carved a giant spiral glyph. This time, when following the spiral curve, you notice that it continues to the wall behind you and joins the tip of the tail of a giant carved wolf. The wolf with it's big eyes is looking in the distance, jaw open with sharp teeth. In the room there is also 2 wooden tables on which there is some carving tools and some rolled parchements. There is also 2 stools next to each of the tables. In the far corner of the room there is a very big bloc of grey marble with 2 of it's corners chipped out. Who knows what piece of artwork this bloc could have been prepared for? The wooden ladder is about 12 feet high and by looking closer you notice that it can be fold in two.

The ladder is very fragile, everytime someone puts a feet on a step there is %50 chance that the step will break. The carving tools are in very good shape and can still be use to carve stone. The rolled parchement are many drawings of wolves in different positions, it also includes the one carved on the wall, they are all signed Oberon Greytower with a spiral symbol. There is nothing magical in the room besides the light coming from the ceiling.

A staircase in the north-west goes down 20 feet, turns right and goes down for another 10 feet in the Memory Room (E). This room give access to the tower in which the characters will have to use their brain cells and wipe the sweat from their face.

E - The Memory Room

Inside that small room there is a metallic door set in the north wall and as usual, the weird spiral symbol is carved on it. It's very hot in the room, as if you were under the sun outside. At the bottom of the door there is a bit of fine sand that seems to have come from the other side. There is a strong metallic padlock locking the door.

The padlock is not magical, if they can't open it with thieving skills they will have to bash it (save vs. crushing blow at 12). The door is hot to the touch, not enough to burn the skin, but uncomfortable. What is unknown to the pc's is that an Obliviax is living in this room, it would like to remember anything it can. The Obliviax will use it's power once a round until it as drained the memory of one character (roll randomly every round).

Obliviax

Ac: 10	Thac0: N/A	Attacks: N/A	Damage: N/A
Intelligence: 8	Size: Tiny (6 inches)	Alignment: Neutral Evil	Movement: 0
Moral: 9	HP: 2	Special: An obliviax feeds on the memory of living beings, especially humanoids. The power of the memory drain can be used in a 20 foot range, save vs spells or the target will lose the last 24 hours of memory. This includes any spells kept in memory by spellcasters. The Obliviax takes 24 hours to digest a memory until it can use it's power again. The Obliviax can take the form of a tiny humanoid to cast the spells it as absorbded.

The Obliviax looks like a very small patch of black moss of around 6 inches in diameter. The only way to gain your memory back is by eating the Obliviax while it's still alive (but who knows that?). If the Obliviax is eaten, that character will be very sick for 3d10 rounds and will not be able to do anything but puke and suffer for all that time.

When the door is open, a very hot gust of wind gently carresses the character's faces. The heat inside the tower seems to be terrible.

F - The Scorching Room : Part One

An Unstable Sky Over a Steady Ground

You are now inside what seem to be the central tower, the floor is covered with a golden fine sand. At the bottom of the circular wall you see swords that have been angraved in the stone, pointing toward the floor. If you look up you see that the tower doesn't have a ceiling, you can see the sky (day or night, depending when the pc's entered the tower). The room is about 15 feet in diameter and over 30 feet high. When any of the pc's enters the tower : The sand on the floor is hot, you notice that the layer of sand is thin and that the floor is very hard. It's extremly hot in the tower, a lot more than when you were outside the ruins. Up you see the sky with sometimes a cloud passing by (or the stars if at night). There is 4 swords engraved in the bottom of the wall, all of them seem to be identical. Again, as any of you would have thought, there is a spiral symbol engraved on top on the door inside the tower.

The spiral symbol is magical, it produces the heat in the room. The sky is a fake one, it's a programmed illusion inside the dome shaped ceiling of the tower. It works as if it was a real sky 24 hours a day, with sequences of days and night (but no weather changes). So if it's really the night outside it will be night in the illusionary sky. But, maybe if they think about it, they will remember that from outside, the tower is in ruins. A lot of the stones should have collapsed inside, but there is none on the sandy floor. Unless they think about it themselves, you should NOT give them a hint. They could find that something is wrong if they use a detect magic spell, since the sky will show as magical (and the spiral symbol). The dome ceiling is about 15 feet over the character's head, there is no grips possible in the wall to climb up there.

It's possible that one of the characters know that the sky is a fake if he saw the inside of the collapsed tower, from outside. It's easier to climb (for a rogue) the tower from the outside. When he reaches the collapsed part he will be able to look inside the tower. There is rubbles everywhere at the bottom, a lot of them, a mix of stones, wood and tissues. On a perception roll he can notice that the wood was part of some furnitures and ceiling beams. The tissues were probably curtains or carpets. Oberon Greytower was living in that part of the domain, there was 3 floors of rooms, they all collapsed inside. There is also a lot of ashes and parts of the stones and wall are black.

Walking through these rubbles is very dangerous, the dome ceiling holding all the rubbles is very weak. If a pc walks down in the rubbles tell him that he can hear crackling noise comning from under his feet. If he is not careful he could fall down to his death with a few tons of rubbles inside the tower and probably blocking forever the only way in.

From the inside, it's nearly impossible to climb to the illusion. If by any means a character does reach the illusion he will be able to pass through. On the other side of the illusion is a cracked dome shaped ceiling, from the size of the cracks it doesn't look very secure. There is nothing else besides the cracks.

After one turn inside the room, the heat starts to be uncomfortable for the characters (unless magically protected). There is no way to destroy the spiral symbol but with a dispel magic (12th level). Every turn the characters have to roll under their constitutions (+3 if wearing metallic armors, +1 in other types of armors). If they fail they lose one hit point, one point of strenght, dexterity and constitution. Check the table below for a better understanding :

Turns	Metallic Armors Penalties	Other Armors Penalties	No Armors Penalties	HP, Str, Dex and Con pts lost
1 - 2	+3	+1	0	1
3 - 4	+5	+3	+1	2
5	+7	+5	+3	3
6	+10	+7	+5	4
7	-	-	-	4 & unconscious*

* Any character who is staying inside the room for 7 consecutive turns will automatically fall unconscious unless he is magically protected.

A character who loses all hit points because of the heat is not dead but unconscious, he should then be brought outside in a cooler environment. All points lost can be recovered while resting in a cooler place at the rate of one each 30 minutes.

Under the sand, the floor is very hard, metallic and hot. The floor seems to be divided into rings. When sand is removed, some letters will start to show up, they are molded into the metallic floor. There is also some handles set into the rings. It takes at least 30 minutes to removed most of the sand from the room, if all characters are helping. If they do so, read the following:

The floor is composed of 4 large iron rings, molded into them are words and handles. Each rings is 3 feet wide for a total of 12 feet. The handles are set into rectangular holes so it is possible to have a grip on them, each handle is about 15 inches long and they are 5 inches deep. Each of the rings have 4 handles. In the middle of the room is a tarnished silvery disc with no words or handles. The silvery disc is 3 feet in diameter, for a total of 15 feet for the whole room with the rings. Each rings bears 4 words, the words are : Desert, Stone, Mirage and Iron.

The handles are used to rotate the rings, at least 3 persons are needed to rotate the 2 larger rings and 2 person for the 2 smallest ones. Some sand is stuck between the rings, so rotating them will be more difficult than expected. Also, the handles and the rings are very hot, the characters will need gloves or pieces of clothing so they will not burn themselves. The circle in the middle doesn't rotate or move at all. If the characters have in possession the parchment from Alfie, they should have a better hint at what the rings are used for. The dm should NOT give hints if they do not have the parchment. Add all the bend bars of each character who are rotating a ring together. If they fail, the ring doesn't budge and they must make a constitution check because of exhaustion (use the table above for the penalties). If the bend bars is successful, they hear some mechanism clanking under the floor and gears turning. The ring rotates 90° and stops. A bend bars is needed for each 90° of rotation. A sword on the wall will always be pointing down to a word on the rings because when rotating, a ring will make it's full 90° movement.

The tarnished disc in the middle, if cleaned and buffed, will show that it's made of very fine silver. It cannot be removed by any means besides from rotating the rings. If the characters wants to bring the disc home, it weights around 80 pounds and have a value of 500sp. It looks like the biggest silver coin ever made.

Here are step by step instructions on how to solve the rings mystery:

1 - The Goal

The goal is to remove the middle silvery circle to access the room underneath. The rings don't have to be rotated in order (from the largest to the smallest etc.) to open the floor. When all the rings are rotated and the combination of words is exact, the silvery disc in the middle drops down in the room underneath. When this happens, instead of hearing a loud "clang" the pc's will hear some kind of "boof"..Like it dropped on something soft.

2 - The Engraved Swords

The 4 swords engraved at the bottom of the tower wall are set to each major cardinal points, north, east, sout and west. This is hard to notice from inside the tower and especially if no one have a good sense of direction. They represent what the characters are looking for, a sword and they are pointing down to the ringed floor. The swords are also pointing down right in the middle of a word on the rings. So if all rings are rotated with the handles aligned, all swords will point to 4 words.

3 - The Engraved Words

On each of the rings there is 4 words: Desert, Stone, Mirage and Iron. These words represent the 4 rooms around the tower. Each of the rooms are also set toward a major cardianl point, north, east, south and west. Check the skyview map to have a better look at the location of each room. I think right now you can probably have a big clue at the puzzle, it's not a very complicated one.

4 - Alfie's Parchment

On Alfie's parchment there is a lot of clues about the inside of the tower and how to find Silveredge.

Beyond the Mirages and across the Desert,
In an eternal Cycle, toward a Pure goal,
I am of Stone under a Silver moon,
I am Hope under the Uncompleted,
I am of Iron under a peaceful sleep.

The first sentence makes references to the desert room and it's illusion.
The second sentence makes references to the spiral symbols everywhere and the rings in the scorching room.
The third sentence makes references to the coffin under the silvery disc in the scorching room.
The fourth sentence makes references to Oberon's unfinished coffin.
The last sentence makes references to the sword Silveredge, a normal sword when now confronted to lycanthropes.

5 - The Answer

All the rooms around the tower points exactly to north, east, south and west. It's the same for the 4 swords engraved in the scorching room. Each sword should point to a word that represents the room that is on the same cardinal point.

a - On the first (outer) ring, Stone towards the south sword.
b - On the second ring, Desert toward the east sword.
c - On the third ring, Iron toward the north sword.
d - On the fourth (inner) ring, Mirage toward the west sword.

The four rings don't have to be rotated in size order, the important is to have each words on each rings pointing to the right swords. When this ia accomplished, the silver disc in the middle drops downs. When this happens, instead of hearing a loud "clang" the pc's will hear some kind of "boof"..Like it dropped on something soft (sand).

F - The Scorching Room : Part Two

Cold feet in hot sand.

After the silver disc have dropped down in the other room, the pc's can have alook through the 3 feet diameter hole left by the giant silver coin. It is even hotter in the room under, it is also magically lighted. The silver disc dropped on the sand and by the sound it made, the layer of sand is very thick. The sand floor is about 15 feet below from the opening, it's possible to jump down from the edge of the opening without no serious damage done. Unless by badluck someone drops on the silver disc and gets 1d6 damage. The sand on the surface is as hot as walking on a beach under the sun. The sand is very fine and dry on the surface, it easily gets into shoes and armored boots.

From the parchment, the characters should have a clue about where Silveredge is, under the sand. "I am of Stone under a Silver moon", "stone" being the coffin of Oberon Greytower and "silver moon" being the silver disc that dropped down. The pc's will have to dig (again) right under the spot where the silver disc is. Because the sand is so fine, they will have to throw it close to the wall, it tends to fall back down when it's piled up too high. Because of the heat it's impossible to stay in the room more than 30 minutes or they will fall unconscious from dehydratation. They will have to go out, rest and drink and come back a bit later to continue. You can use the heat penalty table for this room too. It should take about an hour to uncover the top of Oberon's coffin. The more they are digging the cooler the sand gets, it feels a lot better when digging deeper. After almost 3 feet of digging they finally reach the coffin of Oberon Greytower. It seems to be made of granite and it is chiseled with words and who would have guess...spiral symbols. When the characters have uncovered the top of the coffin, read the following:

The top slab is about 7 feet long and 4 feet wide (it's 3.5 feet deep). You can see the darned spiral symbols and some phrases chiseled in the granite stone. At the bottom, there is a bronze plate molded into the slab. It is seperated in little squares, some of them have letters and some are empty. You can see that it's an incomplete text. The slab seems to be tightly closed, as you notice 4 iron bands holding the coffin shut.

The bronze tiles are needed to complete the text, let's hope the characters have them or they will have to destroy the coffin or go back to Dolmor and get the tiles from Alfie. By the way, destroying the coffin is bad, bad, bad. Each of the tiles can fit into an empty square in the bronze plate. When the text is completed, all the tiles will fuse together and it will be impossible to remove them afterward. This happens only when the full text is correct, besides that any tiles can be removed and placed elsewhere. The full exact text is (underscored & colored letters are the ones missing):

F O R G I V E N E S S  I S
O F F E R E D  L I B E R T Y
I S  N O W  G R A N T E D

When the text is completed and the tiles fuses together, the four iron bands falls from the cover. An air vaccum noise can be heard coming from the coffin and some dust comes out between the cover and the coffin. The slab is now free and can be pushed open. Another thing happens after the bands falls, the text chiseled on the cover changes for:

The phrase "I am hope but uncompleted" disappears from the cover. But, for keeping the tradition, the spiral symbols stays.

In the coffin there is a skeleton, Oberon's skeleton. There is no valuables inside the coffin besides a long sword that was before in a nice leather scabbard. With time there is not much left of the scabbard, and the sword looks pretty dull. It's not very pretty, it's tarnished and doesn't seem to have a very good edge. But, it's still magical. When in a 50 foot radius of a lycanthrope, the sword starts to hum lightly, it then turns into a magnificient bright silvery sword with a blood red handle and a set of 3 different sized black opals. A wolf head is also engraved in the blade. The closer the sword is to a lycathrope, the more it hums.

Silveredge

A - Magical long sword with no special bonus or abilities when used against anything but a lycanthrope. B - Magical +2 long sword, lycanthrope slayer with the following abilities: 1 - Detects lycanthropes in a 25 foot radius (soft humming sound), even when not held. 2 - Sheds light in a 15 foot radius when close to a lycanthrope, when held. 3 - Always inflicts full damage on a successful hit against lycanthropes. 4 - On a to hit roll of 20 the lycanthrope must save vs death magic or die.

The characters can take the sword without any danger, after that it should be nice if they close back the coffin before going back to Dolmor. If they do so, the iron bands will go back in place and the coffin will sceals itself back magically. The pc's don't have to bury it again in the sand.

If the pc's had to break in pieces the cover to open the coffin, the following will happen:

The top of the coffin suddenly cracks from everywhere and you also hear a strange air sucking sound. From the cracks, a thick black and sickening smoke erupts. The smoke crawls down to the sand and takes the shape of a humanoid with two arms, one head with bright red eyes and a column of smoke for it's legs. With it's hands it starts moving toward you.

Since the puzzle was not completed, the character's have freed the cursed soul of Oberon Greytower. The pc's are almost doomed from now on, they will never be able to get rid of a Wraith at their level. If some of them run away alive from this, they will have to find another way of getting rid of Vorax in Dolmor. You will probably think that a Wraith is too powerful for them, but they should not bash open a coffin in the first time. Earlier in the story, they should be intelligent enough to know that they will need the tiles from Alfie. If you really think this is too heavy for them, replace the Wraith by a Ghast, or even a Ghoul.

Wraith

Ac: 4	Thac0: 15	Attacks: 1	Damage: 1d6 + special
Intelligence: 12	Size: Medium	Alignment: Lawful Evil	Movement: 12 / 24 Fly
Moral: 15	HP: 30	Special: When the wraith successfuly hits an opponent it drains 1d6 hit points permanently, NOT levels. Can only be hit by silver or +1 or better magical weapons. Immune to sleep, charm, paralysis and cold spells. Immune to poisons. Holy water does 2d4 damage. Regenerates 1 hp per hour. Afraid of daylight.