Go to Part 1

SPOILER WARNING!

The following thoughts contain minor spoilers for Keep on the Shadowfell. If you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read it. And if you’re in my gaming group then you definitely shouldn’t be reading it.

THE RUINED KEEP

FEATURES OF THE AREA:

Rubble: With the exception of the cleared path leading to the trapdoor, the ruins are filled with rubble. These squares are difficult terrain.

Rubble Piles: Where indicated there are larger piles of rubble. These require Athletics checks (DC 15) to climb at one-half speed.

AMBUSH: This ambush is set 1d2 days after the PCs wipe one (but not both) of the kobold barricades. (If they wipe out both barricades, there are no kobolds to perform the ambush with.) The kobolds here are drawn from encounter A1 in Keep on the Shadowfell.

• 1 kobold skirmisher (K)
• 3 kobold dragonshields (D)
• 1 kobold wyrmpriest (W)

TACTICS: The kobolds wait until the PCs reach a point even with the southernmost dragonshields and then attack as described below.

Dragonshields: The dragonshields simply move out from their hiding places, converging on the PCs.

Skirmisher: The skirmisher is hiding just behind the peak of a pile of rubble. He has taken the time to soak the pile with oil, making it slippery and more difficult to climb (Athletics, DC 20). When the ambush is launched, he will stand up and begin making his ranged attacks.

Wyrmpriest: The wyrmpriest is actually perched on the thick wall behind the central tower. He can move along the top of the wall to the wall of the tower itself. While perched up there he grants combat advantage. The walls is 20 feet high at that point.

Continued…

Go to Part 1

SPOILER WARNING!

The following thoughts contain minor spoilers for Keep on the Shadowfell. If you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read it. And if you’re in my gaming group then you definitely shouldn’t be reading it.

INTERLUDE: THE DEAD WALK

This is Interlude Three from Keep on the Shadowfell (pgs. 60-61). However, in order to extend the cult’s activities in Winterhaven, we’re going to change it slightly: Ninaran invokes the ritual, but doesn’t stick around. After performing the ritual, she simply crumples up the note from Kalarel and tosses it into one of the crypts. (The note does not name Ninaran, although it is signed by Kalarel.)

THE LESSER LICH: In order to rebalance the encounter, add a human mage (Monster Manual, pg. 163) and describe it as undead. (Experienced players should experience a nice frisson of terror when they see an undead in tattered robes throwing spells around.)

INTERLUDE: CULTISTS IN OUR MIDST

There are, in fact, more than a dozen cultists active in Winterhaven. At some point after “The Dead Walk”, Ninaran gathers these cultists together and leads an assault on Lord Padraig’s manor house.

If the PCs discover that Ninaran is a cultist before this encounter happens, they may be able to confront her before this encounter happens. If they kill her, she isn’t present but the remaining cultists will organize and attack the manor house in any case. (This will make the encounter easier for the PCs, and that’s just fine.) If they capture her and turn her over to Lord Padraig, he’ll lock her up in the Winterhaven Barracks. In that case, the cultists will first free Ninaran from the barracks and then attack the manor house.

THE MANOR HOUSE – ENTRANCES

DOORS: The outer doors are barred from the inside (Break DC 20). The interior doors are not initially locked, although they can be if the cultists decide they need to barricade themselves (Break DC 16, Thievery DC 20).

ARROW SLITS: The arrow slits on the south wall of area 1 are not large enough to serve as entrances. However, they do allow anyone inside to shoot through without impediment.

WINDOWS – FIRST FLOOR: The windows on the first floor are, in fact, 20 feet above the ground. They are not designed to be opened and are lined with lead, but are easily broken (Break DC 5).

WINDOWS – UPPER FLOORS: The windows on the upper floors are locked. ( Break DC 5, Thievery DC 15).

CHIMNEYS: There are three chimneys.

• EAST CHIMNEY (KITCHEN): This chimney is too small to climb down.
• WEST CHIMNEY (BEDROOM): This chimney is cramped and difficult to climb down (Athletics DC 20). Stealth checks suffer a -2 circumstance penalty while climbing in this chimney.
• NORTH CHIMNEY (RECEPTION HALL): This is a very large chimney and relatively easy to climb down. (Athletics DC 15).

THE MANOR HOUSE – FIRST FLOOR

1. RECEPTION HALL: This is the hall in which Lord Padraig greets petitioners and sits in judgment.

The walls of this formal reception hall are paneled with dark mahogany polished to a gleaming shine. A high-backed wooden chair, its arms carved to look like bear claws and its back in sprigs of mistletoe, sits in a place of honor before a massive fire place.

The statues are of Lord Padraig’s father and grandfather.

2. KITCHEN:

An massive iron stove – an unmistakable remnant of the old Empire – fills the eastern wall of the kitchen. A spiral staircase of wrought iron stands in the corner, leading up to the second floor.

3. STAIRS:

Broad stairs of worn stone curve up to a landing on the second floor.

THE MANOR HOUSE – SECOND FLOOR

4. LANDING: There is a railing along the edge of this landing. It’s a 20 foot drop to the stone floor below.

5. GUEST BEDROOM: Lord Padraig offers this bedroom to visiting dignitaries. It is currently unoccupied. The bed is large and comfortable. There is an empty chest under the bed (where long-term guests can store their clothes and personal items).

6. SERVANT QUARTERS: Lord Padraig’s five servants sleep here.

Five narrow beds fill almost the entirety of this room. Although cramped, everything here appears to be kept in very neat order. There are footlockers beneath each of the beds.

The footlockers contain the possessions of the servants – mostly clothing and a few keepsake items. The footlockers are secured with very simple locks (Thievery DC 10). If the PCs choose to ransack them, there are a few items of value – a ring worth 15 gp; a golden lock with a portrait of a young woman worth 10 gp; a silver necklace worth 5 gp.

7. STAIRS: There is a portrait of Lord Padraig’s father hanging on the wall here.

THE MANOR HOUSE – THIRD FLOOR

8. STORAGE CLOSET: This closet contains a variety of common household goods – linens, lamp oil, mothballed clothing, a ladder, blank paper and ink, lanterns and lamps, and the like.

Tall shelves are crammed together in this narrow space, packed full with a wide effluvium of common household goods. There is a trapdoor in the ceiling, although it is partially blocked by one of the shelves.

The trapdoor leads up to the unused attic.

9. HALL: This grand hall leads to the library and lord’s bedchamber.

A thick, luxurious carpet runs the length of this hall. A chandelier of silver and glass hangs from the ceiling. Heavy doors of oak, carved with an Imperial signet of the old Empire, stand to one side with a smaller door to the other.

10. LIBRARY: This modest library offers a +2 bonus to History and Nature checks. Characters searching on particular topics of interest for the adventure may discover:

The True Historie of the Empire’s Keep, which describes the Keep on the Shadowfell (it gives the same information as a DC 25 Streetwise check and the first two paragraphs of Valthrun’s Follow-Up on the same topic).

Observations of Botany, a journal written by Lord Silvius (Lord Padraig’s great-grandfather). Silvius’ name is signed “Lord Silvius, Vassal of the Verdant Lord” and the text makes it clear that Silvius was a member of that druidic order. Near the end of the journal, Silvius mentions finding a cave which “led into what appear to be the ruins of the ancient keep”. He appeared to be fascinated by the unique cave ecology emerging there, but does not precisely give the location of the cave.

Four bookcases of blackoak stand along the walls of this library, their shelves covered in a wide variety of tomes and parchments.

11. LORD’S BEDCHAMBER: This is Lord Padraig’s bedchamber.

Upon the polished stone floor of this bedchamber sits an enormous bearskin rug at least twenty feet in length. A four-poster bed piled high with mattresses stands along one wall, an elegant fireplace is nestled along another. On one of the tables next to the bed there is a silver bust of a maiden’s head. A large chest of oak banded with steel sits in one corner.

CHEST: The chest is locked (Thievery DC 20). It mostly contains Lord Padraig’s clothing, but there is also a leather purse containing 100 gp in a random assortment of coin.

BEARSKIN RUG: Lord Padraig could tell the story of how his grandfather, Lord Patronus, led a hunting party to slay a dire bear that had been plaguing Winterhaven’s farms. The rug is worth 100 gp (although probably not in Winterhaven, where almost everyone would recognize it as belonging to Lord Padraig).

SILVER BUST: This bust is in the image of Padraig’s mother when she was a young woman. It is solid silver and would fetch a price of 225 gp (although probably not in Winterhaven, where almost everyone would recognize it as belonging to Lord Padraig).

THE MANOR HOUSE – ATTIC

A trap door in area 8 leads up to the fourth floor. The fourth floor was gutted decades ago by a fire and was later changed into an attic, which is now empty. There are, however, two windows in the south side.

ENCOUNTER: THE MANOR SIEGE

CULTISTS:
Ninaran (KOTS pg. 61) (N)
Human Rabble (x12) (KOTS pg. 30) (R)
Human Berserker (x2) (MM pg. 163) (B)

HOSTAGES
Padraig (P)
Servants (x5) (S)

SITUATION: Ninaran and the cultists break into Padraig’s manor house and take him hostage. In the process, they kill four of the Winterhaven Regulars. Ninaran’s primary goal is to prevent the village from organizing any kind of resistance to Kalarel’s plans.

Padraig and his servants are kept securely bound with rope at the locations indicated on the encounter map.

ESCALATION: Ninaran starts by making an outrageous demand for ransom (25,000 gp). Then she’ll kill one of the servants and throw the body out the window. Next she’ll demand that 10 ritual sacrifices are performed in the courtyard before the manor house.

Ninaran doesn’t actually expect any of these demands to be met.

APPROACHING THE MANOR HOUSE: The only cultists actively keeping a lookout are the human rabble at the arrow slits on the first floor and at the northern window on the second floor. Approaching the manor house without being spotted requires a Stealth check (DC 10).

However, there are blind spots to the east and west. If PCs climb over the outer wall of Winterhaven and approach the manor house from due west or east, there is no chance they will be spotted.

TACTICS: The cultists on the upper levels are specifically there as lookouts. If they detect the presence of PCs, they will run downstairs and alert Ninaran. At that point, the cultists will take all the hostages down to area 1 and fortify themselves there.

Continued…

Go to Part 1

SPOILER WARNING!

The following thoughts contain minor spoilers for Keep on the Shadowfell. If you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read it. And if you’re in my gaming group then you definitely shouldn’t be reading it.

DESIGN NOTES

I have two primary goals with this material:

First, I’m trying to raise the stakes. The activities of the cult are placing Winterhaven in jeopardy. Unless the PCs do something, people are going to start dying. Kalarel is going to win.

Second, by having events in Winterhaven develop over time we keep the location fresh. As a result going back to town in order to rest up is more than just a mechanical contrivance: There is something for the PCs to do or interact with.

And if I’m successful in these design goals, then hopefully Winterhaven will feel more like a living, breathing place. That will help make the entire scenario more memorable.

Special thanks to Smerg and EnigmaShock at the WotC forums who helped spur some of the ideas used below.

RATIONING

Lord Padraig declares martial law and places the village under rationing in an effort to conserve supplies. The inn serves breakfasts of boiled oats; lunches of thin barley soup and a quarter crust of a small loaf of bread; and suppers of boiled potatoes with a small amount of fatty bacon.

Streetwise (DC 10): There’s a fair amount of discontent over the rationing. There are rumors being spread that various farmers in the valley are hoarding food.

Streetwise (DC 15): There are rumors that Lord Padraig is still feasting in his manor while he leaves the villagers to starve. The Regulars won’t do anything about it, because they’re receiving extra food from Padraig, too. (TRUTH: The Regulars are getting extra rations; Padraig is not.)

THE GUARD’S FUNERAL

The PCs return to Winterhaven to see a procession of Regulars led by Sister Linora heading towards the graveyard. An elderly villager died the previous evening… but didn’t stay dead. Shambling to life as a zombie, it attacked and killed one of the gate guards.

SIEGE SUPPLIES

A crowd gathers outside the inner gate leading to the manor house. The villagers demand that Lord Padraig open the siege supplies and distribute them. But Lord Padraig is hesitant to do so until the situation is truly dire. He suspects that a true siege may be coming soon.

FEAR OF CULTISTS

If the PCs being spreading around the knowledge of the cult of Orcus, the village will slowly descend into paranoia: Villagers will begin accusing each other of being cultists.

CULTISTS IN WINTERHAVEN

There will be two interludes in which the cultists strike directly at Winterhaven: The Dead Walk and Cultists in Our Midst. Both of these will be dealt with tomorrow.

MAKING ADJUSTMENTS

The actions of the PCs may significantly alter the situation in Winterhaven. For example, they might go to the farms in the south; organize a caravan of supplies; and then guard it. Depending on the situation at the time, they might have to fight off a party of kobolds or goblins. Or, perhaps, they’ll have put enough fear into Kalarel’s minions that — with them guarding the caravan — they won’t be attacked at all.

If something of this nature happens, consider having Lord Padraig throw a feast in the PCs’ honor. It will probably still be a meager affair, but it gives them a chance to feel like heroes and keeps them engaged with the village (albeit in a more positive fashion).

Continued…

Go to Part 1

SPOILER WARNING!

The following thoughts contain minor spoilers for Keep on the Shadowfell. If you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read it. And if you’re in my gaming group then you definitely shouldn’t be reading it.

PERRIEN

QUOTE: “Rune-born, eh? I always wished that I’d been born with a rune!”

BACKGROUND: Perrien is the son of Sir Caliban, but he was taken in and raised by Bairwin Wildarson after Sir Caliban died. Perrien doesn’t know his true heritage.

Perrien idolizes his adopted father and will often tell tales of Bairwin’s adventures (some of them true, some of them not). He has begun training with the Warrior Guild, thinking to either one day join the Winterhaven Regulars or perhaps go on the road like his father did.

APPEARANCE: A young lad with strapping broad shoulders, pitch-black hair, and green eyes.

ROLEPLAYING NOTES: Effusive. Perrien is full of energy and enthusiasm, and he’s not afraid to share them with anyone nearby.

SALVANA WRAFTON

QUOTE: “Would you care for a cup of soup with that? Or a loaf of bread? Or perhaps a slice of mutton? There’s not nearly enough skin on those bones of yours. You’ll be looking like Eilian if you’re not careful.”

BACKGROUND: Wrafton’s owner and proprietess. She employs a serving boy named Thom, who she treats like her own son.

APPEARANCE: Salvana has a round face, rosy cheeks, and a maternal smile. She keeps her hair tied back in a scarf, but wisps of black poke out here and there.

ROLEPLAYING NOTES: Salvana is friendly and open, quick with a smile and a warm welcome. She speaks with a folksy charm. Her hands always moving, either wiping on her apron or patting people on the arm.

VALTHRUN THE SEER

QUOTE: “That’s quite an interesting question. I wonder if Rodham’s Almanac would have any information on that…”

BACKGROUND: Valthrun is a sage and scholar who lives in the a tower within Winterhaven’s walls. Valthrun is knowledgable about the area, though his knowledge doesn’t run particularly deep and he knows nothing of the death cult’s activities.

APPEARANCE: A man in his late forties, with pale brown hair and large brown eyes. He dresses in robes of red and black and wears a long cream-colored scarf. His fingers are thin and tapered; his hands delicate in both form and movement.

ROLEPLAYING NOTES: Valthrun is a good listener, asking just enough questions to keep whomever he speaks with talking. He peppers his own speech with frequent references to specific tomes – “I’m quite sure I read it in” or “I’m not sure, but let me check” or the like.

SAMPLE BOOK TITLES: Rodham’s Almanac, Crowley’s Third Compendium, Collected Lore of the Dansuuns, Apocrypha of Tehmal, Yasuul’s Unnamed Tome, Othordian’s Handbook

Continued…

Go to Part 1

SPOILER WARNING!

The following thoughts contain minor spoilers for Keep on the Shadowfell. If you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read it. And if you’re in my gaming group then you definitely shouldn’t be reading it.

DESIGN NOTES

Way back in 2001, Atlas Games published In the Belly of the Beast, a D20 adventure by Mike Mearls. This was a roleplaying-intense adventure featuring multiple factions trapped inside the belly of an immense demon. In and of itself, it’s a pretty awesome adventure.

But In the Belly of the Beast is particularly notable, for me, because of the format Mearls used for presenting the roleplaying information for his NPCs. As noted, the adventure is a complex roleplaying scenario with multiple factions each comprised of multiple characters. And yet, due to the utilitarian format Mearls pioneered, the adventure runs smooth as silk: I was able to pick up an NPC, quickly identify what the character’s goals and personality were, and then slide straight into character.

Basically, all Mearls did was break the NPC information down into six sections: Key Information, Quote, Background, Appearance, Roleplaying Notes, and Goals.

Like most good ideas, it seems simple enough… it’s just that nobody had done it before. So instead of trying to parse several paragraphs of dense text summarizing every NPC, you could immediately find exactly what you needed.

I promptly absconded with it, and have been using the format to great success ever since. For NPCs, I generally simplify it down to: Quote, Background, Appearance, and Roleplaying Notes.

(I ditched Key Information because it generally just duplicates information found elsewhere. The Goal section reappears when needed and often in different forms. For example, it doesn’t appear at all in my City Supplements because the NPCs aren’t part of any particular adventure. On the other hand, in my personal campaign, I recently ran a high society party where everyone had a Notes section just to bullet-point out particular interactions I wanted to make sure I hit. In the case of Keep on the Shadowfell, as you’ll see below, it manifests itself as Plot Points/Information, which is, once again, just a bullet-pointed list to make sure I hit particularly important details.)

In my experience, the format not only helps me when it comes to running NPCs, it also helps me to prepare only the information I need to prepare for a given NPC.

LORD PADRAIG

QUOTE: “Welcome to Winterhaven. I wish that you might have come at a more auspicious time.”

BACKGROUND: The Lord of Winterhaven, descended from a noble family that ruled this area under edict of the old empire. Folks around Winterhaven were happy with Lord Padraig’s father’s authority, and they have found answering to the rules of the new lord no more arduous. On the other hand, Padraig doesn’t have absolute power. For instance, he has been unable to raise a force from among the villagers to deal with the kobold problem.

APPEARANCE: Lord Padraig is a man of medium height and middling years. His brown hair is thinning, but he still cuts a trim and handsome figure in clothes of rural finery. His face is open and friendly.

ROLEPLAYING NOTES: Padraig is amenable to meeting with anyone, and if he knows the PCs are rune-marked he will greet them as heroes and potential allies. If he doesn’t know they are rune-marked, he will assume they are dignitaries from another village or possibly merchants scouting trade routes.
He remains friendly and open unless he believes the PCs to be mere treasure hunters or opportunistic mercenaries. In that case, his respect diminishes (although in his desperation he may still seek to secure their help).

PLOT POINTS/INFORMATION:

• Ask them their business in Winterhaven (potentially leading to finding the heir). During the time that Sir Caliban would have arrived, Lord Padraig would have been in Fallcrest attending to his education.
• Will offer a bounty for hunting kobolds; 5 gp for each right hand.
• Pays a reward of 50 gp for the location of the kobold lair; would pay 200 gp if someone were to wipe out the kobold threat.

BAIRWIN WILDARSON

QUOTE: “You young ones ought to bear a wary eye. You may have many fine weapons and the like, but the roads have grown dangerous of late.”

BACKGROUND: When he was a young man, Bairwin left Winterhaven and “traveled the world”. He didn’t get any farther than visiting the dwarves in Hammerfast a hundred miles to the east, but that does make him more widely traveled than anyone else in the village (including Lord Padraig).

When Sir Caliban died in the village, Bairwin took in his infant son (Perrien) and raised him as his own.

APPEARANCE: This weather-worn man has a deep scar running down his left cheek. His brown hair and beard are giving way to salted white, but there’s still a lively twinkle in his blue eyes.

ROLEPLAYING NOTES: Bairwin has a rough exterior, but a heart of gold. He is slow to anger, but once that anger has been roused it burns as a quick rage.

PLOT POINTS/INFORMATION::

• Bairwin took in Sir Caliban’s son, Perrien, after the knight died.

EILIAN THE OLD

QUOTE: “These troubles are not as bad as you might think. I remember back in ’72, when I was still just a wee lad and Padraig’s father was still lord here. We had an ettin come down out of the Stonemarch and go hiking up and down the length of the valley. We eventually managed to rouse the southern farms and we hunted that creature down to its cave.”

BACKGROUND: This old farmer is a regular customer at Wrafton’s. Every night, Eilian takes a seat at a table in the corner. He has a farm just a half mile outside the city’s walls. Eilian has an interest in Winterhaven’s history.

APPEARANCE: A crooked back, a wisp of white hair, and cheeks made rosy with age.

ROLEPLAYING NOTES: Eilian loves to talk.

NINARAN

QUOTE: “No offense, but I don’t trust outsiders. Particularly at a time like this. How are we supposed to know that you aren’t in league with the cultists?”

BACKGROUND: An elf hunter. Ninaran arrived in town about six months ago. Now she serves as Kalarel’s agent in Winterhaven and reports back to him about happenings in the village.

APPEARANCE: Gaunt-faced with chocolate-brown hair tied back in a long pony-tail down to her waist.

ROLEPLAYING NOTES: Ninaran drinks alone and has little interest in conversation. Stiff and bitter in demeanor.

PLOT POINTS/INFORMATION:

• Ninaran will tell them that she saw a “half dozen kobolds or so” by a waterfall to the southeast of town. She can draw them a very detailed map. (Her goal is to lure the PCs there and have Irontooth kill them.)

Continued…