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Overview
Little Humble put a water-giving boulder atop a favorite hilltop. Then outsider garhwals began occasionally using the scenic site for ritual combat, knowing being "killed" would merely send them back to their home dimension. Upset at the damage to the forest caused by these combats, Little Humble created an isolated keep and spread news of its treasure.
Will the PC's wits and skills be enough to outsmart, avoid, fight, or help various creatures and claim the fabled treasure?
This adventure's abecedarius map is a modified Frank Mentzer map as drawn by Dyson Logos.
This adventure is a compact and silly version of the "Lost Citadel of the Scarlet Minotaur" from the free Shadowdark quickstart set.
Rumors
1 - Corpses in the keep are trapped, so stay far away from them! [False]
2 - Little Humble refills the keep's treasure chests. [True]
3 - A deadly monster roams that darkness: adventurers get eaten by a grue. [Partly True]
4 - The famed treasure includes a sword that instantly kills outsiders. [False]
5 - The keep has many secret doors. Some are permanently jammed. [True]
6 - The garhwals appear silently and in great numbers. [False]
Milestones for XP
1, 2 - Discovering Grue's secret room. Returning Grue to his home dimension.
3, 4 - Finding the secret treasure chests in the central room and the secret garhwal area.
5 - Destroying the garhwal's portal device and offering a piece of it on an altar.
6 - Ending the adventure with a garhwal's flame gun or laser pistol.
Random Encounters (see the crawling rules, avoid duplicates whenever sensible)
1 - Grue the outsider orkor appears and shouts harshly in a strange language!
4 - Sally the reiver razorbeak is looking for food to bring back to her nest.
3 - An outsider garhwal has just ambushed 2 orcs (orcs may be invisible to the PCs).
4 - An eerie wind extinguishes torches and lanterns.
5 - Some orcs creep through the keep, looking for easy treasure.
6 - A bugaboo ink-acles wants light to drink.
7 - Some bigbeast mist spiders are building a secondary home.
8 - Some bigbeast shrews skulk in the darkness.
9 - Some bigbeast centipedes crawl along the ceiling.
10 - The PCs approach a trap the orcs have hidden to catch monsters.
Note: In Spyragia, orcs are people (not monsters) and need light to see. Their locations are lit when occupied. The entrance (I, S) and courtyard (H, O) are outside and lit by sun or moon light. The remainder of the keep is normally in darkness.
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Ambush: Troubled orc dreams have created several bugaboo ink-acles. Two hide here.
Barrier #1: These doors have becomes jammed. Forcing them is noisy, and requires a tough Wrestle skill check.
Barrier #2: These secret door are completely jammed, as inspection clearly affirms. They cannot be forced.
Barrier #3: This door is locked with the key from K1. It can be forced, as B1. The orcs do not want to wreck the door that ideally protects them from monsters, and cannot unlock that door without the key. They would respond very favorably to having it returned.
Connection: A mosaic on this wall shows adventurers placing dismantled garhwal machinery onto an altar.
Depletion: Four orc corpses with rent chests are crumpled on the floor, bloody smears showing how they slid down the walls. Each smear begins at a deep hole in the stone wall, as if an unbreakable blade was thrust with superhuman strength. A deep grief pervades the room: all skill checks here suffer a big penalty.
Environmental Effect: The floor before these double doors has a mosaic of a garden, of which every flower releases its scent. The combined effect is soporific and feels almost overwhelming. People who spend a second turn here must succeed in a tough composure check to avoid falling asleep for 1d6 rounds.
Fragile/Deadly Foe: Grue the stranded, invincible outsider orkor lives in this disheveled room. Thanks to Little Humble's magic, the silver bowl (10 gold, 0 XP) in his treasure chest never runs out of cheese dip. He is gullible and only wants to return to his home dimension and pet dog. But cooperation is difficult because he is dull-witted, illiterate, speaks only a strange language, and is easily provoked to violence. The only secret doors he knows about are those near this room.
Grandeur: The large, glowing statue of Little Humble radiates serene calm. The pillars nearest the statue have murals of her kindness. The four other pillars are inscribed with her four tenants of Sublimity Street. No monsters can enter this room.
Heights: This central courtyard has no ceiling and is open to the sky. Two statues of Little Humble each day change to show her wearing a different hat.
Insidious: Some orc treasure hunters changed plans after finding deadly monsters in the keep. The orcs set up a camp in front of the keep, so trespassing adventures would trigger the orc's reprisality ability and allow the orcs to invisibly follow the adventurers into the keep.
Jinx: On the floor is a chalk drawing of a scruffy orange dog with black spots, wearing a jeweled collar, and with two strange swords strapped to its back. Disturbing the chalk causes a curse and a blessing: that person becomes illiterate and fails all Etiquette skill checks until they pet a dog, but until midnight has a rating of 4 in all talents of the Brawn category.
Key/Clue: Under an orc corpse is the key to door B3.
Lore: On a small altar is an offering of gathered berries. Murals on pillars show four scenes. Garhwals set the forest aflame as they fight with devices that shoot jets of flame and rays of light. Adventurers use loot from a keep to chase away the garhwals and replant trees. Adventurers claim the device from slain garhwals. Adventurers return to the keep for more treasure.
Monster #1: Sally the reiver razorbeak has made her nest in this room. She attacks anyone she sees, but after not seeing a creature for 3 rounds forgets about them and returns here. In her nest is are 2 garnet cabochons (4 gold each, 0 XP) and a small amethyst cabochon (15 gold, 0 XP).
Monster #2: The orcs have placed a suit of animated armor on guard in a hallway they never use.
NPC: The orcs leave only enough belongings outside to trick people into believing it is their main camp. They mostly live in these secret rooms. A torch, 10 pitons, and 3 gold pieces are near one bedroll. A 60' rope, grappling hook, and 2 gold pieces are near another bedroll.
Objective: On the altar is a garhwal device (? gold, 1 XP) that emits a wide beam that temporarily disrupts other garhwal technology. If the beam is shot at any other type of outsider, randomly generate a wild magic surge.
Portal: Outside the keep is a cart-sized garhwal machine that creates a portal which sends any outsider home to their own dimension. It is indestructible unless first weakened by the device at objective O. Non-outsiders cannot interact with the portal.
Quick Heal #1: Once per day, a hat placed on the altar will vanish and be replaced by a torch and healing potion.
Quick Heal #2: This room has some small tables and low chairs roughly shoved into a corner. Murals on two walls depict followers of Little Humble serving each other tea. Closer inspection shows both murals have a part of the scene facing the viewer, to make someone sitting at that place seem a part of a tea party. Each day, the first person to drink tea there gains the benefit of a healing potion. Putting any leaves in any water works as "tea".
Redirect/Shift: Inscriptions on these two pillars read "Confess shameful secrets so secrets are no more." If a person walks between the pillars while confessing a shameful secret, all the keep's normal doors become secret doors, all the keep's secret doors become normal doors, and all jammed doors become usable.
Secret: The second time the PCs visit here, an orc named Eska emerges from hiding among the tents. She wants to overthrow Haruut and claim leadership of the group. She promises the PCs all Haruut's treasure if they help.
Trap/Problem: This room's walls are covered with brilliant flecks of quartz and tiny mirror fragments. People who enter with light sources must succeed in a medium composure check to avoid being blinded for 1d4 rounds. The glare hides the webs that alert bigbeast mist spiders to intruders. Bodies in the webs have an incense bowl and jade bracelet (2 gold each, 0 XP)
Uncanny: People who approach these pillars shrink, never quite able to get close enough to touch any pillar. Each pillar has a small cavity near the top. Each cavity contains a colored ball that releases a curse when a new person picks it up. Holding a ball feels eerie but invigorating: gain one spark per hour per ball held. Red—your flammable belongings ignite. Blue—you are soaked as if by seawater. Green—acquire a random reiver mutation for an hour. Purple—move at half speed for an hour.
Vault: The orc's leader, Haruut, keeps his treasure here: a scarab amulet (30 gold, 1 XP) enchanted with musing (one charge, immunity to poison), a small gold locket (1 gold, 0 XP), and a well-made knight's shield (16 gold, 0 XP). Haruut carries a garhwal's flame gun and laser pistol, taken from Z.
Windfall #1: This ransacked library has no intact scrolls or books. An ornate copper paperweight (1 gold, 0 XP) is enchanted with musing: one charge remains, and when activated it detect secret doors in a limited way: becoming warm when near a secret door for as many secret doors as twice the Wonder skill rating of the person holding it before dissolving into a pleasant odor of well-loved leather-bound books.
Windfall #2: No monsters know about the central secret doors and room. This is where the fabled treasure (200 gold, 2 XP) hides. If the PCs are struggling, put useful items in these treasure chests.
Xylograph #1: A hexagonal yellow Barrier effect runeblock (7 gold, 0 XP) is hidden in webs near the ceiling.
Xylograph #2: A red trapezoid Frost effect runeblock (20 gold, 1 XP) is on a shelf with various ritual robes and objects.
Yonderlit: A square pit seems both bottomless and illuminated by faint, distant, ghostly light.
Zany Science: The wounds on this corpse prove that enough orcs can theoretically overwhelm a garhwal. The orcs took the garhwal's flame gun or laser pistol. They left a small rectangular gizmo with a button that turns on portal machine P.
After Adventure Carousing Table (roll a ten-sided, add the impact rating of spent coins)
1 - A specially-equipped garhwal visits you and demands a non-lethal duel (5 XP if you somehow defeat it, 1 XP if you lose).
2 - Others say that you embarrassed yourself, but you do not remember what happened (2 XP).
3 - You wake up in an alley or gutter with a headache and bruises (2 XP).
4 - Little Humble's followers hesitantly thank you for doing what you did, but you suspect they also advised others not to hire you for adventuring jobs (3 XP).
5 - You spent 15% of your remaining coins without meaning to do that (3 XP).
6 - You are no longer allowed into any local tavern, inn, or theater—what happened? (4 XP).
7 - You were talked into donating 10% of your remaining coins to one of Little Humble's meek manors (5 XP, gain an ally).
8 - You were talked into donating 10% of your remaining coins towards medical care for a badly wounded mercenary (5 XP, gain an ally).
9 - You were talked into donating 10% of your remaining coins towards medical care for a badly wounded merchant (5 XP, gain an ally and favored prices for one type of mundane goods).
10 - You convince a bard to compose a song about your deeds (6 XP, gain social armor rating when bargaining locally).
11 - Little Humble's followers are so pleased with you that their recommendations find you new work that pays half again the usual amount (6 XP, gain a generous quest).
12+ - You are visited by Grue's wise and grateful relatives (7 XP, gain a strange favor).
Use the Shadowdark crawling rules. Roll for wandering monsters every 2 crawling rounds, with a 1 in 6 chance to have a random encounter.
Gold and XP values can remain the same for a solo PC. Scale up treasure as well as monster group sizes to fairly reward a larger party. Use the normal Shadowdark gold costs for better carousing.
Replace runeblocks with scrolls. For Barrier use Hold Portal. For Frost use Burning Hands.
Remember that die roll difficulties are nicknamed Easy (DC 9), Normal/Medium (DC 12), and Hard/Tough (DC 15). Use the obvious PC stats for "skill checks".
Grue the orkor is a parody of Groo the Wanderer. Keep him an invincible imbecile that is gullible but difficult to communicate with.
The five-fold blessing caused by disturbing the chalk drawing of Rufferto includes ignoring situational penalties with a ranged weapon at less than 4 meters, advantage on scroll use die rolls, having dodge as if a Kobold, being able to make attacks of opportunity when an adjacent foe moves away, and being able to use Strength to pin a prone humanoid opponent of reasonable size.
The garhwals are like kzinti. Replace them with a humanoid the PCs could barely overwhelm with careful planning, resources, and use of cover and concealment: perhaps Rakshasa to preserve the tiger-like theme?
Restore the orcs as beastmen, mist spiders as ettercaps, ink-acles as darkmantles, shrews as skeletons, and centipedes as a cave creeper. Replace the razorbeak with a snake swarm, or the Scarlet Minotaur if you prefer. The animated armor stays an animated armor.