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The valley between the arms of Nargash-Tor is covered with low, stunted bushes. Much of the ground is wet and soggy, incapable of supporting large trees. However ample ground cover is supplied by said bushes, most of which are not taller than 2 or 3 feet.
The point at which the kobold road enters the Tor is watched by an Orc stationed nearby. If anyone is spotted crossing the road, and they will easily be seen up to a mile away, the Orc will sound an alarm which will summon the standard patrol. If the party crossing the swamp looks unusually large or powerful, a runner will be sent for reinforcements which will double the size of the reception committee.
Meanwhile, at Nargash-Tor stronghold, the Ogre and Orcs will be preparing for an attack. Water will be boiled, ready to pour down on any attackers. Bowmen will take up positions in the barbican and spearmen will make ready at the main gate.
If the road is crossed at night the players will have a better chance of success. Two Ogres guard the road at night, with four wolves for companionship. The wolves will smell anything which passes within 50 feet of them, 100 feet if the wolves are downwind of their target. They will howl out an alarm if they smell a member of any humanoid race. They will do the same if anyone sneaking through the bushes less than 100 feet away fails to make a Prowl roll. The Ogres and wolves camp on the road itself, 200 feet from the edge of the swamp.
Once the wolves have sounded the alarm the ogre will light a signal fire which can be seen at the stronghold. It will take the bonfire 1D6 melees to flame up properly and it will be 1D6 melees after that, that someone at the stronghold will see it. So, if the party moves fast enough, they can eliminate the Ogres and wolves and put out the fire before any warning is given.
Approaching Rhaznor's Stronghold
As the players approach the stronghold, they will see the shear side of Mount Nargash rising above them. The first sign they will have that they are nearing their goal is the widening of the road, which becomes 40 feet across when it enters the stronghold. As they draw nearer, they will see that at the bottom of Mount Nargash the road disappears into a barbican. The barbican is seemingly carved out of the solid granite of the mountainside.
A barbican is a special defensive construction, roughly appearing like an arch or bridge, through which a party must pass to reach the interior of the stronghold. The characters will know that barbicans are normally equipped with stout doors, and sometimes a metal portcullis, that is to say a metal grill which slides down to block a passage but still allows the use of bows and spears. A barbican has arrow slits for the shooting of arrows, both on the front of the structure and on the inside. These slits usually face the passage through which all traffic moves. This combination of defenses makes a barbican extremely difficult to crash through.
This particular barbican is 35 feet tall and 70 feet across. The middle of the barbican is pierced by an arch 40 feet across and 25 feet high, through which the road goes. On each side of the barbican facing out away from the mountain there are two rows of arrow slits, one row fourfeet off the ground, the other about 30 feet off the ground.
The exterior walls of the structure and the side of the mountain is covered with sharpened metal spikes about three feet long, slanting down towards the ground. Each spike is set into the rock no more than one foot from any of its neighbors. This is to prevent the use of scaling ladders.
The arch continues about 20 feet under the barbican where it meets the remains of two large bronze doors, carved with demon faces which are 25 feet tall each. The door in the right-hand side has been severely damaged and is hanging from one hinge, with huge gouges in the metal.
Rhaznor's Stronghold - Level One
Gamemasters Note: Unless otherwise stated, all corridors are only five feet high, all rooms are 15 feet high.
Room 1A: Barbican, North side - Normally an empty room, it will be filled with a number of bowmen and spearmen in case of attack. There are always two 25-foot pikes hung on the interior east wall for use through the arrow slits on the south wall facing the road. There is a spiral staircase in the north-east corner of the room which is the access to the barbican's upper level.
Room 1B: Barbican, South side - Basically identical to the northern section of the barbican, except that the spiral staircase is in the south-east corner.
Room 1C: Dead Zone - As the players enter this area they will see another set of bronze doors the same size as the ones they have just passed through only 20 feet ahead of them. As with the first set, the right-hand door has been almost pulled off its hinges.
Room 1D: Main Entrance Hall - This is a large room, the ceiling of which is 20 feet above the ground and is supported by four pillars, carved with scenes of Kobold war victories. Directly in front of the main bronze doors there is a wagon loaded with all kinds of wooden refuse and straw. During attacks it is pushed into the breech caused by the smashed doors in order to slow down any invaders.
In the south-eastern corner of the room there is a pile of rotten bodies, mostly Kobold, but with a few other races thrown in. None appear to be wearing weapons or armour, but a search of the pile will leave the searcher reeking of rotten flesh, although 20 gold pieces the richer. All the dead, if someone can make a successful Medical roll, appear to have died from violence, though there are one or two who have no marks on them at all. Most of them have sections missing and there are a number of chewed bones to one side of the pile.
There are five double doors in the room, each pair measuring a total 8 feet tall and 10 feet across.
The walls of the room itself are impressively painted with scenes of Kobold victories from ages past. A large number of places on the murals have been defaced and graffiti has been painted, and written in what appears to be a dialect of Elven. Any changeling in the group will be able to recognize the writing as changeling.
Room 1E: The Stable - The smell of horse dung is quite strong in this room. There are 24 separate stalls here, though most are obviously empty. A quick search will reveal three fair quality horses which are still alive, though barely, and the chewed bones of five more. It will be obvious to anyone with Horsemanship of any type, that these beasts have not been well cared for. The reason that the smell of dung is so strong in the room is that, instead of the muck being cleared out it is simply left where it fell and the horse moved to a clean stall.
One of the horses has become extremely nervous and if anyone enters his stall he will kick at them. If the player runs out of the stall and does not say that he is shutting the door, the horse will bolt out the door and start running around the stable area, kicking at anyone who gets in its way. The other two horses are very gentle.
Room 1F: The Hayloft - This room is filled with a large pile of hay in the center of the room. On three of the walls are huge mangers filled with bales of hay. On the north wall are huge bins of oats and bran, most of which is wet and rotten. The haystack, however, has remained relatively fresh and would make a good place to hide.
Room 1G: Wagon Storage - In this rather large room are three completed and relatively unharmed wagons. One is obviously a hay carrier, the other two appearing to have been made to carry heavy loads. Around the floor are the burned and smashed parts of a number of other wagons, mixed with a great deal of rotten straw. On the eastern wall are two large double doors, each of which is 15 feet across and 10 feet high.
Room 1H: Wood and Blacksmith Shops - This room was a general workshop for the wagon maker (wainwright), blacksmith, barrel maker (cooper) and wheelwright. The entire southern wall is taken up by several black smithing forges and tools, along with a good stock of wrought iron bars. The eastern wall holds the wood supplies, stacks of long seasoned timber, wooden blocks, shingles and boards of all sizes. The northern wall is taken up by one long carpenters bench and a pulley system for building wagons. On the bench is a full set of carpenters tools. Stacked under the bench are five barrels, two of which are empty, two have grease in them and one is filled with a flammable varnish which will burn like oil.
Room 1I: Front Stairwell - Upon entering this room the players will see another set of double doors directly in front of them. To the north is a flight of stairs going up to the second level. To the south is a flight of stairs leading down to the caverns.
Main Hall - While nothing more than a normal kobold hallway, with its five foot high ceilings, if the players enter the eastern section of the hall they will notice a series of heavily grooved markings on the floor. These lead from the ramp by the southern stairway and run to the eastern moat door of the Metalsmith's and Armourer's Workshop. This track was caused by the heavily laden carts of processed ore being pushed up to the workshops from below.
Room 1J: Jeweler's Workshop - A heavily constructed oak door with many steel straps and rods on it bars the entrance to the jeweler's room. This door is locked, but there is an obvious keyhole under the latch. Attempts to pick the lock must be made. The group can, of course, smash the door open but will create quite a ruckus. The lock has an S.D.C. of 50, the door itselfhas an S.D.C. of 200.
Within the room itself there are four small tables each of which has a complete set of gem cutting and polishing equipment on it. Any actual gems have been removed to the main treasury upstairs.
In a drawer in the northwestern table there are five pieces of cut glass that look like diamonds. A successful roll of Recognize Precious Metal/Stones must be made in order for a character to recognize them for what they are. A failed roll means the player in question will believe each "gem" to be worth 500 gold pieces.
Room 1K: Metalsmith's and Armourer's Workshop - In this room the kobolds made their normal, as well as magic weapons and armour. The south wall of the room is one long continuing series of tempering troughs, each of which contains a different solution. If any player dips a weapon into the fluid in the southeastern corner that weapon will strike as a magical weapon, though without bonuses to strike, parry and dodge, for 1D4 days.
The middle of the room is covered by a long worktable, which is itself covered with various tools, hammers, tongs, metal bar stock and anvils.
Room 1L: Gold and Silversmith's Workshop - As with the Jeweler's workshop the doors to this room are heavily protected and locked. All precious metals have been removed, leaving only four large worktables, a complete set of tools for working precious metals and a small crucible and furnace in the northeast corner of the room. Doors have an S.D.C. 200, locks S.D.C. 50.
Room 1M: The Dining Hall - The center of the large rectangular room contains two long stone tables with accompanying stone benches. All appear to have been carved from the rock of the mountain itself. On the northern wall there is a raised stone platform upon which there is a stone throne, approximately the right size for a kobold.
There are no decorations on the walls, but near the ceiling the players will notice the torn remains of cloth from what might have been tapestries.
On the eastern wall there are two small double doors. While not locked in any way, neither has any sort of handle on it. The southern door can be pushed to open from this side, but the northern door can only be pushed from the other side. The southern door is marked with the kobold word for "in", while the northern door is marked with the word "out".
Room 1N: The Kitchen - The south wall of this room is taken up by several large cookstoves of the coal burning sort and one large open hearth. The eastern wall has one long worktable set against it, with a variety of pots, pans, spatulas and other cooking utensils hanging on the wall above it.
The north wall has a small door in it which leads to the pantry, as well as two small tables, one on either side of the door.
The pantry is a very cool room, suitable for storing perishable items. The group will be able to see a variety of items on the shelves, including bags of flour, barrels of wine, and many kinds of meats hanging from the ceiling including a good selection of what are apparently humanoid limbs, mostly kobold in origin but with a few that look like human or elf.
Section 1O: The Back Stairwell - Another stairwell identical to 1I, with the northern set of stairs going up to the second level and the southern staircase going down to the lower level.
Room 1P: The Watchroom - This room was originally used by the kobold commander of the watch. As most of the furniture is too small for the ogres and orcs to use, much of it has been smashed and piled in a corner of the room. The leader of the orcs uses this as his private quarters. There is a ratty bundle of cloth near the west wall which he uses as a sleeping pallet.
In the northern wall of this room there is a passageway which leads to the barbican. Both at this entrance and at a point further up the passageway there are portcullises which can be dropped to bar the way of pursuers. They can only be raised from the defenders side of the portcullis, by using a winch set into the wall.
Section 1Q: Passageway - This passageway is similar to the one in the watchroom. It not only leads to the southern barbican but is also the only access to the garrison room and the armoury. As with the watchroom, there are portcullises which can be dropped right at the entrance as well as further up the passageway.
Room 1R: The Garrison Room - This room is now being used by the orcs as a sleeping room. The cots of the kobolds having been too small for the orcs to sleep on have been broken up and the rubble piled in the northwest corner of the room. The rest of the room if filled with dank, stinking straw, once fine tapestries that have been ripped into blankets and anything else the orcs could find to make bedding out of.
If the players search this room they will find 100 gold, two rubies worth 200 gold each, and a veritable army of fleas which will attach themselves to the searchers.
Room 1S: Armoury - This room used to be the kobold Armoury, however all of the weapons have now been removed and the room left empty.
Rhaznor's Stronghold - Second/Upper Level
Room 2A: Barbican, north room - This room is identical to barbican room 1A directly below it. With the exception of a door in the south wall which leads to the killing trap.
Room 2B: The Killing Trap - This is a standard part of the defenses of a barbican. The floor is covered with holes six by six inches in size which pierce the rock directly through the top of the arch over the road. Through these holes arrows can be fired, or much more effective boiling hot water or oil can be poured upon the attackers below.
In the southwestern corner of the room there is a furnace over which there is a large (50 gallon) cauldron hanging. This cauldron is always kept filled with water heated to just below boiling. In case of attack, the furnace is heated up and the water boiled. It can be dumped on to the floor and through the holes by means of a lever on the side of the furnace, Anyone who has this water poured over them will take 3D6 points of damage, armour supplying no protection, and must make a successful save vs insanity or run away.
There is a door directly beside the furnace and a cauldron on the south wall which leads to the southern section of the barbican.
Room 2C: Barbican, south room - This room is identical to Room 1B directly below it.
Room 2D: Kobold Sleeping Quarters - All of these rooms have been ransacked, the beds and furniture destroyed and strewn about the rooms. Nothing of interest will be found here.
Room 2E: Sleeping Quarters - An ogre has taken this room as his own. The floor is covered with straw and blankets. In one corner of the room the remains of old Kobold furniture is piled. The room has a decisively bad odor originating from the large amount of food scraps left rotting on the floor.
Room 2F: Sleeping Quarters - Same as 2E
Room 2G: Sleeping Quarters - Same as 2E
Room 2H: Sleeping Quarters - Same as 2E
Room 2I: Sleeping Quarters - Same as 2E
Room 2J: Washrooms - These are designed for use by kobolds and are much too small to be of any use to ogres. There are three washing fountains in the room which have running water, at least as long as the slaves in Room 3F in the lower caverns keep pumping water. One of the fountains is on the east wall, another is on the west wall and the last is in the middle of the room. There are 16 stalls in this room, each also equipped with running water.
Room 2K: Private Quarters - This is one of the few rooms in the stronghold designed for use by races larger than Kobolds. Normally guests or ambassadors visiting here used this room. The room has been taken over now by one of the ogre chiefs who is making good use of a bed actually designed for larger folk.
The chief ogre is one of the few beings in Rhaznor's band who is allowed to have his own treasure and not have it placed in the main treasury under Rhaznor's watchful eye. There is a strongbox under the bed, locked of course, which contains 500 gold in Eastern currency. The lock has a S.D.C. of 40.
Room 2L: Sergeant of the Guard - This was the room kept by the kobold sergeant of the guard as he guarded any prisoners. Relatively untouched, there are three small desks in the room where the sergeant and his assistants kept the watch. The walls are covered with a variety of weapons, but all are of kobold size only. A larger being could use a Kobold bastard sword as a short sword, but that is about all that could be used. If looking for a particular type of weapon there is a 50% chance it can be found here.
There is a door in the southern wall of the room which leads to the cell room. There are ten barred cells in here, all of which are empty. In the center of the room there is a wooden table, much of it has been stained by blood. The table was used for torture and there are a series of adjustable straps bolted to it. The west section of wall near the entrance is covered with a variety of devices of torture, including thumb screws, foot crushers, eye-gougers and a host of others.
As the main weapon storage room in the stronghold, Rhaznor holds the only key toprevent any possible mutiny among his men. The door is locked at all times. Lock S.D.C. 75, Door S.D.C. 250.
Room 2M: Private Quarters - One of the other ogre chiefs sleeps here. The room is basically identical to Room 2K, with the exception that this particular ogre has only 200 gold.
Room 2N: Priest's Room - This room belonged to the Kobold priest of Tark who died in the initial dragon attack. Now the most senior of the ogre chiefs keeps this room as his private quarters. In the northwest corner of the room is a bed large even by ogre standards. Covering it are food and grease stained sheets of what used to be the finest silk.
In the southwest corner of the room there is a private water closet, with running water. The south-eastern section of the room used to be the Priest's wardrobe, but all the fine clothes stored there have been taken by the ogre chief and sewn together to create a number of fancy but garish robes.
His armour is normally kept on a stand beside the door when it is not being worn. The armour is magical chain mail, A.R. 14, S.D.C. 250, and weightless. In a chest which is bolted to the floor, there are ten Old Kingdom coins, worth 1000 gold each.
Room 2O: The Temple of Tark - This is a small chapel dedicated to Tark, the Spider Goddess. Two sets of double doors allow access to this room from the north and west. The center of the room is taken up by a series of stone benches which face the southeast corner of the room.
In that corner there is a raised stone platform which takes up the whole corner. On this platform is a statue of a giant spider. It is cast in what appears to be bronze and is 8 feet high and 16 feet across (worth 500 gold, weighing 1000 lbs).
Directly in front of this statue there is a small stone altar. On this there are two small daggers, ornately inscribed with spider based designs, and a small silver dish.
In the northeast and southwest corners of the room there are two small tables on which are set plates of rotten food, withered flowers, the carcasses of a number of dead animals and a collection of gold and silver candlestick holders. Each of the gold candle holders are worth 200 gold. There are three of them on each table. The silver candle holders are worth 100 gold each. There are two on each table.
Any player making a successful roll on Religious Doctrine will recognize these two tables as being sacrificial tables, where items or animal sacrifices are brought as gifts for Tark.
As the players look around the room they will see two bodies stretched out over the stone pews, as though they had simply fallen over dead and had been left where they fell. One body is that of an orc, the other an ogre. Neither body has any wounds on it nor is there any clue as to what caused the death of either of them.
In fact they were both killed by the guardian of the temple, a Black Leaper Spider. A gift from Tark herself. It will attack anyone who touches any of the sacrifices on the tables or the knives or bowl on the altar.
The Black Leaper Spider
Size: 2 inches, A.R. 3
Hit Points: 4
Number of attacks: 2 with poison
Natural Abilities:
Nightvision 12 feet
Prowl 94%
Climb 99%
+4 to Dodge, can leap up to four feet with six jumps per melee.
Its poison is the deadliest in the world: taking effect in 1D3 melees and inflicting 6D6 points of damage. If the player survives, the other effects of the poison are: chills, sweating, violent vomiting, -4 to Strike, -5 to Parry or Dodge and -8 on initiative. The effects last 12 hours.
Because the spider is so small and because of its high Prowl ability the players will not be able to see it coming, nor will they be able to detect a failed attack. The first sign they should have that it is attacking is someone falling over.
If any orcs or ogres are captured they will say that the Temple is cursed.
Room 2P: Officer of the Watch - This room used to be used by the bodyguards of the kobold commander. It is now guarded by several ogres and orcs because it is, so far as they know, the only way into the Treasure Vault. The portcullis in the west wall is always lowered. Other than this the room is empty.
Room 2Q: Commander's Greeting Room - A finely styled room with a number of intact kobold size couches and several fine tapestries hanging on the wall. This is where Rhaznor now holds his council meetings. In the center of the room is a large sand table with the sand piled up to resemble the terrain in and around Fort Ac.
Room 2R: Commander's Private Quarters - Everything in here is as the old kobold commander left it. The room has a series of fine wood panels running half way up to the ceiling. The area above that is filled with some fine examples of kobold sculpture, again depicting a number of kobold battle victories.
There is a large bed in the southeast corner of the room. Along the south wall on the western side there is a large work desk with a number of papers scattered across it. If the players sort through this pile and if they can read kobold or elven they will find that a number of these papers just deal with the running of the stronghold by the old kobold commander. Another batch of them, all written in elven, deal with the schedules of various caravans which will be coming through the fort Ac region within two months. Included in this pile they will find one paper which says "All is set. The patrols will be diverted as normal." It is signed "CM". This is a reference to Camphar Moss, the Lieutenant at Fort Ac.
On the north wall of the room there is a full walk-in closet, filled with kobold sized finery, which Rhaznor occasionally wears. Next to the closet are three full length mirrors.
Unknown to all of Rhaznor's men, there is a secret door in the west wall which allows access to a hallway leading to the treasury.
Room 2S: The Treasury - This securely walled and locked room requires two keys to unlock the doors, both of which must be turned at the same time, Rhaznor has one and the senior ogre chief has the other. The doors could be picked if two players attempted it and made successful rolls simultaneously. After opening the outer door, the inner door must also be opened. Within the room is stacked most of the booty which Rhaznor and his men havecollected. Altogether there are 50,000 gold pieces worth of valuables in here, 35,000 of it originally belonged to the kobolds who lived here and Urylic, the commander of the few remaining Kobolds. They will demand that the stronghold and all which belonged to the kobolds be returned to them. The remaining items are much too bulky to be carried out by the players without the use of a wagon. They include bolts of silk, rare herbs and spices, gems and jewelry and ordinary coins. The holy items the players seek are also in this room. The treasury doors have an S.D.C. of 300 each; the locks 150 each.
Room 2T: Council Chambers - This is where all the high ranking kobolds would come to discuss business or military matters. The room is comprised of a series of stone seats rather like bleachers, each being some three feet tall A set of stairs leads down from the door on the south wall to the speaker's pit in the center of the chamber.
Rhaznor's Stronghold - The Third/Lower Level
Room 3A: The Slave Pits - A large dark empty cavern, the kobolds used this area to chain up their many slaves. The floor of this cavern is littered with chains which have one end stapled to solid rock. The slave pit is empty now, all the weak slaves having been eaten and the few left alive chained to the capstan in the water pumping cavern, 3F, or mining gold in the mine shafts.
Room 3B: Coal Storage - These rooms are used to store coal that is used to smelt and refine the gold mined here, or used in the furnaces or forges in the upper levels.
Room 3C: Firewood Storage Rooms - Huge quantities of dry wood are stored in these two rooms, enough to last the stronghold at least a year.
Room 3D: Ore Smelting Room - A large furnace and bellows system, worked by slaves is contained in this room. It is used to smelt and refine any ore dug out of the mines. Any molten ore splashed or thrown on someone would do 3D10 points of damage. Someone thrown into the furnace would die immediately. On the southern wall there are a variety of tools, ladles, skimmers and the like used in the refining process.
Room 3E: This large open area is used for tool and ore cart storage and is also where the mining slaves are chained when they are not at work. They are worked from sunrise to sunset, mining the ore, then they smelt the ore and refine it, taking another six to eight hours, after which they are allowed to rest until dawn. There are only 10 of these slaves, four kobolds, two humans, three dwarves and one troglodyte. Each is almost totally exhausted and would be of no help to the players. None are wearing any clothes and they have only 1D8 hit points due to maltreatment.
Room 3F: Water Pumping Cavern - In this room is a natural underground pool, which unknown to the kobolds or Rhaznor and his bandits, comes through an underwater tunnel from Lake Magnys, some 100 yards distant. It is through this passage that the players will enter the stronghold if helped by the merrow. If they want to leave by the same route after the merrow's spell has worn off, they will have to use the Part the Waters scroll given to them by Morgan.
Directly in front of the pool is a capstan connected to an Archimedes type screw. As long as the slaves chained to the capstan keep pushing, water will be pumped throughout the stronghold, a triumph of kobold ingenuity.
There are six slaves chained to the capstan, three humans and three wolfen, all of whom were captured by Rhaznor in his last few raids. Though not in the best of health they are in better shape than the mining slaves. If freed they will assist the group as best they can. Each has 3D6 hit points, though none have any armour or weapons, with the exception of the wolfens' claws. Due to their weakened state they will get only one attack per melee, with no bonuses to Strike, Parry, or Dodge.