Return of the Pharaohs
Chapter 2: Blacktalon Keep
Details
After the group finishes the Hollow’s Last Hope mini-module, the adventure continues. I have fleshed out a few of the local inns and NPCs as well as a few encounters for their amusement.
Part 5: After Darkmoon Vale
Once the party has freed the town of Falcon’s Hollow of its affliction, they must continue along the road northwest to the city of Ridonport. From Falcon’s Hollow, travelling along the road will take the party about 3 days to reach Ridonport. Since this road is frequented by travelers and caravans, there are a number of way-Inns along the way that will make the nights comfortable. Each inn will charge about 5s per person per night, but will include breakfast. Dinner will run about 1-5sp depending on quality.
Inn: Greenhook Landing, run by Laren Greenhook, H/M/Com2, a suspicious fat human who is very nosy and can be rude if he doesn’t like someone, but is willing to smile insincerely to make a little coin.
Inn: Star of Cyn(osure), run by Imdri, ½ E/M/C3, a welcoming elder half-elf follower of Desna who has higher quality food and drink for a fair price. He also hires a singer/lute-player named Hephates (M/H/Bd4, perform +15) who entertains nightly and will encourage anyone in the audience to duet with him. He’s very good at judging the mood of the place and fulfilling their musical tastes.
Along the way, during the second day of travel, the party will reach an old canal lock. The lock looks like a small, very regular 20’ waterfall, but upon closer inspection, the mechanism is clearer. It looks like the lock is in questionable repair, but it is manned by a group of enterprising brigands who require a toll to use their lock, or the road surrounding it.
3 Wererats (human form) – HP 18 each, AC 16(17), studded leather, shortsword, light crossbow, total of 56gp, 3 gems x 15gp, and one of the wererats is wearing a Ring of Protection +1
Near the end of their second day, in the late afternoon, the group may spot with a DC 13 Per check, smoke rising in the east, looking about 2 miles away. If they investigate, they will find a lone Dwarf who has just died and his cart which has been ransacked. With a DC 12 Per or Surv check they will discover that the dwarf had a companion in the cart, and if the roll is beat by 5 or more, they will know that the companion was a human female. They will also discover that the cart had a pack animal (mule) that is also missing. There are numerous tracks leading away (gnoll, 6-8).
If the group tracks the gnolls, after travelling about an hour, they will eventually find a stone hillock with a cave below it (opposite from where they are approaching). 2 gnolls stand guard outside and will raise an alarm if they spot enemies.
I found a cool little cross-section underground lair map that I adapted to become a gnoll lair. The underground lair also happened to be underneath an aging local stronghold I called Blacktalon Keep.
Blacktalon Keep
Situated in the hills east of Ridonport, the small stronghold of the Blacktalon family has stood for 325 years. Lord Davis Blacktalon and his extended family have lived quietly off of the adventuring profits of a distant knight and currently run a small, but profitable vineyard in the hills near the keep. About 3 weeks ago, a group of wandering gnolls, led by a brutal thug bugbear called Ursaak discovered an old cave complex under a hill near the keep that connected to an old tunnel leading to the lowest basements of Blacktalon Keep. Ursaak led his marauders into the keep and systematically began kidnaping the family, using the women and children as leverage to capture the stronger men. Now, the family has been locked in chains in an underground grotto and Ursaak plans to use them as slaves as he fortifies his new power base of operations.
The keep is a small single-storied fortification with 20’ tall, 5’ thick walls and 25’ tall towers at the corners. When fully manned, the keep garrisons 10 men-at-arms, a watch captain, smith, cook, steward and 3 washerwomen who handle everything else, including asst. cooking, first aid, mending, etc. In addition, Lord Davis Blacktalon, his wife Liann, sons Archie (14) and Kyle (7) and the family dog Threet live in the keep. Lord Blacktalon enjoys entertaining and he usually has a visitor or two staying in his guest quarters. Currently, he has young Lord Rastling, a local textile merchant who was waiting to meet one of the other visitors, a dwarf named Bop who was waylaid on the way here from the city of Ridonport. Travelling with Bop was Lady Rastling, the Lord’s new bride, coming home from a shopping trip.
Ursaak and his band have taken all of the household staff, except for 6 men-at-arms and the captain who were killed defending the family. The captives have been dragged into the cavern complex and placed within a set of large cages in area #15. If they can be freed, they will help retake the keep in force.
