Legacy
Part 2 – The Competition
Details
Start here for 5/7/24
The Events
Three days before the celebration, visiting adventuring parties are briefed on the area by Brunin himself and he will make suggestions as to ways he remembered entering the Citadel; the Opera House underground tunnel (which connected to another building in the old Upper Village, the Dead Pen Tunnels on the eastern side of the mountain and of course, which he warns are very dangerous and the remains of the ruins themselves at the top of the mountain. When the party investigates the ruins, they will find that many groups have already set up base camps with tents, pavilions and commandeered crumbling structures for their camps.
After checking with some of the roaming officials in the Keep, you learn that this evening there is going to be a gathering in the Great Hall to welcome and honor the attendees of this grand occasion and hear the history of Stonehaven from an eye witness and architect of the downfall of the evil a century ago, the mayor of Blackcross Keep, Brunin Greyforge. During the gathering, he will explain the upcoming events for the 100th anniversary and the exciting competition.
The Gathering in the Great Hall
You enter the Great Hall of Blackcross, decorated with symbols of noble houses, dwarven clans and allied cities. In the dwarven custom, a large, welcoming firepit sits in the center of the large room and groups of chairs and tables are scattered around the edges of the room. Against the walls, a bleacher benches are already filled with excited, animated locals who have come to be witnesses to the events. A couple of flamboyant performers – a skilled bard and a roguish strolling magician are entertaining the gathering crowds.
As they enter, a man sitting behind a small table asks them if they are here as spectators or a participant in the contest. And if the latter, what they call their group. The adventurers are asked what their group is called. If they don’t have one, it is encouraged they think of one for the people to cheer on.
First Gathering Agenda
- Welcome from Brunin Greyforge mayor of Blackcross Keep
- Little history of Brunin’s involvement and founding of ‘new’ Blackcross
- Importance to remember the people who sacrificed themselves to rid the area of a sinister plot to turn ordinary people into an army of undead
- Lighten up the mood by explaining the Competition
- Six brave adventuring groups have signed up
- Introduce the groups by their name (show images of group members)
- Three days of exploration and search
- Brunin recounts his experience entering under the Citadel via hidden tunnel from Opera House and also a tunnel leading west from the east side of the mountain. He also suggests the ruins atop the hill may also have unexplored areas.
- With a good diplomacy roll, DC26 Brunin will remember that there was also a clan of fey creatures that had an entrance between the lower and upper villages.
- Each group will have that time exploring wherever they wish in the area with the goals of finding unexplored areas or recovering undiscovered magic or artifacts dating back to the height of Stonehaven. Anyone who brings back something from the Necromancer herself will receive a monetary reward that the group can split however they wish (the finders get to keep it of course). Brunin (and his magical-minded assistants) will be the final arbiter of the reward. Once collected, Brunin’s assistants will cast an Object Reading on each item to determine if it was something from the days of the Citadel’s collapse. A brief background of each item that garners an award will be revealed at the last night’s gathering.
- These rewards will be awarded:
- Minor magic item 500 gp
- Major magic item 1000 gp
- Book or notes in the Necromancer’s writing 2,000 gp
- Necromancer’s spellbook 10,000 gp
- Necromancer’s remains 25,000 gp
- In the evening, all adventuring groups will be invited back to the Great Hall to a nightly gathering where they can discuss their adventure (or not) and brag about their findings. This is a highly anticipated event and hundreds of locals and visiting dignitaries will attend each night.
- If a group is going to stay on site, they must either send a representative back to Blackcross to let the officials know or use magical means to let someone know they are staying in the ruins for the night. This prevents having to ‘send in a search party’.
- These events continue each day until the evening of day 3 when there is a grand feast and awards ceremony.
Adventuring Groups
Group 1 – Four Winds (9)
- Etward Ritalson (human, leather, lots of alchemy items)
- Heuberk Thropp (human rogue?)
- Nilak (human, leather, club & bow)
- Yabin (half-snake, no armor, staff)
Group 2 – Kneebusters (6)
- Asmerelli (halfling, leather, shortbow, holy symbol?)
- Kolbo (dwarf, leather, longsword, heavy x-bow)
- Nathatel (primitive elf, leather, branched spear)
- Zatqualmish (gnome, fine clothes, rapier, shortbow)
Group 3 – Night Stalkers (8)
- Azi (human, staff with skull on end)
- Jahsi (elf, splint mail, longbow & daggers)
- Nairu (elf, leather, rapier, comp shortbow)
- Selarea Tenebris (human/changeling,
Group 4 – Godsmackers (7)
- Abstalar Zantus (studded leather, starknife, holy symbol Desna)
- Doatara (leather, shortsword)
- Evora Yarket (half-orc, no armor, bullhook)
- Yniesse Zenderholm (full plate & shield, longsword, comp shortbow)
Group 5 – B&B (5)
- Barralbus (human, normal clothes, staff)
- Mashkudu (human, leather, longsword, hand x-bow)
- Murta Kronniksdottir (human, chain mail, maul, javelin)
- VIlree (elf, leather, daggers, lots of alchemical stuff)
- Voz LIrayne (half-elf, no armor, dagger)
Starting the Competition
The actual competition starts at sunrise the following day, but most, if not all of the groups have set up camp near where they are going to explore the following day. The groups have arranged themselves in these areas:
Upper Village
- Group 5 (B&B)5 is planning to explore under the old Opera House
- Group 4 (Godsmackers)7 is planning to scale the mountain at first light to search the Citadel ruins
- Group 2 (Kneebusters)6 is planning to also scale the mountain and find a new entrance
Lower Village
- Group 1 (Night Stalkers)8 is planning to explore the south side of the hill for entrances
- Group 3 (Four Winds)9 is planning to make their way to the tunnel on the east side of the mountain that Brunin found the remains of the heroes
If the party is able to get the jump on any of these groups, the group in question will find a new place to explore.
Many spectators have also set up camps near the competitors, but are mostly wise enough the keep their distance from the danger.
Competition Day 1
The competition is off to an optimistic start. The camps are all emptied by daybreak and after a few squabbles about ‘dibs’ each group starts to explore a different area.
B&B – Early in the day, the lower level group B&B returns to Blackcross for magical healing and a reality check. It seems they were no match for a bunch of frightening large spiders infesting the tunnels under Upper Stonehaven Ruins. Barralbus and Mashkudu are carted back dead and the rest of them are suffering from queasy stomachs due to poisoning. All survivors are pissed at VIlree who seemed to blunder from one monster to another without much regard and laughed as her friends were assaulted. She just sulks and complains about having to drag their bodies back and wants to split up their gear for her trouble. The area is considered unexplored.
Kneebusters – found the entrance to the shaft after searching for 3 hours and were overwhelmed by undead and had to retreat. They are not going to return there but may try the tunnels under the opera house tomorrow.
Godsmakers – spent the whole day at the ruins without much luck finding anything new. They are all in a foul mood when they return for that evening’s gathering. Will either go east or down stairwell.
Nightstalkers – searches most of the day and plans to check out the east cave entrance the next day. Selarea recounts a strange dream revealing a new tunnel on the east side and urges her group to look there first. This is where the Stalkers are attacked by the naga the second day and Selarea is kidnapped and brought back to the hags’ lair in the swamp.
Four Winds – explored the old tunnel, but never returned that day. It may take some deduction to figure out which group went that way, but the other groups are asked to keep an eye out for them. In actuality, a group of naga waylaid them at the shore and drug them to their lair under the Lake.
If someone searches the area outside of the cave, they will find a magic Bo Staff (+1 Striking) which belonged to Yabin near the shore. A DC30 Per roll will reveal long, but faint trenches in the dirt (from the nagas’ bodies) and a few scratches from fingers as they were dragged into the water.
Competition Day 1 – Results at Gathering
The first evening, there are two groups missing – The Four Winds (missing) and B&B (tapped out w/2 dead)
B&B – Withdrew
Kneebusters – found the entrance to the shaft after searching for 3 hours and were overwhelmed by undead and had to retreat. They are not going to return there but may try the tunnels under the opera house tomorrow.
Godsmakers – spent the whole day at the ruins without much luck finding anything new. They are all in a foul mood when they return for that evening’s gathering.
Nightstalkers – searches most of the day and near the end finds a hole leading to the Old FeyWay which they’ll explore the next day.
Four Winds – Missing