Continuing with information about Drell’s Keep.  This is an update to the Keep On The Borderlands module B2, for 4th edition.  I started the posts here and continued it here.

Drell’s Keep

I’m using the keep map from page 16 of the original module.

Area 8: Smithy and Armorer: Brian Blackforge, the smith is a retired adventurer who has entered Lord Drell’s service.  Normally he doesn’t wear his armor around, but he always keeps a weapon handy.  He charges PHB prices for his services, however purchases of armor will require approval from someone above the rank of corporal.  He has 2 suits of chainmail in stock which can be tailored in one day for human sized creatures.  It will take two days for more severe modifications.  He can craft other armor in two weeks and will need half the price in payment up front.  He also has light shields, simple weapons, as well as swords and pole arms.  Brian has three assistants (treat as human rabble) who help him.  He sleeps in a room near the forge and his assisstants sleep wherever they can find a place, ususally in the shop.  He keeps most of his savings in the bank (see area 11), but he has a box with 6 gp, 16 sp, and 21 cp hidden in his room.  Currently he is making parts for a wagon for Marlin Drouhust the trader.

Area 9: Provisioner.  This is a general store run by the military.  It carries gear described in the player’s handbook.  He has no alchemical or maigcal gear of any kind, including sunrods.  Darvus the provisioner should be treated as human rabble in combat.  All gear is sold at PHB prices.  He buys gear at 20% of PHB prices unless it is alchemical or magical, in which case he will pay 50%.  He keeps 5 gp, 15 sp, and 30 cp on hand to make change during the day.  He empties the till and takes all profits over to the bank each night.  He has 112 gp saved up to buy goods with.  He has a wife, Mary, and a young son, Darvus.  They live in a room above the store.  He does not sell weapons or armor.

Area 10: Trader.  Marlin Drouhust supervises the warehouse activities and arranges for shipments of furs and other large quantities of trade goods.  If the PC’s look to dispose of items of value such as tapestries, furniture, furs, or other large or awkward (but nonmagical) goods they will be directed to Marlin.  He tries to arrange shipments into Cormyr each week, but wagons and transport are not so reliable.  He always has at least one man at arms (from the keep garrison) with him, but usually has two nearby.  He carries 6 gp, 12 sp, 5 cp with him.  In his home and office he keeps a locked box with 18 pp, 165 gp, 213 sp, 524 cp.  These all the funds that he has to buy trade goods from adventurers, though he may apply for a loan from the bank if anything of great interest appears.

Area 11: Mason’s Bank.  The bank is owned and operated by the Guild of Masons.  See area 16.  Geoff the Banker is a semi-retired adventurer.  He originally came to the keep with the curate (see area 17), but has found the Guild an attractive alternative.  Despite his genial outward appearance, the half-elf has a deep love of battle and money, and defends the bank with all the zeal that originally drove him to paladinhood.

The bank will provide savings, loans, and appraisal services.

Savings: Opening an account is free to members of the Guild of Masons.  For others the fee is 5 gold pieces annually (first year prepaid).  This allows storage of coins and items of up to 1000gp value.  The local bank here will not guarantee items worth more than that, though they will arrange for transport to a more secure bank in Cormyr for a fee of 50gp.  An early withdrawal penalty of 10% (of the withdrawn amount) applies to all withdrawals made before 30 days.  They will also provide a note of transfer of accounts to other branches throughout most civilized lands.

Loans: Interest rate is 10% per month.  Loans up to 5 gp can be obtained without security.  Anything over that requires security of 150% the loan’s value.

Appraisal services: Charge is 1% of the item’s value, 1 gp minimum.

The safe upstairs holds 50 gp, 100 sp, 200 cp at the start of business.  This is cash kept for normal daily transactions.

There are always 6 men at arms stationed in the bank.  Each of them has a whistle loud enough to alert other members of the guard.  There is usually at least one other person in the bank besides Geoff.  Geoff takes his lunches with Harnost, the guild master.

A locked, barred, and trapped door leades to the vaults below the bank.  Anyone opening the door without the key (or a successful Thievery skill challenge DC 22, complexity 2 (6 successes before 3 failures) will trigger a poison gas trap.  The trap is exceptionally well hidden and requires a DC 27 perception check (must be actively looking) in order to locate the control mechanism.

The Thievery DC to pick the lock after the trap has been dealt with is 22.

The vault beneath the bank contains 12 locked storage compartments.  The DC to pick these locks is 22.

1. empty
2. This has Brian Blackforge’s life savings: 277 gp, a potion of healing, 3 gems worth 150 gp each.
3. A gold altar service worth 1200 gp, which belongs to the chaplain.
4. Has the same trapping mechanism as the main door.  This contains 501pp, 2213 gp, 1212sp, 3214cp.  These are the total resources of the keep at the moment.
5. A small gold statue of a harpy worth 155 gp, a ritual book containing gentle repose, animal messenger, water walk, and detect secret doors.  These are the personal property of Harnost the banker.
6. 67pp, 38 gp, 96 sp, 14 cp, all in individual sacks.  These are personal property of Geoff.
7. 36pp, 14 gp, a gold and pearl ring worth 650 gp, a pair of jade earrings worth 365 gp.  These are the personal property of Lord Drell.
8. 3 pearls worth 500 gp, 5 garnets worth 50 gp, a jade and gold ring worth 285 gp.  These are property of Jothran Yolandus.
9. Has a magic crossbow turret trap See DMG page 88.  Standard action ranged 10, Attack +8 vs. AC, 2d8+3 damage.  Perception DC 25 to find the controls, Thievery DC 20, 2 successes before 4 failures to disable.  The trap guards an alabster and gold statue worth 3000 gp inside of a finely crafted wood and silk case inlaid with silver worth 600 gp.  These items are property of the Guild of Masons being held for transport.
10. 6pp, 65 gp - The savings of Havlom Prince
11. empty
12. A sack with 58 pp and 76 silver pieces.  These are savings of Marlin Drouhust.

In general the bank is very closely watched.  3 guards will arrive each round after the whistle blows.  Damling Hammerhand will arrive after 3 rounds and will begin directing their efforts.

Area 12: Watchtower. Phillip, the captain of the watch lives and works here.  He handles the duty rosters of the guards.  In total the keep houses a garrison of 30 men at arms, not including officers.  Phillip is an active adventurer who has taken the job because he enjoys the wild lands.  Once things settle in and a suitable replacement can be found Phillip would like to explore the monastery across the river.  For the present he has promised Lord Drell that he will remain with the keep until it is more established.  Other than his gear, Phillip has a box with 6pp, 38 gp, 64 sp, and a case of brandy worth 55 gp.

Area 13: Fountain Square: The fountain is where general announcements and public meetings are held.

Area 14: Bravol’s Inn.  Bravol is  a rather thin, unhealthy looking man who maintains the inn because he thought it would generate some income.  He owes the bank a mortgage and has gambling debts to pay.  Bravol is a quiet man who will simply point to the sign when asked about room.

Room 1 gp/night, includes bread and cheese.

Meals served next door.

Bravol is a greedy man, already bought by Chant Havelove.  He could care less about anyone other than himself and pays his debts only out of fear.  Given an opportunity, he will swipe any valuables left lying around and quickly give them to his debtors.

Area 15: The Tipsy Mermaid.  This tavern is usually full of off-duty guards.  The few women in the keep generally stay at home.  Havlom Prince owns and operates the establishment.  He employes Braidla as a maid and waitress.  Everyone comes here for rest and relaxation as there is little else to do on the keep.

Meals can be purchased for 3 sp.  Ale, beer, or mead for 5 cp, wine for 1 sp.  Drinks are also available by the pitcher or bottle.

Havlom deposits the previous days earnings at the bank each morning.  He keeps 5 gold and 35 silver on hand to make change.

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You can find Character Sheets Here.

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Continued from last time, we’ll discuss some of the areas and key NPC’s of the keep.

There is not much of interest going on in the original module, (it doesn’t even include names for the NPC’s) so I’ve updated it with a bit of additional information.

The module lists 27 areas, which I have kept, though most of these don’t need a lot of details.

Area 1: The main gate.  There are a pair of men at arms here.  Treat as 1st level fighters.  If the PC’s go wild and start slaughtering the town, then you’ll need to break out some stock NPC’s.

Area 2: Flanking towers.  Again, not much here other than another dozen men at arms.

Area 3: Entry Yard.  When the PC’s enter here they will be required to dismount (if they have mounts) and will be interviewed briefly by Bjorn Farnhand - Corporal of the Watch.  Bjorn will explain the rules if the characters have any questions.  He will ask thier names and business.  If they indicate that they have responded to Lord Drell’s call for adventureres he will direct them to the Bravol’s Inn.  If they do not appear to have money or a purpose in the keep he will send someone to get Damling Hammerhorn the bailiff.  Assuming that the PC’s can show that at least one of them has enough silver to pay for room and board for a week (10 silver), they will be allowed entry to the keep.  Damling is normally in area 6.  Damling will determine if the PC’s need to be run out of the keep or offered employement with the guards.  If they appear to be honest and capable he will offer them posts with the guard at 2 sp per day plus room and board.

Area 4: Stables.  There area  couple of stable hands here (treat as human rabble).  The charge is 2 coppers per day to stable a mount.  Feed can be purchased for another 2 coppers per day.

Area 5: Warehouse.  There are two guards on duty here at all times.  The warehouse stores some supplies for the garrison as well as any trade goods that the guild has stored.  If the PC’s should acquire large quantities of goods they will be advised to store them here.  Use of the warehouse is free to guild members.  Otherwise the charge is 1 copper for every 10 pounds per week with a 1 silver piece minimum.  Expensive items requiring additional care will be charged at 1% of the item’s value per week.  Additional guards will be placed on duty if requested at the guild house or the Baliff’s Tower.

Area 6: Bailiff’s Tower.  When not drinking or taking care of other duties Damling Hammerhorn, the bailiff of the outer bailey can be found here.  Damling was an adventurer and prospector in his youth.  He came to Cormyr only recently and entered Drell’s service to help rebuild the keep.  Now that the stonework is complete and the locals aren’t attacking he spends his time visiting with new faces and keeping abreast of the news.  Damling is efficient in his work, disciplined with his troops and generally liked.  He has no particular loyalties to Cormyr or to Drell except that Drell is an excellent leader and the post here is comfortable.

Area 7 (various):Area 7 is really several different areas.  Each is a private residence or apartment rented or allocated to the resident by the keep.  Most are irrelevant, though there is room to improvise.  The two largest are explained here.

7a: Merchant.  Jothran Yolandus and his wife Malara are here to review the furs.  They have with them two mercenary bodyguards (fighter level two, see stats for Bjorn Farnhand above).  Each guard also commands a large fighting dog (treat as a hyena see Monster Manual).  Jothran is quite wealthy though he does his best to invite trouble.  In his apartment is a locked iron box with 200 platinum and 100 gold pieces.  Typically he has 8 gold on his person.  Secreted in his belt are 10 gems worth 50 gp each.  If the PC’s inquire about expensive or rare items for trade, they will be directed to Jothran.  Jothran is establishing a regular trade route for furs with the keep and has connections to be able to acquire magic items if the characters are willing to wait for them.  At the moment he is not hiring mercenaries, though he will direct them to collegues in different cities if asked.

7b: Chant Havelove, priest of Tyr.  Chant passes himself off as a priest of Tyr, but really he is a warlock serving Simiobolt Hold.  Chant is a level 4 warlock and has two very close followers, Liza and Nadara.  Chant uses bluff and his knowledge of religion and arcana to convince others of his genuine fervor, although he doesn’t really have any particular convictions.  Simiobolt pays well and Chant will do anything for money or power.  Currently he is assessing the situation.  He uses messenger pigeons currently to communicate with Simiobolt.  He sends these messages on his walks through the garrison.  As a priest he is given relatively unfettered access through the keep.  He is popular with the troops and folk at the keep.  He is jovial, friendly, and courteous.

If the PC’s seek his help in healing, he will turn them over to Liza and Nadara who are more skilled than he is, or he will offer them a potion of healing.  He will use the excuse that he spent his youth learning the arts of battle when he should have spent it in better pursuits.  Chant avoids Essentia Nells, the eladrin advisor to Lord Drell, but he is on good terms with Freela, the genasi bard who is acting as Lord Drell’s scribe.  When the PC’s leave the keep, Chant will begin causing trouble in the Keep.  He has alread managed to befriend 6 of the guards, and will rely on their friendship if he is found out.  He is quietly spreading rumors about the dangers outside of the keep to raise the level of fear.  Eventually he will murder or arrange for the murder of a guard at night.  He has asked Simiobolt to have the raiders (led by Tandoro, human swordmage 2) to light a visible fire at night to attract attention and raise suspicion.

The keep is unlikely to weaken their garrison by sending out troops, but he will then point out Lord Drell’s fear and weakness.  After he can convince some to abandon their posts he will attempt to murder Harnost, the guildmaster or Jothran Yolandus, the merchant.  Eventually he will resort to poisoning the keep’s well.  His goal is to get Drell to abandon the keep rather than to try and take it by force.

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In the old days, you couldn’t get a pre-made module that didn’t have at least one random encounter chart, usually several.  In 4^th edition, the trend seems to be heading the opposite direction.

I think that a solid understanding of what a random encounter does will help you decide how to include them into your game, if at all.

First the Cons

• They generally serve no purpose for the story.
• They cause fluctuations in XP and treasure.  Usually the party gets XP but no treasure.  Too much of this sort of thing makes for game imbalances.
• They cause Party Wipe.  All too often the random nature of the encounter produces something too powerful at the wrong time.
• They use up party resources which can lead to either Party Wipe, character death, or game imbalances because the party’s single use resources (potions & scrolls) are used up before their time.
• If used in conjunction with random treasures, you can (and often do) get too much treasure or totally useless treasure.

 Then the Pros

• You don’t have to plan ahead for them, so it can save you time.
• They fill session time when the party decides to go somewhere you hadn’t planned on.
• They can be used to boost XP if the party has more treasure than their level suggests they need.
• They can be used to kill off annoying characters.
• They can be used to boost treasure if the party doesn’t have enough.

 In general I never use truly random encounters.  I ignore the tables.  However I do use pseudo-random encounters all the time.  I make up a few extra encounters when planning for a session.  These are always the same level as the dungeon encounters I expect (or hope) the PC’s will find, and either have equivalent treasure or no treasure. 

Here are the situations I use them for.

• The PC’s are heading to the dungeon and will eventually get to the dungeon, but not this session, and they need a combat to get them moving.  In this case I will remove the first dungeon encounter from the campaign.  If there was a treasure with that encounter I will usually leave it in the dungeon to be found next session (though there is nothing to stop you from handing it out now).
• The PC’s will never reach the dungeon and the dungeon encounters I have prepared simply make no sense whatsoever where they are now.  For example, the only dungeon encounter I have left is a gelatinous cube and they are in a forest.  See more on encounter swapping here.
• Somebody pissed me off and I’m in a vindictive mood.  So I hit them with an extra encounter while they are trying to rest and gang up on the jerk who took a bite out of my chocolate cupcake.

You can find more information about this technique on my encounter swapping article.

 Hope these ideas help, and as always have fun!

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Overland travel is generally not too complicated, but if you don’t do it often or haven’t handled it before it can be a bit intimidating.

Get your players to establish a routine at the beginning of an extended trip of how they will handle things like setting up camp, setting watch, and marching order.  This will make it easier to determine what who is where when stuff happens.

If the party is on the way to the dungeon, next city, etc. then any encounters should motivate them to reach their destination.  Older modules are full of charts for random encounters that happen during overland travel.  I try to steer away from random encounters as much as possible.  If you have encounters prepared (and you should) then insert them into the travel when they will have the biggest impact on the players.

Unlike a dungeon, overland travel encounters are generally a matter of time rather than of place.  If the journey from village A to city B takes 2 days, then you need to decide when during that trek the encounter will happen. 

If the encounter is a group of thieves waiting in ambush, then it should happen while the party is travelling, not camping.  If they are hired assassins, then they will strike when the party is most vulnerable, usually during a rest period.  You can have a lot of fun creating the timing of the encounter.  Striking just as the sun begins to dip when shadows are at their longest in a murky forest, or rising up from the grass on the windswept plains can offer some interesting surprises.

If the party is on an extended trip and will face several encounters, then you have a great opportunity to really play with the timing.  Do the Night’s Assassins always strike at night?  The party will catch on quickly to timing like this, even going so far as to reverse their schedule, trying to rest during the day and travel at night to throw off the attackers.  Or do the ambushes happen irregularly or appear to be random?  Think through what personality traits drive your NPC’s and the players will enjoy it more.

Remember to include all your overland encounters in your overarching XP and treasure levels.  All too often the random wandering monster doesn’t have any treasure.  After a few of these types of encounters the party’s resources can be drained or their XP level will outweigh their treasure.

As always, have a fun game!

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This encounter is designed as a level 8 encounter as a tough challenge for a 5^th level party.  The treasure listed with the encounter card is for a level 5 party.  You could easily substitute in a treasure packet of any level appropriate for your party.  The encounter, of course is generic enough to be dropped into any campaign, or used as a random encounter.

The orcs here are led by their leader Hard Fang, an old, scarred orc who has trained his followers in the use of the trident.  Hard Fang has spent years developing his gang, and favors hit and run tactics.  Because of his vast experience, Hard Fang has learned patience, and to wear his enemies down.  His followers, however, are prone to fits of rage and sometimes ignore his commands.

Hard Fang has no problem using muscle from any race, and has brought a pair of gnolls into his group. 

The setup for this encounter involves an ambush for unwary prey.  Everyone in the group is familiar with the terrain and they try to remain mobile, engaging their foes only from superior positions.  The melee combatants do their best to draw the enemies into a position where they can be fired upon easily.

• Hard Fang Orc Chieftain (700 xp) level 8 elite brute
• 3 Orc Forkman (200 xp) level 5 brutes
• 2  Gnoll Huntmasters (200 xp) level 5 artillery

You can download the encounter card here.  You can find all of the associated cards on the downloads page.  And if you need more information about how to use encounter cards, there is an article here.

I suggest using the blades camp map from Faiths of Eberron, available from the Wizards of the Coast, though you should definitely choose a map of your liking.

Hard Fang will have blocked off at least one of the entrances to try to force any enemies into the area to the west where he can use cover for his archers. 

Hope this provides some inspiration.

As always, enjoy the game!

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