Belthar's Bane

DM NOTES:

Belthar's bane is an introductory module which can be used to start new
characters out in a campaign or to give existing characters a challenge or a
slight sidetrack from their regular adventures. This module is designed for use
with a group of 4-8 1st level characters or any combination of 2nd & 1st level
characters as long as there are no real high level characters in the party
Treasure and a small magical item will be awarded to characters who survive.

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NOTE: There are 3 pictures that I have drawn (Yes I'm an artist) and a map to go
along with the adventure and add quite a bit more realism to the adventure. It
would be great to post these with graphics but alas...It cannot be done yet
here. I will be happy to reproduce these pictures by hand for anyone who will
send a self addressed STAMPED envelope and one dollar ($1) to

                  Jon Koerber
                  Apt #2 106 Finley St.
                  Clemson S.C. 29631

I think you will be pleased with the pictures (All done by hand)

-------------------------------- Introduction --------------------------------

In Xendolith (or any town of your choosing) the party of adventurers has decided
to stop on their way to some other province or to another adventure. You as the
DM should run the adventure up to where the adventurers enter the small town and
put them up for the night at the Oxfarm Inn. That night in the small pub that
lies below their room let the characters overhear one of the patrons talking to
a group of people near the bar. (to Characters--)

You see a grisled old gentleman clad in a dark robe rise from his seat and begin
a tale to the eager listeners surrounding his table.

"I Want to tell ye the tale of great old Belthar and his battle with the eveil
orcs and goblins in the great borderland battle of Kanash."

The old man smiles at the crowd and stands as if waiting until one of the
younger men in the crowd slides a mug of mead towards him. At this point, he
snaps up his wood and gut harp and picks out a minstrels quick tune.

  " Old Belthar was a warrior of old,
    His tale is sung and continue told.
    He saved our lands in times of need
    A warrior who's hand was never greed,

    To Belthar's crown of good,
    Belthar crowned of good.

    He fought the monsters and beasts,
    We honor him with feasts."

The dark robed man's song continues as long as there is drink for him. He says
farewell to his companions and leaves shortly thereafter.

(DM ONLY--) As the alcohol and smoke in the pub take their toll on the party and
the mood of the bar is dark and chill, relate to the characters the following.

After the haze of booze and tired eyes hits you, and you are all just about
ready for sleep, a man named Bill Hubbin rises from his table and begins a
strange and macabre tale about the burial memorial of Belthar and the other
warriors who are honored from the age old war. Bill's tale revolves around the
belief that anyone who ventures into the Memorial Graveyard after dark on a
night with a waning half moon will be beset upon by evil creatures who are dead
but not yet dead, and will suck the lifeblood from any living soul who enters
there after dark.

(Dm-) It is important to have the characters intrigued by the idea that there
could be adventure or danger in the burial mounds after dark on a night such as
Bill Hubbin mentioned earlier. If Bill is questioned about his story allow him
to slip the characters information that the great warriors who were buried in
the graveyard may have treasure in their tombs. (And what use does a dead guy
have for treasure anyway?)

When the characters have been enticed enough to adventure after dark in the
graveyard let them know that it is approximately 1.5 miles from the town to the
graveyard by a well marked path.

(Information for areas from here on must be read to discover what you wish to
tell to the players and what is for the DM only; use your discretion.)

-------------------------------- The Graveyard -------------------------------

(Consult the Map if you sent the one dollar for the artwork otherwise I will try
to relate what the map looks like in words.)

The graveyard (Picture #1) is set up like six 30'x 20' oval mounds in a row with
about 20' in between each burial mound about 50' away from the mounds towards
the trail that the party used to reach the cemetary is a row of short thorny
hedges, which arc slightly towards the overgrown pathway leading towards the
mounds. A 15' x 5' weathered stone plaque lies 10' from the path in front of the
row of bushes which presently hide the mounds from view.

A- Burial mounds: There are six 30' x 20' oval mounds that reach about 15' high
at the top and are covered with fieldstones. Stone carvings and one marking
oblisk are the only other important features of the mounds.

B- Stone Plaque: The stone plaque is heavily weathered, cracked and covered with
moss and lichens. If characters work hard enough to uncover some of the writing
on this plaque they may learn that this in the graveyard in which some of the
greatest warriors of the borderland battle are laid.

As characters poke around the burial mounds, have an owl hoot or some distant
howling from a wolf get their nerves a little antsy. After about an hour of
examining the graves allow the characters to come to the con- -clusion that only
one of the gravesites does not look as though it has been tampered with in some
way. Mound #5 (left to right).

(1) This is the mound of General Belthar's greatest battle commander. "Garth of
Madastria". Characters deciding to dig here will have to spend at least two
hours moving stones and shoveling dirt to uncover the vault door to Garth's tomb
unless they have available to them a shovel or two. If no shovels are used,
allow the occasional broken dagger or nicked/bent sword (-1 to hit) during the
unearthing.

Eventually a flat stone will be uncovered (Picture #2). The only way to open
This cover is to brush the dirt covered lid off, exposing the drawings and
magical glyphs to the light from the waning half moon. In five rounds after its
exposure the lid will grindingly slide aside releasing a cloud of dusty stale
air that must have been trapped in the tomb for centuries. The light of the moon
will show a dusty stone staircase leading down into darkness. (NOTE If the moon
changes (2 days) or daylight breaks, The lid will slide closed again. Characters
usually can escape on the next night if trapped.)

(consult the underground map if you sent for the Artwork or follow along as good
as possible otherwise.)

(2) Staircase: The staircase that leads down to the tomb below is very steep.
There is a 20% chance that at the halfway point down, any character will slip
and fall (taking all characters in front of him with him) down the stairs to
land at the bottom for 1-3(d6/2) hit points of damage. Allow a save versus
Paralysis for 1 less point of damage.

(3) Entrance Room: This area is dark dreary and very quiet (20x20 room). This
room sends a chill and sense of foreboding down your spine. The walls in here
appear to have been once painted with colorful dyes and runic writing but age
and dust have made the walls dim and dingy. A pile of rubble covers a large
section of the north wall and half of a door protrudes from the top of this
rubble. Stone pillars lend support to the already sagging ceiling in here.

The characters will find 3 partially mummified bodies in the rubble as the clear
it from the front of the door. One of the corpses has a look of horror pasted on
its parchment like face. It will take nearly an hour to sift through the rubble
and clear the door, but in the process one of the characters will find an old
brass medalion (100 gp.). I would suggest that you alert this person that they
can pocket this without the other characters seeing it if he/she wishes to(use a
note).

The door beyond the dirt still has clay seals and painted glyphs on its handle.
Any character who breaks the seals has a 50% chance of contracting a fatal
disease in the next week and all other characters within 50' of him has a 10%
chance of contracting a disease also. The door in this room is VERY stuck. Years
of trickeling moisture have bloated this door to make it twice as hard as normal
to open. The door can always be hacked open in around an hour. There is a 30%
chance each turn (6 rounds) that a small cave in will occur to anyone near the
door. allow the person a save against petrification or 1-4(d4) points of damage.
(-1 to characters with helms).

(4) Hall of Dead Enemies: Beyond the large bloated door is a 20' wide and 30'
long corridor roughly hewn from the stone. Lining the walls on a 2' ledge on
either side of the hall are horrid skeletons and mummified carcasses. The odor
in this hall is practically unbearable. Moss and rank mold cover the grisly
corpses whose empty eye sockets fill you with dread. This corridor contains many
of the enemies of the warrior buried here. Allow one of the characters in the
party to see a hand close on one of the corpses at the left end of the hall (of
course this is just in the characters mind, but hey, it sure is fun to watch 'em
squirm)

(5) Flames Alive: (The Hall here is 20' wide at the entrance and 40' long with
the last 10' of length narrowing into an 8' archway to area (6). Label the
10'x10' floor sections from the entranceway left to right a-f.)

This hall is clear of any rubble. The ceiling in here is divided into three
domes which peak at around 25' above the floor. There are six burnt and dusty
torch stubs leaning from blackened sconces in each 10' section of E/W wall. The
ceiling drips now and then.

(DM--) As soon as any character steps in one of the 10'x10' sections of floor
labeled a-f the torch stubs in all the walls will spark and spring to life.
Allow characters about 2 rounds to examine the stubs if they wish but anyone
still in the hall (anywhere) will notice, that after the third round, the
torches will flicker and almost go out. Anyone watching this will notice that
the dieing flicker will slowly (2 rounds) form into a little flame creature.
a) Owl b) Eagle c) Dragon d) Hawk e) Griffon f) Pegasus. Of course if the
characters don't know what some of these creatures are in real life, don't give
away the name, instead just describe the shape of the flickering creature. All
Fire creatures will then split up and attack the party. The Flame Creatures
attack as 1HD creatures each has an AC:4,HP:6,M:12",1 attack for 1-4(D4) damage.
In addition to the damage they do, they can ignite exposed inflammable objects
within 2' of them. If destroyed, they will return on the next waning half moon.
They can be destroyed instantly with a splash of water or wine (-2 to hit-- +60
experience to the character who discovers this). They are worth 35 experience
each.

(6) Engraved pilar: (Beyond the narrow arch of room five lies a corridor which
immediately turns 90 degrees left. It is 55' long with a branching corridor in
the 40' space at the end of this corridor on the left wall)

This Highly engraved pilar stands in the N-E corner. There is writing all it in
High Elf telling some history (unimportant) of the times when Belthar and his
like roamed the earth. There are gold lines and gems encrusting a small area of
the pilar near the middle. (allow 4 small gems to be pried out of the pilar if
the characters own a dagger, worth 4x15 gps.

(7) The trial: (Dm) As the characters round the corner here they will find
themselves staring down a corridor 40' long in which the first 30' contains
numerous thin metal poles which reach up from the floor to the web shrouded
ceiling 25' above. The placement of these poles reminds you of a very cramped
bamboo forest.

(Dm--) The poles in this corridor must be traversed very carefully indeed for if
one of these poles is toppled by being bumped into, a harsh shaft of green light
will pierce through the ceiling to the floor where the pole once stood. These
beams of light will do an immediate 1-4(d4) points of damage to the person
knocking it down. There are ten poles per ten feet. If more than half of the
poles are toppled in a 10' area, anyone passing takes auto- -matic damage for
each beam of light above five exposed, plus the usual chance of knocking more
poles down. As soon as a pole is toppled it will disintegrate. The poles will
reform from the BEAMS of light by the next half moon. Have each player roll D%
for each ten feet of the corridor traversed: (0-10)-2 poles toppled, (11-20)-1
pole toppled, (21-99)-none, (00)-chain reaction, all poles toppled in that ten
foot area. Allow characters to realize that using a pole or rope to topple all
the poles will make the hall almost completely impossible to traverse without
death!

(8) Chamber I: (This is the first tomb room meant to throw characters off of the
trail from the real tomb. This room is 40'x20' with the corridor from (7) coming
in through the N-E-ern wall of this room)

You have just entered a large dry tomb filled with the belongings of centuries
gone by. Material sacrifices line the walls of this large chamber. Earthenware
pots (filled with grain and long dried up wine) and bolts of dry crumbling
clothline the E wall of this tomb. Ancient weapons (+1,+1 silver longsword lies
in an old scabbard in this pile) and armor lay piled near a crumbling chariot on
the W-ern section of the N wall. A large stone sarcofogus is the most prominent
feature of this room and is situated in the S-W corner of the chamber. Old
furnishing and furniture fill the center of the room (worthless due to age).

(Dm--) The sarcofogus lid requires a combined strength of 32 to move. If it is
slid aside, a Coffer Corpse (see FIEND FOLIO) will sit up and scream out its
maniacle laughter for its own enjoyment, AC:8,HD:2,HP12. If destroyed and the
sarcofogus is searched, treasure will be found. 58 gp. 30sp. 32 el. and a
strange medallion worth 10gp. (no qualities). If the characters search the base
of the sarcofogus, they will discover a small stone knob, that when pushed,
opens the secret door on the S wall directly above the sarcofogus. This door
leads to the real resting place of This tomb.

(9) Chamber II: (Consult Picture #3)

(This chamber is reached via a five foot wide tunnel from chamber 1. The tomb is
30' wide N-S and long E-W.)

You find yourself in a much larger tomb than the previous ante-chamber was. A
huge stone platform with an immense stone coffin lies in the center of this
chamber (15'x20' platform / 5'x12' coffin). The N-E and the S-E corners contain
two large copper and bronze braziers. The walls about these braziers are
blackened. In the center of the E wall is a strange protrusion. (The protrusion
symbolizes the moon on both sides. It is stone but round with an inner relief
carving of the moon on both sides. Don't say that it is the moon but describe
the pocked and cratered surface on both sides of the carving that is attached to
the wall. The lid of the coffin is carved with Symbols and Runes. The writing on
the lid represents the picture of the half moon, then some strange runes then
another picture of the moon but this time it is the full moon. Don't give away
the fact that these are carvings of the moon but allow the characters to see a
parallel in the E wall carving and the lid carving (consult picture #3 again).
The lid carving are the old instructions on how to open the otherwise unopenable
lid on the coffin. If read from left to right it means to ignite the left
brazier (providing it has oil or wood for fuel) to produce the half moon on the
relief carving on the E wall. If the left brazier (brazier (a) ) is lit and
burns for 2 rounds or long enough to illuminate half of the E-ern wall carving,
the lid to the coffin will slide open. Unless the right brazier (b) is lit
within 2 rounds of the coffin opening, the mummy in the coffin will awake and
attack. Mummy AC:3,HD:4+3,HP:24, Damage 1-6 (scaled down from Monster Man.1).
Award 150 ex. to the person who solves the mystery of the coffin. Award 75 exp.
to each in the party if they avoid the mummy. In the Coffin are 412 copper, a
gold neclace worth 200 gp., 200 silver, a scroll, and a tiny vial in a crumbly
wooden box. (the scroll has some historical info on it worth about 20 gp, and a
Magic User spell 3rd level FLY on it. The vial is very dusty but it does have
some words etched on it in High Elven (Alteration/Personal).
