January Phesu Adventure

Dragon foot Phersu

One 2 one – Magic User

While out celebrating one of their friends makes them a gift of a leather scroll case inside which they tell the PC that there is a scroll of some type of writings that they can’t make head nor tail of, that they thought might be of some interest to the Magic User.

If the PC casts Read Magic on the scroll they will find that it is magical writings providing instructions on the re-charging of wands by the Wizard Phersu, of some renown around these parts sometime in the past, along with the location of a magic wand that Phersu stored as a back-up in a safe location.

The location is in a walled farmhouse on the edge of what was once Phersu’s estate outside a small and quite insignificant hamlet about three days walk or a half day’s ride from their master’s home.

If they wish to find this magic item, the PC will need to make preparations to travel to the Hamlet and then locate the walled farmhouse before seeing if it is possible to retrieve the wand.

The Hamlet

The Hamlet is a small affair with just an inn, and a number of farm houses occupied by tenant farmers, but no black smith or temple.

Rooms at the inn cost 15 bp a night (which comes with a meal, breakfast, and small beer to wash the food down with) and if the PC wishes to stable a horse then it will cost an additional 2 bp a night (including grain for the horse).

The Reeve of the Hamlet, the only person of authority there, knows of the where abouts of the old walled farm that the PC wishes to explore, and can point them in the right direction, and let them know that the farm is no longer in use and hasn’t been for at least a decade. 

Mrs. Darklore

Reeve (Normal Human), Female
AC 9, MV 12”, HD 1-6 hp; HP 4, THAC0 20; #AT 1, D 1-6 (by hand axe or spear); S M; AL LG; XP 15
S 10, I 12, W 9, D 10, C 10, C 11
Equipment: Shield, Large
Spear, Hand Axe
Belt
Axe loop
Purse
Pouch, small
Boots, low soft

The Reeve is 27 years old, stands 5’ 2” tall, weighs 9st 8lb, has long brown hair and blue eyes. She carries 12 bp and 5cp in her purse, and may well investigate a disappearance if the Magic User doesn’t come back though the village.

Old Ned (the local vagrant and an old adventurer) also knows where the walled farm can be located.

Old Ned, (Vagrant, drunkard), Male, Fighter
AC 9; MV 12”; 3rd Level; HP 27; THACO 18; #AT 1; D 1d4 (sling); Special Abilities -1 AC (Dex), +2hp per HD (Con); AL NG; XP 
S 14; I 13; W 9; D 15; C 16; Ch 11;
Equipment: Belt,
Purse
Pouch, small
Sling
20x Sling stones
Boots low soft

Ned is 48 years old, is 5’ 6” tall, weighs 11st, and has very short cropped grey (was brown) hair and brown eyes. He carries 2cp in his purse. Ned is a “retired” adventurer who left his father’s farm when he was a boy to find fame and fortune. Unfortunately for him it didn’t work out as well as he was expecting. While at first Ned made some progress his “retirement” happened when his adventuring group encountered some Ghouls who managed to paralyse all of the group. Ned watched unable to do anything as the rest of his party was eaten alive (a horror he still lives through to this day although will never speak of it), and was saved by a passing group of Elves who investigated the stench. Ned took to the drink immediately after and has been on it ever since. He made his way to the hamlet as the most out of the way place where he could forget and be forgotten. Ned is proficient in the Longsword, Spear, Hand Axe and Sling. As well as Farming Ned can Ride and Handle Animals, and speaks Elven and Dwarven. Ned is occasionally reluctantly employed by the tenant farmers as a labourer following which he spends his wages on alcohol. He uses his skill with his sling to keep himself alive by killing birds if he can’t get food elsewhere, and he lives rough around the hamlet.

The Walled Farm

The walled farmhouse is about 3 hours walk out of the Hamlet to the edge of the cultivated area of the Hamlet.

As the Magic User draws near they can tell that the roof of the farmhouse is missing and the vegetation has begun to reclaim it as its own.

What were double gates in the wall surrounding the farmhouse are missing leaving the way into the courtyard completely open. The refuse of vegetation can be seen in the corners of the courtyard, and up against the stable walls and the house.


Courtyard

It’s obvious that the farmhouse has been abandoned for a long time as piles of vegetation refuse have gathered where the wind has blown to make them gather in corners that now provide nest for hedgehogs and rats. Both of which will run away from the approaching PC, however if the rats are backed into a corner they will fight for their lives. There are three rats.

Rats: AC 7; MV 15”; HD ¼; hp 2,1,1; THAC0 20; #AT 1; D 1; SZ S; Int Anim; AL N; XP 4,3,3/hp

Well

The well in the middle of the courtyard is 40’ deep and all manner of things that has found their way into the shaft which means that the water is now spoiled. Anyone drinking or coming into contact with the water has a 5% chance of contracting a disease. 

20’ down the well is a loose stone that can be found as if it was a secret door, behind which has been placed a single yellow stone (amber) worth 10 Vp in a small leather purse.

Chicken Coop

The coop’s wooded walls have rotten and there is nothing much left of what was the structure of the coop intact. The vegetation refuse has gathered in the corner of the walls to make a significant pile of what is now earth, which is the lair of an ageing giant centipede that catches the occasional rat to sustain itself and will attack if it’s lair is disturbed.

Giant Centipede: AC 9; MV 15”; HD ¼; hp 1, THAC0 20; #AT 1; D 0; SA Poison (save vs poison at +4 or take 1d6 every hour, and parlysis in 1d6 minutes (one can walk with great effort, but not fight at this point); SZ S; Int None; AL N; XP 31

Pig Sty

Is empty and what was a cobbled floor is slowly being covered with weeds and grass as nature reclaims the place for its own.

Stables

The stables are the only place that has managed to keep its roof, probably because the building was completely make of stone and did not have a frame 2nd or mezzanine floor.

Stalls

There are 5 stalls in the stable used to house horses or cattle, and all of them are still standing and given the rest of the place in reasonable shape. There is dirt on the floor in patches that was the result of rotted hay, and one peg there is still hanging a bit and bridle of leather that is still usable worth 10 bp (or 15 bp if a mending spell is used to bring it back to as new). The ladder to the hay loft is still serviceable, but has succumbed to the ravages of time. There is a 5% chance per use that the ladder will break sending the Magic User to the ground below for 1d6 damage.

Hay loft

While there is nothing left in the hay loft there is a colony of bats that have made the place their home. The bats will be docile and asleep during the day, and will come out to feed @ night. They will ignore the Magic User unless they are attacked. However, what is likely to be disconcerting is that the Magic User will attract insects and the bats will swoop in close to catch them.

Bats: AC 8; MV 1”/24”; MC: B; HD ¼; hp 10x 2hp, 25x 1hp; THAC0 20; #AT 1 (save to avoid, +4 if less than 10); D 1; SA Swarm; SZ S; Int
Anim; AL N; XP 1.

Barn

The barn has been ransacked with broken barrels laying across the floor and hay, sticks and broken shafts across the floor

Workroom

Within the barn is the work room that as similarly been ransacked although the sturdy work table is standing as if untouched on the side of the wall. Under a flagstone by the far corner is burred a small iron coffer (worth 20 bp) holding 25 bp and 20 cp.

Farmhouse

The main door of the farmhouse is a large iron bound oak door that is still attached to its hinges but lies open to the

Great Hall

The great hall has a number of side boards along the wall that have been smashed, and broken pottery all over the floor. The large fireplace has the remnants of a fire that is long cold and the ash has been blown about the floor in its vicinity.

Plants have started to grow on the floor and the build-up of leaves in one corner has made a good place for them to flourish, as it looks like an oak sapling has found its routs there. 

Two doors at each end of the Great Hall lead to the Living room and Kitchen, and thin wooden spiral stair leads to the mezzanine that is still somewhat intact and provides a small amount of ceiling to the halls.

Living room

The living room has a number of pieces of broken furniture lying around the floor, two wooden chairs and what was a table. It’s obvious that the place has been searched on a number of occasions and a flagstone halfway to the wall from the centre of the room lies upturned and a hole can be seen where the flagstone once was. Dirt from under the flagstone is around the hole in the floor.

A secret door in the wall of the house (that is also the wall of the farm) gives access to a thin stone spiral stir that leads down to the library.

Kitchen

The main kitchen table lies in splinters and pieces on the floor and broken crockery lies all around. There are a number of pewter and wooded plates on the floor along with cutlery and cooking utensils most of which are broken.

Sacks a rotten flour, and vegetables line the walls, along with a number of broken barrels and bottles. There are a number of empty shelves on the wall where it has been obvious that the jars on them have been swept off and are now broken on the floor.

An open trapdoor to the back of the room leads down to the cellar

Cellar

The cellar is dark with the only source of light being that coming from the trap door above. There are numerous broken bottles and barrels and rotted bags and sacks of food stuffs that has come to the attention of a Giant Rat:

Giant Rat: AC 7; MV 6”; HD ½; hp 1; THAC0 20; #AT 1; D 1-3 + disease; SZ S; Int Anim; AL N; XP 8

That will attack if the PC searched the room.

Mezzanine

Some of the mezzanine floor is still there, and if some of it is still stable. Walking around the mezzanine may cause the wooden floor to break under the weight of the PC. There is a 5% chance that a floor board will break per turn that the PC spends on the mezzanine. If the floor breaks, then the PC should roll against their DEX in order not to fall though for 1d6 damage if they do. 

Bedroom 1

The master bedroom where the farmer and her husband used to sleep, although this is not discernible because there is nothing left in the room at all.

Bedroom 2

The children’s bedroom again contains nothing apart from a miniature whittled horse that has been placed on a shelf on the wall. The miniature is stylised but is proportioned correctly.

The Library

The thin and steep staircase in the farmhouse wall leads down to the library that has not been found by any other searchers of the property.

The Library contains shelves of books and scrolls around three of the four walls. The last wall has a writing desk and chair against them.

While the house was a Magic Users the library is a generally one. There are 50 stone tablet, wax and wood books about various subjects including history, geography, anatomy of various races, and ledgers of normal farming activity and accounts in total the books are worth 10 gp (but have a 200 rp value as is, but if studied and organzied into modern materials, a 200 rp per month value till an intelligence check is failed (max times 50 weeks.)

On the writing desk in plain view is a rectangular lacquered wooded case (worth 5 sp) continuing the magic Wand of Paralysation. The wand is a single piece of bone lathed into a wand with a sphere of amber at its tip that has imprisoned a mosquito. The wand will detect as strong magic, and has 4 charges. Along with the wand are two scrolls. One has the magic user’s spell Hold Person inscribed on it, while the other has just one word “Kumbatia”, which is the wands command word.

Unexpected visitors

As the Magic User is exiting the farmhouse front door a group of 3 Kobolds are entering the courtyard.

2x Kobold Clubmen
AC 9; MV 6”; HD ½; hp 2,2; THAC0 20; #AT 1; D 1d6 (club) 1d3 (knife); Special Vulnerability fight at -1 to hit in full daylight; SZ S; Int Low - Avg; AL LE; XP 7,7
Small wooden shield
Club, Bone Knife
Belt, belt pouch small, purse
Sheath, Knife

Kobold Spearman
AC 9; MV 6”; HD ½; hp 1; THAC0 20; #AT 1; D 1d6 (spears) or 1d3 (knife); Special Vulnerability fight at -1 to hit in full daylight; SZ S; Int Low - Avg; AL LE; XP 6
Small wooden shield
2x Spears, Bone Knife
Belt, belt pouch small, purse
Sheath, Knife

The kobolds are carrying 12 bp + 15cp, 1sp + 15bp + 8cp, 22cp and a small bit of quartz worth 5 sp. Each is wearing a bone carved into small gnomish scull (the symbol of Kurtulmak) pendants on leather thongs around their necks. Their shields seem to be quite well made however their other possessions are relatively crude. The Kobolds are stopping in the farmhouse for the day. They have often used the farm for shelter and are not expecting anyone else to be here

Bonus treasure: hidden

 Rose Talc; a pale pinkish chalky mineral powder, which it is said that a snake will not cross. A phial large enough to make a 30 foot line is here, as well as Phersu's notes on its usage.

Off world Shipswax; a small jar of wax purchased from North pole sailors who, when sailing the treacherous rocky straights of the Northern Isles, discovered that stuffing their ears with this soft waxy paste from the Candle Plant made them immune to the effects of the song of a Siren. It has been said to be useful in blocking the song of a Harpy as well as several other sonic-based forms of attack. Enough for 6 uses.

Book: You can recast any 1st level spell you have already cast. Duration: 1 round