Showing posts with label Tzwa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tzwa. Show all posts

Sunday, January 1, 2023

The Lazy Cockatrice Area-1: The Compound

 The Lazy Cockatrice (Hex 0203)

Area-1: The Compound

The area around The Lazy Cockatrice is surrounded by a 18' stone wall that dates back to the 4th Goblin war. It was built out of local stone in just a few days. A team of mortal masons and laborers started the process after the Inn suffered several Goblin raids. A Buchwan Faerie living in the basement helped with the labor at night, getting it the wall up in only two weeks.

Trees are cleared for 30' around the wall, and further when possible. 

A - Fortified Gate: A man-at-arms named Dell guards the gate at night from a platform above the gate.

B - Wagon Arch: The wooden gate that usually  closes off this arch was destroyed a week ago by a monster attack. For now, two old stone bollards from the days before the wall was built bear a heavy chain strung with bells. Dell watches it very carefully.


C - Gardens: The Inn grows much of its produce in these two fields. Barley, hops, wheat, turnips, carrots, leeks, and gourds all grow here.


D - Mushroom Patch: When the buchwan that once protected the Inn and helped to build the wall went maf and became a boggart, he was killed by the Innkeeper's son and buried with much mourning in the corner of the compound. Since then a variety of mushrooms and toadstool have always grown here no matter the weather.

These can be gathered from magical focus material, alchemical reagents, and food.

E - Randin's Caravan: This Caravan belongs to the minstrel Randin and his son Jaq, both will be detailed in Area 3. The Caravan contains an assortment of musical instruments,  a bin of coal, 57sil (gp), and a few books of lore and music.

F - Wagon: This Wagon belongs to Nace, a merchant who is hauling perishables up to Alliri. He will be detailed in Area 3.


Deathtrap Lite Mechanics 

Dell Holder


HD 2 Arm +1 Dam 1d8 ×1 CLOSE or 1d8 x1 FAR 

Mor: +2 AL +1; Stength+1;

Close Combat: Expert; Ranged Combat: Expert 

Survival: Trained Wear Armor: Trained Intimidation: Trained


My family has served the Ardins since the Goblin Wars. They take good care of us. They are kin. I will be damned if anyone troubles 'em.


Dell wears a shirt of ring mail, and handles a recurve hunting bow with skill, and keeos a pike handy. He hunts on his days off and sells the meat to the Inn to supplement his wages. He carries a handbell to use in raising the alarm.

OSR Mechanics 

Dell Holder: AC 6; HD 2; Atk: Pike (1d8) or longbow (1d8) ThAC0: 19; SV: F2; Mov: 120' (30'); AL: C; ML: 9; Int 12; XP: 20

Tzwa Invasion

When the Tzwa Invasion occurs,  Dell was one of the only credible threats to the invaders, and is butchered by a Tzwa Bloodletter. 

Location Overview: The Lazy Cockatrice

Hex 0203

 Location: The Lazy Cockatrice Inn

Cockatrice Rampant by José
Gagliardi Jr CC-BY-SA
The lazy cockatrice is a roadside Inn that serves travelers on the North Road. It has stood since the time between  the Third and Fourth Goblin Wars. Established by a freshly landed knight, Ector the Ardent, it is one of the last stops on the road before travelers meet the sea.

A man of common birth, Ector knew that neither his title nor the treasure he earned in foreign adventuring was enough to set his children up in the future,  he decided to use his land grant to establish a business that would outlast his knighthood,

It is still run today by his five-times great grandson Gerald Ardin.

The Inn forever changes with the times: the Ardins are devoted to making sure it will always be a safe and welcoming place for those traveling the North Road.

Today that means a high stone wall with watched gates, a watchtower hosting its own detachment of the Baron's Road Wardens, and a smithy for raising wagons and re-shoing horses, repairing wagons, and re-arming coachmen along the road.

Tzwa Invasion

The inn is the perfect starting location for the hex crawl. It is a place with a handful of interesting NPCS, a place that the PCs are new to, and one with the possibility for safety. 

But as this is a Deathtrap Lite campaign,  I am inclined to make it more than just a starting point. I will have the vile high-tech dimensional invaders, The Tzwa attack the inn, filling it with horror and deathtraps. The PCs go to bed in an inn, and wake up to find it transformed into a lethal, trap-filled dungeon.

Once they escape the Inn, trouble really begins,: the PCs, and what PCs they are able to rescue are now in a monster-haunted and nightmarish wilderness hunted by killer Tzwa automata, that will force them to flee away from the road.

Map

Here is a large overview map of the lower floor and grounds of The Lazy Cockatrice made in Dungeon Alchemy.