Finished!

I added one last subplot to both the town and the wilderness & dungeon books. A ringer, something that used to be a common feature, but I have seldom seen of late. Can be run one of two ways - either a hireling or a PC. Either way, he is not really working for the PCs....

As written the whole mess takes the PCs from level 1 to level 4.

The most dangerous encounter by level is a green dragon in the wilderness - a level 6 encounter, complicated by the fact that he is an ambusher. In tribute to old times gone, there is a chance of finding him sleeping in his lair. (Anyone remember '% Liar' from the Monster Manual?) Thing is that he can be talked around.

The most dangerous in fact is a manticore - which is hungry. He is not interested in dinner conversation. Triggered by wandering around the wilderness with wounds. He can smell the blood....

The Auld Grump

The manticore out for blood is a nice touch.

*as a side note Chrome tries to change manticore to: unromantic, semantics, romanticism and Romanticism. Do those words fit the description of the one in this adventure?

Can you package up a PDF?

I did it up as a PDF, yes. (Well, two, actually. The wilderness and dungeon in one, the town in the other.)

What J & J do with it is up to them, though - it is no longer 'mine'. My suspicion is that J will run, and J will be the ringer, but it could be the other way around. (Jon and Julie are a rather alliterative couple....)

Waiting to see if they want any revisions, clarifications, etc..

The only part that I am dissatisfied with are the illos - I used generic art for the most part, which is not something that 'classic' adventures suffered from. Sadly, my own drawing skills are not up to the task. Most of the art was from Sade for NPCs. Ditto for the cover and page templates. Good art, just not a 'classic' feel. Others are from the Unza Vintage collection - public domain images taken from old books.

Maps are a mix of Campaign Cartographer 3 and Dungeon Crafter 1 & 2. (DC is a decent choice for old school interior maps - it can be found for free Some of the custom tile and object sets I did almost ten years ago, but they are still there.

Typesetting done on PagePlus X2. (I have the current PagePlus, but I have had a lot more experience with 12.)

The Auld Grump

Well, found out what J & J thought of my effort... they want to hire me to do an urban scenario as well.

I can't get started until September or so, no freakin' time. But I needa da money, and the last one was kind of fun to do.

Sewers will definitely play a part.... Wererats, and maybe some slime crawlers from ToH....

J is kind of willing to let me put up the first scenario, after he and J get a chance to run it.

The Auld Grump, like Pavis, I am sort of picturing part of the city in ruins.... I may be able to repurpose some stuff....

*EDIT* One scene that I have in mind for the level 2 portion - a chase scene with otyughs through the sewers - starting with a barking dog.... At level 2 an otyugh is nearly overwhelming....

Have you considered selling your adventures online? I've always liked the sound of the tidbits you've shared here.

Thought of it, but at the moment I am in contact with my inner coward.

Some further thoughts...

Five Temple Hill - on old maps it is listed as Six Temple Hill, but there is only room for the five....

Connected to Five Temple Hill is the Ossuary Way - a two and a half mile long tunnel, leading from Five Temple Hill to the Necropolis.

About two hundred years ago the city was five times decimated, men, women, and children. The bones were gathered into the Necropolis - a city of the dead that has five times the population of the current city.

Rumours that the priests of the Five Temples hid within the Temple of the Sixth Lord - Asmodeus. A debt that they still owe the King of Devils.

The dry aqueduct - a long stone waterway leading from the mountains to the city, but no water now flows. The fountains are empty in the graveyard of dreams....

Sewers that are older than some nations....

Execution by petrification - the head executioner for the city is a Medusa. The remains are used to decorate the center of the city - with those that are the worst offenders merely busts... the white marble gravel of the rest of their bodies lining the walks.

The Auld Grump

Once again that sounds like a superb start. How the heck do you do it, Grump?

(p.s. Grump, your brain must be a fascinating place to live, even with its creepy corners. )

I am, I think, by nature syncretic rather than creative - I put things together in odd ways rather than creating from whole cloth.

Ossuaries are something that have intrigued me since first I heard about Sedlec, back in spring 1981. Sedlec... is just plain nifty.

A further note on the Medusa - sometimes when she is ordered to destroy the resulting statue she instead hides it away. Most often when she believes the execution to be political rather than judicial, or that the prisoner either has extenuating circumstances or is innocent.

Make no mistake - she is evil, but she values law, and despises seeing it being perverted for private ends.

And sometimes a jurist that offends her disappears....

Much of the city has been deserted since the Horde passed through two hundred years ago.

The Horde receded not because the Kingdoms of Men defeated them but rather because their ruler died, and his men returned to arrange his succession. The Orc Horde still exists, but without a charismatic ruler has been quiet since that time. (Any bets on exactly when that seclusion is going to end? A very real threat on the horizon for the setting.)

There are two great hills that define the city state - with a major river running between them.

Temple Hill I have already described - the other is Palace Hill. The larger of the two hills, with two of the faces defined by sheer cliffs.

The nobility dwells upon that hill, in large part in decadent luxury. The average lifespan of the leader of any of the most powerful families is shorter than that of many peasants. Poisons, knives in the dark, and attacks in public places all help to keep the situation volatile. Often it is not a family's enemies that arrange the assassination, but rather ambitious members of the family itself.

With more than a third of the city in ruins the nobles crow and trumpet over a rotting corpse of a city.

The current Dictator has shocked many by relocating his offices near Temple Hill. Many other point out the six attempts at assassination that he survived in the old locale - his new palace, even half built, is better secured than the old.

Beside the New Palace is the Circus - and the Dictator has a private box that can only be entered from the palace itself. It is often veiled, so that it cannot be seen if he is present or not. At other times the curtains are drawn back, either so that he may enjoy the breeze or relieve his stress by dooming a gladiator to death in the games.

Three of his sons have died, two by his own hand or by his order. The youngest yet lives, but shows no ambitions towards taking up the scepter. Of late the Dictators physicers have been busy, and there are rumors that his blood has begun to smell of apricots. (A symptom of acute diabetes.)

The child closest to him is his eldest daughter, who may be made his heir should his son suffer some... mischance.

The Auld Grump