Nine-Tenths of the Law - Dungeon Magazine 26

Twenty years ago the Ptolus City Watch backed up by some heavy hitters, assaulted a law breaking wizard in his lair outside the city. It was believed that he died, and to be certain the Watch burned his body. Flash forward to the present.

This miscreant used the spell Magic Jar to escape permanent death. A group of delvers hoping to find and loot whatever treasures were left behind, broke in and found the wizard's vault. It was guarded by a golem and while a battle raged, the wizard, hidden nearby in the gem used for the spell, jumped into a member of the party taking over.

The wizard, now in a fighter's body, wakes up without memory of what happened after swapping from the gem into the body. The fighter's companions left him outside the city with a note explaining that he is a werewolf.

Things progress with the wizard gathering more of his hidden treasure and trying to get cured of lycanthropy while also preparing for revenge on the city and the officials responsible for the raid on his lair.

In the course of things the party gets hired by the priest that was trying to cure the lycanthropy when the werewolf broke free, killed a couple temple slaves, and took off. The priest wants him captured so he can remove the curse. There's a reward of course. 

Note: The priest and his temple own slaves. In Ptolus owning slaves is legal. Buying and Selling them is illegal. Mistreatment of slaves is illegal. Kidnapping is illegal. This may be an issue for some characters. There are slavers in the city that PCs can take their anger out on.

Our evil wizard is also looking for his now missing gem which has the fighter's soul in it, and finds out it has been placed in a museum and is about to go on display. He fails his first attempt and the PCs get alerted that he's after something in the museum. The idea is that they'll confront him there, and who doesn't like a good fight in a museum.

Adding a museum to Ptolus is a great idea even if it's a strange one. This one comes complete with some very weird displays, which you can certainly add to, and the glowing gem the miscreant is trying to steal. It is unlikely for this side-show of a museum to be in Oldtown, so I suggest either Midtown or North Market.

Eventually it is possible that the wizard, either cured of lycanthropy or not, gets away and the party has to track him to his new lair beneath the Warrens. A lair complete with sewage, alligators, a rolling trap, and things the wizard conjured forth from a bag of magic beans. 

Being fond of combining interesting hazards with monsters, the Brown Mold combined with an Ice Lizard suits my tastes for something to challenge the player characters. (For those unfamiliar, Brown Mold sucks in heat and makes the surrounding area cold enough to cause damage to things that aren't resistant to extreme cold. Bringing stuff like torches that give off a lot of heat makes the mold grow, getting more dangerous.)

Oh, yeah, the adventure writer seems to think it's a good idea for the wizard to unleash a lightning bolt from a wand in a cramped, small lair. That'll end well for everyone!

There you have it. Nothing special, but interesting enough for a mention.

Chadranthar's Bane - Dungeon Magazine 18

Here's one that played as-is feels like it would be a blast. When looked at from a Ptolus perspective however, would probably need a hatchet taken to it. Once pruned down to its core, the magic item that causes people to shrink, there are some awesome things you can do with the scenario.

The core elements and where it can go:

A former apprentice wizard steals magic items and treasure from their former teacher's home. Place the site of the theft near Vock Row, once again perhaps Dweomer Street. The crooked wizard teleports out of the vault and it goes awry, popping in 30' above the intended target. Make this an abandoned home's overgrown garden in maybe the Rivergate District.

The crash landing scatters ill-gotten gains all over the place with the powerful globe of diminution safely splashing down into the fountain. The thieving wizard then shrinks to the size of a typical miniature figure about 1 and 1/2 inches. 

If you wanted to stick closer to the adventure as written then you'd want to introduce the location into your city as a known no-go zone from the beginning, because people that go there don't come back. The wizard that was stolen from might not report the theft because they don't want to be held responsible for the resulting problem.

Getting the player characters involved could be problematic without some careful thought. Is the victim of the theft alive? Is the victim of the theft in the city when this happens? Would the wizard hire the party to do the job of going after the item because they don't want to risk their life, and anyone learning the problem item is theirs? There are many ways to go about this, but be aware of the potential repercussions.

Ideally the characters would be unaware of the true nature of the magic item and would be affected some time after entering the property. This is when the heart of the adventure takes off.

It may be that the writer intended for players and DM to take their minis all over the playing location using the real furniture as the actual scale of play. I'm sorely tempted to put a kitchen chair up on top of the gaming table to give the players both a sense of scale and a laugh when the shrinking occurs. 

Fixing the problem involves breaking the cause, shattering the globe. The globe is about the size of a baseball and is transparent, clear glass. It survived the fall into the fountain by luck.

The adventure takes place in the abandoned house and garden with encounters with rats, spiders, insects, etc, being scaled up compared to the diminutive characters. If your pet cat jumps up on the game table you have another example of scale to reference, and an encounter to play out.

Eventually they will find the also shrunken thieving wizard and work out how to deal with them. This thief won't want to be caught by the wizard they stole from, but does want to be restored to original size. Coming to a compromise is entirely possible.

In the original module the theft happened many years ago and in the intervening time the orb had worked its magic on large numbers of people. Entire tribal colonies had come into existence in the garden and wilderness waystation building and stable. Something like this happening in Ptolus would be a major issue, but not out of keeping with the setting. 

You could even have the location be somewhere under the city within the dungeons and caverns. A vast mushroom garden is not out of the question to represent the garden environment. I can certainly make that happen. My collection of terrain includes a bunch of varied mushrooms scaled up, including one that's a foot tall. The minis are tiny compared to some of these pieces.

Having the adventure location be down in the dungeons may actually be the best way to go and keep more of the original scenario ideas intact.

There are many ways to make use of this adventure's parts and plot within Ptolus. However you do it, I expect this adventure to be fun.

Ptolus Group Two - Three Little Thugs (part 2)

Location: Ptolus, Docks district. 

Participating characters:

Alcott - Half-Elf Rogue, level 1

Crispin Ellindril - Elf Ranger, level 1

Quinn Farshore - Human Fighter (Magical Adept), level 1

Alcott, Crispin, and Quinn had made their way down the cliff road and into the Docks district. They had taken Bay Street to the piers and were nearly at Wharf Road when the alarm bell rang out with urgency. They rounded the corner to find themselves at the edge of an attack by Sahuagin.

The city watch had already engaged the sea devils, and there was much running about by sailors, merchants and others. Out on one of the piers a lone Assarai (lizardman) had been sunning himself when he was attacked and thrown into the harbor to be immediately set upon by a shark.

A short distance away 4 laborers were wrestling with a large crate, dropping it to flee from the attacking monsters. Crashing to the ground, the crate broke open releasing a man-sized giant centipede. The creature instantly leapt upon the nearest man, biting and poisoning him, leaving him immobilized on the cobblestones. The owner of this dangerous cargo began shouting, "Capture it, there's a reward!"

Quinn began making his way along the docks planning to join the fray against the Sahuagin when he found himself in combat with the escaping centipede. It raced toward him, biting another of the fleeing laborers. Quinn's swift rapier strike subdued the skittering menace. Meanwhile Crispin and Alcott began peppering the sea devils with arrows, seriously wounding and driving some back into the water.

The city watch had managed to stand their ground, confining other monsters to the piers, and eventually the defenders drove off the remaining enemy.

With sea devils driven off, Quinn and Alcott gathered some rope and planking to secure the stunned centipede. Meanwhile Crispin approached Captain Tomlin of the watch to get information about the attack and inquire about the three young thieves they were seeking. He learned that daylight raids like this one are very rare as the fiends prefer to enter the city at night to kidnap people. Tomlin surmised that the beasts must have been after something important. As he was returning to fill in the group, Quinn collected the 60 gold piece reward from Orbal.

Orbal explained to Quinn that he is a collector of fine art, primarily statues, and paintings. He had contracted with Xel's Creatures to bring him the giant centipede as a guardian for his vault.

Crispin informed the group of what he learned, both about the attack and the three troublemakers. According to Captain Tomlin the gang members were seen down by Sard's Boats.

The party approached and spoke with Sard, learning that punks destroyed a box of his after doing something with an amulet and complaining that it doesn't work. The three then went to Pridwin's Esoterica shop just a street over.

In the event that the gang members were concealed within, Crispin moved to the alley behind the shop while Alcott and Quinn entered. Standing on a chair behind the counter was a gnome wearing what passed as a uniform bearing gold braids on the shoulders and a green sash across the chest. "How can I help you fellows?" Pridwin asked. 

Conversation covered a few topics, always leading back to the gang. During the discussion the party learned that the kids had been there, tried to sell the amulet, "Not interested," Pointing to his glass case full of necklaces, bracelets, earrings, hat pins, rings, hairpins, broaches, and assorted other shiny objects, "Sailors come in and buy these to impress the girls at Essers. The girls then bring them to me to make a few extra coins. The cycle repeats. An ugly hunk of brass wasn't going to sell. They then set their eyes on three used short swords which they bought with platinum pieces and traded in their clubs." With the offer of 5 gold, Alcott was able to learn where the thugs had possibly gone from there. "I heard them say they were going to buy some Ayorith, probably from Gil, behind the Savage Shark."

Regrouping out back, the decision was made that Crispin would work his way closer while keeping watch in the alley, and Quinn and Alcott would repeat scouting inside the business. 

Entering the Shark through the front, Quinn and Alcott paused to let their eyes adjust and to scan the crowd. Several patrons looked their way and told them to stop staring and get a beer. 

The beer was cheap, and tasted so. Everything about this bar looked the part of a seedy environment. Broaching the subject of the kids the bartender said he hadn't seen them, "but it's always busy in here, ain't got time to study everyone that comes in." Quinn paid for his beer with a gold piece and asked about Gil. "Where can I find him?" The bartender pocketed the coin and slid a warm beer across the bar. "That cheapskate? Never spends a penny in here. Always out back."

 Quinn and Alcott go out back and see a guy standing in the alley wearing a long leather coat, saying nothing and ignoring them. Not seeing the punks they've been pursuing they go back inside and ask the bartender about Gill. Bartender asks "Didn't you just see him out back?" 

They go out back again, and are this time joined by Crispin. "You must be Gil. Have you seen three teenagers wearing green?" Gil states that if he has he doesn't rat on customers. Two gold pieces and a promise of more, draws out a grunt and Gil points a short distance down the alley. "Flop house."

Rooms was written on the door to the rather non-descript two-story building. In the front room sat an elderly lady beside a mop, broom, and other cleaning supplies. A quick bribe later and the party were kicking in the door of a room the punks were getting high in. 

Quinn was first inside. He said nothing, instead starring at the kids as he stepped aside to allow his companions entrance. Alcott strides past him, right up to the now armed punks as if he owns the place and Crispin follows him in, drawing his two swords. With confidence tells them how things are going to happen. "You messed with the wrong person. You're going to put your weapons down and place what you stole on the table."

Alcott's persuasive effort is very effective. The punks disarm, believing the trio to be members of the Balacazar crime family despite the party never acknowledging Tibb's question. The gang members answer every query about what happened, why they mugged the woman, etc. 

Alcott offers them unspecified work. With a little manipulation they learn Kelcan's father is a carpenter. Ordering them to take him to the man, Alcott, stolen amulet and remaining money in hand, leads out of the door, with Quinn following the three cowed gang members, while Crispin gathers their swords.

In North Market, the party are introduced to Edward, Kelcan's father who currently is out of work. Edward accepts the job, paid for by Alcott, to go fix the old woman's window in the apartment next to gang hangout. Realizing their affiliation will be found out, the kid's all look nervous.

That business arranged, Alcott takes them to a flophouse for a while for them to come down from their Ayorith high. Quinn goes to Midtown to find a wizard he knows at Danbury's bar in Delver's Square. Crispin goes back to Windship's Fine Fabrics to check up on the woman he helped earlier.

Crispin learns the young woman was taken to the Church of the Lawgiver (a temple of Lothian) in North Market. He goes and speaks with Brother Thadeus Bravon who then introduces him to Maryanne, the victim. She thanks him for what he did and is relieved to hear that she will soon have her amulet back. Crispin offers her the remainder of her mon ey as well, but Maryanne declines. "I suspect I am better off than those that robbed me, and you have earned every coin."

Quinn sits down with the wizard Yardley and asks him to look at the amulet. Quinn had interpreted the writing on the back to be phonetic for either or both a Draconic or Giantish word. In Draconic it could mean Open or Pass, and in Giant it means Give. Yardley examines it and points out that the symbol on the front, of a box with arrows passing through it in opposing directions, indicates its purpose to be a swap or trade of some kind. His further investigation reveals it to be a form of minor teleportation. "It involves containers. Place something in one and send it to another. Use it to open one to retrieve something. Nothing bigger than the containers involved can be transferred."

Within the hour the group meet up and go to the temple to return the amulet, trade in their rat tails for the reward and get Quinn cured of disease. They then each go to tend to personal business with plans to meet at Quinn's later.

Nightshade - Dungeon Magazine 7

Nightshade is a brief adventure in issue 7 of Dungeon Magazine. The scenario is so brief that it could be completed in a session or less, and will fit neatly alongside other activities a party might get up to in a Ptolus campaign.

It begins as what seems like a simple fetch quest when a well dressed individual asks the PCs to run an errand for him. He should likely approach someone that appears trustworthy such as a cleric, or if the party has made a name for themselves, anyone in the group might work. He indicates that he needs medicine picked up from a wizard/alchemist to aid a friend of his, and that he has an important meeting to attend that is keeping him from the errand. He offers to pay for their time.

This fellow has a secret that his enemies know and are going to try to interfere with the delivery of the "medicine". They've hired some muscle to handle that for them.

If the party agrees to the simple task they'll find the wizard's abode in the North Market down a side alley. Wizards can be anywhere in the city, though the well known places for them include Vock Row and Dweomer Street. I like how the location is described in the adventure so North Market it will be.

This particular wizard has a problem he can't control. He is cursed with massive mood swings. Negotiating with the wizard should be entertaining and at no time will he actually resort to violence except for self defense.

On the return trip the assassin, his competent fighter companion, and their 5 low powered goons (maybe some gang members, Pale Dogs perhaps) will attempt to get the party to turn over the potion.

It's pretty simple, but what makes it interesting is what the wider implications are in a setting like Ptolus.

This well dressed, somewhat foppish fellow is a ladies man of the love-them leave-them type and he has seduced the innocent daughter of a Noble House that would likely do horrible things to him if the secret got out. She of course is anxious to go public with their affair because she is smitten and believes they'll marry. He wants to prevent that without harming her so he commissioned a potion of amnesia.

As you can see, this scenario opens up plenty of opportunities to expand the story and involve the party in all sorts of intrigue where the nobility are concerned.

Thursday Knights

All talk, no action.

We had a bunch of business for the characters to take care of upon return to port.

Now being half owners of a ship, the party needed to work out the details with the crew. Negotiations took place and an agreement reached for profit sharing from cargo and passenger trade as well as a portion of treasure acquired from adventuring. Then a charter was drawn up.

Each character had their own business to attend to when we got back. It basically came down to reporting to superiors or allies in town. It was interesting to hear each player's spin on the events of the last couple of sessions. It's going to be interesting seeing where things progress from where they currently stand.

One character's task was to spy on the missing wizard. Having not laid eyes on his assigned subject he could only report on what the agent of another House was doing in regard to finding said wizard.

The agent of the House that thought the wizard had been kidnapped reported that the wizard faked his kidnapping (we think that's what happened).

Ennark reported this to the temple high priest and made the comment that while unlikely, for all they knew the wizard could have been eaten by a hag.

The party then decided to take a portion of the treasure gained and give it to the ship's crew so they'd have seed money to buy cargo for trading once we determined where we're going next.

 

Thursday Knights

Eberron continues . . .  We play again tonight.

Last session: The party wandered through the giant's abode and eventually encountered an old woman named Hildie sweeping the floor of an ancient library. She hailed from a nation known to be ruled by three hags and it was mostly a country of monsters. I suspect she might be a hag herself, but she gave us no trouble and even helped the party.

The search for the mage Tovin continued, leading through catacombs. Undead were encountered and defeated (including two mummies).

Eventually we discovered he had ditched the ring he had been wearing that allowed him to be tracked. He then teleported off the island we suspect. More divinations might be needed to find him, but I don't think we need to bother. Once we report back that he left on his own, his need for rescue no longer exists.

We were picked up from the island by some of the slaves we freed. They came aboard their own ship which they indicated is now our ship. The carved figure at the bow is of a hanged man. We're still deciding on a name. It's a good thing we've found a decent chunk of treasure lately because we now have a ship and crew to maintain and pay, supplies to buy, etc. 

Each of us have goals we want to accomplish so it is likely we'll be taking on another on the to-do list instead of trying to chase down a wizard that decided to quit his job.

On the Origin of the Gelatinous Cube

For this one I solicited feedback from some Grognards Who Play 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons, on Facebook. Below is what it inspired.

The creature in D&D known as the Gelatinous Cube has been a fun toy for DMs to employ against their unsuspecting player characters since early in the game, but what in-game origin story can we attribute to its existence?

I have never seen the monster used in any wilderness settings, only in the confines of caverns or dungeons within adventure modules. Why might that be and what can we do to change that up a bit?

Jeff Kesselman believes that it may be official canon they were created by wizards to act as a kind of street sweeper for keeping dungeons clean. 

I recall something along those lines, but it seems like overkill and a dangerous thing to let loose in areas you yourself have to pass through. After-all, why would you make it transparent? That would raise the possibility that you may accidentally run into your own creation while trying to reach the bathroom. There's also the expense of installing all those metal doors to keep it from dissolving wooden ones and getting into sensitive areas.

"I think I'll grab some lunch. Dammit! The cube ate all my Ramen again!"

Anonymous suggested an article in Dragon Magazine #124 by Ed Greenwood. You can find it at this link. https://annarchive.com/files/Drmg124.pdf    <----- Link

Ed's article is a short, fun read like the other Ecology articles in Dragon, but it doesn't address the heart of the topic, the origins of the creature.

Cullen Blackthorne imagines a cube of enormous proportions due to all the organic material it could absorb in the event it escaped the dungeon.

An area of barren landscape would certainly be a sign of the presence of an escaped Gelatinous Cube. Per the Greenwood article it would be very likely to split into more hungry cubes often than to get too large, but then you have a problem akin to an out of control forest fire! Wow, heroes needed for sure!

Martin Nussbaum offered this link from Wikipedia about slime molds to aid in thinking about how Gelatinous Cubes might function. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slime_mold  <----- LINK

Having read this information I can now see Cullen's previous point about enormous cubes. Imagine a renegade cube in an isolated mountain valley splitting into hundreds of cubes as they devour every bit of organic matter. Then they recombine and surge over the mountain peaks to bear down on a nearby city. No need for a tarrasque when you have a foe like that. Truly horrifying.

Charles Ciaffone posits that mages may have accidentally created Gelatinous Cubes when sealing off a stronghold and trying to protect it with a more potent version of the spell Guards and Wards, and something went slightly awry. It would certainly aid in protecting the location from intruders of the adventuring kind.

Accidental creation could certainly be the case when you think about transparency as discussed above, but what accounts for the untypical shape? If  intentional could the original creator have been attempting to build an ooze based golem and used a cubic mold? 

Bob Curtis pointed to their possible use deep below a toilet in order to create a stink and waste free disposal.

The drawback here is that Cubes can climb on walls and ceilings like a snail. They also aren't inclined to sit still for long instead wandering on the search for more food. The result could be one fatal bowel movement.

Brian Sailor says the age old answer is always "a mad wizard did it."

Much like the Owlbear is believed to have been created by a mad wizard, so too could the Gelatinous Cube be a product of madness, but here's the real question; was the wizard insane mad or angry mad? It's conceivable that a pissed off spellcaster might drop one of these off in the offender's lair as a nasty surprise.

"You've crossed me for the last time Bantragemus. Here's a gift you'll be dying to receive."

In the depths of a dungeon laboratory Velard Yellow-Wand prepared the Mithril vat. Velard wanted to craft something unexpected for unwanted guests to deal with. Something that could clean up after itself and not leave his abode cluttered with the corpses of interlopers and thieves. It had to be able to ambush prey so it needed to remain unseen until it was too late, but imbuing a creature with invisibility would be very difficult. What if it was simply transparent?  It also needed to prevent passage beyond it, to be like a moving wall. Looking down at his desk Velard noticed his pair of bone dice. "Aha! A cube! One born of an ooze!" 

Chris Kelly thinks that Gary Gygax may have smoked an enormous biffter, ate most of the Jello, then plunked the remaining cube down on the game table.

We may need to ask Luke Gygax if we want to learn the real life origin of the Gelatinous Cube, but for in-game origins it can be whatever you want as the answer to the mystery. Regardless of the answer, have a little fun with this beastie in your game.

Special thanks to everyone on Facebook that contributed information and ideas to help bring this post to life. Tomorrow's post will be a 5e update of a unique Gelatinous Cube that I created in the early days of the blog for a B/X style rule set.

Have fun and happy gaming!

New Spell: Sandstone

Sandstone

Level: 1
Range: 30'
Duration: 1 round per caster level

The caster throws a small piece of sandstone at the target. On a hit the target takes 1d3 damage and suffers penalties of -1 to armor class, attack rolls, and a 5' reduction of movement due to the severe discomfort of sand within its clothing or caked to its skin.

The penalties are ineffective against oozes, elementals, undead, and constructs.

Isle of the Abbey part two

When last we saw our adventuring band, the players and I gathered around my new Hammered Game Table. (see the posts about Getting Hammered).

The party were up against mad cultists and encountering an odd assortment of rather strange characters.

They discovered the elf Bayleaf, a mercenary instructor of arms, chained to a desk writing a letter home requesting he be ransomed. After cutting the leg off of the table to allow the elf to walk with them, they then went looking for the mysterious pale skinned individual who had ducked down some stairs.

Merenk was waiting further down the hallway standing behind the animated corpse of the captain of the cult guards. They parlayed with the necromancer and despite the paladin's distrust and dislike, the party agreed to put aside hostilities and see if Merenk could assist or advise in exchange for safe passage to the mainland.

Merenk, it turns out, was also hired by the cult to shore up defenses by leaving undead "traps" about the island to drive off the pirates and anyone else that might bother them.

With Bayleaf, Merenk, and the zombie in tow, the party decided to take on some more cultists they had been told might be in the ceremonial chamber.

The party wizard did the honors of opening the door to the ceremonial chamber using a fire bolt spell to do what the paladin had failed to achieve, and that is when Merenk's information about a third mercenary came into stark reality.

Merenk mentioned that the cult had hired Silas, an elementalist wizard well versed in fire magic, to train the membership in how to cast powerful fire spells. The success of that training was about to prove very dangerous.

Leznar and his remaining adherents were poised and ready for battle, or so they thought. The party was fast on the attack with only one cultist able to blast a vicious fire spell taking down the wizard.

To the relief of the adventurers the rest of the fight went their way. The wizard was pulled out of harms way and later healed. The party managed to do serious damage to Leznar before he could unleash his spells, hoping to stifle and unholy power he might have in his arsenal. (my very first roll as DM on my new table was a concentration save for the evil high priest - natural 20)

The paladin stormed into the room to engage some of the cultists, while the ranger, and halfling barbarian/sorcerer unleashed ranged attacks at their enemies.

Leznar proved far more resilient than expected as he called forth a roiling mass of smokey black tentacles centered in the hallway and blocking the rest of the party from attacking. Meanwhile the remaining cultists acted to repel the troublesome paladin. (he had slain one cultist, been hit with a fire bolt, and was now dodging - and a cultist, terrible with melee weapons - had to roll with disadvantage when attacking - two rolls, one a natural 20, the disadvantage die was a 19 and a hit.)

 Leznar never got off another spell. The ranger managed to fire a perfect arrow through a haze of writhing tentacles, through the doorway, over the raised dais wall, past a shielding cultist, and through Leznar's eye, slaying him outright. (natural 20 plus sharpshooter feat)

Mop-up was easy and resulted in a talkative prisoner, the last member of the cult.

Now the party became very suspicious of the strange company they were with. After rounds of questioning they bound the hands of both Merenk and the cultist. While this was going on, Bayleaf discovered a hidden storage chamber beneath the dais and recovered his personal effects, also showing the party some other valuables.

In the chamber were an arcane scroll, a chest with two old books, the captain's logbook the ranger was seeking, a history tome, and a very expensive looking small bottle containing a dark liquid.

Other loot from the dead cult leader and minions included a necklace of skulls that the paladin confirmed was evil, a single bracer later understood to have something to do with earth magic, either control or resistance (need the pair for definitive identification), and very valuable jewelry.

Moving on, the party opted not to risk going into the tower, understood to be where Silas likely was, and instead to continue with one of their main objectives, finding the holy book Interregnum of the Spirit, the sea priest asked them to recover from the crypts below the abbey.

Merenk confessed that the hallway he had hidden in lead to a false passage and not to the crypts, however there was a second way into the tower at the other end. The last cultist confirmed the fact that it was a false passage, but knew nothing of the secret door.

At sword point, Merenk led the party to the real passage, and to the first crypt. The party had learned from the captured cultist, of a trap of some type they would have to brave if they were to pass from the first crypt to the second.

While in the first crypt a brief search turned up little of any obvious value beyond a tarnished silver goblet.

With a plan in mind, the party opened the door that separated them from the trapped passages that the cultist feared. Endzique the halfling cautiously went forward to scout. He noticed an odd difference to the air - while the crypt was dry and musty, these passages were dry and smelled of earth.

It wasn't long before the trap was discovered. Hidden in beyond a somewhat narrow archway in a chamber between the passages was an animated armored guardian whose attention was now fixed on the diminutive scout. The guardian followed the retreating halfling, but refused to pursue Endzique into the crypt, instead continuing away down the right side passage.

Following the armored trap, the halfling watched as it went deeper into a seeming maze of halls. To try and lure it back, Endzique slung a stone striking the automaton. This only got it to turn it's head completely around to face him as it continued away.