Black Rock Bandits - Part 1

On Friday I released the main text for Sickness in Springdale. Here's the main text of Black Rock Bandits.

The Black Rock Bandits

In this adventure, the PCs attempt to deal with the infamous Black Rock Bandits, a band of local bandits who have been terrorizing the caravans who pass through Black Rock via the King’s Road. Many of the characters provided with this adventure have direct ties to the bandit leader. Others, like Zazzel, are interested in the ruined temple the bandits currently call home.

Background

The King’s Road winds through the Black Rock Hills. Some say these hills are so named for the large chunks of black limestone mined from the area generations ago. When polished, the stone turns a deep and shining black. Others believe it’s because the rocks on the ground often turned black from blood after the numerous wars fought here over the centuries.

Regardless of the origins of the name, the area now is known for the infamous Black Rock Bandits, a group of caravan raiders who collect their own tolls from the caravans that travel along the King’s Road. The tithe is enough for the bandits to live on but not enough for the King to send out his knights to deal with the problem. Others, would-be bandits and adventurers alike, fear the numerous stories of ghouls and other foul creatures that are said to haunt the hillsides. Thus the King is forced to hire bands of inexperienced adventurers to deal with the problem, paying them so little that they either join the bandits when they see their amassed wealth or they are so inexperienced that they easily suffer death at the end of a bandit sword.

The Village

Here are some of the more interesting locations and individuals in the town of Black Rock.

Blacksmith – The town’s smith is a quiet man by the name of Roland, also known as Roland the Lion. In addition to horseshoes and other necessities of rural life, he can make decent but mundane swords, daggers, arrow tips and other simple weapons. Roland’s mischievous daughter Hope ran away from home a year ago. He and his assistant Tamil are available as player characters.

Apothecary – Sister Rose, cleric of Melora set up shop in the town. In addition to maintaining a small chapel to the goddess, the cleric raises funds by running a small apothecary shop. PCs can buy a variety of herbs and potions from her. She is available as a player character.

General Store – A small general goods store imports and sells most of the necessities for the town. Simon Small, a rather short, quiet man, runs the small shop. Its popularity is due to the work of his daughter, Samantha, or Sam as she is often called. She is close friends with Roland’s daughter Hope and is available as a player character.

Bakery – Zazzel loves nothing more than to study his musty old books all day, but unfortunately books don’t pay the bills and no one was wiling to pay for his research into the peculiarities of the Black Rock region. Most of those with coin view the area as an uninteresting backwater and swear that anything of value has been taken long ago. So Zazzel runs his bakery, using bits of magic to produce the most exquisite desserts and lightest loaves found outside of the major cities. His young apprentice, Paeter, does most of the work both in the bakery and in field research. Paeter is available as a player character.

Town Guard – Sylvia heads the local town guard. She hates the Black Rock Bandits. In truth, she’d prefer the group suffer some horrible accident rather than dealing with incarcerating the band. Sylvia is available as a player character.

Scene 1: An Ambushed Caravan Arrives

One of the caravan leaders, a human named Maynard, decided not to pay the toll. He and his guards fought off the bandits, but at a great cost. They lost 5 of their own and one of their wagons. However, they did bring a prize, a captured bandit by the name of Phaelon.

The adventure starts with the PCs in the center of town. If they play the pregenerated characters, they have reasons for being interested in the caravan’s arrival. If they decide to make their own characters, find a reason for each of them to care about the caravan’s arrival and weave that into the adventure. Perhaps they are waiting for a letter, package or even a visitor to arrive or they are friends with some of those traveling with the caravan.

Quest (500 XP): The town guard wants the Black Rock Bandits defeated. Dead or alive, each bandit is worth 10 GP and 20 GP for the leader. If you run this as a one shot adventure, the Baron pays the reward at the end. If you want a reason to send the characters elsewhere as part of a continuing campaign, tell the players that the town doesn’t keep that sort of money in its coffers but will pay with promissory notes redeemable in one of the kingdom’s larger cities.

Quest (100 XP): The caravan leader, Maynard, asks the group to retrieve a trunk for him. It’s a worn traveler’s trunk, full of dents from years of travel. During the raid, he placed his young son, Theron, within the trunk for safety, but it was on the wagon the bandits stole.

Quest (100 XP): The Baron’s 50th birthday is in a month. Zazzel ordered some special cake flour to use for his cake. It was among the goods the bandits stole.

Interrogating Phaelon
When the party first meets Phaelon, he snarls and snaps at them as if he was a wild creature. A PC who makes an Arcana check, DC 8, or an Insight check, DC 12, learns that an evil spirit took over his body. The PCs aren’t high enough level to cure him of the possession, but they can restore his sanity for a short time. If the players decide to not use the pregens, have Sister Rose or Zazzel step forward in town and mention its existence. They can teach the ritual to a PC trained in Heal.

Glimpse of Sanity
Allow a creature possessed by the spirits of the Black Rock temple a few brief moments of sanity.

Glimpse of Sanity allows a character driven insane by the evil Black Rock spirits to temporarily become sane again. The Heal check determines how long the person remains sane. If this is used as part of an interrogation, the DM decides how long each question can be but generally it takes 1 minute to ask and answer a question. The DC is set by level of the spirit possessing the creature, if known, or by the level of the party if not (since it’s assumed that the party is facing enemies of their level).
This ritual helps the person beneath fight off the evil spirits for a time, and as a result physically exhausts the recipient. He or she will be unconscious for a number of days equal to the number of minutes of sanity.

Questions Phaelon might answer:
How many entrances are there to the temple? There are two. The well-known front entrance and the relatively unknown rear one. His description gives a +4 to perception checks for finding the rear entrance.

How many bandits live in the temple? A couple dozen and a few dogs.

Are there any traps? Yes. His information gives a +4 to perception checks checking for traps.

Who is your leader? A girl named Hope, the daughter of the blacksmith Roland. Since they moved to the new headquarters, she wears a horned helm and swings a mean battleaxe.

Scene 2: The Temple

History of the Temple
Hundreds of years ago, the current bandit enclave started as a temple to the demon lord Baphomet, carved from the black rock beneath one of the hills. Minotaurs carved out a simple maze in honor of the Horned Lord himself.

Eventually gnoll followers of Yeenoghu overran the minotaurs and they made some changes to the original temple to better fit their practices. They tore down some of the maze walls to create kennels for the hyenas they preferred to sacrifice. They carved a skylight in the middle of the central altar, allowing the moonlight to filter inside. The last active worshippers in the temple left over a hundred years ago.

As a result of the years of sacrifices performed in the temple, a number of evil spirits haunt the maze. They try to possess whoever they can and currently control the bandits’ bodies. When the creature they possess is killed (not knocked unconscious), they leave that creature’s body to find a new host.

Areas of the Temple

A. West Entrance – This is the main entrance to the temple. A large rotted oak door hangs open in the entrance. An Insight check, DC 12 (use passive), suggests that the bandits aren’t concerned about unwanted guests. Daylight doesn’t penetrate more than a few feet inside the door.

B. Intrusion Detection Traps – A thin string, painted black to match the floor, is tied across the passageway. A Perception check (DC 12 base, normal vision penalties for darkness apply) reveals the string. Countermeasure: step over it with an acrobatics check, DC 8. If triggered, bones and gore fall from the ceiling, doing 2 damage, causing a loud noise and covering the PC in ichor. PC takes a -2 penalty to stealth checks unless the character removes or disguises the scent.

C. Storage Area 1 – This area holds extra cloaks, boots and other outdoor gear of the bandits. In addition, a Perception check, DC 8 reveals a small pile of rocks, each carved with an eye in one corner. A Perception check, DC 18, reveals a bit of the wall that is oddly shaped and a shade darker than the others around it. A Thievery check, DC 12, reveals the mechanism for opening the niche. Inside is a ceremonial dagger with a handle of bone inscribed with runes of death and destruction. (Magic +1 Dagger).

D. General Sleeping Quarters – These two rooms serve as the sleeping quarters for most of the bandits. To provide some airflow, the doors to the rooms are open as are the doors between the rooms. If the PCs trigger one of the bone traps or runs into a guard, these bandits awake. Their personal belongings are in the room. (See page $page for encounter information)

E. Storage Area 2 – Once used to hold creatures for ritual sacrifice, this room has an air of deep foreboding. Many of the larger items from the caravan raids and collected tolls fill this room, including bolts of cloth, wagon wheels, trunks full of traveler’s clothing, and the flour for the Baron’s cake. If the characters left the town within half a day of the caravan attack: In the northwest corner, a knocking noise emanates from one of the trunks. It is locked and bears marks of someone trying to open it with an axe. An Arcana check, DC 8, tells the character the chest is magically enhanced. A Thievery check, DC 12, unlocks it. Inside is Theron, the caravan leader’s son. If the characters spent more than a half of a day before leaving: In the middle of the room is an open trunk, matching the description given by the caravan leader. A pair of small shoes lies in one corner of the trunk and the inside is smeared with blood.

F. Shrine to Yeenoghu – Long ago, worshippers of Yeenoghu fastened the bones of their victims to the wall in the form of the triple-headed flail. Thick, red water seeps from a crack in the wall above the flail, giving the appearance of blood dripping from the heads of the flail.

G. Ritual Room/Mess Hall/Kitchen – Once the room where creatures were ritually sacrificed, first to Baphomet and later to Yeenoghu, this room currently serves as the mess hall and kitchen for the bandits. The large opening in the center of the room, that once provided moonlight during the sacrifices to Yeenoghu, makes a natural chimney. (See page $page for encounter information.)

H. Shrine to Baphomet – Bits of ancient bones litter the floor. The current occupants have been creating a sculpture out of the bones of their victims. Instead of a skull, a cracked obsidian mirror (250 GP and see below) serves as the head. With a Religion check, DC 8, a character recognizes the broad shape of Baphomet, the Horned Lord. With an Arcana check, DC 12, a character recognizes the obsidian mirror and recalls that such mirrors are often required as a focus to trap spirits or create portals to the planes below. Trap Spirit – Standard Action. Close burst 1. Intelligence vs. Will. Target: Black Rock Spirits in burst. Hit: Spirit is captured in the mirror.

I. Food Storage Area – This dank alcove serves as the pantry for the bandits. Bits of moldy cheese, salted beef and pork, bushels of potatoes and apples fill their larder. Among the foodstuffs are 2 potions of healing, which can be spotted with a Perception check DC 12.

J. Hope’s Bedchamber – A feather bed, complete with four posts and bed curtains fills the southeast corner of the room. Across from it is a small dresser, with a silver brush and mirror set, inlaid with semi-precious stones (set worth 50 GP).

K. Backdoor - Hidden and locked, Perception check, DC 18, to find and Thievery check, DC 12, to unlock. It is on the east side of the hill.

Running the Temple
Run each half of the temple as one encounter. Most of the bandits are in the main encounter locations, although some Black Rock Bandits patrol the halls. When combat starts in a main encounter area, draw the patrols into the fight. If the PCs try to take a short rest after killing a patrol, throw more patrols at them. Remember to give them XP for the additional bandits.

After the Temple

After the PCs finish the temple, there are a few things they can do.

• If they retrieved the mirror, with an Arcana check, DC 18, they recognize that the spirits left it when it cracked. If they repair the crack (e.g. the Make Whole ritual) within 48 hours, any spirits already trapped inside will remain there permanently.
• While the bandits share some responsibility for their crimes, the spirits that invaded their bodies had some influence as well. The PCs can learn this through an Insight (DC 8), Arcana (DC 8) or Religion (DC 12). From there, they can decide how they would like to deal with that information.
• If they remove the spirit who possesses Hope, she will show remorse for the crimes she has committed. The PCs then decide if they want her and the other bandits to answer for their crimes (collecting the bounty along the way) or find some other way of dealing with them.

Black Rock Bandits Map - No Key

Black Rock Bandits Map - Key