The Temple Between.pdf

The Temple Between
C9A: Rescuing Durkik
When the PCs descend the ladder beneath the
trapdoor in the warehouse, read:
You are within a narrow, stone-walled hallway. Mildew
darkens the mortar between the bricks and fills the air
with the damp scent of rot. A steel door, speckled with rust,
stands at the far end of the hall. It boasts a small barred
window, but from here you cannot see what might lie
beyond.
Once the PCs near the door and can see through
the bars, continue:
A dwarf, his flesh bruised and beaten, his hair and beard
matted with blood, stands chained to the far wall of a
stench-ridden, claustrophobic cell. It takes you a moment
to recognize him as none other than High Priest Durkik
Forgeheart!
Slowly, as though even so minor a move pains him,
he looks up to meet your gaze through the bars, his eyes
widening slightly as he recognizes you. “Be careful,” he
rasps in a hoarse voice. “The door’s trapped.”
He gestures with a finger, the chain clinking, to indicate
a series of tubes that protrude from the walls of the cell,
pointing in his direction. “And not to kill you, either,” he
adds impassively. “They don’t want me escaping.”
The door can be picked with a DC 21 Thievery check
(as can the chains on his wrists, once the PCs move
inside), but if the door is opened without the safeguards
being disabled, one or more of the tubes fires a
sharpened spike into Durkik’s chest, killing him. The
“trap” is three traps, each of which must be disabled.
3 Spike Tubes Level 9 Warder
Trap XP 400
Hidden tubes with powerful springs lurk within the walls,
waiting to launch brutal iron spikes.
Perception
✦ DC 24: Through careful study, you determine how the
mechanism fits together, allowing you to advise your
allies how to work on it. This grants your allies a +2
bonus to Thievery checks made to disable the trap. (Each
of the three traps requires a separate Perception check to
grant this bonus.)
Initiative +10
Trigger
If the PCs open the door without disarming all three
traps, or if the characters fail four total countermeasure
attempts (see below), all remaining traps fire.
Attack
Standard Action Melee 2
Target: Everyone within the cell.
Attack: +17 vs. AC; a prisoner chained by the manacles in
the cell is hit automatically.
Hit: 2d8+7 damage; against a prisoner chained by the
manacles, this is considered a coup de grace attack,
dealing 23 damage per functioning trap. In Durkik’s case,
this is more than enough to kill him.
Countermeasures
✦ A character adjacent to the cell door can reach through
the bars and attempt to physically wrench a tube offtarget,
thus disarming it, with a DC 28 Athletics check.
Only two of the three traps are positioned to make this
possible.
✦ A character adjacent to the cell door can disarm one of
the three tubes with a DC 28 Thievery check.
If the PCs accidentally trigger the trap, Durkik
gasps, “Bring me . . . to Karros . . .” with his last, choking
breath.
Some Answers and Some Help
The following section is written under the assumption
that the PCs successfully rescue Durkik from the cell
(or, failing that, that one of them casts the Raise Dead
ritual on him). If this is not the case, the PCs might
cast Speak with Dead or, if they follow his dying wish,
take him to Ancestor Karros. After finding out from
the PCs what happened, Karros casts Speak with
Dead. In these cases, do not use the standard rules for
Speak with Dead, since Durkik’s spirit is lingering,
hoping to help. Instead, it uses the connection opened
by the ritual to converse with them normally. Thus,
you can still run the scene largely as written here;
change any of his offers to accompany the PCs to him
ordering Karros to do the same.
Once the PCs free Durkik, read the following:
The dwarf slowly limps from his cell, wincing with every
step. Clearly he is in a great deal of pain, but despite that
fact, his eyes are alert.
“Thank you,” he says simply. “You’re the answer to every
prayer I’ve offered Moradin. But I fear, as grateful as I am
to be out and alive, that I’ve little good news for you.”
The PCs can help him as he talks. You can allow the
PCs to ask questions and roleplay the conversation, or
give them the information Durkik provides.
First, thanks to everything he overheard and the
questions he was asked, Durkik knows roughly what
the conspirators were up to. If the PCs don’t already
have it, he can provide all the information given
above under the “Interrogating the Conspirators” text.
He tells the PCs that Aerun and some of the other
priests were possessed in a dark ritual, but that he
was not because General Zithiruun required information
from him.
At this point, Durkik tells the PCs about the
Mountainroot Temple (all the information presented
under that heading in the Background section).
December 2008 |
21
DUNGEON 161