Grugnar, the Gatekeeper
The Gatehouse is the lair of a badly deformed Ogre, Grugnar Skintaker, Gatekeeper of the Castle – a twisted wretch, shunned even by fellow Ogre-kind, who tries to hide his hideous deformities with garments made from humanoid skin. Grugnar will probably become aware of the characters before they become aware of him, and will begin stalking them through the ruin. He particularly prizes those with nice skin (Elves, Half-Elves, and those with high Charisma scores) and ignores anyone with bad or discoloured skin (Half-Orcs are probably safe). He will try to pick off characters one by one rather than attacking them en masse, but if they stick together he will eventually simply attack them. If wounded at all severely, he immediately retreats.
Note that Grugnar has a tenuous alliance with the Gorefeaster Goblins who inhabit the keep – though not a member of the tribe, he will open and close the gates, portcullis, and drawbridge as the Goblins require, and pays occasional tribute to the Goblins (mostly in the form of gold taken from his victims). In exchange, the Goblins let him keep to himself and stay out of the Gatehouse.
Grugnar’s statistics appear in the Appendix. Grugnar has a copper key that opens any door in the Gatehouse.
Within the Gatehouse, emphasize an atmosphere predominantly of emptiness. Throw in strange sounds – doors opening, footsteps, a claw scraping against stone, a low moan. Some of these “scripted” sounds can be found below as examples. Call for random Perception checks, with the following results:
DC 10:
You could swear you heard something moving outside the room, and briefly glimpse a shadow flicker past the doorway. You catch a whiff of some rank, animal fetor.
DC 15:
You hear a shuffling footstep somewhere behind you, as well as a ragged, indrawn breath. Someone, or something, is nearby, but out of sight.
DC 20:
Out of the corner of your eye, you catch a brief glimpse of something – a hulking, vaguely humanoid shape, hunched over and grotesquely proportioned – shambling through a doorway. The second you look towards the door the shape is gone, so quickly and quietly you wonder if you imagined it.
Grugnar himself:
A huge, hunched monstrosity, at least nine feet tall and muscled like an ox, lurches out of the shadows. The creature is misshapen and twisted, its body contorted strangely, its back bent, its arms long and gangly. It smells abominable, like a slaughterhouse, an open grave, and a wild animal, a vile fetor mixed into one noisome stench. The thing is garbed in a monstrous patchwork garment stitched together from the tanned flesh of many humanoids. This abhorrent outfit includes a hideous fleshy mask. Beneath the thing’s skin-suit you glimpse a mottled, hairy hide covered in disfiguring warts, boils, and growths – it’s as if the brutish thing were trying to cover up its own ugliness with stolen flesh. The bestial monstrosity brandishes a flaying knife in one clawed hand and a spiked chain in the other. It gnashes yellowed fangs and shambles towards you!
G0 – Drawbridge
As you approach the drawbridge and the gatehouse you notice tracks in the snow, leading towards the Castle. They must be fairly recent as the snow is still very fresh; the footprints are unusually large and strangely shaped.
The drawbridge groans as you step onto it. The portcullis is up, and the huge, wooden doors are splintered and broken open. Above you, several murder holes are evident, where defenders would have thrown down stones, quicklime, or boiling water down on foes. Past the double doors lies the Castle’s first bailey, an open courtyard with several outbuildings, while to either side, there are two more wooden doors leading into the gatehouse itself.
The doors into the gatehouse are shut, requiring a DC 20 Strength check to open or a DC 20 Disable Device check.
Knowledge (engineering) DC 10:
Judging from the dressed stonework here, the gatehouse was probably built well after the days of the Empire.
G1 – West Guard Room
Badly rotten tables and chairs litter the floor here, and putrescent tapestries depicting a heraldic wolf’s head with red eyes and a lolling tongue adorn the stone walls. Some of the furnishings seem to have been actively smashed to splinters. A door has been torn from its hinges by some terrible force. It lies on the ground; curiously, it is marked by what look like claws rather than axe-blades or swords. Beyond the gaping doorway is a spiralling stone stair.
There are a few badly rusted shields lying about here, having fallen from their brackets on the wall. There’s also an old lantern on one of the tables here, though it doesn’t look like it has any oil left.
Perception DC 15 to hear what sound like footsteps creaking on the floorboards above. The lantern is of the hooded variety.
G2 – East Guard Room
This spare, rectangular chamber might once have been a guard room, but it’s become the lair of some beast. Gnawed animal bones in the hundreds are strewn across the floor, culled from birds, weasels, elk, and even what look like bears – whatever ate these creatures, it was capable of taking down large predators. There also seem to be a few human bones mixed into the macabre heap, and some torn scraps of clothing. An animal musk mingles with the scent of decay here. There’s one door, ajar, leading into a spiralling stairway.
A search of the bone-pile turns up 14 silver pieces and a battleaxe.
G3 – West Barracks
Sagging bunk-beds with tattered linens line the walls of this long chamber. Each has a chest at its foot; many stand open. Dark, crusted stains mar the woodwork, and it looks like someone has scrawled a message in blood on one of the walls, though it’s written in jagged, uncouth runes. A handful of cracked, scattered bones litters the floor.
Anyone who can read Aklo (or make a DC 20 Linguistics check) can read the message:
“All Hail the Mistress of Slaughter.”
Anyone who reads this out loud accidentally invokes a spell similar to Rage upon themselves (Will DC 17 to resist) and attacks the nearest ally for 1d4 rounds.
There is little of value here, but a thorough search of the chests turns up a spare suit of chain mail, a light flail, and 26 silver pieces. Locked in one chest (DC 20 to open) is a masterwork silver dagger.
G4 – East Barracks
If the players have a light source when they enter this chamber, note that cockroaches scuttle away from the light.
Vermin have taken up residence in this former barracks, infesting the mouldy remains of the furniture. Cockroaches in particular seem grotesquely abundant here, chittering and rustling as you enter. A skeletal corpse lies slumped against one wall, its mail hauberk heavily rusted. In its bony hands, the corpse clutches what looks like a sacred talisman. There are several unlit torches in brackets along the walls.
The talisman is of Saint Bastiana and functions as an Amulet of Natural Armour +1 to any of the faith, or alternatively of a Lawful alignment. However, disturbing the corpse in any way provokes a cockroach swarm:
As you touch the talisman, the skeleton’s bones rattle, and suddenly, a swarm of cockroaches seethes forth from beneath the corpse’s armour, coursing over your limbs, creeping beneath your clothes, their mandibles worrying at your flesh!
Note that as per 3.5 I’m using rules for torches and lanterns here – a swung torch deals 1d3 and a lantern, if broken, 1d4. The cockroaches don’t like light, so a strong light source like a lantern or Light spell, appropriately brandished, makes them flee into the room’s corners. Flasks of acid and alchemist’s fire also work, as do spells like Burning Hands and the like. The characters’ best strategy may be to just retreat; the cockroach swarm won’t follow them down the stairs or through a door.
It’s possible to get the talisman out without provoking the swarm, but it takes a Sleight of Hand check (DC 15).
G5 – Winch Controls
A large, badly rusted winch stands at the center of this chamber; at the far end of the room is a windlass. Cut in the floor are several circular murder holes. Some old bloodstains crust the floor. Several buckets full of stones are tucked into a corner.
The bloodstains lead into G7. The winch is used to operate the portcullis, the windlass for the drawbridge. Currently the drawbridge is down and the portcullis is up.
G6 – Trapped Archer’s Gallery
You enter a long gallery with a series of arrow slits along one wall, allowing archers to target anyone on the drawbridge. Two mouldering skeletons are slumped against the far wall, clutching bows. Arrows are strewn about the floor, and an old smear of blood leads to a door.
There are 6 cold iron arrows and 34 arrows here for those that want them.
A gut tripwire here activates a crude crossbow trap.
G7 – Arsenal
This room looks to have once been an arsenal, but it’s been thoroughly looted. Empty weapon racks and brackets are evident, but little of use remains: half a dozen rusted spears and a few halberds, and a handful of brittle-looking bows.
All of these weapons have the “broken” condition.
G8 – Armoury
The door to this room is unlocked, but trapped – upon opening it, several large, badly rusted blades swing down from the ceiling to strike any stepping through, similar to a scythe trap.
Old suits of armour, badly rusted, can be found in this chamber: chain shirts, breastplates, helmets, greaves, gauntlets, and other bits and pieces, some of them still on their racks, others scattered about. Dozens of shields and bucklers are scattered around as well.
4 chain shirts, 3 suits of chain mail, 3 suits of scale mail, 2 breastplates, 1 suit of splint mail, 1 pair of spiked gauntlets, 6 large steel shields, 4 small steel shields, and 8 bucklers can be found here.
G9 – Storage
The heavy wooden door to this room will not open easily, as it’s been barricaded. It takes a DC 22 Strength check to force it open. The blood trail leads here.
You finally force the door open. Inside, you realize the door had been barricaded – there were shelves, crates, and other objects heaped up against it. The chamber here looks to be a storage room. There are several jars of lantern oil, a number tools and nails, torches, linen, spare parts for the winch, and a significant quantity of spare timber. There are also some bandages and other healing supplies. The blood-stain stops at a mouldering old skeleton in a badly rusted hauberk, an arrow protruding from its bony ribs.
There are 6 jars of lamp oil here (1 pint each), 20 torches, and a healer’s kit. The skeleton has a chain shirt and a masterwork arrow sticking out of it.
G10 – Archer’s Gallery
Judging from the arrow slits along one wall, this is an archer’s gallery, used to pepper foes on the drawbridge with arrows.
A patch of the floor in this gallery is weakened. Unless a character has Trapspotter or Stonecunning, they don’t get a Perception check automatically; it’s DC 20 to detect otherwise. The hazard requires a Reflex DC 20 to avoid and deals 2d6 falling damage, depositing characters in G6.
G11 – Mangonel Storage
Spare parts for mangonels are stored in this chamber – beams, axles, counterweights, and other components. Now these parts are beginning to succumb to rot, exuding a pungent odour.
G12 – Spiked Room
The door to this room is locked; Grugnar has the copper key which unlocks it.
Someone has fixed long, wooden spikes to the floor of this room. The spikes appear to have been smeared with a dark substance.
Anyone straying to the chest in G16 may end up here. The spikes are smeared with small centipede poison (Fort DC 11, 1 Dex damage, 1/round for 4 rounds, 1 save cures).
G13 – Crossbow Armoury
This door is locked (DC 20). The copper key opens it.
During the attack on Hexenburg, this room must have been neglected. Its walls are hung with crossbows, most of which are in remarkably good condition, ranging in size from heavy crossbows to small hand crossbows. Barrels of bolts are arrayed about the walls.
There are about 1000 bolts, 20 heavy crossbows, 20 light crossbows, and 10 hand crossbows here.
G14 – Heap
This room might once have been an armoury of storage chamber, but its previous contents have been cleared out. A makeshift bed has been made from heaped grass, straw, and other material. Some cracked bones are scattered about as well, along with a half-eaten human corpse. Hideously, it looks as if the corpse was flayed before being partially eaten – the man has no skin. Piled in a corner of the chamber is a mound of clothing scraps, leather tatters, and other bric-a-brac, including a number of old weapons and bits of jewellery.
Two gold rings (25 gp each), a silver ring (5 gp), and four copper rings (1 gp each), plus a silver broach set with a bloodstone (75 gp), can be found here, along with a dagger, a shortsword, and a masterwork longsword.
G15 – Centipede Room
In this chamber, a pair of overgrown centipedes the size of cats scuttle over the corpse of a small, ponty-eared, sharp-toothed humanoid – a Goblin. The creature’s flesh is discoloured and blotchy from hundreds of tiny bites. It clutches a morningstar in one hand and a ring of keys in another. The centipedes seem to have made this room their nest – amidst a heap of rotten timber they’ve laid dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of glossy white eggs.
The centipedes are aggressive and will attack anyone entering. The Goblin has 8 silver pieces and a ring of keys (copper, silver, black iron, bronze). It is from the Barghest-led tribe that dwells in the Dungeons.
G16 – Trapped Room
The wooden floorboards of this room are scuffed and bloodstained. Near the far end of the room is a large, wooden chest, open. Inside you can glimpse a glimmer of silver.
Grugnar has set a trap in this room. The chest contains 142 silver pieces and 42 gold pieces, However, the floorboards near the trap have been weakened (Perception DC 20 on a trap search, Disable Device DC 20). Anyone stepping on them must make a DC 20 Reflex save or suffer 1d6 falling damage, plus 1d4 spikes (+10 attack, 1d4+2 each) as they fall into G12. These spikes are smeared with small centipede poison (Fort DC 11, 1 Dex damage, 1/round for 4 rounds, 1 save cures).
G17 – The Chair Room
Several old halberds and spears are hung on the wall. The gatehouse here has crumbled partially, leaving a hole in the wall; snow has blown inside, and the wind moans dully through the gap. Set before the hole is a rocking chair made from human and animal bones, lashed together with sinews, as if made for someone to look out into the bailey beyond.
3 halberds, 4 longspears, 1 very creepy chair.
G18 – Officer’s Quarters
This square chamber, with its larger bed, writing desk, and small shelf, could have been the quarters of the gatehouse’s commander. This furniture is badly rotten, infested with a thick, brown mould. It looks like there might be a few papers mixed in with the detritus.
The furniture has been infested with brown mould.
There is little to be found here, except that a loose stone in the wall can be removed (Perception DC 22 to find). Inside is a small belt-pouch with 54 gp.
The papers are mostly logs for the gatehouse’s inventory of weapons, ammunition, rations, and the like. There is also, however, a map of the gatehouse and 1d3 other random maps.
G19 – Scorched Archer’s Gallery
This archer’s gallery looks down on the drawbridge and forest below. There are scorch marks about some of the arrow-slits. A shrunken, bug-eyed thing resembling a malignant, deformed child lies in the middle of the gallery, a quarrel protruding from its throat from a crude crossbow trap near the ceiling.
This Goblin met its end from one of Grugnar’s traps. It has 3 silver pieces and a crude dagger.
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