Shrine of the Lost Hope
For centuries the Keep of Oonard had stood guard on a windswept tor,
looming over the entrance to the Shrine of the Lost Hope.
The shrine was built by Sir Gregory Oonard, as a resting place for two relics;
the Armour of Oonard, and the mighty Ghost Blade.
Using these items, Sir Gregory drove a mighty chaos lord from the tor, clearing
the way for the surrounding land to be settled. Once the area was safe for
travellers he constructed the shrine to attract pilgrims to fund the building of
the keep. As the years passed, the descendants of Sir Gregory prospered, and
the shrine became known throughout the land.
However, beneath the tor lived a demon, summoned in the time before the
chaos lord was vanquished. Little did the Oonard family know, the chamber
where this entity dwelled was just a little deeper in the tor, slightly beyond
the back wall of the shrine.
And here it would have remained trapped if not for the vagaries of fate and
the foul mouth of Kroag the Insolent…
The Shrine of the Lost Hope is an underground series of rooms excavated
below the Keep of Oonard. It was given the name of Lost Hope due to the
dangers involved in using the Ghost Blade.
Above the shrine stands the ruins of the Keep of Oonard, which has suffered a
cataclysmic explosion, courtesy of the freshly released demon, Am-utt.
When the Oonard family decided to enlarge the shrine, their excavations
unearthed the summoning room, where Am-utt resided.
After centuries of imprisonment the demon unleashed it’s rage upon the keep,
destroying it utterly, but then to it’s consternation found itself trapped, unable
to pass the relics within the shrine. Am-utt sent a psychic call to chaos
followers throughout the land, but the only one who heard the call was Kroag
the Insolent!
Kroag is a solitary wanderer, forever cursed by the powers of chaos to be so
insolent as to drive away any companions or followers.
Now he resides within the shrine, waiting for fools, er, brave adventurers, to
help him free Am-utt…
Shrine Description
Entry:
This is a simple room, where the shrine guards used to collect payment from
pilgrims before allowing them entry into the shrine. Now the room is empty,
save for a large stone coffin. Gouges in the floor running from the entrance
show the coffin was recently dragged here.
Inside the coffin lies Sir Gregory, who now is an animated corpse. Due to
Kroag’s curse of insolence he finds it impossible to retain followers, so when
needing guards for the shine, Kroag had to resort to animating the dead.
They’re not the best of guards, but they are the only option for their foul
mouthed master!
Sir Gregory wears plate, and wields a fine longsword, but he is painfully slow,
striking last each round. This being said, he is very durable being a hero of
antiquity, and will take a fair bit of bashing and slashing to take down.
Guard’s Quarters
In better days this was the room where the guards would relax when not on
duty. It has a table and benches, various foodstuffs and barrels of water and
ale. It is also home to Bruce and Fenn, two indentured servants who died long
ago, but were animated from the same graveyard as Sir Gregory.
Although Kroag had no need of them, the servants did in death as they did in
life, and followed their former master to the shrine. Now they stand, farming
implements in hand, waiting for commands that will never come.
When the adventurers enter this room, Bruce and Fenn will not atack, unless
attacked first.
Treasury
This was where the daily taking were kept. At one end of the room is a chest,
filled with 36 gold pieces, the day’s takings on the day the Am-utt was
released. At the other end of the room is an unusual looking casket.
This casket contains Kroag’s accumulated treasure, and essence of a lesser
demon; Ur-saroon. This lesser demon can animate the casket, attacking with
two claws and the gaping maw of the skull that tops the container. If Ur-soon
rolls a 19-20 to hit, or successfully hits with both claws on one adventurer, the
skull’s jaw expands, swallowing the victim whole, and polymorphing them
into a gold coin.
The casket is fairly robust, but susceptible to cracking open when hit by
bludgeoning weapons. If smashed open 341 gold pieces will fall out, plus any
adventurers who have been turned into coins. Their coins will have their
likeness molded on one side, and simply polishing said coin will cause the
reversal of the polymorph process.
It is left to the DM’s discretion how many other coins will be revealed to be
NPC’s Ur-saroon has consumed over it’s long history…
The Hall of Relics
This hall is divided into two rooms, linked by twin corridors.
In the first, lurk three animated soldiers. These were Sir Gregory’s most
trusted men in life, and they are clad in plate and armed with halberds.
They will work together, trapping adventurers in the narrow entry corridor,
and using the reach of their weapons to skewer attackers from 3 sides.
In the second room stands Kroag the Insolent.
He is a veteran chaos warrior, highly skilled with his mace, Beast Crusher.
His armour is full chaos plate, which also serves to increase his strength.
When Kroag rolls a 17-20 attacking with Beast Crusher, the recipient of the
attack loses 2 from their armor class, as the mace crushes their armour,
reducing its effectiveness.
He is also Insolent: When in combat Kroag shouts insults enraging his
opponents. Each time they attack, they must pass a personality check. Failure
means they have -4 to hit due to blind rage, however adventurers who do hit
will inflict +2 damage due to their enraged state!
Kroag is a tough opponent, and will use the short joining corridors to his
advantage, positioning himself so he engages the minimum number of
attackers. He will also make sure attackers have clear access to the relics.
There are 2 relics in the hall: the Armour of Oonard, and the mighty Ghost
Blade.
The Armour of Oonard is a breastplate, shoulderpads and a helmet. They are
made of Sothrill, a rare ore that repels iron. This means the wearer of the
armour can ignore any hit in combat that only inflicts 1-2 points of damage, so
long as the weapon has iron content.
The Ghostblade is a fine longsword, which looks normal, but hides two
secrets.
When used to attack, and swung at a foe wearing armour, the momentarily
blade turns transparent, ignoring armour, and hitting the enemy on a roll that
would succeed as if they were unarmoured. This makes the blade extremely
useful against highly armoured foes!
However, when the bearer of the Ghostblade rolls a 1 to hit, they must save vs
magic, or be forever turned into a ghost! If they make their save, their arm is
merely turned into a ghost arm. This is fairly equivalent to an adventurer’s
arm being amputated, however kind DM’s may devise some kind of alternative
use for a ghost arm (ie, manipulating objects in the ethereal plane, or a touch
that ages enemies.)
If either of the relics are disturbed by the adventurers, the magic stopping the
demon Am-utt from escaping the shine is broken. Kroag has been unable to
touch the relics, but has been waiting for someone to come and do it for him.
If (or when) the magic fails, Am-utt will burst forth from the summoning
room!
Kroag will shout an insult enraging the demon, who will destroy him instantly
with a bolt of pure chaos power!!
Am-utt is extremely powerful, and is invulnerable to any weapons not native
to its plane. The demon will show its gratitude to the adventurers who
released it by sparing their lives, however it leaves with such speed this may
be hard for the adventurers to decipher.
Chances are adventurers who survive the shrine will count themselves as
lucky, having encountered a powerful entity and lived to tell the tale.
However Am-utt is now on the loose, gathering followers of chaos and leaving
a path of destruction in its wake, all because of those “lucky” adventurers...
