#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 9, Room 23

 This room is directly in line with the corridor the party used to enter the room. The passageway slopes down considerably and goes for nearly 100 feet.  The room it opens up into is large.

Inside this room is a large dragon.

This dragon has been down here for centuries and it has grown too large to leave or even fly. It is a Necrotic Dragon. It had been a Red Dragon (and uses those stats) but its exposure to the necromantic magics of this tomb has changed it. Its breath weapon is a gout of black fire that burn cold, but burns all the same.

The local living goblins pay it tribute and the Shadow Elves from above believe it is some sort of dark avatar of long dead gods.

It has maximum HP for a red dragon and three times (x3) the amount of treasure.

It can be harmed with holy water (1d8 per vial) and a light or continual light spell will cause it to hit and save at a -1 penalty.

Kickstart Your Weekend: Demons, Angels, and Serpent Queens

 A couple of new Kickstarters for this weekend.

Castles & Crusades Codex Infernum & Codex Exaltum

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ckg/castles-and-crusades-monsters-the-unclean-and-pure?ref=theotherside

Troll Lords continues their Codex Series with two books. Castles & Crusades Codex Infernum and Codex Exaltum, this time covering Demons and Angels, respectively.

I really liked their Tome of the Unclean, which featured demons and devils, and I thought it was a great book. I love their Codex series as well.  No surprise then that I am looking forward to seeing these out. 

And to add icing on the cake the Codex Exaltum is being written by none other than my frequent partner in crime, Jason Vey!  Jaso really is the perfect person for that with his academic and game-writing background. So my expectations of this one are pretty high. 

The covers look great and will fit in nicely with my current in-use copies of Castles & Crusades.

Also expect these in a future One Man's God-style post.

Trails & Tales: Temple of the Serpent Queen

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/trailsandtales/trails-and-tales-temple-of-the-serpent-queen?ref=theotherside

If you are on social media, in particular Facebook, you know that for a little bit now Danger Forge has been releasing some quality OSR-compatible PDFs for free. The production values are high and the content has been a lot of fun.  

This is their first Kickstarter. 

Personally, I can think of about three or four campaigns I could use this in, one of which is my Castles & Crusades conversion of my "Second Campaign."

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 9, Room 22

 Continuing counterclockwise to the next crypt brings the party to room 22.  This one is dedicated to one of the dwarven princesses.

The party notices many things.

First, there is the ghost of a dwarven princess standing near her damaged sarcophagus. She is very sad and does not speak.

Secondly, the walls are covered with paintings of the pricess' life. She died young and un-married.  The painting were of her playing in the (then) nearby fields. Braiding her father's beard, and other scenes of innocence.

Thirdly, the party will also also see that these paintings have all been defaced with graffiti and pornographic imagery. 

The princess' ghost cannot be attack of hit. But likewise she can't attack either. She can't find rest because her grave has been disturbed.  A cleric can perform the final rights and put her soul to rest, but she won't leave until the vandalism is removed.

Fortunately the graffiti was done by magic (a magic-user or witch can detect this) and so a Dispel Magic will erase it all.

Doing this will allow the princess to move on.  She will with a smile and as she departs a previously hidden secret door will open and reveal the Princess' treasure. There are two bags of holding each with 18,700 gp value in jewels and gems. There is a crown worth 1,000 gp and a slim bejewelled sword. Finding these is worth 40,000 XP total. 

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 9, Room 21

 Moving on to the next room on the left hand side (to the right of Room 20) is another passageway to a crypt. This one has a guest waiting for the party.

In this crypt is a dead dwarf. He is looking at you, but he is dead.  

If the party does not attack right away the dwarf, a bhūta, will ask in a dry and dusty voice to ask the party to hold.  The dwarf will explain that he is only interested in killing the Vampire Queen, or at least get confirmation that she is dead.  If they party lets him pass he will walk by. Give them the same XP as if they had defeated him.

IF they attack, then he will attack back.  Nothing will stop his vengeance on the Vampire Queen.

Bhūta (Dwarf)

Armor Class: 4 [15]
Hit Dice: 7+14** (46 hp)
Attacks: 2 claws (1d6+1 x2)
Special: Death Grip, Undead.
THAC0: 11 [+8]
Movement: 120' (40')
Saving Throws: Monster 7
Morale: 12
Alignment: Neutral evil
XP: 1,250 (OSE) 1,100 [9] (S&W) 1,200 (LL)
Number Appearing: 1
Treasure Type: None

When a person is murdered, the spirit sometimes clings to the Material Plane, refusing to accept its mortal death. This spirit, called a bhūta, possesses its original body and seeks out those responsible for its murder. It will never rest until those responsible are sought out and slain. 

Since the transformation into unlife is almost instant (occurring within 1-2 hours after death), the bhūta appears as it did in life for about 2 weeks, taking on a more decayed appearance thereafter. Close inspection (spot on a roll of 1-2 on 1d6) reveals slight decay, and the body still shows signs of any trauma suffered prior to death (wounds, disease, burns, or the like), but outwardly, the bhūta for the most part appears as a normal creature of its race. In its undead state, the bhūta sustains itself on a diet of flesh, preferring that of humans and elves. A bhūta that scores two successful claw attacks on an opponent in the same round fastens its hands around its opponent’s throat and deals 1d6+1 damage per round until the hold is broken with a successful attack by the victim. 

The bhūta’s main objective is revenge on the person that killed it. So long as the bhuta and its killer are on the same plane of existence, it can find its target unerringly.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 9, Room 20

 Room 19 has many small passageways radiating out. They form 8 spokes, with the larger hall as the first.  The first passage leads to a small mausoleum. 

This is final resting place for four dwarven princes.  

There is still some treasure here. A total of 163 gp can be found along an axe +2, +3 vs. Goblins and Orcs.

Baldur's Gate: A Barbarian in Hell

 My son and I have been enjoying the new game, Baldur's Gate 3. He is much further along than I am and so is his D&D 5e group. One of his favorite characters is Karlach, the tiefling barbarian. I admit, she is great. Karlach is this 6ft+ tall tiefling warrior goddess who is also one of the funniest, most optimistic characters in the game. My son calls her a "cinnamon roll" because of how sweet and fluffy she is.

When your character is idle she will be humming to herself and dancing in place. She says things like "fuck! It is great to be alive!" and when she runs into combat she laughs. She calls everyone "soldier" and loves it when you stick up for the underdog, kids or find ways to keep the innocents alive. She has every right to be angry and bitter; instead, she is cheerful and optimistic. 

And sadly...she is also dying.

Spoilers ahead for the Baldur's Gate 3 video game.

Karlach has an "infernal engine" for a heart. It works great in Hell, where she was fighting in the blood war, but on the Prime Material, it is burning her up from the inside. One of your quests is to find a way to keep her from burning up. You can, for a while (and it is worth the effort!) but in the end...well the Devil has their due. 

There are a lot of different endings for all the "origin" characters, but Karlach's was particularly bleak. Her happy ending was to be able to say she loved everyone before burning up, leaving only ash.

What did Larian Studios do about this when players started complaining about it? Simple they did what any good studio would do.  They pulled back in the voice actress, reshot Karlach's ending with all new material, and patched it to the game in a matter of DAYS.

You can see her new "happy" ending here.

Personally, I love the idea that she and Wyll go off together since their backstories are so intertwined. If I do another run-through of this game, I want to do it as Wyll with the purpose of seeing what I can do to save Karlach. Karlach would never do it for herself; that is not who she is.

BUT. Even with the "they lived happily ever-after in Hell" ending my son and his group are less than happy with it. So we were talking about it one night while playing BG3.

He wants an adventure for his party where they go to Hell to rescue both Karlach and Wyll.  He wanted to know if I had anything.  

I told him that was a silly question.

I mentioned the adventure A Paladin in Hell does this, and it has somewhat the same premise as the newer D&D 5 adventure (and Baldur's Gate 3 prequel) Descent into Avernus.

I told him to use the basic outline of APiH, use details from BG:DiA, and make it a mission to rescue Karlach and call it "A Barbarian in Hell." However, in my current run-through, Wyll has rejected his warlock powers to become a Paladin. So I guess it still works.  I half-jokingly have called this "No Sleep Till Avernus" with my son.

In this adventure, Karlach and Wyll are defending a piece of Elturel that has remained in Avernus (let's say it was the temple in A Paladin in Hell).  The characters in Baldur's Gate 3 are limited to 12th level. "Descent into Avernus" takes the characters from level 1 to 13. The AD&D 2nd Ed "A Paladin in Hell" is for characters 15-20 level. So then A Barbarian in Hell is for characters 13th level and above. 

The motivation for most D&D adventures is glory and gold. The motivation for A Paladin in Hell is "the greater good."  For A Barbarian in Hell, the motivation is "Save our friends."  And that is a good motivation, really. 

Besides, if the roles were reversed, you know Karlach would have saved your ass a long time ago.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 9, Room 19

 The end of the hallway (Room 14) opens to a large chamber.

There are floating orbs here and a glowing magical portal.  Entering the portal will transport the character to one of the other levels of the dungeon. Roll a 1d12 to determine which one. They appear in Room 1. If characters step through together, then they are all teleported to the same place. Characters that enter separately arrive at different locations. 

The orbs just float and give off light as per a light spell. The orbs (15 in total) are worth 150 GP each (normal glass orb with levitate and light spells).  They break easy, having only 1 hp and a save of 18.