Thurstle Island: Ruined Fort of the Crusaders

In our most recent session, my players explored the first level of the Barrow of the Twisted Wyrm. They retrieved, the major artifacts and saw the clear evidence that the barrow had been previously looted by Gothic knights. They have deduced (correctly) that the corpses they found (as armored zombies) were likely from the abandoned fortress on the hill above the town. They're planning to explore the fort in our next game.

Getting back to the fort will be challenging. The only way the players know to reach the fort takes them through both the  Old Forest and the upper portions of the Smuggler Caves.The druids in the forest are furious that someone has desecrated the barrow, and the Smugglers (the "Willing Few") are beginning to rebuild their operations after the player characters wrecked their hideout.

History Lesson

The crusaders, were led by three paladins Melkor, Kaspar and Baltaz. Venturing across the island, they tried to dig into the Barrow but their party was nearly wiped out by demons. Dendar, the Twisted Wyrm infected their minds and turned them against each other. Melkor and Kaspar killed Baltaz (who was less affected by the demon). 

Melkor and Kaspar studied demonology and built a secret summoning chamber under the fort. One of the creatures they called was too strong for them to control and caused an earthquake collapsing parts of the fort, including the stairs down to the town. 

Melkor and Kaspar poisoned the rest of the crusaders to cover up their activities. Rather than abandon their obsession, they recruited a new group of acolytes and re-established themselves on Thurstle Island. They now run the Abbey.

Rumors: 

1. The fort was wiped out by plague thirty years ago.
2. The ruins are haunted and unlucky but contain a lot of rich artifacts.
3. The druids hated the Crusaders and keep a wary eye on the ruins.
4. The crusaders were famed exorcists and monster slayers. They had powerful weapons.
5. The governor would love to re-occupy the fort and use it as his base.
6. The ruins are very unstable. Watch out for cave-ins.

The Fort

The fort has three towers, one for each of the Crusaders' leaders, surrounding a central courtyard. Under the fortress, their is a crypt area and a prison.  

The tower tops give a commanding view of the whole island and artillery placed here could target any location.

Tower 1: Kaspar's Barracks 

Black rose motif's throughout

• Great Hall: Uncleared feast, examination reveals traces of poison.
• Infirmary: Many dead in beds, 
• Many corpses have amputated limbs and invasive surgeries to remove masses of tissue.
• One of the beds has an exorcism circle drawn around it. 
• Gym: Clearly for martial training. Wooden weapons, training dummies etc. 
• Weapons are all blunt: Maces, tetsubo, pole-hammer etc. Indicative of Gothic church restrictions against edged weapons.
• Armory: Many blunt weapons, armor etc. - a chance to re-arm.
• Trophy room: A hall displaying memento's of past victory, many of them still dangerous.
• A wispy tendril writhes in a 5' prisim of glass, like a tentacle made of smoke.
• Suspended in a cage, an over-sized femur.  The knob is pieced through with crude nails (or maybe they're thorns?) to form a grim morningstar.
• A basin of crystal clear Holy Water, submerged at the bottom, a warped knife blade.
• An iron Pantalone Mask. Double the size needed for a human face.
• Kaspar's Room - Large windows full of planters. 
• Deadly poisonous Blackroot plants, long dead from neglect. Many were clearly harvested.
• Chest contains poison grenades - Clay pots filled with powdered blackroot poison, if thrown bursts in noxious dust cloud. 
• Chest containing iron coins and several daggers (each with a rose built into the pommel) is hidden under a floor-stone.
• Watchtower Roof - A decayed catapult. Will break disastrously if loading is attempted. Could be repaired by replacing wooden parts.

Tower 2: Melkor's Court

Chain motif's throughout.

• Court Room: A normal court room - an "empty" room for setting the scene.
• Library: Missing a section of books
• Finding the index books will show that the "Demonology" books are gone. 
• A locked iron chest contains a Tome of Necromancy 
• Spell: Raise Dead
• Spell: Command Dead
• Melkor's Chamber: The administrative heart of the fortress. 
• Fireplace with many burned documents, some partially survive.
• Room decorated with many metal masks.
• Clues re: demon summoning
• Plans for Abbey
• Letter drafts for recruiting more acolytes
• Chest with "Blessed" iron chain. 
• Mounted spyglass.

Tower 3: Baltaz's Sanctum

Stag motif's throughout.

• Chapel: A beautifully appointed place of worship dedicated to "the Lady". Still sanctified.
• Blessed stained glass. Demon's will not enter chapel.
• Windows and gilded carvings portray scenes from the Lady's victories.
• At the far end of room, large pool of Holy Water.
• Vestiary
• Holy garments protect against demon attacks and increase resistance to mutation.
• Censor and blessed incense. Creates cloud that demon's are reluctant to enter.
• Baltaz' Bedroom
• Journal tells of fort's history, including conflict with druids, plans to visit barrow. Leaves off the day before expedition.
• Prayer Book - Protection from Evil.
• Stained Glass - Protects people sleeping in the room from having their dreams invaded.
• Signal Tower: Enormous lamp. 

Courtyard & Gatehouse

Collapsed buildings and cracked walls. Filled with shallow graves.

• Hand Demon rampages throughout courtyard. Looks like a hand the size of a small elephant. A normal sized human corpse is attached at the wrist and drags along behind it like a rotting rag-doll.
• Stats: Just Use Trolls a la Shuttered Room.
• Hits can cause mutation - use the mutation table of your choice.
• The corpse has an iron key on a chain around it's neck. This opens the gate to the demon summoning chamber hidden below the prison. 
• Gatehouse: Nest of the hand-demon. Several crushed corpses inside.
• The gate opens out to a sheer cliff and overlooks Cove Town. The stairs down have collapsed.

Crypt Level

Overflowing with corpses. 

• Embalming Room: Stacked with corpses, long decayed. 
• Examining the bodies will show marks of Blackroot poisoning.
• Clues: letter draft outlining a monk's suspicious
• Clues: a librarian's to-do list... "Pack up Demonology books" 
• The dead jail-keeper still has his keys.
• Crypt 
• Wall niches are full and many wooden coffins stacked about. 
• One of coffins is smashed open (from whence the hand-demon originated)
• If disturbed sound can be head in several coffins. Some are normal corpses, others have demon-mutant features that are still alive.
• This can be a combat encounter... A corpse with a nest of tentacles coming out of their chest lurches to attack.
• If the DM is feeling mean, there's a Hungry Coffin. 

Prison Level

At first glance it seems to be a fairly standard jail.

• Dunce Box: One of the cells is a dunce box. When the fort was abandoned, a poor young acolyte was left locked inside. His skeleton is inside and his Shame Ghost haunts this level.
• If the spirit can be calmed and appeased, he saw a lot in his final days locked here... He knows about both secret doors.
• Secret Exit: A patch of mismatched stones in the back of an empty, locked cell. 
• Leads to a concealed alternative stairway down the cliff face to Cove Town. The bottom section collapsed but the last section of cliff-face could be descended with a well placed rope.
• Secret Door Behind a Mirror: Why would there be a mirror in a jail....
• Behind the mirror, a rusty barred gate. The key is on a chain attached to the corpse dragging behind the Hand Demon.
• A staircase descends.
• Demon Summoning Chamber: Walls covered in holy symbols and arcane glyphs.
• A metal circle inscribed in the floor contains a shimming hemisphere of silver light. This field imprisons a demon.
• Crossing the circle, breaks the prison and releases the demon.

Wandering Monsters / Hazards

1. Ground tremors... stones fall. Save or 1d4 damage. If this happens three times a building collapses (Tower 1, Tower 2, Tower 3, Gatehouse).
2. Mutant corpse: a mutant demon limb or structure, dragging an inert corpse (or part of one).
3. Crow is clearly watching you. It's a druid-warg.
4. Druids: They've been following. Use the pre-made party.
5. The Hand Demon. If it can't reach where the party is, they can hear it moving around outside.
6. Ghostly manifestations of the poisoned spirits. You can see spectral figures wretching and writhing. All of your food is spoiled.
7. Smugglers - They've come to investigate the noise up here.
8. Eye of the Dragon - Dendar watches the place... and will send you an awful dream.

Demon Loot

Demons don't have stuff. You've got to butcher their corpses for parts. Roll on the table, or pick the most appropriate.

1. Venemous spine - 1d6 damage and save vs. poison d10 damage on fail.
2. Demon Blood / Heart - As healing potion with a small chance of mutation.
3. Black Goo - Rapidly corrosive against inorganic material
4. Green Goo - Rapidly corrosive against organic material
5. Claw - A large lobster claw with raw stump. Press it to the stump of a severed limb and it will attach as a usable appendage.
6. Demon eye - Almost certainly of use to a wizard or alchemist.... worth 1d4 x 100 gold if preserved.
7. The corpse shrivels down into a lump of Warpstone. 
8. Explodes into an acidic cloud. All present take d6 damage, save for half. 

Work In Progress

I like seeing other people's messy notebook drafts, so figured I'd share mine.