Map Key of the Plague Year 2: Normal Monster Encounter With Treasure

STASH OF THE PIGMEN

            5 ogre sized pigmen (AC 6; 4hd; Dex 9; HP 12, 18, 24, 23, 14 ): skin like kidskin gloves, pink like baby’s. Their faces are all different some mostly resembling a pig with human features and some mostly resembling a human with pig features. Their bodies are covered in stretchmarks. Their stomachs are bloated and distended. They are engaged in pig-like rooting behavior through the piles of goods scattered throughout the room.

Piles of high quality goods: Bolts of silk, skeins of high quality yarn, silver dowsing rods, a triptych depicting the ascension of Donblas The Justicemaker, silver urns, several pounds of tea, dried exotic fruit, several amphorae of wine, a brass brazier. The goods are not being stored properly.  Moisture is slowly ruining them and the pigmen won’t leave them unmolested.

The goods were stolen from Nupo the gnome and he is willing to pay 1,200gp for their return to a polite party. A party in a large city that spends significant effort could potentially get twice that for the goods over the course of a few weeks.

           

IN PLAY

            Nupo is a known entity in my campaign. The party was on their way to meet him when they stumbled upon this room. The pigmen killed three henchmen but were unable to get any party members. The party was all too happy to take the 1,200gp from Nupo, who also let them sleep in his basement.

SIDE NOTE

I pronounced “brazier” like “brassiere” well into adulthood. I learned the word from DDA4, “The Dymrak Dread” and never heard it pronounced.  Also “The Dymrak Dread” is the adventure I ran at one of my elementary school birthday parties. The party favors were miniatures

Map Key of the Plague Year Part 1

This is where I put the deck of Many Things in My Dungeon:

1. THE RECENT BATTLE

Corpses, maybe 12-15 of them the party can them if they like. Give them a number if they ask. About half appear to be corpse worshippers and the other half are likely members of the apothecary brigade.

            The corpse worshippers have scimitars or short swords. One are two of them are swordless. Some have been bludgeoned to death. Others the cause of death is less clear; their eyes bulge and their tongues are swollen and hang out of their mouths

            Some of the apothecary brigade wear casks on their back attached to hoses still clutched in their lifeless hands. Others hold heavy dented censers on chains. One or two of them have swords stuck in them. The rest have merely exsanguinated. The Apothecary brigade are all still wearing their plague doctor masks.

            The bodies are more concentrated towards the door in the west wall. Directly in front of the door a few bodies form a pile of Apothecary and corpse worshipper corpses.

            2. BEYOND THE DOOR

            A table and around the table three seated figures. There is an empty chair closest to the door. The table is has soft leather stretched over it. It looks ideal for playing cards. There is a deck of cards on the table. Guess what. It’s the deck of many things. Don’t tell the players that.

            The figures:

The figure to the right of the empty chair is a highly detailed stone statue of a man. His face is twisted in horror as he looks at something he is holding up between the thumb and forefinger of his right hand. There is nothing sculpted in between the thumb and forefinger of his right hand.

The figure to the left of the empty chair is a wooden mannequin made to look like a corpse that has died an ambiguous but ignoble death.

The figure directly across from the empty chair appears to be the god of luck. I have no idea what the god of luck looks like in my campaign or who he is or anything. Luckily the party ignored this statue and immediately started playing with the cards. They couldn’t help it I handed them actual cards. Who could resist?

PLAGUE DOCTOR MASKS

             The standard issue ones don’t allow you to control stirge. They just protect the wearer from the next 2d4 poison gas exposures.