Instant Campaign Starter

I have created another Instant Conan Campaign, this time set in Aquilonia (with an optional start point in Belverus, Nemedia). This one is for any level characters and is more of a single urban adventure location than the whirlwind town and country tour of this thread's campaign. Enjoy!

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1306
 
JELAL'S ESTATE EXTRAS
Additional details on Jelal's Estate!

The Satrap has let Gombuk stay with Jelal, because he knows the builder will attract
assassins and he’d rather let those assassins massacre Jelal than himself; the Satrap has
enough enemies as it is, so why attract more trouble? Jelal knows too much about the
Satrap’s embezzling from Yezdigerd anyway. This is a good opportunity to be rid of him!

EXTERIOR WALL: The entire estate is surrounded by a 10 ft. high brick-fired clay
wall with one wooden gate. The top of the wall is studded with shards of broken pottery
to deter thieves. Anyone attempting to pull themselves or climb over the top (requiring a
Climb check, DC 10), let alone walk across it (requiring a Balance check, DC 15 every 10
ft.) must make a Reflex save (DC 15) or suffer 1d4+1 slashing damage for every 10 ft.
they move while atop the wall.

GATE: A stout double doored gate of wood (Hardness 10, 30 hp), barred from the inside.
The gate has a sliding peephole set in the right door, operated from the inside at eye level.

EXTERIOR GUARDS: During the day, 4 guards (Turanian light cavalry, soldier 2)
patrol the courtyard. At night, they are replaced by two leopards (use panther stats), which
are kept in a kennel behind the manor during the day.

WINDOWS: Every room (except storage/pantry and rooms locked inside the interior by
other rooms) has one or two small, iron barred windows. The windows are too small for a
normal sized man to squeeze through. The bars are sturdy.

EXTERIOR DOORS: The front door is made of stout wood, barred from the inside.
The delivery door (in the storage room) will be unlocked by a treacherous servant in
Baltaj or the Stygian’s employ. Note that their thoughtful employer has provided them
with a vial of “sleeping draught” (deadly poison) to hide their complicity in the break-in
and prevent them from answering any probing questions from the authorities come
morning... They lie peacefully, but quite dead, in the kitchen around the fire: A mother,
two teenage daughters and a young son. Optionally, the GM can allow one of the
daughters (the guilty party) to be breathing shallowly. A Heal check (DC 20) will prevent
her from dying... She was seduced by the promise of easy money and being taken away
for marriage by her employer’s middleman (whom she thinks is her employer, and is only
out to rob Jelal, not murder him). Leaving her as is is even crueller than letting her die of
poison, her fantasy unspoiled and her body unmarked by the torturer’s tools.

INTERIOR GUARDS: 3 Turanian light cavalry (soldier 2) and a lieutenant (soldier 4)
are always on duty inside the house during the day. At night, the captain (soldier 5), and
his sergeant (soldier 3) guard Jelal’s family, while two troops (soldier 2) patrol the rest of
the house, two guard the front entryway, and two more stand watch over Gombuk’s room.

INTERIOR DOORS: Interior doors are standard, except for the much sturdier doors in
the section of the house where Jelal and his family make their bedrooms.
 
Ran Jelal's Estate tonight. Took the whole session! They nearly all died, but got their revenge. Tghe only thing that saved them from massive casualties was rotating in fresh troops to the front lines and some bad rolls on my part (not that I didn't roll like the devil himself the rest of the time, but they got very lucky in all the right places---the Hand of Ishtar caresses them once more!).

They delivered the head ofGombuk and his temple plans to Baltaj, who paid them off and got them out of the city. It was only several days later when they started eating the provisions he had generously supplied, that they realized they had been poisoned! :twisted:

They killed everyone in the estate, except for Jelal's two infant sons, one of the three handmaidens and the steward (who locked themselves in their rooms). They managed to massacre most of Jelal's guards before the could get their mail hauberks on. :wink:

They were so afraid of being killed (most only had 1-5 hp at this time) in a double-cross, that they paid a messenger 10 sp to deliver the paymaster's books to the Stygian nobles rather than go to the meeting as arranged. They only went to see Baltaj because he was meeting them close to the gate with provisions and they didn't have much choice if they were going to get out of the city.

Yes, the Stygians wuld have ambushed and killed them. :twisted: However, the party got a fake set of books (the real ones were hidden under the treasure chest they found the forgeries in). They were so messed up from fighting Jelal and his retainers that they forgot to search Jelal's room! The real books were hidden in the floor, under the chest. :wink: Boy, those Stygians are going to be mad!!! They will think the party has kept the real books for themselves, and gone on to deliver them to Yezdigerd in Aghrapur, most likely. However, the Stygians would at least get rid of the Satrap of Zamboula if the PCs did this, so it's not a terrible loss for them, though they had hoped to blackmail the current Satrap with the books. Oh, well.

The PCs had it in mind to run for the Stygian border, the one place no one in their right mind would run to, but gave that up as madness. They wanted to run home to Eruk in Shem, but that was the most likely place their enemies woud think to look for them, so now they are high-tailing it toward Zamora, giving Turan a wide berth for obvious reasons. They hate Turanians now after only a month in Zamboula, hahaha!

Next session will open with them being poisoned. Perhaps I will have Baltaj's men ambush them shortly thereafter, and stake them out in the desert for a certain pair of Stygian sorcerers to find, LOL. I feel a little guilty, because they really have gotten a lot of treasure (mostly the useful wearing, wielding, or riding kind), and worked hard for it. If I railroad them and take it away, they will probably be upset. They all have mail hauberks now, turanian desert warhorses, a coffer full of jewels, and hundreds of silver each, all eleven of them (2 PCs and 9 NPCs). They just made third level (9 meadow shemite soldiers, 2 hyrkanian nomads).
 
Hey Iron Chef, good work on all this campaing stuff. Any chance of getting it all compiled into a nice PDF or something for easy download somwhere (hint, hint, Red Tulwar)?
 
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