The Lost Garrison: Text

[DrSkull]

The Lost Garrison
By David L. Nelson

A Conan RPG adventure for 1st-2nd level characters
Loosely Inspired by “The Black Stone” by Robert E. Howard

GM Note: it is advisable to allow players to use a Fate Point to overcome the swooning effect of the Terror of the Unknown throughout this adventure, if they so desire.

Background:
The characters are a squad of mercenary swordsmen in the army of Zamora. They have been ordered to head out from Yezud to check on a small Zamoran garrison in the mountainous border region. The garrison is at a village called Stencovar.

The Truth (Do not let players see this or hear this!!!)
The village of Stencovar is at the center of what was a huge fortress of unimaginable size built by an inhuman lost civilization. The current inhabitants are not Zamorans at all but are of a degenerate race that has non-human blood in it. The Zamoran garrison was wiped out by the villagers led by their priestess Hunda, both as sacrifices to the obscene toad god they worship, and to keep them from finding the truth. Hunda and the villagers are preparing a major ritual to summon their god and break the barriers of time and space.

 

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Encounter 1: Die You Turanian Jackals!
The players have gone up the road from Yezud, and turned onto the goat path toward Stencovar. Ahead they see a patrol of Turanian horsemen riding in their direction. Make the number of Turanians equal to 1 and ½ times the number of PC’s, this should be a heavy fight if they take it on. One of the riders will be the noble Karuna Khan, one will be a second level soldier with a White-Wolf banner, and the rest will be first level fighters.
Option 1: FIGHT! Play out the fight; the Turanians aren’t interested in taking prisoners or pursuing fugitives. So if anyone dies, paying a Fate point and being left for dead can be tended by their teammates. If the entire party is wiped out, then those with a Fate point to spend will wake up in the Inn at Stencovar, being tended by the Innkeeper.
Option 2: TALK: the Turanian squad is led by Karuna Khan, a snot-nosed scion of a noble house who will be very rude. He will demand that the PC’s hand over the kozaks who have been raiding Turanian lands from these mountains, or face the wrath of the Shah’s army. In any case, Karuna will insist on several things: he will continue to search Zamoran land at his pleasure, any kozaks found by the Zamorans must be turned in to the Turanians immediately, and the PC’s must offer an abject apology for blocking his way.
If Karuna is at some point captured and questioned, or the PC’s make a favorable impression somehow, they will find out that the border villages of Turan nearby have been stealthily raided and people, goods and livestock have been carried off in surprising amounts. Karuna’s father believes it the work of kozaks from the plains, but the boy is convinced that they are coming down from the mountains and the Zamorans are to blame.

 

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Encounter Two: The Vale of Stencovar
The entrance to the valley is “guarded” by a ruined fort. This ruined fort is clearly not the Zamoran garrison, but is a millennium old. South of the ruin are two steep peaks, through which one must pass to get into the village.
As the players ride into the valley of Stencovar itself, they’ll notice that the valley is surrounded by steep mountains in a square pattern, with 4 very large peaks marking the corners. The village, moreover, is surrounded by a circle of small, rounded hills.
The Madman: as the players ride into the valley they will run across a gibbering madman. He is a Zamoran thief, dressed only in a red loincloth. He is utterly mad and raving and will give no useful information.

If the players search the valley itself, they’ll find two other features:
Black Stone: this ancient monolith is worn down and covered with illegible inscriptions. Anyone who gets within 10 feet of the monolith must make a terror of the unknown check DC 15 for usual results. Anyone who touches the monolith during the day must make a DC 20 will save or flee for 10 minutes and refuse to come near every after. Anyone who touches the stone at night must make a Will Save DC 20 or go stark, raving mad permanently, until he spends a Fate point and at least 6 hours have passed.
Chasm: the chasm belches strange odors and bizarre fumes. If they attempt to enter the chasm, they will notice a cave in the wall side about 50 feet down. It is inhabited by a pair of vicious man-apes. (GM should consider reducing number of apes to 1 if party is not a very large one)

 

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Encounter Three: The Newt’s Eye Inn
The Innkeeper is called “Smiling Jack” by the patrons, but calls himself Jacomo of Shadizar. He bought the inn six months ago from its former owner, both men wanting a change of scene for different reasons. He is short, with a bushy black beard; he never smiles or laughs. If questioned about the garrison, he will say they were good customers and he liked them. They never mentioned going anywhere, and were only really interested in skimming their share of the customs dues.
The Smugglers: a band of smugglers uses this inn as one of their bases. The leader is Berenike, a female Zamoran thief, level 2, her second in command is Ashanti, a Shemite nomad level 2, and a group of Zamoran thieves level 1 (in numbers approximate to the PC’s) round out the group. These guys will be extremely suspicious and hostile to the PC’s (never tell cops nothing). If however, they are won over they can say that there haven’t been any kozaks in the area for quite some time, the villagers of Stencovar are likely to be stealing people and goods from the Turanians. The smugglers themselves only steal coin, if they steal at all; they mostly just smuggle goods to avoid the high tolls, and occasionally retrieve enslaved Zamorans from the Turanians for a price. The smugglers will claim to be “prospectors”. If they are attacked they will flee, and will fight if they cannot. If they are harassed for any amount of time, they will attempt to flee the village the next evening.
Hunda the Drudge: a non-descript villager named Hunda does the cleaning around the inn. She is in fact the high priestess of the local evil cult, and the secret leader of the villagers. While at the inn, she plays it stupid. She seems a competent drudge, and mildly shag-worthy, after you’ve had 5-6 beers. She will answer all questions with “let me go get Jacomo, he’ll know.”

 

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Encounter 4: The Temple of the Spider God
The local temple is the newest building in the village. It is a small brick building with an effigy of the national god of Zamora. The priest, Drellic (scholar 3) arrived about 6 months ago after the last priest died in his sleep. He and the sacred temple Dancer Julia (scholar 1), run the temple alone. Drellic finds his duty distasteful. The villagers are dolts, the area overrun with smugglers and kozaks, Turanian slavers could appear at any moment and drag them all away. If asked, he is of the firm opinion that Berenike’s smugglers killed the garrison in an ambush. It’s been his suspicion, and some of the villagers agree. The girl Julia is terrified. She won’t comment in front of the priest, but if questioned away from him will say that the villagers don’t really worship the Spider God as they ought, but hold secret nighttime rituals at the stone monolith south of town. She suspects that the villagers killed the last priest, drove out the old innkeeper and murdered the garrison. The players will see Drellic only once or perhaps twice, then they will get word from a terrified Julia that the priest has vanished.

 

[DrSkull]

Encounter 5: The Villagers of Stencovar
Appearance of the villagers: the villagers are slightly stooped over, most have a unibrow, and their arms seem slightly too long (or their legs too short). Their hair is black and straight, unlike the curly Zamorans (such as the Innkeeper, and Spider-priest). The majority of the tribe lives through goat herding and lives in small cottages in the village and throughout the valley. Occasionally, allow the PC’s to make a Listen Check DC 15 to catch them speaking among themselves in a language that is not recognizable to any PC.
The Goat herders: most of the goat-herders know nothing about the garrison and will either answer, “I don’t care” or “kozaks did it” or “the smugglers killed them”. In any case nothing that the players will try will get any more information out of the regular villagers. If they torture a villager, he will reveal the existence of the secret cult at the monolith on an Intimidate check DC 23.
The Leaders: the following members of the village are leaders. Some know the fate of the garrison. Each has a ready answer, as noted, but it takes a Sense Motive DC 20 to detect that it is a lie. Under torture a DC22 intimidate will reveal that they helped kill the garrison. The ones whose answer is “The Turanians killed them” are the ones who know the truth. It will take an Intimidate DC30 for any of them to reveal that Hunda is the priestess.
Ruk the Miller “leave for your own good, I have an evil feeling”
Frulic the Blacksmith “The Garrison men found treasure in the chasm and ran off with it”
Brugo the Stablemaster “Garrison killed by kozaks”
Imbro the Butcher “Garrison killed by Turanians”
Paez the Cobbler “Garrison killed by Turanians”
Ono the Potter “Garrison killed by Turanians”
Rax the Rope Maker: “Garrison killed by Turanians”
Unt the Baker: “Garrison killed by Turanians”

 

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Encounter 6: The Sites in Stencovar
Old Tower: The old tower is a century out of use and filled with rubble. A Knowledge (Engineering) or Profession (Mining, Builder etc) check DC 15 will reveal that there was recent reshuffling of the rubble. If it is dug up, the bodies of the garrison, mutilated and bled out will be discovered, along with their gear, buried underneath.
Stable: if Brugo’s horses are examined a Handle Animal or appropriate Profession roll DC 15 will reveal several have fresh brands. It is likely these are the garrison horses.
Garrison Building: all the personal items, food and weaponry of the soldiers are gone. If the players specifically search the walls for secret compartments, they will find (on a Search DC 18) several secret stashes of recent coins, totaling 125sp.
Garrison Barn: all the horses are gone, as is the grain. But, the traveling feedbags are still present.

 

[DrSkull]

Encounter 7: The Trap
One evening Hunda will approach the players with a note. She’ll say “Spider Priest gave this to me for you.” It says “Come to the Chasm south west of town, it’s urgent, Drellic.” If the players go out they’ll notice flashes of lightning in the distance and suddenly they’ll notice that the surrounding mountains don’t look like mountains at all, but rather like huge inhuman walls and towers. The small hills around the village look like the walls of hideous temple of enormous size. Eventually, they will get to the chasm to find a goat herder dressed in the priest’s robes, playing a creepy pipe made of a human thighbone. This pipe calls up the two man-apes from the chasm below (Reduce number of apes to 1 for a party that is not a large one). If they haven’t already been slain, the apes will violently attack the party. If the goat herder is killed in the fight, he will of course fall into the chasm and his body won’t be found.

 

[DrSkull]

Encounter 8: Night of Destiny
On another night (or the same night if the PC’s are relatively unharmed by the apes), the players will hear a scream. It is Julia clawing at the front door of the place they are staying. She will rush in and say that creepy strangers have been following her all night. She will ask for some wine. When she drinks it she’ll immediately fall into a deep sleep, from which the players will not be able to be awakened. Hunda has attempted to use her sleep poison on the players to arrange for them to join the garrison. Soon, a crowd of goat herders appears to drag the players away for sacrifice: Let the Hacking Begin! The goat herders should outnumber the players at least 3 or 4 to one, are unarmored and carry some swords, spears, and bows, but mostly clubs.
Any captured goat herder will indicate big doings at the monolith when Glory returns to Earth tonight. Once the PC’s get there they’ll see Hunda and her key assistants in the process of sacrificing a number of Turanian captives, and the captive Drellic. Let the hacking begin! Adjust the number of key assistants to the current strength of the party. Just as Hunda is killed, she will shout out “Too Late!” and a huge toad-demon appears over the monolith, and the fortress-like nature of the valley seems to grow fixed. Just then, a squad of Turanians on horseback appears. They will join the PC’s in attacking the Toad-thing. The Toad will begin by killing several Turanians, as appropriate. Afterwards, the leader Muchira Khan (brother of Karuna) will be willing to talk to the PC’s. If they neglect to mention killing Karuna (if they did do so) and are sufficiently thankful, the fight is over, but any jerk-move ends up with a brawl among the survivors.