Fiend Bunkhouse (#5/31, #339/365)
"This
room is a barracks of some sort and very warm to enter. Flaming torches
blaze on every wall and there are brass mirrors everywhere, reflecting
light and heat. Against one wall are a series of copper urns, padded out with blankets and pillows, while in the centre of the room is a flat black stone
table, set up with some sort of board game made from ivory pieces.
Roll a die. On a 1-2:
"Sleeping
in the urns are half a dozen red scaly Fiends, snoring their heads off and dead to
the world. Their weapons are dumped on the floor next to
each urn."
On a 3-6:
"Seated
at the table are half a dozen red scaly Fiends, drinking liquor from clay gourds, and
playing the board game. They look up at your
approach."
'Fancy a game?' one of them says."
Contents: The Fiends are currently playing a game of Tenet (see Curse of the Mummy,
p. 274) but are bored, and will happily challenge Heroes to a game or
two, for either cash wagers, information, or access to passage onward.
If attacked at least one of them will smash a Potion of Noise upon the floor, while the rest calmly insert their ear plugs before attacking, while at least one will head off to get reinforcements.
If
the Fiends are sleeping, the Heroes may attempt to sneak through the
chamber, but attempting to murder the Fiends in their sleep will wake at
least one of them up, who will raise the alarm.
Stats:
6 FIEND Maintenance Workers:
SKILL 6, STAMINA 8, Spear or Small Claw, Light Armour. Breathes Fire:
hits on a 1-2 on one die for 1 STAMINA damage.
The Fiends have 1-6 GP, and ear plugs, and three of them also have Potions of Noise.
The
Tenet gameboard and pieces are made from ivory and ebony, and are in
excellent condition. They could be worth 100-600GP to a collector of
Djaratian antiquities.
Also on the table are six clay gourds, and a jug of Shroomshine.
Fiend Messhouse (#6/31, #340/365)
"This large chamber contains
several long tables with stone benches. At the far end of the room, a red scaly Fiend is stirring a pot on a low fire, next to a table covered in
foodstuffs of various types and sources, alongside a stone casket and three barrels. A
bunch of Fiends and other weird creatures are seated at the tables and eating and drinking,
and all look up at your entrance."
Contents: This is the main eating chamber
of the Fiends who maintain the various aspects of the Road to Bisu, as well as any other underground reprobates that have cared to join them. At any time, in
addition to Vrek the FIEND Brewer-Cook, three other groups of creatures will be eating or
drinking in here; roll on the Clientele Table below to determine who. How they react depends on the Heroes' situation; if
the Heroes are covered in Fiend blood from previous encounters then
the creatures will attack immediately.
However,
if the Heroes are more friendly, or accompanied by Fiends or other allied creatures, Vrek will assume they are hungry and offer
them a bill of fare (see below). The Fiends may even challenge them to an Shroomshine drinking competition (not recommended!).
Ye Bille of Faire (available food and drink):
Orc Ale, 5SP per pint
Shroomshine Liquor, 1GP per gourd, 5GP per jug
Spleen Eleven Spirit, 2GP per shot
Giant Lizard Steak, 3GP, restores 1-3 STAMINA
Mudworm Soup, 1GP, -1-3 STAMINA to any non-Goblins or Troglodytes
Giant Slug Escargot, 5GP, -1-3 STAMINA to any non-Flayers or Brain Slayers.
Stats:
Vrek, FIEND Brewer-Cook: SKILL 7 STAMINA 10, Sword or Small Claw, Light Armour. Breathes
Fire:
hits on a 1-2 on one die for 1 STAMINA damage. Vrek has 2-12GP,
earplugs, a Potion of Noise, a flask of Shroomshine Grog, and a slim
book in both Orcish and the Goblin language, entitled "Badduz's Special
Brewz" that appears to be full of recipes for fungi-based alcohol
beverages, including Shroomshine Grog, and a strange purple syrup called
Spleen Eleven.
In
an enormous stone casket containing an ICE MITE (SKILL 8 STAMINA 2) in a
brass cage, are 2-12 haunches of prepared meat, equal to an equivalent
number of provisions. Next to this are three lead-lined barrels containing Shroomshine, Guursh and Spleen Eleven.
Clientele:
To determine the customers roll three times on the following table:
First Roll 1-3: FIENDS!
Second Roll 1: 2-7 FIEND Maintenance Workers:
SKILL 6, STAMINA 8, Spear or Small Claw, Light Armour. Breathes Fire:
hits on a 1-2 on one die for 1 STAMINA damage. The Maintenance Workers have 1-6 GP, ear plugs, and a Potion of Noise each. One of
them has keys to all the grilles on their maintenance rotation. Drinking Shroomshine and bitching about the Beastkeepers not doing their jobs.
Second Roll 2: 2-7 FIEND Beastkeepers:
SKILL 6, STAMINA 8, Spear or Small Claw, Light Armour. Breathes Fire:
hits on a 1-2 on one die for 1 STAMINA damage. The
Beastkeepers have 1-6 GP, ear plugs, and a Potion of Noise each. One of
them has keys to all the grilles on their feeding rotation. Drinking Shroomshine and bitching about the Maintenance Workers not doing their jobs.
Second Roll 3: 2-4 FIEND Gardeners:
SKILL 6, STAMINA 8, Sickle or Trowel (as per Improvised) or Small Claw, Light Armour. Breathes Fire:
hits on a 1-2 on one die for 1 STAMINA damage. The Gardeners have 1-6 GP, and ear plugs, and two of them also have Potions of Noise. Drinking Spleen Eleven from tiny clay tumblers and yelling incoherently at each other, as they are all a bit hard of hearing.
Second Roll 4: 2-4 FIEND Meat-Preparers:
SKILL 6, STAMINA 8, Cleaver or Small Claw, Light Armour. Breathes Fire:
hits on a 1-2 on one die for 1 STAMINA damage. The Meat-Preparers have 1-6 GP, and ear plugs, and one of them also has a Potion of Noise. Drinking Shroomshine and boasting about the biggest monsters they've had to slice and dice recently, and who got hit the hardest with the resultant arterial spray/bile eruption/burst intestinal tract.
Second Roll 5: 2-7 FIEND Guards:
SKILL 6, STAMINA 8, Spear or Small Claw, Light Armour. Breathes Fire:
hits on a 1-2 on one die for 1 STAMINA damage. The guards have 1-6 GP, and ear plugs, and all of them also have Potions of Noise. Drinking Shroomshine and bitching about Guard duty rotations and the everlasting tedium of being a lonely dungeon sentinel.
Second Roll 6: The Senior Leadership Team. Khorthax and Vengorfing have deigned to visit the Messhouse to 'catch the wind's whispers' as it were. Ostentatiously drinking glass tumblers of water.
First Roll 4-6: "Other weird creatures..."
Second Roll 1: 2-4 Flayers and 1 Brain Slayer:
big game hunters from Grx, with tentacle nets and poison tridents.
Brain Slayer has purple steel plate armour and a blue glowing
Force-Glaive. Drinking Shroomshine and looking intimidating in a tentacular sort of way.
Second Roll 2: 2-4 N'yadach: hunters in banded armour, with clubs and rope. Drinking Shroomshine and just looking plain angry.
Second Roll 3: 2-4 Spider Cultists: in ragged spider-shaped cloaks, with daggers covered in Spider Venom. Sipping tiny thimbles of Spleen Eleven and acting furtive.
Second Roll 4: 2-4 Skeleton Men: mercenaries, wearing breastplates and wielding swords. Drinking Guursh from clay tankards and spoiling for a fight with people who have more flesh on their bones.
Second Roll 5: 2-7 Dark Goblins: trappers with iron armour, nets and spears. Professionals, sipping at Shroomshine and looking disdainful at all others.
Second Roll 6: 2-12 Troglodytes: tribal warriors in warpaint, armed with obsidian knives, short bows, and arrows coated in fungal poison. Absolutely plastered on a big clay jug of Shroomshine, into which have been inserted numerous papyrus straws.
