Beneath The Battered Dwarf Tavern - A Swords & Wizardry Light Starter Adventure - Part 5 - Laughter in the Darkness

Part 1,  Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 as well as the ideas behind it all.

Laughter in the darkness, just at the edge of your hearing. Was it real or just your imagination?

Room 7 is the location of a Krimple. You'll need to read up on this new monster, but here is the part you really need to wrap your head around:

Krimples can open and close locks, set traps, raise undead, sour milk, spoil wine, beer and the like, make food rot and other assorted nuisances at will. As a GM, be creative. They can also turn Invisible once per day, as per the spell. Duration is 1 Hr.

Use this to your advantage in keeping the party on the edge. If they attack the giant rats in room 5 and are having little difficulty, they'll hear the loud click of a lock and the creak of a gate from the south as the Cave Badger charges in. Same will happen if they bypass room 6 to explore the hallway to the east (it should occur right as they are standing before room 7) . Should a party member fall, they will hear laughing.

The Krinkle will follow the party invisibly when he can. Remember, room #3 has bags of flour. An enterprising party will use it to their advantage once they realize they are being followed.

The door to room 7 is a secret door. If the party suspects something or someone is behind the wall, they can look for the mechanism. Should they prod the floor or wall with a wooden poll adjacent to the door to room 7, the pole will rot and break and giggling will be heard.

The Krinkle is not a fighter and would rather make deals than engage in combat and risk being exiled to his usual plane for 30 days or a year. He will offer to lead the party to treasure, and he will, but will make light of any potential damage should they inquire.

Room 8 - The Tomb and Treasures Await - The door to this room is also secret but the outline is faintly visible to any that take the time to look at the wall. Otherwise, the Krinkle (if alive) will lead the party here with promises of treasure.

"Treasure awaits, yes it does! Danger? What value is treasure without danger, and what value is danger without treasure?"

The room is full of stone and wooden coffins. There are 3 skeletons, 2 zombies and a ghoul in the room. There are 7 open coffins and 3 closed coffins.

If the undead are successfully turned they will flee to the partially collapsed stairs leading up and cower.

There IS treasure within. A quick search will reveal 200 SP, 15 GP and a slivered dagger. A longer search (10 minutes or more) will find a gold brooch, valued at 175 GP.

The stairs can not be climbed.

Room 9 - Demon Cult Temple - The door to this room is covered with old and flaking paint. Little can be made out aside from a generous amount of red paint.

Upon opening the door and entering the room, it will be obvious that this was once a place of worship. Much of the paint has flaked here too, but the images that remain might be enough for a cleric to glean an idea of its history (I had the cleric roll his Wisdom or less on a d20 to see if he recognized anything during the playtest).

This was once the place of worship for a long forgotten cult that worshipped demons as gods.

If the Krimple is with the party and had previously suffered any wounds, he will start healing before the party's eyes.

And that's it. Well, not really, but that's where my party is and I don't want to spoil any surprises. I do know where this goes next...