Castles & Crusades Shadows of the ...

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Shadow of the halfling hall
Author:
Mike Stewart
Editor:
Rachel Adams, Tami Key
Cover Art:
Jason Walton
Interior Art:
Eric Wilson
Cartography:
Jason Walton
Art Direction/Cover Design:
Peter Bradley
Interior Design/Layout:
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System Reference Document Copyright 2000, Wizards of
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Shadows of the Halling Hall, Copyright 2005, Troll Lord
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feast tables. “I would like to propose a toast to the generous, kind
and er . . . generous Master Brambletoe. May his hearth be ever
warm and his larder ever full!”
Shadows of the Halfling Hall
This module is an introductory module for 4-8 characters of levels
1-3. While an experienced group will find much of the module
challenging, the Castle Keeper should insure that the characters in
the party do not exceed 9 total character levels. If more than this
total is desired, the Castle Keeper should increase the number and
power of the monsters encountered appropriately.
This was met by a roar of cheering and applause from the gathered
halflings. There were about 40 or so jammed into the stone hall
of Master Brambletoe, the (currently) most popular halfling in
Newbriar. The oil lamps and torchlight wove a tapestry of eerie
shadows and patterns flickering around the room and vaulted
ceiling of the hall nestled within the hill in the halfling custom.
But nothing could dampen the mood of merriment of any within
the hall this evening.
Once this adventure is concluded, there are several other
possibilities for further adventures around Newbriar. As the
kobolds in the Old Meadowgrass place show, the Awakener in
the tomb has attempted to garner allies for his plans. Perhaps
other creatures were approached as well, posing a future threat to
Newbriar’s citizens? Further, tombs are rarely placed alone. There
could be other tombs in the hills with their own undead denizens!
Meanwhile, at the head table at the rear of the hall Brambletoe
sat with besotted and well fed satisfaction. He leaned back on
his chair to better feel the warmth of the fireplace behind him.
This hall and the money left to him by his uncle that funded its
construction, made him the envy of the halfling Cantons as well as
a wealthy halfling of means and respectability. Indeed, the horde
of revelers and feasters before him were ample proof of his success.
Such prestige was easily won yet only maintained with a massive
expense of food and ale; the expected largess of a country esquire
among the small folk.
This module provides details on the town and residents of
Newbriar as well as outlying farmsteads that might factor into
the players investigations. The next section is the description of
Willic’s hall itself, with the secret passage and the lower tomb
explained in further detail. Finally the kobolds gathering at the Old
Meadowgrass place are described in both numbers and motives.
The adventure and other hooks herein are well suited to a beginning
party, perhaps gathered from the various small communities
around Newbriar who are lured by the offers of reward and danger.
At least 1 cleric is necessary for success in this adventure, and at
least 1 fighter and 1 rogue is strongly recommended. If no one in
the party wishes to play a cleric, the Castle Keeper can arrange for
Justin Grayce from the temple in Newbriar to agree to accompany
the characters as either a non-player character or as a replacement
character if a player has need of one during the course of the
game.
As propriety demanded, Brambletoe stood up upon his chair to
thank the mayor for his kind words and deliver a speech of his
own. “Good Canton folk” he began as the crowd’s noise faded to a
small roar. “I thank you all for your kind words and kinder gestures
in attending this small party at my new home!” This was greeted
by further shouts of appreciation and repeated hurrahs. “As we’re
only on the 16
th
course of the evening, I wanted to get the . . . . ”
Brambletoe was interrupted by the lighting of the flames within
the stone hall suddenly dying out. Even the cheery flames of the
fireplace behind him seemed to dim to mere embers, generating
only a malevolent red glow. As he and his guests looked around
in perplexity, the noise of the great front doors slamming open
brought the murmurs of confusion to a hush. The hush was only
temporary, for screams quickly emerged from those sitting nearest
to the front doors. Brambletoe, never as brave as his uncle, quickly
scuttled under his table in terror. The screams continued and were
magnified and as the halfling huddled in fear. In the fireplace the
coals and logs were moving! They spilled out onto the hearth
and the floor as something rose from underneath- something of
yellowed bone and rusty weapons - coming toward him . . . .
Introduction
The mayor was drunk. Ok, perhaps not completely drunk but
certainly inebriated enough to sway dangerously as he staggered
upon the dining table with a mug of Hobb’s finest held shakily in
his hand. If he had not been barefoot, he would have certainly slid
along the tablecloth and right into the vat of cream of mushroom
soup, or so the other guests, those who were still conscious,
believed. The Mayor of New Briar cleared his throat with a quite
audible “Haarumph ” and then stared bleary eyed at the spectacle
around him.
For the Castle Keeper
The troubles of Newbriar center on the activities of one of
its wealthier members. Willic Brambletoe was the nephew of
a successful adventurer that hailed from the canton, Janos
Brambletoe. Janos was a rogue of some renown and when he died
in a battle with hobgoblins, his adventuring party returned his
body and belongings to Newbriar for proper burial. Willic found
himself the sole heir of his uncle’s estate and fortune; which
was considerable after a career as an explorer and plunderer of
forgotten crypts, dungeons and the like.
What he saw was joyous merriment in all its decent forms. A
scene of feasting, drinking and general celebration on display at
the hall of their host, Master Willic Brambletoe. Dozens of halfling
farmers, merchants and various notables from the nearby town of
Newbriar graced the hall with their presences, their thirst and their
appetites; and all were in full display as the Mayor of Newbriar,
outfitted in his finest clothes, gathered himself to address the
halfling attendees of Brambletoe’s fete, though a drunken and
vociferous lot they were.
“My friends ” the garishly dressed halfling mayor shouted over
the roar of the assembly. He tilted on his feet like a rowboat in a
hurricane and squinted again at the throng seated amongst the
Eschewing the adventuring life for himself, Willic sold most of the
adventuring gear and magic items and used his increased fortune
2 Castles & Crusades
Yes, fortune was certainly smiling on one certain halfling, or
so Willic told himself.
Working with excitement, Willic scratched away the old
bas reliefs, hired a traveling dwarven miner to open the end
outside the hill to create doors and make the back vertical
shaft into a fireplace for his dream hall. With these minor
modifications (and a great savings in gold), Willic moved
into his hall and hired servants. After a week of preparations
he began to hold parties and feasts in his new hall . . .
always speaking at length to anyone who’d listen about the
vast expense he’d gone to build such an ornate edifice.
He always claimed that he hired dozens of dwarves at great
expense to make the hall, though any dwarf inspecting the
craftsmanship could detect the human origin of the hole.
But since Willic has never invited any dwarves to his home
(other than the prior miner who left soon afterward) this
idea has been discarded by the community at large.
In truth the upper hall was only the ceremonial temple
room, where the ancient priests of that forgotten human
realm would make sacrifices for the dead. A small complex
of rooms and tunnels lay just beneath this barrow, with the
only exit/entrance being in the vertical shaft that now serves
as Willic’s fireplace. As the halfling was not curious enough
to inspect the shaft in detail, the lower levels might never
have been found by anyone.
But fate intervened in an unpleasant way. Among his
treasures he left to his nephew, Uncle Janos had a small
golden circlet that he kept as a memento from his early
adventures. The halfling thief claimed that he took it off the head
of a lich he’d slain himself in hand to hand combat. The bearer
of the circlet was actually a ghoul, but Uncle Janos was not above
exaggerating his exploits for the sake of a ripping good story He
kept the prize in his home in Newbriar and rather than sell it with
the other treasures Willic brought it to his new abode. Indeed,
Master Brambletoe would occasionally pose with it on his head and
admire himself in his bedroom mirror. Quite the wealthy noble,
Master Brambletoe
to buy a large swath of farmland to the northeast of the canton.
It had always been Willic’s dream of becoming a wealthy country
squire with lands, livestock and most importantly . . . respect. To
this end he settled into a comfortable country life, living in his
uncle’s house. While serving as Mayor (a job he did not excell at,
nor keep for long) he began to build his estate.
While preparing to build his new home in a nicely sized hill with
a fine view of the surrounding meadow, his diggers came upon a
curious find. Buried deep within the hill was an old barrow of the
ancient human kings that once ruled the region in the dim past.
Upon closer inspection it appeared to be a single stone room of
imposing size with a vertical tunnel at the north end, apparently
that had been filled with earth when the barrow had been sealed.
What the little fellow was unaware of was that the circlet held
an Awakener (
see Monster Appendix A
). This being was unable to
affect the outside world as neither Janos nor Willic ever put it into
the proximity of any corpses. However, once Master Brambletoe
brought it into the hall, it began to awaken the desiccated bodies
of the petty priest king, his queen and the entombed servants in
the catacombs below. Once revived, they arose late in the evening
during Willic’s grand party; to the horror of the assembled guests.
Curious about this unexpected find, Willic dismissed his workers
and explored the room in great detail. There was no tomb, no
sepulchre and no treasures (a great disappointment to Willic).
The halfling determined that whoever it had been built for, it
was obviously being used by no one. Only the strange bas-relief
carvings on the walls gave any indication of the age and builders of
this ancient crypt.
As a result, the people of Newbriar are paralyzed with terror. Many
of their finest citizens were in Brambletoe’s Hall when the undead
awoke, and no one in town has seen any of the guests return from
Brambletoe’s Hall since that evil night (over two weeks from when
the party of adventurers arrive). Of the few brave souls that have
trekked to the hall to determine the fate of their fellows, none have
returned. Desperate to solve this riddle, a call was made to hire
brave adventurers to enter the hall and discern what happened to
the halflings within. Your party have answered the call.
So Willic stared and thought. With some minor work the barrow
would make a fine home for Willic The vertical shaft could be
made into a fireplace, the circular room squared on the sides with
interior walls that would create side rooms flanking the great hall
and a door built through the hill at the front would provide access.
All at a vast savings of money and work for Master Brambletoe
Shadows of the Halfling Hall 3
4 Castles & Crusades
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