Endless Night: The Astral Graveyard

ENDLESS NIGHT

A Fantasy Core Adventure

© Jerry Harris 2014

Published here as Open Game Content.

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The Astral Graveyard

Description: The characters appear in a foggy, nighttime, full moon, Hollywood set-like graveyard.  Of course the characters see several open graves with their names on the tombstones.  They also see graves for any of the characters lost during the adventure.  I’m sure we’re all seeing where this is heading.  Underneath a pair of large, dead trees is a short stairway leading to an ornate throne.  Upon it sits, the Goblin Queen.

Status: Wide open, like an open grave.

Inhabitants: Natasha the Goblin Queen, her two (?) pet Drakes, and some pissed off dead Characters.

Objective: Defeat the Goblin Queen’s attendants and win the gold.  Award 3 XP for this final encounter.  This counts as a major accomplishment.

Natasha sits on an elevated dais upon a highly Gothic-looking throne, attended by two small pet dragons.  “You’re here for the treasure?  I thought as much all along.  Well, you’ll have to go through them to get it.”  Crawling out of the graves are all of the dead and reserve characters from the adventure.  Natasha motions to her dragons to join the fight, and it’s on.

It’s impossible to know what the character party’s composition is by this point in the adventure.  There should be at least four.  Use a 5 HD Elven, Goblin, Gillman, or Ghoul hero to round out the group, if needed.  Adjust the number of dead character opponents (or even Drakes) so that the party isn’t outnumbered by more than double.

This fight will probably get confusing, since you’ll be running a party of characters instead of monsters.  Given that the dead characters are dead, I wouldn’t play them terribly smartly, the Drakes as well.  (Natasha will not want her pets fighting to the death, at less than 10 hp they fly off at her command).  But, you should know your group pretty well by now and what they’re capable of, even playing the wrong characters.  (Certainly, the players will be highly motivated to beat you in this encounter, and possibly physically afterward.)  You might want any additional characters killed here to join the fight on the other side, or not.  I also have the dead Characters having only ½ their hp to move things along quicker, but go full if you think it’s necessary (but make the decision before the fight starts).

Natasha will not join the fight.  (The group is no match for her at this point in their lives.)  She’ll only applaud or taunt the characters and their actions.  If she’s attacked, in the unlikely event she’s hit and takes damage, she’ll simply fire a Magic Missile at the offender in a huff, “How dare you!  You miserable worm!”  No, the only way to win this is to kill off the dead Characters and Drakes.  

Goblin Queen Natasha

10^th level Wizard, Hp 60, AC 20 (+2 Protection Ring, Permanent Shield spell, blocks any Magic Missiles), Permanent Reflection Spell (see below),

Enhanced Init +4

Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +11

Melee: Does not engage in melee

Ranged: Natasha owns an assortment of magic wands, none of which come into play here.

Reflection Spell (Unique spell): Any hit (melee, ranged, magic) that does not roll at least a natural 16 and up is reflected back on the attacker.  

Spellcheck +9 to cast, DC 17 Save Against, 3 failures per turn/encounter

Has a full assortment of powerful, high-level spells, but will only be using this one in the encounter.

1^st level, DC 13

Magic Missile: 13 impact damage + Knocked down. (Ref Sv all damage) Short range.

Dead Characters

All stats and weapons the same, but half their hp.

Drake (Brutus, Butch)

HD 7 (d12), Hp 59, AC 18 (natural)

Fort +7, Ref +6, Will +6

Melee: Talon +10 to hit 2d6+4 and bite +10 to hit 2d8+4

Ranged: Fire Blast 3d6 fire damage + 1d6 continuing until extinguished, DC 12 Ref Sv ½ damage, once per encounter

Can Fly

Afterward

Natasha applauds the remaining characters, “Well played.”  She snaps her fingers and suddenly a pile of riches appears before them, “Your reward.”  Suddenly, the group reappears in the real world, at the house entrance, with the treasure.  (And bodies switched back.)  There’s 100K in gold (coins or bars) and another 100k in gems and jewels.  Also of this is in 20 wooden boxes and chests.  If any of the residents from the house joined the party, they take their cut, and disappear back into the Astral Plane. 

Fairy gold always comes with complications.  If this is part of an on-going campaign, the first problem is going to be how to move this very heavy stash and where to.  From there, there’s no telling who’s going to suddenly be after them for the treasure.  Earthly Goblins and Elves are likely candidates.  Somebody is also probably going to notice the characters moving a bunch of stuff out of the house.  That’ll cause rumors around town.  Until the characters figure out how to spend this wad, they should be in constant jeopardy of losing it and living very nervous lives.

If not part of a campaign, as soon as the group’s made an initial count of the booty, suddenly Natasha appears.  Leaning over the pile of gold and stroking it, she purrs, “I’ve got a proposition for another adventure.  How about double or nothing?”  And you’ve got your hook for a follow up adventure.