Dungeon Interludes

Dungeon Crawl Classics #14: Dungeon Interludes (Goodman Games) is a series of six short, connected v.3.5 adventures designed to be run in between other adventures in a campaign. 

Credits (p. 1)

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Table of Contents (p. 1)

No notes.

Introduction (p. 2)

pp. 2-3, Background Story: The text here describes Skullshank as a human, but both his statue (p. 57, Area 5-7) and his stat block (p. 71, Area 6-8) indicate that he is a gnome.

Chapter 1: The Eye of Night (p. 4)

p. 4, Scaling Information: In the third paragraph, "fiend template" should be "fiendish template".

pp. 10-13, Area 1-7 -- Blood Whisker's Lair: In the italic read-aloud text on p. 11, the pile of rats is in the southwest corner (according to the map inside the front cover).

    See the note to p. 76, Players' Handout C.

pp. 12-13, Thistle: His alignment is given as LE, but druids must be at least partially neutral in alignment. Thornbloods (pp. 73-74) are usually neutral, so Thistle should be as well.

    Thistle's animal companion is dying but not yet dead, so "remains" is misleading.

Chapter 2: The Defiled Sanctuary (p. 15)

pp. 24-25, Area 2-10 -- Blessings-Be Ossuary: Under Aftermath, "potions of holy water" should be "vials of holy water".

Chapter 3: The Hunter of Worlds (p. 26)

Xill lay eggs in their victims, which heavily implies that all members of the race are female. [This is, in fact, made explicit, in the Pathfinder RPG.] T'Klack should probably be referred to as female rather than male.

pp. 30-31, Area 3-4 - Martial Trophy Room: As a non-humanoid elemental, an invisible stalker is not proficient with any weapons other than its natural weapons. This means that it suffers a -4 nonproficiency penalty to all weapon attacks, plus a -2 penalty for using a weapon one size category smaller that its size. It also lacks any special skill with two-weapon fighting, so cannot make two weapon attacks without hefty penalties. It can however, make two iterative attacks as a full attack (at a base of +10/+5 before any weapon penalties are applied). To offset these penalties, the DM may wish to replace one of its feats with Martial Weapon Proficiency with one of the listed weapons.

    All of this, of course, assumes that an invisible stalker has hands capable of wielding weapons, which is unclear from the description in the Monster Manual. 

pp. 31-32, Area 3-5 - Spoils of Conquest: The text does not say which Craft skills the 5 sets of masterwork artisan's tools are for.

pp. 33-34, Area 3-7 - Museum of Flesh: The golems' Hide +15 seems high, even for the excellent circumstances in this room. (They normally have a -5 modifier due to Dex and size.)

    In the last sentence, "area 3-9" should be "area 3-8".

pp 34-36, Area 3-8 - Exsanguination Laboratory: In the first paragraph of of the read-aloud text, the room is not a carbon-copy of the museum above; it is 40 x 45, not 60 x 45.

p. 35, Dae Shar: Dae Shar's stat block does not given his maximum hit points, which should be 38 (maximum hp at 1st, average after). 

    The main text does not mention his scalpel; assume that he has either hidden it before the party enters, or palms it after he recoveres from his paralysis. In either case, make a Sleight of Hand check against the PCs' Spot. If the scalpel is identical to the scalpels in the ochre jelly's treasure (masterwork Small kukri), then his attack bonus should be +9 (Base Atk +5, +5 Dex, +1 masterwork, -2 undersized weapon).

    Disguise is a prerequisite for the assassin prestige class, but no Disguise skill is listed.

p. 37, T'Klack, the Hunter of Worlds: A +1 longbow and +1 arrow do not stack, and the bow will impart its magic to the ammunition, so having the xill's non-bane arrows be magical grants no benefit, and makes him wastes expensive ammunition. 

Chapter 4: The Dunerain Mines (p. 38)

p. 39, Background Story: In the fifth paragraph, insert 'the" before "ogre mage".

p. 39, Area 4-1 - The Dunerain Path: The text states that the party starts at the edge of the tree line, 100 feet away from the cave entrance, but that the entrance is 100 ft. above the ground below.  If the ramp goes 100 ft. forward and 100 ft., that is a 45 degree angle, far too steep for any cart traffic. Also, a potential 100-foot drop from the top of the ramp (for 10d6 damage) would likely be fatal to many 4th-6th level characters. Either make the ramp twice as long (giving the guards more time to spot the intruders), or reduce the height of the entrance by half. 

p. 47, Burm, Fiendish Dire Rat: Improved Familiar allows for either a dire rat familiar or a fiendish rat familiar, but not a fiendish dire rat familiar. It makes more sense for Burm to be a fiendish (normal) rat, in order to resist fire damage in the gas-filled tunnels.

    A familiar is treated as having either its normal HD (1/4 for a rat or 1 for a dire rat) or as many HD as its master's character level, whichever is higher. Change "HD 2d8+2" to HD 9 (die type and modifiers don't apply, since hp are half the master's).

pp. 47-48, Area 4-9 - Skullshank's Crystal Tomb: No value is given for the 15-ft. mithral chain. A normal chain is 10 ft., 30 gp, 2 lbs., or 15 gp and 1 lb. per 5 ft., so 15 ft. would be 45 gp and 3 lbs. Mithral (per DMG, page 284) adds +500 gp/lb. to the cost of gear other than weapons and armor, and weighs half as much as a normal item. Therefore, 15 ft. of mithral chain would be worth 1,545 gp and weigh 1.5 lbs.

Chapter 5: The Sinking Spire (p. 49)

p. 50, Player Beginning: In the third paragraph, "wrinkle" makes no sense; substitute "rank smell".

pp. 50-51, The Sinking Spire: In the last bullet item under Tower Condition, "attacker's" should be attacker". The standard d20 rules do not include critical failures for attack rolls, so ignore this last item unless the campaign is using some sort of critical fumble rules.

pp. 51-52, Area 5-1 - The Tower Clearing: In the last sentence of the read-aloud text, "molding" should be "moldering".

pp. 52-53, Area 5-2 - The Observatory: Under Tactics, italicize "blackened pearl of ages" in the DC 20 bullet item.

p. 52, Tarfoot, Young Adult Black Dragon: He has one too many 1st-level spells known. Delete obscuring mist. (He can get a similar effect from his darkness spell-like ability, and he needs to keep ray of enfeeblement so that he can recharge his ring.)

pp. 54-55, Area 5-4 - Chaos Laboratory: Under Aftermath, the journal title, "The Darkened Sky" should either be in quotes (as "The Gate of Flames" is in Area 5-3) or italics.

p. 55, Rust Monster Antennae Trap: This trap does not give mechanics for avoiding the touch of the antennae. It is a CR 3 trap (same as a rust monster), so making an attack as if the tapestry was a rust monster (Attack +6 touch) would seem appropriate, possibly with a +2 circumstance bonus of the trap has not yet been detected.

p. 56, Deadeye the Imp: Imps are normally CR 2, HD 3d8, Con 10, so Deadeye has been advanced by adding 3 racial HD. This is not enough to grant him any ability score increases, so change his stats to: HD 6d8; hp 36; Fort +4; Con 10. His skills have not been advanced for his extra HD; add +3 to each of his skills except for Survival. Deadeye's hyena alternate form is not normally an option for imps; it is unique to him.

p. 57, Gargoyle: This gargoyle has been advanced from 4 HD to 6, so change "Gargoyle" to "Advanced Gargoyle".

p. 58, Odolan and Virkus, The Tiefling Thieves: Insert "Spd" after "Init +5;". 

    Under Possessions, delete "(per rogue)". (Their gear is far superior to what is given in the sample NPC rogue table in the Dungeon Master's Guide.) The +1 shortbow and +1 arrows will not stack, so make the arrows nonmagical (or replace them with arrows of special materials). Add masterwork thieves' tools (for a +2 to Disable Device and Open Locks).

p. 59, Area 5-10 - A Sticky Situation: The blackened pearl of ages can be found here, but the item's full name is never given in this room's entry.

Chapter 6: The War of the Summoner (p. 60)

pp. 61-63, Area 6-1 - The Fortress Grounds: The benefits of the protection from good aura are not reflected in the devils' stat blocks.

    The bearded devils were summoned by the erinyes, so ignore the "CR 5" in their stat block; the party gains no XP from defeating them. The GM may wish to award XP for this encounter as if the erinyes' CR was 1 higher, in order to reflect the effect of the fortress's protection from good aura and her enhanced summon ability.

pp. 63-, Area 6-2 - The Elemental Corridors: Replace "read magic" with 'comprehend languages" (the runes are magical creations, but not in the language of magic).

p. 71, Skullshank the Summoner: His Init should be +3 with Dex 17.

Appendix 1: New Items and Monsters (p. 73)

pp. 73-74, Thornblood: Under Thornblood Characters, plant is a creature type, not a subtype. As a plant, it would make sense for a thornblood to gain Sylvan as a second automatic language rather than as a bonus language.

p. 74, Vapor Demon: Vapor demons are very similar in appearance and abilities to belkers, but their attacks are defined differently, and they are only Medium-sized.

    Hit Points should be 44 (average for 8d8+8).

Appendix 2: Player Handouts (p. 75)

p. 76, Players' Handout C: The point of view of this illustration is from inside the room, not from the entrance. The picture should be mirrored so that the crates are on the right, the pile of rats on the left.

Maps (p. 83 [and inside covers])

p. 84, Chapter 4: The Dunerain Mines [map]: See the notes to p. 39, Area 4-1. 

p. 85, Chapter 5: The Sinking Spire [map]: Area 5-4 does not show a precise location for the intact cylinder.

p. 87, Chapter 6: War of the Summoner [map]: This map is presumably at the same 1 square = 10 feet scale as the other Chapter 6 map on p. 86.

    In area 6-8, there are two floor sections labeled "water". Change the lower right quadrant to "air" (to match the order of the entrances on the map for area 6-1 (p. 86).

[inside back cover], Chapter Two: The Defiled Sanctuary [map]: The map does not clearly mark the entrance to area 1, which consists of the south edge of the room.

Open Game License (p. 88)

No notes.