Baedric's Labyrinth: A Role-Playing Adventure

By Michael Kellington and Larissa Ezell

Explore a ruined castle in search of an evil hobbit and his ill-gotten treasures! From catacombs and underwater tunnels to comfortable cave suites, and ruins of a once-great city, this delightful adventure promises surprise and a little humor for the intrepid party in search of fame, glory, and revenge...

Designed for seasoned

• Language: English
• Publisher: Astral Moon Creations
• Release date: Jul 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9781733591256

Michael Kellington

Michael Kellington has written adventures for role-playing for most of his life. From early childhood, he has been passionate about the story and devoted to his friends' enjoyment and success. A trial attorney practicing in Southern Oregon for over twenty-five years, he has twin daughters who occupy his heart and time. Michael considers himself a student of history and a purveyor of fun.

Book preview

Baedric_9781733591201.jpgBaedric’s Labyrinth: A Role-Playing Adventure; 4th to 6th Level Characters; By Michael Kellington; Illustrated by Larissa Ezell

BAEDRIC’S LABYRINTH

UPDATED EDITION

COPYRIGHT © 2023 ASTRAL MOON CREATIONS

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

HARDCOVER ISBN: 978-1-7335912-0-1

E-BOOK ISBN: 978-1-7335912-5-6

PUBLISHED BY ASTRAL MOON CREATIONS

MEDFORD, OREGON, USA

COVER DESIGN BY LARISSA EZELL

LAYOUT DESIGN & EDITING BY PLUMB CREATIVE

ADAPTED FOR EBOOK BY KELLY BRENNAN

WWW.ASTRALMOONCREATIONS.COM

Table of Contents

Introduction

Initial Encounter

Encounter 1: Sapphire Grotto

Encounter 2: Weird Triangular Portal

Pendulum Trap and the Acid Pool

Bottomless Pit

Portcullis Traps

Encounter 3: Sparkly Cave

Encounter 4: Haunted Cave

Underwater Tunnels (Map)

Octopus’ Garden (4)

Prismatic Stone

Scarlet Mist (8K)

Secret Cache

Tiny Cave (3)

Turbid Swirl

Cleopatra’s Cove (14)

Private Paradise (19)

Secret Tunnel (9)

Encounter 5: Rainbow Lake

Rainbow Lake and Catacombs (Map)

Encounter 6: The Sentinel

Encounter 7: Megacarcinus Magister

Encounter 8: The Catacombs

Casket a

Casket b

Coffin c

Coffin d

Sarcophagus e

Casket f

Sarcophagus g

Coffin h

Sarcophagus i

Bier j

Tomb k

Coffin l

Encounter 9: Secret Cave

Encounter 10: Baedric’s Suite

Baedrics Suite (Map)

Entry/Foyer

Encounter 11: Feast Hall

Encounter 12: Lacuna

Encounter 13: Secret Room

Encounter 14: Library

Encounter 15: Summoning Chamber

Encounter 16: Garrison

Encounter 17: Painted Hallway

Encounter 18: Dining Area

Encounter 19: Drake’s Pit

Encounter 20: Stairway Up

Ocean View

Black Beach

Outside Encounters (Map)

Byeloyarsk (White Cliffs)

Ruins

Keep Tower

Secret Cove

Second Level

Baedric’s Room

Second Level (Map)

Pool

Rec-Room

Laboratory

Private Library

Arboretum

presentational

Introduction

Once upon a time, only a few centuries ago, there lived a Halfling King named Mohdel who ruled over an enormous castle city on a peninsula known as Soot’s Point. The people of his city were resourceful and inventive, and through benevolent leadership and steady labor, they grew wealthy and comfortable.

One day, an event visited King Mohdel which occurs to Halflings but once a generation, the birth of a child with two distinct, beautiful, thinking seeing heads. It is known that Halflings share giant’s blood; as such they suffer the birth of a tiny Ettin every 100 years or so. The infant was name Baedric Quadoculus, and he was loved and cherished by his doting parents, despite his odd appearance, and early on, cruel tendencies and devious plottings.

Baedric was instructed alongside his older brothers Rory and Betel. The three boys were taught the arts, literature of the day (including memorization of hymns, songs, chants, and poems), geology and geography, a crude form of Euclidean geometry, and languages—common, undercommon, elfin, Ogrish, Dwarven, Hill Giant (and Ettin, in the case of little Baedric, who struggled to get along with his classmates, largely because he tortured them incessantly).

Rory had chosen clerical arts, and he had mastered their mysteries by the time he was a hundred and twenty. Betel was a fighter and born leader; the people loved him. Baedric impressed his tutors by understanding and executing magical spells, which by his 90th birthday included illusions as a forte and some time-oriented spells, although the information gets hazy from here.

Some centuries ago, then, the king passed, and legend tells that Baedric’s followers assassinated Betel, the eldest (and most dearly loved) brother, only hours later. Rory took to flight. Baedric’s twin-serpent flag flew the next morning over the turrets, and the people took to the street in protest and horror over the fratricide, the blatant seizure of the throne, and the demoralizing exodus of Rory, who had been so proud and pompous only days before from the pulpit. Baedric appeared on the tall turret’s slotted rampart, with only a curious smile on both his angelic faces.

That night, a terrible foul wind swept through the city, a stench covered in death, that sought out holes and pipes, sewers, and drains. In the morning, the town had no life. Crows and pigeons lay in the streets; hosts of worms and snails dried in the morning sun, people lay open-eyed dead in their beds. Baedric then spent weeks summoning trolls with wings, giant crabs and sharks, all manner of devilish and demonic things, to populate his newly vacant city.

For years this evil passed un-avenged, and only whispers of Rory’s sightings served to remind the mainland of the outrage committed at Soot’s Point. The devastation of the proud people, and the ruthless murder of Baedric’s brother, stuck in the memories of folks long after the travesty. Rory wept in isolation and gathered all that was holy to him in a crusade of revenge that costs thousands of gold and hundreds of priests.

At an appointed time, therefore, Rory and his clerics called upon the gods to bring down vengeance on the monster Baedric had become, and it came to pass that an ocean wave, formed at the base of the peninsula, gathered height and strength as it traveled, until it crashed down on the castle city fully three hundred feet above the tallest towers in the keep. All was lost. The castle lay ruined in the water, drowned demons and mutilated trolls strewn across the island. Even the peninsula broke—the place is now an island, almost 2000 feet from the shore of the mainland. Rory became blind somehow from the exertion of the spell, but was pleased with his success.

Had he seen what was underneath the castle, he would have been convinced the deed was undone. Tunnels and pathways, passageways from the sheer face abutting the sea, pockmarked the side of the newly formed cliff, sheared anew from the force of the crashing wave. Caverns and winding catacombs lay beyond those cliff-face tunnels, and certainly the dreaded Baedric made his escape there.

Topside the destruction is nearly complete. The castle is ruined, the keep torn in half, with the north face thrown entirely into the ocean, so that its giant blocks can be seen in the morning sun through the clear water of the Southlands Sea. Trolls and other