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| The abandoned building. The basilisks should all start in the central building. |
“Did I tell you the time that your mother and I escaped certain death? Adventuring is a risky business son and it has got nothing to do with how big your blade is most of the time. You have to go by your gut.
We were in the River Kingdoms, moving North through the Echo Wood when we came apon a series of ruins from a not so ancient castle. If you know the River Kingdoms like I do that is by no means a surprise to you but there was something about this set of ruins that put your Mother on edge. Now I was only travelling with your Mother for the first time and I was a couple of jack asses short of a merchant wagon if you catch my drift and I was full of bluff and bluster trying to get your Mother to notice me.
Your Mother caught me before I fell into a series of traps that had been set around a building, probably a guard house by the size of it. I thought I had finally caught her attention but she gave me such a tongue lashing that day that I have not heard since. The traps had been set by Rangers apparently and there were signs cut into the trees that surrounded that clearing warning of a certain death if you wandered too close.
I never knew what was there but I’ll tell you now that apart from the guard house there were some piles of stone all odd sizes and the funny thing was, on one of the big ones it looked just liked the foot of a hill giant. The rocks that made up the guard house was nearly all gone, unlike the rest of the ruins that only looked perhaps a little over ten years old and some of those rocks looked darn well chewed on. I thought she had over reacted, your Mother that is, but a passing group of treasure hunters went past us that same day. Three days later in the common area of a Tavern near Castle Urion we found a mercenary wearing the exact same sword as one of the treasure hunters.
The hunter, Theldon I think from memory, was a good sort and so I took exception to the cad from the unit. Your kind Mother stepped in again before the full company killed me and she found out that the blade and the equipment of the treasure seekers was found near that very same ruin. Covered in gravel the items were and there were signs of a struggle but not a sign of the victors or the vanquished. I was going to put it down to bandits until they clarified the point that even their coin purses was amongst the equipment.
Strange things in Echo Wood boy. And even more now I’ll hope you will heed your mother. She saved my life that day and I am forever indebted to her.”
Set in Stone CR 10 Encounter
This encounter is set in the lair of a colony of basilisks that have taken up residence in an old guard post of a ruined castle. Rangers have trapped the building itself as a warning to adventurers but you know what adventurer’s are like when they find a ruin to poke their noses into! You can either have the falling block trap occur on the building the basilisks lair in or a building that is close to the map but not apparent on the above map.
Falling Block Trap (CR 6) 2400 XP Click on the link for details from the PRD
Basilisk x 4 (CR 5) 1600 XP each. Click on the link for details from the PRD.
The basilisks are well fed creatures as this area sees a lot of traffic from treasure hunters and history buffs. They lair in the corner of the ruined building and cluster together when at rest. The basilisks will only move if someone actually comes past any of the previous victims (the rocks surrounding the building) and will not give chase if their quarry flees.
Treasure: 403 cp, 653 sp, 219 gp, pouch containg three pieces of cracked alabaster (11 gp each), Potion of Blur, Scroll of Aid, Wand of Divine Favour (19 charges)