Mayhem at the World's End

Set Up

* The PCs are approached by a merchant from the Bandit Kingdoms who offers them 1,000 gp apiece to disrupt a meeting between a rival weapons supplier and an important customer. He wants his rival done away with, and the customer brought to him for interrogation.

* The PCs are approached by the powers-that-be in Greyhawk City (or Urnst, Furyondy, etc.). They want the supply of Bandit Kingdom weapons headed south to an unnamed power (the Scarlet Brotherhood) stopped, and are willing to pay the PCs to kill or capture the dealer and his customer.

The Lair

The meeting of Reiken Sarios, an assassin, and Ragnar Gundersson takes place in the World's End Tavern, a notorious establishment in the worst part of the city. Many areas within the tavern are keyed on the map without elaboration below (such as the kitchens, bathrooms, linen store, etc.). You can add details here as you need easily enough. Details are given here for important areas and the NPCs inside them.

Important events are given for the evening when the PCs tum up to find out about the meetmg between the weapons supplier and his customer. You may adjust the timing of important events to add dramatic impact and to mess up the carefully laid plans of the PCs. Just when the PCs have devised some ingenious plan for getting into the meeting (e.g a burly male fighter PC taking in a tray of ales disguised as a serving wench), you can throw them a curve (by having Sir Semil lon Rallintane of Willip pinch the rump of the "strapping serving wench" as he arrives to confront his wife).

Also. detailed profiles are given only for major PCs. You can add richness by detailing minor PCs if you wish.

The PCs must make careful and subtle inquiries to find out what exactly is going on here. There are no signs posted to say who is meeting whom and doing what in the World's End, and they may have to talk to serving girls, offensively drunk customers, crotchety deaf misers, a troll, and the like, to find out just where the meeting is. They cannot just use gross violence. There is a City Watch patrol in this area, although it' s slow to turn up. PCs have to use hit-and-run tactics after finding where Sarios and Gundersson are meeting and striking at them. The Watch will not disturb a fight with Sarios, but it turns up fast if the PCs attack ordinary folk.

Area 21. The Major Action: There are guards in each of rooms 19 and 20. in the service of Ragnar Gundersson. who emerge at the least sign of trouble.

Guards (2): AC 4 (chain and shield MV 12: F4: hp 20. 27; THAC0 17: #AT 1; Dmg 1d8 (long sword): AL NE: XP 120 each

In the main suite. Sarios and his female traveling companion Sharmel Tautasi are discussing supply, times, prices, and the like of weapons to be shipped to the Scarlet Brotherhood. Sarios wants hundreds of top-quality swords, bows, and the like. Why he wants them, and the details of the deal, can be adjusted to the circumstances of ongoing campaigns.

Briefly. Reiken is 31, 5' 11", with black hair and brown eyes, of strong build: Sharmel is 28, 5' 8", with light auburn hair, green eyes, and of slender build: Rangar is 25, 6' 4" , with light blond hair and blue-grey eyes and is built like a brick outhouse.

Reiken has a coffer with a down payment for the weaponry (some of which is to be magical this contains 1,500 pp. If you wish, Reiken may also have a note from Alesh Marin (see Greyhawk Adventures) authorizing payment of these Scarlet Brotherhood funds to him, which can initiate further adventures!

These three do their best to slay any intruders; they are alert and vigilant. After a Little melee, they try to get outside (through the windows, with climb walls ability and winged boots), so that they can sip at the potion of invisibility and backstab PCs coming out to pursue them. These three are vengeful, violent people; once the PCs attack. they had best defeat these three or they will never be seen alive agam!

Either the PCs down these wily conspirators at the first attempt, or these evil characters will return with help to slay the PCs later. (This could be the start of an interesting long-term relationship!)

Terrain: Tavern

Total Party Levels: 36 (Average 6th)

Total gp: 7,500

Monster XP: 1,905

Area 2. The Main Bar: This is decorated with trophies of the landlord Hendrik Fardrin's many hunting trips to the far north - the "Wbrld's End" after which the tavern is named. Twin yeti heads flank a winter wolfs head and tail, and a stuffed remorhaz head in a glass case is a good conversation piece.

The place is always full of drunks, smoke, beer and ale, and lowlife. Hendrik and his barmen. Hargreth and Corroben, keep good order; the presence of Hendrik's two-handed sword +3. frostbrand above the bar helps in this respect. Hendrik is a 7th-level fighter with 50 hp, while Hargreth and Corroben are 3rd-level fighters with 18 hp. Each wears studded leather, has 17 Strength, and is of neutral alignment. The barmen use clubs as weapons.

Hendrik knows what's going on in all the private rooms here. The barmen know some of this; you should determine how much they know (they won't know much in the way of detail), and under what conditions they talk about this. Similarly. one or two folk in the main bar, or the small bar (Area 10) inhabited by old fogies, may know a smattering of scandal about the place. A very deaf, very crotchety old woman with an incontinent dog knows that a "jennulman from Furry yondy is cummin' 'ere later, a real noble jennulman," because she knows the chambermaid at the Mansion Hotel where he is staying, to whom he mentioned that he has important business here later tonight. Work up hints, have fun giving the PCs some fact and some embellished nonsense.

Area 11. The Private Bar: I lere priests of Olidammara are having a Fun Night. A steady stream of ale, wines, huge trays of steaming sausages and pies, minstrels, dancing girls. serving wenches, and jesters pour into the room. Very merry priests emerge at regular intervals to use the bathroom.

You are strongly urged to populate this area with lots of CN priests whose main desire (apart from self-indulgence) is to enjoy themselves at the expense of strangers and foreigners by (mostly) harmless pranks and spell usage.

Stair Guards: At the top of each flight of stairs sits a large, bored man wearing studded leather, with club and dagger. He does not admit people upstairs without good reason - gambling, a liaison with one of the good-time girls of the house, etc. This requires the OK of the landlord or a barman. Each bouncer is a 5th-level fighter with 18/80 Strength and 55 hit points, not to be tangled with lightly. They may be bribeable (DM option).

Area 13. Gambling Den: Five ordinary folk (3rd-level fighters in studded leather with short swords) are playing card games here, with a chum who got polymorphed in physical form (but not mentally) into a troll. He likes being a troll. OK, you don't get the girls, but nobody picks a fight with you, and you can pull your own legs off for a party trick quite safely. At some stage during the evening the troll decides that one of his chums has cheated and he gets angry and disgruntled, and drunk, then shouts, and finally gets really hostile with anyone in the way. The troll has 25 hp but is otherwise a standard troll.

Areas 14 and 18. Boudoirs : Ladies of the house do their entertaining here. The important point is that a stream of girls and visitors are entering and leaving these rooms at fairly regular intervals so just hanging around in the corridors, etc .. cannot go undetected for long.

Area 17. The Wicked Lady: Here, Lady Fiona Rallintane is meeting her lover Hegar Mageddis for a tryst. Unfortunately. her husband Sir Semillon Rallintane of Willip has found out about this and arrives at some point during the evening with a pair of thugs in tow (4th-level fighters with studded leather and clubs) to give Hegar a good beating. This is prefaced by a loud admonition in his unfortunately lisping voice ("You have been willingly wavished by this wascal, my deawest"), which everyone nearby will hear and either come out to watch or jeer. Also. Hegar is an 8th-level fighter (AC 6 in studded leather, 47 hp, his long sword + 1 by his side) with gauntlets of ogre power that he slips on before throwing Semillon 's thugs (followed by Semillon) down the stairs. If there's a PC around, Semillon offers at least 1,000 gp for giving Hegar a thrashing.