The Formanthyr Hotel

The Town of Wellington Cross

Wellington Cross is a drearily ordinary town on a crossroads between Atur and Vedykar (Central Karrnath; North of the Nightwood and south of the Ashen Spires). In reality, it can be moved anywhere in Eberron with minimal changes. Currently, Kythri is coterminus with Eberron, causing strange things to happen everywhere. It will only be coterminus for the night the PCs are in Wellington cross.

The Homesteads

Wellington cross has around 10 family houses sprinkled about the edges of town. Each house is a modest one story affair, and have dirt floors and huge hearths. The families who live in them are generally the cheerless norm of Karrnath, ever strong in the face of the recent plagues and war.

DM's Note: No family will allow the PCs inside willingly. They are a proud people, so make your PCs roll the intimidate checks if they want to barge their way in. Otherwise, the answer is a non-confrontational but polite "No."

The MacDegral General Store

A normal general store. It is supplied with all manner of sundries. Jerald MacDegral is your average storekeeper. In my games, the people of Karrnath reflect a Western Russian way of life, so Jerald is a big man with brown hair and blue eyes. His voice is deep and comforting, but he bargains as if he spent his life in Sharn.

DM's Note: Keep track of what the PCs buy here. It'll be important later.

The Formanthyr Hotel

Exterior

The Formanthyr Hotel was once a prosperous inn. It has begun to slip into ruin as people have stopped using one of the roads through the area (Ostensibly because a few towns to the north were wiped out by plague and famine during the war). It is a two story building, painted a seafoam green that is fading into a stately gray. Attached is a small stable that is currently empty.

Interior

The common room is 40' by 40', with a large fireplace smudged black with ash and a bar along the opposite wall from the front door. Behind the bar are shelves (currently mostly empty) of liquor, and a door into the kitchen. The bar (and the inn) is manned by Kevil Mirdlana, an older man with wispy white hair on his head, and a patchy white beard. He is gruff but friendly, and does not overcharge PCs for a stay, (2g per room, DC 20 Diplomacy brings him down to 1g 50c per room). There are four rooms(each 10' by 20') upstairs. The common room floor is scattered about with tables and chairs. The tables have tattered and soiled green and white checkerboard tablecloths on them, and all of the chairs are rickety and creak when sat in.

Sweet Dreams at the Formanthyr Hotel

Arrival

It's a typical fall day in Karrnath. Rain falls fitfully from a gloomy sky. The wind whips through the sparse trees and over the soggy ground. In the afternoon, the PCs notice (Spot DC 10) a small hamlet up ahead. Smoke rises from the chimneys of several houses and from a larger, faded green building in the center of town. As the PCs get closer to the town, the clouds thicken as the sky darkens, and fat, cold raindrops start to fall.

The common room

Eventually the PCs will wander into the Hotel. Let them wander about town if they want. Try to drive home the sense of an ordinary small town that has seen better days. However, while they're wandering around, mention that the wind is dying down, and the raindrops keep falling faster and harder. When the PCs enter the hotel, their senses are assaulted: the flickering fire sends deep shadows and orange lights spinning across the room, meshing eerily with the torches on the walls; the smell of spiced potatoes and roast beef are laced with a musty smell of old beer and old wood; they hear a murmuring from the few patrons scattered amongst the common room. The people here are all locals, gruff and introverted. They'll grudgingly talk to PCs, but they're suspicious of strangers. A PC that buys a round for the house can get them to talk a little more, but they have little to say beyond the condition of their fields and how things aren't like the good old days.

Slowly, the NPCs will wander out, grunting their ritual goodbies to Kevil. Kevil waits for a half an hour after the last villager leaves, and then, yawning, closes up shop.

"You kids have a good night's rest. I'll have breakfast for you in the morning." So saying, he locks the kitchen, puts on his hat and coat, and steps out the front door.

(His house is one of the small houses nearby, since he demands payment up front, he doesn't care if his visitors leave or not, as the only thing he loses is money for the morning meal.)

Sleeping arrangements

Unless the PCs tend it, the fire will go out in an hour or so. If someone tends it, then it will provide shadowy illumination for an hour or two, and then it slowly dies down into embers, which can be kept alive all night if tended. If the PCs all sleep in their room, that's great. If not (especially if they have warforged in the party), don't try to coerce them up there, the story will come to them whether they go to their room or not.

If the PCs search the other rooms, they find them empty, and identical to their own rooms.

Cries in the night

Late in the night, the PCs hear a person begging for mercy in another room (DC 0, sleeping characters recieve a -10) of the hotel. As the PCs focus on the noise, read or paraphrase the following:

"No no no, no, don't take her... take me instead... please... you've got to listen to me... she's all I've got left," someone sobs loudly in the Halfling tongue. Outside, half drowning out the words in the other room, the wind outside the hotel picks up again. You shiver as the wind hits the sides of the house and shakes the shutters. The roof is leaking. Drops of water begin falling, spattering into your face at inopportune moments. The wind gusts again, and your hair flutters like cobwebs in the dark.

If the PCs can see in the dark, or if they have a light source, add the following:

In fact, the roof isn't just leaky, it's gone. Mouldering boards and skeletal rafters give way to nothing but the rainy sky, which mercifully has calmed some from its earlier downpour. Large holes from warped boards and countless years of regret let the wind right through the walls of the Hotel, chilling you to the bone.

A cursory Investigate check (Search DC 20) will show that this sight is a natural result of at least five to ten years of abandonment and neglect.

If there are PCs downstairs, read the following:

The wind sweeps through the walls unexpectedly, causing the remaining embers of the fire to brighten slightly. Something clatters, a sound like a bag full of wood slats being shaken furiously approaches the door. With a sickening sound, the rotting wood of the door breaks apart like putty and sloughs to the side. The clattering reaches a terrible crescendo as what seems an endless amount of skeletons dashes through the door.

If there are no PCs downstairs:

Suddenly, all around the hotel, there is a chattering whisper that grows in intensity. Downstairs, a crash is heard, and a great number of things clatters around downstairs.

The skeletons will not go upstairs unless they can see the PCs on the stairs. (The stairs connect at the southwest corner of the common room, at the end of the bar. They are 10' wide).

24 Human Warrior Skeletons (an easy EL 6) (Use the ones from the MM) (After they have been destroyed, a DC 5 search check finds a 80gp jade medallion inside each of the skeletons' ribcages.)

Something is out there

At this point, the PCs are probably about ready to high-tail it out of town. Let them come to this conclusion on their own, but be sure to describe the old hotel creaking and groaning in the wind and rain. Eventually, the PCs will grab their gear and head outside. Make sure to describe the rotting, broken, and rusted things they "bought" from anyone in town earlier.

The town is very different than you remember it. The night rain whips past your ears on the heels of the wind as your eyes make out the hulking shapes of crumbling houses around you. Mud slurps underfoot as lightning cracks just outside of town. Down the road, some shapes lope into view in the flicker of your torchlight. Water slides off of green scaly backs as ten large lizards, each grinning through large teeth, scramble towards you in the mud.

Have the PCs roll initiative. Start the dinosaurs just outside of the limit of the PCs light source, and have them charge straight in. Try to make it so that the PCs get at least one action before they close. When the dinosaurs get in melee range, read the following:

The terrible lizards leap towards you, hind legs with wicked claws raised for quick evisceration of their prey. And then... they're past you... and gone... no trace aside from the footprints leading towards you.

Have every PC make a Will save DC 18. Those that fail to save are held as if hit by a Hold Person spell (CL 5).

Showdown

"Did you bring her back to me?" Something implores in the halfling tongue behind you. As you turn around, you notices, barely visible in the falling rain, a Talenta halfling in full plainsman guard. He looks at you plaintitavely, his eyes full of hope. Suddenly, he seems to realize something, and with a great moan of sorrow, he emits a keening moan.

After you resolve the Frightful Moan attack (DC 15 Will or panicked for 2d4 rounds), start the battle in earnest. After a round or two, have the Zombie Deinonychus (or Clawfoot as they're called in Eberron) hit one of the PCs that is either seperated from the group, or farthest in back.

Fiztha Milanar, Male Halfling Ghost Clr3: CR 5; Small Undead (Halfling,Augmented); HD 3d12(Cleric) ; hp 31; Init +2; Spd 15; AC:18 (Flatfooted:16 Touch:13); Atk +2 base melee, +5 base ranged; +2 (1d3+1, +1 Boomerang, Talenta); SA: Frightful Moan (Su) , Horrific Appearance (Su) , Manifestation (Su) , Corrupting Gaze (Su) , Draining Touch (Su) , Malevolence (Su) , Corrupting Touch (Su) ; SQ: Racial Traits: Undead, Immunity: Mind-Affecting Attacks (Ex), Immunity: Energy Drain (Ex), Immunity: Ability Drain (Ex), Immunity: Critical hits (Ex), Darkvision (Ex): 60 ft., Rejuvenation (Su), Immunity: Nonlethal Damage (Ex), Immunity: Paralysis (Ex), Immunity: Poison (Ex), Immunity: Fortitude Save-Based Attacks (Ex), Immunity: Raise Dead (Ex), Immunity: Disease (Ex), Immunity: Reincarnate (Ex), Resistance: Turn (Ex): +4, Immunity: Stun (Ex), Immunity: Ability Damage (Physical Scores), Immunity: Death from Massive Damage (Ex), Immunity: Sleep Effects (Ex), Immunity: Death Effects (Ex); RF: +2 Bonus on Saves vs. Fear, +1 attack bonus with thrown weapons; AL N; SV Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +6; STR 8, DEX 15, CON --, INT 12, WIS 14, CHA 19.

Skills: Climb -4, Concentration +6, Hide +9, Jump -10, Knowledge (Religion) +7, Listen +12, Move Silently -1, Search +9, Spellcraft +7, Spot +10.

Feats: Armor Proficiency: heavy, Armor Proficiency: light, Armor Proficiency: medium, Eschew Materials, Shield Proficiency, Simple Weapon Proficiency, Strong Mind.

Spells Prepared (Clr 4/3/2): 0 - Detect Magic x2, Light x2; 1st - Cause Fear, Command, Deathwatch; 2nd - Hold Person, Sound Burst.

Possessions (found in the saddlebags of the zombie clawfoot:

Weapons: +1 Boomerang, Talenta (2,315 gp).

Armor: Chainmail (300 gp).

Goods: Coin: gp (3) (3 gp); Holy symbol, silver (25 gp); Identification papers, standard (2 gp); Traveling papers (2 sp); Coin: sp (7) (7 sp); Bedroll (1 sp); Backpack (2 gp); Caltrops (1 gp); Case, map or scroll (1 gp).

Magic: Scroll: Unseen Servant (1), Alarm (1) (50 gp).

Fiztha, at least a decade ago, was part of a Talenta war party that inexplicably made it deep into Karrnath, where they were eventually captured and held in Wellington Cross. One of the war party happened to be Fiztha's eldest daughter, and he pled for her life to be spared. However, the Karrnathi, already harried on all sides by the other countries, the plague, and famine, just killed Fiztha first, and then all the others. The town never recovered from this mistake. Their cows went dry, their crops withered, and slowly, the people moved away or died of hardship. Recently, Wellington Cross has become home to a lot of random undead that have slipped the yoke of their creators in the area, and Fiztha's ghost has returned to search for the daughter he is sure that he saved.

Sa'el, Zombie Deinonychus: CR 3; Large Undead; HD 8d12+3; 55 hp; Init +1; Spd 60; AC:18 (Flatfooted:16 Touch:10); Atk +4 base melee; +9 (2d6+5, Rake; 1d8+5, Slam); SQ: Damage Reduction 5/Slashing(Ex), Single Actions Only (Ex); AL N; SV Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +6; STR 21, DEX 13, CON --, INT 1, WIS 10, CHA 1.

Feats: Toughness.

Aftermath

After the PCs defeat the Ghost, the town returns to its silent slumber. The rain continues falling, and the wind keeps blowing. The Mouldering hulks of the buildings sit, mute, in the dark, waiting for someone to discover their secrets. The Formanthyr Hotel raises its ugly green head in the rain, and seems at peace at last.

Plot hooks

• The party is just walking through the area anyway (The best, because they won't expect it).
• A Talenta Halfling is paying good money to find out what happened to a squad of clawfoot riders that made it deep beyond Karrnathi front lines during the war. He directs them to the general area.
• A Talenta Halfling girl is found murdered in an alleyway by the PCs. An Investigate (DC 10) check sees that she her body is reaching towards a pack a few yards down the alley. It is empty, but in a secret pocket is the note "Filitha, meet me at the Formanthyr Hotel, I have urgent business to discuss." Inquiries about a "Formanthyr Inn" in town yield no answers. A Research check (DC 20) at the town hall find evidence of Wellington Cross, and a successful Sense Motive (DC 15) will discover someone who is not telling them everything. A diplomacy check (DC 20) or an Intimidate check (DC 15) will give the PCs the general location of Wellington cross, but no real details of the area.