Scenario #1 Game Maps:

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Cross-Section & Overland Map:

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Caves of the Yar-Gock Map:

Reverse Dungeon Caves of the Yar-Gock map.PNG (702.99 KiB) Viewed 1689 times

Table for Caves of the Yar-Gock Map:
Area 1.Communal Quarters
Area 2. Elite Warriors
Area 3. The Mogur
Area 4. The Gallery
Area 5. Shaman
Area 6. The Flint Works
Area 7. Watch Post
Area 8. The Side Door (east entrance)
Area 9. Women’s Workroom
Area 10. Children’s Playroom
Area 11. Shelf
Area 12. Flint Pit
Area 13. Sickroom
Area 14. Slave Pen
Area 15. Main Entrance (South Door)
Area 16. Flooded Room
Area 17. The Lower Passage
Area 18. The Upper Passage
Area 19. Above the Waterfall
Area 20. The Secret Door

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Caves of the Yar-Gock Area Descriptions:

Area 1: Communal Quarters

This large chamber, shaped like an inverted triangle, is the heart of the complex, the place where the goblins spend most of their time. Cooking, childrearing, socializing, eating, wrestling contests, mock battles, sleeping, lovemaking, and many other activities take place here; if the Mogur decides to call a meeting of the whole tribe, here is where it convenes, in the only room large enough to hold the entire population all at once. Three passages lead off, one to the east (ending in the side door), one to the west (ending eventually in the secret entrance), and one to the south (ending in the main entrance). In addition, a secret door is hidden in the middle of the west wall; all the goblins know it is here but dare not open it (area 20). The walls of the room slant inward, rising to meet in a small circular area at the center of the roof (that is, the whole chamber is shaped like a hollow three-sided pyramid, or the inside of a d4). An obvious trap door fills this circular area but, as it is 60 feet above the floor, no goblin has ever yet succeeded in reaching it to find out what lies beyond, although a few have broken their necks trying. Moving the tons of rubble is impossible from this side, but there is room for two or three small (goblin-sized) characters to haul themselves up and crouch in. This spot may serve as a hiding place for NPC adventurers, a sniper post from which to attack said intruders, or a trap (dropping a rope ladder directly beneath the trap door is sure to lure the adventurers into figuring out a way to open it for themselves, with possibly gratifyingly disastrous results). The room’s other features of interest include a stone chair carved into the north wall (the Mogur uses this on formal occasions, such as his address to the PCs in the opening scene), a midden-pit in the northeast corner (a filled pit strikingly like the one at area 12, full of cracked bones sucked dry of marrow, well-chewed scraps of hide or leather, and other refuse), and the former channel of the underground river along the west side. The rest of the tribe’s worldly possessions have been accumulated over the years as a result of various raids on passing caravans, the village, and the occasional adventurer that didn’t make it back out. These goods include a host of mismatched cookware and utensils (such as cracked pottery cups, bowls, and plates, an iron skillet or two, one large cooking kettle, a few dull butter knives, a rusty metal bucket, and two leaky wooden ones), a few poorly built barrels of various sizes, perhaps half a dozen woven baskets (in fairly poor condition), 60 feet of old, frayed rope in several pieces (no piece longer than 30 feet), a disintegrating fishing net, one small metal mirror (dented), some timbers and firewood, and lastly, enough well-used furs to serve as goblin sleeping pallets. Most of this stuff is either throwing around loose in the chamber, waiting to be used, or has been put to use in some fashion to aid in the day-to-day activities of the tribe (for example, pieces of rope hold a rickety tripod together from which the cooking kettle hangs).

Area 2: Elite Warriors

This small room, once a guardroom and torture chamber, is now home to the tribe’s elite warriors, who serve as bodyguards for the Mogur. When the adventure begins, there are four of these: Haebin, Kharf, Wogz, and Herpulh; after these are slain, the room remains empty unless the PCs become elite warriors and lay claim to it. No trace of the old torture equipment remains; the room is empty except for the soft furs used as sleeping pallets by the bodyguards and a few spare weapons. However, the old cell at the back of the room still has intact bars and a working lock. The key-a huge metal affair fully six inches long-is normally kept in the lock but is worn around the neck of one of the elite guards whenever the cell is in use. Unknown to the goblins, the cell has a secret door in the floor; opening it reveals a shaft with handholds cut into the side that leads down to the chambers in room 22 on the Vault Level (a typical example of Master Blaise’s sense of humor).

Area 3: The Mogur

The goblin leader’s room lacks a door, like all the other chambers in this complex, but a curtain hangs across the corridor to mark the entrance. Mogur Praek has ruled the tribe for six years now quite a respectable record and has come to feel secure in his position. He reached accommodations with the most likely challengers among his elite warriors long ago, arranging the deaths of the most dangerous and buying off the rest (the four bodyguards) with his generosity in sharing out booty. His unofficial harem also sleeps here: three female goblins he has singled out to receive his favors. Every year or so he gets tired of one and chooses another to take her place, but one particularly strong-minded female goblin named Daku has kept her post year after year. This is not just because he finds her attractive, but because she is his unofficial advisor, being the daughter of a former chief who has seen much and understands goblin politics better than anyone else in the tribe. The tribe has little treasure, but what there is of it is here, hidden inside the bear skin that forms the Mogur’s bed.

Area 4: The Gallery

The walls of this ancient chamber are decorated with cave paintings-animals, humanoids, and monsters crowded together in black and red ochre. The tribe’s shamans have always considered this a holy place, coming here to meditate at times and open themselves to Bargrivyek’s will. All the quiet eyes staring out from the walls give ordinary goblins the creeps, and they avoid this place whenever possible. Accordingly, it has become an adulthood ritual of young males (along with making their first solo kill) to spend a day alone here with a light, “watching the pictures” and being watched by them in turn. There is no treasure here in the normal sense, but any shaman or witch doctor who meditates here (a solitary experience requiring at least a full night) has a 5% chance of gaining a vision from Bargrivyek; this usually takes the form of a vision or a fit of speaking in tongues at some point during the next day.

Area 5: Shaman

This area is empty if no player chose to create a shaman character. If there is a PC shaman, he (or she) can claim this room, assigning any acolyte to the small alcove off the passage leading here. The walls are covered with bizarre charcoal drawings (made by past shamans when in dream states inspired by either Bargrivyek or fishhead beer). A straw pallet and stone bowl complete the furnishings. Since shamans are respected and feared, other goblins-even an elite warrior or the Mogur approach this place with caution.

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Area 6: The Flint Works

At this point, the passageway has been widened by scraping away the north wall, creating a long, thin room. The exposed wall is a seam of high-quality flint, used by the goblin tribe for spearheads, stone knives, scrapers, and any other cutting tool. From time to time, the supply of loose flints suitable for shaping runs low and the goblins mine away more of the wall until they have a supply adequate for another year’s use. Anyone striking the walls here with any kind of iron or steel draws a spark, raising both a fire hazard and a useful potential trap.

Area 7: Watch Post

This small room serves as a guardroom to protect the side door from unauthorized incursions and as a staging ground for raids. Three to five goblins are posted here, one a designated runner whose task is to flee down to the main chamber (room 1) and raise the alarm in case of trouble. Usually, though, the warriors stationed here while away the nights working to get sharper points on their spear-tips, engaging in mock-combats to hone their fighting skills, gambling with dice made out of animal bones, or simply talking the night away.

Area 8: The Side Door (east entrance)

Partially shielded from view outside by a screen of thorn trees, this cave mouth is about 8 feet wide and 6 feet high. The angle is such that direct sunlight rarely shines in, enabling goblins to see perfectly well even if they stand just inside the entrance. The goblins know that their comings and goings through the main entrance (area 15) are sometimes watched by carrion crows and others, so when stealth is important they use this exit to launch a raid. This is also traditionally the route by which bodies are carried out of the lair and up the hill, where they are deposited in the old ruined tower for scavengers. Although the tribe does not remember, this habit dates back to the era when the tower was occupied and the wizard collected dead bodies of all kinds for experiments and re-animation.

Area 9: Women’s Workroom

An oddly shaped room formed by knocking out the walls of two sets of parallel mine shafts, this place is where the female goblins withdraw when they have work to do that would be ruined by the trampling or jostling that characterizes the large central chamber. Typical tasks relegated to this place include weaving mats or baskets, grinding grass seeds or acorns (depending on the season) into a paste, dressing the kill brought back by the hunters, or chewing leather (shaved bits of animal hide) to soften it.

Area 10: Children’s Playroom

When the children of the tribe would be a nuisance underfoot, they are banished here. Most of their time is spent in play (mostly mock battles). A deep well shaft near the back of the chamber allows a cool draft of air to waft up from below, and from time to time an inattentive or unpopular child falls to its death somewhere in the darkness below. While the adults could cover this well-shaft to prevent accidents, they choose not to goblins are a cruel and practical people who use this method to weed out the overly curious as well as the unlucky.

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Area 11: Shelf

Mostly used as storage, in times of need this raised ledge doubles as a refuge and guard post. Raised about 7 feet above the level of the passage floor, it is large enough for a whole goblin patrol to lie flat and ambush unwary trespassers as the!- pass below. The height advantage has also proved useful in the past to aid in defense against determined intruders; consider characters lying or kneeling on the ledge to have 50% cover, causing attackers from below to suffer a 4 penalty to all attack rolls directed against the defenders on higher ground. The shelf currently has little in the way of useful equipment, but it does have a coil of rope (60 feet), a pot containing the equivalent of three vials of flammable oil, and a number of empty barrels and crates stolen over the years; if filled with loose stones, these could make effective bombards to tip over onto anyone passing below. Just past the shelf is the point at which the underground river once emerged. Sealed long ago (any skilled observer can tell that this section of wall is well built but artificial), the “Weeping Wall” is so called because drops of water still seep through and bead on the passage side. The channel through which this stream once flowed clearly runs from this point north and west until it eventually reaches the flooded room (area 16); it looks like a well-worn footpath three to five feet wide and about a foot deep. Anyone breaking through the wall at this point is swept away in the resultant flood, which refills the old channel between here and area 16.

Area 12: Flint Pit

Another excavation left behind by the long-vanished miners, this pit is bell-shaped, being wider at the bottom than the top. Inconveniently located just in the middle of the north fork in the passage, it is about 12 feet deep, with short horizontal shafts or alcoves about 4 feet high, 2 feet wide, and 10-12 feet long running off from the bottom to the northwest, northeast, and southwest. The goblins use this as a watch post, with the guards in the bottom of the pit but quickly climbing up the knobby sides to the top when they hear something approaching. Being gray themselves, goblin’s heads peeking up over the brim of the pit can easily be mistaken for just another lump of rock. Depending on the circumstances, the goblins may climb out and attack, hide in the shafts at the bottom until the intruders have passed and then pad along after them, or slip outside and circle around via the side door. Note that the player characters will be on duty here at the time of the first incursion.

Area 13: Sickroom

Wounded, sick, or dying goblins are exiled to this out-of-the-way chamber so as to not infect their fellows. Those who recover rejoin the main community in area 1; the rest eventually join the corpses on the hilltop. Goblins do not actively abuse the sick that would be foolish but they take such signs of Bargrivyek’s displeasure very seriously. A practical folk, they relegate the ill to the bottom of their food chain, meaning that in times of famine these will be the first to starve. A player character goblin might well visit this grim place several times over the course of the adventure, since wounded characters are placed here until they recover, lest the smell of blood attract predators to the heart of the lair.

Area 14: Slave Pen

The tribe’s slaves are shackled in this dismal cave, which stinks even by goblin standards. The shackles (two small, one medium, one large) are a tribal treasure from the distant past that keep the slaves hobbled by both ankles even when freed from this room. When here, the slaves are held in place by slipping the shackle over a hook set in the wall overhead. As noted, the tribe currently has four slaves:

1) Two kobolds, Mop and Lug, do general chores (mainly carrying). Captured fair and square on a goblin raid to their lair a half-night’s march to the south, they are reconciled to a life of slavery.

2) A blinded dwarf, once an adventurer named Hler Hvitserkson but now a pitiable cringing wreck who goes by the name Grubbfinder. Grubbfinder advises on stonework when the tribe needs to do mining but otherwise is kept busy with the most menial of tasks, which he performs with pathetic eagerness for the smallest scraps of food; he has lived so long only because of the amusement his sad condition inspires in the dwarf-hating goblins.

3) A lamed bugbear, Hrezek, whom the tribe only captured by lucky chance, finding him lying weak and weaponless with a broken leg in a pit trap they’d set for a boar. Deciding not to kill him, they have since found his powerful strength (Str 16) of great practical use in fetching and carrying (a sight that invariably fills the goblins with a sense of superiority). Unlike the kobolds and the dwarf, Hrezek is an unwilling slave who on more than one occasion has lashed out and attempted to crush or throttle one of his captors, so they watch him carefully.

Area 15: Main Entrance (South Door)

This wide, open cave mouth is brightly lit throughout most of the daylight hours (hence the goblin guards’ propensity for keeping watch from further back in the tunnel, in the pit at area 12). The entrance is obvious from outside, and indeed, from some distance away, it appears as a hollow eye below the crown of the hill. A path leads down the hill to join the road, and another winds its way around the hill to the pond beside the waterfall on its western side. Unlike the rest of the cave complex, the floor here is sandy, and the walls and roof are composed of a sandstone outcropping. From time to time, an animal attempts to lair here, invariably ending up in the goblins’ cooking pot. Travelers bedding down here for the evening are summarily ambushed, usually preceded by a few hidden goblin scouts who creep out the side door and sneak around.

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Area 16: Flooded Room

This room, fed by underground streams, serves as a water source for all goblins in the complex. It also doubles as the tribe’s privy, the goblins trusting to the current to keep the water drinkable (by goblin standards, anyway). The water beyond the shelf near the entrance is between 8 and 10 feet deep, deep enough to drown those who don’t know how to swim (including the player characters). All the goblins know of the submerged shelf along the north wall; the water is only a foot deep here and can be easily waded. Around the corner, the narrow shelf rises to just above water level and hugs the east wall of the passage, allowing access to area 17.

Area 17: The Lower Passage

Not far past the flooded room the passage splits, with one branch sloping down still accompanied by the little subterranean river-and the other on the far side sloping up into the darkness. The ledge meanders on around the bend, ending only when the river vanishes into the rock once more. A knotted rope 60 feet long lies coiled at the end of the passage, securely tied to a stout peg driven into the stone floor. This can be used to safely navigate the secret entrance, the underwater tunnel between this spot and area 19.

Area 18: The Upper Passage

The dry passage slopes gradually upward from the little underground river, twisting and turning until it ends in a dry, bare room. If the tribe has a witch doctor (which is only the case if a player chooses one as his or her player character), then this will be his or her domain. In that case, a sleeping pallet of some sort and a few personal items may be present; otherwise, the room is empty. The floor, however, is covered with pentagrams, protective circles, and other arcane insignia incised into the stone-remnants of the far-off days when Master Blaise the wizard used this chamber to test spells and summonings. A dark aura lingers still, causing the skin on the back of characters’ necks to prickle and for them to imagine movement out of the corners out of their eyes. Naturally, any goblin who is not a witch doctor avoids this place like the plague.

Area 19: Above the Waterfall

This secret entrance to the goblin lair is unusually well hidden. It cannot be seen at all from the ground, due to the overhanging lip of the waterfall that empties into the small lake (actually little more than a pond) on the west side of the hill. While adventurers may search behind the waterfall for a cave, few will think to look above it, especially since the cave entrance is visible neither from above nor below. For those who make the 40-foot climb, they see what seems a small simple cave with a fast stream flowing through it. The secret entrance is the underground river itself: The channel is too narrow for anything larger than a goblin, elf, or slender human to fit through, and the current is too strong to swim against in such a constricted space. The goblins navigate the submerged passage by means of the knotted rope kept at the other end, in area 17. When the rope is lowered into the water, it reaches to just the other side of the submerged channel. A goblin who ties himself to the end of the rope can be hauled through by his fellows, or he can pull himself hand over hand via the rope. If the rope is absent, this entrance is essentially impassable (short of magic being used). The Yar-Gocks have been careful on the whole to avoid being seen when they come and go via this route, approaching the cave from the hilltop and rarely using the passage in large numbers.

Area 20: The Secret Door

The whole tribe knows of this well-hidden secret door in the west wall of the communal room, the location of which is handed down by ancient tradition among the tribe. When opened, it reveals stairs curling down into darkness. The goblins know that the lower levels of Master Blaise’s dungeons lie below, but no goblin who has ventured down the stairs has ever returned. For this excellent reason, no Yar-Gock goes this way except under the direst of circumstances. For what lies at the bottom of the steps, see room 21 on the Vault Level Map.