0809 — The Sunlit Redoubt

A war-struck outpost stands atop a high hill. Remains of long destroyed earthworks surround it. Anyone looking upon its broken tower when the sun rises immediately knows its title: The Sunlit Redoubt, though they also know that these words are a translation of an older language they do not know.

The sunlit redoubt is host to 4 nightmares, layered atop each other by it’s history of bloody war.

There are two obvious entrances: an open door on the south side of the building, and a large hole in the side of the tower. Climbing into the side of the tower will take you directly to the Duke’s Bees Nest.

The Ground Floor — mundane but ominous.

The entrance contains a broken statue, now just a pair of feet on a pedestal — this can be moved to find an abandoned stash with one unit of one trade good from &treasure squirreled away by an exile who didn’t survive to retrieve it.

Entrance Post
Empty and full of cobwebs and dust. Some graffiti on the walls — “long live the king,” “fuck the king,” “Laurence lives here.”
Doorways to storage and main hall both lacking doors.

Storage
Smells awful. Old moldering wood scattered on the floor.
Doorway to entrance post, lacking door.

Main Hall
Someone has stuffed sticks into the arrow-slit windows, making them harder to see out of.
Doorways to entrance post, office, and stairs all lack doors.

Office
The collapsed remains of a wooden desk is now the home of a family of mice.
Doorway to main hall lacks door. Doorway to prison has a decrepit door, lock long broken and swinging freely

Prison
Old rusty manacles remain on the walls. Some of the floor stones have been pulled up in the southeast corner.
Doorway to office has a decrepit door, lock long broken and swinging freely

Stairs Up
Despite the hole in t he tower outside, there is no visible damage to the stairs inside. They lead upwards to a room that looks exactly like the first entrance. Sounds of distant fighting come from outside.

The Revolt Against The Duke
Level 1 Heretic Temple
Crown: Commander Pyrhi (revenants)
Anchor: Duke’s Troop Ledger, a large book bound in leather containing names of soldiers registered in Duke Gusef Hahn’s service. Worth 1800 coins. 1 encumbrance.
Encounter Die 1d6

Encounters (d4) — burst in from a nearby room, even one that has been checked — seem to experience no discontinuity despite this.
1. 1d4 rebel revenants
2. 1d4 defender revenants
3. a messenger from the duke bearing orders
4. a giant wasp, lost

The entrance contains a statue of a knight standing atop a pedestal. It is plain gray stone and holds an engraved stone shield in front of itself with both hands, depicting a sun either rising or setting. It is worn and chipped but sturdy. From outside the sounds of war — pitched battle can be seen through the windows.

Entrance Post
A hasty pile of overturned tables forms a rough barricade. A spear lays on the ground.
Door to storage open. Doorway to main hall closed but not locked.

Storage
Once neat stacks of crates, recently ransacked. 2D6 bullets and a temporary disintegration potion can be found in the pile.
Door to entrance post open.

Main Hall
Wreckage of smashed tables, hastily pushed as out of the way as they can be. 2d6 rebel revenants try to fight their way up the stairs, blocked by seemingly countless defender revenants. Rather than simulate the combat, roll 1d4 every round — on a 1, the defenders slay a rebel, on a 4 vice versa. Both groups have a strange mixture of arms and armor. When the countdown for the dungeon reaches 0, the defenders emerge into the room in a group of 2d4 (the rest on the stairs vanishing) led by Commander Pyrhi (he/him, stats as revenant leader) holding the anchor. He will begin referencing names of the fallen in his book, their bodies vanishing as he takes stock of them. At sunrise he will always return to the stairs, and new rebels will besiege them. Which bodies end up on which side may be shuffled.
Doors to entrance post and office closed but not locked.

Office
A desk of middling quality, with a war map of the local coastal region on it — shows a castle at 1307 that is no longer present on the earth’s surface.
Door to main hall closed but not locked. Door to prison closed, locked, barred from this side.

Prison
1d6 prisoners manacled to walls. One will always be an occult-futurist in an archaic helmet no longer manufactured by them in the current time – it contains the spell Water Breathing. 100 coins hidden under stones in the southeast corner of the room.
Door to office barred from outside, locked.

Stairs Up
Will produce revenant defenders until the rebels in the main hall are defeated. Once cleared, leads up past a hole in the wall and piles of rubble, to a new entrance room.

The Duke’s Bees Nest
Level 2 Monster Horde
Crown: The False Alchemists — stats as false children, but a nightmare rather than a dweller, and appearing as slightly befuddled identical adult scholars rather than children.
Anchor: Alchemist’s Press, a small silver tool like a juicer for crushing liquids out of ingredients. Worth 1000 coins.
Encounter die 1d4

Encounters (d4)
1. Wasp rider and giant wasp
2. 1 False Alchemist
3. Emissary from Duke Gusef Hahn, frightened of the wasps
4. Glass Thief

The entrance contains a statue of a knight standing atop a pedestal. It is grey stone, painted with blues and blacks, and holds an engraved shield depicting a sunrise (made more clear by the paint on the statue, which has begun to fade but retains much of its color). The sounds of war still rage outside, joined by a humming of wings as throngs of wasp riders join the battle.

Entrance Post
Four docile giant wasps sleep on the ceiling.
Door to storage room is locked, wasp riders have 1-in-4 chance to carry keys, all false alchemists carry keys. Door to main hall is open.

Storage
Smells strongly of wool, and contains multiple sacks of it — worth 1300 coins in total.
Door to entrance post is locked, wasp riders have 1-in-4 chance to carry keys, all false alchemists carry keys. Door to main hall is open.

Main Hall
This room has been made into a sort of wasp-stable. Five wasp riders wash and groom an indignant mount. One holds it and gently soothes it while the others approach with brushes and damp cloths. This is a very involved task. Six more wasps await their turn on the ceiling.
Door to entrance post is open. Door to the office is closed, unlocked. Doorway to the stairs is open.

Office
A small shoddy desk with near illegible notes scattered across it and the floor around it. The anchor sits on it, with a nasty smelling goo caked onto it — it has not been cleaned recently.
Door to prison closed, locked, barred from this side (false alchemists have the keys). Door to main hall closed, unlocked.

Prison
Covered in scorch marks from alchemical experimentation, lingering too long reduces dex by 1d6 points as polluted air causes dizziness.
Door to office barred from outside, locked.

Stairs Up
Dark, and ominously quiet. The sounds of wasp and war fade rapidly as you climb. A smell of incense drifts downwards.

The Vigilant Traitors
Level 4 Monster Horde
Crown: Tomb Guardians.
Anchor: Oar of the River Queen. A polearm that lets a wielder standing in a boat or in water attack as a fighter against foes who are not. Also works for rowing.
Encounter die 1d4
All encounters are a new tomb guardian.

The entrance contains a statue of a knight standing atop a pedestal. It is grey stone, painted with blues and blacks, and holds an engraved shield depicting a sunrise, the dawn’s light driving back the night. It is lavishly detailed and in perfect condition, seemingly restored with regularity. No sound from outside, but peering through an arrow-slit window reveals smoke on the horizon and glows of fires at night.

Entrance Post
A tomb guardian stands in front of the storage room door, guarding it vigilantly. Has the key. If they follow a foe into the entrance room with the statue, relishes the chance to shatter his lantern over the statue.
Door to storage room is locked. Door to main hall closed but not locked.

Storage
A treasure chest. 1000 coins, and a roll of silver silk.
Door to entrance post is locked.

Main Hall
Lined with tables for dining, unused for a long time, but clean of dust. Two tomb guardians guard the stairs.
Door to office is open. Door to entrance post closed but not locked.

Office
Two tomb guardians sit in the darkness, meditating. The room is otherwise empty.
Doors to the main hall and prison are both closed but unlocked.

Prison
Not yet a prison of humans, but instead built around a chariot itself built from a boat. Once property of the River Queen, she used it to travel the ground she could not touch for fear of being cursed. The nightmare’s anchor sits inside it. The tomb guardians will let no harm come to it — a penance for their own betrayal of the queen, sold out to the upstart king Runalt.
Door to the office is closed but unlocked.

Stairs Up
Daylight and fresh air, from above.

The Sunlit Battlefield
You emerge into the unfinished foundations of the fort. Armies amass in all directions.
Find and play a skirmish game, on a map roughly shaped like the dungeon. I’ll add my preferred choice here when I find it.