The following blog post is Part 7 of the Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition campaign, Dreadstorms Lost. These blogs are intended for other game masters who might want to use this campaign setting and the scenarios to inspire their own role playing games. (Free for noncommercial reuse.)

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Notes:

Every game master has their approach to experience points and leveling their players. I’ve left it up to the game master to decide what is an appropriate experience amount for the encounters within this campaign. The 5th Edition Dungeon Masters Guide (page 82) discusses experience points and determining a party’s encounter threshold. For some this information will undoubtedly be very helpful. I find it kinda baffling. 

Kobold Fight Club does a nice job of calculating encounter XP based on your party member levels, monsters in the combat, environment, CR level. It’ll identify what level difficulty the encounter would be considered. Mind you, I take that with a certain grain of salt. Group dynamics vary wildly. For one group a “deadly” encounter was no challenge at all. The other group was sweating through the same fight, but I’d judge it was “hard” for them, not deadly. Kobold Fight Club will also provide random encounters based on level of difficulty your looking for. It has the feature to manage encounters and players, but I’ve yet to give it a try. 

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Where are all these thugs coming from?

Thugs and bandits are flooding the town of Berlstrum. What are our heroes doing? Have they stayed at their post, guarding the South Tower and the entrance? Are the searching  for the Champions? Are they saving townsfolk from roving bands of bad guys? Are they getting drunk in a tavern?

If they players have gone into town:

They will find the mayor wrestling with 3 thugs (at the Champion’s Manor or wherever makes sense for this encounter in game) and needing their help.

If the players are still guarding the gate entrance:

Two human males and a female tiefling carrying maces charge the tower. As soon as they are in range of the guards (the players), the 3 thugs attack. They don’t even bother to talking. The mayor will approach the party shortly after this encounter.

See 5th Edition Monster Manual page 350 for general thug stats.

“Alt” Thug 1, human male To hit +4 Mace, dmg 1d6+2 bludgeoning HP 30 Initiative:

“Bol” Thug 2, human maleTo hit +3 Mace, dmg 1d6+1 bludgeoning HP 24 Initiative:

“Clor” Thug 3, tiefling femaleTo hit +4 handaxe, Dmg 1d6+2 slashing HP 35 Initiative:

Berlstrum Goes into Defense Mode

After combat is done and a short rest, Mayor Cobblekeep says to the players:

The champions are missing. They haven’t been seen for days! The town is overrun with all sorts of these wretched sort … breaking into homes, looting, killing innocent people … more seem to be coming in every minute. We must close Berlstrum’s gates until the champions can be found or the Sovereign can send help. Can you lot handle closing the gates? The mechanisms are in the gatehouse walls. You just needs someone on each side pulling the big levers. Can’t miss em!

And we need all the protectors (and protectors-in-training) to stop these rampaging menaces and protect the townsfolk. Do whatever is necessary! Hurry! More of those bastards are coming every minute!

By land, the North and South Gates are the only known ways in and out of Berlstrum. The gate house consists of two portcullis gates (inner and outer vertical dropping gates), and a wide zig-zag passageway between gates (see image for details). Entrance to the main gate house is inside the round tower that mimics the exterior guard tower, but is only as tall as the city wall.

The city wall is 20 feet thick and 25 feet high, topped with crenelation for patrolling guards.

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The gates haven’t been lowered in over 10 years. The gate houses [#2 & #106] have been storage space for random odds and ends, crates, rats’ nests, and numerous spider webs. The mechanisms to lower the gate seems stuck. Bad guys are approaching fast! What do you do?

SKILL CHALLENGE – Stuck Porticullis

Describe how your character uses a skill to help solve the problem of lowering the portcullis on south gatehouse [and north]. You can NOT use the same skill twice in a row and you can NOT use the same skill as the person before you. The skill used needs to make sense within the scenario. Players are encouraged to come up with plausible issues in the scenario that their skill can help with as well as aiding other players.

Roll initiative to determine action order. Action/Move/Reaction still applies each round.

The party has a total of 8 rounds
to lower both portcullises in the South entrance.

The South Gate is a 2-part challenge, reach 5 successful skill checks before 5 failures
on each gate (2 portcullises at the South town entrance). It takes 2 move/dashes and 1 move to reach the 2nd mechanism room (~150 ft).

The North entrance also has 2 portcullises. It is up to the GM if players need to take care of both entrances or only the South one.

• Natural 20 = Counts as 2 successes
• Natural 1 = Counts as 2 failures
• Helping an ally = gives ally advantage with described aid; doesn’t count as success or failure for person providing help. (example: Stormy gives Moregor a boost up to climb to the top of the rafters. Moregor gets advantage on his Athletics check.)
• Passing = I don’t know what to do! Doesn’t count as a success or failure

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GM Note: Possible specific challenges for the players to overcome in this skill challenge:

• Getting to the mechanism involves moving/getting through a space packed with piles of crates, broken equipment debris, etc.
• The gears on the winch won’t move without oil. 
• The rusty chains have come off of the pulleys.
• There something jammed in the track that has to be forced out before the gate will drop.
• The handle that operates the winch has weakened over time and breaks at the first pull.

There are 4 gates in total (2 in the South entrance and 2 in the North). You can decide if the first gate was too easy and increase the difficulty challenge for each following gate. If you feel one gate house is sufficient time spent on a skill challenge, you can imply that another group is handling the other entrance. 

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South Gate #1 – DC 14

DC 14 = For a used skill to be successful, player must roll a 14 or higher.

Goal: As a group, reach 5 successful skill checks on Gate #1 before 5 fails.

South Tower (#106) 

Example Skill Challenge Encounter

Player	Rnd 1 – Skill Used	Rnd 2 – Skill Used	Rnd 3 – Skill Used
Dorn	Uses  Investigate to figure out why the machinery is not working; Rolls 19 Success: Finds chain is off pulley	Uses Arcana to cast Prestidigitation to clean the rat’s nest covering the coiled chain; Rolls 5 Fail: removing the rats nest so abruptly weakens the chain, causing a link to break	Feels his brilliant wizard brain shouldn’t be used for such brutish work, he heads to the secondary mechanism room to assess the situation; Move/Dash Action Doesn’t count toward success/fail
Amira	Uses Athletics to climb rafters to reach the pulley to fix the chain. Rolls 1 (counts as 2 fails) Fail; loses grip and falls onto pile of crates (possibly take damage 1d6/10 ft of fall)	Uses basic Strength skill to force the broken link back into a closed shape Rolls 16; Success: The link seems to be solid	Tries Athletics again to reach the chain off the pulley; Rolls 20 (not Nat); Success: Easily shimmies up the rigging and moves the chain into positionGroup has reached 5 success! First gate is lowered down.
Stormy	Uses Perception looking for repair tools. Rolls 14 Success; Finds a large wrench inside the crate Amira just busted open	Offers to Help Moregore climb up to fix the chain onto the pulley Counts as neither success or failure; gives Moregore advantage on climb check	Move/Dash Action towards the other mechanical room
Moregor	With the wrench Stormy found, he uses Tinkering proficiency to loosen up the gears. Rolls 22 Success: Is able get the gears unstuck	Uses Athletics to climb to the top of the rigging. Rolls w/advantage 11 Fail: Climbing has never been his thing he grumbles as he lays flat on his back from the fall	Move/Dash Action towards the other mechanical room … and so on …
Success/Fail Totals	Round 1 Successes: 3 Fails: 2	Round 2 Successes: 1 Fails: 2	Round 3 Successes: 1 Fails:

South Gate #2 – DC 16

DC 16 = For skill to be successful, player must roll a 16 or higher. (Adjust level of difficulty based on how easy/hard the first gate was for the player.)

Goal: Reach 5 successful skill checks on Gate #2 before 5 failed checks.

Outcomes

1. If players lower both South gates, the Skill Challenge is complete and full experience is given.
2. If players only succeed in lowering one of the two portcullises, the invading ruffians will eventually break through. Award half experience.
3. If players fail to lower either gate within 8 rounds, a large band of kobolds (20 regular/5 winged) will run through the gatehouse, mostly ignoring the players to find easier, less pointy prey.

Optional Second Skill Challenge

North Gate #1 – DC 15

DC 15 = For a used skill to be successful, player must roll a 15 or higher.

Goal: As a group, reach 5 successful skill checks on gate #1, but only 4 fails this time.

North Gate #2 – DC 16

DC 16 = For skill to be successful, player must roll a 16 or higher. (Adjust level of difficulty based on how easy/hard the first gate was for the player.)

Goal: As a group, reach 5 successful skill checks on gate #1, but only 4 fails this time.

Outcomes

• If players lower both North gates, the Skill Challenge is complete and full experience is given.
• If players only succeed in lowering one portcullises, invading ruffians will eventually break through. Award half experience.
• If players fail to lower either gate within 8 rounds, a band of 20+ goblins will run through the gatehouse, ignoring the players to find easier, less pointy prey.

North Tower

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Up Next: Time to explore the Champions’ Mansion and find some clues on what’s going on! Oh no! Looters and low-lives have already been there. #8 – Champions’ Manor – Dreadstorms Lost