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Halcyon Gander Encounter




The Red Pear Tree.


The encounter below is written as the seventh floor of a dungeon within a towering, direfly infested tree bearing vile, red fruit the size of boulders. This is written as a Waning Princes scenario. This is written as a hard to dangerous encounter for level 10-11 player characters.


 Encounter


A thick layer of dust covers the contents of this room. Just a few feet from a wooden staircase leading down lays a pristine corpse of an Animus Artisan. The dead fey is missing its iron arm and weapons. A mummified hand grips the artisan’s throat and wears a golden ring etched with eight skulls. From the coloration of the fey’s face and its bulging eyes, it’s clear the mummified hand strangled the artisan. Six massive, mechanical ganders crafted from brass and bronze sit equidistant from one another along the wall. Underneath each goose is a ruddy-stained basket. Likewise, there are old patches of crusty red goo here and there across the floor. The breast of one of the automatons is open, the plate laying off to the side and complex flywheels, gears and pistons exposed. A bag of tinkerer tools sits nearby.


In the center of the room is an ornate, metal spiral staircase leading to the level above that does have footprints in the dust that lead back to staircase going down.



Halcyon Gander Device.


Each halcyon gander has a chance to process 100 gallons of raw blood honey into a golden egg worth 100 gold. However, when not properly run or if there is a glitch it will produce a Honeycombed Horror instead and damage the machine. Assessing the function of a halcyon gander requires a DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check, if a character’s check is 20 or higher they also realize a monster is spat out when the machine doesn’t run properly. Once a halcyon gander is filled it can be run with a DC 20 Intelligence (tinker tool) check. On success a 100-gold piece egg is produced after 24 hours. However, on failure a honeycomb horror is immediately produced in the basket and is hostile to all other creatures.


Finishing the repairs on the damaged Halcyon Gander requires a DC 20 Intelligence (tinker tool) check.


Trap:


Force-Ring Hand.


Removing the hand activates a necromantic trap on it. The hand will float in the same square as the character that removed it who is now cursed. Whenever the cursed creature attacks another creature the hand lashes out at the end of the cursed character's turns. The hand attacks a random creature within 30ft with the Eldritch Blast spell. The hand has a +6 to hit with this spell attack and inflicts damage as if it was same character level as the cursed character it is attached to. Once activated the hand can only be destroyed by casting remove curse on the cursed character it is attached to.


Treasure:


Potentially the party has access to geese who lay golden eggs. Likewise, they may be able to sell each halcyon gander to a collector or even its parts by a good chunk of coin. Of course, if the party peddles monster making machines it will likely come back to haunt them.

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