H1 - Entry Hall
H1 — Entry Hall
The Respectable Face of Number Seventeen
The front door opens into a narrow tiled hall lined with dark wood and pale stone. A coat rack stands beside a brass umbrella vessel. Two framed botanical studies hang with mathematical precision above a narrow table.
The air smells faintly of cedar polish, dried mint, and something sharper beneath both.
Nothing here looks abandoned. Someone has swept recently.
H1 is intended to establish that the house is maintained and guarded. The public rooms are tasteful but impersonal. Corven owns expensive things, but very few sentimental ones.
Challenge: Enter Without Announcing Yourself
The front lock is good Kerse workmanship. A second, less obvious lock controls the inner latch and the trap attached to it.
Two hired guards use a small sitting room off the entry as their post. Use Guard 1 statistics or an equivalent level 1 humanoid.
They are paid to keep strangers out, not die for Corven. A convincing delivery story, forged authorization, bribe, or clear demonstration that Corven has abandoned them can avoid combat.
If combat begins here, the encounter is intentionally light. The purpose is to introduce resistance without spending the entire side adventure's combat budget at the front door.
Vell's Courtesy Needle
Mechanical · Poison · Trap
Stealth DC 17 (trained) to notice a second pressure point inside the inner latch.
Description Turning the inner latch without depressing a concealed brass catch drives a hollow needle through the underside of the handle.
Disable Thievery DC 16 to pin the needle mechanism, or Crafting DC 17 to identify and safely disengage the spring housing.
Trigger A creature opens the locked door without using the hidden catch.
Effect The triggering creature attempts a DC 17 Fortitude save. On a failure it takes 1d6 poison damage and becomes sickened 1. On a critical failure it takes 2d6 poison damage and becomes sickened 1.
The toxin is painful and unmistakable but not intended to kill. Corven wants intruders impaired, frightened, and easier for the guards to control.