Wyvern’s Roost

by Richard Sharpe

A B/X adventure for 4-6 beginning characters

Town & Down Games

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 Forward
Thank you for viewing my first published adventure!
Wyvern’s Roost is an adventure for the 1983 edition of the
Basic & Expert Sets. The 1981 editions, commonly called
“B/X,” are fully compatible.
The adventure was designed for 4-6 characters, levels 1-2. It
took one game session of three full hours to complete, but
another hour should be allowed for the troll and goblin
encounter in the cave play-testers did not visit.
This adventure was originally part of an ongoing campaign.
To fit the mariner theme of the contest, it has been modified
from a watchtower on a mountain range to a primitive
lighthouse near a shore. Some of the original content has
been generalized if it goes beyond the scope of this
adventure, which is limited to “nine rooms and eight pages.”
For example, a black dragon posing as a human countess is
the antagonist of the original campaign, but her details aren’t
necessary to run this stand-alone adventure.
This adventure was submitted to Bryce Lynch for his review
on tenfootpole.org. Its strength is not as a dungeon crawl full
of monsters, traps, and treasure, but as one big game of
“Don’t wake Mommy!” It’s with hope he finds this acceptable.
This is the author’s first attempt at publishing an RPG
adventure. It was thrown together from GM notes in a few
days for the contest.
Special thanks to my play-testers on the OSR Pick-Up Games
Discord server: Agmund, Diogenes, Matt, Queen of Cups, and
Ron! Cheers!
Excellent cover artwork by the talented Andrea Santopietro

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 Order of Play
If the players are seeking to steal the wyvern’s eggs, this
adventure is centered on their devising and carrying out a
plan to get them from the nest atop the tower. The inside of
the tower is largely inconsequential, though it holds
treasure, traps, and monsters.
Players may travel to the tower after seeing the abandoned
ruin stand alone on the horizon. With all the bandit pirate
attacks in the area, it’s an obvious candidate for a hideout.
However, locals give it a wide berth, what with the flying
reptilian apex predator roosting there and all.
There’s a rickety rope bridge from a cave in the cliffside to
the tower’s front door. There’s also an open grotto on the
beach at the cliff's base. Hopefully, players put two and two
together and expect the two openings to connect. They do.

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Slorth, a one-eyed troll with an acid-melted face, and
Spiderteeth, a goblin shaman, wait inside the joining
cavern—blocking forward progress if the players don’t decide
to risk crossing a wide-open expanse atop the cliff to reach
the tower. She wants an iron crown hidden in the tower.
There is no prescribed outcome of this encounter, though a
troll is a fearsome opponent for beginning characters.
Players can approach the tower in many ways. If they begin
at the village of Farport, they’ll hack their way through
dense, rocky forest for a few miles before reaching the
tower’s immediate vicinity. If they’re seeking to steal the
wyvern’s valuable eggs (4 × 500 gp), they may try to lure the
mother from her nest. That may involve live bait, such as a
pig or a goat from the village or the troll’s lair.
Once they reach the tower, players are more likely to scale its
walls and climb through windows to enter than to go through
the barricaded front door. There are 6 stirge and a vampiress
locked in her coffin in Room 1; a treasure chest full of silver
and the iron crown in Room 3; and a trapped chest in Room 5,
where there is also a fireplace with a secret ladder down to
Room 3. Last, there’s a trap door and a ladder leading up from
Room 4 to the roof. Stealthy players might try to swipe the
eggs from under the sleeping reptile’s nose, but there’s also a
glittering magical sword woven into the nest’s twisted
branches to tempt their fate!

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 Farport
Gallows Street
Icy tendrils of mist slither along the fetid puddles and muddy
ruts of Farport’s main street. The few dozen wattle-and-daub
shanties left standing in this forlorn village are all plagued
with mildew. It smells like a hog farm; there are pig pens in
the center of town across from the only lit establishment: Salt
Dog’s dockside tavern.

Salt Dog’s Tavern

Outside this shack, there’s a painted sign above the door
depicting a dog in a raincoat lapping a mug of frothing ale.
All the locals call the place Salt Dog’s Tavern, but the former
owner by that nickname has been dead for a generation.
Inside, it smells like cigar smoke and stale beer.
Tall and gaunt, a long-faced Bartender stands behind the
counter spit shining mugs with a dingy cloth. A scowling
Serving Wench makes her way through the groping throng,
one hand holding a tray of sloshing mugs, the other
delivering a resounding smack to a drunken sailor trying to
act innocent. She sets a glass of spirits down on the table
before a cowled Visitor sitting alone in a shadowy corner.

♦ Bartender (Silas): His black hair is balding on top, but he

sports a pair of long muttonchop sideburns. A small
chalkboard hangs by a rope around his neck.
[Silas, who also serves as the undertaker, is mute. His tongue
was chopped out and remains only as a black stump in his
mouth, but he never so much as cracks a smile. He will point
anyone asking about Wyvern’s Roost to the cowled Visitor
sitting alone in the corner.]

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♦ Serving Wench (Mathilda): She looks like a cross between
a raven-haired ogress and a good-looking bulldog. The black
wart on her nose is her most attractive feature.
[She knows which of the men in here are fishermen and which
are pirates, but she also knows others work for someone who
pays them to feed pigs to the wyvern to keep it around. She’ll
tell friendly adventurers who tip well that’s all she knows—and
that the Visitor in the corner is looking to buy wyvern eggs.]

♦ Visitor (Janzeer, M3): Beneath his hood, the swarthy man

has a weasley snear, a wiry mustache, and greasy black hair.
"I'm seeking to buy wyvern's eggs, but they’re illegal to sell
anywhere in the kingdom. I hear one nests atop the
lighthouse not far from here. I’ll pay 500 gold doubloons
each."
[Janzeer, a sleazy conjurer, has confidence his jade Ring of
Reptile Control will help him train a hatchling to serve as his
flying mount.]

Drunks and Comrades

♦ Arcand (F1): Scout. Archer. Horse thief. Jumpy. Rat face.
Shaved head. Has a purple scar around his neck where a
noose failed to condemn him. A month ago, he saw some
pirates anchored off shore row a dinghy to the island and
offload a coffin-sized chest, which they drug into the grotto.
He figures it’s full of stolen booty, but won’t go to the tower
alone. He’s in for a full share of whatever treasure is found.

♦ “Horse” (F2): About 6’4”, 300 lbs. Jutting brow. Red hair.
Cauliflower ears and a poorly-mended broken nose. His real
name is Horace, but he’s big as a horse and always ready for a
fistfight when he’s not too drunk to stand. A fisherman, he lives
on the mainland, but is a regular at Salt Dog’s. He’s loyal to his
family at home, but owes a local lord a lot of money. He’ll go to
the tower for 50 gold doubloons up front (his bar tab) and a full
share of whatever treasure is found. He’ll even take front rank
and kick down doors. If kept sober, he’s trustworthy.

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 The island
The mountainous, 6-mile-wide island is the last of a volcanic
archipelago far from the distant mainland. It is covered in
dense, mist-shrouded forest. The ruins of a long-abandoned
lighthouse looms on a cliff above the rocky coastline about
three miles from Farport.

Exploration
A tangled, rocky thicket is what exploring players will find on
the island. Most of the island is ringed by a foggy beach.
It’s important that the players have the cover of a forest
canopy to feel safe enough to scout the tower. They’ll want
somewhere to retreat should the flying death machine take
offense to trespassers on its territory.
However, there’s no safety blanket of trees within 240’ feet of
the craggy shoreline!

Encounters
The wyvern perches atop the tower. There’s a 1-in-6 chance
it will detect trespassers approaching. It will see those
approaching from the beach and attack. It will smell those
concealed in the forest and fly out overhead, agitated, but
unable to spot the intruders.
The GM may wish to use the wyvern theatrically to inspire
fear in the adventurers’ hearts as they near the dread tower,
but in the event of actual combat—say, if the party stands to
fight it, it will be a horrific nightmare. It flies faster than PCs
can retreat and will attack the slowest fleeing party member
one time before flying back to guard its nest.

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 The Approach
(A vista view within 220’ of the tower.)

Waves crash against the rocks far below the dark, abandoned
Lighthouse in the distance. Dreaded by sailors who call it the
Wyvern’s Roost, a Nest of twisted branches crowns the mossy
tower’s crenellations. A raised portcullis frames the entrance,
an ironbound wooden door. Window slits pierce its crumbling
fieldstone walls.
Swaying perilously in the wind, a rope bridge spans the cleft
between the tower and a Cave high up on the cliff’s face. At
the base of the cliff, there is a yawning Grotto. Around it,
dozens of human skulls are spiked atop gnarled pikes.

[Regardless if it’s hunting or asleep in its nest atop the tower,

there’s a 1-in-6 chance the wyvern will detect trespassers out in
the open within 220’ feet of the tower and swoop down to
attack.]
♦ Lighthouse (Wyvern’s Roost): Rectangular and about 40’ tall,
the fieldstone tower stands atop a jutting bluff about 50’ above
the crashing waves.
♦ Nest: Tangled tree branches are wreathed into a giant nest big
enough to fit a horse, maybe two. It takes up most of the roof
and sticks out over the edge.
♦ Windows: Window slits cut holes in the side of the crumbling
fieldstone walls. They’re a little more than 1’ wide.
♦ Cave: The dark cave opens into the cliff’s side about 50’ up. A
rope bridge spans the divide between the cliff and the tower.
♦ Grotto: The sandy beach leads to a cavernous grotto. The low
opening is about 10’ tall and 20’ wide. Firelight flickers within.
Tall pikes are driven into the sand around the entrance, each
topped with a bleached skull.

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 The Grotto
When the party draws near the opening, they’ll be able to
hear loud arguing in teeth-gnashing trollspeak. They won’t
have to go far to find the source: a troll and a goblin.
Neither want to fight adventurers. They are not guarding the
tower. This is a social encounter, so long as the players don’t
simply attack the monsters.
Slorth, the troll, is a bully who will want more than anything
to eat the trespassers, but is too lazy to attack. He feeds the
wyvern pigs, but neither knows nor cares what’s in the tower.
Spiderteeth, the hyperactive goblin shaman, will excitedly beg
and plead for the party to join them for dinner. It’s unlikely
they’ll quickly accept her invitation for fear they wind up on the
menu. However, she’s sincere and her black-tongued scolding
can keep the troll from attacking “her guests.”
Her erratic personality will rapidly shift back and forth from
screaming rage at the troll for suggesting they eat their nice
visitors to simpering, handsy doting on any adventurer who
doesn’t violently recoil from her reach, and she is persistent. She
only sometimes licks her toothy chops when looking at tasty,
exposed people-flesh.
She wants the crown in Room 3 of the tower, which she
describes as made of iron and of no value, but she’ll trade a
glimmering asscher-cut emerald worth 1,000 gp for it.
She knows the knocker is cursed and how to find the secret
room in the tower. She’ll also warn them of the stirge on the
ground floor—the location of the chest the “pirates” unloaded.
As for the wyvern? “Just be quick about it! And look up! Stay off
the roof! Heh! Heh! Heh!”
If players just want to fight, they’ll likely bite off more than they
can chew. Any troll is a fearsome opponent, but Slorth wears a
Ring of Fire Resistance, mitigating his greatest weakness in
combat. The goblin will retreat and cast Sleep.

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 In this cavernous Chamber, an unlikely pair argue like an
old married couple around an iron cauldron bubbling over
the campfire. Like a mammoth slug, a corpulent,
green-skinned Troll lounges on a rock ledge as he hurls
insults at the bent-back Goblin crone opposite the
cauldron. With piscine eyes like balck marbles glaring
through the steam, she stirs the boiling ochre bilge with a
gnarled spoon the size of a broomstick. She screams right
back at him in trollspeak.

♦ Chamber: The grotto is a natural cavern some 50’ wide.

Stalactites hang from the ceiling 30’ above. Crude stairsteps
are carved into the rock on the far side. They climb up and
out of sight. In one corner, there is a wicker pig pen with a sow
and three piglets. A goat and free-range chickens roam about.
[After a steep, winding climb, the stairs exit from the cave
high up in the cliff at the foot of the Rope Bridge.]

♦ Troll (Slorth): His face half melted, where once there was a
twin to his beady yellow eye, now remains only a hideous eye
socket. Half his body is scarred with burns and he’s missing
his right hand. Tied to the stump, he brandishes a rusty black
meathook. A ruby ring gleams on the pinky finger of his
remaining hand.
[Buried in a dark corner, the troll keeps an iron lockbox with
1,000 gold doubloons inside. He wears a key to its lock on a
rawhide bracelet dangling in plain sight.]
♦ Goblin (Spiderteeth): Draped in gray, tattered and
threadbare robes, the goblin has a wrinkled face worn with
age. Lashes of white hair stick out from under her
wide-brimmed hat. She mumbles to herself as she stirs the
cauldron, sporadically cackling for no apparent reason.

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 The Rope Bridge
Swaying perilously in the wind, a rope bridge spans the 30’
cleft between the cliff face and the tower’s base. The ropes are
thick as a wrist, but frayed and dry rotted. The weatherbeaten
planks are no more reassuring. Jagged rocks await those who
fall 50’ to their death among the crashing waves.

The bridge has an X-in-6 chance of breaking only if more

than one person crosses it at once, with ‘X’ being the number
of excess people. Cautious players will take actions such as
tying themselves together to mitigate this danger. If they do,
that’s good, so long as they aren’t making noise (e.g., driving
pitons to secure ropes is sure to alert the wyvern).
However, the GM can use this opportunity to add some
tension by exploiting the player’s natural fears. At the
“moment of truth,” each character must roll 1d6 on crossing.
Tell players if a ‘1’ is rolled, a secret GM roll will be made “to
see what terrible fate befalls them.” Saves on the table below
are modified by DEX.

1. Without warning, the bridge snaps! Save vs. Paralysis to hold on. If
successful, take 1 damage from swinging into the side of the cliff.

2. The hand rope frays and snaps, loudly, causing the bridge to shudder
and lurch. Everyone on the bridge must save vs. Paralysis or fall!

3. The foot board snaps and they fall, but on a save vs. Paralysis, they
can catch themselves and climb back up—with help!

4. The foot board snapped, but they caught themselves before they fell
through.

5. “The ropes creak and groan and start to unravel. Which way do you
run? Back the way you came, or forward?” Roll again.

6. The shrill, reptilian shriek of wyvern pierces the howling wind.

(Nothing happens so long as the players are making no noise.)

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 The Tower
The lighthouse is not the sort that warns ships of a rocky
coast; it was a watchtower built to warn the mainland of
invading ships by lighting a log beconfire on its flat roof. The
wyvern’s nest rests inside that log pyre atop the stone hearth
platform of the long-abandoned outpost.
As a dungeon, there’s not much to the tower: stirge and a
vampiress trapped in her iron coffin in Room 1 and a lockbox
hidden in Room 3 with a secret passageway leading to it from
the fireplace in Room 5, above.
The real action is on the Roof. There’s a trapdoor and ladder
leading up from Room 4. While the wyvern only passively
guards the tower with its presence, it actively guards the eggs
in its nest. It’s never far away.
Each 10-second round an intruder is on the roof, roll 1d6. On
a 1-2, the wyvern has been alerted, either by sight, sound, or
smell. If it’s in the nest, it awakens and attacks.
In general, anything that might alert or disturb the
wyvern—on the roof or anywhere else—has an X-in-6
chance to do so, probably a 1-2 if quiet, worse if loud.
A Light spell in the eyes of a wyvern has a high probability of
ending its threat if only the Basic rules are used. It’s strongly
suggested that the Expert rules be used to give it a -4 to
attack instead.

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 Ground Floor
♦ Double Doors: Wind-beaten
but solid, a hill giant could walk
upright betheth the threshold of
this tremendous set of ironbound
wooden doors. It has a blackened
Knocker in the shape of a
dragon’s skull, its
downward-pointing horns flaring
outward at the ends.
[The door opens inward but is
barricaded with a wooden beam
on the inside, making it a less
likely point of entry than the windows. It can be hacked down
with axes or battered open with a ram, but such noise will
certainly attract the wyvern (no roll needed).]

♢ Knocker (Enchanted Trap): Made of sturdy wrought iron,

it has a twisting ring locked within the dragon skull’s jaws.
[The knocker is hexed. Anyone who grips the knocker,
regardless of gloves, will be unable to open their hand.
Unconsciousness, uncontrolled laughter (e.g., being tickled),
or extreme pain (e.g., holding a torch to the back of their
hand) will loose the victim. Destroying the knocker or tearing
it from the door will require extensive measures. With
specialized tools, it can be unbolted from the inside.]

♦ Room 1 (Empty Hall): Sitting in the center of this empty

room is an iron Coffin wrapped in anchor chains secured by a
half dozen fist-sized padlocks.
[In the shadows, 6 Stirge hang upside-down on the ceiling 20’
above. Light disturbs them, and they will immediately swarm
and attack anyone in their sight.]

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♢ Coffin: Chains the size of a person’s arm encircle the riveted,
black iron coffin and run through its four handles. There is a
sliding shutter door at the corpse’s eye level.
[Inside, is a famished Vampriress who will hiss and claw at her
prison wildly if disturbed. She will soon calm down and beg for her
freedom—screaming and pleading to be let out.]

♢ Vampiress (Maven Firedrake): A ravishing young redheaded

woman in a noblewoman’s fine green velvet dress. Blue veins
spider web across the alabaster skin of her beautiful face.
[The vampiress wears ruby earrings each worth 1,000 gp, which
she will offer for her release. After Maven was unwittingly seduced
by a vampire, she was thrown into the coffin and locked away by
her wicked stepmother, a countess on the mainland. She has no
knowledge of her vampiric condition, but her primal lust for blood
beats within her cold, (un)dead heart. If freed, she’s reluctant to
feed from a person, but can find distasteful sustenance by drinking
stirge blood.]

♢ Stirge: These flapping, screeching creatures have the wings and

body of a bat, but the face of a mosquito. They’re swollen like a
veiny pig’s bladder, engorged on the troll’s black, sludgy blood.

Stirge

Armor Class: 7 [12]

Hit Dice: 1* (4hp)
Att: 1 × bite (1d3 + Blood Drain)
THAC0: 19 [+0]
Move: 30’ (10’) / 180’ (60’) flying
Morale: 9
Intelligence: 1 (Insect)
XP Value: 13

♦ Swoop: First attack is at +2 to hit.

♦ Blood Drain: Upon a successful attack, the proboscis drains
a victim’s blood: 1d3 automatic damage per round.

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 Middle Floor
♦ Room 2 (Winch Room):
Against the south wall is the
massive chain winch used to raise
and lower the portcullis.

♦ Room 3 (Secret Room): Sitting

in the center of the floor is a
reinforced iron Lockbox.

♢ Lockbox: Three padlocks are

fastened to separate clasps on
this rectangular iron lockbox.
[Ringed by an iron Crown and
sitting on the bed of 1,000 gold doubloons is a magical clay urn
with a stopper. A rope is linked from the stopper to the top of
the trunk's lid. If the trunk’s lid is opened, the stopper is lifted,
releasing the Shadow monster trapped inside. Have the player
describe how he or she opens the lid. If they describe careful,
slow movements, then they detect the rope. If not, a Thief has a
2-in-6 chance to detect the trap. It can be disarmed by a Thief
with tools on those same odds—or better yet, with a description
of how to do so from the players instead of a die roll!]

♢ Crown: Made of black wrought iron, the crown is ringed by

wicked, angular spikes jutting upward. It has one empty
cavity where a pentagonal jewel once set.
[If worn, the crown can control up to the wearer’s Charisma
modifier in 2 HD or less mindless undead—skeletons or
zombies, mainly. The goblin shaman Spiderteeth wants this
crown for its necromantic properties, see The Grotto, p. 10.
The jewel is found in a later adventure and increases the
crown’s powers.]

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♢ Shadow: Black smoke like liquid shadow bursts from the
urn in the chest. It coalesces into a wispy, incorporeal skeletal
apparition with fangs and talons.
[Note: Shadows are not undead; they are indentured servants
created by those who dabble in the esoteric and arcane.]

Shadow

Armor Class: 7 [12]

Hit Dice: 2+2* (11hp)
Att: 1 × touch (1d4 + Strength Drain)
THAC0: 17 [+2]
Move: 90’ (30’) flying
Morale: 12
Intelligence: 4 (Low)
XP Value: 35

♦ Surprise: On a 1–5.
♦ Strength drain: Victims lose 1 STR per hit. Recovers after
8 turns. If reduced to 0 STR, the victim becomes a shadow.
♦ Mundane damage immunity: Can only be harmed by
magical attacks.
♦ Spell immunity: Unaffected by charm and sleep spells.

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 Top Floor
♦ Room 4 (Roof Access): A ladder runs upward to a trap door on
the roof.

♦ Room 5 (Empty Bed Chamber): A canopy bed rests against the

west wall of this musty bedchamber. Its moth-eaten curtains are
pulled open revealing a posh mattress and pillows. Thick curtains
hang from iron rods above the windows. Two chairs, a table, and a
Wardrobe occupy the south end of the bedchamber. An empty
Fireplace yawns open in the northeast corner.
[Under the mattress is a forearm-length metal rod shaped like a ‘T’.
It’s about as thick as one’s pinky finger. When inserted into the
“keyhole” at the back of the fireplace and turned, the bottom slides
open revealing a ladder and secret passageway to Room 3, below.]

♢ Fireplace: The fireplace is swept clean of ashes and coals.

[At the back of the fireplace, there is a small hole big enough to fit
one’s pinky finger. The “key” is under the mattress.]

♢ Wardrobe: Hanging inside is a complete ballroom outfit

including a hat, Mask, cloak, Leather Vest, gloves and boots.

♢ Mask: A ballroom mask shaped like a scowling demon’s skull

with curling horns. It’s made of hardened black leather and covers
the eyes and nose.
[“Dead Skin Mask;” A thin layer of elven cadaver skin is stitched
inside like a lining. It’s peeling and flaking off the back of the
mask. One time only, the wearer can transform into any person’s
form whose facial skin is stitched into it.
The form is lost when removed.]

♢ Leather Vest: A black leather vest

embroidered with silver spider webs and
lined with red satin on the inside. Made of
spider silk, it’s as durable as a chainmail
coat (AC 5 [14]), but is light as a feather and
counts as leather armor.

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 Roof
The Wyvern’s clutch, four mellon-sized green speckled eggs, sits in a
mound in the center of its nest. A gold-hilted Greatsword is woven
into the nest’s branches. There’s a trap door in the roof leading down
to Room 4.
♦ Greatsword: The naked sword is a handsome masterwork. Its gilded
hilt glimmers with polished amber and yellow topaz. A single tiny
rune is chiseled into its fuller.
[The sword is stuck. Pulling it out requires an Open Doors roll at -2
per round with failure waking a sleeping wyvern. For those who know
its name, the Greatsword +1 will glow bright as a lantern on command.
While glowing it does double damage against creatures of darkness or
shadow. The rune is its name in elven—any elf can read it: Sunlight.]

♦ Wyvern: Leathery wings; a lithe, bony tail like a whip that ends in a
wicked stinger; dark, mottled scales; black talons; teeth like flashing
daggers; reptilian eyes burning with green flame—the wyvern is a
flying apex predator made of spikes, gristle, and knotted sinew.

Wyvern

Armor Class: 3 [16]

Hit Dice: 7* (31hp)
Att: 1 × bite (2d8), 1 × stinger (1d6 + Poison)
THAC0: 13 [+6]
Move: 90’ (30’) / 240’ (80’) flying
Morale: 9 (12 if guarding eggs)
Intelligence: 3 (Reptilian)
XP Value: 850
♦ Poison: save vs Poison or suffer instant, agonizing death.
♦ Swoop: A diving attack from straight up with either its bite, claws
or stinger. If surprised, the attack does double damage. If not, its
victim may make melee attack at -2 against it.
♦ Clutch: If an 18+ is rolled on swoop attack, the wyvern can clutch
(and later drop) a man-sized or smaller victim in its claws or mouth.

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