Encounter-a-Day

Volgart’s warehouse is roughly 80′ long and 60′ wide. The center is dominated by a huge cauldron, 20′ in diameter and the rim is 10′ off the floor. Indigo-colored steam rises from the cauldron to the ceiling, 30 feet high, which has a series of catwalks suspended by chains. The chains are poorly maintained and most are quite rusty and corroded.

The rest of the warehouse is littered with tables housing current experiments and brews, and crates full of exotic reagents. One wall is lined with cages. Some cages are empty, some have dead animals, and some have living animals. Many of the animals appear deformed or mutated. A few appear undead.

As the PCs enter the warehouse, their nostrils are assaulted by a pungent, acrid odor– a disgusting mix of the scents of citrus, sulphur and ammonia. A thin green haze permeates the warehouse and makes it slightly uncomfortable to breathe.

Depending on the circumstances, if Volgart is expecting violence he’ll be ready for the PCs, waiting up on the catwalks to barrage them with his concoctions. If he’s caught unaware, he’ll try to escape up to the catwalks, throwing potions behind him to discourage pursuit. The catwalks groan and strain even under Volgart’s thin frame; if anyone much heavier than him were to follow him up there they’d likely fall.

Volgart has a wide variety of potions available to harass the PCs with, usually throwing them in combinations to take advantage of each other. Some examples are:

Fire-brew: A transparent orange liquid with flecks of gold suspended in it; it explodes in a 15′ diameter fireball.

Acid-brew: A viscous, milky green liquid which coats those it hits and sticks to them, weakening their defenses.

Glue-brew: A clear liquid, almost looks like water. When it comes into contact with oxygen, it expands into a tough, extremely sticky foam which hampers movement.

Noxious-brew: Dark yellow in color, this potion creates a large cloud of gas which takes several rounds to disperse in the stagnant air of the warehouse. Those who breathe it find themselves sickened and nauseated.

If that’s not enough, here are some more ideas to make the combat unique and memorable.

When he’s near death, Volgart takes out a purplish potion and drinks it, transforming him into a hulking monster. Alternatively, Volgart might accidentally plunge into the cauldron from the catwalks when the PCs defeat him, emerging from it as the hulking monster with dramatically-appropriate timing.

Have the cauldron steadied by several wooden legs; when a fire-brew destroys one of them, it tips over and spills its contents on the floor. The effect is up to you…

If the animals are released, many of them (especially the flying ones) will try to attack Volgart. Some may attack the PCs.

Allow the PCs a knowledge check of some sort to identify the random potions on the tables; they might find any of the potions Volgart’s using, or may find healing potions, poisons, etc. I recommend coming up with a simple table for rolling for these potions. For example:

Random potions
1d6: Potion
1: Fire-brew
2: Acid-brew
3: Glue-brew
4: Noxious-brew
5: Healing potion
6: Poison

Special thanks to my friend Leonard Bass for the inspiration