Q1 - The Evil Temple of Fraz-Urb'luu (Part 7)

Level 2 - Security (continued)

2-5 "The Red Guard: Two guards wearing red armor and cloaks reside here.  They are AC 2 and have 16 and 18 hps.  They wield +2 evil bastard swords which emit an eerie black radiance.  They will warn the party that if they attempt to pass through the East door they will be stopped.  If slain, the guards will disappear in a puff of acidic smoke.  The evil swords will remain and they will turn on the wielder (if he is good or neutral) in combat, attacking for one round and then disappearing."

There's a lot to like here, IMHO.  The Red Guards are pretty dangerous, but they pull a "none shall pass" thing on the party.  Of course, the party didn't turn around so it was on.  The puff of smoke reveals them to be supernatural in origin -- perhaps bound to a task -- which is the reason for the warning.  I really loved the damage potential of bastard swords (2-8/2-16) so they appear A LOT in this adventure.  The swords turning on the wielder is a thing a beauty, especially because Brash could detect alignment.  If you ignore the warning...  In the end, the PCs didn't take the swords.  Oh well.

When I re-built the adventure for Hexacon 3, I bought a bunch of Chaos Warriors and I painted them up as Red Guards.  For that adventure, all the guards were "red", but only some of them had the powers described above.  Here are some pics of those minis.  The paint jobs aren't great, but they ARE PAINTED.  :)

2-6 "Was left out intentionally so as not to encourage the compilation of a 3-digit demonic number.  --- The Management"

A little inside joke from me of the past to me of the future.  I laughed out loud when I read this.  :)

2-7 "The characters step on the pressure plate and oil of slipperiness pours in gallons (apparently Fraz-Urb'luu goes to CostCo) out and down the slope.  This will cause the characters forward of the line to slide into 2-7a, and down into the dungeon D-10"

I love this room and the PCs actually fell victim to this trap.  I like the description as a rationale for how the trap functions.  In reality, there's virtually no way for the party to avoid the trip to the dungeon once the trap is sprung.

Upon closer inspection of the maps, it is obvious that room 2-7a runs directly through room 1-4.  :(  In actuality, 2-7a must be a lot smaller than is actually depicted on the map.

2-8 -- There is no key for this room.  It contains the stairs up to Level 3: Priest.