0510 The Lair of the Bicorne

Rugged, broken ground choked with brambles and smashed trunks. Ruined buildings collapsed into ditches.

• Terrain: Hilly forest (3), High Wold
• Lost/encounters: 2-in-6
• ### The Pit
• Near the north-west corner of the hex is a redwood tree that appears to have been ripped from the earth by giant hands. Beneath it is a great deep pit that reeks of blood and

carrion. Within the pit lairs an ancient monster known as the Bicorne, stirring from its fitful dreams of late.

Descending the pit: The pit itself is sheer-sided and 70′ deep. Each character entering the pit has a 1-in-6 chance of waking the Bicorne.

Mushrooms: The base of the pit is carpeted with Speckled Sporange and Purple Nightcap mushrooms (see Rare Fungi, p428). 2d20 decent specimens of each can be gathered.

The Bicorne’s lair: At one side, a rough, 50′ long chamber is burrowed out, most of which is filled with old bones. The Bicorne lies in this chamber in a nearly dormant state, belching forth contagion and nightmares.

Treasure hoard: Buried among the bones and detritus of the lair are 5,676gp, 6,332sp, 10,099cp, a set of three mouldy spell books (half of the spells are still readable: Rank 1 Floating Disc, Glyph of Sealing, Rank 2 Mind Crystal, Rank 3 Haste), a shiny silver Holy Shield (p400), somewhat dented, engraved with narwhals (the wielder gains the ability to speak with whales), a bronze casket studded with citrine (1,500gp), a silver locket with a portrait of a longhorn noblewoman wearing a saffron sash (1,000gp— belonged to the sister of Commander Lockelope, p235).

At Night

There is a 2-in-6 chance of encountering a hunting party of 2d4 sleepwalking shorthorns (DMB) in the woods of this hex.

Sleepwalkers: The somnambulant shorthorns are hunting for sentient beings to capture and bring to the lair of the Bicorne, having been summoned from Galblight (hex 0409) by the monster’s enchanted whisper.

Captured sacrifices: Are tossed into the Bicorne’s pit, where the beast shreds them in psychic agony.

The Bicorne

A beast of fey origin with the body of a bull, the legs of a boar, and a head that combines the worst aspects of both into a tusked and horned monstrosity.

Large Monstrosity—Animal Int.—Chaotic

Level 10 AC 17 HP 68 Saves D6 R7 H8 B9 S10 Att [Tusk / horn (+8, 2d8) and tail / flank (+8, 1d10)] or breath (paralysis) Speed 45 Morale 10 XP 2,250

Immunities: Suffers only 1 damage from mundane weapons. Cold iron weapons inflict normal damage.

Cloud breath (thrice a day): The Bicorne may belch out a miasmic cloud of nightmarish misery. All within 90′ must Save Versus Blast or be paralysed for 9 Turns.