Red Crow Pub Presents

Shiny Bits Volume 1:

The General’s
General Store

By Erik Wroblewski
 Preface
Every DM has, or will be in an unavoidable situ-
ation when Players decide to do something com-
pletely unexpected thus leaving us with the sensa-
tion of being caught off-guard. Even the most pre-
pared DM isn’t immune to this occurrence howev-
er the unpredictability is what makes Role Playing
Games so fun. Sometimes this situation can halt
our games, breaking the pace and shattering the
immersion we tried so hard to create for our play-
ers.
Other times, we just need a generic purpose
location to fill a blank we have in our game prepa-
ration, like a tavern where the group can enjoy a
drink and gather information, or a general store
where our heroes can buy some supplies and sell
all the useless loot they found during the last ad-
ventures.
To help you with that, Red Crow Pub has creat-
ed Shiny Bits. A line of small publications dedicat-
ed to describing a detailed single place with lim-
ited scope, so you can pick it and drop it in your
game without too much effort. Here you will find
two A-4, printable maps which can be used for
combat, the description of relevant NPCs, keyed
areas, treasures and sometimes more than that.
While you will find some seeds and ideas, you
will not find a complete adventure. Our objective
is to give the DM, something to build upon. To
help make this little place your own or even to use
the maps provided to be a canvas for a quick com-
bat. The choice is yours.
We hope you enjoy this and have fun with them
Erik Wroblewski
Credits
Cartography, Cover Design, Editorial Design,
Image Design, Production Management: Erik
Wroblewski
Consistency Check: Josiah Knight
Proof Reading: Josiah Knight, Paul Canosa,
Fernando Dias
Map Art Sources: Dungeon Designer 3+
(https://www.profantasy.com/products/dd3.asp?
affiliate=57523857523)
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Coast, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, the dragon
ampersand, and all other Wizards of the Coast
product names, and their respective logos are
trademarks of Wizards of the Coast in the USA
and other countries.
Legal Notice
FANTASY GROUNDS, its logo, visual identy and
all other content and product names names asso-
ciated with it are trademarks and intellectual
property of SMITE WORKS (LLC).
RED CROW PUB, it’s logo, products names and
unique, original visual content and characters are
property of Erik Wroblewski. The distribution of
this material is limited to the Community Content
Agreement for Dungeon Masters Guild.
This work contains material that is copyright
Wizards of the Coast and/or other authors. Such
material is used with permission under the Com-
munity Content Agreement for Dungeon Masters
Guild.
All other original material in this work is copy-
right (2018) by RED CROW PUB and published un-
der the Community Content Agreement for Dun-
geon Masters Guild.
 The General’s General Store
Background
Some years ago, the prominent general Sarlik
Farenson retired from the army, seeking to live a
simple and quiet life in the countryside. After wit-
nessing the tragic death of Roland, the second in
line of succession during a failed expedition to the
ruins of a lost city, he swallowed his pride and ac-
cepted his share of the guilt from the incident. He
collected his savings and bought a farm near a
small village. He also purchased an old building in
the village, where he started a modest business to
keep his days occupied.
Well, at least this is the story he told everyone.
However, this is a cover to a far more sinister plan
than a simple merchant’s life. Being the only survi-
vor with social rank to come back from the disas-
trous expedition, the General left the treasures
the expedition found with his king. He kept for
himself things other people judged of little value:
the emaciated corpse of a hideous creature, the
pieces of a shattered clay mural, and a ruined
book.
Since he came to the village, the General tries
to lead a seemingly normal life, but in secret he
pursues his private agenda. What does Sarlik
seeks in a small village at the countryside? Why is
he keeping an old body hidden from prying eyes?
Only the Gods and you, the DM know!
1. Outside Area
The small courtyard area is home to a loaded
cart which seems ready to depart, but oddly there is
no beast of burden tied to it or anywhere nearby.
The area is usually bustling with people coming and
going to attend to their own business, as well as an
occasional costumer entering the store. So. most
local people haven't taken an interest in the area as
nothing out of the ordinary is happening.
Cart: the cart is loaded with three small barrels
and some sacks. Closer inspection shows that the
sacks are full of common spices and herbs, and
the barrels are full of liquid. If opened, two of the
barrels are revealed to be filled with a premium
quality wine, while the third contains a clear liquid
with a strong alcoholic odor.
A DC 13 check with Alchemy or Brewers Tools
reveals the liquid to be pure alcohol, used to brew
potent liquors. Once discovering this, an addition-
al DC 15 Arcana or Religion check reveals that pure
alcohol, plus the spices and herbs in the cart, were
used in the past to preserve dead bodies. The
herbs are of little value, but the while the alcohol
barrel is worth 150gp. Each one contains 1 gallon
of liquid and weighs about 10 pounds.
2. Shop
There are a number of shelves with old books
and papers lining the walls. Tables set on the middle
of the hall are full of all kinds of objects from tools
to weapons. From junk to apparently valuable art
objects. A smell of dust and mold permeates the air,
giving the impression you just entered an ancient
tomb. However, everything is extremely clean with
a visible shiny gloss, as if everything just left the
hands
General Features
Unless noted otherwise, this entire area will
have these common features:
Light: the ambient level isn’t well illuminated,
giving it a shadowy feeling, but during the day the
windows provide enough light to see normally.
 Walls: these 2-foot-thick walls are made of a
reinforced double layer of red clay bricks and can
take a great deal of punishment before breaking.
If needed, treat them as a stone wall.
Floor: the floor is made of a dark-brown wood,
with no special features aside from making some
noise when a person carrying a heavy load walks
on it.
Ceiling: the ceiling is 10-foot-tall near the walls
and gets taller towards the center, where it is 15
foot tall. An intricate array of wood beams sup-
ports the roof.
Smell: while the shop seems perfectly clean, a
smell of dust, mold and old parchment clings to
the air.
This area serves as a shop, where the General
conducts his mundane business. Most of the ob-
jects here are mundane in natures: tools, ropes,
backpacks, rations – almost anything that can be
found on the equipment section available to the
players on the sourcebooks you are allowing them
to use. However, some items here are of much
more value:
 A small marble statue, depicting a devil,
adorned with brass, lead and copper – worth
250 gp;
 A small marble statue, depicting an angel,
adorned with bronze, silver and copper –
worth 250 gp;
 A scroll of Spider Climb – despite it’s real val-
ue, Sarlik won’t sell it for less than 250 gp;
 Two potions of healing – 25 gp each;
 A pair of good quality throwing axes, worth
6 gp each;
  A silver sword – worth 115 gp;
 A silver dagger – worth 100 gp;
 An old heavy shield, bearing the crest of a
long-lost family – the shield is of fine quality,
despite appearing to be battered – 15 gp.
If characters search the room, they don’t find
anything out of ordinary, except for the business
logs kept by Sarlik, which registered the purchas-
ing of large amounts of fine wine, pure alcohol,
salt, rare herbs and spices – much more than one
could afford through the profit made from such a
modest store in the middle of nowhere.
3. Upper Storage
As you enter this area, the smell of dust, mold
and old paper becomes pungent, assaulting your
nostrils. This room seems to be a storage area, with
two heavy wooden trunks and a great number of-
sacks around. While the place seems to be an untidy
mess, it is oddly quite clean. A circular staircase,
made from wood, descends into the darkness.
This room serves as an immediate storage area
where the General keeps less valuable items at
hand to replace them in the store. The trunks are
locked, and hold simple items like backpacks,
tools, ropes and torches, while the sacks contain
grain, spices and salt.
4. Lower Storage
While you descend down the stairs, the unusual
smell of old things get even stronger, making your
stomach quiver. As soon as you reach the bottom of
the staircase and take the first step onto the floor,
two extinct torches on the wall spring to life -
lightning themselves through an unseen force. You
are in a room very similar to the one above, seem-
ingly another storage room. Pickaxes, shovels and
other excavation tools are placed on a corner, near
great wooden boxes.
The tools on the walls are what the General sal-
vaged from the excavation were he recovered the
fiendish body which lies in Area 6, The Sanctum.
The boxes contain heavy clay blocks, covered in a
strange script (infernal). These blocks are part of a
single piece, which is a clay mural containing the
story of a lost hero who sacrificed himself to bind
a devil. The door leading to the next area is un-
locked and there is nothing more of interest in
this room.
5. Living Quarter
Again, when you open the door, cold torches
jump to life, bathing the cold darkness with light.
You find yourselves in a large room, which seems to
be a loft or living quarters. The stove and the table
with the remnants of a meal seems to confirm it.
Far ahead, you can notice a desk near a double bed.
A corridor seems to open to the right, in the end of
this room.
This room is a living quarter, where the General
spends his time when not seeking his goals in the
world outside. Beyond the fact of being under-
ground and the torches which seemingly have a
will of their own, there is nothing out of ordinary.
The desk, however, hides a secret compartment,
holding the General’s diary. A DC 15 Investigation
check is required to find the diary, and its contents
are left for the DM, to decide.
The bear rug near the bed is a Rug of Smother-
ing (see Appendix I for statistics). A Detect Magic
or similar effect will reveal the magical nature of
the object, but otherwise, it is undistinguishable
from a regular rug, and won’t attack the players
unless attacked first, or if the trap on the Sanc-
tum’s door is set off (see Area 6).
If you are out of ideas about Sarlik’s Journal,
here are some outlines upon which you can build a
story:
Power Seeker: the diary describes how the
General convinced the prince to launch the
doomed expedition, to fulfill his own goals while
using the prince's hunger for glory to his ad-
vantage. In this scenario, the General sacrificed
the prince in an unholy ritual to open a secret
vault in the Lost City, where he retrieved the im-
prisoned fiend which lies now in the stone sar-
cophagi located in the Sanctum area. The fiend is
alive, but held in slumber by powerful magic, and
the General is draining its essence to gain power.
Possessed: when the doomed expedition finally
found something of worth in the Lost City, the dis-
covery heralded its demise except by a single indi-
vidual, the General. A powerful fiend was impris-
oned in the secret chamber on the Lost City, its
body petrified by powerful magic. However, its
mind was awake, and seizing the opportunity for
freedom the fiend possessed the General, forcing
the poor soldier’s spirit into the dormant fiendish
body. In this scenario, the fiend is seeking a way
to shatter the enchantment that holds his body
and to reclaim its physical form and its full glory.
Impostor: The truth is shocking and in reality, it
was the General who died in the doomed expedi-
tion. While it was the prince who assumed the old
man’s form as a cover to his plot to stage a coup
against his father and older brother. In this scenar-
io, the prince has made a deal with the imprisoned
fiend, who is leading the second heir to the throne
in a journey to acquire power while also seeking
to free the hellish creature held in the sarcopha-
gus.
6. Sanctum
A heavy locked wooden door, carved with intri-
cate patterns, block your passage. The carvings de-
pict a battle between what seems to be a mage and
a towering demonic figure, with a dog head, goat
horns and two massive arms which end in powerful
pincers. Arcane symbols form a frame around the
drawing.
Trap: the door to the inner sanctum is trapped.
If opened without using the proper incantation,
the trap is set off, causing the following things to
happen:
 The flames on all the torches on the under-
ground area and non-magical lights carried
by the characters are extinguished, leaving
the place in complete darkness;
 The door leading to area 4 is shut and
locked, cutting off any escaping route;
 The rugs in area 5 and 6 come to life and at-
tack the nearest creature on the next round
(they are two Rugs of Smothering, see Ap-
pendix 1 for statistics;
 A mental alarm is sent to the General, who
will teleport to the Sanctum area in 2d6+3
rounds.
The trap can be spotted with a DC 17 Percep-
tion check, or a DC 15 Arcana check. Disabling the
trap is another matter entirely, requiring a skill
challenge: they must succeed in 5 skill rolls before
having 3 failures. The following skills can be used
to overcome this obstacle, all with DC 15: Arcana,
Religion or Thieves Tools, and the whole group
can work in this challenge, provided they are pro-
ficient on the allowed skills.
If the trap is set off, read the following pas-
sage:
As you attempt to open the door and the con-
tents in the room beyond are revealed, something
unexpected happens. All lights in the vicinity are
blown out, leaving you in complete darkness. At the
same time you hear a door slamming shut followed
by a loud click of a lock in the distance. Worse,
something seems to move near you, making a noise
that resembles heavy cloth being pushed along the
ground.
If the trap is disabled and the characters open
the door, read this passage:
The room beyond the door emanates power and
raw energy that seems to wash over you as soon as
the door is opened. Some kind of altar is set on the
opposite wall. Arcane tools rest in a ritual arrange-
ment. There are two marble statues, richly adorned
with copper, silver and gold which guard each side
of the altar: the one on the left depicts a horrible
devil, while the one in the right was created to re-
semble a noble angelic being. To your left side, you
can see a what seems to be a humanoid body com-
pletely covered by ancient cloth, resting inside an
open stone sarcophagus.
The rug in the center of the room is a Rug of
Smothering (see Appendix I for statistics). A De-
tect Magic or similar effect will reveal the magical
nature of the object, but otherwise, it is undistin-
guishable from a regular rug, and won’t attack the
players unless attacked first, if the trap on the
Sanctum’s door is set off, or if the altar on this
room is disturbed by someone else than Sarlik.
Combat
If the group is careless or just unlucky and set
off the trap in the Sanctum’s door, the Rugs of
Smothering (MM page 20, see Appendix I for stat
blocks) acting as guardians on the room will rise
The rugs will each attack the
nearest character, focusing its attention on that
intruder. The rugs will attack the characters near-
est to them.
After receiving the mental alarm sent by the
trap (2d6+3 rounds), Sarlik will use it’s mystical
link with his altar to teleport to his house, appear-
ing on the center of Area 6. This time represents
the time it takes for the General to disengage
from his current activities and prepare for com-
bat.
 Since Sarlik is an expert combatant, he never defeat is unavoidable, the General will use his bo-
faces possible danger unprepared and thus when nus action to get as far as possible from the
he arrives at his lair he is already under the effect group, using Misty Step. Then he will use his regu-
of both Mage Armor and Blur spells (because of lar action to cast Dimension Door and finally his
that, remember that he will have one less spell move action to vanish from the area.
slot available for his 1st and 2nd level spells to use
If hard pressed and incapable to escape using
against the group).
his regular routine, Sarlik will use Fireball with a
In his first round of combat after reaching the devastating effect in these close quarters. This will
Sanctum (Area 6), Sarlik will assess the situation, result in the explosion of the wood ceiling and will
in an attempt to discover the number of enemies put the house on fire. Sarlik will not care about
and if his guardians are still in combat. If the Rugs the fire as long as his Sanctum’s Shield can still ab-
of Smothering are still up and fighting, Sarlik will sorb some damage from the spell.
move to a position were he can use them as cov-
Investigating the Sanctum
er, ordering them to protect him.
If players decide to investigate Area 6, they will
If not or as soon as both Rugs are either defeat-
discover some very disturbing things. First is the
ed or out of combat, Sarlik will cast Blink to ensure
stone sarcophagus: resting in its inferior is a body
his mobility in combat. Either way, he will never
wrapped in thick linen straps. Close examination
move more than 20 ft. away from his altar, so as
reveals that this body has horns in its head. If the
to retain the benefits of his Sanctum’s Shield fea-
linen straps are removed, they reveal a mummi-
ture (see below for more information in this spe-
fied fiend body (the exact type is up to you).
cial trait).
While the body can be removed it is relatively
A perceptive character can notice this
light for its size. It does not bend, and its limbs
(Perception check DC 15), and after succeeding on
can’t be moved to another position. Finally, this
the roll, a character also proficient in Arcana can
body is completely immune to all damage, mun-
discover why (Arcana check DC 15, or DC 12 if Sar-
dane or magic.
lik is already using the benefits of the Sanctum’s
Shield feature). Second, there is the altar and the adjoining
statues. Finely crafted arcane tools rest on the al-
If two or more characters engage him in melee
tar, which is guarded on the right by a finely craft
combat, or are inside the spell area, he will use
angel statue, adorned with jewels and precious
Burning Hands. After depleting his Angel Statue's
metals, and by an equally well constructed devil
power, if target by a damage spell of 2nd level or
statue on the left. Both objects are approximately
higher, he will cast Counterspell if spell slots are
the same size of a gnome, and are incredibly
still available. While the situation remains in his
heavy.
favor, he will continue to follow this routine, cast-
ing Blur and Blink as soon as the spells expire if he Some sort of power seems to emanate from
still have spell slots available. those objects, a palpable sensation which makes
the skin tingle. An Arcana or Religion check DC 16
However, Sarlik has an escape plan ready if
reveals these statues are somehow tied to the
things go against him. He will always keep his 4th
fiendish body on the sarcophagus. If the roll on
level slot available to cast Dimension Door. He will
this check is 20 or higher, the character discover
also always keep one of his 2nd level slots in store
that the altar and statues are being used to drain
to be able to cast Misty Step. In an occasion when
life and magical energies from the creature and
transfer it to someone else.
Sanctum’s Shield
While very near to his mystical altar (20 ft. or
less), the General can somewhat reverse the magi-
cal process that siphons the life force from the
imprisoned fiend and redirect injuries redirect inju-
ries he receives to one of the focus statutes as a
reaction. The Angel Statue will accept only dam-
age from magical origin, while the Devil Statue will
take only physical damage. Sarlik can choose each
time he decides to use this feature.
However, while the creature on the sarcopha-
gus is immune to all kinds of damage in its present
state, the statues are not, and they can endure
only 30 hit points each, and will shatter after re-
ceiving that much damage. Finally, each time the
General uses this effect, the affected statue glow
with magical light - red for the Devil, blue for the
Angel.
7. Interpreting the
General
While people are on his good side, Sarlik is a
very amiable and kind old man, showing great
deal of interest on what people have to say. He
will answer with patience and gentleness every
question made about his goods and provide any
information about the village plus its surroundings
as he is able to tell.
However, the General will always avoid giving
elaborate and complex answers about himself, his
former life as a general, or the events surrounding
the prince’s death. He will subtly change the sub-
ject and focus on asking things about those who
are curious. He will also avoid lying about some-
thing whenever possible.
An empathic character can detect this charac-
teristic about him (if you feel appropriate, call for
a Insight check DC13). However, it is not obvious if
he is doing it because of shame and trauma from
his past failures or because he is hiding some-
thing. If pressed for personal information, he will
politely cut off the subject and ask the characters
to leave him to his business.
If the group fights Sarlik and win, they will have
made a powerful enemy. If the General was able
to escape, he will lick his wounds and plot his re-
venge, seeking to recover the imprisoned fiend
left behind, tracking the movements of the group
and attacking when the characters are vulnerable.
If the group capture him, he won’t provide any
useful information, offering only lies and threats.
This holds true even if the group is prone to and in
fact resorts to torture. However, in this case, Sar-
lik will be particularly wicked with his revenge
such as pursuing the player characters friends and
family members, sacrificing them to some darker
power.
Sarlik Motivations
The true motivations of the General are up to
you. They can be just a lust for power and eternal
life by sucking away the strength of an immortal
creature, summoning an infernal patron to the
world, or whatever you can imagine. The decision
is yours, and it is our purpose to leave things this
way so you can make this little module yours and
put it in your game using your own terms.
8. Bonus Map
If player characters triggered the trap on the
Area’s 6 Door, the torches will be extinguished
immediately, leaving the entire place in complete
darkness. So, to make more out of this dramatic
event, we provided you with a map without the
light effects. It is not that dark (it would impossi-
ble to properly see anything it was darker than
this), but the contrast with the previous map
should be enough to set the mood and put your
players on alert.
Appendix I: Stat Blocks
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