Gunspider's Lair

    Located high up in the Big Horn Mountains of  North-Central Wyoming Territory, the lair of the Gunspider is only accessible by a cramped tunnel carved out of a mountainside.  Many skeletal bodies are suspended from poles outside the entrance, and many more lie scattered about.  Union cavalry troopers, Lakota braves, pioneers, and mountain men make up the deathly menagerie, as well as what appear to be Spanish conquistadors!  These are the Gunspider's doormen, so to speak.  The Gunspider will know when strangers approach (the local Indian tribes know to stay away, mostly), thanks to his Forewarning' spell and animate the dead bodies with his Zombie spell to scare and hamper any intruders.  Treat these ghastly guardians as Veteran Walkin' Dead, and animate just enough of them to challenge the posse a bit. 

    After the victory over the dead, the party will see that the only way into the lair is down a tunnel big enough for only one man (or woman) to crawl through at a time.  Assuming they take the bait, every posse member will emerge on the other side of the tunnel covered in various types of spiders.  This is just to spook them a bit, but you can bite and poison your players if you'd like.  The only thing they see in this entrance cavern is a pool of murky water covering a third of the room, and the pool blocks one of the exits from this cavern.  If any posse member gets within about 5 feet or so of the pool, a scaly, tentacled horror rises from the pool and attacks!   It has 8 tentacles, each almost 12 feet long, but it will not fight to the death.   if the party can cause the main body of the beast 30 points of damage, it will release anyone it has trapped and dive below the surface.

Tentacled Horror profile:

Corporeal: D:5D10 N:3D8 S:5D12+2 Q: 3D8 V:4D10  Swimming:6D8, Fighting:Brawling: 6D8

Mental: C:2D6 K:2D4 M:4D8 Sm:3D4 Sp:3D6  Overawe: 4D8, Guts:6D6

Special abilities: Tentacle attack( each tentacle can absorb 30 points of damage before being destroyed): On a successful strike, the target must beat the Horror in an opposed strength test.  If the victim succeeds, he breaks free of the grasp.  If the Horror wins, the victim takes Strength damage to the affected area on the Tentacled Horror's every action.  The victim can spend an action to attempt to break free, but must win that Strength contest to do so.

    Surviving all this, the heroes are now ready to face the Gunspider!   Make no mistake, this will be a difficult challenge, and the posse might not be able to win.  Kill a couple of heroes if necessary, but let most of them get away if it proves too tough to handle.  Here's how you do it: The Gunspider only leaves his cavernous home to acquire more food (people), so he could chase them all the way to the entrance chamber and just give up the chase if his dining room abattoir is full of helpless victims.

Below is a map of the lair, followed by brief descriptions of what can be found in each chamber.  Enjoy!

1: Entrance cavern.  The murky pool of water runs from the top of the chamber to the bottom on the right side of the room, completely blocking the passage to chamber 2.  The entire cavern is about 50 yards across from the lip of the entrance tunnel to the passages to chambers 4 and 5.  Torches and lamps spaced at irregular intervals along the walls provide the only light.

2: False treasure room.  This chamber appears to be filled with bags of Spanish dubloons and other treasures from hundreds of years ago on up to the present.  This will please greedy players, at least until they get the treasures outside of the cave complex, where the "treasure" dissolves into sand and pebbles.

3: Storage chamber.  The Gunspider has filled this room with supplies of all types.  Ammunition for almost any type of firearm is stored here, along with many bolts of cloth.  Any items of limited value that the Gunspider has taken off his victims will be in here, such as Spencer rifles and sabers from U.S. cavalry soldiers.  Other than that, the only really identifiable thing is a regimental banner for the U.S. 7th Cavalry (provided that the Battle of the Little Big Horn has already happened in your campaign).

4: Organ chamber.  An immense pipe organ sits upright against the right-hand wall, to the right of the passage to chamber 5.  Think "Phantom of the Opera", or that organ from "The Goonies".  While interesting, it serves no real purpose, but should get the players really thinking about what kind of abomination this thing is, especially when they see the wine cellar racks that take up the rest of the chamber.  Napoleon brandy, wines from the 1700's, and any other old and rare bottles of spirits are found here (the Gunspider is a Renaissance man!).

5: Feeding chamber.  Groans and screams can be heard emanating from this chamber long before the posse enters it, and the stench of a charnel house hits them in the face like a sledge hammer.  People, live people, are chained to the walls.  Most of these folks are wounded in some form or fashion, and blood pools in the center of the chamber, flowing like rivers from gashes and holes torn in these poor souls.  Bones also litter the floor.  Any lucid captives will plead and beg for release, and if the posse obliges, the Gunspider will attack them immediately (he values his food more than anything, except maybe a fine red wine).

6: Gunspider's sanctum.  A few bones lie scattered about, but the only thing in this room is a series of spider webs, layered across each other to form what appears to be a hammock, strung between the walls on thin web strands.  If the heroes penetrate this far, legions of spiders from tarantulas to brown recluse spiders pour from the chamber ceiling, smothering and biting them.  The spiders attack en masse, and there are more than enough for each member of the posse.

Spider Swarm

Corporeal: D:1D4 N:2D10 S:1D4 Q:3D10 V:1D4  Fighting:Brawling: 3D10, Climbing: 4D10

Mental: C:2D6 K:1D4 M:2D6 Sm: 2D6 Sp:2D6  Area Knowledge:Gunspider's Lair:4D4

Special attacks: Swarm Bite:  For combat purposes, consider this swarm as 4 separate entities.  Roll attack dice, using TN: 5 plus any appropriate modifiers.  Success means 1 spider has bit the target, doing STR+1D4 damage.   Another spider bites the target for each raise, up to a total of 6 bites in 1 action.  For every 3 bites the victim suffers, he or she must make a Vigor check versus TN:7, or be stunned until the roll can be made.  If the target suffers 6 bites in 1 action, they must fist make the normal Vigor check as above, and then another at TN:9.  If either one is failed, the victim is stunned as above and takes 2D6 Wind damage.

7: Trophy chamber.  The Gunspider keeps the skulls and preserved remains of prey that proved especially difficult to bring down.  They are arranged into a series of 6 wrought-iron cells lining the north wall of the cavern.   The cells work, so feel free to put someone who might be alive here if it helps you out in some way (maybe the posse is only here to rescue someone).

8:  Real treasure chamber. This is the mother load.   Valuables from 3 centuries are piled in here.  Spanish dubloons in chests of gold and silver, all the way up to gold coins minted last year.  Raw, uncut gems fill bejeweled goblets in abundance, and several Relics of the Marshal's choice are found in here.  Now you know why this thing is so tough.  If they're lucky, they might be able to grab a few handfuls of stuff before being chased out of here, or killed to a man if they get greedy.