With a mighty creak, the doors swing inward, and you find yourself at the castle’s topmost level, its roof open to the stormy sky. In a moment, you take in the scene: shelf after shelf of severed limbs and bottled organs, four great posts of steel and brass crackling with unnatural power, a hulking body on a metal bier. Lightning crashes down and arcs between the poles. The giant figure on the slab twitches into life, and the baron shouts: “It Lives!” …

The baron’s laboratory is a place where foul magic and warped science combine to create abominable mockeries of life. It is typically open to the sky, so his creations can be brought to unnatural life by bolts of lightning from the stormclouds above, but it’s easily modified. The baron could be using geothermal energy, a necromantic hotspot, or a portal to a far-off plane to power his infernal machines. If the PCs can figure out what power source the baron is using and protect themselves against it, they’ll have a significant advantage in the battle to come.

Alchemical Shelf (Level 10 Lurker)

Hazard (XP 125)

A large shelf of vials and jars topples down onto you, unleashing a torrent of smashing glass and toxic chemicals.

Hazard The shelf is 15-ft. high and occupies 3 squares; it holds vials of acid, caustic alkaline, toxic powder, and foul necromantic reagents

Perception
◊ DC 14—You notice the glassware-filled shelves look unsteady

Additional Skill (Arcana)
◊ DC 18—You notice the dangerous nature of the chemicals

Trigger The shelf is deliberately pushed over with a DC 15 Athletics check or a character is pushed into the hazard

Attack
Standard Action               Close blast 3
Target All creatures in the blast
Attack +13 vs. AC
Hit 3d8+5 damage, and ongoing 5 acid damage (save ends)

Secondary Attack +11 vs. Reflex
Hit Target is knocked prone and restrained

Countermeasures
◊ None, but restrained characters can escape from under the shelves with a DC 21 Acrobatics or Athletics check; lifting the shelf off someone else is a DC 16 Athletics check

Encounter Uses
◊ Igor lurks ready to push a shelf onto the first character through the door; subsequently, the floor is difficult terrain and inflicts 5 acid damage to creatures while in the area

Electric Eel Tank (Level 12 Lurker)

Trap (XP 175)

This brass-lined pool is filled with briny water that bubbles and thrashes. Thick metal cables emerge from it and connect to some arcane machinery nearby.

Trap The pool occupies 4 squares and is 5-ft. deep; it is filled with electric eels whose “vivifying energy” is used to bring life to the baron’s monstrous creations

Perception
◊ DC 16—You notice a mass of serpentine creatures lurking within the pool

Additional skill (Nature)
◊ DC 18—You identify the creatures in the pool as electric eels

Trigger A character enters or begins their turn in the pool

Attack
Immediate Reaction      Melee
Target Creature in pool
Attack +13 vs. Fortitude
Hit 2d6+5 lightning damage

Countermeasures
◊ Nearby cables direct the eels’ electric charge into the baron’s infernal devices; if the machine is activated correctly (DC 21 Arcana check), creatures in the pool take no damage from the eels but cannot use any powers with the lightning keyword

Encounter Uses
◊ The baron’s Monster attempts to push or bull rush PCs into the pool, or hurls them into it from a distance; if resistant to lightning, it attempts to keep them there by grappling; any character using lightning-based powers is targeted as soon as possible, and either the baron or Igor activates the machinery as soon as they are in the pool

Lightning Arc Level (10 Elite Blaster)

Trap (XP 1,000)

Lightning arcs across the chamber between two of the tall brass poles. The steel spheres which surmount them glow with eldritch fire, like miniature suns.

Trap The trap consists of four tall poles placed up to 20 squares apart, each topped with metal spheres that attract lightning from the stormy sky above; each round, a bolt of lightning leaps from a random pole (roll 1d4) to one of the others, striking all characters in a 1-square-wide line between the poles.

Perception
◊ DC 10—You notice the odd-looking metal poles
◊ DC 16—You feel a tingling sensation when near the poles

Trigger Automatic each round, with an Initiative of +4

Attack
Immediate Interrupt Close wall (variable)
Target All creatures in the lightning’s path and all creatures in metal armour adjacent to the path
Attack +15 vs. Reflex
Hit 2d6+5 lightning damage, and target is dazed (save ends)
Special Any lightning powers used within 10 squares of a pole do not function and, instead, lightning arcs from the nearest pole to the creature (the trap makes a free attack against that target)

Countermeasures
◊ The chamber’s roof can be closed by means of a hand crank (requires two DC 16 Athletic checks); this blocks the normal activation of the trap, but not its special quality
◊ The poles can be destroyed (each pole has AC 5 and 30 hp)

Encounter Uses
◊ Characters can drag a pole free of its surroundings with a DC 21 Athletics check; as long as the pole stays with 20 squares of at least one other pole, lightning continues to arc to and from it; wielding a pole always counts as being in the lightning’s path and the wielder is automatically hit

Encounter Groups

The Baron’s Laboratory is typically defended by a handful of powerful individuals: the insane baron himself, his malformed servant Igor, and of course The Monster.

Level 11 Encounter (3,075 XP)

• The Baron: foulspawn seer (level 11 artillery)
• Igor: foulspawn grue (level 8 controller)
• The Monster: foulspawn hulk (level 12 brute)
• 2 alchemical shelves (hazard)
• bath of electric eels (trap)
• lightning arc (trap)

Level 12 Encounter (3,500 XP)

• The Baron: deathpriest of Orcus (level 9 controller)
• Igor: ogre skirmisher (level 8 skirmisher)
• The Monster: spirit devourer (level 11 elite soldier)
• 3 alchemical shelves (hazard)
• bath of electric eels (trap)
• lightning arc (trap)

Level 13 Encounter (4,100 XP)

• The Baron: shadar-kai witch (level 7 controller)
• Igor: zombie hulk (level 8 brute)
• The Monster: flesh golem (level 12 elite brute)
• 5 vampire spawn bloodhunter (level 10 minions)
• 2 alchemical shelves (hazard)
• bath of electric eels (trap)
• lightning arc (trap)

______

Let me tell you, the baron has an amazing preparation for turkey, and of course, it involves electricity. It gives the meat a texture you just can’t get with anything else; you just have to take care to eat the bird before it eats you. But the mighty Dan Voyce didn’t have the space for the recipe, so you’ll just have to stick to deep frying your bird.

Frankenturkey! Better eating through alchemy.