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Counting House · Small · Level 3 · Medium

Fourth Roll Counting House

The brass tally marks underfoot grow denser as the air turns colder.
Rooms
6
Foes
9, CR 1/8 to 2
Traps
10
Treasure
393 gp
123456Entrance
Select a room on the plan to open it.

The party is in

1. Dim Entry

Seen

Something wanders by

At a glance

The threat

The vault’s chief custodian, a brass ledger-warden, still enforces the last royal audit.

Wandering monsters (1d3)

  1. 1

    Page-KeeperCR 1/4

    When: A failed search, loud argument, or repeated trap activation draws it from a service passage.A brass page-keeper with a stamped numeral on its back, dragging a chain of empty record boxes.
  2. 2

    2× Basement PatrolCR 1/2

    When: The alarm bell rings, or the party spends more than 20 minutes in the basement.Two hired guards on a quiet patrol, one carrying a lantern and the other a short spear.
  3. 3

    1d3× Tally-SpidersCR 1/4

    When: A creature tampers with a wall mechanism or leaves fresh blood on a brass floor strip.A small cluster of brass tally-spiders skitters along the wall seams, clicking their legs together like counting beads.

Rooms

6
1

Dim Entry

4 foes1 traptreasuresecret

What they see

Read aloud

Four uniformed guards wait beneath a dim brass lamp, their tabards bearing the counting house’s plain tally mark. The south door opens into the trap passage; locked doors to the north and west resist ordinary keys, while the east door leads toward a quiet, cramped chamber.

Features

  • A shuttered brass lamp casts a narrow cone of light over the center of the room.
  • The north and west doors are locked; each can be picked with a Dexterity check using thieves’ tools.
  • A secret drain exit is concealed in the southwest corner behind a movable stone panel.

What the GM knows

Monsters

4× Counting House GuardsCR 1/8

City watch guards hired to protect the counting house, equipped with spears, shields, and lanterns.Tactics. They challenge intruders first, then form a shield line and use the doorway to keep attackers clustered. One attempts to ring the alarm bell if the others are overwhelmed.

Traps

Clerk’s Bell WireDC 12 piercing damage

A bell wire at ankle height runs beneath the lamp. Crossing it rings a concealed alarm in and alerts the guards if they have not already noticed the party.Disarm. A character who spots the wire can cut it or wedge the bell clapper with a successful Dexterity check using thieves’ tools.

Treasure

Guard Paybox18 gp and a stamped receipt

A locked cashbox holds pay for the guards and a receipt stamped with the current comptroller’s seal.
Room secrets · GM only

Notes

The guards know the puzzle’s first clue but not its solution. They believe the secret exit is bricked up. If treated with respect, one can be persuaded to stand aside rather than die for a hidden treasury.

4 doors: S (normal), N (locked), W (locked), E (normal)

The place

What it is

Beneath a functioning counting house, this compact strongroom hides the city’s most compromising ledgers and the Crown’s private reserves.

Atmosphere

Cold air carries the smell of ink, damp stone, and lamp oil.

The threat

The vault’s chief custodian, a brass ledger-warden, still enforces the last royal audit.

History

The Fourth Roll was built beneath the city’s counting house after a succession crisis made noble debts as dangerous as armies.

Rumors

1d4
Roll a rumor

  1. 1The basement doors open only for someone who can make the numbers agree.
  2. 2A guard swears the brass floor has been counting footsteps since the old king died.
  3. 3The counting house keeps a royal fortune below, but the real treasure is whatever names are written beside the debts.
  4. 4A clerk who took home one of the old ledgers woke to find every page filled with their family’s accounts.

Plot hooks

3
InvestigationThe Missing AccountA royal courier vanished while carrying proof that a powerful household has been selling secrets. The party must recover the courier’s ledger before the warden destroys it as an invalid account.From: A nervous royal courier’s clerkReward: A rare signet ring that grants advantage on one Charisma check with city officials each day, plus a sealed royal pardon
RetrievalA Key in ArrearsThe current comptroller hires the party to retrieve a reserve key from the basement. The key is in the vault, but its records could expose the comptroller’s own family debts.From: The city comptrollerReward: A share of recovered coin and a rare spell scroll chosen from the party’s available spell lists
IntrigueThe False ArchiveA noble patron wants the party to locate the genuine letters, unaware that the basement archive is a decoy. Finding the truth upstairs could implicate the patron as well as their rivals.From: An envoy for a noble householdReward: A rare cloak of protection, offered only if the party brings back the letters intact

Corridors

3

  • Passage between and

    A brass floor strip is engraved with tiny account marks. The marks become more numerous nearer the vault, and one has been freshly scratched out.

  • The corridor outside

    A speaking tube carries muffled whispers from elsewhere in the basement, though the words are old entries read aloud by a hidden recording mechanism.

  • Passage leading toward

    Three shallow niches hold empty lantern hooks and a dust-free rectangle where a framed royal seal once hung.

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