E7 (Collapsed Treasury)

Converting this encounter had me at a mental block for quite a while. I was loathe to convert yet another monster to the 4th Edition rules set, given the number I had already committed to. WotC has a much better grasp of what makes a good monster than I do, and so whenever possible I like to defer to official material rather than create my own. Furthermore, this is yet another single-monster fight in the original version. When possible I have tried to expand fights to involve more than one monster, as solo monster fights are not supposed to be nearly as common in 4th Edition as they were in D&D 3.5.

My goals for converting this encounter were as follows:

• Involve multiple monsters
• Preserve the hiding-in-the-helmet exposition
• Justify the monster's presence in a semi-aquatic area

I originally settled upon the idea of using otyughs, but they were a really imperfect solution. A few days later a friend suggested kruthiks, which I had originally glossed over for some reason. They turned out to be a much better fit (credit to LogicNinja). The Kruthik Hive Lord is large sized, making it perfect to hide under the helm. I suggest the following encounter for a party of five adventurers:

• 1 Kruthik Hive Lord
• 1 Kruthik Adult
• 1 Kruthik Young
• 3 Kruthik Hatchlings
  

Total: 893 xp (Level 4 Encounter)

Treasure-wise, the enormous helm is worth 200 gold pieces. Another 690 gold pieces are scattered throughout the chamber in the form of silver, gold and small precious stones (which, altogether, comprise treasure parcels 5 and 7 from level 5). Some digging also reveals treasure parcel 3 from level 5.

If your group decides to try and remove the helm from the treasury, and if you feel like making them work for it, I suggest running a relatively simple (complexity 2) impromptu skill challenge.