L1-5E. Mud-Glove Barracks
What this room is/was
Another overflow barracks for the Howling Moon. The crew here is drilled to pour into the corridors when steel rings—part of the same reinforcement pattern you’ve seen across this wing.
Features & checks
- Bunk pallets & table-chests. The “table” is just three chests shoved together; one leg is a loose lid. A DC 12 Perception spots drag ruts leading toward the south door (traffic to the work passage).
- Gloves that reek of earth. Several sets piled in one chest; earth-stain under the nails suggests tunneling duty. A DC 11 Survival check links the wet loam scent to the freshly battered corridor below.
- Well-used lockpick set. Blackened and worn—either a raider’s kit or used to work crude latches on site. Treat as thieves’ tools (common).
- Levers nearby. Noise here often pulls Krang from the Hive-Queen Office (5C), who can drop/raise the paired portcullises on the approach to the lower works—use this to split parties or trap pursuers.
Tactics & response
- On intrusion: The two at the table bark “Found you! No more games—time to die!” and kick a chest-lid forward for half cover (AC +2; 15 HP to smash).
- Round 1: One orc sprints west to flag 5C/5D; the other hurls a javelin while waking sleepers.
- Round 2+: If a horn or lever is worked elsewhere, this room floods the hall and reinforces ongoing fights on your clock: 5A/5B in ~2 rounds, 5C/5D by ~4—the same cadence the complex uses around the bray-horn.
- Morale: Steady until 4 orcs drop; then they try to shove & swarm toward the nearest choke (or back through the south door toward the work passage).
- Orc barks (sprinkle): “Bleed! Bleed and die!” / “Die, metalman!” / “You are weak! I am stroooonng!”
Chests & contents (center table)
Rummaging takes 1 minute per chest or a single DC 12 Investigation to sweep all three.
- Chest A: Gloves (6 pairs; mud-stained), well-used lockpick set.
- Chest B: Coin bundle: 4 gp, 190 sp, 120 cp bound with gutstring.
- Chest C: Spare rags, bone needles, and a twine roll (improvised snare).
Treasure tip: The pick set is a straight table boon for a rogue PC who arrived unequipped; for non-rogues, let it serve as tools if they have proficiency (or as a fragile set that breaks on a failed check by 5+).
Hooks & developments
- Dig team angle. A captured orc here boasts about “the easy dirt below.” Use that to point the party toward the Passage Under Construction (portcullis, long southern drop, then east bend).
- Lever games. If the party pressures from the west door, have Krang in 5C try to split them with the paired gates; players who’ve clocked the lever room can reverse this trick against orc reinforcements.
Quick 5e plugs
- Orcs (12) as MM. Optional spice: Moon-Frenzy (1/encounter): when first bloodied, +2 damage on next hit.
- Makeshift cover: Flipping a chest-lid is an object interaction that gives half cover to two adjacent orcs (AC +2) until the lid is moved/broken.
- Stealth beats: Normal conversation volume won’t wake the whole room; metal-on-stone or a raised shout triggers checks and the response clock as above.
Cartographer’s note. The west door naturally feeds toward the office/control (5C/5D), while the south door is your pressure valve toward the works; if you want a running fight, let fleeing orcs haul through the south, trading space for the chance to rally under the gates.
At a glance
- Exits: Centered doors in west and south walls.
- Occupants: Orcs (12) — typically 10 asleep, 2 awake (drinking/arguing).
- Noise: Heavy snoring; a raised voice in the hall will wake 1–2 at the table first.
- Through-line: The glove stink hints these are the diggers’ bunks tied to the Passage Under Construction deeper south/east; leverage that to foreshadow the paired gates and the works below.
Orcs arguing at table
Orc at the table, low and bitter: “You think Urzhag leads? You know he bows. You saw it—your chief nodding to that vile human cultist with the white-skin grin.”
Other orc, jabbing a finger: “You shut it. You don’t know the plans. You want to be next? You speak like you ain’t Howling Moon.”
First orc: “Howling Moon? You bleed your own for him. You carry the gloves, you drag our strongest down below—and you watch the gate slam while the un-living demons take them.”
Second orc, snarling: “You call them demons; I call them masters of fear. The human says the skull halls must be fed. You want Urzhag’s axe in your teeth for saying otherwise?”
First orc: “Let him try. You remember Grukk? Strong as three. Fed to that death-trap like meat. For what? For a whisper from a soft-skinned worm.”
Second orc, quieter: “You bite your tongue. You and me—if we live the next raid, we take our shares and we go. Leave Urzhag to his new ‘friends.’ ”
First orc, lifting the tankard: “Aye. But if you hear the horn and you see that cultist again, you keep your head low. Urzhag ain’t looking—you trip the human and let the skull halls feed him.”
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