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  Surviving Kalmatta
  A player’s guide to 
  The Treasure Vaults of Zadabad 
  Written By 
  Carl Bussler, Eric Hoffman
  Cartography By 
  Carl Bussler, Eric Hoffman
  Layout By 
  Carl Bussler
  For more adventures and supplements, visit Stormlord Publishing at 
  www.stormlordpublishing.com
  
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  Welcome to the island of Kalmatta
  There are a number of reasons why your character might book passage to the mysterious and remote island 
  of Kalmatta. Chief among those reasons is the lure of gold, lost knowledge, and forbidden magic in the fabled 
  vaults of Zadabad. 
  While you and your fellow players may have the unified goal of finding and plundering the vaults of 
  Zadabad, you may also wish your characters to have goals of their own. These sub-plots can give you a vested 
  interest to adventure on the island, and can lead to sessions of memorable roleplaying. You can also use the 
  adventure hooks below to explain why new characters have stepped-in to take the place of recently deceased 
  characters.
  Personal Adventure Hooks
  Discuss with the judge how you can incorporate any of the following hooks:
  1. “I champion a cause greater than myself.” The island, once being a grand center of worship, contains 
  religious artifacts that must be preserved (or destroyed!)
  2. “There’s gold in those jungles, and it belongs to me.” Exotic hardwoods, animal hides, diamonds, gold, 
  and ivory would make a talented merchant quite rich. 
  3. “What good is a recipe without the ingredients?” The island’s rare flora and fauna will provide excellent 
  raw materials for potions and spell components.
  4. “Blood is thicker than water.” A relative was sold into slavery and is currently somwhere on Kalmatta. 
  5. “He’s worth a lot of gold to me.” You are hired to discover what happened to a wealthy explorer.
  6. “They’ll never find me here. Where am I again?” You are fleeing the law, an assassin, or unforgiving 
  debtors.
  7. “If you wrong me, shall I not revenge?” You seek revenge, and the source of your misery has fled to, or 
  lives on, the island.
  8. “All that gold for a few dusty bones. What could go wrong?” You seek relics of bygone cultures for a 
  wealthy collector.
  9. “They have no idea what they possess.” Pirates have stolen something from you, and you intend to 
  reclaim it. Their base of operations is somewhere on Kalmatta. The item could be a family heirloom, a 
  secret, a map, or possibly something quite horrible.
  10. “Kalmatta. Why did it have to be Kalmatta?” You have escaped pirates, abandoned your sinking ship, 
  or were part of a mutiny. You have washed ashore near Sindanore. Without money to pay for a way 
  off the island, you are stranded. Joining an exploration could be your ticket off this god-forsaken rock.
  11. “I will prove myself worthy.” An organization you wish to join has given you a task which requires your 
  extended stay on the island. You could use this in combination with some of the ideas above.
  12. “The king is dead. Long live me.” You have contracted a curse from the crocodile-headed god Septhet, 
  
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  god of secrets, and the only means to remove it exists on the island. Once per day, the character 
  will be attacked by a single crocodile, which usually occurs at the most inopportune time. This will 
  continue until Adu-Bagwa, King of the River, is slain. As form of compensation, grant this character a 
  bonus starting item: A suit of masterfully crafted crocodile leather armor.
  Getting to Kalmatta
  Most characters will have booked passage to Sindanore aboard the Soulcatcher, a fast, black-sailed ship 
  captained by a confident and capable woman named Siren. She plans to weigh anchor after 7 days of 
  resupplying in Sindanore. She is willing to negotiate a specific return date, but some form of payment must 
  be made before she departs.
  She has visited Sindanore before, but does not bother with the politics or dealings of its inhabitants or that of 
  her passengers. She can verify that it is quite rare for explorers to make a successful return trip.
  History of Sindanore
  The dreary little village of Sindanore is nestled on a rocky piece of land near the mouth of the Walushti river 
  that empties into a murky bay called The Plague Waters. The spit of land is connected to the island by a low, 
  narrow isthmus that is occasionally submerged when the river is in flood or the sea is at a particular high 
  tide. 
  Sindanore was once an active plague colony. Several generations ago, a terrible wasting disease, with no 
  mundane cure, ravaged the nearby settlements. Those afflicted were sent to Sindanore to live out their days 
  in squalor. No plague has been active in Sindanore for over 50 years, but the 100 or-so inhabitants still wrap 
  themselves from head to toe in gray rags and are wary of outsiders, due to the horrible treatment their ances-
  tors received from the civilized world. 
  Sindanore is not completely isolated from the broader world: A few merchant ships visit yearly to trade fin-
  ished goods to the villagers in exchange for hardwoods and certain herbs and spices that only grow on the is-
  land of Kalmatta. Due to the dangers of the island, trade is not profitable enough to warrant frequent contact, 
  and the villagers like it that way. 
  With the merchants come occasional treasure hunters as well. The villagers are accustomed to loud-mouthed 
  braggarts lingering for a few days and then disappearing into the interior of the island. The vast majority are 
  never heard from again.
  The village is fortified with a stout wooden palisade with wooden guard towers at regular intervals. The gate 
  is made of heavy, 2’ diameter logs reinforced with iron bands and secured with a thick bar and bracing beams 
  when not in use. Seldom do the villagers leave their impressive fortifications, but when they do,  it is always 
  in large groups and only for as long as is absolutely necessary. 
  Common Knowledge and Rumors
  Most villagers currently alive have never travelled more than a mile into the jungle surrounding the colony, 
  so their knowledge of the island is very limited. Below is a list of what the average villager knows or thinks 
  
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  about the island. They may share this information with the characters in the course of other business or if 
  properly motivated. The truthfullness of these claims should be independently verified.
  1. There are natives that live in the interior of the island. No one has actually seen one up close in a gen-
  eration but sometimes there are glimpses of eyes watching logging parties from the underbrush and 
  drums can be heard echoing around the island from time-to-time. 
  2. Demons live in the volcanoes on the island. 
  3. A group of hunters went inland 6 months ago. The villagers assumed they were dead but a small party 
  returned to Sindanore for supplies a month ago claiming they were mostly still alive.
  4. Pirates are common in the seas surrounding Sindanor and have been known to use the island to 
  careen their ships in the past. Because of this, the fishing boats of the villagers never venture far from 
  Sindanore. 
  5. The rivers are navigable, but no less deadly than the jungles.
  6. Tombs from an ancient civilization are scattered across the island. Occaisonaly, a group of adventur-
  ers will return with a sizeable haul of gold and treasure.
  7. A tribe of warrior women lives in the interior. They take healthy males as mates, but kill and eat them 
  after laying with them. 
  8. Giant crocodiles, large enough to swallow a man whole, live in the swamps and the mouths of the 
  rivers. 
  9. Some kind of giant mammals live on the island. The villagers have caught glimpses of them thunder-
  ing through the jungle and have seen their scat. 
  10. Evil wizards visit the island on flying carpets every new moon and attempt to summon an ancient evil 
  that lives under the sea. The creature’s attempt to rise from the depths is why the water rises so high 
  and covers the isthmus.  
  Noteable People of Sindanore
  The villagers of Sindanore are largely independent, small family groups that help each other out when there 
  is dire need but keep to themselves otherwise. There is no temple to any god, nor proper tavern or inn. There 
  is a part time smith and a miller who will repair items and sell travelling bread, respectively. There are only a 
  handful of working horses that the villagers will not sell or trade, except for offers of ridiculous wealth. Below 
  is a list of villagers the characters are likely to encounter in the village.
  Malachai: In times of dire trouble, the villagers look to Malachai, a veteran guard, as the de facto leader 
  of the settlement. Malachai is a stickler for keeping a regular guard and never opening the gates after 
  dark or allowing an undermanned party to leave the village. Malachai has fought giant crocodiles before 
  and will swear that there are humans, or something close to humans, that live on the interior. He has 
  seen them watching from the jungle and knows there is human intelligence in those stares.
  Urtull: There is no proper Inn at Sindanore, but Urtull is a widower who lives in a large house and will 
  rent rooms to visitors. He charges 5 sp a day. If characters wish to leave things at Urtull’s he will insist on 
  
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  the full 5 sp, paid 1 month in advance - no refunds. Urtull, like most of the villagers, doesn’t believe he 
  will ever see characters who go inland again. 
  Efram: There is no bar or tavern in Sindanore, but Efram runs a small kitchen for laborers to eat their 
  meals when they don’t have time to cook for themselves. He also serves a strong drink made from distill-
  ing vines that grow on the island. Efram calls it “Creeper Juice” and he will sell it for 1 sp by the mug or 1 
  gp for a skin full. 
  Khalid: Khalid is a part-time smith who can repair, but not make, weapons and armor as long as they 
  are not too exotic. He is brother-in-law to Efram, and he clearly does not care for the man. 
  Gristle and Yreeth: Gristle and Yreeth are cousins who are the black sheep of the village. They are the 
  only villagers who will accompany a party into the interior and only because their grandmother has 
  finally given up on them and kicked them out of the house. They are currently sleeping in Urtull’s stable, 
  and will sell their services for 1 gp  per day.
  Thelonna: Thelonna is a self-proclaimed wise-woman and will sell herbal remedies for 1 gp. Among 
  them are healing salves and an antidote for centipede poison.
  Farukkh: Farukkh is the only fisherman willing to sell his boat, but he’ll start the bidding at 1000gp. The 
  price is steep because he will need the money to relocate, or to live on while he waits for materials and 
  tools to build a new boat. The boat will hold 10 people and is designed for travel on calm and shallow 
  waters. It could, with some skill, be used for ocean travel.
  Bueller: Bueller is the village miller. He will bake hard tack for adventurers wishing to resupply their 
  food stocks. He is the villager who speaks the most with visitors who plan on heading inland. In addi-
  tion to the items above, Bueller has heard from enough folks to make him believe it is true that many of 
  the tombs on the island are protected with powerful curses. 
  “We have traveled seemingly endless oceans, fought ruthless pirates, 
  and survived storms sent by the titans. Now we look upon jungles 
  that hide dangers too numerous to catalog. We are brothers in arms, 
  brothers in blood, and while they journey has been long, nothing before 
  us will sap the conviction needed to gaze upon the Gate to Elsewhere. 
  I cannot promise that we shall all survive to enjoy the riches and 
  wonders locked in the black pyramid of Zadabad, but know you this, 
  those who do shall dine with the gods.” 
  - A speech by Captain Horatio DeMontclaire, as recorded on page 56 
  of his personal journal.
  
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SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Swords & Wizardry/SW Adventures & Settings/The Treasure Vaults of Zadabad (SW)/Surviving Kalmatta Zadabad Players Guide.pdf