Place of Skulls map, intro, area 1

First, stuff nobody needs to know: I'm going to try to post a room/area a day until all the open maps for the dwarf project are done. The valley and the under-vale and the Wide World are all mostly keyed- however i have eschewed numbered hexes on the former and just keyed the important and interesting places. I will build some detailed encounter tables rather than placing static encounters over the entire map. The two smaller dungeons (Zimon's Gate and the Place of Skulls) are about half done. The megaleval at Urux remains untouched and is my nightmare right now. Also I will recommence posting Beyond the Leaning City this Friday. I'm not sure why I stopped.



Introduction;
The Place of Skulls (#4 on the VoS key) lies deep within the shadows of the Burning Forest in the south eastern section of the Vale of Sorrow. Interred within are the remains of several Grall (the common use name for the pre-sundering folk). There are several Skulls of power, a magic boat and a not inconsiderable amount of coin. Further, there is a series of hieroglyphs that explain the workings of the Moon Stair.

Key:


1. Entranceway
Door: On the surface; blocked by rubble. 2 full turns will be required to clear away the debris.
Stair: Down. Ancient, crumbled. The first character to descend the stair must make a DEX/INT check (whichever is higher); failure results in a misstep and and a short fall down the stairs for 1d3 points of damage.
Smell: Dust and Mildew.
Sound: Drip, drip, drip...
The stair lets out onto a chamber supported by featureless basalt pillars and lined with graven sandstone slabs. Water drips from the cracked limestone ceiling and lies in small scum covered puddles on the floor. Three lightless archways lead off the room.

Note: The Moon Stair is a flight of steps that manifests only on nights of the full moon. It is the only way to reach The castle level of Urux situated near the top of Mt. Thorn.

Note 2: Building a better bandwagon: won't you join me? Draw, borrow or steal a map (that Logos fellow from whom I appropriated my mapping style wholesale has a shit ton of awesome ones on his blog, or you could use a geomorph mapper thingy, or even take one of the maps on the left here, or use the piece of shit at the top of the post. Who gives a fuck?) and key it one room at a time. It beats answering 30 boring ass questions, but, of course, that is just my opinion, and I am a well known jackass. Hee Haw.