This is pretty text heavy. I know some of you don't dig that, so, you know, sorry and all. This level has actually been play-tested; although, it was a spur of the moment incident and not a a planned event. So don't like get to thinking I've got my shit together. I've got the rest of this level keyed waiting a proof read and some stat block additions; the other two are in varying stages of completion; when it's all done I'll do some drawings and make a pdf. I'll probably make two more levels in addition to what I've drawn already, and then i'll get back to Madling Isle, or, maybe, I'll do it the other way around. Or start something else. Who knows? I'm not to be trusted.
Anyway, it's been like 2 months since the last post, where the hell have you been?
1. Entrance point.
Illumination: Dim and flickering red.
Smell: A musty and cloying cocktail, comprised of one part sulfur and two parts stagnant water.
Details: A large, circular teleportation pool is located at the center of this room. The pool is only partially functional. It can be used to enter the complex, but not to exit. Once the players emerge from the water the pool appears to be nothing but a mundane cistern of algae covered water. The floor is covered in carpet of broken bones. A mural of two minotaurs wrestling decorates the north wall, the other walls are covered in floral patterns rendered in flaked pastel paint. A flickering crystal mounted in the ceiling (5 meters above the floor) casts an inconstant blood red light over the room There are no obvious exits. A search of the osseous detritus strewn across the floor will yield a three sided, 30cm long, finger-width sliver of silvery metal, which is taped at the ends and marked by runic etchings. Any character touching the object with bare flesh takes one point of damage per round of contact. This damage will take 4days to heal/point, and the character so inflicted will experience sleep sweats and disquieting nightmares all the while.
The room contains two secret doors. The door on the east wall can be found with a roll of a 1 or 2 on a d6; if this door is opened it will release a blast of frosty, fetid and stale air, the character opening the door and anyone else adjudged to be standing within five feet of the door must make a saving throw. Failure results in 1d4 rounds of unconsciousness, but no further ill effect. The door on the south wall can be found on a roll of a 1 on a d8.
2. Rough hewn passageway
Illumination: None
Smell: Musty and stale
Details: The corridor is very cold; breath turns into mist and spots of frost mark the walls. A heavy door of rusted iron terminates the eastern passage. The door is jammed.
3. Freezer
Illumination: None
Smell: Bad meat; very bad meat.
This room is freezing cold. Any characters that are wet will take 1 hit point of damage every round they remain in the room.
Barrels, casks and crates of ancient foodstuffs line the walls. Many of them are full, or nearly so. Roughly a dozen cleaned and dressed carcasses hang by hooks in the room’s center.
Three corpses, two minotaurs and a shae, hang amongst the frozen meat. Judging by their wounds, all three died in the midst of a savage battle. The shae has a pouch containing ten 10 GP coins. One of the minotaurs has a parchment stiff with ice crystals and frozen blood. It has a cluster of untranslatable ruins upon it that cannot be translated by any means, magical or otherwise (subject to the referee’s discretion).
4. Smooth walled passage.
Illumination: dull green glow (mold)
Smell: Dank, sulfurous.
Noise: Dripping
Huge loops of cobweb hang across this hallway. A wide crack mars the ceiling; viscous purple ichor of unknown origin drips slowly in from above, and vanishes in to a black edged hole in the floor. Anyone who ingests the ichor must make a saving throw or die. The ichor can be used to coat weapons with poison. However, the venom will burn through all substances besides glass. If a glass vial is used, enough ichor for 10 doses can be collected in an hour. The ichor has a strong sulfurous stink, known to the living creatures of the complex.
Note the doors to rooms 5 and 6 are difficult open.
5. Dry Storage (stuck door)
Illumination: None
If the door is forced it will disintegrate into a puff of foul smelling wood rot, and thousands upon thousands of black roaches will explode out of the opening. They will swarm about, flying and crawling all over anyone in the hall for 1d6 rounds. ST or scream like a girl. The room beyond is completely empty, except for some broken crates.
6. Wine Cellar:
Illumination: None
The door to this room is wedged shut with two spikes identical to the one located in area 1. A skeleton, clutching a pistol in one hand and an empty wine jug in the other, occupies the southwest corner. A large collection of empty bottles is spread out around the remains. There are 27 small, regular scratches on the adjacent portion of the western wall. A small sack containing 300 gp in gems lies beneath the bones. The pistol is old and rusted beyond repair or even recognition.
The wine racks lining the room are predominately empty, but there are 1d6 bottles of wine each worth 1d4 X100 GP. There is also a bottle of Dream Oil (worth 1000GP).
7. The Kitchen:
Illumination: none.
Smell: Dust.
Several long stone stables stretch across this room situated along the east/west axis.
Four gigantic cauldrons line the north wall of the room. There is a large Kexoke (feathered serpent) hidden in the eastern-most cauldron. AC:8 [11] HD: 4 Attack Beak 1d6 +venom attack. Move 12. Venom attack: slow poison 3x daily, only works once per victims. Save or move and attack at ½ normal rate for 1d4 hours. The Kexoke will lie in wait and attack any character searching the cauldrons. If the combat lasts more than three rounds, the 3 quite ones from Area 8 will become roused, enter the kitchen and attack the PCs.
There is a dumbwaiter in the NE corner of the room; the shaft leads down to levels two and three.
A fire pit dominates the center of the north wal; the chimney shaft leads up out of the complex. The vent is far above, and in shadow; subsequently, no light enters the room through this channel. The climb up the chimney shaft could be accomplished in roughly two hours. A Rock worm patrols the chimney. It will attack midway through the climb.
8. Office of the Chef
Illumination: None
As the PCs enter this room, four Quite Ones (AC 5[14] HD:1 Move: 8 Attack: Spiked limbs 1d6 Special quite ones project a 10’ sphere of silence) shamble towards them out of the darkness- unless they have already attacked during the fight with the feathered serpent in area 7.
Countless spikes (each identical to the one found in on the floor of area 1) pierce these desiccated rotting corpses of these undead Sasquatch zombies. The shimmering remnants of their defiled souls flicker and flash over their skin like unholy lightning.
A large writing desk dominates the southern wall.
A rack of gold and silver pots and pans lines the entire length of the eastern wall. It is rickety. If any one attempts to remove a single pot or pan the entire rack will fall across the entire room, inflicting everyone within with 2d6 damage; save for ½ damage.
9. Short Passage
Illumination: Glowstrip green (flickering).
The floor is covered in an eight inch layer of dead bugs and their desiccated casings. Walking over and through the insects generates a sticky sounding crunch.
Jaws of death: Each character has a 1 in 4 chance of triggering the man trap that is hidden beneath the insect carcasses. If the trap is activated, the character must make a saving throw. Failure results in a roll on the wound table.
10. Scullery
Illumination: Glow strip orange (pulsing)
The door latch is broken and the door swings gently open. A thick layer of dust covers everything herein, but cannot conceal the fact that, long ago, a violent struggle raged through this room.
Shelves are down; smashed dishes are everywhere. A minotaur in rich robes lies twitching on the floor transfixed by a bone bladed sword. The sword called "Bane" is a relic of the Wars of Unreason. Its victims cannot die while the blade remains embedded in their flesh. If someone removes the sword from the minotaur will scream out “no” right after the sword is free, and then vanish in an explosion of black dust. Attempts to communicate with him will most likely prove fruitless, as he has been on the edge of death- in unimaginable agony- for thousands of years, and his mind is essentially gone.
