There are are very interesting forces at work in Khomaes. Although
the Barony (which includes the city) is ruled by a nominally good member
of Westroner society, Baron Aldra Ap Iaggio, there are forces within the city that are far from anything recognizable as Westroner culture. A broad, but unorganized, subculture of different groups exist within the city, some of them religious, some with more earthly gains. One of the most bizarre, however, is the Cult of the White Shadow. An encounter by the player characters with this cult would probably be a dangerous one, but one where good characters would probably seek to harm the cult, and its leaders, in any way possible.
This secret organization draws its members from among the families of the wealthy nobility, and yet preys on the members of the poor and dispossessed classes. The members are typically 2nd and 3rd sons and daughters (and others, further removed from being first son or daughter), that are likely not to partake of the inherited positions of authority and power within those families. These are drawn into the Cult, and typically have little loyalty to the culture that has little room for them. It should not be thought that all of the sons and daughters of these families that don't stand to inherit will immediately become members of this or that cult, it is only a small percentage. But a high percentage of the recruits of the Cult do come from these situations.
The cult believes that it has found a way to contact servitors of one of the deities of the Old Ones. In this case, it is the Lady of Air, and her servant is the White Shadow. The White Shadow (according to the Cult) is an ethereal creature (actually from the shadow dimensions, but they are similar in characteristics to the ethereal plane) that seeks to bring about changes to the material plane, such that all beings, especially those with a brain, are subject to the Lady of Air, and her desire to bring an end to stultifying order, and overly shackling concepts of law. In truth the doctrine is quite complicated, and under close scrutiny (like most Cults) does not seem logical. The
Cultists, however, don't seem to mind.
One of the main activities of the Cult is the summoning of Shadow Wyrms, which are supposed to make the way open for the White Shadow to arrive. These Shadow Wyrms are infernal creatures, not resident to the world of the Valley, but must be summoned by magical means. It is the belief of the Cult that those means include the sacrifice of young maidens, and the gathering of those maidens is the main business of the cult, within the city.
The activities of the Cult occasionally arise throughout the city, and there have been several Paladins and Clerics of various orders within the Church that have sought to stamp it out, but it arises again, and again in spite of such efforts. Currently, the headquarters of the Cult are located in a series of chambers, carved out of the rock of Dancer's Spike, entered via secret passage from the villa of a certain noble famly, the home of Lady Rema. Lady Arabelle Siago Rema herself (an elderly noble woman) is a member of the cult, but other than hosting the "dungeons" where they are headquartered, has little to do with the day to day abduction and murder activities. She does, however, maintain a social circle of various nobles that are involved.
A map of the chambers is given here, with a key below.
A. Golden Chamber - This is the main room of the
cultists when they gather. As a precaution against non
cultists entering here, there are a number of pillars in the room, which are charmed to produce guardian
Shadow Creatures. These apparently appear in direct proportion to the number of invaders that enter the room.
Each round someone comes into the room, 1d3
shadow creatures appear. There are 12 pillars, so the maximum number of creatures that can appear in one round is 12.
Smashing the pillars will cause them to cease working. They are made out of amberstone. The base of each pillar has a gold collar around it, worth approximately 300gp each.
B. Storage Room - This is the room where the
cultists keep their weapons, used for kidnapping and killing. It has several racks in it, all containing a variety of bladed weapons, from push daggers, on up to short swords (nothing larger).
In the room, located up near the ceiling, there are two
air sharks swirling around. These are the trained pets of the weapons master, and will attack anyone else who enters the room.
If the racks are emptied, hidden inside one (which is not apparent unless all the weapons are removed) there is a hidden magical short sword, which is +2 to hit and damage, and which does double damage vs. elves of all sorts.
C. Guardian Room - This room is never entered by normal members of the cult, nor would they progress to the chambers beyond here (E,F,G,H). In this room are two
rot-trolls, which will attack any who enter who are not bearing the gold White Shadow pendant that senior members of the cult bear. They will not stir from this room, nor will they allow any to pass it while they are still "alive". A golden lined fountain against the southern wall sparkles out a flowing supply of special unholy water. It provides healing (as a potion of healing, 1d6+4 hp) to characters and beings of an evil alignment (the
rot-trolls know this, and won't hesitate to drink from the fountain in the midst of a fight, should they need to). It, however, acts as acid vs any characters or creatures of a lawful good or chaotic good alignment. Those of a neutral alignment (true neutral, lawful neutral, or chaotic neutral) are unaffected by the unholy water.
D. Prison Room - This room contains a large iron cage in the middle of the floor, with approximately 8 wretches crammed into it, who are awaiting sacrifice. These are all young women, mostly taken from the low city, who have had their minds tampered with. Sadly, due to diabolical magical treatment, they are no longer aware of their surroundings, or what is happening to them, and are only vessels of life in the most academic sense. Guarding the room, are 6
Shadow Creatures.
E. Fetid Room - This is a room full of a curious fungus fungus room. There is a curious growth, covering all surfaces in here (which includes the walls, ceiling, floor, several stone benches, and a fetid pool in a low-walled (12") enclosure, about 8 feet across, in the middle of the room. All those surfaces have a weird sort of orange fungus growing on it, which will (if it senses body heat nearby), emit a strange orange fog that will not only affect all in the room, but also all those within 10 feet of the doors to the room, even if those doors are shut.
The orange fog disrupts magic. It has a chance to disrupt the magical properties of items (roll, once per property, percentile dice. A roll of 25 or less means the property is negated for a period of 1d4 hours. Artifact level items are not so affected). It can make spell casters forget their spells, or lose their ability to channel divine magic. If a magic user, make a save vs. spell. If it is failed, then 1d4+1 spells (random from among those memorized) that are currently memorized, are forgotten (i.e. can not be cast without re-memorizing). If a cleric, make a save vs. spell. If it is failed, then lose the ability to cast 1d4+1 cleric spells (random levels) for the rest of the day. In addition, the orange fog (unless a save vs. paralyzation is made) will render the victim "attractive" to the
Shadow Snakes in room G.
The pool, if disturbed (it has a surface crust of the orange fungus' spoors), will cause two great shelled giant rotting
filth-prawns to rise up out of the muck, and begin to attack (and inject with their damned magical larvae) any in the room.
F. Nursery Chamber - In this room is a giant larval grub (15' long, 8' high and 8' wide) of a greater mist walker. It is being tended to by six
Cultists (3 Swords of the Shadow; 1 Mind of the Shadow; 2 Flames of the Shadow) at any one time. These are senior cultists, and at least two of them are (in addition to their normal stats, see below) also trained as 7th level necromancers. The sole duty of the
Cultists is to take care of the grub, and not to enter combat in other areas of the dungeon.
The grub, if attacked, can be killed without difficulty (it only requires some repeated hacking, for approximately 1d6+6 rounds). The problem with this is, that the juices and fluids that will spray forth from the grub will affect all in the room, as per the
Mental Lash of a lesser Mist Walker.
If the cultists are killed, or if the Grub is attacked, then the giant Grub will flail about, seeking to crush all in the room. Each turn in the room with the flailing Grub, all who are smaller than Large size, must make a saving throw vs. petrification, or suffer 2d8 damage from being rolled on and crushed by the ponderous Grub. This is in addition to any save required because of spraying juices or fluids. If anyone is paralyzed, due to spraying fluids, then they suffer a -2 to their saving throw attempt to avoid being crushed.
The
cultists each wear a gold pendant, the sort that will allow passage beyond the
rot-trolls of room C. These are worth, in gold, approximately 150 gp each. Selling them in the city of Khomaes, however, is likely to arouse suspicion, and perhaps prompt a visit from cult assassins.
G. Portal Room - This room contains the portal, guarded though it is, to the treasure room of this dungeon. The center of this room has, on the floor, a round slab of marble, with a carved magical circle on it, that serves as a portal. Activating the portal consists of putting on the curious bone helmet sitting on a pedestal, within arm's length of the magical circle, and then standing on the circle.
Hanging from the ceiling,in all parts of the room other than the very center where the magical circle is, are thick, rubbery tentacle-like roots hanging from the ceiling, having forced their way through the rocky ceiling, and now filling the room.
Swirling around, through the air, and among the tentacles, are a half dozen (6)
Shadow Snakes. These will give attack preference to anyone who still bears the orange fungus gas from room E.
If metal weapons are used in combat against the
Shadow Snakes, the tentacles will react, and begin spraying a protective mist into the room, which is a light acid spray. Everyone in the room during a round when metal weapons are used (and the immediate round following) has to make a dexterity save (d20 vs dexterity) in order to avoid a thick discharge of the acidic mist. Failure means an acid attack (2d4 first round, 1d4 for two following rounds; save vs. poison for half damage).
There are several niches in the walls around the room (which have to be looked for specifically, because the tentacles from the ceiling will hide them from casual observation). The niches each contain an urn, most of which are full of poisonous insects (no real attack, can be smashed handily, but save vs. poison to avoid a nuisance bite, if save is failed, then take 1d3 poison, and the irritant gives -1 to all attacks for two days). There is one urn (random) that contains gemstones worth 3000 gp.
Standing on the magical circle, while wearing the helmet, will activate the teleportation form this room to room K (the only way to enter room K is via this portal). The actual teleportation takes 1d6 rounds, during which time the person being teleported is subjected to acid sprays (save as usual) from the tentacles, and can be attacked by the
Shadow Snakes.
H. White Room. - This room is empty, and is painted white throughout. There are blood stains on the floor, and bits of rotting flesh in the corner of the room.
J. Entrance. - This is the entrance to the Cult dungeon. It is found at the end of a long secret passage, from a hidden room at Lady Rema's villa. There are casks of wine stashed here, as well as a pile of clothing, and normal city garb. On the wall are a number of peg hooks, each holding one or two grey robes, with hoods. These are the garbs of the cultists.
K. Audience Chamber. - Upon being teleported into this room from G., the room takes on a curious glow once the inhabitant is standing in it. That glow slowly fades to black, and then stars appear all around the person in the chamber. It appears as if they are not standing on anything, but are suspended in deep space. From out of the space, comes a hideous, gigantic white creature, like a huge (miles long?) body of a great white moth's body. The flesh on top of the worm is rotting, and flaking off into space, and the legs are apparently groping. The gigantic wings are rotting through here and there. The face of the thing is shockingly horrible - looking like a great abomination of a woman's head, but deformed in horrible ways. The face sees the victim, and the great wretched, fetid creature begins gyrating towards the person in the chamber. It will seek to communicate telepathically, but since it is so alien, yet strong, it has a chance of damaging the mind.
This has a huge potential of affecting the individual negatively. First, make a save vs. spell, to see if the mind is damaged. If the save is failed, lose 1d3 Intelligence and 1d3 Wisdom. Next, make a save vs death magic. If this is failed, then the alignment of the victim is affected. First, test the law/neutral/chaos axis - roll 1d6. On a 1-3, the alignment shifts one slot towards chaos. Then test the good/neutral/evil axis - again roll 1d6, on a 1-3 the alignment shifts one slot towards evil. These changes can be overcome over time, but will affect the character's behavior in the short term (several weeks). Finally, there is a chance that the character, in being touched by the creature in space, will be affected by exposure to the magic of that being. Roll a test vs. Intelligence. If this is passed (use the modified Intelligence, if it was lowered), then the character has learned some secrets of the creature's magic. The character now has a chance to learn 1d6 spells that would normally be accessible by a necromancer. Randomize which spells, and then roll (based on the character's intelligence) the chance to know that spell. After all this, the character takes 3d6 psychic damage, but is returned to room G. Unless the character passes a Wisdom test, he/she will be in a coma for two days.
If the character, at any point, removes the helmet, then the connection is broken. Immediately take 6d6 psychic damage, and return to room G. Also make a Wisdom test to avoid coma, but if failed, then this coma lasts 4 days.
Next posting will include stats on the following creatures from this dungeon:
