This is the continuation of the dungeon that began in
Web of Ostigaar (4) (map
detail here).
Room descriptions (rooms 11-20)
11.The Observatory - This room is full of all sorts of (mostly broken) metal implements and instruments useful for navigation, or the drawing of charts and maps. The ceiling is home to a magical construct, the
Star Portal of Oo'Zondra (
described here). Of note, in the etheric landscape visible in the Star Portal, there is a wrecked hull of a strange wooden ship, designed to travel amongs the moons, suns, and other astral bodies. Spilling over the side of the wreck, and down into the room, at the rate of 1d3 every 10 rounds (1 turn), are Giant Scorpions (see standard
stats here). When the room is visited, there are already 5x of the Giant Scorpions in the room. Toppled and ancient furniture clutters the outer edge of this room, with a round stain dais in the middle. In the corner of the room, there is a large stuffed chair, covered in cobwebs, and with stuffing coming out of the cushions. If the seat is rummaged through, there is a small box, with 2000gp worth of highly polished purple gemstones inside it. The box is locked and trapped, however, and any attempt to handle it roughly (picking, smashing, etc) will result in 1d4 poison needles striking the offender. Each of these will do 1d6+1 damage, save for half.
12. The Cistern - This room consists of a spiral staircase that descends, with the outer edge against rock, and the inner edge open, down 60' to a pool of water. Disturbing the water in any way will bring on the attack of an 8hd Giant Sea Snake (see standard
stats here). Down inside the cistern itself, it is 30 feet deep. At the bottom is the skeleton of a dead ogre. He is holding a giant golden key in his hand, which weighs 80 pounds. This could be difficult to lift up through 30 feet of water. If the key does break the surface of the water, it causes a 5d6 lightning bolt to shoot around in the room. All must make a save vs. breath weapon to avoid being hit. If one IS struck, then save vs. spell to avoid half damage.
13. Shrine of the Reptal - This room is dominated by two features. The first is a large stone sarcophagus, in the eastern part of the room. It is a large diamond shaped stone sarcophagus, with an outline carved in the top of a curious reptile-man type figure, with a chameleon head and tail. This is a Reptal, and the sarcophagus is the magical construct, the "Sarcophagus of Wim" (
detailed earlier). In the western part of the room is a very large grating on the floor, that leads to a drop shaft that goes down some 60 feet to a chamber of water, contains three greater Filth Prawns (
detailed earlier). At the bottom of the pool is a sealed stone urn that contains a bag of holding (empty).
In the room, ready to engage the characters should they enter, are a
Dark Elf Captain (she is named "Sidlar U'Zella") and 8
Dark Elf Warriors. Sidlar U'Zella is wearing a curious necklace set with gemstones that glow different colors based on who is wearing it (worth 1000gp). She also is in possession of several magical components,
described earlier. She has 1 dose of
Revenant Lace, 1 dose of
Cat's Paw, and 2 doses of
Firecaps. Upon entering combat, she will immediately take the Revenant Lace and the Cat's Paw, rendering her invisible and able to climb walls. She is completely dedicated to the Artaxil Coven, and will fight to the death.
The Dark Elf Warriors have, on average, 200gp worth of jewelry each. Among the group there is a
potion of healing, and a
potion of extra healing.
All of the Dark Elves - Captain and Warriors - are capable of spell use.
The Dark Elf group has with it a strange chest, bound in iron straps. The straps are held by a strange stone disc (about 2" across) with a spider on it. It is thin, and must be smashed to release the iron straps and open the chest. Once the disc is smashed, if it is not by an Artaxil Dark Elf, it will summon 4
Stone Spiders to attack those who are attempting to open the chest. Inside the chest are 5000gp worth of gems and also an ioun stone that grants the bearer the ability to cast Faerie Fire once per hour.
14. The Charred Room - This room was once adorned with fantastic tapestries of all types, covering the walls. In the past, however, some conflagration burned up the major part of every tapestry. Only charred remains are left hanging on the walls, and covering the floors. The room is otherwise unfurnished. In the room, however, are five large skeletal ogres (ac4, 30hp, thac014, 2 attacks (1d8+3 each), piercing and slashing weapons do half damage). These can be turned by a member of clergy typically able to do so, but treat the skeletal ogres as 4th level undead for this purpose.
15. Meditation Rise - This room slopes up, at a steep angle, from north to south (the highest point). At the southern end, there is a flat area, and there were once open grates in the ceiling opened up to the sky. Since the layers of the city were built over this layer, that has closed up. There is a dead body in the chair below the grate (a sort of throne like chair, but with no special material value or gems or anything out of the ordinary). The body is unremarkable except for the (magical) gold band on the right arm.
As the players may want to ascend the steep ramp up to where the chair is with the dead body, they must climb. It requires 3 checks in all, each check is of 1d20 trying to roll less than the dexterity of the checker. Unfortunately, the whole way, a ghostly arm extending from the armband on the corpse, will attempt to attack the players using a ghostly long sword. The long sword strikes twice per turn, with a thac0 of 11. It will do 1d10+2 damage per strike. The arm has an ac4, cannot be struck by non-magical weapons, and will take 24hp to diactivate.
The armband will summon the arm for whomever is wearing it, and it will be equipped with whatever weapon that person has in the arm of the arm band. It will attack with that weapon, twice per round, with a +2 better than the wearer. It will do damage +2. The ghostly arm does not need to be concentrated on, but if the wielder loses consciousness it is disappears. Deactivating it (by doing 24hp to it) results in the ghost arm being banished for 1d6 turns (10 min each).
16. This is a curious room. First, to the east, there is a section of the room that is separated by a curtain. The curtain is made of very heavy dark blue cloth, and there is a pale white glow coming out from under and on the sides of the curtain. The rest of the room is full of dense clouds of steam. The steam clouds are quite hot, and have peculiar properties that disrupts both infra and ultra vision. Only normal sight works, and it is limited to approximately 10 feet in any one direction. The only thing that can be made out upon entering from the northwest door or the south door is that there is a pale light coming through the mist from the eastern edge (the curtain). In the floor, on the west, the floor all gathers down to a low point, with a grating, to allow any water gathered in the room (from the steam) to run out of the grating, down deep into an underground pool some 100' below. Within the mists, in the western half of the room, there are lurking three blind trolls in the room. They have learned a peculiar troll skill - blind fighting (typically trolls can regenerate lost eyes, but these for some reason cannot). The trolls do not suffer negative effects in combat from the loss of eyesight, but they cannot make distinction between foes, and will always attack the nearest, regardless of the nature of that foe.
Behind the curtain is a large, glowing hot, pillar of stone. It is 3' across the base, and 10' tall (the room ceiling in this room is approximately 12' tall, so the pillar does not go all the way to the ceiling). The top and bottom of the pillar are encircled by a curious white metal. The pillar is a magical construct, the Column of Fa'Tar (
detailed earlier). In the corners of the room, aimed at the column, are four hideous statues of feather covered gargoyles, each spitting a stream of water at the column, which explains the presence of the prodigious clouds of steam. Curious note - if the gargoyles are removed from the wall in any way, they will continue to spit out a 15-20 foot stream of water, continuously, absent a dispel magic spell.
17. The Beating Room - This room was evidently originally designed to somehow separate people into groups, now it serves as hideous trap. The two portcullis structures will come slamming down, as soon as they divide the party up into at least two groups. At that point 6
filth prawns will be released into each section, and will attack whatever is there.
18.The Shining Room - There is a curious white globe floating in the middle of the room that gives off enough light (30' radius) to dimly illuminate the entire room. The globe is weightless and can be moved. It will continue to work. In the room is a a large iron chest in the middle of the floor (near the globe, but apparently not related), which is locked. Opening the lock will trigger a poison gas trap that will fill the room. Make a d20 save vs. Constitution to see if breath can be held long enough to leave the room. If passed, character immediately moves to the nearest door in panic, and crosses out of the room. If failed, it means that they are stuck in the room, or didn't move fast enough, and suffer the effects of the gas (jittery and nauseous for 1 hour; lose 1d3 each from Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution; heal one random point back each day, cure disease will cure 1d3 points per day). Beyond the gas trap, the iron chest has 3 platinum bars worth 1000gp each (very heavy, 40# each), and a magic broadsword (constructed by Storm King barbarians, a very long time ago), +2, with
Ainark Runes that, if read, reveal (1) that the sword is named Nightfoe, and (2) if the name is uttered when the broadsword strikes the killing blow on an Intelligent foe, it transforms the body into 1d12
Death Birds. If the wielder is of neutral or good alignment, the birds will remain for 2d12 rounds, attacking any foes that the wielder is an enemy of, but the shriek of the birds affects all in range; if the wielder of the sword is rather of evil alignment, then the birds' shriek only affects the enemies of the wielder.
The inhabitants of the room are swirling schools of large toothy fish. They will modestly avoid any characters, as they swim in seemingly meaningless patterns around the room. If one is molested or attacked the fish immediately become hostile. There are enough for 6 to attack each player. They have the following stats:
Airacuda
Num Appearing: 5d6
Alignment: neutral
Movement: Swim (through air) 120'/round
Armor Class: 4 (hard metallic scales)
Hit Dice: 2hd
Attacks: Bite; if successful then automatically do bite damage per round until removed; if not successful, attempt a second Bite attack vs. same target.
Damage: 1d6+3
Save: F2
Morale: 9
19. Mantis Room - Five Thri-Kreen (
see stats here) have taken up residence in here. The grating over the floor opening (the whole room slopes down to this opening) has been pushed aside, and the Thri-Kreen have obviously climbed up out of the deep shaft, that 60' down opens up into underground cisterns. The Thri-Kreen have a side cave, leading to a compound of their nest/hive; it is down about 30' in the shaft. One of the mantis-men has a strange pot hanging around his neck, it is obviously very expensive, but not of Thri-Kreen manufacture. If the party somehow enters the cave that the nest/hive of the Thri-Kreen are from, they will find an ancient burial crypt, with a half dozen of sarcophagi, each having 3 or 4 of the very expensive pots arranged on it. Each pot (there are 20 in all) is worth 1000gp. In the room, however, there are 3 mummies (
see stats here) that will work to defend the pots against any warm blooded invaders.
20. Copper Room - The walls of this room are lined in copper, and there are strange astronomical symbols etched on them in acid. The copper is untarnished and highly polished. Standing the middle of the room are two tall stone humanoids, with wings wrapped around them, and covering their face. Touching either the statues or the copper will awaken the two Gargoyles (
see stats here) that will attack fiercely and without hesitation.
