Although this post is mainly aimed at beginning the keyed encounters and details for the
Web of Ostigaar dungeon, some notes are in order for the ruined layers of Eindar Pillar that exist between the current layers of the city, and the dungeon layer.
Referring to the
map posted here it can be seen that there are ruined layers are S through Y and finally there are dungeon layers below Y that are dug down into the top of the pillar, those are referred to as Z. Each one of these could serve as the location for either a simple night of adventure, if treated lightly, or could each represent weeks or months of play time, treating the whole complex as a large campaign mega dungeon (probably introducing more dungeon layers under the one presented here.
The ruined layers (and recommended dungeon stocking):
The Monk's Vault - (Layer S) This would make an excellent layer for some low, or low-to-middle, adventurers. There is ample opportunity here for large complexes, with a wide variety of different monsters here (all traditional 1-3 level monsters would feel right in this level). The Rat theme is interesting, and a perfect example for some higher level threats (were-rats?
osquips?). Some of the possibility for dungeon type settings could be any of the buildings from the old monastery- such as the chapel, scriptorium, monastic cells, plus all of the buildings (some ruined, some not) surrounding the monastery. Don't neglect the human encounters possible here - urchins, thieves, criminals, outcasts. Not all of them need result in combat, either.
The Herb Market - (Layer T) An overgrown jungle disaster. This could be the source of a wide variety of plant related horrors, and custom creatures, as well as a wide variety of different mid level threats from the monster manual. In addition to whatever monsters/creatures that could be here, a number of different environmental threats could be present. All sorts of plant and natural treasures could be found here, as well (potion ingredients, valuable leaves, herbs, berries, etc - some with natural properties, some with healing properties). The actual buildings of the herb garden could have interesting encounters hidden within them, as well.
The Wizard's Warren - (Layer U) This level, next to T, is the home of the laboratories and secret chambers of the wizard Atosh Idor. In addition to whatever magical horrors might still be around from his experiments in summoning and conjuring, there are also likely to be a wide variety of mid level constructs, and non-living encounters (undead, living statues, etc) that would serve as threats within the structures that made up the Warren. The surrounding areas are likely to have a number of civic locations (plaza, speaking rotunda, etc) that might now house some of the more dangerous dungeon denizens of the middle levels (maybe 4-7). The fetid pool inside the wizard's meditation chamber is likely to be an attractor to trolls, if nothing else. Incursion from the goblins from V is also a possibility.
The Old Aery - (Layer V) The old Aery that housed the Gryphons of the city guard, long before the current Aery was constructed, is a large, very tall structure. In the heart of it, with large entrance ways leading out to open air on multiple sides, is a very large, round room, central to the whole complex. There are great walls all around this central open area, with ledges and stables for the gryphons. Living within those walls, now, are a tribe of vicious goblins. Having free range of the open area is a pair of very old, very powerful (more than typical) wyverns - a nesting pair. It is always possible that some young (treat as typical wyverns) are in the area at any time. The goblins here should be treated as particularly vicious, and should represent a threat far greater than their low hit dice should indicate. This could be because of special weapons (such as poisonous insects or trained animals/monsters), or because of peculiar tactics (like flinging crazed suicidal goblins at their enemy - goblins that are covered in flasks of oil, and carrying two lit torches). It is an uneasy truce between these goblins and the city guard, where the goblins never prey on anything higher up than the aery itself, that keeps them from being hunted down and expelled as the dangerous threat that they are.
Catacombs - (Layer W) The purpose for the construction of this layer, and the endless winding narrow passages and small cells is long forgotten. The presence of a number of strange creatures, not the least strange of which are hooked horrors, make this a very dangerous level to get lost on. However, the peculiar treasures that are hidden in the stone cells and rooms might lure the adventurous here. This is a cramped level, very dark, and very close in. Very few ways out, and full of dangerous slides and cave ins - it is a tough level for an unprepared party.
The Haunted Music School - (Layer X) With the possibility for interested stocked complexes here (the school itself, surrounding buildings, the open plazas and pools that no doubt surrounded the school, as well as the various properties that belonged to the bards, instructors, and other noteworthy people that lived here) and the nature of it being a haunt for a variety of curious and possibly unique undead, make this a fun level for the DM. It could be presented as a haunted house type setting, with lots of curious things going on, as well as some compelling reasings to investigate. Not the least of which would be finding entryways down to layer Y. The streets and buildings here were of the highest quality at one point, and are built very well, so the typical ruined crumbling that would reveal openings to lower levels is hard to find. Rather, investigations into the street sewars (if such can be found) or the basement layer of the school itself, should reveal possible openings to the lower level.
The Harmalan Estate - (Layer Y) - The parks surrounding the main manse of the estate were once stocked with all sorts of curious and exotic plants (magical and non-magical) and curious and exotic animals and monsters. Many of those are likely to still be around in the gardens surrounding the impressive main building of the estate. Surrounding outbuildings, studies, and work rooms of the many different spell casters and other curious professionals would also make for interesting adventure locations. Some undead coming down from the Haunted Music School would certainly be encountered, as would some of the dark elves and other denizens up from the dungeon layer. Hints that Ostigaar is close could come in the amount of web in and around the stone garden conservatory (which has a crashed through floor, opening up to a basement with a spiral staircase down to room number 7 in the dungeon below), or the large number of giant spiders in the wine cellar of the main building, which has a hidden staircase that leads down to room number 3 in the dungeon below. Finally, the stone building that once belonged to a staff wizard of the Harmalan family, has in the basement floor a hidden trapdoor that revels the staircase going down to room 35 in the dungeon below. That building (the wizard's howe) is frequently populated by dark elf scouting parties, at least in the lowest levels. The top floor contains the wizard's spell book and some magical devices, but the level is protected by a number of geas'd umber hulks that are prevented from aging in the normal manner. Other encounters are in the lower levels of the howe.
The Dungeons - who knows how many dungeons there are below the Harmalan Estate. The top level, however, is home to Ostigaar and her minions, as well as a great many other nasty critters. Here are the first 10 keyed entries for that dungeon layer. Stats are not given for standard monsters that have states in the
Kellri Monster Statblock OSR Reference.
1. There is a firepit against the western wall of this room. Investigating up inside the chimney of the firepit will disturb a cloud of 4d6 stirges to stir out of the chimney and come pouring into the room, attacking all who dwell within. The room contains very little aside from some rough wooden benches, although near the door on the eastern wall there is a niche in the wall, with a small golden statue in it. The statue is worth 200gp. Removing it triggers a needle trap that will strike the remover with 1d6-3 needles (possible that none strike). Each one will do 1 point of damage, and require a save vs. poison to avoid taking an additional 2d4 point of damage. The corridor to the east of the room has a pit trap in the hall, that if triggered, drops the victim 20 feet down (2d6 damage), into a pit that has 2d4 shrieking pterodactyls in it (see
The Staff of St. Varina adventure for stats on the shrieking pterodactyl). The shrieks of the pterodactyls will alert the archers in room 2.
2. This room is somewhat depressed, and the floor is down about 2 feet below the level of the doors. There is a narrow ledge that goes all around the room, on all sides. IN the middle of the room, the two feet lower section is full of murky, foul smelling water. High up on the wall, on the north and south walls, there are murder holes in the walls. If the pterodactyls are set off in the trap between rooms 1 and 2, the 8 inhabitants of the murder holes (very accurate skeletal archers, firing twice a round, with a thaco of 13) will begin firing on any intruders into the room. In the middle of the room, there are a half dozen fire toads. They will attack anyone who enters the water, or threatens them. If they don't attack, they are likely to hop over to investigate (by licking) the party members.
3. This room is directly below the wine cellar of the main Harmalan estate mansion. The broad spiral staircase goes up to a small antechamber, with a double trapdoor up into the wine cellar. This room has in it, four large casks. Moving among the shadows of the casks, and ready to attack any who move through the room, are 4x Meenlocks. They are here, drawn by the presence of the special Water Weirds (3x) that are trapped inside one of the casks. These Water Weirds have a body structure of alcohol (strong wine, in this case) rather than water, and when they spring out of the liquid to attack (which they will do if the casks are searched), they will burst into flame, and will do 2d6 damage to all within 10'. All must make a saving throw vs. paralysis or catch on fire (1d6 per round for 4 rounds). These Water Weirds also have the curious ability to dimension door straight down (along with anyone in contact with them at the time, of course they DON'T stop burning), to a cell deep in the rock of the Pillar. In that room, there is a brazier that will cure all damage to the Water Weirds, and there is also a leather pouch in the room with 800 gp of rubies, and a wand of teleportation (8 charges left). The wand is what the Meenlocks are after. The room is beyond their own dimension door capability for some reason.
4. This room is home to six Giant Wasps. Prolonged combat (i.e. - more than 2 rounds) will bring a half dozen of the Giant Scorpions out of room 11. The scorpions will fight for the remains of the Giant Wasps. The door leading to room 5 is trapped - tripping the trap releases a Paralysis gas into the room (save, or be paralyzed for 1d4 rounds). If this gas goes off, the immediately following round, another half dozen of the Giant Scorpions will come out of room 11. The gas does not affect Insects.
5. This room is full of wooden uprights, used as targets in sword fighting. There are a number of niches in the walls around the room. Hiding in the shadows of the room are two full grown Black Puddings. The niches around the edge of the room are mostly empty (some junk here and there; eating utensils, blacksmith's hammer, elfin wine goblet, and other similar small artifacts. The only item of use is a small gold tiara, which if worn, grants the wearer the ability to speak to goblins, orcs and other creatures from the unseely realm.
6. A group of eight
Dark Elf Scouts, with a
Dark Elf Captain named Ematra Decro, are resting in this room. They have become alerted to the presence of the players, if any combat has occurred within two rooms of here. Ematra Decro hates elves (other than Dark elves) and will attack such on sight. The stats for the dark elf encounter are in the next blog entry. Captain Decro is carrying a magic sword (broad sword, +1 to hit, +2 damage; passes through wooden objects up to 12" thick as if the wood is not there - neither the wood nor the sword are affected by this). He will not use this broad sword, preferring his own magic spear instead. The broad sword has the name (written in Ainark Runes) on the hilt of "Dragon Tongue". If this name is spoken by someone who can read the Runes, it will turn into a Firebrand for six rounds (usable once per day).
7. This room has a broad spiral staircase in it, that goes up to a platform. Above the platform, the ceiling is smashed through, and opens up into the basement of the stone garden observatory. That observatory was used by one of the Harmalan Warlocks, a curious being named Dijjal Mido. Dijjal Mido came from another realm, and had a body made of a crystalline substance that was quite hard, but reacted strangely to sunlight. He became one of the Warlocks after being contacted by one of the Harmalan summoners, and took residence at the estate, and eventually became one of the family. Kept secret from most people, however, was the fact that Dijjal Mido was a vampire. In this room is a stone sarcophagus, and inside is the vampire Dijjal Mido, still alive. This creature differs from a typical vampire, in two regards. First, it cannot assume gaseous form, and second it has a 45% magic resistance. If the magic resistance is successful, and it was against an attack spell, the spell is turned back against the caster instead. Also in the room other than the vampire's sarcophagus, there are three chests, against the eastern wall. The first contains a leather sack of very strange gold coins. There are 6 coins in here, each bearing the face of a mantis on it. If one of these coins is exposed to sunlight, then it will cause 5 Thri-Kreen warriors to materialize and attack the party. The coin is destroyed in the process. The second chest contains nothing at all. The third chest contains two potions of extra healing. [Upstairs, in the garden conservatory, unless it was cleared out before this adventure, there is a party of 6
Dark Elf Warriors, and a
Dark Elf Captain waiting. They will investigate any noise in room 7.]
8. There are three Ropers (10hd) in this room, spread equally around, in the north west, the east, and the south part of the room. Running around on the floor are a dozen
Trillmen (see next blog entry for stats, these are magical creations of Ostigaar, and are working together with the Dark Elfs of this area), and one Leader
Trillman. The Ropers will ignore the Trillmen, but will definitely attack any players that come into the room. The trap door in the south part of the room, is a pit trap that drops the victim 20' (2d6 damage) into a rocky cavern. There are four curious creatures there (
Stone Spiders). Combat with the Ropers, or killing the Leader Trillman will summon 1d6 Firecats from room 15 as well as 1d6
Filth Prawns from room 9. The Trillman are each carrying 1d6x100 worth of gems and jewelry, and the Leader has a ring of cold resistance.
9. This room, much like room number 2 north of it, is depressed and full of water. Unlike the other room, however, this room is incredibly foul smelling, and there are numerous rotting bodies (of a variety of sorts) in the water. The room contains 10
Filth Prawns in it, as well as a Greater Filth Prawn. The Greater Filth Prawn is similar to the Filth Prawn, only larger.
Greater Filth Prawn
Num Appearing: 1 with Filth Prawns, or 1d6 if alone
Alignment: neutral
Movement: Crawl 60'/Swim 120'
Armor Class: 2 (unlike Filth Prawns, unlikely to be tipped over)
Hit Dice: 6hd+4 (40hp)
Attacks: 1 bite, 4 claw-stabs, 4 feeler stings, cloud of filth, mental wave (3x per day)
Damage: 2d6 (bite, see below)/1d6+6 (each claw)/1d6+2 (feeler sting, see below)
Save:T6
Morale:9
The effects of the feeler stings, the cloud of filth, and the mental wave are as per a regular
Filth Prawn, however this is a much larger creature with four claws rather than 2 claws.
10. There are four standard trolls in here, and also four
troll spiders. The room also has within it a large column, with numerous faces each bearing two gems for eyes. There are a total of 4,000gp of gems on the column.
That's it for now. Monster stats coming up next (Firecats, Dark Elfs,
Trillmen,
Stone Spiders and more). After that, more rooms from the dungeon...and perhaps an expanded version of the map.
