Dungeon23: Week 7

Level 2 – Area C

This map is created under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

Area Notes:

b. This hallway is lined with piles of stones, skulls, and banners marking the hobb-men’s territory.  The hobb-men have dug a pit trap here and replaced the floor tiles (which appear more worn or damaged than the others) over a thin wooden frame designed to collapse under weight.   The pit is 20 feet deep.

c. Mountain lions (from Room 20) wander the hallways between Rooms 17-21 and Room 22 in Area D.  All random encounters in this area will be with these creatures unless all four (4) are killed or driven off.  Random encounters then occur as normal.

Room 15

This chamber is dominated by a statue of a snake-headed man in priestly vestments, carved out of crystal.  Touching the statue and speaking or making any vocal sounds (such as chanting or praying) causes the statue to resonate and hum palpably.  Anyone in a 20-foot radius aligned with Chaos is granted a blessing (as the spell.)  Those aligned with Law are cursed (reversed blessing spell.)  There is no effect on Neutral characters.  The effect lasts for one day (24 hours.)

The chamber behind has snake reliefs every 10 feet along the walls.  Three of them are secret doors that open with the pull of a handle inside the snakes’ mouths.

Room 16

A locked, iron chest sits on a 15-foot radius, circular dais on the floor.  The chest is full of coins (800 silver, 300 gold.)  The ceiling above has multiple holes (if characters bother to look.)

If the chest or any of the treasure is taken, the secret door to this room locks audibly.  The circular dais then begins to rotate and rise towards the ceiling as multiple spikes emerge from  the holes.  The process takes 10 seconds to complete, impaling anyone on the platform for 2d6+2 damage.  A saving throw against paralysis allows a character to suffer only half damage.  (Note: the GM is encouraged to count down the seconds out loud in real time, pausing only when a player has an idea they’d like to try.)

If the treasure (or an item that equals or exceeds it in weight) is returned to the center, the platform stops and returns to its starting position at the same rate.  The secret door then unlocks.
 

Room 17: Hobb-man Proving Ground

This was previously an area for scribing and studying the unholy works of the Cult.  The furniture has been removed and the floor covered with sand, straw and scattered, bloody rags.  There are (unlit) oil lamps at 10-foot intervals along the walls.  It was, until recently, a training area for the hobb-men before the mountain lions (Room 20) made lingering in the area too dangerous.

Two oil lamps can be pulled to open secret doors.  The end of the southeast hallway has a one-way door that leads to the back chamber of Room 15.  The eastern hallway leads to the cistern cavern (Room 25) in Area D.

Room 18: Gallery of Oddities

This chamber has multiple displays showing a number of oddities the High Priest of the Cult had collected during his wandering years.  Only a few items remain:

• A basket of speckled, petrified eggs.

• A small box made of a strange, black metal with gold filigree.  It has a seam that denotes a clear lid, but it doesn’t seem to open by normal means.  

• A glass globe with water inside.  One can occasionally see tiny, myriad sea creatures swimming inside and seemingly disappear at the edges of the globe. 

• A scale model of an oceangoing vessel with features like a hammerhead shark.  The ship’s name, “Farfinder,” is etched on its side.

One display has a half-eaten, rotted humanoid corpse near it, its hand clutching a gem that looks like a cat’s eye.  The gem, if held, attracts nearby felines, causing 1d4 of the mountain lions in Room 20 to come investigate.  Anyone keeping the gem must thereafter roll for wandering monsters every hour.  The result is one or more felines showing up.  This can be innocuous (but annoying) housecats in town or dangerous predators in the wilderness.  The Lord of All Cats would likely grant a boon to anyone returning this gem to him.

Room 19: Bath

A bathing pool with greenish water dominates this room.  The bronze fountain spigot on the western wall that fed and refreshed the pool is no longer running.  A shield made of a dark reddish hide hangs above it as the only decoration.  The northern door is locked.

Anyone in the room for longer than 10 minutes (1 turn) witnesses a ghostly apparition of a woman appearing from the northern door, looking around, then backing slowly towards the pool with an expression of fear.  She then clutches her neck and plunges backwards into the pool.

At the bottom of the pool is the skeleton of the woman, along with a rusted key to the northern door.  

The shield on the wall strangely warm to the touch.  Upon closer inspection, it is clear the reddish hide is composed of (dragon) scales.  The inside of the shield is engraved with strange writing (requiring magic to read,) which is the formula for a fireball spell.  The shield itself is worth 110 gold coins, but provides no additional protection, magical or otherwise.

Room 20

A small pride of four (4) mountain lions (HP 14, 14, 18, 18) lairs here – the descendants of creatures that were kept as pets for the Cult’s inner circle.  1d4 are present at any time, while the others wander and hunt in the hallways and chambers (see note “b”.) 

There are 58 silver coins and a dagger scattered among the bones, bits of fur, and clothes of their past meals.

Room 21: Death Sauna

The doors to this oval room are made of metal and marred with rust and verdigris, and have double glass windows that allow one to see into the oval room.  Inside is a humanoid form resting on a stone bench against the wall, covered in a xanthous mass.  A few glittering silver coins can be seen on the floor.

The mass is a human skeleton covered in yellow mold, which has a deadly effect if disturbed.

If one or more characters are in the room for longer than a minute, any open doors close automatically and lock tight with a metallic groan.  Pipes inside of the room begin to creak, rattle, and sputter a weak modicum of steam.  This lasts for one minute (6 rounds) then the pipes stop and the doors unlock.  

 

There is an emergency shut-off knob behind a fogged, glass cover on the opposite wall of the skeleton and mold.

The rest of the treasure (800 silver coins) is under the mold and skeleton, its container having been dissolved long ago.  The coins look new as they have been scrubbed clean by the mold's acidic effect.