Dungeon 23: Week 25

Level 5, Area A: Gestation Chambers

 

This map is released under terms of the  CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

Level 5 Features

Light: Most of the rooms here are lit by colored glass globes with bio-luminescent fungus inside, similarly to Level 4.  Other types of light (or lack thereof) will be noted in the room description.

Walls: Rooms and corridors are generally 10-15 feet tall and the walls are made of carved or worked stone within the rock formation.  Taller rooms are noted in their individual descriptions.

Doors: Most doors are made of the same fungal “wood” as some doors in Level 4.  A few are sliding doors with a fungal wood frame and semi-opaque screens that have a papyrus-like consistency.  Many of these are decorated with serpentine hieroglyphs. Any locked doors are noted in the room description.

 

Room 1: Courtyard

This chamber is a garden-like courtyard.  Unlike the Emissaries’ meditation garden (Level 4, Room 20,) this area is stone-worked, with exotic, rain forest trees, flowering shrubs on planters, and stone benches to sit in.  The environment appears to be magically controlled to allow for the growth of these surface plants.  The area is meant for the recreation of snake-men young, as well as the pregnant flesh stock that bear them.

Two of the trees are the home of giant constrictor snakes (rock pythons, HP 20 each.)  They are instinctually protective of the snake-men young, and have been trained to not harm the pregnant flesh stock.

There is a 1-in-6 chance one of the Nursemaids (see Room 2) is here with 1d4 snake-men young and/or pregnant “bearers” (normal human females, 50% chance of each.)

 

Room 2: Nursery

This room has three sub rooms for snake-men young: one for recently-born infants, and two separate for Emissary and Myrmidon toddlers, as caste segregation begins early.  Snake-men young are not kept here past their toddler years.  When they come of age, they are sent to respective education centers in the City of the Snake-Men (Level 7.)  They then train for serve with members of their own caste.

In addition to the rooms, there is nursery furniture, a small table for meals, and a cook fire with a pot in the northeast corner.  There are large, rolled up mats placed aside where the guardian Nursemaids sleep.  They care and prepare meals for the both the young and the pregnant bearers in Room 3. 

The Nursemaids look like large, female humans (8-10 feet tall) with exaggerated features such as long arms or large ears – a sort of missing link between ogres and giants.  They are extremely protective of their charges and will fight to the death with incredible Strength (18) which helps in their duties as guardians and keeping the pregnant bearers in line.   In combat, they employ large knives, cleavers, or mallets, which they can hurl with great force (+3 to damage, 30-ft. range)

Nursemaids: AC 4 [15]; HD 5+3 (HP 28, 31); MV 180 ft. (60 ft.); ATK 1d6+3 (weapon); SV fighter 5; ML 12; AL N; XP 400 (or HD + one special)

The behemoth Nursemaids are gentle with their charges and fearsome with those who would harm them (adapted from AI images courtesy of Night Cafe.)

 

The Nursemaids have keys to Room 3.  Inside some of the cabinets are children’s toys such as caved figures, balls, rattles, and blocks.  Some of these (2d6) are made with precious metals and gems and are quite valuable (2d10x50 gp each.)  The valuable ones are only given to the Myrmidon young to imprint their caste distinction.

 

Room 3: Bearer Cells

This locked room is nevertheless peaceful and luxuriant, similarly to Room 7 in Level 4.  This is where the snake-men keep pregnant flesh stock during their gestation period.  The main room features comfortable couches and a table for meals.  The individual cells have bedding that is equally comfortable.  The women live a routine of comfort, nutritious food, regular exercise in the Courtyard, and frequent visits by the snake-men flesh-crafters to monitor their progress and perform the necessary, alchemical treatments to ensure healthy, snake-men offspring.

There are currently three (3) normal human women of child-bearing age in various stages of pregnancy.  The eldest, Engelise, is currently on her second pregnancy, and was recently placed in charge of the other two after her predecessor was “retired to a place of honor,” after the birth of a Noble (as far as the snake-men told her.)  The horrible reality is that the snake-men use flesh-stock “bearers” until they die in childbirth or are no longer deemed suitable (too aged, or after a stillbirth, for example,) then sacrificed.  The bearer of a Noble meets a similar fate (see below.)

The room has a cord with a warning bell that summons the Nursemaids in Room 2 – typically used to alert them to an imminent birth.  Regardless of reaction, there is a 5-in-6 chance one of them will use the bell at the earliest opportunity due to their high level of obedience programming.

 

Room 4: Birthing Chamber

This area is equipped with everything necessary for the flesh stock bearers to give birth to the snake-men young, such as beds, basins, clean cloths, and surgical tools.  When the time comes, they are brought here by the Nursemaids, and the Oracle is summoned from the door to the south (Room 6) to oversee the procedure and bear witness.  75% of the births are snake-men Emissaries, and 20% are Myrmidons.  They are both taken to the Nursery (Room 2) in the door to the north.  About 1% are stillborn, which results in the bearer being rejected for future use (if she survives) and taken back to Level 4 for sacrifice.

4% of the time, the bearer gives birth to a leathery egg instead.  This is an auspicious occasion for the snake-me, since it means a Noble will be born.  The Oracle, who labors to predict this moment, takes careful possession of the egg and removes it to the Sanctorium (Room 5) along with the mother, who is never heard from again.

 

Room 5: Sanctorium of the Exalted

This room is where the snake-man Noble eggs are taken for consecration.  The room is bisected by a pool of greenish, slimy liquid, and features an altar at the opposite end.  The pool is actually an illusion, which conceals a shaft that drops 80 feet to Level 6.  (Room # TBD.)  The bottom of the pit has multiple, long spikes.  Anyone falling into the pit (save against breath at -1 to avoid) will be pierced by 1d4 spikes for 1d6+2 damage in addition to damage from the fall.

The altar is plain, but features ornate, sacrificial cutting implements, a ritual bowl, and a gong for summoning the Nobles below, who levitate up the shaft and through the illusion to witness the consecration of one of their own (this symbolically mirrors the birth of snake-men Nobles in Room 7.)  The mother is then sacrificed and the egg bathed in her collected blood on the bowl.  Her lifeless body is then tossed into the shaft and the egg is taken to the Hatchery (Room 7.)  They only use a Noble’s bearer once, and while this seems counterintuitive, the snake-men’s caste-based hierarchy depends on careful control of their population.  The disposal of the mother and her blood is deliberate to thwart their use in illegal caste ascension.

The sacrificial tools have golden, jeweled handles and are worth 600 gp as a set (of six.)  The bowl is also gilded and jeweled, worth 1,200 gp.  The altar has two pieces of jewelry that a previous sacrifice wore: gold earrings with blue topaz worth 1,200 gp, and a silver lariat necklace that also dangles with blue topazes and is worth 1,000 gp.

 

Room 6: Oracle's Chamber

These are the personal chambers and study of the Oracle, who is unique among the snake-men.  Once in a generation, a snake-man is born which defies caste classification: an Emissary in appearance, a Myrmidon in physical prowess, and a Noble in sorcerous talent.  The Oracle is always born blind, but possesses the divinatory power to predict the births of Nobles with a high degree of accuracy.  This reason alone is why an Oracle is not immediately destroyed upon birth.

The current Oracle, Hap-Me is getting older, but at the height of her power.  She spends most of her time in these chambers, studying signs, portents, and the prophetic works of previous Oracles.  There are also a two (2) Emissary assistants (HP 22, snake arms; 16, thick scales) and a Myrmidon (HP 20, snake tongue, ophidian lower limbs, polearm) guard present.

The Oracle: AC 6 [13]; HD 5 (HP 26); MV 120 ft. (40 ft.); ATK 1d6+1 (sword stick); SP: advanced snake tongue/heat-sensing pits (1-in-6 surprise, detect invisible 30-ft.,) spells; SV elf 5; ML 8; AL C; XP 800 (or HD + three specials)

The Oracle holds a unique position in snake-men society (adapted from AI image courtesy of Night Cafe.)

 

The Oracle can cast spells as a Noble (once per day each): (cause) fear, darkness, levitate, polymorph (others,) animal friendship (snake charm,) and (transmute) sticks to snakes.  In combat, she relies on her Myrmidon bodyguard and Emissaries, and uses her spells to support them. She will engage anyone attempting to flank her with her ophidian detection abilities, and her walking stick, which is a hidden short sword.

The room has multiple books, scrolls, and charts used by the Oracle in her work.  A strange orrery on a table shows celestial or multiversal bodies in a combination heliocentric and sephiral model.  The parts themselves are made precious metals and gems.  The charts are worth 1,100 gp to a sage, or seer such as Zirhan the Astrologer in Alkastra, and the orrery is worth 1,300 gp.

The back bedroom, which is separated by a curtain, contains a chest with the Oracle’s ceremonial regalia: A thick, gold necklace with an image of the Snake God in black opals, and tourmalines worth 1,400 gp, and a gold diadem with peridots and carnelians worth 1,000 gp.

A secret door on the western wall of this room leads to the Hatchery (Room 7)

 

Room 7: Egg Hatchery

This is where the snake-men Noble eggs are incubated.  The eggs (1d6+1 in number) soak in a long pool of fluid which looks like the illusion in the Sanctorium (Room 5.)  This is no mere glamer, however.  It is the Ichor of Naph-et: a combination alchemical substance and ooze-like colony organism that provides the ideal environment for the eggs to incubate.

Snake-men Noble eggs incubating in their ideal environment (AI image courtesy of Night Cafe.)

 

To anyone other than snake-men Nobles or the Oracle, the Ichor acts like both a contact and inhaled poison.  Every round of exposure to the pool (inside or on the edge,) even with clothing since the liquid exudes an acrid miasma, requires a saving throw against poison.  Failure causes a loss of 3d6 Constitution, as the organisms in the Ichor and its miasma begin to dissolve and feed on organic matter.  A victim reduced to 0 Constitution dies, and is slowly consumed by the Ichor in a similar manner to green slime.  Those who survive regain lost Constitution at a rate of one (1) point per day of rest.

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This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at https://dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.