Dungeon23: Week 29

 Level 6: Palace of the Nobles

 

Features

 Light: Most of the rooms in the palace are dimly lit by colored glass globes with bioluminescent fungus inside.  A few rooms may be illuminated by torches or oil lamps.  These are noted in the room description.

Walls and Corridors: The outer stairs of the structure are a spiral tunnel with carved steps about 20’ wide and 20’ tall.  Inside, corridors are 10’ wide and 10-20’ tall.  Taller room features are noted in their individual descriptions.

Doors: Most doors are made of fungal wood and gilded with serpentine designs.  Some larger doors are made of stone and are noted in the room description.

 

Level 6, Area A: Arcaneum

 

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

Room 1: Ledger Hall

This room contains shelves of preserved scrolls and ledgers in the snake-men script.  The writings are mundane records concerning palace business.  This room makes a relatively safe place for characters to rest and recuperate from Level 5.

 A secret door behind a shelf leads to Room 2.

Room 2: Chamber of Serpentcraft

This room is an arcane laboratory for the Noble’s research as well as snake-men sorcerous training.  There are multiple, specialized apparatuses, diagrams, components, and alchemical ingredients on several tables and shelves.

Three (3) guard basilisks (HP 31, 36, 29) roam the chamber when not in use.

The entire arcane lab is worth 5,000 gp, but would require carts or similar conveyance to transport the entirety of it.  The alchemical ingredients and arcane components are worth 4,000 gp in total (5x weight.)

A secret, locked door leads to Room 3.           

 

The foundation of all snake-men's sorcerous knowledge begins in the Chamber of Serpencraft (AI image courtesy of NightCafe.)

Room 3: Secret Hall

This hidden room contains some of the more valuable arcane tomes, grimoires and components of the Noble’s arcaneum, stored in alcoves on the north and south walls.  Entering the center of the room without first deactivating a switch hidden under a north alcove closest to the entrance activates a trap.  The east and west walls begin to compact towards the center, crushing anyone inside for 9d8 damage.  The walls take four (4) rounds to meet in the center, and retract at the same rate afterward.

Most of the writings are either common knowledge to magic-users, or unique to snake-men sorcery methods and unusable.  However, one of the tomes features magical writing which a magic-user can glean spell knowledge from: 1^st - protection from evil, detect evil, disguise self (see below); 2^nd – blur (see below,) phantasmal forces; 3^rd – haste, lightning bolt; 4^th - charm (monster.)

A few ritual objects and foci, while non-magical themselves, are ornately crafted and valuable: a silver rod with semi-precious stones worth 500 gp, a golden scale decorated with opals worth 800 gp, a gold and silver tesseract model with pearls at the junctions worth 1,300 gp, a silver dorje in the style of intertwining snakes with rubies worth 1,200gp, and a golden, serpentine diadem with magnetized pieces of hematite worth 1,000 gp.

 

Blur

2^nd-level magic-user spell

Range: Self (0)

Duration: three (3) rounds plus one (1) per level of experience

The magic-user’s body takes on a blurred appearance, shifting and wavering to all who can see.  For the duration, the first melee or missile attack against the magic user has a -4 penalty to hit.  Further attacks suffer a -2 penalty.  The magic-user also enjoys a +1 bonus to saving throws against magical attacks directed at them.

Attackers that don’t rely on sight, or have a spell or ability to see through illusions, are unaffected by this spell.

 

Disguise (Change) Self

1^st-level magic-user spell

Range: Self (0)

Duration: 2d6 rounds plus two (2) per level of experience

For the duration of this spell, a magic-user can change their appearance to a different, (but not specific) person, including clothing, armor, weapons, and other belongings worn or carried. The magic user can seem 1 foot shorter or taller and can appear thin, fat, or in between.  They can’t change their general body type, so they must adopt a form that has the same basic arrangement of limbs.  Otherwise, the extent of the illusion is up to them.

Since the changes wrought by this spell are illusory, they fail to hold up to physical inspection. For example, if the magic-user adds a hat to their outfit, objects will pass through it, and anyone who touches it would feel nothing but the head of the caster. If the magic-user takes on a thinner appearance, the hand of someone who reaches out to touch them would bump into them while it was seemingly still in midair.  In such cases, or if the magic-user acts in a manner inconsistent with their appearance, witnesses may attempt a saving throw against spells to disbelieve the illusion.

 

Room 4: Cobra Hall

This hallway is lined with alcoves where volumes of written works, maps and scrolls used in the tutelage of snake-men of all castes are stored.  The hall ends in a four-way intersection with includes three doors to other rooms in the area.

Eight (8) guardian trolls (HP 28, 30, 32, 36, 37, 29, 31, 23) watch the hall and the entrances to the intersecting rooms.

 

Room 5: Python Hall

This room has wood, amphitheater-like seating, and a table, with strategic maps and models.  The room is used for training snake-men Myrmidon officers in advanced tactics.  At other times, it is also used to train the Emissary flesh-crafters in anatomy and surgery.  The room is currently empty.  A button under the table opens a secret door on the western wall.

 

Room 6: Viper Hall

This room is designed to appear like a noble’s hall or salon with modular samples of human and demihuman furniture.  Emissary training in languages, heraldry, and etiquette of the various “lesser” races of the outside world occurs here.

Training is currently in session.  There are seven aristocratic humans around a table in conversation, served by four (4) normal humans, and watched by two guards in livery.  The “diners” and the guards are actually snake-men under the effects of disguise (change) self spells (see above.)  If the snake-men are not surprised (or have been forewarned by loud fighting in the outside hall,) they will keep up the facade to fool intruders, going as far as inviting them to dinner.  The “diners” are:

·         The head of the noble household, his wife, and daughter, which are actually three (3) snake-men Nobles (HP 28 snake pheromones, snake arms, and venomous blood; 32 with extendable hood, heat-sensing pits, and snake arms; 28 with ophidian lower limbs, thick scales, and venomous blood.)

·         The guards, which are two (2) snake-men Myrmidons (HP 21, and 31; both have distendable jaws and fangs, and thick scales; armed with polearms.)

·         The other three (3) diners are not disguised in illusions, but are snake-men Emissaries dressed to hide their ophidian features and blend in with humans (HP 16 with snake arms; 19 with ophidian lower limbs; 17 with snake eyes.)

The finery and silverware on the table is worth 660 gp (10x weight.)   The "head of the household," Lo-Khufu (32 hp,) carries a staff of charming (19 charges, see below), and is the headmaster of Emissary training.   

Lo-Khufu is rather depraved (by snake-men standards.)  He enjoys using disguise (change) self (which he can cast once per day) to take on the appearance of a foppish, human nobleman with long, curly locks, mustache, and goatee.  Other Nobles tolerate him, but it is widely known that he is a xenophile of “lesser” human culture and rumored that he even becomes intimate with them – something they find utterly disgusting and fit only for Emissaries in the execution of their duties.  Lo-Khufu was recently involved in intrigues against the ruling faction of the True Temple and City of the Snake-Men, but managed to deflect suspicion by giving up Xa-Bis’ role in the plot (see Level 5.)

Lo-Khufu is amenable to parlaying with player characters (PC) if things don’t go his way, and characters with high Charisma scores (male or female) may attract his favor (and depraved predilections.)  However, he can never be fully trusted.

Lo-Khufu (in disguised and true form) is a connoisseur of human and demihuman cultures (adapted from AI images courtesy of NightCafe.)

 

 Staff of Charming: When held, this ornate staff can be used to cast charm person, command (see below,) or comprehend languages (see below.)  If the bearer of this staff fails a saving throw against a charm or sleep type spell, they can expend a charge to succeed at their save.  Alternatively, the bearer can reflect such spells back on the caster if they succeed their save without using the staff’s power.  This use also expends a charge.

 

Command

1^st-level cleric spell

Range: 90 feet

Duration: 1 round

The cleric can compel a creature they can see within range to obey a one-word command for one round unless its succeeds a saving thrown against spells.  For example, a command to “approach” will cause a creature to move towards the cleric via the most direct route.  A command to “flee” will cause the target to spend the round moving away from the cleric by the fastest available means.  The Game Master (GM) determines how the target will react to a particular command.  The spell fails if the command is directly harmful to the creature, such as a command to “jump” while in front of a ledge.  A command to “die” however would cause the target to fall on the ground and feign death for one round.

This spell cannot affect undead or creatures that don’t understand the cleric’s language.

 

Comprehend Languages

1st-level magic-user spell

Range: Caster (0)
Duration: 5 rounds per level of the caster

For the duration of the spell, a magic-user can understand the literal meaning of any spoken language that they hear.  This spell does not confer understanding of written languages or codes (which requires a read languages spell)

The reversed version of this spell (confuse language,) can turn the speech of a creature the magic-user touches into incomprehensible babbling.  The victim may save against spells to avoid this effect.

 

There is a secret door on the northwester wall section, which used by the servants.

 

Room 7: Planetarium of the Eternal Ouroboros

This room is dominated by a large, central orrery, which is the same as the small model in the Oracle’s chambers (see Room 6 in Level 5, Area A) on top of a mosaic of a snake eating its own tail.  A bronze panel in front has a button that activates the orrery.  When activated, the room is covered in magical darkness, with the exception of projected stars (or possibly the Astral Plane) on the domed ceiling.  The orrery begins to spin slowly along with the images of the cosmos or multiverse.  Pressing the button again ends the effect.  However, doing this without placing a special key in a slot under the panel activates a trap.  The orrery instead spins with blurring speed.  Blades extend from the orrery to slice randomly at up to three persons or creatures standing in one of the cardinal locations around it.  Roll 1d8 three times (reroll a repeated result): 1 - N, 2 - NE, 3 - E, 4 - SE, 5 - S, 6 - SW, 7 - W, 8 - NW.

Victims must save against paralysis at -1 to avoid the blades, which cause 1d6+2 damage and are coated with poison (save against poison or die.)  The orrery trap spins and slices for one round before stopping.  Pressing the button again while the trap is in motion does not stop it, but pressing it again after it has finished reactivates it.

The majesty of the cosmic multiverse may be the last thing characters see (AI image courtesy of NightCafe.)

  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.