Dungeon23: Week 30

 Level 6, Area B: Palace Living Areas

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

Room 8: Servants' Kitchen

This room serves as a central hub and kitchen for the snake-men Noble’s servants on this level.  The hearth is seldom used except for guests’ meals. This is because the Nobles, being closer to their ophidian ancestors, prefer their food raw.  Instead the servants, under the direction of eunshiel chefs, prepare the Noble’s meals cold in decorative ways such as eggs surrounded by lotus “flowers” whose petals are raw slices of (often sentient) meat.  The meals are served with fermented sauces made from Underwild mushrooms.

There are currently 2d4 normal human servants here (1-in-6 demihuman.)  The servants know of, and use the secret doors in this area, but are highly conditioned and fearful of their masters.  They will only help player characters (PCs) on a 1-in-6 chance.  Otherwise, they will cower before them, or on a successful morale check, pretend to help them while leading them into an ambush at the first opportunity.

There is a 10% chance an eunshiel chef with 1d4+6 HD (spells as elf of the same level) is here, directing a feast (see Room 11.)

At Snaketon Abbey, the servants are wretched and the cuisine macabre (AI image courtesy of NightCafe.)

Room 9: Courtyard Lounge

This a central courtyard that leads to the living and dining areas of the snake-men Nobles in the Palace level, as well as their guests.  Carved, serpentine columns surround a gathering space adorned with plush furnishings around a shallow pool with blind fish and a unique variant of underground lotus.

There is a Noble lounging here (HP 27 with camouflaging, shedding scales and snake arms,) with an Emissary advisor (HP 22 with snake eyes,) and a Myrmidon bodyguard (HP 25 with ophidian lower limbs and shedding scales; armed with sword and shield.)   The Noble is conversing with an ambassador from the fire salamander kingdom southeast of the snake-men’s City.  The fire salamander (HP 41) sits on a stone chair a safe distance away from the hosts.  However, the edge of the pool near it is boiling, with a dead fish and incinerated lotus blooms floating by.

A snake-man Noble (right) and Emissary advisor (AI image courtesy of NightCafe.)

 

The Noble carries a wand of fear, and wears jewelry worth 120 gp.  Some of the scales on the fire salamander’s body have been replaced with various decorative gems worth 1,000 gp total.

A secret door to the southeast leads to spiral stairs connected to Room 15 in Level 5.

 

Room 10: Guest Quarters

This chamber has multiple, luxurious rooms used to house visitors and dignitaries from the City and the Underwilds beyond.  Most have gilded, fungal wood doors except for two rooms in the northwest, which have doors made of stone.  These are for guests with special needs, such as the fire salamander in Room 9.

The room is guarded by two (2) minotaurs (HP 30, 17; armed with polearms.)  Guests can never be sure whether the guards are here for their benefit, or the snake-men’s.

A secret hallway on the northwest wall is used by servants to tend to the rooms.

 

Room 11: Banquet Hall

This grand hall is where the snake-men Nobles hold their elaborate feasts.  The  Nobles do not need to eat as often as humans or demihumans – about once every two to three weeks.  Therefore, the hall is often empty.  A feast however, is an equal parts grotesque and amazing sight to behold.  The hall comes alive with resplendent décor and exotic delicacies on the square table layout.  The center area often features entertainments, from eunshiel blade dancers (with hapless surface-dwellers carved up piece-by-piece as both entertainment and meal,) to long, sibilant recitations of epic poems and histories glorifying the snake-men.

A feast celebrating the birth of a Noble egg features the bearer as the centerpiece of the meal.  Their now empty body cavity is stuffed with exotic, Underwild mushrooms, and small, freshly-slain demihumans and fey, such a gnomes, halflings, and sprites.  Special, eunshiel chefs are brought in to prepare these elaborate meals.

There is a 10% chance one of such feasts is in progress, with the maximum number of Nobles, Myrmidon guards, Emissary advisors, and 1-in-6 chance of guests/dignitaries.  Treasure, in the form of table finery and the possessions of the snake-men and their guests, is available in these cases.

A secret door to the southwest is a servant’s entrance from the hallway between areas A and B.

 

Room 12: Noble’s Chambers

This room has a number of private, lavish apartments reserved for the snake-men Nobles of the True Temple.

Each room is elegantly furnished, with gilded doors and opulent décor.  Inside are personal effects and valuables (trinkets, jewelry, coins, and gems) worth 2d6x100 gp (10x weight.)  Each is protected by a trap.  Although the Nobles have little to fear from thieves, they trap their effects to foil servants, intriguers, or just for plain sadistic pleasure (roll 1d8):

1.       A pet viper (HP 13) rests hidden among the valuables or inside their container.

2.       A dart shoots from the front of a container where the valuables are stored (save against wands to avoid.)  The dart causes 1d4 damage and is poisoned (save or die.)

3.       There is a bronze-grated, 100-ft. deep oubliette on the floor in front of the tables where valuables are stored.  Removing the valuables from their weighted holding area causes the grate to open as a trap door  (save against breath to avoid.)

4.       A magical warding glyph on a coffer explodes with a sonic burst in a 5-ft. radius for 6d6 damage (save against spells for half.)

5.       Opening a gilded storage chest on the floor chest without pressing a latch hidden within the intricate patterns causes a hydraulic cylinder from the ceiling to smash down on the opener for 6d6 damage (save against paralysis to avoid.)

6.       Blades scythe from the wall behind the valuables at multiple angles, including at about head level.  1d6 blades hit for 1d8 damage each (save against breath to avoid.)  Human-sized characters reduced to 0 hp are decapitated, and smaller ones may be scalped.

7.       Opening a container with valuables releases toxic spores that cause 1d6 damage to everyone in a 10-ft. radius every round for seven (7) rounds unless they succeed in a saving throw against poison.

8.       The shiny valuables are coated in the Noble’s own contact venom.  The venom causes 6d6 damage immediately if touched with bare hands or gloves made of porous material such as cloth (save against poison for half.)

A secret room and passageway to the southeast is used by servants tending to the Noble’s rooms.

 

Room 13: Nursery

Chambers are set aside for snake-men Noble young, which are raised in the Palace level among their own caste.  The chambers are currently empty; awaiting a new clutch of Nobles (see Level 5, Room 7.)

However, a trap is still active in the adjoining hall.  Stepping into the hall causes the twin doors to close and lock, trapping creatures inside.  Spikes protrude from holes in the ceiling before it abruptly drops on victims for 5d6+3 damage.  Victims who save against breath are able to drop low to the ground and avoid most spikes for half damage.  A hidden control panel on the northeaster wall of Room 12 before the first door disables and resets the trap.

 

Room 14: Statue Garden

This is a walled area, 80-ft. high, built outside the cyclopean rock formation that makes up the True Temple.  The area appears to be a misty garden of Underwild flora with several statues of various, snake-men Nobles.

What may not be directly apparent to PCs is that the “garden” is a form of crypt where previous rulers of the City are buried and encased inside the base of their very own statue.  Intruders that spend a turn or more in the area will invoke the departed rulers’ ire.  Two specters (HP 33, 24) will appear and attack the intruders. 

Defeating the specters does not eliminate the danger in this area permanently.  1d4 spectres will appear every time PCs return.

 

The outer garden crypt honors past rulers of the City, but their dangerous spirits remain (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.