Dungeon 23: Week 44

Area D: Embryonic Core

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

Room 22: Core Bottom

The Ovoid’s hollow core tapers to a smaller chamber with multiple sphincter-hatches along the walls.  The petrified, slumbering Old One and its umbilical connections to the Ovoid’s walls can be seen high above (see Room 16.)

Stepping in and out of a sphincter-hatch here has a 2-in-6 chance of triggering a response from the Ovoid.  An enclosure of psychic energy forms in a 20-foot area, trapping the intruder(s.)  The barrier is impervious to physical and magical attacks, including dispel magic, but can be instantly destroyed with a disintegrate spell.  It can also be bypassed via teleport, dimension door, and similar transportation magic.
Inside the trap, the Ovoid conjures into being a demon of Chaos that springs forth from the organic ground or walls.  The seven-foot tall creature seems an amalgamation of humanoid and cephalopod, with a crustacean outer shell bristling with barbs.  While its pinhole eyes gleam with intelligence, it does not wish to communicate; only destroy.

Barbed demon: AC 2 [18]; HD 7; MV 120 ft. (40 ft.); ATK 2d4/2d4/3d4 (claws and barbed tail); SV fighter 7; ML 11; AL C; XP 2,375 (or HD + three specials)

Barbed Hide: a barbed demon that hits with two claw attacks can pull a human-sized or smaller creature into its barbed hide, dealing 1d8 points of damage and impaling them.  The victim is pinned and takes 1d8 damage per round until released.  The victim can pull themselves out (painfully) or be released by someone else with a check to open stuck doors.
Aura of Terror: a victim hit by a barbed demon for the first time must save against wands or be overcome with fear (as a cause fear spell.)
Spells: a barbed demon can cast animate dead, charm person, detect evil, and hold person, and teleport.  It prefers to attack rather than cast spells, but enjoys casting hold person on creatures that try to get away from its lethal embrace.
Immunities: the barbed demon can only be hit by magical weapons of +1 or better enchantment.   They are immune to fire and suffer only half damage from cold and poisons (including gases such as cloudkill.)  It has a 30% chance to resist magic spells.

If the Ovoid is Alerted (1,) the chance for these traps to form is 3-in-6, and automatic if the Ovoid is in Active (2) status.  Having control of the area’s brain-node (Room 27) can deactivate the trap.  

The floor next to the sphincter-hatch leading to Room 23 has two remains: a barbed demon and a creature like the fire salamanders in the Underwilds (Level 8,) but with a cooler body pigmentation.  It is unusually cold to the touch, even for a dead body.

Room 23: Salamander Alliance

This chamber feels colder than the rest of the ovoid due to the presence of two (2) frost salamanders.  These are scouts from a kingdom beyond the Sea of Darkness that is the mortal enemy of the fire salamanders beyond the Magma Fields in the Underwilds.   Having somehow become lost in the Ovoid and barely survived the trap in Room 22, they are wounded (HP 46/60, 10/61) and open to parlay with the player characters (+1 to reactions.)  They will assist only as long as it takes to depart the Ovoid.  They may also let the PCs know to avoid the area to the northwest (Room 24,) since it is easy to get lost in.

Room 24: Sphincter Maze

The tunnels here tend to wind and narrow, meeting in four junctions (a-d) with four sphincter-hatches each.  The GM should roll separately for each junction to determine which hatches are open as normal for rooms, depending on the Ovoid’s alert status.
The three, dead-end tunnels (e-g) have cyst receptacles similar to the ones in Room 14.  These are also filled inorganic junk, coins, and jewelry:

e. 3,250 sp, 600 gp, jewelry worth 1,300 gp, 900 gp, 1,100 gp, and 1,200 gp
f. 6,525 sp, 196 gp, jewelry worth 1,000 gp, 600 gp, 1,200 gp
g. 15,225 sp, 1,204 gp, jewelry worth 1,000 gp and four pieces worth 1,100 gp

Room 25: Neutralized Demon

The sphincter pit in Area A, Room 3 ends in the western part of this room.  The eastern end has a strange sight: the floor has a 10-foot wide, spiral-patterned seam, like a scar.  Cut off at the center of the spiral is the lifeless torso of some demon.  An old parchment devoid of any script lies outside of the spiral floor pattern.  Magic-users may be able to recognize it as a used magical scroll.

Room 26: Cleanup Crew

This is the bottom of the sphincter pit in Area A, Room 4.  The bottom here has scattered mundane items, which include treasure (5,000 sp, 6,000 gp) and a potion of gaseous form.  The corpses of the treasures’ former owners were removed by a bone creature (golem, HP 39) that is standing by to deal with any new outsiders that fall here.

Room 27: Return of the Snake God!

The floor of this chamber converges in a central pool of dark liquid not unlike a black pudding.  There are four (4) handmaids (HP 41, 39, 36, 38) blended into the walls.  On a negative reaction, or if the PCs try to inspect the pool, the handmaids emerge and try to enter the pool.  They do not attack other than to stop the characters from impeding their progress into the central pool.  
Once all four or any remaining handmaids enter the pool (if killed,) the dark liquid converges into the Snake God.  It will have 20% less HP for every handmaid killed before reaching the pool.  In addition, the Ovoid immediately goes into Active (2) alert status.

At last, we meet again for the first time for the last time (adapted from AI image courtesy of NightCafe.)

 

If destroyed, a brain-node can be seen within the Snake God’s black pudding remains.  This brain node is different from the others in that it is banded by whorls of onyx-like material.  This is the Ovoid's master brain-node, which can control all areas of the vessel.  However, it is much more than that.  It contains a miniscule portion essence of the Old One's essence and has several powers that can be discovered by a magic-user or cleric through psychic communion with the artifact.  This requires an hour of uninterrupted concentration and the owner must succeed at an Intelligence or Wisdom check.  Roll 1d20 on the table below for the unlocked power:

1.    Dispel illusory magic such as mirror image, silent image (phantasmal force,) invisibility, and hallucinatory terrain as a dispel magic spell three (3) times per day.
2.    Create an anti-magic field around it that dispels all magical effects and sends creatures from other planes of existence back to their home plane.  The artifact does this at will if the user is under extreme duress (GM’s discretion.)
3.    Fire a psychic ray that acts as a hold person spell three (3) times per day.
4.    Summon a handmaid, which projects astrally from the Ovoid (treat as an invisible stalker) to serve the owner once per week.
5.    Locate objects (as the spell) three (3) times per day.
6.    Commune with the Old One in the Ovoid (yikes!) once per week.
7.    Create a storm of psychic energy around them once per day.  The storm has a 20-foot radius and deals 2d6 damage every round to any creature within as they are buffeted telekinetic forces and hurled debris.  Creatures with 2 HD or less are hurled 1d6x10 feet away unless they save against magic wands.
8.    Pyrokinesis: can increase or decrease the size of a fire from a candle flame to a conflagration up to 200-feet in diameter.  The size of the fire lasts 1d6 turns, but can cause other flammable objects to light up and thereby feed the flames.
9.    Create water once per day.
10.    Create a wall of stone from the ground via telekinesis three (3) times per day.
11.    Turn owner’s gaze becomes a fathomless void that can cause fear at will.
12.    Neutralize poisons three (3) times per day.
13.    Immunity to spells and magic that affect the mind, such as charm person.
14.    Animate dead once per day.
15.    Charm person five (5) times per day.
16.    Fly two (2) times per day.
17.    Feeblemind once per day.
18.    Gain heightened senses that make the owner more difficult to surprise (1-in-6.)
19.    Cause contagion (disease) up to two (2) times per day.
20.    Project into the astral plane at will, leaving their (now vulnerable) body behind.

Using the master brain-node has terrible side effects that affect its owner every time they unlock a power.  These occur in order:

1.    The owner can hear strange vocalizations in his mind at all times.  They suffer from near-deafness and can only hear loud noises.  In addition, they must shout any spells cast or they automatically fail.  While the vocalizations subside during sleep, the owner’s mind is afflicted with terrible nightmares.
2.    Their alignment shifts one step towards Chaos: Law>Neutrality>Chaos.  This may cause a cleric to lose their connection with a Lawful or Neutral deity.  Their spells will now be granted by the Old One.  If the character is already chaotic, then next side-effect applies.
3.    The owner loses all desire for food and drink, and gains no sustenance it.  Instead, they must drain the life energy from a living creature of at least 1 HD once per week.  The creature is affected as if by an energy drain and will perish if they have a single HD/level.
4.    Alignment shifts another step towards Chaos.  If the character is already Chaotic, see below.

Subsequent unlocking of powers affects the owner with insanity, gaining a mental quirk or derangement as they slide further and further into madness.  The specifics of these quirks are left for the GM to devise.  Once the first power is unlocked, the master brain-node functions as a cursed item.  That is, the user will be unable to get rid of it save with magic to remove curses.  The master brain-node can only be destroyed via a wish or divine intervention.  It can also be returned to the Ovoid from whence it came in order to be free of it.

The master brain-node contains a portion of a cosmic being beyond mortal comprehension (AI image courtesy of Bing Image Creator.)

 

The bottom of the pool (which has been emptied if the Snake God appeared) contains scattered, ancient coins (4,000 ep, 11 gp, 7 pp,) and several multicolored gems of various sizes (10 gp x2, 50 gp x2, 100 gp, and 500 gp x2.)

Room 28: Tunnel of Expulsion

Stepping into this tunnel causes the Ovoid to collapse each 10-foot section in succession, requiring a saving throw against breath to avoid or be crushed for 10d6 damage.  PCs who are not surprised are able to notice the tunnel walls quivering, giving them a split second to get out of the way before a collapse.

PCs running at double Move are able to avoid the collapsing tunnel without having to make a saving throw.  Only possession and successful communion with the master brain-node in Room 27 allows control over this tunnel.

Don't let the sphincter-hatch clip you on the way out! (AI image courtesy of Bing Image Creator.)

 

Room 29: Proboscis

The tunnel continues as a form of proboscis that has extends past the outer shell of the Ovoid and burrows underground towards Level 10. This and the following room are not shown on the map.  The walls are completely covered in the stuff of the Ovoid.

About halfway through the tunnel, there is an area where the organic wall seems to have herniated and scarred over.  This is detectable as a secret door with a +1 bonus to the roll.  Dealing enough damage as a wall within the Ovoid reveals a side cavern.

Area 30: The Red that Sleeps

The cavern opens into the remnants of a caved-in room with broken walls of metal.  There are a number of transparent, capsule-like coffins, most which have been scattered or destroyed by the cave-in.  These reveal brittle skeletons, while the few, intact ones have mummified, human bodies inside.  Near one of these coffins is a puddle of what appears to be semi-fresh, congealing blood, 15 feet in diameter.  Characters that approach within five feet of the puddle cause it to come to life and attack.

Crimson Pudding: AC 4 [15]; HD 9 (HP 47); MV 60 ft. (20 ft.); ATK special; SV fighter 6; ML 12; AL C; XP 3,000 (or by HD plus three specials)

Division: the crimson pudding can only be hurt by fire or holy water.  If hit by any other type of attack, the crimson pudding divides itself into another piece with 2 HD.  These pieces cannot drain levels on a hit, but instead absorb 1d8 HP from a victim.

Level Drain: the crimson pudding drains two (2) levels from a creature on a successful hit.  It also regenerates 3 HP.  Slain creatures rise as zombies under the control of the pudding.

Undead: the crimson pudding is immune to charm, hold and sleep spells.  It can be turned as a vampire.  Direct sunlight and immersion in running water can immediately destroy a crimson pudding.

Destroying the creature successfully causes it to congeal into crystalline shard about the size of a sword, which can be used as +1 sword of life stealing. It drains one (1) level or hit die on a successful hit. After draining seven (7) levels, the shard breaks but its pieces become a +1 short sword and +1 dagger respectively.  A character using this weapon must be careful to wrap the “handle.”  Otherwise, there is a 2-in-6 chance they cut themselves and drain one level.  This counts toward its total number of level drains.

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.