Late this week, late two months for the whole thing.
But finally done now.
My second out of hopefully five for my part of the Antarctica Adventure Jam.
Dungeon 2 –
The Tower From Before
### Any dimensions not stated are assumed to be 10 feet. The
ceiling in Rooms 1 to 6 on level 1 are 20 feet high, excluding the vaulting the
sides, which rises from 16 feet. Steps leading into Rooms 7 and 8 are ten feet
down with 30-foot-high ceilings. All ceilings on level 2 are 20 feet high.
Those on level 3 and 4 and 30 feet high and 40 feet high respectively. Unless
otherwise stated, all rooms are lightless and made of small yellow brick. All
doors are not stuck.
Descriptions in the Before language/writing are labelled
BFTXT
## Level 1
### Random encounters occur on a roll of 1 in 6 per turn.
1 – Reroll (1 Black Widow Spider, if Room 4 and 7 cleared,
revert when Level 2, Room 2 cleared)
2 – Reroll (1d6 Giant Geckos on the ceiling if Level 2,
Room 2 cleared)
3 – 1d8 Bandits (Nothing if Rooms 4 cleared)
4 – 1d4 Giant Shrews (Nothing if Room 12 cleared)
5 – 2d4 Goblins (Nothing if Room 7 cleared)
6 – 1 Green Slime (mutated pipe cleaner)
1. A worn staircase winds its way up 30 feet to
level 2. Observing the interior wall shows there is some 10 feet of brick
between each level, if broken this reveals a network of stout pillars serving
as climate controls. Above the doorframe is 1 Green Slime, which will drop on
the first party member to enter.
2. This room is dusty except or the floor.
There is a mural opposite the door. It depicts a regal woman wearing a gold
crown and series of overlapping plates, shaped like crescents and bosses like
the full moon. In her hand is a still bright sword with a still-bright radiant
sun on the pommel and wind along the edge.
Under the tiles of the handle are
missing bricks in the wall. Containing the bandits’ treasure 400sp and 60gp.
3. Long hall with much ruined furniture that
crumbles to dust on a touch and dust across the floor. The higher reaches of
the walls show Before writing and belong a newer picture of boats. The boats
are the kind used by those of the Sunrise Straits. Many gouges and occasion
scratches mar the floor and walls from combat practise.
BFTXT: Refreshments and Meals
Available Here (Available Here is obscured by the boats)
1.
This room smells of fear and is lit by oil
wicks. 11 Bandits prepare to ambush anyone who enters if the alarm in Room 6 is
triggered. If the alarm is not triggered, their Leader Hol the Wild F2 and
another are watching the door. If they intruders are not the Goblins, somehow
gain Initiative or after 1 round of combat, the Bandits disengage and beg
assistance to eliminate the Goblins in Room 7 who have placed them in a state
of near siege.
They will betray the player
characters only if they go up the stairs and come back wounded. They have never
ventured up there for the tower is haunted by the old Queen’s ghost. They have
500cp in coins and gems worth: 5 x 10, 5 x 50, 6 x 100, 4 x 500 and 1000gp in a
wooden box.
5. This room is dirty except for a mildly
cleared track which winds from the eastern doorway to the battered wooden
branches stacked together in the southern door. An old clay pot sits in the
corner.
The pot contains 200sp and
squeezing of Giant Shrew pheromones. The stink clings to the opener and any
group they travel with have doubled chances of wandering monster checks for 1d6
hours.
6. A long hallway, some condensation on the
walls but otherwise dry. The musky scent of mammals and dung. Whatever was once
the walls has been scrapped off, whitewashed and that left to decay off the
brick. Crossing halfway across the room activates the greeting sensor at
human-waist height. Two overlapping voices, one sounds like a local. Alerting
every encounter on the level.
BFTXT: Welcome guests to the
Universal Pylon/city of New Ogen. Supplying/Capital of the Island with all
require pneuma-food/grace of the spirits and ancestors at the behest of your
sovereign/s.
7. This room stinks of animals. If they players
have not alerted them, the inhabitants are talking in their high-pitched yet
gravelly voices. They are discussing if nests count as beds in a bedroom and
therefore if they can make them more structured or must make not maintain them.
36 newer Goblins with the heads of Giant Shrews, nine 2HD Bodyguards with the
heads of Killer Bees and Giant Lizards from across the Inner Sea and one 3HD
Chief with the head of a short-eared dog.
The chief and bodyguards wear
armour made from 10000cp of foreign coins punched through and threaded. In his
nest are gems worth 2 x 100gp.
8. This room is filled with musk and waste of
carnivorous animals., increasing towards the door to Room 12. Flyspots blackens
the walls, obscuring graffiti of penguins swimming in spiritually protective
formations.
9. A clean yet barren room.
Not a spot of dust in a large circle and a minuscule coating elsewhere. Red
bricks on the walls. Looping Before text covers the walls. Stepping into the
circle of no dust causes the entity to be teleported to Level 3 Room 8, instantaneously
and without warning.
BTXT: Rapid Ascent
System, Stand Clear of Circle When In Use, Be Aware of Circle When Not in Use.
10. A worn staircase winds its way up 40 feet to
Level 2. Observing the interior wall shows there is some 10 feet of brick
between each level, if broken this reveals a network of stout pillars serving
as climate controls. Halfway up is a scythe trap attached to a thin cord on the
tenth step. If stepped on, it swings down for 1d8 damage.
11. Complex diagrams on Walls from Before showing
stylised lines connecting six separate X symbols in four separate squares. One
square occurs on the far left and is circled. Two Xs are on the second square.
One occurs on the third square and two more on the fourth square.
12. This room reeks due to the fearful 8 Giant
Shrews who hide here away from the Goblins in Room 7. They attack immediately
and without fear. Inspection of the mattered nesting material and bodies
reveals these are actually not shrews but marsupials, Giant Planigales.
## Level 2
### Rooms 8 to 12 are made of green glass, not yellow brick,
these diffuse the light of day.
### Random encounters occur on a roll of 1 in 6 per turn.
1 – Reroll (1d6 Robber Flies if either Room 2 or 12
cleared)
2 – 1d6 Ghouls, with Ogen tattoos, moving creakily (may only
be encountered once, otherwise reroll)
3 – 1d3 Black Widow Spider (Nothing if Room 2 and 9 cleared)
4 – 1d4 Dracolizards (Nothing if Room 12 cleared)
1. As the staircase rises to the broad
landing, there is a windswept and vine-clad balcony. Growing from leaflitter
embedded in the brickwork. Thick cobwebs stretch along the walls and ceiling.
2. Two Giant Black Widow Spiders lair here
among their climbing and tripping webs and will descend to ambush once someone
steps outside the stairwell.
3. Rows and rows of crumbled metal holders
contain stained outlines of cups and glasses that would have to have been made
from plant matter or something like that. Traditional whitewash peels off the
walls revealing an elaborate tree motif from the Before Kingdom. A large window
lets in the air.
The door to Room 4 has a
ceremonial skull painted on it.
4.
This long room is completely obscured to about
neck or head height by blast shadows separating the room into a richer yellow
where something blocked it. Occasionally the negative of an arm or hand can be
seen peaking out up from the colour. A mass of bronze and bones of some bird
seem to occupy the far end where the wall shifts from brick to green glass.
After the party enter, 24 Wraiths
(Antarctica Bestiary) emerge from the negatives. Each hit from a Wraith causes
a -1 to all rolls on a hit and reduces total HP by 1. The effects of each hit
are recovered sequentially every 24 hours.
5. There is a lever on the wall but is
otherwise empty and dusty. Pulling it causes the doors to Room 4 and 6 to lock
and the whole room to rise as an elevator to occupy Level 3, Room 4. The
elevator position then locks for 1d6x10 turns.
6. This room is also filled
with person-sized colour negatives. But at crouching level. In the polar-west
corner is a net of silver wires that form the approximation of a pair of hands
and wrists worth 200sp. The tiniest scrap of green cloth is visible on some of
the bands. They are grasping a clay pot, containing a Potion of Clairaudience.
7. The red-brick room is filled with
stone-like pipes, broken and at odd angles to the wall. The floor has only a
couple of negatives of fallen shapes. Everything is covered in a layer of green
dust.
Entering the room causes the
powered chemical dust to rise and everyone present must make a Save vs Poison
or die.
8. A tall yet narrow cylinder made of glass is
central to the room and a spiral stair rising beyond.
The stairs wind up 30 feet to
Level 3, Room 6. Observing the interior wall shows there is some 10 feet of
brick between each level, if broken this reveals a network of stout pillars
serving as climate controls.
Inside
are silver wires and on the outside are gems the connect to the wires within.
Smashing the machine or pressing/pulling the gems (but not touching) causes the
battery to discharge. Save vs Spells or a flash or light blinds everyone
looking for 1d8 turns.
Recoverable
after the discharge by smashing the cylinder is 100sp of wire and gems worth 2
x 100gp and 2 x 500gp.
9. This room has glass that is almost
completely shrouded in web. Among the dark is a Giant Black Widow Spider,
avoiding its mates in Room 2 and ambushing any who come inside.
10. A whitewashed wall depicts three icons
arrayed in a line. A stylised hall and boat, a stone structure with the sun
above it, and the tall tower in green and yellow. They are united by a line
that with 1 turns deduction, goes pole-polar east. Making it obviously Ogen
300-555, the ruined fort 302-559 and the tower 303-559.
11. There is a cool draft here from the away end.
Amid the discoloured glass that gives the room a greenish glow, there is a
single unspoilt door. The brickwork is clean and the frame bears repeating
Before words.
BFTXT: Exterior turret, for emergencies
and observations only. Do Not Jump.
The door is an illusion, part of the
old glamour of the Before Kingdom. Really there is a 30 foot drop for 3d6
damage.
12. The floor here is glass, the walls here are
glass and there is at the away end, a lope as if the wall was melting outwards
to form a ramp or protrusion. Everything is covered in leaf-litter and mouldy
bones.
Nesting here are 5 Dracolizards,
nesting on the polar-west side. The farthest two polar nests have a 500gp gem
each, partly bitten.
The door to Room 7 has a ceremonial
skull painted on it.
## Level 3
### All rooms are made of green glass, which diffuses the
light of day in those rooms.
### Random encounters occur on a roll of 1 in 6 per turn.
1 – Reroll (2d6 Hobgobins with deer or panther heads, if a
route from Level 1 is opened up)
2 – Tarantella (Nothing if Rooms 3 cleared)
3 – 1d6 Crystal Living Statues with oversized hands (may
only be encountered once, otherwise reroll)
4 – 1d6 starving-looking Gargoyles in stone form (may
only be encountered once, otherwise reroll)
1.
A series of four worn robes hang on multiple
hooks. Each is nearly decayed through. But if removed delicately appear to be
all-concealing hooded roes with gloves with a metal and wood facemask the
covers the whole face. Banded with faded red triangles.
Of the tatters, 1000sp in wire
can be removed from the gloves. 500gp in the lining of the hood and facemasks.
And integrated into the redder robes is Jewellery worth: 800gp, 1200gp, 1400gp
and 1500gp
2.
Dusty but otherwise empty room, a brick bench
and shapes visible through the glass wall. The glass is fogged and distorted. A
broken stump of a metal lever is on the wall which otherwise has a crease down
the middle. To causes the sliding Wall to open to Room 1. It requires either
replacing the lever with a stout pole by removing the original with a Pick Lock
roll. Or leveraging the crease with a tool and a combine STR of 30.
3. Brick rubble is heaped into three mounds
and bound with web. The wind moans through a large break in the tower’s side.
The thick glass worn smooth. These are shelters for 3 Tarantella, who otherwise
crawl down the side of thew tower via the great break. They attempt to ambush
entering easier meals.
4. An empty shaft descends some 20 feet to a
hatch in a semi-wooded floor that leads to Level 2, Room 5. If the elevator has
been activated and risen to Level 3 and is not locked. Pulling the leaver will
lower the elevator and then it will lock in position below for 1d6x10 turns.
5. Vault of glass with a brick wall on the
south side. Many broken objects on the floor that look like star maps made of
interlocking glass tubing. Making noise or exploring the room, causes a chunk
of solid glass to fall and shatter. Onto the third or last row if there is no
third row, of the ascending characters, dealing 1d10 damage.
6. This hall is empty. Various brick benches
have been broken to dust and debris and a faded and incomplete attempt at
whitewashing was made on the walls around the entrances. There is a crude
drawing of a skull on the north-eastern door.
7. Red brick room with large stone vat with
many semi- vegetable and semi-stone pipes running to and from it. Much of the
wall surface is worn smooth as if having gone runny and rehardened. That was
where the Ochre Jelly dissolved the attempt to plaster the room.
The Ochre Jelly is not in the vat; it
lives in the pipes as a thin mass and will emerge from underside of the piping
to attack, 1 turn after the players enter or if they attack it first.
8. A clean yet barren room.
Not a spot of dust in a large circle and a minuscule coating elsewhere. Red
bricks on the walls. Looping Before text covers the walls. Stepping into the
circle of no dust causes the entity to be teleported to Level 1 Room 9, instantaneously
and without warning.
BTXT: Rapid Ascent
System, Stand Clear of Circle When In Use, Be Aware of Circle When Not in Use.
9. This room smells of leather, metal oil and
fur. All the brick benches and desks have been overturned against the door to
the north. In the dark, a snuffling.
Kiskan, 1 Wererat, is cautious in
his camp. He will appear as human if he judges the party to be dangerous or
await an ambush if he believes them to be mere bandits he can slay. He fears
blatant displays of magical powers. If nearing defeat he will attempt to
bargain by telling foes how to get up the stairs in Room 10 without setting off
the trap. He comes from beyond the Sunrise Straits and will merely say he is
not from the island.
He is wearing Chainmail +2 and
equipped with a Warhammer +2 and Shield +1. He otherwise has 1000sp in scrapped
wiring and 4000cp in copper tablets he has plundered from ruins in his bags.
10. Staircase rises up 10 feet to level 4 Room
11. Kiskan has affix a scythe trap to the centre step to strike anyone coming
up or down without his foreknowledge. Trap does 1d8 damage, Save vs
Petrification to avoid.
## Level 4
### All rooms are made of green glass, which diffuses the
light of day in those rooms.
### Random encounters occur on a roll of 1 in 6 per turn. If
no encounters possible, roll on the previous floor’s table and double the
numbers.
1 – Reroll (1d3 Caecilia if device in Room 9 is activated)
2 – 2 Cockatrices (Nothing if Rooms 8 cleared)
3 – 4d8 Bandits of a different gang/warband (Only if a clear
path is established through rooms to level 1, if slain, 4d4 Goblins with dog,
lizard and bird heads, otherwise reroll)
4 – 1d6 Blink Dogs (may only be encountered once,
otherwise reroll)
1. The glass here is still crystal clear and
can be detected as magic. Focusing through the outward glass walls shows
everything on the island is clearer and visible here. All settlements, dungeons
and stone tablets are readily discernible.
2. Hidden room has a series of stands made of
clear glass, forked at the end of the tines to hold various clothing which has
fallen apart into strands on the floor. The jewellery remains hanging.
Whatever garments here have
disintegrated, but there is 2,000sp and 1,200gp in metallic threads. Jewellery
in the shape of penguins and petrels encircling a green tower worth: 2 x 600,
700, 900 and 1,300gp.
3.
Glass walls scratched into opaqueness. Groves in
the floor and the sound of a keen note, but no footsteps. The wall to the west
has a herringbone pattern of almost removed red and yellow. Against the north
wall is a blast-shadow human outline.
Here wanders what was once a man.
As much as a man of Before can be compared to the latter days. Erratically
light and dark-hued mesh covers the 1 Wight (Cursed Chainmail -1, AC 6), and a
thin metal mace (Mace +3) drags from a chain in its hand. It will begin to
speak if it notices a foe and then automatically attacks. Cold, high and thin
in Before, demanding the internal light from the Titian-begotten animal people.
Upon destruction, the wight
evaporates taking the interior lining of the armour with it. The mesh remains
as a suit of scoured bright but still cursed mail. The mace remains magical.
Has two thin sheets of bronze in the pocket, spell scrolls in BFTXT.
BFTXT: Material Interactions;
Floating Disc, Wall of Stone, Polymorph Others, Telekinesis, Fireball
BFTXT: Today’s Experiment;
Massmorph x 2, Detect Magic (mu), Floating Disc, Read Languages
Examining the western wall allows
for a Secret Door roll to figure out there is a crack that can be pried open
with a lever to access Room 2.
4. Dust renders the glass surfaces opaque, a
lump on the floor reveal itself to be the bronze handle of a tool that has no
shaft or head. A staircase rises to the celling ten feet above.
5. Ten crumbled skeletons in disintegrated
metal mesh lie in rows. Hands crossed over their crests. Powdered furniture is
stacked against the walls. Dust coats the walls.
6. A befouled room of scratches and dried guano.
The northern door to Room 4 has a humanoid handprint on it. Pressing a humanoid
hand into it opens the door.
7. Room with a red and blue painted pattern on
the north door, but otherwise empty except for a stone or brick stool, knocked
over and an apparatus of glass and jewels against the east wall. There is a
small gleam of light coming from it.
There is a 1 in 6 chance, rising
once per round used, to cause the door to Room 3 to open and the door to Room
10 to close.
Inside are silver wires and on
the outside are gems the connect to the wires within. Smashing or tinkering
with the powered machine the machine causes the battery to discharge. Save vs
Spells or die from the battery current surging through.
Recoverable after the discharge
by smashing the machine is 1,100sp and 600gp of wire and gems worth 3 x 100gp
and 500gp.
8. This room smells of dust and feathers and
reptile. The dim glow of the glass walls shows a network of scratched circles
and dust suspended. The sort of clucking that comes from something large and
deep.
Here lair 3 Cockatrices. They
nest in a set of claw-carved magical circles, which forestalls time and
preserves them. If not already alerted, their Avialae heads swivel with an
unstoppable slowness and then time speeds up as they leap. Searching their mounds
of dust and preserved work cloth brings up nothing.
9. There is a door at the far end in the north
wall, but otherwise empty except for a few moulding crates. The vegetable
matter construction staining the floor. There is a red line painted around the
border of the floor and a red circle around a lever set in the up position.
BFTXT on the wall above the lever.
BFTXT: Cargo and sample delivery
system. Please stand away from central point.
Pulling the lever causes a deep
groaning and then nothing. The round after that, the floor gives way into the
half-opened cargo chute. Causing everything in the room not inside the circle
to slide to Level 1 Room 7.
10. The room is dark and smells of wax. The glass
has been coated in a hardened purple slime and scattered glass shards. An
enormous Rhagodessa rests on a bed of hardened slime. Purple bioluminescence
delaying the weight of time.
If it detects foes prior to their
entrance, it creeps to the floor and covers itself in flakes in order to ambush
food.
11. A long gallery with a waist-high brick wall
some ten feet into the room. A set of bronze discs mark a gap in the middle.
There is clear glass from the walls to the ceiling. Through it the hall reveals
the occasion blast shadow of plants and the bars of a cage, now fallen into
glass shards on the floor and dried specks of purple discolouring. There are
three doors along the north side. The eastern one has a seal on the bottom of
purple wax.
Looking at the broken cage shows
many tiny insect-sized shadows covering the wall behind the broken cage and
even some large scorpions and spiders previously crawling on branches.
Passing through the disc does
nothing, the esoterica the detector was built to sense, no longer exists
aboveground.
The alarm is
triggered by a glowing panel on the north wall. Six glass gems need to be
pressed in order (6th, 1st, 2nd, 3rd,
5th and 4th) within 1 round of entering. As the security
system has completed endless cycles without a lockup. Otherwise, everything on
the floor is alerted to the present of intruders with a short and petering out
wail (the Star Wars whooping noise).
