Re: Dungeon for OSRIC 10th Anniversary
Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 2:05 am
[quote="grodog"]X12, X13, X14, X15: not sure yet. (grodog)
X12. The Rubbled Stair
The walls, floor, and ceiling of the stairs leading down to X12A are scorched with fire and scored deeply with furrows from the hydra’s claws and fangs. The stairs are strewn with rubble and small stones, which, unless the PCs are particularly careful (moving at no more than ½ normal movement rate), will scatter and clatter down, awakening the hydra if it was asleep (5 in 6 to awaken; see X12A below).
X12A. Down the Tubes
This 20’ by 30’ chamber is inhabited by a five-headed pyro-hydra: AC 5, Mv 9”, HD 5, HP 40, #AT 5, D/AT 1-6 each, SA Able to attack one opponent with up to 4 heads, each head breathes fire in a 2” long cone 1” wide at end and ½” at start (twice per day per head, for 8 hp damage per breath, save vs. BW for ½); SD Not killed until all heads slain, only surprised 1 in 6 if awake; XP 805).
As with the entry stairs, the chamber itself is scorched from fire throughout, and its walls are deeply scored from the hydra’s efforts to sharpen claws and fangs against the stone. The floor is strewn with scales, bones, the remains of rotten corpses, rent and mostly-useless weaponry and adventuring gear, discarded and now-charred bits of chests, furniture, and other random detritus. Thoroughly searching the room to recover all of the treasure will require 20 man-turns due to the scattered clutter; ask the PCs how long they plan to search, and accordingly award proportional treasure.
The hydra sleeps in its nest in the south-eastern corner of the room, until disturbed or hungry (60% chance of being asleep), but it will hear any loud noises within a 3” radius of the four-way intersection to the north (including melee, bashing down the door of X14, etc.), and it may investigate (2 in 6); even if it remains in X12A, it will be ready for combat and cannot be surprised in such circumstances. Its senses are also keenly-attuned to the sound of rocks falling from X12 (q.v). Due to the mess surrounding it, even if it is asleep, the hydra is only surprised 3 in 6; if not asleep, but not alerted by undue noises, it is surprised only 1 in 6.
The inhabitants in X08-X11 are well-aware of the monster and avoid it like the plague, especially after its relatively-recent depredations in X14 (q.v.). They are likely to misdirect foes deemed too strong to fight directly toward it and the “vast treasure” it guards.
Treasure: 4000 sp (800 sp in four small sacks stitched closed in a partially burnt coffer, the rest loose and scattered), spear +2, two normal spears, one two-handed sword, a halberd with silver-shod head (90 gp value), a backpack with 3 intact oil flasks and two intact unholy water vials, an intact suit of dwarven-sized platemail, two suits of human-sized chainmail, one suit of elven-sized leather armor, three normal shields, and one large shield.
X13. Twin Dead-End Stairwells
The two sets of stair off of X12A are both dead-ends, perhaps literally. You can certainly “open” one or both of these stairwells to enable access to additional levels of your own design.
X13A. Down the Down-Stair
The stairs down continue from here in a corkscrew counter-clockwise square spiral around an open shaft for another 80’ of depth, interspersed with regular landings. They conclude in a XX-facing wall containing a false door. If the false door is opened, the door eastern door leading into X12A will not open from this for 24 hours.
X13B. Up the Up-and-Down Stair
Two short flights of stairs rise and fall 10 feet each and end in a landing with a large and elaborate (but false) door: the door is carved from a huge piece of black obsidian, through which veins of marbled gold run; it has recessed hinges, is eight feet square, and weighs 16,000 pounds. Due to its weight, the door is very difficult to open, requiring a total of six 1s rolled on Open Doors checks by PCs with a Strength score of at least 14. PCs with a strength greater than 19 merely need to roll six 1s or 2s to open the door. The successful rolls must all be accumulated within 3 turns or any progress gained will be lost when the door resealed fully shut. If the player manage somehow to cart this architectural marvel away from the dungeon, it is worth 12,000 gp.
No passageway extends beyond the portal; it opens to a blank wall. The frame inside of the door, however, bears an inscription carved in runes that require a Comprehend Languages spell or a thief’s Read Languages skill to decipher. Unless PCs search the opened door cavity, they will not find the runes. The message reads:
AftEr a haRd fall, knock on the wall.
The careful may find, if oPen of mind,
Lore. sagE but hiddeN—perhapS forbidden
in fault: the lOng lOst membranous vault.
The players will need to further solve the riddle, but two potential clues are embedded in the text: the poem-riddle suggests searching for secret doors in pits, while the capital letters can be anagrammatically rearranged to spell “EASTERN LOOP.”
X14. If searched for by a ranger, sooty and ashen footprints can be found leading into and out of the door to this room. The door itself is one-third ajar and badly burned—its metal bandings, handle, and hinges are partially melted so the door is frozen in place. It allows free passage into the room beyond for small-sized creatures, but larger creatures cannot pass the door without prying it open further. All Open Doors rolls are made at +1 bonus to the roll (so if a 1-2 is normally required to open the door, a 1-3 will succeed); if a 1 is rolled, the PC opening the door shatters its weakened boards in a clatter, completing the destruction of the portal (and perhaps alerting the pyrohydra in X12A and/or the giant troll’s goblin slaves in X09 and X11 (q.q.v.).
Scattered inside the 30 foot by 30 foot room are fourteen humanoid, but otherwise unidentifiable, corpses. They have been burned beyond recognition, partially eaten, and are small to medium in size, but some “small” corpses may have once been larger. They lie amidst the remnants of burned furnishings, perhaps a table and chairs, perhaps a shattered bed. The walls, floor, and ceiling are cracked from multiple blasts of extreme heat, and ash and soot cover everything; PCs moving about will stir up clouds of ash, and will emerge begrimed in soot. Multiple sets of footprints have entered the room, with sizes ranging from large to small, and some furnishings have clearly been dragged out of the room, at some point. If checked for, the small prints are the most-recent ones, but they are more than a week old; the medium and large tracks were made before the door’s melted hinges froze in place.
The room has been thoroughly looted by the giant troll and other inhabitants of the dungeon.
X15. Cold Storage Closet
This secret door was not known to the recent inhabitants of X14, and was used for storage by a necromancer who lived in X14 several years ago. The secret door and room survived the pyro-hydra attack unscathed, due in part to her cooling enchantments placed within. The secret door opens by pushing a small stone in the northwest corner along the northern wall, located seven feet above the floor. When pressed, the secret door descends into the floor over two rounds accompanied by a grinding sound (applying a flask’s worth of oil will end the noise, and will reduce the opening time to one round). The door automatically closes after being open for eight rounds, and can be opened from the other side using a similar mechanism located on the floor in the southeast corner.
Inside is cold storage closet, lit by a sourceless white light and at a constant 36°F temperature. The room is noticeably cooler than the rest of the dungeon. The light illuminates a medium-sized mahogany desk with built-in shelving atop containing many pigeon-hole-like compartments, each closed with small doors of various sizes, and each labelled with strange runes on parchment placed below small windows looking in. Four larger compartments flank the seating space, two to a side; there are no drawers.
Abutting the desk is a narrow metal closet four-feet-wide that runs from floor to ceiling (it is cold to the touch, and is lead-lined). Three locks secure the door. The keys for the top and bottom locks lie with the corpse of the necromancer at X26, where they washed downstream after she was slain by the vodyanoi at the bridge [between X17 and X47]. The middle key is lost. Each lock is very difficult to pick (-25% to Open Locks attempts), and each is also protected with a glyph of warding (12 points of lightning damage, save for half; nullified if the glyph’s name “Norell-Uf’gtuy” is spoken, or the proper key is used to open the lock).
The desk compartments contain:
- 2500 gp worth of material spell components for 1st to 4th level magic-user spells
- 1000 gp worth of ink formula ingredients to write or to inscribe scrolls for 1st to 4th level magic-user spells
- 500 gp worth of burners, alembics, glass tubing, and other laboratory apparatus (in the two large left-side compartments)
- 400 gp worth of the finest vellum, quills, ink jars, and writing supplies (in the two large right-side compartments)
- Hanging on the right-side of the desk’s seating nook are two thick and black woolen mittens (used to handle the contents of the freezer)
The standing freezer maintains a constant temperature of -125°F. If handled with unprotected hands, all of the freezer contents (including shelves, walls, etc.) will inflict 1-3 points of cold damage per round for four rounds, and will stick to flesh via freezerburn; if wearing non-metallic hand coverings, damage is only 1-2 points per round for three rounds; the black woolen freezer mittens provide complete protection. The freezer contains:
- 6 vials of holy and unholy water
- 3 vials containing living but dormant mold samples: yellow mold x2, and brown mold
- 1 vial containing the dust of a slain vampire
- 2 vials of poisons: 1) 2 doses of insinuative blade venom (save vs. poison; failure = paralysis and death in 3-6 rounds; save = 3-10 damage; each dose is usable for one attempted “to hit” roll); 2) 1 doses of a clear gaseous ingestive poison (save vs. poison; failure = inflicts 6-36 hit points damage; save = 2-12 damage)
- 4 magical potions: invisibility, sweet water (2 doses), treasure finding, stone giant strength
- 1 vial of Nolzur’s Marvelous Pigments
- 43 empty vials
- 60 rune-encoded labels, all of which have fallen off the vials once the glue lost its bond
The holy/unholy water, poisons, and potions each require 20 turns to thaw before they can be used, and each has a 85% chance of retaining its normal efficacy (otherwise it is inert). Nolzur’s Marvelous Pigments require 2 days to thaw fully, and only have a 65% chance to retain their magical properties.
===
I'll get the second set of rooms typed up later this week.
X12. The Rubbled Stair
The walls, floor, and ceiling of the stairs leading down to X12A are scorched with fire and scored deeply with furrows from the hydra’s claws and fangs. The stairs are strewn with rubble and small stones, which, unless the PCs are particularly careful (moving at no more than ½ normal movement rate), will scatter and clatter down, awakening the hydra if it was asleep (5 in 6 to awaken; see X12A below).
X12A. Down the Tubes
This 20’ by 30’ chamber is inhabited by a five-headed pyro-hydra: AC 5, Mv 9”, HD 5, HP 40, #AT 5, D/AT 1-6 each, SA Able to attack one opponent with up to 4 heads, each head breathes fire in a 2” long cone 1” wide at end and ½” at start (twice per day per head, for 8 hp damage per breath, save vs. BW for ½); SD Not killed until all heads slain, only surprised 1 in 6 if awake; XP 805).
As with the entry stairs, the chamber itself is scorched from fire throughout, and its walls are deeply scored from the hydra’s efforts to sharpen claws and fangs against the stone. The floor is strewn with scales, bones, the remains of rotten corpses, rent and mostly-useless weaponry and adventuring gear, discarded and now-charred bits of chests, furniture, and other random detritus. Thoroughly searching the room to recover all of the treasure will require 20 man-turns due to the scattered clutter; ask the PCs how long they plan to search, and accordingly award proportional treasure.
The hydra sleeps in its nest in the south-eastern corner of the room, until disturbed or hungry (60% chance of being asleep), but it will hear any loud noises within a 3” radius of the four-way intersection to the north (including melee, bashing down the door of X14, etc.), and it may investigate (2 in 6); even if it remains in X12A, it will be ready for combat and cannot be surprised in such circumstances. Its senses are also keenly-attuned to the sound of rocks falling from X12 (q.v). Due to the mess surrounding it, even if it is asleep, the hydra is only surprised 3 in 6; if not asleep, but not alerted by undue noises, it is surprised only 1 in 6.
The inhabitants in X08-X11 are well-aware of the monster and avoid it like the plague, especially after its relatively-recent depredations in X14 (q.v.). They are likely to misdirect foes deemed too strong to fight directly toward it and the “vast treasure” it guards.
Treasure: 4000 sp (800 sp in four small sacks stitched closed in a partially burnt coffer, the rest loose and scattered), spear +2, two normal spears, one two-handed sword, a halberd with silver-shod head (90 gp value), a backpack with 3 intact oil flasks and two intact unholy water vials, an intact suit of dwarven-sized platemail, two suits of human-sized chainmail, one suit of elven-sized leather armor, three normal shields, and one large shield.
X13. Twin Dead-End Stairwells
The two sets of stair off of X12A are both dead-ends, perhaps literally. You can certainly “open” one or both of these stairwells to enable access to additional levels of your own design.
X13A. Down the Down-Stair
The stairs down continue from here in a corkscrew counter-clockwise square spiral around an open shaft for another 80’ of depth, interspersed with regular landings. They conclude in a XX-facing wall containing a false door. If the false door is opened, the door eastern door leading into X12A will not open from this for 24 hours.
X13B. Up the Up-and-Down Stair
Two short flights of stairs rise and fall 10 feet each and end in a landing with a large and elaborate (but false) door: the door is carved from a huge piece of black obsidian, through which veins of marbled gold run; it has recessed hinges, is eight feet square, and weighs 16,000 pounds. Due to its weight, the door is very difficult to open, requiring a total of six 1s rolled on Open Doors checks by PCs with a Strength score of at least 14. PCs with a strength greater than 19 merely need to roll six 1s or 2s to open the door. The successful rolls must all be accumulated within 3 turns or any progress gained will be lost when the door resealed fully shut. If the player manage somehow to cart this architectural marvel away from the dungeon, it is worth 12,000 gp.
No passageway extends beyond the portal; it opens to a blank wall. The frame inside of the door, however, bears an inscription carved in runes that require a Comprehend Languages spell or a thief’s Read Languages skill to decipher. Unless PCs search the opened door cavity, they will not find the runes. The message reads:
AftEr a haRd fall, knock on the wall.
The careful may find, if oPen of mind,
Lore. sagE but hiddeN—perhapS forbidden
in fault: the lOng lOst membranous vault.
The players will need to further solve the riddle, but two potential clues are embedded in the text: the poem-riddle suggests searching for secret doors in pits, while the capital letters can be anagrammatically rearranged to spell “EASTERN LOOP.”
X14. If searched for by a ranger, sooty and ashen footprints can be found leading into and out of the door to this room. The door itself is one-third ajar and badly burned—its metal bandings, handle, and hinges are partially melted so the door is frozen in place. It allows free passage into the room beyond for small-sized creatures, but larger creatures cannot pass the door without prying it open further. All Open Doors rolls are made at +1 bonus to the roll (so if a 1-2 is normally required to open the door, a 1-3 will succeed); if a 1 is rolled, the PC opening the door shatters its weakened boards in a clatter, completing the destruction of the portal (and perhaps alerting the pyrohydra in X12A and/or the giant troll’s goblin slaves in X09 and X11 (q.q.v.).
Scattered inside the 30 foot by 30 foot room are fourteen humanoid, but otherwise unidentifiable, corpses. They have been burned beyond recognition, partially eaten, and are small to medium in size, but some “small” corpses may have once been larger. They lie amidst the remnants of burned furnishings, perhaps a table and chairs, perhaps a shattered bed. The walls, floor, and ceiling are cracked from multiple blasts of extreme heat, and ash and soot cover everything; PCs moving about will stir up clouds of ash, and will emerge begrimed in soot. Multiple sets of footprints have entered the room, with sizes ranging from large to small, and some furnishings have clearly been dragged out of the room, at some point. If checked for, the small prints are the most-recent ones, but they are more than a week old; the medium and large tracks were made before the door’s melted hinges froze in place.
The room has been thoroughly looted by the giant troll and other inhabitants of the dungeon.
X15. Cold Storage Closet
This secret door was not known to the recent inhabitants of X14, and was used for storage by a necromancer who lived in X14 several years ago. The secret door and room survived the pyro-hydra attack unscathed, due in part to her cooling enchantments placed within. The secret door opens by pushing a small stone in the northwest corner along the northern wall, located seven feet above the floor. When pressed, the secret door descends into the floor over two rounds accompanied by a grinding sound (applying a flask’s worth of oil will end the noise, and will reduce the opening time to one round). The door automatically closes after being open for eight rounds, and can be opened from the other side using a similar mechanism located on the floor in the southeast corner.
Inside is cold storage closet, lit by a sourceless white light and at a constant 36°F temperature. The room is noticeably cooler than the rest of the dungeon. The light illuminates a medium-sized mahogany desk with built-in shelving atop containing many pigeon-hole-like compartments, each closed with small doors of various sizes, and each labelled with strange runes on parchment placed below small windows looking in. Four larger compartments flank the seating space, two to a side; there are no drawers.
Abutting the desk is a narrow metal closet four-feet-wide that runs from floor to ceiling (it is cold to the touch, and is lead-lined). Three locks secure the door. The keys for the top and bottom locks lie with the corpse of the necromancer at X26, where they washed downstream after she was slain by the vodyanoi at the bridge [between X17 and X47]. The middle key is lost. Each lock is very difficult to pick (-25% to Open Locks attempts), and each is also protected with a glyph of warding (12 points of lightning damage, save for half; nullified if the glyph’s name “Norell-Uf’gtuy” is spoken, or the proper key is used to open the lock).
The desk compartments contain:
- 2500 gp worth of material spell components for 1st to 4th level magic-user spells
- 1000 gp worth of ink formula ingredients to write or to inscribe scrolls for 1st to 4th level magic-user spells
- 500 gp worth of burners, alembics, glass tubing, and other laboratory apparatus (in the two large left-side compartments)
- 400 gp worth of the finest vellum, quills, ink jars, and writing supplies (in the two large right-side compartments)
- Hanging on the right-side of the desk’s seating nook are two thick and black woolen mittens (used to handle the contents of the freezer)
The standing freezer maintains a constant temperature of -125°F. If handled with unprotected hands, all of the freezer contents (including shelves, walls, etc.) will inflict 1-3 points of cold damage per round for four rounds, and will stick to flesh via freezerburn; if wearing non-metallic hand coverings, damage is only 1-2 points per round for three rounds; the black woolen freezer mittens provide complete protection. The freezer contains:
- 6 vials of holy and unholy water
- 3 vials containing living but dormant mold samples: yellow mold x2, and brown mold
- 1 vial containing the dust of a slain vampire
- 2 vials of poisons: 1) 2 doses of insinuative blade venom (save vs. poison; failure = paralysis and death in 3-6 rounds; save = 3-10 damage; each dose is usable for one attempted “to hit” roll); 2) 1 doses of a clear gaseous ingestive poison (save vs. poison; failure = inflicts 6-36 hit points damage; save = 2-12 damage)
- 4 magical potions: invisibility, sweet water (2 doses), treasure finding, stone giant strength
- 1 vial of Nolzur’s Marvelous Pigments
- 43 empty vials
- 60 rune-encoded labels, all of which have fallen off the vials once the glue lost its bond
The holy/unholy water, poisons, and potions each require 20 turns to thaw before they can be used, and each has a 85% chance of retaining its normal efficacy (otherwise it is inert). Nolzur’s Marvelous Pigments require 2 days to thaw fully, and only have a 65% chance to retain their magical properties.
===
I'll get the second set of rooms typed up later this week.
