Dungeon for OSRIC 10th Anniversary

[Guy Fullerton]

Bump!

Any of you have the entries they were planning to submit?

I plan to spend a little time this weekend on a couple of my outstanding rooms...

[austinjimm]

I'm out of town this weekend, but will get my areas in ASAP.

[Guy Fullerton]

Small progress, but progress nonetheless...

X34. SLANTING STONE BEACH

Six eel-men worship a thick pseudopod, jutting above them, out of the water like a swaying black tongue. Four more eel-men lurk transparently in the water. They try to capture intruders for sacrifice to the pseudopod, but on a neutral or better reaction roll, they leave other obvious worshippers alone.

The pseudopod senses its worshippers, and oozes hormones into the water that hastes wounded supplicants, but also causes them 1 damage per round. It envelops and dissolves fallen creatures, or anything attacking it. The pseudopod stretches here from the ur-ameboid at area X57, and cannot reach beyond the west wall of the cavern.

Eel-men (10) – AC 6; MV 9”//18”; HD 2+1; hp 11 each; #AT 1; THAC0 16; Dmg 1d6; SA surprise; SD toxic blood; AL CE; XP 83; see p. ***.

Ur-ameboid Pseudopod – SZ L; AC 8; MV 3”; HD 4; hp 18; #AT 1; THAC0 15; Dmg 1d3; AL ***; XP ***; see p. ***. *** special attacks?

[Guy Fullerton]

X35. FOUR THAUMATURGIC CIRCLES

10 ft. thaumaturgic circle etched into each corner, with an aquamarine stone (750 gp ea.) embedded into the floor at the circle centerpoints. Each circle entraps an invisible quasit that guards its stone, cursed and unable to speak except for two possible words each, one (random) word at a time, only when damaging an enemy:

Northwest: Sacrificing, fluids.
Northeast: By, for.
Southeast: Operate, sarcophagi.
Southwest: Breathers, boon.

Quasits (4) – SZ S; AC 2; MV 150; HD 3; hp 15 each; #AT 3; Dmg 1d2/1d2/1d4; SA poison (Dex loss), spell-like abilities (cause fear, invisibility, etc.); SD regeneration, save as 7 HD, immune to non-magical weapons, immune cold/fire/lightning, MR 25%; AL CE; XP 370.

(The words can form a clue to the operation of the potion manufactory, but a fruitful interaction with this room does not require anyone to figure that out.)

[Guy Fullerton]

Just signed up to run this at Pacificon over Labor Day weekend. Need to finish it (at least superficially) by then.

I'd love to at least get brief notes from those of you planning to submit more rooms. One sentence is enough for me to improvise from.

[grodog]

Just signed up to run this at Pacificon over Labor Day weekend. Need to finish it (at least superficially) by then.

Very cool! Nothing like a deadline to spur creativity

I'd love to at least get brief notes from those of you planning to submit more rooms. One sentence is enough for me to improvise from.

I'll wrap up my rooms after NTX!

Allan.

[Guy Fullerton]

Excellent! IIRC you told me (maybe at Gary Con) you already had a decent amount of info for some of the pit / false door / membraneous vault areas. I'm happy to take loose notes and tighten them up, if that helps. (That goes for anybody else too!)

[Guy Fullerton]

Trying to jump-start this to completion ... or complete enough for the convention in Sept.

One of a few in-progress descriptions...

X33. RUINED BANQUET HALL

Smoky smell, from low-burning fireplace in southwest. Partially-eaten goblin corpses next to it, and one human hunter’s corpse on the hearth, crudely smoking. Stacked wood nearby from broken banquet hall tables and chairs.

Spectral candle (15% left) affects all of: Gold-leaf head-of-table chair (240 gp) in the north, with the candle on the left arm, and a garnet-studded silver goblet (1300 gp) on the right, containing fragrant, deep purple liquid (potion of poison). Aristocrat casually resting (dead) in the seat, with dagger and pouch (15 pp, 11sp).

Eel-men lounge north of the west exit, and rise quickly to defend their territory and meat.

Eel-men (4) – AC 6; MV 9”//18”; HD 2+1; hp 11 each; #AT 1; THAC0 16; Dmg 1d6; SA surprise; SD toxic blood; AL CE; XP 83; see p. ***.

[Guy Fullerton]

X47. PRIMITIVE WALL SKETCHES

Smoky odor. Fishing net draped over four long, creaky, nailed-shut crates in the north; each contains six long swords in oilskin.

Soot drawings on walls depict many eel-men fighting a few enormous clam-lobster hybrid monsters that pinch eel-men in half, and emit wavy lines from shell maws.

Noise draws the eel-men from X33.


X36. ETCHED HALLWAY

East wall relief of laborers transporting bodies wrapped in fabric southward, and barrels and crates northward, overseen by stately man in the center, holding a coffer. Trigger in the coffer relief’s keyhole opens a secret compartment behind the coffer, containing a magic-user scroll of charm monster and a prime rod.

Wet eel-man footprints lead from the south door, diminishing prior to the west door.

[Guy Fullerton]

T-Minus 7 weeks until the convention where I run this. (Pacificon, Labor Day weekend)

I'd love some more keys from those of you with pending submissions. Even brief notes (like one sentence per room) would be fine for the convention. Something is better than nothing

[grodog]

I'd love some more keys from those of you with pending submissions. Even brief notes (like one sentence per room) would be fine for the convention. Something is better than nothing

We returned from Costa Rica on Sunday this week, so I'll get cracking on this, Guy.

Allan.

[grodog]

I'd love some more keys from those of you with pending submissions. Even brief notes (like one sentence per room) would be fine for the convention. Something is better than nothing

We returned from Costa Rica on Sunday this week, so I'll get cracking on this, Guy.

I made some excellent progress on this over the weekend, Guy. The vault is now the Tenebrous Vault, and I have some further map changes for you, too.

One note though: I've added some more detail to the slain Necromantrix, so I may end up writing her up using Scot's version from KS #1 in case she's raised, speak with deaded, etc.

Allan.

[austinjimm]

I'll try to bet back on this in the next few days. Sorry I've been slow with it.

[Guy Fullerton]

Allan, Jimm — sounds good. Looking forward to it. (Jimm, no need to apologize; it's not like I've been prompt with my stuff either. Real life and our home campaigns take precedence over this! )

[Guy Fullerton]

Very rough brainstorm on areas 50-54, sort of a hybrid of ideas from Alex & me:


X50: Troglodytes Trapped in Time

Special decorations/trappings hint this room structurally/magically relates to X51-53 and X54. Some possibilities: Walls could be metallic; conduits/pipes running between all three; glass-steel "windows" allow viewing all the way from X50, through X51-53, and into X54; time-related runes covering the walls of all of them; all three ceilings dynamically shimmer with starry clusters and multicolor transparent clouds — a view into the astral plane.

Big batch of trogs, possibly accompanied by some larger creature, together too tough for a typical party to kill in an initial encounter, but potentially beatable as a whole for a party that has a few attempts to practice and refine tactics. Also large & obvious treasure, as reason for the party to revisit the room.

Due to the Possessed Clepsydra next door, the room and all its contents & occupants are trapped in a one turn (10 round) time loop. Looking in from outside the X50-X54 gives only an indistinct view of the interior ... very blurry, like those distorting glass bricks that some people use as exterior bathroom windows on their homes ... and with interior contents that move very slowly. Anybody entering is temporarily pulled into the time loop, although all damage done (including PC deaths, spells used, etc.) are undone when the 10 rounds is up, and then the enterers reappear outside the entrance they used. Creatures & stuff that start inside can come (or be brought) out, but those things vanish when the 10 rounds is up, restored back to their original states at the start of the time loop.

The idea is that PCs probably go in, get a glimpse of loot & hostile monsters, start a fight, possibly get killed, but then everything gets reset. The PCs can ignore or try again at their leisure. If they figure out that the time loop can be broken (see next room), they have a chance to do it all for real, and actually keep the good loot.


X51-53: Possessed Clepsydra (probably single room taking up the entire space of the three on the map)

Special decorations/trappings as above.

Massive, three-chambered clepsydra (water clock) physically connects somehow to the decorations/trappings, or visually alludes to relationship with the decorations/trappings, and thus with the other rooms. Spout/outlet on the ceiling/wall in a position to fill the first clepsydra chamber, but totally dry and lime-encrusted, or maybe clogged; the point is that the water clock has no water source ... yet it still runs.

Except for a ledge around the perimeter of the room, the floor is sunken to a depth of 1 foot, and filled with water. The clepsydra chambers stand in that water.

Water still pours from the first clepsydra chamber (maybe causing a geared wheel to slowly spin beneath the spout), into the top of the second chamber, and likewise from there (also a geared wheel beneath the spout) into the third chamber, and then from the third chamber (also a geared wheel) into the sunken floor. Seemingly defying gravity, a thin stream of water from the pool rises up and into the top of the first clepsydra. Like a perpetual motion machine, but with water.

The water is actually some number of creatures ... something like minor water elementals or water weirds ... not immediately hostile to anyone entering, but they will defend their territory.

The constant stream of magical/intelligent water through the clepsydra causes the time loops in X50 and X54. Stopping that stream ends the time loop; a temporary stoppage ends the time loop only temporarily. Eliminating enough of the water creatures would do the trick, as would destroying the clepsydra.


X54: Treasure Trapped in Time

Special decorations/trappings as above.

Similar to X50, but probably without creatures. Still obvious treasure, though less of it. Still a time loop, so can't keep the treasure (for more than a few rounds, anyway) unless the time loop is stopped. The idea is that even if the party doesn't have the guts to deal with X50 after stopping the time loop, they could still make a quick swoop into here and keep this loot.