Castle Mordha 7

7: Level 1 center

Again, we hope the players honor forbids them from reading further

17) Flower Room: Listening at the door reveals a droning noise, as there are 4 killer bees in this room. There are also 3 black orchids that are growing without the need for light, which keeps the bees returning here. They wither in sunlight, but if the PCs do manage to get them to Shankill they’re worth 100 GP each.

Killer Bees: AC 12, HP 3 each, 1 att for 1-3 dam + poison + stinger does 1 pt per round until removed; Morale 3, but bees die if they successfully sting.

18) Hypocaust crossroads: There are 8 kobolds in this room, resting and feasting on a dead bandit that they stole from the east wing (the body is in bad enough shape the PCs might not recognize it for a minute). If the kobolds fail a morale check they will flee the room, slam a door and apparently vanish by the time the PCs catch up, having scrambled into a hypocaust. They will absolutely NOT do that in front of the PCs.

Kobolds: AC 12, HD ½ HP 3 each, 1 att for 1d4 dam; Morale 6

19) Sweet room: this room smells of burnt honey, as there is a drip in the ceiling from the hive above that is being slowly cooked on the hypocaust.

20) Empty Room: this room is empty, having been thoroughly cleared out by someone at some point, so much so that the floor is swept. Aside from the usual chance to detect secret doors a thorough search of the room reveals a small hole in the ceiling  the diameter of a 10’ pole. If a pole or similar item is inserted at least 1 foot into the hole the secret door clicks open.

21) Hogun’s End: This secret cubby was being used as a way-station by heroes who found Mordha decades ago but didn’t make it out. This grim skeleton is wearing tattered black leather over chain-mail armor with a horned helmet; a mace lies nearby. He has 2 gems (10 gp each) and a treasure map showing some of Level 2, with notations questioning the location of a Scarlet Emerald.  There is 40 GP of adventuring equipment in here.

22) Fire Tapestry: The south wall of this unexceptional room contains a tapestry that is displaying a moving image of a city og brass with red dragons flying overhead and dakkars filled with ruddy faced dwarves rowing at the command of reptilian overloads on the wine dark sea. It is not removable from room.

23) Circular Stairs: 4 Killer Bees flit around these circular stairs 2/3 of the time the PCs enter. A skeleton of a man wearing tattered green leather lies at the foot of the stairs. He has a bejeweled sword worth 100 gp; his pouch holds 560 GP worth of gems; most of them 10 GP items (taken from room 1) but one a 200 GP ruby of impressive proportions.

Killer Bees: AC 12, HD ½ HP 3 each, 1 att for 1-3 dam + poison + stinger does 1 pt per round until removed; Morale 9, but bees die if they successfully sting.

24) Empty Room: This room is empty, but is noteworthy for two factors: first, the enervating fog from room 25 starts here (PCs rest 2 turns out of 6) and the west is filled with obscuring smoke coming from the walls (a gnomish trick to keep the bees out).

25) 2^nd Chandelier Room: this room has a pit trap that is -1 to be seen due to the thick fog on the floor (10’ deep, 1d6 dam). Over the pit is a chandelier that doesn’t have the blue light but is made of thousands of pieces of cut crystal (500 GP). Messing with the chandelier triggers the trap, and there’s a 1/6 chance that the chandelier also drops, doing another 1d6 damage to the hapless individual in the pit.

26) Bathmaster’s room: This room, like room 20, is empty save for the fog, which is now thicker & higher, coming to a man’s hips. This room was the chamber of the master of the bath but there is little that would indicate that now – just the remains of a 4 poster bed. The south and west entrances doors are shattered.

27) Bath servant’s room: this room once housed the two ‘bath servants’ and two ‘chefs’ who served this floor. The remnants of their belongings are barely discernible in the fog, and the only one of note is the mirror on the east wall (worth 5 gp, weighing 50 lbs). Lying down in the fog are four skeletons (surprise on a 1-3) who will attack as soon as 4 people are in the room.

Skeletons: AC12, HD 1 HP 5 each, 1 att for 1-6 dam; Morale *

28) Bath Preparation room: in the glory days the masters of the castle would descend these stairs for their bath; now there is just the wrought iron circular stair and a collection of melted and decaying fragrant pastes on a shelf on the south wall. 5 mill about at the base of the stairs, visible from room 23, but they don’t leave the room. The path to room 15 is clear.

Skeletons: AC12, HD 1 HP 4 each, 1 att for 1-6 dam; Morale *

29) Pool of Fog: The center of this room holds a concave space that was once a bath fed from the pool in the shrine to Duncan above. These days the fall is blocked and tainted by the trapped Wight and what water does hit the pool is evaporated by the hypocaust, filling the room with a hot, enervating steam. Note that any actions in the fog require rest twice as often (2 turns per hour), which will slow the party considerably.

30) Mirror: The south wall of this juncture is an enormous metal mirror; between this and the fog people approaching from the north have to make a perception test to realize they are not being approached by a separate group of people. Both east and west passages once had large doors, but they were shattered long ago.

31) Yellow Mold: This room, chilly from the lack of hypocausts and damp from the fog, is the spot where spores carried by a Kobold took root and blossomed. There are two 10’ molds here, along with three kobold corpses. The room has chains hanging from the wall, as if it once held prisoners.

Yellow Mold: AC*, HD 2 HP 9 each, 1 att for 1d6 (touch) or Poison (50% chance if touched, death in 1d6 rounds, First Aid will reverse); save F2, Morale *

32) Geo Waggoner: This room holds Geo Waggoner, a Shankill guildsman who ran afoul of Malcolm a century ago. Malcolm cursed Gro with lycanthropy, stole the Waggoner family treasure to heap about him and bound him here. Since he can only be slain by silver he’s been here, ageless starving and thirsty ever since. Geo’s will promise to serve the PCs for a moon if they release him, as well as give them all the heaped treasures. He is in no position to complain about any treatment so long as they release him, but if they leave him they will have made an enemy if he ever gets loose. Unless they have a silver weapon they cannot kill him, but may think they have. The treasure is 6000 gP and 6 pieces of jewe;ry worth 100 GP each.

Werewolf: AC15, silver only, HD 4 HP 20, 1 att for  2-8; save F4, Morale 5

Human: AC10, HD 4 HP 20, 1 att for 1d6, save F4; Morale 5

6000 gold

11 gems

11 jewelery

33) Lonely Room: This room is empty, but there are chains on the west wall similar to rooms 31 and 32. The east wall holds an enormous blue green mosaic that, if examined closely or looked at too long, causes intense melancholy and fascination. A save vs. Spells will let the viewer wrench away (he can also be pulled away by friends), but the depression will continue for 2d6 turns. Anyone staring at the wall for longer than an hour will be driven to suicide unless removed and then protected from themselves until the effect wares off.

Gnomish shrine

This section has a pull out map as it is scaled differently than the rest of the level. Originally servants quarters these are cramped in their design. The scale of this level is 1.25 feet per square (4 squares = 5 feet). The gnomes have built a temple to Moira here; it is distant precisely so the rite of passage means something. It is also filled with traps to properly worship their patron, and the gnomes leave the ‘offerings’ which have fallen to their work. Notice that the hypocausts don’t reach here. treat kobolds should be treated as giant centipedes for wandering monsters

34) Foyer: this sizable entry foyer is empty, but a careful search reveals tracks leading to all exits in the room save the north. 

35) Servants Bunks: There are two old, mildewed beds in this room, but nothing else of interest.

36) Shower: This small space used to hold the servants shower; there is a drain on the floor and a hole in the ceiling; a lever on the wall will, if pulled, produce a lukewarm spray after several minutes of rattling.

37) Secret Closet: This hidden closet (opened by slamming the east wall to make it pop open) holds the confiscated by the head maid over the years. There are combs and dolls and moldering texts containing lurid illustrations of women in corsets being held/grappled/watched by bare shirted men (followers of Baldur with their long blond locks). There’s nothing of immediate value but the books could be sold to collectors in Shankill for 50 gp.

38) Servant’s Bunks. This room contains two bunks and has curved buttresses in the ceiling. It also has four sets of skeletal remains on the bunks, two in each. If pawed through these hold 500 SP and 50 GP. (The gnomes move the bodies of those killed onto the bunks). The x’d squares indicate the trigger to a spear trap that lances out from the buttresses across the whole of the room. Once triggered everyone in the room is attacked 3 times for 1d6 damage on each hit. Close inspection of the buttresses reveals that they are fake and unnecessary.

39) Servants Bunks: This room contains two bunks for servants and nothing else of value. However, the space in front of the south door has a counterweight pit trap that opens and snaps shut afterwards. It’s a ramp with blades on the walls that do 1d6 damage to anyone sliding down it without armor and shreds any leather armor. The victims are dropped into the pit for room 40.

40) Servants Bunks: this room contains two bunks for servants and nothing else of value. There is a pit trap that snaps open at the x’d boxes, dropping the victim 20 feet (2d6 damage). There are two skeletons down here which, if searched, have 100 SP, 10 GP and a bag with six gems each worth 50 gold. There is also a narrow closet hidden in the walls paneling that has a rear door.

41) Buzzing room: This room sounds like it is full of bees due to acoustics, it is empty save for moldering chairs & bookcases.

42) Tilting Room: The floor to this room is partially elevated on a giant pivot, and will tilt north or south depending on weight (150+ lbs to tilt it). At the moment it is tilted south so the north door is -4 to shatter. This is just a testing site for the gnomes.

43) Robe room: This room has been swept clean and had pegs hung on the walls to hold 20 gnome sized robes of rust red.

44) Moira’s Shrine: This is room holds a modest sized hollow silver statue (600 gp) on a dais, It is  of a handsome woman with eight arms: two playing a violin, one holding reading glasses, another an open book, one holding a sword, one a bridle, and the other two are held up in friendship. She has a wise, serene look on her face. The statue is wearing elaborately decorated rust red robes that fall to the floor but leave her arms free. At the floor the robes are writhing when the PCs enter; a group of 8 giant centipedes has taken up residence under the dais and will attack as soon as the PCs are within 5’.

Centipedes: AC 10, HD ½ HP 2 each, 1 att for Illness; Morale 5