Castle Mordha 8

8: Level 1 West

My but a single level is taking a while to stat out…. Alas I really want at least 50 rooms on a level to capture the megadungeon feel and to give the players plentiful options. 

This section contains large, regular architecture _and_ a gate to an island that serves as an elvish cemetery.

45) Empty: this room is now empty, with no sign of what it was once used for. The floor is covered with debris since the Kobolds have been tossing things here.

46) Storeroom: A group of 4 randomly wandering skeletons are stuck in here since someone pushed a pile of crates in front of the south door and they now can’t figure the doors. In the middle of the room is the corpse of a armored woman carrying a spear; Her hair, rather than being blonde, is actually spun gold. It is intact on her body, coming off with a simple tug. The hair contains 50 GP worth of gold.

Skeletons: AC 12, HD 1, HP 5 each, 1 att /1d6 dam; Morale *

47) Second storeroom: The crates and casks of this room have been emptied & turned into a kobold warren; the 6 little boogers are inside the nest of crates sleeping or playing dice when the PCs arrive, and will have time to prepare themselves and likely surprise the PCs if they decide to attack. They have 17 cp each

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

48) Empty Room: this otherwise empty room contains 3 Killer Bees who have wandered away from the hive. The room itself has some chairs and other furnishings that have rotted with time, but its overall purpose is unguessable.

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.

49) Rat Room: When the PCs enter a group of 20 rats living here scurry immediately out one of the other entrances. They do not attack, just flee.

50) Landscapes: This room contains paintings of ethereal and otherworldly landscapes, very large (the smallest are 4x6) including things like the world covered in white, or enormous rows of mountains like teeth. If moved they will collapse.

51) Portraits: This room and the stone stairwell are covered with now moldering and worthless paintings of the Mordha family. If someone climbs the stairs the 3^rd from the top is a trigger that drops the offending party i0 feet into water. Damage is 1 point from the fall but the stairs re-close and the water is 20 feet deep and very warm, forcing swimming tests at increasing difficulty per turn (+2 to -2) until drowning sets it or rescue occurs.

52) Gate Room: this room is cross crossed with dirt and animal tracks. On the south wall is an arch leading to an incredibly long (200’) corridor, Written on the arch is in elvish is the statement “Enter Here As You Entered The World”. Making your way through the passage while carrying or wearing anything requires a series of 5 increasingly difficult Strength Tests starting at +2 ending at -2. Failure means you progress no further.

53) Crypt: The Mordha family crypt, this room contains 20 of urns that hold the essential salts of the family, all decorated with their names and faces in mosaic. Each is worth at least 25 GP if you can find someone to buy them. Also in the room is trio of gnome pilgrims resetting the acid trap on the urns. All are armed with vials of acid (1d4 damage for 1d3 turns if hit) and hammers (1d4 damage). The gnomes will die rather than talk, and actually do have espionage-like poison teeth.

Gnomes: AC 15, HD 1, HP 5 each, 1 att for 1d6; Morale 8

54) Ceremonial room: this cross between a shrine and an alchjemists lab was used to both mourne the dead (there are pews for religious ceremonies and then, behind the remains of a large curtain running north south to block the west half of the room (which is now rotted and half falling down) there are alchemical supplies and tables to reduce the family members to their essential salts. These supplies include gold and silver pieces worth a total of 2200 GP  The curtain has a small gap on the north wall that can be safely navigated with a Dexterity test at +3 (automatic for small creatures). Failure, or any jostling of the curtain, causes one of the 8 giant centipedes to fall onto those passing through and riles the others up. (Careful looking will show that the curtain is moving a w/o wind).

Centipedes: AC 11, HD ¼ HP 2 each, 1 att for Illness; Morale 7

55) Lab: This room is Duncan’s long abandoned laboratory (his ones on the lower levels are much worse). It contains large amounts of glassware and tools, most of which are broken or rusted beyond repair. Inside one of the remaining large class containers is a man sized and shaped mass that will, of viewed, evidence a face and begin begging to be released. Close looks (or letting it out) will reveal that it is an beetle swarm that has been given a human intelligence. See B37 for rules on swarms. If will try to devour anyone in the room until it’s reduced to one quarter of its HP, at which point it flees, becoming a wandering monster in the dungeon. There’s a ring with four thick brass keys that open the door to the corridor to the north and to the experiment chambers.

Insect Swarm: AC 13, HD 3, HP 13

56) Experiment chambers/slanting floor: This 60 foot long corridor has an all but unnoticeable slant (test to notice, with the dwarf bonus) that has it drop 10 feet over the 60 foot length. There are three stout oak doors on the east wall; each of these is locked with large tumblers (+1 on the lockpick roll).

56a) This room contains a failed attempt to make a skeleton where the individual limbs are animated but didn’t hold to the body. As such there are four small attacking creatures (the head and each limb) but none of them have the strength to actually damage anyone. Even if the PCs shatter each part there isn’t an XP award here since there is no threat.

56b) this room contains a second skeleton, but this one was electroplated with metal, making it a shiny monstrosity. It fights as well as a fighter with the length of chain that it had pulled from the wall, is implacable and will follow anyone who opens the door to kill them for as long as it can see them.

Skeletons: AC 18, HD 1+1, HP 9, 1 att for 1d8 dam; Morale *

56b) this room contains the remains of clothing, but no longer any body, chained to the wall. If the PCs do disturb the robes they will rise and follow PCs, moaning and wailing and causing a second wandering monster check per hour. It won’t attack, but just follows them making noise. While it won’t burn just from a torch, burning oil will destroy it, as will a Turn v. Zombies.

57) Slanted Room: This room continues the low slant of the hall leading to it, and in the middle of it is a large stone table with grooves in it, and further grooves that carry any fluids into drains on the floor to the north. There is definite evidence of habitation in this room, but no one is there when the PCs arrive.

58) Goblin Room: This room contains a pit trap 20 feet overhead (and the slant is clearly notables here given the cathedral ceiling) that the hobgoblins will use to dispose of any goblins who irritate them. Unbeknownst to them one goblin survived the fall and build a net to catch his fellows, so there is now a group of 6 goblins living down here. The floor is covered with cultivated molds living on the remains of any number of failed experiments that Malcolm tossed in here. There’s also a door 15 feet up the east wall that leads to room 58 that no one knows exists.

Goblins: AC 14, HD 1-1, HP 6 each, 1 att for 1d6; Morale 7

59) Flame Cell: This prison room was once designed to test the prisoner’s endurance but the trap has gone awry over the years. The door to this room is stuck, and attempts to open it will reveal that it is hot to the touch. If the PCs persist when the door gives way flames will explode into the corridor and anyone in the 15 feet radius of the door will take 2d6 damage (save vs. Dragon breath) to avoid. After that they can enter the room, though people inside take 1 pt of damage after the first turn from the heat. There is a brazier in the corner of the room that is giving off the heat. There are runes on the brazier that can be seen if someone moves it and can be read with a Read Magic spell that, if spoken, immediately stop the heat until said again. The brazier weighs 3000 cn to move. In Shankill it would fetch 1000 GP to the right buyer.

60) Empty Cell: this room was once a prison cell, with chains on the walls, but it is empty now of anything of real interest.

61) Empty Cell: this room was once a prison cell, with chains on the walls, but it is empty now of anything of real interest.

62) Rage Room: This room has a bright red and orange mosaic on the west wall, and anyone chained to the east wall would be forced to see it. If examined closely or looked at too long, causes intense anger and fascination. A save vs. Spells will let the viewer wrench away (he can also be pulled away by friends), but the rage will continue for 2d6 turns. Anyone staring at the wall for longer than an hour will be driven to berserk unless removed and then protected from themselves until the effect wares off.

Isle of Elfish Repose

63) Entry Copse: the area directly through the gate is a copse of trees, and just inside he gate are pegs holding a dozen elf sized cloaks and boots. The season here matches that on the islands but this is much further north, so visitor could get awfully chilly.

64) Initial grove: this grove, hours of travel in any direction, offers no threats to the adventurers, and no treasure save its strange evergreen beauty.

65) Sprite’s Grove: This grove is home to 18 sprites who will confound and confusticate any non-elf visitors to the island. Each is carrying delicate gold and emerald bracelets and baubles worth 5 gold. If the players have an elf they can be talked to and may aid the party.

Sprite: DB +4, HP 2 each, 5 in concert can Curse a PC (save vs. spells to avoid) with a non-damaging curse.

66) Wolf Glen: there are 6 wolves here who will start to harry the PCs, isolating one and killing them

Wolves: DB+4, HP 11 each, 1 att for 1-6; Morale 8

67) Shrine to Nature: This is an ancient Druidic shrine, long abandoned. It has a few small chambers but no doors, save for a trapdoor that leads into the mountain. Inside the mountain are three otherwise nondescript caves one of which holds four leather flasks, each holding a potion of animal control, and several exquisitely made robes. If the Pcs take anything from here they will find the shrine now occupied by a black bear, who will object to their departure with the items, and who will wander back into the woods if they return them.

Black Bear: AC 14, HD 4, HP 24, 3 attacks for 1d3/1d3/1d6, save as F2, Morale 12*

68) Cay: This small cove contains several rainbow hued fish of modest sized that will happily play with the PCs if they enter the water; if they are attacked they will immediately flee

69) Mountaintop: If the PCs reach this summit on a clear day they will be able to see vast distances, and it will be clear that they are not in the Isles they know. On a clowdy day there is a 1 in 12 chance that the summit becomes a gate to a land of cloud giants, which I’ll make up as needed.

70) Burial Grove: This grove contains the graves of hundreds of elves, each of which having become the rooting spot for oak and elm trees. The trees are out of place in the otherwise evergreen forest, but their magical nature marks them out even more. Anyone who spends a night in the grove will have pixie curses cleared away from the elvish magic, and if a lycanthrope can sleep there for a complete lunar cycle their curse will be listed as well. There is nothing of material value here.