Saturday, December 19, 2020

Dead Troll Halls

Scale: 10 ft.
Click here for a PDF version of this adventure!

The ceilings are tall throughout this level; 12 feet in the hallways, 16 feet in the rooms if not otherwise specified, or around 50% taller than other dungeon levels if this is included as a wing to a larger structure. Doors and gates are likewise oversize.

A - Anterooms

Ai) West Room

Thick Spider's Web; Lancelot Speed
Thick white webbing spills out of the entrance to this room. The corners are especially thick inside the room. There is a pile of boulders and bones on the south wall, largely obscured by webbing. A lone rhagodessa (x38) lurks on the ceiling above the entrance.

Mixed among the bones and rocks are two purses, one with 20 gp and the other with 34 gp, and a bracelet worth 1,200 gp. Under the web in the center of the room on the floor, there is a chalcedony inlay in the shape of a triangle pointing west. It is mundane.

Aii) Middle Room

In the center of the room on the floor, there is a chalcedony inlay in the shape of a diamond. On close inspection, it flickers slightly on the corner that points eastward. Four chains from the ceiling - roughly six feet from each corner of the room towards the center, roughly six feet down from the ceiling. Any spell cast by a Magic User in this room has a 60% chance of being retained by the spell caster: that is, it does not escape their memory and can be used again elsewhere in the adventure.

Aiii) East Room

Refuse - rotted bone and other indigestibles - is piled up in this room. There is an icon on the floor in the shape of a triangle pointing east. 

In the center of the room on the floor, there is a chalcedony inlay in the shape of a triangle. It appears to be cracked, having had something heavy dropped upon it.

B - Altar of Skulls

The door to this room is sealed (counts as stuck). Wrapping the room, 5 feet from the walls to the south, east, and west, but 10 feet from the entrance door to the north, is a depression, roughly eight inches deep: the walls of the depression being iron mesh. Along the south wall of the depression is a platform - 4 inches tall by eight feet wide by four feet deep - on which is an oversize-altar, engraved with a toothless smile. 

Nightmarish Prologue Jester; Gustave Dore

On the altar are five electrum skulls, each with a horn between the eyes and each worth 20 gold pieces, as well as three gold bars worth 100 gold pieces each arranged in a north-pointing triangle and an ivory pyramid with platinum edges (100 gold piece value) in the center of the bars.

If a human-sized creature steps on the platform, it will slide down - releasing a toxic gas into the room. Any character in the depression will be exposed to the gas and must save vs poison or die.

C - The Dumping Hall

Masses of clothing have been piled up along the northern half of this room, east and west sides. Some sacks full of legumes and fungus are piled in the south-west corner. On the north-east side, a Doppelganger (B33) is repining.

  •  If surprised by the party, he will first shift into the likeness of a small troll - though after, depending on reaction, it may shift into human form as it realizes the party is not the normal inhabitants of the area.
  •  If he is not surprised by the party, it may retreat to hide, attempting to take the party by surprise.

The doppelganger carries a satchel with a citrine (10gp), two emeralds (50 gp each), an expertly cut amethyst (100 gp), two black sapphires (500 gp each), and a single diamond (1,000 gp).

D - Shrine of the Struggle

The entry to this space is a fence of iron bars: the door being a heavy locked gate. Inside are two statues: to the south, an armored humanoid; to the north, a robed humanoid. There are dark plants growing along the walls. The features of the statues appear eroded. 

If the party enters the space, they feel a warm buzzing sensation. 

If the party remains in the room for 1d4 rounds or greater, lawful characters will begin to glow a light blue color; chaotic characters will start to glow a slight orange. Characters of neutral alignment must Save vs Spells or have their alignment shifted to either Law or Chaos, determined randomly, after which point they, too, will glow accordingly.

The glow lasts for 1d4 turns and is the equivalent luminosity of a candle.

E - The Old Horde

The door to this room is hidden. A sign is given that the mortar in the wall is more reflective to an observant party when a light is held near it. If open flame is pressed to the wall, the grout crumbles and the door can be pushed open.

Inside appears to be a treasure horde - long since looted. Several empty chests; several empty, smashed crates; but remaining are 5,000 silver, strewn about the floor; 600 gold pieces, in a lockbox under one of the crates, and a pouch with oval rubies in it worth 150 gold pieces each; on the floor near an Ochre Jelly (B40) which is dissolving a set of splintered boards.

F - The Grill Room

On the east and west walls are tapestries depicting flame-beings across rocky surfaces. The room is warm and the floor is dark tile - the grout of which is hot to the touch, if the party checks. On the north side of the room, 20 feet from the door, there is a step up - along the wall hang four electrum chains worth 200 gold pieces each. Suspended between the four chains are three arming swords with silvered edges; as Sword, but silvered, and of value 100 gold pieces each. 

The central strip of the room - 10 feet north to south by 30 feet (the breadth of the room) east to west - is a pressure trap. If a man-sized creature walks across, there is a chance the floor, in 10 foot section, will fall through: dropping anyone in the section - forcing them to save or fall 30 feet down into a magma flow.

G - Procession Hall

A procession of 6 Trolls (X41) is moving west in this room. They are wearing primitive robes, tied with straps of what appears to be braided animal sinew. In The Cupboard; Henry Justice Ford The one in the lead carries a somewhat rotted boar's head.

H - Tomb to the Priest of Trolls

On the north wall is a sarcophagus - stone - buried beneath a wash of rotting vegetation. Atop is a statue of a troll-like figure, but it's face is oddly angular and elongated and with ears that seem to curve downward. The sarcophagus is actually empty, but it would require moving the giant statue to discover the fact.

Atop the sarcophagus, before the statue, is a plate. If a "food" offering is placed on it, the corners of the room begin to emit a slight green glow. All Chaotic characters will regenerate 1 hp per round for 1d6 rounds; neutral characters will regenerate half that much. Additionally, any chaotic hirelings receive +1 to any morale or reaction related checks for the next 1d6 hours. If the offering is of the flesh of a sentient being, the door to Room I will open. 

The magic is not bound to the plate and does not work outside the room.

I - Horde of the Troll Priests

The room is ringed by a curtain of slow-flowing green liquid, emitting from holes in the ceiling before consolidating and dripping down into a trench - 6 inches wide - on the floor. In the center of the room is a pedestal on which an amulet rests. The amulet - if worn - causes a character's skin to become rubbery and alien (imposing a -1 to reaction rolls), but - if worn for one full day - will bestow limited regeneration on its wearer:

  •  After three rounds, the wearer will heal 1 hit point per round until they reach maximum.
  •  Severed limbs cannot be controlled, but will re-attach and become useful again if stitched back on and allowed 1d3 days to heal.
  •  The amulet will not regenerate acid or fire damage - though the natural healing of the wearer is not hindered from healing as they would without the amulet.

Encircling the pedestal are five sconces braziers - but in lieu of burning fuel, they have been filled with gold: 7,000 pieces total.

J - Barracks

This space is lined with skins, furs, and foliage apparently pilfered from above. Eight Trolls (X41) repine in the space - 1d3 of them will be asleep; the others will be joking in the Chaotic tongue or casting bones. 

The smell is impressive.



Public domain art lovingly pilfered from OldBookIllustrations.com and adapted for thematic use. Attributions in alt text.

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