About the Misted Dome

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

Suitable for 4th to 5th level.

•		A little keyhole icon means the door is locked.
•		A little "S" through the door means the door is secret.
•		The other icon - which is supposed to look like a muscly arm - indicates the door is stuck and must be forced open.

Z - Dome and Gauntlet

Z1 - Entry

A stairwell leads out of (or into) the dungeon in the central part of this space. In the center of the room, each facing inwards, are four statues of chimeric creatures, their faces - an alligator, a lion, an eagle, and a skull with a hat - contorted into grotesques. 

Any character which walks between the four will be targeted by four beams of light originating from the grotesques mouths and asked a question (answers in parentheses) by a disembodied voice originating from one of the four statues, determined randomly:

1. My many legs reach to the wet,
   while limbs are dry and free;
   I do not walk, but instead wait
   for earth will come to me.
   (mangroves, or other knob-kneed coastal trees)
   
   
2. Rolling and writing, this ocean is dry:
   waves without fish where no swimmer can drown.
   Gold! Gold unceasing - but no need for a pale
   nor a pick nor to delve in the ground.
   (prairie grass)
   
   
3. A lake, am I, but inlaid in no earth:
   and to drink, I deign to un-dam.
   My girth spans horizons, my height many miles,
   yet lighter - freer - than air, I am.
   (clouds)
   
   
4. My oceans, my seas: no water within;
   my beaches, my deserts: no sand.
   My cities, no people; my roads, no wheels:
   no rocks nor soil in my land.
   (a map)
   

If the character answers correctly, they will be illuminated - developing a subtle glow for the next 1+1d4 hours. While in Z2 under the influence of this aura, 45 feet is illuminated clearly, the glow cutting through the mist: while in any other space, the glow is almost imperceptible: but comes off as an unnatural pseudo-violet lapped by yellow when viewed with infravision.

Characters that answer incorrectly are blinded for 1+1d4 turns.

Z2 - The Under-Marsh

The floor rapidly falls away into wet depths - six to eight feet deep in stagnant, dark water. A pallid, starchy blade plants rise from the water - obscuring it but from a character expressly seeking - and slowly wave as the heat of the party's bodies and light sources disturb the cool. Fog fills the chamber - limiting visibility to 15 feet. Rising above the grass - three feet from water's surface and almost flush with the tips of the pond grass - is a narrow wooden path. It is moist, spongy to the touch and supported by thick pylons at roughly ten foot spans.

At points indicated by the T on the map, the wood is rotted through: a character or characters moving over that spot has a chance of falling through.

Wandering monsters encountered in this space should be limited to fliers and swimmers: fliers encounter as normal, swimmers may follow the party surreptitiously through the grass or under the boardwalk. 

A - North-West Corridor

A1 - Rest Station

Furniture - benches and some cushions - have been repurposed and dragged into this room by 5 adventurers, detailed in the appendix, who are resting here after having explored section A2: having found it via the secret door to the north-west. The door is activated by a mechanism behind a yellow hanging, lined with orange, on the north-west wall. The south-west and north-east walls are likewise adorned by hangings.

A2 - Forgotten Kings

Against the east and west walls, two thrones sit facing each other. The rest of the room has been ransacked: with antique equipment and broken pottery littering the room.

A3 - Juxtaposition Room

Inlaid in the floor is a mosaic in octagonal pattern to mimic the shape of the room. In the center, to the west, can be seen the profile of a face; to the east, the profile of a reptile's head.

The eyes of each are touchplates. If the eyes of the reptile have pressure applied to them, the plate in the eyes of the face will loosen: allowing a character to remove it. Beneath the face's eye-plate can be found a pull-chain which opens the secret door to the North.

A4 - Hammer Temple

In the center of the north-east room is a huge anvil sitting on a concrete slab, waist height. It is flanked on either side in the room's wings with chains dangling from the ceiling like wind chimes. The walls are crossed by wrought iron: and the cardinal facing walls (North, South, etc.) are curtained by a sheet of chainmail rings. The locked door marked as Secret is hidden behind the mail curtain.

A5 - Fisherman Lookout

An old corpse - dwarfish - in antique scale mail sits with fishing equipment against the north-east corner in this room. On the dwarf's person is a handful of emeralds worth 600 gp. In the north-west corner sits a chest, locked, in which can be found 7,000 silver pieces.

B - North-East Corridor

B1 - Morbid Decor

Hanging from the ceiling are five sets of manacles - high enough that one hung from them would, if of average height, be forced onto their toes. One of them has a skeleton hanging from it - the bones showing some sign of damage; one leg having also fallen to the ground. If the party interacts with it, it will fall apart into a heap.

B2 - Rebuffed Vanity

Two statues - one, a woodsman by the look of it; the other, a falcon - stand opposed by two mirrors in this room: the statues to the north and south flanks of the secret door on the east wall, the mirrors on the west wall. If the view of the falcon is obscured - the mirror covered, the statue blindfolded, etc. - the secret door in the west wall of B3 will open; if the view of the woodsman is obscured, the secret door in the east wall will open.

B3 - Spider Lair

Rocky detritus has piled up in several places on the floor. Three rhagodessa (X38) have made a lair of the room: 1d4 of them will, when the party enters, have climbed up the walls, hidden from view when still outside the door. Thus, if a 1 is rolled, two of the rhagodessa will be visible; where if a 3 or 4 is rolled, all three will be on the walls or ceiling.

The secret door in the west wall can be detected by a skillful seeker, but cannot be opened except via B2.

B4 - Jewel Thief's Wage

Four Giant Weasels (X42) are feeding on a corpse - now unrecognizable - wearing leather. The corpse is carrying a pouch filled as follows:

• 1 small agate (10gp)
  
• 1 oblong pearl (50gp)
  
• 2 azure cut sapphires (500gp)
  

...and is wearing a highly decorated (but apparently functional) helmet. The helmet is, in secret, a Helmet of Alignment Changing (B50).

B5 - Bear Laboratory

Ruins of an alchemical or arcane laboratory lie smashed. Four angry, hungry Owlbear (B40) are actively rummaging for an egress from the space.

C - South-East Corridor

C1 - Map Hologram

The hall to this space is adorned by a blue pattern on the floor - an observant character may note that, as the party moves along it, the pattern glows faintly at their presence. At the termination of the hall, there is an inlaid circle of the same color. If the party enters the circle, it will spring to life around them, launching a hemispheric hologram into the air. At first, it appears to be a pattern - perhaps decorative - but if a character studies it: 1+1d4 rounds, less the character's Intelligence modifier - they will note instead that it is a map of room Z2.

C2 - Knight's Chamber

Against the west wall is a statue of a man in armor. On the floor, a decorative mosaic - angular in its pattern. On the north corner, several empty or broken amphora rest. The room is otherwise empty.

C3 - Knave's Chamber

Against the north wall is the statue of a dwarf in armor. On the floor, a decorative mosaic - cubic in its pattern. Flanking the stature are two halberds and two shields stuck into holes in the floor. The weaponry is mundane.

C4 - Wraith Room

Along the north-east and south-west walls, a row of stone cabinets - doors missing, three feet in height and 18 inches deep - run the length of the room. Blood - old blood - is spattered on the north side. Two Wraiths (X42) are hovering around the stain.

The secret door is a sliding one, arched to a point. There is a lever hidden in the stone cabinet directly beside it.

C5 - Forgotten Fane

Soot on the floor indicates a carpet that has been since removed once stood there. Some shreds of carpet - and the ruins of wooden furniture, are scattered about the main space. There is a gaping hole in the ceiling - which leads to blackness. Curled up in the space are three Caecilia (X28). A skeleton is crushed up against the south-east corner of the rear space: on its person is 1,000 gold pieces and a diamond cut into the figure of a woman worth a further 1,000 gold pieces.

C6 - West Cell

Three men are imprisoned behind a set of bars with no visible door. The men are each pudgy - but well muscled: irritable and shifty, but also quick to beg for help - claiming to have been imprisoned by an armored pair of adventurers. In secret, they are Wereboars (B38) - and were imprisoned to protect others from their curse.

C7 - East Cell

A stone box protrudes from the wall on the northern side of the cell. It is empty, save for a lone Grey Ooze (B36) which is hiding about it.

C8 - Prison Hall

The floor is cold stone. To the south, an oblong shape is separated from the main hall by bars - spaced to prevent egress, but not so far apart as to prevent reaching. Two levers are embedded in the center; five feet (so, beyond arm's reach for a human) from the bars. The levers correspond to the two rooms - C6 and C7: pulling the lever closer to C6 will open the way for C6; the lever closer to C7, for C7.

D - South-East Corridor

D1 - Hanging Hall

An antique but decayed rug leads into this space, clinging to the floor in the hall leading in. On the walls to the north and west hang faded tapestries. A spectral troupe of guards stands near the secret door - which is hidden behind a tapestry portraying a female figure. As the party enters, they will look to them and disappear.

D2 - Study

A mildewed carpet adorns the floor. To the west, a bookshelf - empty and damp. To the south-east, a square spot on the rug - colors slightly more vibrant. A character rolling back the carpet in the north side will find a hidden trapdoor in the north-east corner. 

 

Appendix - Adventuring Party

Vonimir Level 8 Dwarf AC: 3 (plate mail + shield) HP: 48 Attacks: 1 short sword (1d6) Movement: 60' (20') STR 9 INT 10 WIS 9 DEX 6 CON 13 CHA 10 Items: Spell scroll (purify food and water, silence 15’ radius, hold person, speak with animals, sticks to snakes), heirloom watch with crystal facing (500gp) Asratum Level 4 Halfling (Female) AC: 3 (plate mail) HP: 19 Attacks: 1 polearm (1d10) Movement: 60' (20') STR 11 INT 9 WIS 8 DEX 11 CON 13 CHA 10 Items: Boots of Levitation, 3 black opals (200gp each) Ovdotia Level 7 Dwarf (Female) AC: 6 (chainmail) HP: 31 Attacks: 1 polearm (1d10) Movement: 60' (20') STR 14 INT 11 WIS 11 DEX 8 CON 9 CHA 10 Items: Crystal ball with Clairaudience, Potion of Fire Resistance, Spell scroll (detect magic (Magic-User), levitate, clairvoyance, wall of stone, haste), diamond diadem (100gp), 8 platinum pieces

Leof Level 6 Thief AC: 7 (leather armour) HP: 21 Attacks: 1 sling (1d4+1) or 1 dagger (1d4) Movement: 90' (30') STR 8 INT 11 WIS 10 DEX 9 CON 14 CHA 4 Items: Ring of Spell Turning, Sling +1, 9 platinum pieces Svetopolk Level 9 Dwarf AC: 2 (plate mail + shield) HP: 50 Attacks: 1 sword (1d8+1) Movement: 60' (20') STR 15 INT 8 WIS 9 DEX 10 CON 15 CHA 14 Items: Potion of Clairvoyance, Ring of Fire Resistance, Sword +1 (+3 vs Undead), 90 gold pieces

Public domain and open license artwork retrieved from the National Gallery of Art and Pixabay, respectively, and adapted for thematic use. Attributions in alt text.