Background
Fractures in the veils between the planes has allowed the essence of Pandemonium to leak into some of the chambers of this level. A former knight of the realm, Eward Selen, entered the dungeon to banish beasts terrorising his realm succumbed to the winds of Chaos howling through the dungeon and is now guarding a treasure horde as large as he is mad.
Special Conditions on this Level
On this level Lawful Characters are at disadvantage in all
Charisma based checks while Chaotic characters make such rolls at advantage. Doors are standard solid wooden doors [10hp] and open freely
unless otherwise specified.
Jammed doors require a DC12 strength check to force it open. Once opened they need a DC15 strength check to pull it closed.
Rooms and corridors are dark and unlit unless otherwise
specified.
Wandering Monsters
On each short or long rest or after the party have made a lot of noise (breaking a door or casting a fireball for example roll a d12 (short rest) or d6 (long rest). On a 1 roll 2d4 on the following table
|
2d4 |
Encounter |
Repeatable? |
|
2 |
1d2 Skeleton |
Y |
|
3 |
1d2 Spiders |
Y |
|
4-6 |
1d3 Giant Rats |
Y |
|
7 |
1d3 Cultists |
N |
|
8 |
Eward Selen "The Mad Knight" |
N |
Room Descriptions
01: Guard Room (January 01st 2023)
A hobgoblin is on guard here and will attack the first person to enter the room.
The
hobgoblin has 9gp, 7sp a vial of perfume (5gp), a key to the door in location #4 and some lacy undergarments all held in a
rat-fur pouch.
02: Weapon Training Room (January 02nd 2023)
Listening at either door the sounds of combat can be heard.
This long, narrow room has many images on the walls. Some carefully drawn others just daubs. Neat concentric circles mark the end walls and the plaster shows signs of piercing and battering. Cruder images are on the walls, vaguely human in shape they have lines indicating vulnerable parts of the anatomy. Wooden dummies show evidence of weapon practice.
Five human skeletons are practising with rusty swords, rotted leather armour and splintered wooden shields. When they sense your presence, they will turn to attack you instead, but will not leave the room.
m Skeleton (Human) 5: Armed with short swords, leather armour and wooden shields.
One of the skeletons has a round obsidian disc on a leather thong around his neck. The weapons, armour and shields are worthless.
u Obsidian Disc: 11gp
03: Rest Room (January 03rd 2023)
The door to this room is jammed and requires a DC12 strength check to force it open. Once opened it needs a DC15 strength check to pull it closed.
This large room has a pile of ash in the centre, the remains of a camp-fire if the smoke blackened patch on the ceiling is anything to go by. A pile of stinking rags in the corner appears to have been used as a bed at some time in the past.
The stiff to open door may make this a good room to rest up in.
04: The Kill Zone (January 04th 2023)
This length of corridor doubles back on itself before ending in a solid wooden door that has disks of bronze nailed onto it.
Perception checks at DC15 will allow PCs to notice a number of arrow slits in the walls.
If the PCs have attracted the attention of guards, then two cultists with crossbows will be in the corridor beyond the solid door.
The door is locked [DC15] and is more solid than normal [Strength DC20 or AC16/18hp damage] to open.
m Hobgoblin (Cultist) 2: Armed with a crossbow and short sword. Each has a pouch containing 1d4 gp & 2d4 sp along with a key ring with keys to the doors in room 4. Left eye has been plucked out leaving a sore that weeps pus. They will run rather than be captured or fight to the death but if held they are captured and questioned, they will reveal they are a “Servant of the Great Eye”, “I am not afraid to die, the Great Eye will shelter me”, “You will be captured, taken to our temple ad fed to the Great Eye”.
05: Livestock Pens (January 05th 2023)
You can smell this chamber long before you enter it. Half a dozen pigs, a dozen or so chickens some geese and a cow stand forlornly in pens that could do with a clean. They have mangers and food troughs and buckets of fairly clean water to drink but they still do not look well looked after.
At the far end are barrels of feed and bales of straw.
Players who spend more than 5 minutes in this chamber will hear a howling, screaming wind.All must make a DC15 Wisdom saving throw or be affected by a confusion spell for 2d4+1 rounds. If any PC rolls a natural 1 on the save then a strange portal opens up and a quasit pops through it.
mQuasit: The creature will attack the PCs for 1d4+1 rounds then the portal will open again and it will vanish through it.
06: Barracks (January 06th 2023)
A long, narrow corridor has numerous doors set into the south wall and one each on the east and west walls. All the doors are shut apart from one (a) that is a little ajar
The two rooms at the east and west end contain four wooden beds while the other doors on the south of the corridor open into smaller rooms with two beds. This area is obviously a barracks for troops from the identical furniture and spartan conditions. All are empty, and show signs of recent use.
That is apart from one room (a). Hiding on the ceiling is a Darkmantle which will drop on the first PC to enter the room.
mDarkmantle 1. Creature will attack first PC to enter the room
07: Stairs (January 07th 2023)
A wide flight of stairs, the treads of which are in pristine, almost unused, condition leads downwards. Carvings of ferocious mythical beasts decorate the ceiling.
Players who spend more than 5 minutes on these stairs will hear a howling, screaming wind.All must make a DC15 Wisdom saving throw or be affected by a confusion spell for 2d4+1 rounds.If any PC rolls a natural 1 on the save then a strange portal opens up and a quasit pops through it.
mQuasit: The creature will attack the PCs for 1d4+1 rounds then the portal will open again and it will vanish through it.
08: The Music Room (January 08th 2023)
This room is bare of any features aside from a stone plinth in the centre of the thirty-foot square room. Atop the plinth is a ornately carved wooden box. It is inlaid with bands of jet and ivory.
The doors in the west and south walls are jammed.
After 2 rounds a disembodied head will appear from the box and attack the nearest PC. PCs can make a new Performance / Wisdom save each round. Each round, make a Wandering Encounter check as if for a Short Rest if any PC is singing or dancing.
m Ghoulish Head: Will attack the nearest PC. Will return to the musical box when the box is shut or destroyed.
09: Barracks (January 09th 2023)
This very long corridor has a dozen doors set into the west wall. Each door has a brass nameplate on it but all are too tarnished and corroded to make out the names they once bore.
The two end rooms are furnished to a higher standard than the rest of the rooms on the corridor, with a larger bed a small desk and a wardrobe. The smaller rooms, just have a single bed, a collapsible desk and chair and a wooden chest.
These rooms are for the higher-ranking members of the cult while on duty on this level.
The rooms are empty and the ones at the southern end of the corridor appear to have been unused for some time.
The rooms marked (a) have a 50% chance of containing an orc cultist. If a cultist raises the alarm, check the remaining rooms marked (a) and (b) in the same way and if a cultist is present, they will aid the one that has been disturbed.
The room marked (b) has an ogre cultist present.
m Orc (Cultist): Armed with a scimitar. Each has a pouch containing 2d4 gp & 2d8 sp along with a keyring with keys to the doors in room 4. Left eye has been plucked out. They will run rather than be captured or fight to the death but if held they are captured and questioned, they will reveal they are a “Servant of the Great Eye”, “I am not afraid to die, the Great Eye will shelter me”, “You will be captured, taken to our temple ad fed to the Great Eye”.
m Ogre (Cultist) 2: Armed with a two-handed sword this cultist has had his left eye plucked out and replaced with a faceted garnet worth 50gp. He has a skeleton key that will open all locked doors on this level. Like the other cultists he will fight to the death but if captured will not answer any questions. Just gloat, “You are too late, soon the Great Eye will take over your town and all the riches will be ours!”
The chests in the rooms contain little of interest beyond a few copper pieces (1d12 in each chest). The northernmost (a) room has a chest containing a few extras; a club, 1 small topaz, 10 sp wrapped in a piece of leather, a small wooden figurine of the orc god, Gruumsh.
u Chests: 1d12cp (per chest); 1 small Topaz (10sp), wooden figurine of Gruumsh.
The ogre’s desk in room (b) has a number of scrolls in orcish detailing disciplinary records, duty rotas and the like.
10: The Elevator Room (January 10th 2023)
In the North West corner of this thirty-foot square room stands a statue of a hobgoblin, a tower shield and spear resting against its legs. Its right arm is outstretched with the hand palm upwards and slightly cupped. In the left hand it holds a length of chain, each of the dozen links contains a gem, all bar the top one is dull, the top one glows a pale orange.
The floor is made of two distinct materials. Near the east and south walls the floor is the same as elsewhere in the dungeon, stone flagstones. The remaining twenty-foot square area is paved wooden planks and sits just slightly below the level of the flagstones.
There are two doors, one in the west wall and one in the south.
This is a magical elevator that moves seemingly instantly between levels. It has some form of magical sense that enables it to be present whenever one of the doors to the chamber on each of the twelve levels opens. Some rumours suggest that there are, in fact, multiple rooms all identical in all details so that if the doors on different floors are opened at the same time the room will be in both places simultaneously. No one has tested this theory.
A Detect Magic spell will indicate that the whole room as a strong Conjuration aura, concentrated around the statue.
The shield and spear are not part of the statue and can be removed. They are both magical +1 items.
u Offerings: +1 Shield, +1 Spear.
To activate the elevator the PCs will need to place something in the outstretched palm of the statue.
- 1 cp illuminates the top gem
- 1 sp illuminates the 1st to 2nd gems
- 1 gp the 1st to 3rd
- 1 pp the 1st to 4th
- 1 10gp gemstone 1st to 5th
- 1 50gp gemstone 1st to 6th
- 1 100gp gemstone 1st to 7th
- 1 500gp gemstone 1st to 8th
- 1 1000gp gemstone 1st to 9th
- 1 5000gp gemstone 1st to 10th
- 1 rare magic item 1st to 11th
- 1 eye per person on the platform 1st to 12th
The item is consumed by the statue when the gem is pressed. It is rumoured that the items are transported to a hidden room somewhere in the dungeon.
The minimum offering on each level of the dungeon is the value of that floor, so for example on the fourth floor nothing will happen unless at least 1pp is deposited. The item is consumed by the statue when the gem is pressed. Not all doors will work on each floor.
11: Empty Room (January 11th 2023)
This large room is apparently empty. There are wooden doors in the north, south and east rooms. There is a pit trap before the door in the east wall held open by an iron spike. A rope hangs from the spike into the pit.
If PCs explore the pit, they find it is 20’ deep. At the
bottom of the pit rubble has been arranged in the semblance of an giant eye.
12: Food Store (January 12th 2023)
This room is about a quarter full of food supplies. Smoked meats and sausages hang from hooks on the ceiling, wheels of waxed cheeses lie on shelves alongside a few bottles of spirits. A couple of barrels of beer are under the shelves with a couple of sacks of grain.
The foodstuffs show maker’s marks from the town of New Sutaberg and nearby settlements. Have the goods been stolen or is someone trading with the cultists?
Hiding amongst the sacks and barrels are a quartet of giant centipedes. They will attack if the stores are disturbed.
m Giant Centipede (4): Hiding amongst the stores are 4 centipedes. They will attack if the stores are disturbed.
13: Mess Hall (January 13th 2023)
A number of tables, rectangular, round and hexagonal along with benches, stools and chairs are set up in a haphazard arrangement. Some are clean others have stacks of pewter plates and mugs on them. There are doors in the west, east and south walls.
Two cultists are here in their burgundy robes, hoods thrown back eating together at one of the tables. One is a goblin, the other a hobgoblin. In each case they are missing their left eyes.
m Hobgoblin (Cultist) & Goblin (Cultist). The hobgoblin is armed with a longsword and the goblin with short sword.
u Hobgoblin: 11 sp, a flask of water, a herbal poultice, scraps of leather in a belt pouch.
Goblin 22 cp, a blood sausage, a document of identification, scraps of leather in a belt pouch.
If combat starts then a howling wind starts to blow through the room. The wind contains small stones that pepper everyone in the room for 1d4 rounds. The wind causes 1d4 points of damage a round, a Dexterity save at DC15 halves the damage.
14: Mess Kitchen (January 14th 2023)
This room is full of the fumes and smells of cooking meat. Scored and stained tables, a smoking brazier and hanging from the ceiling various cleavers and pans. A bubbling cauldron hangs over the brazier. There are doors in the west and south walls.
Bustling about the place in a stained apron is an obese ogre. He squints his eyes at anyone that enters and waves them away with a vicious, heavy cleaver, “I’m busy. Food comes when it comes.” He snarls angrily.
m Ogre Chef: The ogre, Krinagar of the Howling Dogs horde, will not attack unless he is attacked, he is not a cultist, in fact he was captured by the cultists and forced to cook.
After a while he found he was good at it and enjoyed the job but if offered the chance will leave. He knows little other than that there are more cultists on the lower levels, more powerful ones. He has seen some with strange tentacles on their faces. Everyone seems to be in thrall to something called the Great Eye.
If the room is searched, there is a small box at the back of a drawer in one of the benches.
u Ogres Box: 7 gp, a list of taverns and inns in New Sutaberg annotated with notes suggesting the ogre was thinking of looking for a job in the town, an ivory game piece in the form of a small dog, pheasant feathers.
15: Kitchen Stores (January 15th 2023)
Smoked hams hang from the ceiling, along with what looks to be dried fish and dried bats. Barrels of dried beans and beer are stacked against the far wall. The store is about half full.
16: Chamber of the Glass Dome (January 16th 2023)
This square chamber is dominated by a 20’ diameter, 10’ high hemisphere of blue-green glass that appears to have thrust itself through the stone flags of the floor like a glass mushroom. The glass is transparent but distorts anything seen through it. It glows with a pale light illuminating the room faintly. Benches have been placed around the dome and three statues stand in the northeast, southeast and southwest corners. They depict hooded figures with heads bowed as if in prayer, no details can be seen under the hoods. The floor is uneven and the flags shattered around the glass dome.
The glass is impervious to all physical and magical damage
short of a wish.
Special Conditions
Roll 2d6 each time the PCs enter the chamber to indicate which level the Great eye is on at this time.
17: Stables & Farrier (17th January 2023)
This room has a pair of double doors that open flat against the wall when opened. Inside is a number of stalls each with an iron manger, all are empty. There is a forge set against the south wall, the fire long gone out but all the tools of a farrier’s trade arranged neatly on the wall and a heavy anvil, flecked with rust stands ready. A pile of iron, bars, sheets and rods stands ready for use.
18: Empty Chamber (18th January 2023)
The door to this chamber is lying in parts on the floor of the chamber. The nails, hinges and other door furniture is missing. Piles of rotten meat lie amongst curved wooden slats.
This is what happens when a rust monster gets out. The iron hoops of the barrels have been consumed, along with the metal holding the door together. Where it is now is anyone’s guess. A DC12 Arcana check will confirm that this the cause.
19: Collapsed Chamber (19th January 2023)
There is an all-pervading smell of damp earth and rot in this chamber that is two thirds full of earth and rock that has spilled from the ceiling and collapsed walls. A spider’s web of cracks runs across the rest of the bulging ceiling and crevasses criss-cross the uneven floor. Bleached bones and rotting timbers protrude from the rock and earth that fills the northern half of the chamber.
Special Conditions
If PCs start to pull at the bones, or dig in the pile then a howling wind starts to blow through the room. The wind contains small stones that pepper everyone in the room for 1d4 rounds. The wind causes 1d4 points of damage a round, a Dexterity save at DC15 halves the damage.
20: Guard Room (20th January 2023)
The door to this room has a bell that rings loudly when opened.
This room has three gates constructed of strong iron bars, one in each of the north, south and east walls. A stool on uneven legs is the only furnishing in the room.
A hobgoblin cultist guard stands duty in this room.
m Hobgoblin (Cultist): Armed with a crossbow and short sword. He has a pouch containing a few unusual items along with a keyring with keys to the cell doors (21a-c) and the manacles. Left eye has been plucked out leaving a sore that weeps pus. He will fight to the death but if held and questioned, he will reveal that he is a “Servant of the Great Eye”, “I am not afraid to die, the Great Eye will shelter me”, “You will be captured, taken to our temple ad fed to the Great Eye”. He doesn’t know who the prisoners are just been told to keep an eye on them.
If the PCs search the guard’s pouch, they find the following.
u Guard’s Pouch: A small book which has had many of its pages torn out and folded into various animal shapes. A tiny portrait of a handsome man, probably prised from a locket. A few coins 1gp, 5sp and 9cp.
21: The Cells - Oubliette (21st January 2023)
This cell is bare and devoid of interest apart from a heavy wood and iron trapdoor set into the floor. It has a large black iron ring with which it can be opened.
The hatch is heavy and stiff, requiring a DC12 strength check to open. If it is opened a foul stench wells up from the pit below, requiring all within the room to make a DC12 Constitution check or be Poisoned for 1d4 rounds.
Once the hatch is opened 3 Shadows flow out of the pit and attack, 1 per round.
m Shadows (3): The shadows will flow out of the pit unless the hatch is slammed shut. They resemble humans but with hideous tortured features comprised of black shadows.
If the PCs enter the pit they find it is 30’ deep and shaped like a bottle, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. The floor is covered with bones, rotten clothes and other debris that is too decayed to identify. The stench is horrendous and any PC that enters the pit must make a DC12 Constitution check or fall unconscious.
22: The Cells - Small Cell (22nd January 2023)
This cell has a crude bed, with rough blankets and a bucket. On the bed sits, head in hands a young woman. Her once fine dress is filthy and torn, her hair is in ragged tangles and her ears are bloody from where earrings have been roughly torn.
The woman is the daughter of one of the wealthy merchants in New Sutaberg,
23: The Cells -Large Cell (23rd January 2023)
This large cell has chains and manacles attached to the back and side walls, and to metal rods that run the length of the room. There are currently six occupants, all appear to be dead, their eyes plucked out and throats cut. From their garb they appear to be caravan guards attached to one of the merchant houses of New Sutaberg.
A search of the bodies reveals that they have been dead for several days, probably soon after the last caravan went missing. They have nothing of value on them.
24: The Mad Knights Suite - The Library (24th January 2023)
Two oak bookshelves occupy the east and west walls of this large room. A pair of round tables give the opportunity to sit and read one of the many books and scrolls housed in the shelves. There are doors in the south and west walls.
There are books and scrolls on any number of subjects. Most are worth no more than a gold piece or two but some may be of interest to sages or collectors and so carry a little more value.
25: The Mad Knight’s Suite - Guard Room (25th January 2023)
A table and two chairs fill this sparse, bare room. There are doors in the west, east and north walls.
Two human cultists are always stationed here and will summon help from the barracks if they think they are outnumbered. The guards will not ask questions – they know who are welcome (cultists and invited guests) and who are not! They will attack on sight.
m Cultists (Human) 2: Armed with heavy war-hammers and with leather armour under their robes these one-eyed fighters will fight cautiously looking for an opportunity to call for help. They will not willingly let the PCs past. Each has a pouch with a handful of coins (2d4 cp, sp & gp) and a few wooden gaming tokens.
26: The Mad Knight’s Suite – Bedroom (26th January 2023)
This ornately furnished room has far more velvet and gold braid than is strictly tasteful. The bed curtains are heavy tapestries depicting woodland scenes with fairies and satyrs chasing each other through the trees. There are wooden doors in the north and east walls.
Special Conditions
A howling wind blows through the room around making the images on the curtains seem to shift and move. PCs need to make a Wisdom save at DC17 or be Frightened. Frightened characters will leave the room through the nearest door and will not return to this room until the condition is removed.
27: The Mad Knight’s Suite – Private Bathroom (27th January 2023)
A large copper tub, polished to a reflective gleam, stands in the centre of this chamber which is tiled with slabs of expensive green marble. The walls are painted as if to resemble a forest glade.
28: The Mad Knight’s Suite – Audience Chamber (28th January 2023)
A low dais stands at the north end of this room on which sits a plain wooden chair. Uncomfortable benches, enough to seat about twenty petitioners are arranged in front of it. There are doors in the east, west and south walls. Hanging on the wall behind the chair is an elaborately woven tapestry depicting a knight in full armour astride a galloping white stallion.
Painted on the floor before the chair is the Arms of Chaos, the eight arrowed star.
There is a secret door in the north wall, hidden behind the tapestry, leading to the Treasure Vault. The door is locked (key is held by the Mad Knight) and trapped with an arrow trap.
t Arrow Trap: DC 10 to find, DC 15 to disable; +5 to hit against one target, 1d10 piercing damage.
30: The Mad Knight’s Chamber – Treasure Vault (January 30th 2023)
This chamber is ablaze with light from a number of burning torches in sconces. The light bounces and is reflected from piles of copper, silver and gold coins. A small chest stands open containing a variety of art objects. Standing before them is a large man in a green velvet cape, beneath which polished mail can be seen. In his hands he holds a fine two-handed sword. He us the figure that you have seen portrayed in various forms in other rooms. He struggles to shout above the howling wind that fills the chamber. “It is mine, mine alone! Throw off your chains of reason and your prison will disappear. Join me and we will rule this realm together. Just let the winds fill the sails of your minds!”
m The Mad Knight (1): Male Human Fighter 4; Medium humanoid, chaotic neutral; Armour Class 16 (chain mail) HP 36 (4d10+8); Speed 30 ft. STR 18 (+4), DEX 14 (+2), CON 14 (+2), INT 11 (+0), WIS 10 (+0), CHA 14 (+2); Saving Throws Str +6, Con +4; Skills Athletics +6, History +2, Intimidation +4, Persuasion +4; Senses passive Perception 10; Languages Common, Elvish, Goblin;
Actions: Great-sword. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2d6+4 slashing damage.
He is clearly mad, driven to this by the chaotic winds to his present state. He will fight any who try to take his treasures or attack him. If he is subdued his madness will return when he returns consciousness unless a Remove Curse spell is cast upon him. The treasure has been stolen from passing caravans and previous adventures.
Special Conditions
The howling winds will have the same effect as a Confusion spell – unless they make a Wisdom save at DC15. This condition lasts for 2d4+1 rounds.
31: The Games Room (January 31st 2023)
This square room has a round table with four chairs around it. The table is covered in fine green baize, worn smooth in places. Against one wall is a bookshelf. On it, instead of books, are several boxes and jars. One jar is full of dice.
The boxes contain various game playing items. A chess set made from ivory and ebony with various parts gilded and inlaid with semi-precious stones. Decks of cards, fine quality, each of the knights have been painted as a semblance of the same person, the Mad Knight.
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