Week Seven

Today I have for you Week 7 of my personal Dungeon 23 project. This week we delve into lair of a band of goblins and their king. There are geysers, glowing gems, and more rivers of lava! Will you decide to ally with the goblins and work to destroy the cult that makes this level their home, or will you choose to take what you want with sword and spell? Read on to find out what else awaits!

-OS

Week Seven: Lair of the Goblin King

2/12: The Pillared Hall

This room is 60’ wide by 50’ long with 45’ tall ceilings supported by large carved stone pillars. Upon a dais in the middle of the room can be seen a large stone-wrought throne painted all over with eyes. The floor on the northern half of the room is covered in the sour-smelling bedding of roughly a dozen Goblin Bodyguards (2 HD). The Goblin King Kruksis The Snarler (3 HD) sits atop the throne. From here he commands his horde.

·       South: The doorway on this wall connects to a hallway that leads to room 1/29.

·       East: There are two wooden doors on this wall. The northern door leads to room 2/16 and the southern door leads to room 2/13. Both doors are locked. A skeleton key can be found around King Kruksis’s neck.

·       The Walls: All four walls have been painted to display a wrap-around mural of the Akrakogi homeland featuring rolling hills, cypris and olive groves, and the massive bulk of the holy mountain Shinkar. The bottom of the mural has been soiled and hacked away at by generations of Goblin youths.

·       Kruksis The Snarler: The scarred, beady-eyed Goblin King called Kruksis is as wise and intelligent a ruler as goblins can have. Kruksis hates the Melted Cultists and their leader and desires to shut their machine down so that he can clean out this level of the dungeon for his people. Kruksis has no love for adventurers, but hates the cultists more and will try to point PCs in the direction of the cultists if he can. He knows they lair on the western end of the dungeon, in the rooms below the apparatus. He also knows that they have some way of getting up to the balcony level, though he hasn’t found out where yet. Kruksis and his warriors all wear a small sliver of enchanted ruby (20 gp) that shields them from the effects of the Necromantic Radiator (room 2/3). However, the amulets have a painful cost: the wearer’s HP is reduced by 2 as long as they wear it.

 2/13: Spider Pens

This finished stone room is 25’ wide by 45’ long with 12’ high ceilings. Crude wooden pens have been built against the eastern and western walls here. The pens contain the Giant Wolf Spiders that the goblins use as mounts. The smell of rotting kobold corpses used for fodder is very strong. Odd-shaped saddles with Goblin-sized seats are piled up in the northeast corner.

·       West: The iron-bounded wooden door in the northwest corner of the room is locked. It leads back to room 2/12. The metal door in the southwest corridor is barred from this side.

·       East: The door in the southeastern corner is also barred from this side. Beyond it, a hallway leads to room 2/14.

·       Wolf Spider, Giant: AC 7 [12], HD 2* (9hp), Att 1 x bite (1d8 + poison),

THAC0 18 [+1], MV 120’ (40’),

SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (1),

ML 8, AL Neutral, XP 25, NA 1d4 (1d4), TT U

-Cling: Can walk on walls and ceilings.

-Poison: Causes death in 1d6 turns (save vs Poison with a +2 bonus).

2/14: The Geyser Room

This 30’ by 35’ stone-cut room has been overtaken by a natural hot spring that has accreted into two geysers in the corner of the room that periodically shoot jets of boiling water around the cave.

·       The Geysers: A natural reservoir deep underground has been periodically boiling up into this chamber, creating two rounded flowstone geysers. Geyser A erupts every 1d10 minutes, and geyser B erupts 1d4 turns. Anybody within ten feet of the geysers when they erupt takes 1d8 damage from scalding hot water.

·       Teleporter Destination: Anyone who pulls on the secret teleporting book in room 2/11 is teleported three inches off the ground in the middle of this room.

·       In the Geysers: If they geysers are searched, 1d10 platinum coins and a twisted silver wire bracelet with a faceted carnelian (75 gp) can be found inside the lip of geyser B.  

2/15: The Lava Caves

This natural cavern stretches almost 60’ wide with 20’ tall ceilings covered in irregular stalactites. A pillar of natural stone takes up the middle of the room, and at the southern end of the cave a stairway leads to a stone dock on the edge of a river of magma. A stone boat with enough room for five is moored to the dock with a thick rope. A rusted steel railing runs above the dock. The whole room is bathed in dim red light from the magma, and the heat is uncomfortable here. 1d6 +1 Melted Cultists have come ashore and are enacting a ritual to weaken the magics of the gem in room 2/17.

·       North: A 5’ wide hallway has been carved into the rock; a thick metal door blocks its way. The door is barred on the other side.

·       Melted Cultists: AC 8 [11], HD 1 (5hp), Att 1 x sacrificial dagger (1d4), or special attack,

THAC0 19 [0], MV 50’ (25’),

SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S15 (1),

ML 8, AL Chaotic, XP 15, NA 1d6 (2d6), TT R

-Special Attack: Each Cultist has a randomly assigned mutation (roll1d4). 1) Spit acid in a straight line 10’ long (1d6). 2) Horrible, melted calluses cover their body (+2 to AC). 3) Extra fingers and a third arm allow the cultist to grapple a foe on a successful attack. 4) A wretched smell (unable to cast or concentrate on spells within 10’ of this Cultist).

-The Cultists appear melted and warped by some unknown magics. On closer inspection, the cultist’s skin is almost reptilian in its appearance.  Each carries a carved jade amulet in the shape of a blazing goat’s eye and wields a sacrificial copper dagger.

-The ritual takes 1d6 rounds to complete by at least one uninterrupted cultist. If they are not stopped by the end of the last round, the gem in room 2/17 shatters and falls to the ground, thus extinguishing its light and disenchanting any amulets made from it.

•           The Magma: The magma dimly lights up the cave. The southern end of the chamber is open to the lava tube that flows through the mountain and past the dock. Anyone spending more than a minute in the boat or on the dock must succeed at a Death Save or suffer a -2 penalty to all AC and Attack Rolls due to heat exhaustion. This will last 1d3 hours or until the PC has done nothing but rest and drink water for three turns. Anyone falling into the magma takes 3d6 damage immediately and 3d6 damage for every round  after that they remain. 

·       The Boat: Made of dark basalt and etched all over with arcane runes. The magical incantations allow the boat to float on the magma with ease. There is a 20’ long metal oar that is resting in a crook in the boat’s side used for steering the boat through the magma. A crumpled black robe is stuffed in the prow of the boat, along with five thick candles.

2/16: The Warren

This is a crudely carved room, 40’ wide by 25’. The entire room is filled with poorly-made bunks. This room is the main living space for the Goblin women and children. There are roughly 2d20 women and adolescents and 2d10 younger children and babies here. The smell of sweat and vomit permeates the entire room.

·       North: A loose stone at the bottom of the wall hides a pushbutton that will reveal a secret door which leads to room 2/21.

·       South: The heavy metal door on this wall has been barred with a thick metal rod.

·       East: There is a wooden door in the northern corner of this wall that opens to a corridor leading to room 2/18.

·       West: The metal door in this wall has a built-in mechanical lock. Kruksis has the only key.

2/17: The Garden

This is a natural cavern, roughly 75’ long by 50’ wide with many convolutions. The eastern side of the chamber is open to the magma river as it flows past. There is a dock on that side of the room with a metal railing overlooking it. Towards the eastern side of the cave, a head-sized ruby floats in the air. The ruby casts scintillating rays of crimson light across the cavern. Anyone who basks in the light for up to two turns will be immune from the necrotic magic that permeates this level for one day. A blanket of leafy plants is growing along the floor and up the walls of the cavern. There are onions, turnips, rutabagas, and cabbage in well-kept rows.  

·       The Ruby: This enchanted uncut ruby is roughly the size of a human head (1,500 gp). There are more than 20 small gouges cut into the surface on the bottom of the gem. The ruby floats 10’ above the ground and will bob about like a balloon when handled. The Goblins worship this stone as their god. They found it here over fifty years ago and have used its light to grow crops underground to survive. With the coming of the Cultists in the last year, they found that basking in its rays keeps the effects from the Necromantic Radiator at bay too. The ruby is not a permanent solution to their problems, however, as they can’t travel more than a day’s journey away from the gem without losing its blessing. The amulets that Kruksis and his Bodyguards wear have been made from pieces of this gem by the tribe’s shaman Grugina. Creating each amulet incrementally diminishes the ruby’s power and will eventually drain the stone of its ability to sustain the Goblins entirely.

2/18: The Dung Heap

This large room is a 40’ wide and 35’ long rectangle with crudely cut  walls and ceilings. The room is full of heaps of Goblin dung. This appears to be where the Goblins store their dung before they use it in the gardens. The smell is overpoweringly horrendous. Among the piles of stinking dung, the tribe’s shaman Grugina makes her home.

·       East: A hallway in the northern corner leads back to room 2/16.

·       South: In the middle of the southern wall there is a rusted metal door with hinges at the top that leads to room 2/17.

·       The Stash: Under the southeastern dung pile can be found a small wooden chest carved to look like a goblin’s head. Inside are 2,000 silver coins and a small velvet bag with two thumb-sized amethysts worth 500 gp each.

·       Grugina the Shaman: AC 6 [13], HD 3-1 (9hp), Att 1 x spear (1d6),

THAC0 19 [0], MV 90’ (30’),

SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (3),

ML 9, AL Chaotic, XP 35, NA 0 (1), TT n/a

-Spellcasting: Once a day, Grugina can cast Cause Light Wounds, Protection From Evil, and Hold Person.

- Grugina worships the stone in room 2/17 and has figured out how to use small slivers of it to manufacture the magic amulets the tribe uses for protection. She desires to learn how to control the Necrotic Radiator in room 2/3 so she can use it to amplify the ruby and further empower her tribe. Grugina is aware of the archive in room 2/11 and the secret teleporting book there. Grugina doesn’t approve of the way Kruksis treats the weaker members of the tribe and wishes to overthrow him, though she keeps her desire for this hidden.