March Week Two

 Whether bargaining with a demon or counting your piles of treasure, this week's dungeon is filled to the brim with old-school fun. Join me as I catalogue the wonders of the wizard Oxyus and his triumphant treasures. Read on to find out what more the second level of the Crucible has in store for the curious and the bold!  

Week Two:

3/6: Prison of the Demon

This immense chamber is 60’ long by 55’ wide. Its 80’ tall ceiling is held up by six massive pillars. The center of the room is dominated by a gigantic 65’ tall statue of a robed human with a scholar’s fez made of red and green marble. The figure has their left arm clasped behind their back and their other is arm outstretched and holding a person-sized cage. Within the cage a dull red flame flickers, casting the whole chamber in its eerie glow. A carved marble placard reads “Oxyus Har’Daxos, who tread the world underneath his sandaled feet.” The air here smells of sulfur and blood.

• North: A copper door on the north wall opens to a hall that leads to room 3/7.
• South: An identical copper door with a similar hallway leads to room 3/8.
• East: The eastern wall contains a heavy ceramic door, glazed in red. It is sculpted with a depiction of a heart with a tree growing from it. This door leads to a set of stairs that descend 25’ to a green tiled corridor that leads under room 3/9 to room 3/10.
• West: This wall contains two massive 15’ tall copper doors sculpted with the screaming face of a demon. These doors have no visible means of opening. One must rotate both of the demon’s eyeballs until the pupils can no longer be seen, then the doors will open with an audible “click”. Even unlocked, however, the doors remain a heavy obstacle, requiring a successful Open Doors check to push them open.
• The Demon Ssrazzbazzortch: Ssrazzbazzortch is an ancient and powerful demon. Legend tells that he cracked the world of faery open and drove the elves into the mortal plane. It also said that he could melt entire kingdoms to glass with his fiery breath.
• Seeming: The demon king of the accursed lands of Gorch resembles a rolling black cloud of fire in the shape of a humanoid. His eyes are glowing embers, his tongue a licking flame. When he is still and content, he dims to candlelight. When roused to anger, he roars as brightly as a furnace.
• Nature: Ssrazzbazzortch has the air of a curious aristocratic about him and is polite to a fault. Like all greater demons, Ssrazzbazzortch is bound by the ancient laws of courtesy.
• Desires: Though he desires most of all to be freed from his prison, Ssrazzbazzortch is willing to play the long game and tries to recruit PCs to aid him. Ssrazzbazzortch is bored and would love stimulating conversation at the very least.
• Means: The demon lord will reveal the location of treasure if the PCs  agree to face him in a game of skill (chess, checkers, etc.). If the PCs win, he reveals the location of a yet-unknown compartment on the statue that contains a pearl necklace with a fat ruby pendant (300 gp). If Ssrazzbazzortch wins, he asks the PCs to search this level of the dungeon for a library of black stone and a fountain shaped like a shell. The demon would like a volume from the black archive titled “Demonia Esoterica” and a dram of water from the fountain. He will give no reason for wanting these things save to say that he is merely thirsty and bored. In reality, the demon will use these items to ensorcell the leader of the Wererats on this level to be his willing servant. Ssrazzbazzortch is willing to teach a PC who swears their soul to him the spell Wraithform (may be cast once a day as a level 5 Illusionist), but this will bind them to his service even after death (he omits this part unless asked directly).

 

3/7: The Ritual Room

This elaborately tiled room is 50’ long by 30’ wide. Four large brass tables occupy one half of the room. Atop each table an eight-foot-long skeleton stained green by verdigris lays. Each table has an identical brass bucket at one end. These tables have the aspect of a ritual butchering table, complete with blood gutters that drain into the brass buckets. walls of this chamber are covered in tiles of red, black, and green in the concentric circles and intersecting lines of geomantic ley-lines. The smell of old blood hangs heavy in the air here.

• South: A wooden door in this wall leads through a corridor to room 3/9.
• East: There is a 10’ tall, black tiled arch that leads to a descending stairway. The stairs descend 25’ to a black tiled corridor below.
• West: The western wall contains a copper door that slides into a pocket in the wall.
• The Skeletons: These skeletons (3 HD, take half damage from non-magical attacks) are the reanimated bones of extremely tall humans, bred for this purpose by Oxyus’s cult. They will animate and attack anyone who enters the room. They can be commanded to stop by uttering the word “silence”. Afterwards they will obey commands by the utterer, but may interpret them literally.

3/8: The Altar Room

This room is 50’ long by 30’ wide and made of dressed stone. A large verdigris-covered brass altar table is the only thing in this room. The altar is studded with semiprecious green stones (25 in total, worth 10 gp a piece) and a simple clay offering bowl sits atop it, empty.

• North: A wooden door in this wall leads through a corridor to room 3/9.
• East: There is a 10’ tall, black tiled arch that leads to a descending stairway. The stairs descend 25’ to a red tiled corridor below.
• West: There are two doors on the western wall. There is a visible copper door that slides into a pocket in the wall, and beside it, a Concealed rotating stone door. The Concealed door can be spotted by the seam on the wall and by the air current that sputters PCs’ torches when standing in the room.

3/9: The Treasure Vault

This 45’ long by 25’ wide room has polished crystal mirrors on the walls and huge flagstones alternating between black, red, and green marble. The red flagstones are all carved with a blood drop in their center, the black flagstones are all carved with a cloud at their center, and the green flagstones are all carved with a tree at their center. The air here carries the slightest hint of ozone in it.

• North: There is a trapped, locked wooden door on this wall carved with a repeating diamond pattern. The door leads to room 3/7. In the northern hallway that leads to this door are two iron torch loops studded with nasty spikes. If a torch or something of similar weight isn’t placed in the eastern loop before the door is opened, the western loop will fire out of the wall by a spring mechanism and skewer a PC standing in front of the door. (1d8 damage, save vs. Death for half damage) The weight of a person standing in front of the door from inside room 3/9 when opening the door will also temporarily disarm the trap.
• South: There is a trapped, locked wooden door on this wall carved with a repeating diamond pattern. The door leads to room 3/8. In the hallway that leads to this door are two iron torch loops studded with nasty spikes. If a torch or similar weight isn’t placed in the eastern loop before the door is opened from that side, the western loop will fire out of the wall by a spring mechanism and skewer a PC standing in front of the door. (1d8 damage, save vs. Death for half damage.) The weight of a person standing in front of the door from inside room 3/9 when opening the door will also temporarily disarm the trap.
• The Mirrors: Anyone who looks in the mirror will see a reflection of the room that is different than what’s actually within it. The reflection from the mirrors shows the room filled with gold and other riches as well as a pull-handle dangling down from the ceiling to the center of the room. If a PC observes themselves in the mirrors while reaching for the handle, they will feel it in their hands as though it were truly there. If the PC pulls on the handle while still looking at themselves in the mirrors, the treasure will instantly appear in the room.
• The Treasure: The horded treasure contains 2,000 silver coins, 1,700 gold coins, six gold bracelets set with semiprecious stones (100 gp each), 18 gold finger rings adorned with precious stones (200 gp each), two large silver chalices (50 gp each), four large gold chalices (150 gp each), six silver candle sticks with pearl inlay (250 gp each), a small white marble statue of the Mother Goddess D’runa with an attached golden cape (1,000 gp), and two greenish-blue potions in fluted bottles (potions of polymorph).

3/10: The Cenotaph

This 45’ long by 55’ wide oval chamber has been plastered white to reflect as much light as possible. The ceilings are over 80 feet high here and the room is dominated by two large statues of the wizard Oxyus, dressed similarly to the larger statue in room 3/6. There are two long stone benches set facing each statue as well. Chipping and falling plaster from the ceiling litters the floor in here, sitting like dust upon the statues’ shoulders. The wall is ringed with iron lanterns containing clear crystals that glow with the bright white light when a living creature enters the chamber.

• North: A heavy ceramic door, glazed red, opens onto the room from the northern end. It is attached to a long, black-tiled corridor that leads back up to room 3/7.
• South: A heavy ceramic door, glazed red, opens onto the room from the southern end. It is attached to a long, red-tiled corridor that leads back up to room 3/8.
• West: A heavy red glazed ceramic door on the western side of the room opens onto a tiled green hallway that leads back up to room 3/6.
• The Statues: Both statues depict the same 25’ tall human and both are dressed the same as the statue in room 3/6, although they are posed differently. The northern statue is bent down on one knee, playing a lyre. The lyre is strung with strings of silver (50 gp of wire in total). The second statue is standing and holding a large open tome. Those who sit on the benches will see the statue they are facing project an illusory image of the wizard as a boy, frolicking in his native home. A variety of small scenes play out like a short montage in a movie. Some of these scenes include the boy playing among oak trees, the boy drinking from a crystal-clear stream in a meadow, the boy laughing, and the boy finding a gold coin in a woodland creek. The scenes repeat for as long as someone is sitting on a bench. Close examination of the southern statue reveals a hidden compartment that holds a Short Sword +2 of Quickness and a Scroll of Invisibility.

3/11: The Room of Ash

This room is 25’ wide by 40’ long. The entire room is filled with a two-inch layer of ash. If PCs are not careful while moving through the room, they will kick up clouds of dust, forcing a save vs. Breath Weapon. On a failure, the PCs will begin coughing (forcing a wondering monster check due to the noise).

• East: The heavy bronze door on the eastern wall of this room is connected to room 3/8 by a 45’ long hallway.
• West: This wall contains a stuck heavy wooden door that has swelled shut due to moisture.

3/12: The Hidden Fountain

This roughly-cut stone room consists of a main circular chamber 25’ in diameter with an apse 20’ long by 15’ wide attached. The ceilings here are only 10’ tall. In the center of the circular chamber is a stone fountain carved to look like a giant clam shell.

• North: In the north of the room is a simple wooden door with a bar across it to prevent access. Through the door, a small, green-tiled hallway winds its way to a secret door concealing an entrance from the large, pillared hallway to the east of room 2/27. The lintel above the secret door in the green-tiled corridor reads “silence” in an old script. Speaking the word out loud opens the doorway. This works on either side of the door.
• West: The western end of the apse contains an arched wooden door affixed with hammered copper plates. This door opens onto a hallway that leads further into the dungeon.
• The Fountain: The chaotic waters of this fountain taste slightly of winter mint. If drunk, the waters of the fountain grant the imbiber permanent infravision up to 30’. Those who drink of the fountain must succeed at a saving throw against Magic or have their Alignment permanently changed from Law to Neutral, or from Neutral to Chaotic (those who are already Chaotic receive 1d4 hp of healing instead).