Week Five, The end of March

 Welcome dungeon delvers, to our wrap up of March's Dungeon 23 dungeon! This month's dungeon had a lot to offer, demon lords, black libraries, gravity changing rooms, traps of all kinds, and mountain of gleaming, shinny treasure! This week we wrap things up by adding more treasure rooms, a lair of gelatinous danger, and a rival party of adventurers who may help, or hinder player's progress. We also have the Encounter Table and full-month map at the end of the article for you. Read on to find out how this month wraps up!

 

Week 5

3/27: The Room of Indulgence

This room is 30’ long by 25’ wide and made of well-cut stone. There is a rotting chaise lounge and a table on one side of the room and a small fountain still slowly bubbling away in the center. A shattered glass opium pipe can be found next to the chaise. The walls of this room are painted with pictures of various species engaged in graphic sex acts. Humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, orcs, goblins, and even the mysterious cat-people from the jungles of the southern continent are depicted.

• South: The heavy hinges of a door hang on the south wall next to a short 15’ long corridor that leads into a partially collapsed room to the south.
• East: This wall bears a wooden door that slides into a pocket in the wall. Beyond it a 5’ wide hallway leads 30’ east to a larger hall past that.

3/28: The Collapsed Room

The original size of this room is impossible to ascertain, as most of the ceiling has collapsed in the decades since its creation. A strong sour, almost metallic smell permeates the room. There is an almost-imperceptible sound of something wet moving about in the darkest depths of the room.

• North: The door that used to separate this room from the hallway to the north is missing.
• The Lair: This room has become the long-term home of an Ochre Jelly. The amorphous creature hides among the debris of the collapsed room, waiting and watching. If characters decide to poke around or enter the back of the room where the Jelly is hiding, the Ochre Jelly will attack. It will otherwise avoid combat in its own lair.

 3/29: The Ransacked Tomb

This 35’ long by 20’ wide room has an air of abandonment to it. Only flecks of amber paint and the lingering smell of cedar greet characters who enter here. A heavy stone sarcophagus dominates the room. It is an ornate karst-stone box. The lid is painted with a demon’s smiling maw where the head would be, and a sculpted pair of antlers sprout from it.

• North: The thick stone door that allows entry to this room has been partially destroyed. Remnants of the door can be found scattered about the hallway that connects to this room.
• The Sarcophagus: This large stone sarcophagus’s lid has been pulled to one side and the interior has been ransacked. Corpse parts and rags are all that remain of the burial box’s contents.

3/30: The Sarcophagus

This 35’ by 20’ room has its walls painted in repeating geometric patterns of amber triangles and red squares. The scent of cedar and incense still lingers in the air here. A large sarcophagus of pinkish stone dominates half of the room while an ornately carved wooden bench piled with various grave goods occupies the other half.

• South: A thick stone door on this wall is carved all over with eyes of various sizes. The door is stuck shut and will require force to open.
• The Sarcophagus: This large stone sarcophagus has a heavy stone lid (combined Strength of 20 needed to lift it). Underneath the lid the desiccated mummy of an Akrakogi noble lays, wrapped in gold and gems. Atop the remnants of the body 2d4 Giant Centipedes writhe and wriggle. They have found their way in here through the bottom of the sarcophagus and have made this their lair. The corpse’s adornments have mostly fallen to the bottom of the sarcophagus, but with some time spent searching, characters will find 900 gp in gold and gems. Among this treasure can also be found a Ring of Weakness.
• The Grave Goods: The bench itself weighs around 200 pounds and is worth at least 2,000 gp. It is inlaid with lapis and ruby and painted with gold paint. Atop the bench are piled various ceramics (in total worth 400 gp), a golden tabletop candelabra (200 gp), a golden drinking set with ruby and pearl inlaid into the rim of the cups (300 gp), an ornate Kes set (the board game of kings, worth 150 gp), and handful of ushabti (small votive statues meant to guard a person in the afterlife.)

3/31: The Redoubt

This 40’ long by 20’ wide chamber is strewn with rubbish. Piles of broken crates and old rotting cloth have been piled into a rough barrier that separates the western half of the room from the eastern half. This is the temporary redoubt of a group of adventurers known as the Iron Barbers. The makeshift fortification grants some protection for the group of adventurers while they sleep. Caltrops have been strewn about liberally directly in front of the makeshift fortification to punish would-be assailants for assaulting the barricades directly. (The light green area in front of the barricade)

• South: There is a wooden door that allows entrance to this room on the southern wall. An illusion has been cast on the 15’ hallway that links this room and the colonnaded hallway south of here. With casual examination, the hallway seems to be blocked up by a collapsed roof. If physical contact is made with the illusion, the character that touched it must succeed at a Spell save or they will continue to be fooled by the illusion.
• East: There is a passage on the eastern side of the room that links this room to room 4/1. The first 15 feet of the passage on this side has been scattered with caltrops to guard against attacks from that direction. (The three light green squares in the hallway indicate the part of the corridor has been covered in caltrops.)
• The Adventuring Party:  The party consists of five adventurers and their three porters. There is Feadoc the Fighter (level 4) who wields a great sword and a long bow, Nedrys the Elf (level 3) who is armed with sword, short bow and spell, Allan the Cleric (level 3) who is armed with a mace, Oollona the Illusionist (level 3) in her coat of many pockets, and Olander, the party’s other Fighter (level 2) who carries a large war axe and long bow. The three sallow faced porters are Hagen, Letz, and Akresh. Though Feadoc is the de facto leader, Ollona is his second in command and speaks for him in most cases. The Iron Sworn have been holed up here for almost a week, healing from a nasty encounter with the Orcs on this level. The party tends towards the Chaotic and are suspicious of overly friendly types. The Iron Sworn have hidden their stash of treasure under the makeshift barricade in the north of the room. It contains 800 gp, and five silver goblets with onyx rims (150 each). Feadoc is willing to work with PCs to overcome more formidable foes but will try and backstab the party once he can seize the upper hand.

4/1: An Empty Room

This mostly empty room is 35’ by 25’. The stone walls are covered in soot. In the corner can be found a charred table, and atop it a broken mule harness has been laid. Dried mule droppings can still be spotted in the corners of the room.

• South: The southern wall holds a simple wooden door with a small, grated window in it. The door guards this room from a small corridor connecting the room to the colonnaded hallway beyond.
• West: On the western wall a 40’ long hallway connects this room to room 3/31. Roughly the last 15’ of the western end of the corridor is covered in caltrops (as indicated by the light green areas).

4/2: The Colonnade and Grand Stairs

This well-cut stone room is 40’ by 30’ and dominated by a large descending staircase. This staircase descends several flights until it reaches level 4. The room itself opens onto a skillfully carved marble hallway with a beautiful arched colonnade that runs down the center. The colonnaded hall runs for 200 feet and is 10’ wide with three openings in the arched colonnade to allow entry to the rooms across the hall from each other. There is a slightly battered hurdy-gurdy at the top of the stairs, and the air smells of cooked meat, but those are the only signs of habitation in this room.

• West: A set of two thick wooden doors with iron bandings on the western wall separate the stair room from the hallway beyond.

Encounter Table:

1. 2d6 Orcs patrolling for rats
2. 1d10 Orcs arguing over which one of them should claim the ornate golden plate (150 gp) they’ve found.
3. 2d6 Orcs and a leader (2 HD, +1 damage) are throwing dice and having a raucous good time.
4. 1d4 Wererats in their Giant Rat form carefully sniffing around the walls looking for hidden doors.
5. 1d4 Giant Rats, and 2d8 Rats feasting on the corpse of an unlucky adventurer.
6. 2d10 Rats and 1d2 Wererats are searching for Orcs.
7. 2d4 Zombies of former adventurers who have died in this cursed place going through the motions of setting up camp.
8. 1d4 Imps searching for a way to free the demon Ssrazzbazzortch who is trapped on this level.
9. 1d3 Giant Crabs messily eating Giant Rats.
10. The aftermath of a battle between Orcs and Giant Rats, corpses litter the floor (2d10 silver coins among the dead)
11. The Ochre Jelly (room 3/28) sliding up behind an Orc, ready to attack.
12. The bones of three goblins slick with a sticky acidic residue.