April: Week Two

 Greetings explorers! This week we shall start to delve deeper into the third level of the Crucible of Oxyus. Down below we have rooms where time seems to stand still, rooms with potential allies who are not who they appear to be, and rooms where the secrets of this bedamned hole in the ground can begin to be revealed. Read on and enjoy!

Week Two

4/10: A Prisoner in Time

This is a 20’ by 30’ cell made of dressed sandstone with 10’ high ceilings. A small bunk and a side table make up one half of the room’s contents, the other half being a large table propped against the opposite wall. A gray-skinned humanoid with a stubby, upturned nose and six fingers on each of her hands is standing motionless inside the cell. An amber-colored light cast from above the door bathes the room in its glow.

• East: A short 10’ long hallway on the eastern wall stops at a red-painted, iron-banded wooden door with a small, grated window. The door is locked. A red-handled key can lock or unlock this door. Opening with the key will automatically switch off the amber light, causing the humanoid to start moving as though they had just been unfrozen in time.
• The Amber Light: The amber-colored light emanates from a fist sized amber gem faceted into the wall above the door. The magical light radically slows time for those who bathe in its emanations. For those trapped inside the glow, time seems to pass normally, but those outside will seem to accelerate so fast as to become invisible. For those outside the glow, time seems to pass normally, but those inside will appear to stand perfectly still as though time for them has completely ceased to pass. The red-handled keys are enchanted to turn such lights off and on again when locking or unlocking the door.
• The Prisoner: The gray-skinned humanoid claims to be a Gyss, a race of six-fingered beings who, she claims, live outside the material plane in the astral expanses between the stars. She calls herself Ekli and claims to have been kidnapped at least a year a go and brought to this place where she was experimented on by the wizard Oxyus and his servants. (Ekli is actually a Doppelganger, an evil shapeshifting fey creature. She will feign friendship with those who free her until she can ask enough questions to replace another character and attempt to kill them when no one is paying attention.)

4/11: The Teleportation Chamber

This 25’ long dressed sandstone chamber is 25’ wide at its northern end, contracting after 10’ to only 15’ wide at its southern end. In the back of the room a 10’ diameter circle made of copper, burnt-orange colored mica, and faceted chips of quartz has been laid out on the ground. Behind the circle and against the back wall sits a rectangular metal box with an assortment of glowing protrusions and large switches and levers on its face. A series of flexible fluted tubes connects the circle to the control box.

• South: A short 10’ long hallway leads to a black-painted, iron-banded wooden door with a small, grated window. The lock on this door has been smashed.
• The Teleporter:  This device will convey anybody standing on the circle to any other magical circle in the dungeon as long as they know the correct set of button presses and switch pulls. The proper return code for this circle has been painted in fading paint on the side of the control box. When this device is activated, it produces a three-note musical tone similar to a flute, then spews forth large amounts of red smoke from the circle before sending 1d6 people atop it to the preprogrammed location. There is a 1-in-12 chance when using this particular circle that it fails, sending those using the device to a random room on the level above this one.

4/12: A Broken Cell

This small 15’ by 20’ dressed sandstone cell looks like a tornado has passed through it. The cell’s bunk has been broken into three large pieces that rest in the southeastern corner of the room. Rotting bedding has also been scattered around the floor. In the corner of the room a hole can be seen, having been hacked out of the dressed stone blocks that line the chamber. A broken amber gem the size of a fist is fixed above the door by stone facets.

• North: A locked iron-banded, red-painted wooden door with a small, grated window allows entry to this chamber from the main hallway to the north. (This door can be locked or unlocked by any red-handled skeleton key.)
• East: A hole in the masonry has been carved in the southeastern corner of the room. It looks as if an original worked stone feature used to be present on this wall but had been hacked at until there was an opening large enough to allow egress from this cell. Beyond the hole a cut stone corridor leads further east.

 

4/13: The Hobgoblin

This 15’ by 20’ dressed sandstone cell contains a simple cot on the back wall and what looks like a hobgoblin collapsed on the floor. A warm amber light baths the cell from a source above the door. A small slot carved into the corner of the western wall may have been used to feed this poor creature.

• North: A locked iron-banded, red-painted wooden door with a small, grated window is the only way in or out of this room. (This door can be locked or unlocked by any red-handled skeleton key.) Opening with the key will automatically switch off the amber light, causing the humanoid to start moving as though they had just been unfrozen in time.
• The Amber Light: Please refer to the Amber Light entry in room 4/10 for a description of how the effects from the light work.
• West: The southern corner of the western wall has a worked stone feature at about hip height. The stones of the wall have been carved into a 2-inch tall, 12-inch long slot. Beyond the hole there is only darkness.
• The Hobgoblin: The body slumped over on the floor looks to be a weeping hobgoblin. If the PCs manage to switch off the amber light, he will resume his crying until he notices the PCs. He calls himself Hragal. He claims to have been here too long to remember much of his past. He was once like any other Hobgoblin until Oxyus began to experiment on him, and now he has been transformed through magic into a Thule, a Hobgoblin/Troll/Ghoul hybrid. At some time in the last few months (for him) the guards stopped coming with food. Despite his generally chaotic nature, Hragal feels an obligation to aid the PCs for rescuing him from imprisonment. He will agree to help the PCs until he has a chance to repay his life debt by saving another PC from death. Hragal sees the other prisoners here as food or sport and won’t be happy if PCs aid others.

4/14: The Guard’s Office

This 20’ by 30’ room of dressed sandstone has 15’ high ceilings. The room contains a long table on the eastern wall that is scattered with papers. A small table on the southern side of the room bears a pewter candelabra that holds five half-melted candles. Empty ration tins and the blackened remnants of a small fire in the northwestern corner suggest that other explorers had made their encampment here not too long ago.

• North: A hallway in the middle of the northern wall leads further north to the ring corridor, but not before it crosses an east/west corridor that leads to feeding slots for rooms 4/12 and 4/13. The western side hallway is missing its food slot. Instead, a large person-sized hole has been bashed in the wall from room 4/12. At the entrance to the ring corridor there is a locked, iron banded wooden door with a small, grated window. (The pearl-handled key from room 3/13 or any black-handled key can open or lock this door.)
• East: In the southeastern corner of the room a short 15’ long hallway leads to room 4/16.
• West: In the southwestern corner of the room a short 15’ long hallway leads to room 4/15.
• The Table: The long table on the eastern wall is scattered with correspondence from a Memresh to his subordinate Heskelesh. In the correspondence Memresh complains about their lord Oxyus insisting they must finish with the “enhancements” on the prisoners so that they may be added to his army as soon as possible. Memresh reprimands Heskelesh for “damaging” their lord’s prisoners and warns him against any further unnecessary injuries. Below the table a loose paving stone hides a small stash of 200 gold coins stuffed into a wooden box.

4/15: The Lever Room

This 20’ square room of dressed sandstone has 15’ tall ceilings. The western wall has two waist-high levers built into stone housings built into the floor. A small table on the north wall and a lone black-handled key hanging from a series of hooks are the only other things in the room. The smell of sweat and animal dung permeates the air here.

• East: A thick wooden door separates this room from the hallway to room 4/14.
• West: A ten-foot-long hallway on the western wall leads to a black-painted, iron banded wooden door with a small grated window. This door is locked from the inside. (The pearl-handled key from room 3/13 or any black-handled key can open or lock this door.)
• The Key: This black-handled key can be used to unlock doors to administrative rooms on this level, as well as any manacles found here.
• The Levers: Each lever operates one of the portcullises in the large hallway to the west of this room. The northern level will either open or close the northern portcullis, and the southern level will do the same to the southern portcullis.

4/16: The Holding Area

This room is a 20’ by 20’ square with 15’ high ceilings. It is made of dressed sandstone, although the floor has been stained with a dark rust color due to years of blood soaking into it. Four sets of manacles have been affixed on the walls by iron cleats. The iron of the chains is rusted and pitted with age.

• East: A ten-foot-long hallway connects the eastern wall to the ring corridor east of this room. At the end of this hall is an iron-banded wooden door with a small grated window. The door is unlocked. (The pearl-handled key from room 3/13 or any black-handled key can open or lock this door.)
• West: On the western wall is a thick wood door that separates this area from room 4/14.