June: Week Two

Apologies sagacious searchers, the realities of daily life had to intrude on my schedule. I hope you'll find the wait was worth it. Today I bring you seven rooms of subterranean splendor and malicious mystery! Read on to discover rooms of faded beauty, resplendent treasure, and billowing fire! If you enjoy what you see, take a look at last week's dungeon, or start back at the beginning. 

Week Two

6/11: The Statue Room

This finely carved rectilinear chamber is 30’ long and 35’ wide with 15’ tall ceilings. There are four statues that occupy the room, two on either side of each entrance. The two statues on the north entrance are carved of marble and are painted in bright colors. They depict matching wolf hounds, their faces fixed in rictus snarls, forever staring southward. The two statues on the southern door are made of polished tan sandstone and depict a set of kneeling, half-naked elves wearing slave collars, their heads bowed.

• North: The entrance to this room from the vaulted hallway to the north is through a wooden door and then down a 25’ long hallway.
• South: the southern end of the room has a wooden door separating this chamber from the corridor to the south.

6/12: The Hidden Vault

This well-dressed stone chamber is 40’ long by 30’ wide with 15’ tall ceilings. The room is filled with piles of gold. The contents of the piles is mostly gold coins, but there are also a large portion of golden dishware, serving vessels, goblets, and jewelry. The air smells clean here.

• North: There is a secret entrance to this chamber from the northern hallway that passes it at a right angle. On the wall at the end of the north-running part of the hallway is a small niche with lots of scuff marks on the floor in front of it. If a weight of over a pound is placed in the niche, the secret door in the wall will slide open to reveal the chamber.
• South: The southern entrance to this room is also through a secret door. An inspection of the walls of the chamber will reveal a loose stone on the southern wall. If the stone is pulled out of the wall, a pressure plate is revealed. Pressing the pressure plate will open the secret door, revealing the natural stone tunnel beyond.
• The Gold: There is 40,000 gp total in gold coins and other gold objects present in the room.

6/13: The Ballroom

This dressed stone room is massive. It runs 75’ by 40’ and has 30’ tall ceilings. The ceiling is painted as though it is wreathed in colorful garlands and the walls are covered in paintings of all manner of flowers. The large room echoes with even the slightest sound. Two very faded and dilapidated chez lounges, one red and one blue, occupy one side of the room next to a small table with a candelabra of half-burned of candles in it. Behind the lounges are a series of silk brocade privacy screens blocking the western end of the room from view. A small burnt patch in the middle of the floor indicates a fire was once kindled here. Otherwise, the room is empty.

• North: There is a brass door though a small entrance corridor that separates this room from the vaulted hallway to the north.
• South: Behind the privacy screens in the southwestern corner of the ballroom is a locked brass door that leads to a corridor to the south that will eventually connect to cavern 6/14.

6/14: Cave of the Hook Beasts

This irregularly shaped limestone cave is roughly 75’ at its longest point and 55’ at its widest, with ceilings stretching over 30’ tall. The edges of the cavern are spiked with small stalagmites, and a natural pillar of joined stalactites and stalagmites takes up the center of the room, blocking sight. An animal musk-like scent hangs in the air here and the sound of clicking can be heard throughout.

• North: A 35’ long hallway connects this cavern to room 6/13 through a locked brass door.
• South: A natural limestone tunnel in the south of the cavern leads to a T-section that runs roughly east/west.
• East: On the eastern end of the cave is a brass door similar to the one at the entrance to the north. This door, however, has been so badly broken that the lock doesn’t work, and the door is barely hanging on by its hinges.
• The Hook Beasts: In the south of the have are 2d6 Hook Beasts who are quietly clicking away to each other in their odd language. The Hook Beasts are bipedal monsters with vulture-like beaks, hardened carapaces, and long hooks for appendages. The beasts are curious by nature and also quite territorial, making them dangerous to most dungeon adventurers.

6/15: The Pillars of Fire

This cut stone room is 50’ long. About half the length of the room is only 15’ wide, opening halfway through to a wider 25’. The ceilings in this room are 15’ high. The southern half of the room is dominated by eight thin pillars made of carnelian, carved to look like writhing flames. The walls of the entire chamber have been painted, although it is starting to peel in places. The walls display scenes of tiger-headed humanoids riding war chariots pulled by horses made of living flame as an army of elves, mantis people, and humans flee before them.

• North: The entrance to this room from the north is through an open doorway that separates this room from the vaulted hallway to the north that runs east/west.
• South: The wall on the southern end of the room has been carved into an arched doorway. Set in the doorway is a polished sandstone door with a brass handle. Beyond the hallway is a long corridor that runs for about 75’ south before it ends at a similar sandstone door.
• The Pillars: These pillars are exquisitely carved from pure red-orange carnelian. If one was to be taken from here, it would be worth 6,000 gp and weigh about 450 pounds. If at least two pillars are taken from a single side, the ceiling will groan loudly. If more than three pillars on a single side are removed, the room will collapse! All those inside the room when this happens must save vs. breath weapons. Those who fail take 3d10 damage from falling debris, and those who succeed take half.

6/16: The Flaming Chamber

This dressed stone chamber is 40’ long by 35’ wide with 10’ tall ceilings. A gigantic jet of flame from the center of the room assaults the senses with heat, light, noise, and choaking flames. There is a five-foot-wide lip around the edge of the room that is clear of fire. It’s not clear initially what is issuing the flame. The wind in this room is loud and powerful, and any loose items hanging off of characters is in danger of blowing away and catching on fire.

• North: There is a door on the northern wall that leads to a long corridor that eventually connects this room with room 6/15. The door is made of polished sandstone and the brass handle is warm to the touch.
• East: The dressed stone of the southeastern corner opens up into a natural limestone tunnel that runs east to a T-section that leads to either room 6/14 or 6/17.
• West: A five-foot-wide dressed stone tunnel leads west, further into the mountain.
• The Giant Jet of Flame: The entire massive conflagration that occupies the center of the chamber is actually a powerful illusion. It is so powerful that only by directly interacting with the illusory flames can one discern that they are in fact not real. Players will take 1d6 damage from the “heat” for every minute they spend in the chamber. Only by interacting directly with the flames (like being pushed into them) will a character be granted a Spell Save to determine if they can realize it’s an illusion. Those who are not successful will receive 1d6 damage every round they are in contact with the flame, though like all illusions, the damage is only perceived, not real. If a character would take enough damage this way to kill them, they will fall unconscious instead and appear dead to those still under the illusion’s sway.

6/17: The Forgotten Dead

This irregular limestone cavern is roughly 75’ long and anywhere from 30’-40’ wide with 15’ tall ceilings with small stalactites hanging down from them. Large parts of this cavern are covered in a spikey yellow mold that stinks of musty, rotting death. In the southern end of the cave, a small pile of bones and cloth scraps is heaped. The chamber has a waiting silence about it.

• North: In the northeastern corner of the chamber is a cleverly hidden wall of stone, fashioned to appear as a natural part of the wall. A careful search of the walls here will reveal the wall’s presence. It is easy enough to break through the wall, if a not more than a little loud. On the other side of the wall, a small natural tunnel runs north. The secret corridor leads north to the other side of one of the secret doors to room 6/12 and right past a stairway that leads back up to the third floor.
• West: A natural tunnel through the limestone connects the northwest corner of this cavern back north and west to a T-section that splits off to either room 6/14 or room 6/16. The sides of the tunnel approaching this cavern are covered in the same Yellow Mold as the chamber itself.
• The Mold: The spikey, lichen-like Yellow Mold is rather toxic if disturbed. Skilled adventurers should have no trouble identifying the dungeon hazard. There is roughly 200 square feet of mold growing on the chamber walls.
• The Heap of Bones: The heap of bones and cloth in the corner is the remains of a poor soul who died here many ages ago. Among their remains is a black steel dagger with a wire-wrapped handle. If the body is disturbed, a Wraith, the cursed soul of the poor person who died here, will materialize and begin attacking the party until they flee the area. The wraith has enough intelligence left over to use the Yellow Mold against a group its attacking. The dagger is a Black Dagger +2, and wounds from this dagger can only be healed by magic.