This room is locked as the others are.
When the door is opened the room empties of its contents.
Inside are three Titanic Centipedes. These creatures are like Giant Centipedes but much larger. They have 2HD each. Their bites cause 1d8 damage and the same poison of their smaller kin.
Inside their stomachs are a total of 42 gems worth a total of 2,300 GP.
The door to this room is also open and there is a commotion coming from inside.
A group of 3 goblins is attacking a single kobold. There are three other kobolds dead on the ground.
The goblins will attack the party when they enter, the kobold will try to find a way to escape. It will attack the party to get out of this room.
Each goblin has a sack of 50+1d10 CP and 2+1d4 SP. They have spears and daggers. The kobolds have 20 CP in total.
Room 10 is in the middle of this long hallway. This door is not only not locked, but the door is also slightly ajar.
There is a golden glow coming from this room. Inside the room is a shimmering portal. The portal connects this room to another room elsewhere. The elsewhere is much warmer, and the night time sky can be seen outside of large windows. The room seems to be in a palace in a desert somewhere.
Inside this larger-than-expected room (160' x 160' x 20' tall) are 10 large Constrictor Snakes that attack.
The snakes guard a treasure of 10,000 GP in gems. Rubies, emeralds, and sapphires. There are also three bags of gold worth 150 GP each.
The room has no other doors. The windows are 15' to 20' up. If the PCs climb (via any ropes they bring) they can see they are in a tower some 350' up from the desert floor below.
As the PCs leave the room back through the portal, it closes.
This room is up from Room #8 and is also locked.
How they got in is anyone's guess, but now they are too large to leave and they are starving. There are the bones of many other smaller rats here, ones they have eaten prior to this.
Due to their hunger they gain +1 on initiatives and attacks. They also suffer a -1 penalty to their AC since they are not taking the time to guard themselves. Their morale is 12 and they will fight to the death.
There is no treasure in this room.
Moving on from Room 6 down the hallway the characters will come up to Room #8 on the right. Note: All rooms are on the right-hand side of this hall.
Special Note: Dwarf characters will notice a slight downward slope to this hallway as well. It parallels the halls above them.
The lock on this door is very difficult with an extra 5% penalty above and beyond the penalty for other locks here. The zombies attack as soon as someone steps into the room.
Inside this cell are 1d4+1 Zombies in terrible shape. Each only has 2 hp due to how long they have been here but are fast due to all the necromantic energies they have absorbed. They turn as Ghouls and can attack at any point in the turn per normal initiative. They also have +1 to hit.
Their XP is the same as regular zombies due to their low hp.
They guard a small chest of 500 sp. Obviously left by other adventurers and not the original prisoners of this cell.
Turning to your right the hallway continues on. On the corner to your left there is, if the proper rolls are made, a secret door.
This room is found behind a secret door in the corner of the hallway, not on the flat walls.
This room appears to have been a guar room of some sort. There are chairs for three with a small table and weapons on the walls. There are slots in the wall where guards can watch both hallways. A door on the back wall leads to another hallway deeper into this layer (near rooms 27 and 28).
This room has been untouched by the waves of denizens here. There is a mace +1, sword +1 and 2 +1 arrows stored here for the guard's use in addition to some normal items. There had been food but it has since rotted away.
Finding these treasures is worth 2,500xp.
A little bit further down on the left is another door from the hall way turns to the right.
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| Photo by Francisco Ortiz from Pexels |
This former cell is also empty.
Moving on down the hall the next cell is on your left-hand side. This one is also locked.
This room contains a skeleton shackled to the wall. It's head looks like it was bashed in. It is a normal skeleton of some forgotten prisoner. Inside its remains are three gems (2 rubies and a sapphire) worth 50gp each. Evidently, they were swallowed by this prisoner, and now they are all that is left of him.
The hallway turns to the left and continues on. The first door encountered (Room 4) is on the left-hand side. Like all the doors, this one is locked.
Inside this room is a Schreckengeist. While old, this ghost is of an adventurer that died after the fall of the Vampire Queen. He became trapped in this room and died.
AC 3 [17], HD 3 (13hp), Att 1, scream of fear, THAC0 20 [0], MV 60’ (20’), SV D13 W13 P14 B15 S17, ML 10, AL Chaotic, XP 175, NA 1 (1d4), TT see below.
The Schreckengeist will be calmly floating over the skeletal remains of his body. He will seem sad at first, but once the characters enter the room, he will scream.
The Schreckengeist is incorporeal and can not be struck by normal weapons, only silvered ones. Likewise, it can not attack with physical attacks, although in its rage, it will try to. Its only attack is a scream of fear. Characters of 3rd level or below must Save vs. Petrification or flee in terror as per the Fear spell. Normal Humans and creatures below 1 level/HD get no save; characters above 4th level/HD are immune.
Any characters that fail their save will try to run back the way they came to the stairs to this level.
The Schreckengeist can be turned, but the spirit will reform after the next sunset. The only way to give it rest is to return it's body (bones) to it's home or to burn them. If the body is burned award everyone that participates 10 xp. If the bone are taken to be returned home given all that participate 15 xp. There will be a gold medallion around his neck bones that will at least mention the city he is from (the characters should at least be familiar with it). The medallion itself is worth 50 gp.
He has treasure in gems and coins worth 150 gp. There are several empty potion bottles near the body; his desperate attempt at getting some water. The weapons are old but functional.
This room is opposite side of the hall from Room 2. The door is the same difficulty to unlock.
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| Free Art Assets - Grey Gnome Games - Jason Glover |
Like the other room this one has old weapons. However, these weapons are trapped.
Removing any weapon from the rack will cause 1d6+2 poison darts to fly out. The poison is now weak; instead now only causes 1d4 hp of damage instead of death.
The trap can be disabled with a successful Find/Remove Traps roll.
The hallway here is 10' wide and extends forward. To your right is a locked door.
The door lock is old and difficult. There is -5% to any thief trying to unlock. If they are successful on the first try they can ignore this penalty from here on out. Failure the first time will require 3 more successes to avoid this.
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| Free Art Assets - Grey Gnome Games - Jason Glover |
This room used to be an armory for the guards of this level. The lock has kept others out. The weapons are old and rusted. They are still usable but are at a -1 to hit and -1 to damage. Any roll of a 1 on a to hit (critical fumble) the weapon will be rendered unusable.
Welcome to Level 2!
In the original citadel, this level was used as their prison and dungeon. After it was abandoned for several years, the Vampire Queen moved in. She kept it as a prison, but a temporary one, favoring the lower levels for her truly depraved dungeons.
There is an eldritch glow that seems to affix to the walls for one second and then move on. The whole effect is harmless but very eerie.
Doors to rooms on this level are all locked shut and will slam shut behind the players unless they are held or propped open. Each time a thief can open a door, it is worth 5 xp. If the door is forced open (they all open to the outside), it is worth 1 xp.
At the end of this hallway to the left is a flight of stairs that go down, there is a flight of stairs across from these also going down from the hallway with rooms #18 to #24. These stairs meet at a landing and then turn left (or right if taken from room #24) to another flight of stairs going down to the second level.
On the landing are the statues of two demonic-looking creatures.
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| Free Art Assets - Grey Gnome Games - Jason Glover |
These statues are not statues, but Gargoyles. These creatures have 2* HD (10, 12 hp) and attack via a claw/claw/bite (1d4/1d4/1d6+1). They can only be hit by magic or magic weapons. If any characters allowed their weapons to touch the lights in Room 25 and they are still glowing they will count as magical "+0" weapons.
The gargoyles will not follow the characters back up the stairs to level 1; they are only here to prevent them from going down to level 2, or once they are on level 2, prevent them from going up to the landing.
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The characters have survived Level 1!
Moving down to Room 30, the PCs smell it before they can see it.
This room is currently occupied by a group (2d8) Cat Ghouls.
These are cats infected with the ghoul's undead curse. They have 1 HD. They have a claw/claw/bite attack that causes 1d6+1/1d6+1/1d4+1 hp of damage. They can not cause paralysis as other ghouls. They are turned as Zombies.
They are currently eating a couple of corpses of humans. These victims have a total of 155 gp, 49 sp, and 22 cp. One has a ruby worth 500 gp.
Heat and light come from this room.
Inside are 8 Fire Beetles. These fire beetles are different and the glowing glands on their carapace also cause 1d4 hp of fire damage. Treat as 2+HD creatures for attacks, hp, and XP.
While they do not collect treasure on their own, there is a pile of 300 GP here from a previous group of adventurers. No one else enters this room and the beetles seem (seemed) content not to leave.
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Depending on your party size you may want to increase the number of monsters encountered. I have been sticking close to the recommended amount for a 1st level dungeon.
This room comes up (on the left) after Room 27.
Like the portal before, this one is one way. Something the kobolds will discover to their dismay once combat goes against them and they try to retreat.
Like all the rooms on this level, the doorway has no door, but this one has had debris stacked on the inside on both sides of the opening. This creates a small 5' wide hall to enter the room. PCs can only enter in single file.
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| Free Art Assets - Grey Gnome Games - Jason Glover |
Inside the room, 1d6+2 Hobgoblins have made this their base. They are raiding the other rooms in the lower level and coming back here. They are waiting for the PCs and are armed with 2 crossbows and the rest have small bows. All have short swords. The hobgoblins believe this is their home turf now and will fight to defend it. They currently have others investigating Level 3.
Inside their little base, they have collected some loot.
1 bag with 45 gp. 1 bag with 52 sp. 1 barrel of wine/water mix (50/50) still potable. 2 weeks' worth of iron rations. 25' of rope. 20 iron spikes. And a 10' pole. All are valued at 105 GP in total (for XP purposes).
The odor from this room hits the PCs before they even get near the opening.
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| Free Art Assets - Grey Gnome Games - Jason Glover |
There is a fair amount of treasure here. In various bags, there are 100 gp, 35 SP, and 1000 cp. The PCs have no way to discover this, but they were left behind by a group of evil adventurers who killed an adventuring party and left these zombies to guard the loot they could not carry themselves. That evil party went deeper into the dungeons and has not been heard from since. They even left an extra magical sword to make sure their loot was guarded well.
The zombies look like they are a couple of weeks old.
Going back to Room #17 the PCs make a left (where they made the right before) and they turn left into a parallel hall to the one before (#18 to #24).
This room is empty save for some random glowing lights of unknown source or origin. The radiate magic (a wizard or elf can tell) but they don't actually do anything but float around. They are creepy all the same.
If anyone puts a weapon into one of the lights their weapon will glow for the next hour. There is no magical effects, but it does look cool.
Down the hall is the last room on the right. The room is the same sort as the rest on this side.
The commotion in this room can be heard from the outside.
A group of Kobolds (2d6) are trying to spear a large boar-like creature (Dire Boar). They do not notice the characters until they enter the room. Most of the kobolds have 4hp each, and the boar is down to 3 hp.
There is no indication of where the boar or the kobolds came from or how they ended up in this room.
The kobolds have 2sp and 5cp each (on average).
Down the hall is a half-flight of stairs to the right that meets up with a similar set, both going down and then meeting up with another half-flight going down. This is Encounter area #31 and will be dealt with then.
