šWATER OUT OF ROCKš (A Morning Stars dungeon)
A long time ago, kings were buried with the wealth of their lives, often including pets and servants, under the vain assumption that these material things would be carried on to the immaterial. To this day, many of these old royal treasury-tombs are haunted by the restless dead, rot-clouded eyes filled with fading visions of a promised afterlife.
Å ar Å arrÄni Anaximandros knew exactly what awaited him. His client-line under King Surya, King of the Seventh Day, was in decline after a struggle for power and privileges with a rival dynasty. So, rather than let so many things fall through his fingers like sand, he sealed himself away in an obelisk with his most prized possessions to await his slow death. Perhaps, in the vastness of eternity, he would have his day again.
For a few centuries, the obelisk has been a forbidden place. The water that pours from it is clear, the grass is green, the trees tall and strong. Those who stop there, stop briefly. Those that stay there do not return.
OUTSIDE
Sogdianus the Sunman bandit (1 HD, AC as leather, 7 morale, +1 to hit, spear 1d6/1d8) cowers amongst five well-fed but nervous cattle. He fled here after a raid and has only survived the Ghuls by convincing them that the cattle are actually people, and thus to eat them first. He is very desperate to leave this place, and may steal a mount or get violent if not talked down. Any amount of digging around in the sand will turn up the bones of animals and people. Many are scored with marks from knives and teeth.
OUTSIDE
Sogdianus the Sunman bandit (1 HD, AC as leather, 7 morale, +1 to hit, spear 1d6/1d8) cowers amongst five well-fed but nervous cattle. He fled here after a raid and has only survived the Ghuls by convincing them that the cattle are actually people, and thus to eat them first. He is very desperate to leave this place, and may steal a mount or get violent if not talked down. Any amount of digging around in the sand will turn up the bones of animals and people. Many are scored with marks from knives and teeth.
OBELISK
There is no light. Ceilings are 15' high. All doors are bronze-plated wood. A few decades ago, some previous adventurers tried to blast open the small drainage hole that the oasis poured out from, thinking they could end the obelisk's “curse” by damaging it. The Ghuls ended up eating them alive for their trouble, but there's a gaping hole for entry. The whole structure leans slightly to the southeast, courtesy of a poorly-laid foundation worsened by the explosion.
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| 5' to a square. |
1. FOUNTAIN
Fresh well water pours slowly from a brass spigot in the corner of the wall, half-filling a shattered triangular reservoir before pouring through a crack to the outside. A few bits of random junk sit scattered in the dried-out reservoir, discarded by the Ghuls:
- A hand drill with a six inch bit. Can drill a hole in wood in five minutes, soft stone in fifteen minutes, and hard stone in half an hour.
- A light dagger.
- 14 SP and 1 GP in loose coins.
First text over the NORTH door to 3. SHRINE reads HE WHO WOULD BE LIKE THE MASTER WILL MEET HIS EYES.
2. LIBRARY
Semiramis the Ghul tears apart and pastes together scrolls, attended by her Bodyman. The exegesis is complete self-aggrandizing nonsense, her own name pasted into branching patchwork histories.
A few volumes remain on the shelves:
- In a wooden scroll case, the illustrated history of Anaximandros’s lineage, from their descendance from King Surya to their decline and his eventual self-interment.
- The Idiocy of the Physicians, a manual of unexplained allegory and downright baffling anatomical diagrams. Consulted from in one hand, it grants the skill Surgical Grafting.
- A leaden curse-tablet. Unrolled, it contains 1 MD and the spell Curse of Surya.
Curse of Surya
R: 100' T: a creature or object D: instant
Conjure a bolt of Sunfire (as fire, but with the effects of sunlight) and throw it at the target with a +[dice] bonus to hit. On a hit, the target is struck for [sum]+[dice] damage and must SAVE or be struck blind for [dice] days.
R: 100' T: a creature or object D: instant
Conjure a bolt of Sunfire (as fire, but with the effects of sunlight) and throw it at the target with a +[dice] bonus to hit. On a hit, the target is struck for [sum]+[dice] damage and must SAVE or be struck blind for [dice] days.
The stairs lead up to 5. SARCOPHAGI.
3. SHRINE
A statue of King Surya sits in a stone throne, his burnt, skinless flesh carved and painted in loving detail. Carbonized bones and dust sit heaped on the floor in front of him. Anyone who looks into the statue’s ruby eyes immediately bursts into flames, taking 1d6 damage per round until extinguished. Removing the eyes from the statue will disarm this effect, and they are each worth 50 SP.
If a Ghul is injured in combat and manages to escape, they will flee to this room to heal with their Heat Death ability.
4. BARRIER
A mesh of high-tension steel wire, razor sharp, divides the room. Ghuls will use their Subtle Form to pass through it. Anyone cutting through it up close will take 3d4 damage, SAVE for half, as snapped wires lacerate the hell out of them. The stairs curve up to 6. SEEING GLASS.
5. SARCOPHAGI
Three sarcophagi line the wall, each one depicting the Ghul they belong to. The eyes are holes, allowing the undead to Subtle Form into them when they feel like trying to sleep. Opening the heavy stone coffins requires either a prying tool (MOVE check) or smashing them open (extremely loud). Each one contains something precious to the Ghuls:
- Semiramis’s has a clay tablet certifying her birth.
- Pyrgopolynices’s has a small leaden figure of a soldier.
- Majordomo is in his sarcophagus. He has nothing but a lock of hair he doesn't recognize.
The shelf on the NORTH wall contains three clay pots of fermenting pre-chewed flesh and a quartet of kylikes painted with bloodied scenes of King Surya's fall. Underneath it are four amphorae, empty of the wine they once held. A heavy stone krater for their dilution sits on the other end of the door, caked with blood and wine dregs.
5-6 TRAPPED DOOR
This bronze-plated door is honeycombed with small holes so the Ghuls can Subtle Form through it. Someone looking close would notice a tiny lever inside one of the holes, as well as a seam along the doorframe. If the door is opened and this lever is not held down, a blade scythes out from the seam to cut them as they pass through; SAVE or take 2d6 damage.
6. SEEING GLASS
A huge glass lens is mounted to the corner by a set of brass arms, facing a stout wooden chair. The thoughts of anyone sitting in the chair are projected across the glass in vivid detail, albeit without sound. Stairs lead up to 7. DINING ROOM. A slow stream of blood trickles down from above.
Pyrgopolynices is here seated on the chair, gnawing on his fingers as he watches his fantasies of having sex with himself.
7. DINING ROOM
The floor is sticky with dried blood, the air thick with copper and iron. A few chairs surround a massive hardwood table, where Å ar Å arrÄni Anaximandros messily devours an entire cow with his hands and teeth. Other remains of people and animals riddle the table and floor, flesh and bones rotting into dust. The Ghul-King may delay murdering those that sufficiently flatter him, but the ultimate fate of all visitors is on his dinner table.
The floor is sticky with dried blood, the air thick with copper and iron. A few chairs surround a massive hardwood table, where Å ar Å arrÄni Anaximandros messily devours an entire cow with his hands and teeth. Other remains of people and animals riddle the table and floor, flesh and bones rotting into dust. The Ghul-King may delay murdering those that sufficiently flatter him, but the ultimate fate of all visitors is on his dinner table.
Miraculously, Anaximandros's throne is still in immaculate condition, with not so much as a stain on the velvet or a spot of tarnish on its silver plating. It is worth 500 SP to those willing to haul it out, or it can be threatened and destroyed like the precious objects of the other Ghuls.
Monsters
Bodyman4 HD (16 HP), AC as chain, 12 morale
SAVE +2
Two hollowed-out sunman corpses attached back-to-back, shuffling around on four legs. This wretched thing carries four curved swords and a pair of shields, lashing out in every direction.
Movement: Stillness followed by bursts of motion, like a spider.
Morality: Empty. Serves a cruel master.
Intelligence: Empty. Serves a cunning master.
Attacks: +3 to hit, one shamshir against each target in melee range (1d6+1.)
Mere Husk: If an attack would hit Semiramis and the Bodyman is nearby, it can interpose itself to take the hit instead.
Undead: The Bodyman does not sleep, breathe, eat, or drink. It must SAVE to enter sunlight.
Two hollowed-out sunman corpses attached back-to-back, shuffling around on four legs. This wretched thing carries four curved swords and a pair of shields, lashing out in every direction.
Movement: Stillness followed by bursts of motion, like a spider.
Morality: Empty. Serves a cruel master.
Intelligence: Empty. Serves a cunning master.
Attacks: +3 to hit, one shamshir against each target in melee range (1d6+1.)
Mere Husk: If an attack would hit Semiramis and the Bodyman is nearby, it can interpose itself to take the hit instead.
Undead: The Bodyman does not sleep, breathe, eat, or drink. It must SAVE to enter sunlight.
Ghul
3 HD (12 HP), AC as leather, 8 morale
SAVE +1
Ashen skin frosted with rime, eyes like dying embers sunk deep into a skull-like head. Their finery is burnt, yet drips with ice. When the djinn fail to die, the flame that makes up their being inverts, burning with lightless anti-heat.
Three Ghuls occupy the obelisk:
Movement: As a man, but can turn into a flying cloud of freezing-cold ashes with Subtle Form. Can squeeze through anything dust could pass through in this form.
Morality: Regards you the way a fire regards fuel. Could be distracted with a better heat source, but only temporarily. Nothing burns forever but the rage of a Djinni that has been deceived.
Intelligence: Cunning, but solipsistic. Must SAVE vs. Narcissistic Rage when insulted and must SAVE to go against the word of any agreement they make.
Attacks: +3 to hit, two touches in physical form (1d6 or extinguish a held light source, ghul regains 1 HP,) or an automatic 1 damage per round to anyone it contacts while in Subtle Form.
Heat Death: Ghuls are immune to fire, and when they would take damage from it, they regain an equal amount of HP instead.
Subtle Form: Ghuls, much like living Djinn, have 1 ND and the spell Subtle Form (turn to a cloud for [sum]+[dice] rounds, immune to anything that wouldn't disperse a cloud of dust.)
Undead: Ghuls do not need to sleep, breathe, eat, or drink. They must SAVE to enter sunlight.
Ashen skin frosted with rime, eyes like dying embers sunk deep into a skull-like head. Their finery is burnt, yet drips with ice. When the djinn fail to die, the flame that makes up their being inverts, burning with lightless anti-heat.
Three Ghuls occupy the obelisk:
- Semiramis the scholar paints her face in ashes, but her mouth is caked with blood. She is an A template Necromancer, and is accompanied by her Bodyman at all times. Out of laziness, she rarely stoops to fighting herself unless directly threatened.
- Pyrgopolynices the warrior is well-muscled for a corpse, his leathery skin practically lacquered with oil. He has 16 HP, wields a heavy bident of superb make (+1 to hit,) and wears nothing but a muscle cuirass and a ridiculously ornate codpiece (50 SP), granting him AC 14. A hit to the dick will ruin his codpiece but force him to immediately test morale.
- Majordomo the slave hates his eternal servitude, and especially hates the ones he serves. He'll cut a deal, if he thinks he can get away with it: one person to eat and a distraction to make sure he can slip away, and he won't make any trouble.
Movement: As a man, but can turn into a flying cloud of freezing-cold ashes with Subtle Form. Can squeeze through anything dust could pass through in this form.
Morality: Regards you the way a fire regards fuel. Could be distracted with a better heat source, but only temporarily. Nothing burns forever but the rage of a Djinni that has been deceived.
Intelligence: Cunning, but solipsistic. Must SAVE vs. Narcissistic Rage when insulted and must SAVE to go against the word of any agreement they make.
Attacks: +3 to hit, two touches in physical form (1d6 or extinguish a held light source, ghul regains 1 HP,) or an automatic 1 damage per round to anyone it contacts while in Subtle Form.
Heat Death: Ghuls are immune to fire, and when they would take damage from it, they regain an equal amount of HP instead.
Subtle Form: Ghuls, much like living Djinn, have 1 ND and the spell Subtle Form (turn to a cloud for [sum]+[dice] rounds, immune to anything that wouldn't disperse a cloud of dust.)
Undead: Ghuls do not need to sleep, breathe, eat, or drink. They must SAVE to enter sunlight.
Å ar Å arrÄni Anaximandros of the Line of Surya, King of Gourmands, Who Orders the Waters and Earth
7 HD (35 HP), AC as leather, 10 morale
SAVE +3
A massive Ghul, grown huge and long-armed with his years of anthropophagy, dressed in soiled robes that hang off his body like shed skin. He's almost ten feet tall, and has to hunch down to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling. His lips and cheeks are gone, as are his teeth, which have been replaced with fragments of blades shoved haphazardly into his jaws. A golden diadem with a veil of fine chain sits upon his head, worth 300 SP.
Movement: Faster than a man thanks, and can turn into a flying cloud of freezing-cold ashes with Subtle Form. Can squeeze through anything dust could pass through in this form.
Morality: Three things prevail in Anaximandros’s decaying mind: boredom, hunger, and contempt. He hates things that do not entertain or feed him. He eats things that bore and aggravate him. That which he cannot eat or punish, he casts aside.
Intelligence: Stupid and deranged. As far as he is concerned, there is no world outside his tomb, and if there is, it serves only to pay him his tribute of flesh.
Attacks: +5 to hit, one right hand (1d8+2 and SAVE or have a light source extinguished, Anaximandros regains 2 HP) and one left hand (target must beat the roll to hit with a MOVE check or be grappled; subsequent escape attempts are at DC 16,) or an automatic 1 damage per round to anyone he contacts while in Subtle Form. If he has a target already grappled in his left hand, he will forgo that attack to instead bite a limb off (1d6+5, SAVE or lose a random limb. 1d4: 1 left leg, 2 right leg, 3 left arm, 4 right arm.) He doesn't bite off heads because he likes to savor his meal.
Heat Death: Anaximandros is immune to fire, and when he would take damage from it, he regains an equal amount of HP instead.
Subtle Form: Anaximandros, much like living Djinn, has 1 ND and the spell Subtle Form (turn to a cloud for [sum]+[dice] rounds, immune to anything that wouldn't disperse a cloud of dust.)
Undead: Anaximandros does not need to sleep, breathe, eat, or drink. Sunlight burns him like fire for 1d6 damage per round.
A massive Ghul, grown huge and long-armed with his years of anthropophagy, dressed in soiled robes that hang off his body like shed skin. He's almost ten feet tall, and has to hunch down to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling. His lips and cheeks are gone, as are his teeth, which have been replaced with fragments of blades shoved haphazardly into his jaws. A golden diadem with a veil of fine chain sits upon his head, worth 300 SP.
Movement: Faster than a man thanks, and can turn into a flying cloud of freezing-cold ashes with Subtle Form. Can squeeze through anything dust could pass through in this form.
Morality: Three things prevail in Anaximandros’s decaying mind: boredom, hunger, and contempt. He hates things that do not entertain or feed him. He eats things that bore and aggravate him. That which he cannot eat or punish, he casts aside.
Intelligence: Stupid and deranged. As far as he is concerned, there is no world outside his tomb, and if there is, it serves only to pay him his tribute of flesh.
Attacks: +5 to hit, one right hand (1d8+2 and SAVE or have a light source extinguished, Anaximandros regains 2 HP) and one left hand (target must beat the roll to hit with a MOVE check or be grappled; subsequent escape attempts are at DC 16,) or an automatic 1 damage per round to anyone he contacts while in Subtle Form. If he has a target already grappled in his left hand, he will forgo that attack to instead bite a limb off (1d6+5, SAVE or lose a random limb. 1d4: 1 left leg, 2 right leg, 3 left arm, 4 right arm.) He doesn't bite off heads because he likes to savor his meal.
Heat Death: Anaximandros is immune to fire, and when he would take damage from it, he regains an equal amount of HP instead.
Subtle Form: Anaximandros, much like living Djinn, has 1 ND and the spell Subtle Form (turn to a cloud for [sum]+[dice] rounds, immune to anything that wouldn't disperse a cloud of dust.)
Undead: Anaximandros does not need to sleep, breathe, eat, or drink. Sunlight burns him like fire for 1d6 damage per round.
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