This a part of a Tekumel inspired megadungeon I'm working on, as well as an exercise in using different random table utilities.



The Bloadsoaked Temple
The remnants of a temple to an unknown early god constructed of blocks of green obsidian; its ceilings are 20' high and consist of rusted iron plates covered with the remains of spidery cabalistic glyphs, marred into illegibility by the corrosion. The floors are constructed of milky quartz blocks, many bearing the remains of ancient bloodstains. All of the doors will slide sideways into the walls, and are constructed of skull embossed bronze sheets.

A small group of chaotic cultists chose to worship the unknown deity of this temple, they are a pale, unhealthy and unclean lot, with long greasy hair dyed black and clad in tatty black hooded robes and leathers. This sect consists of 6 1st-level fighters (hp: 1, 8, 6, 3, 1, 1; AC: 5 (chain mail); armed with javelins and swords or morning stars); 3 1st-level magic-users (#1: hp: 1; spell: Shield), (#2: hp: 1; spell: Magic Missile), (#3: hp: 4, spell: Shield) armed with wavy daggers; and their master, a 3rd level magic-user (hp: 8; spells: Detect Magic, Read Languages, and Levitate; possesses a Dagger +1 and a Wand of Fireballs with 7 charges).

1. Entrance: a plain archway reaching to the ceiling that is trapped (2/6 chance of each individual passing through to set it off) with a guillotine-like blade (save vs. dragon breath or take 2-12 damage).

2. Outer Hall: the floor is inlaid with a mosaic (of green, red, white and black stone chips) depicting a naked pale witch giving birth to a twisted black child with glowing red eyes.

3. Inner Hall: in the center of the floor is a circular flagstone that can be pried up by several strong men, revealing a spiral staircase of milky quartz descending 20' to 9. There are several niches in the walls containing statues depicting:
a: A bipedal, wingless dragon-like creature, of warped (as if by great heat perhaps) bronze.
b: A creature resembling a horned manticore sans wings rearing up on its rear legs, of milky quartz.
c: A hooded and robed, but otherwise featureless, figure draped with a serpent, in eroded marble.
d: A dragon with a beggar entangled in its coils, of unrusted dull iron.
e: A cruel visaged emperor mounted upon a heavily armored warhorse with children crushed beneath its hooves, of black crystal covered with scrawls of dried blood in archaic chaotic of such statements as "Praise Him!" and "The Merciless Tyrant Reigns!"
f: A hooded and robed, but otherwise featureless, figure mounted upon a horse with fangs; claws in lieu of hooves; and a serpentine tail, lying torn beneath its talons are the bodies of kings; it is black crystal streaked with guano.

4. Storage: this room is stuffed with a multitude of clay pots of varying sizes, all of them empty aside from the residues of organic matter.

5. Sacrificial Storage: this room is scattered with human bones (although close examination may reveal an abnormal amount of extra finger bones), many of which are clasped manacles attached to chains stapled to the walls.

6. Meditation Chamber: a small altar of milky quartz bears several small glowing amber lumps, the desiccated remains of some sort of vaguely toad like creature. The rotten shreds of a silk tapestry adorns the wall behind the altar, depicting only amorphous mottled stains.

7. Prayer Chamber: a small altar of milky quartz, identical to the one in 6 but without any glowing lumps. A mosaic on the floor (of red, white and black stone chips) depicts a hooded and robed black figure engulfed in flames floating among the stars.

8. Altar Chamber: this room is dominated by the statue of hooded and robed figure, wearing a cruelly spiked crown but otherwise featureless, that towers almost to the ceiling. It is of stone, but has been painted fuligin. Before it stands an atar of carved white alabaster with manacles and chains bolted to it, all of it caked with ancient dried blood. Beneath the layer of dried blood are gold inlays of sinister glyphs, the gold inlays can be pried out and the altar bears 3000 gp worth of gold in them. Decaying tattered tapestries on the west and east wall depict the same figure sacrificing a dragon upon the same altar. One of the dragons has gold scales and the other ones are silver; which wall bears the tapestry depicted which dragon is randomly determined each time the party enters the room. The glyphs in the altar are in archaic chaotic and the inscription reads:

"Mightiest am I,
but I am not alone in this cosmos of mine.
For the black hills consists of black souls,
souls that already dies one thousand deaths.
Behind the stone walls (of centuries) they breed their black art.
Boiling their spells in cauldrons of black gold.

Far up in the mountains,
where the rain fall not far,
yet the Sun cannot reach.
The wizards, my servants,

summon the souls of macrocosm.
No age will escape my wrath.
I travel through time and I return to the future.
I gather wisdom now lost.
I visit again the eternally ancient caves,
before a mighty Emperor thereupon came.
Watching the mortals "discovering" my chronicles, guarded
by the old demons, even unknown to me.

Once destroyed their souls are being summoned
to my timeless prison of hate.
It is delightful to feast upon the screaming souls
that were destroyed in my future.

How many wizards that serve me with evil, I know not.
My empires has no limits.

From the never ending mountains black, to the bottomless lakes.
I am the ruler and has been for eternities long.
I am them.

From the never ending mountains black, to the bottomless lakes.
I am the ruler and has been for eternities long.
My wizards are many, but their essence is mine.
Forever they are in the hills in their stone homes of grief.
Because I am the spirit of their existence.
I am them."

9. Prison of the Skull: this huge circular room is the prison of a Spectral Skull (HD: 6+3; hp: 32; AC: 3; MV: 18; bite 1-12; surprise on ⅚; ethereal at will; spit fire 30' for 1-6). 6000 cp, 5000 sp, 4 gems (50 gp chrysoberyl, 100 gp peridot, 450 gp garnet, 1000 gp star sapphire), 5 pieces of jewelry (600 gp silver, 800 gp silver and gold, 1000 gp silver and gold, 1500 gp gold, 4000 gp gold with gems) and a Shield +1 are in a stone chest.


NOTES: The Spectral Skull is from The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms.

Pretty cool.

Tell us more about the cultists. The temple doesn't seem to be their living quarters so where did they come from? The description sounds like there haven't been any recent sacrifices?

Also, what's imprisoning Radiskull if he can go ethereal?

Just had the chance to read it. This is pretty cool. I like it.

EDIT - added a link to this thread in the Dungeon design resource thread stickied in the Design & Development forum.

I hereby endorse this mini-module.

Thanks! I ended up using it as a side-adventure ("I know of an abandoned temple where there is a great treasure hidden!") option vs my regular megadungeon, and it turned out pretty well.

Also, the script on the altar is the lyrics to the song "I am the Black Wizards" by Emperor; I kept generating random content that made me think of that band/song so I went with it.

Quote from: Spinachcat;542971Tell us more about the cultists. The temple doesn't seem to be their living quarters so where did they come from? The description sounds like there haven't been any recent sacrifices?

Also, what's imprisoning Radiskull if he can go ethereal?

I caught both of those issue after finishing it, but decided to keep it as is due to me really digging seemingly contradictory or absent information in adventures and riffing off of it.

Riffing off of the OD&D men in dungeons, who were "monsters" that lived in the darkness, I imagined the cultists to be these crazy, deluded wannabe dark lord losers who stumbled across or heard of this temple and were actually roughing it in the temple, sleeping on the floor in the dark, subsisting on stale rations and water, occasionally attempting rituals of worship (after the party abandoned an unconscious elf PC during one of their forays there was indeed a recent sacrifice); with elements of it being some sort of mystery cult initiation.

Regarding Radiskull, I imagined that he was imprisoned in the secret basement due to some enchantment cast upon him or the stone of the basement walls, floors and ceiling.

Nice to see the Spectral Skull getting used!

Random magical imprisonment works. Not that it matters, I also have a rule that ethereal beings can only pass through non-ethereal matter; if someone transforms stone into ethereal stone, these can be used to build ethereal stone walls that block passage. If Radiskull had been incapacitated while materialized, transported into the physical location that had been sealed ethereally, and then the spiral staircase was materially sealed, he would be unable to get out. Unsealing the spiral staircase lets him materialize and escape through that exit.

He will probably be pissed. And hungry.

Quote from: talysman;543476He will probably be pissed. And hungry.

When I ran it I had the Spectral Skull saying things like "I'm going to eat you up!" and "My big sharp teeth will rip you to shreds!" while trying to munch on the Robot (robocop crossed with the tin man) PC.

Quote from: Planet Algol;543554When I ran it I had the Spectral Skull saying things like "I'm going to eat you up!" and "My big sharp teeth will rip you to shreds!" while trying to munch on the Robot (robocop crossed with the tin man) PC.

Just admit it was a... warforged.

Quote from: Melan;543562Just admit it was a... warforged.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooo ......!!!!!!!!!!!! ONE

PS: I am actually cool with the warforged. "OMG! The Taliban thinks the warforged can be cool. WTF?"

Quote from: Melan;543562Just admit it was a... warforged.

But... but... ...I lifted it from a Gene Wolfe novel.

QuoteGene Wolfe... is he one of those communist authors? Tell me, are you some kind of communist? Have you ever associated with known communists or communist sympathisers?

/

....ummm ....I do like the China Mieville novels which have swordfights with monsters in them.

Quote from: Planet Algol;543595....ummm ....I do like the China Mieville novels which have swordfights with monsters in them.

You might be a communist, then.