Post-It Dungeon for October TWO !!!

WE'RE DOIN' IT AGAIN!!!

 

This dungeon can be either standalone (in which case there is an area for a potential entrance marked with a large E on the map above) or it can serve as a lower dungeon level for the previous post-it dungeon, with a staircase connecting room 11 on the previous map with room 1 (the circular room) above. I'm going to be running this as a dungeon of multiple post-it sized levels, but you don't have to :)

 

This dungeon is divided into two distinct halves by a ravine which is itself crossed by a single rickety rope-and-plank bridge. Rooms 1 through 13 are subterranean, carved into the cliff-face on the western side of the ravine (if using this as a lower level from the previous post-it dungeon, then the floor above is located entirely on this side of the ravine, seeing as the previous floor is entirely underground). Rooms 14 through 22 are part of a vaguely triangular hedge maze/garden (i.e. unlike the other side, this side of the dungeon is completely open air and, during the day, well lit). The rocky outcropping which serves as a connection point for the bridge between the two sides is marked with a *. 

 

Room Key

1: Wide circular room with one entrance and exit, a stone doorway carved to resemble two Grecian columns. On the opposite point of the circle from the doorway is a statue of a skinned saint, holding his skin loosely in his hand. The statue has been defaced with a stinking black oil, and a paper slip written on with the "abyssal" trigram (☵) is affixed to the statue's forehead. At the statue's feet is the burnt residue of some magical ritual. There is a stand in the center of the room that would have originally held a fully articulated skeleton, but everything except the feet are missing.

from The Boxer's Omen (1983)

2:  Small square chamber with three entrances/exits; the northern exit has a locked door, while the other two are wide open. There is an elaborate series of pulleys connected to a wooden plate on the floor just inside the door that connects rooms 1 and 2. On the pressure plate is written a sacred sutra. If the pressure plate is stepped on (and the sutra disrespected) a glass jar full of concentrated poison of several snakes and scorpions will swing down and hit the stepper in the head, dealing 1d6 damage and poisoning the victim (save or die in 1d4 turns without antidote).

 

3: Empty storage room full of crates and clay pots. Most of the containers are empty, but one clay pot contains honey flecked with gold worth 75 gp. 

 

4: A large, open many-columned reception hall, now empty. There is a single throne, the cushion slashed and defaced, against the southwestern wall, between the two doorways. Four tattered tapestries depicting battle scenes of nameless knights hang between the columns on either side of the hall.

 

5: The sleeping quarters of a few of the laborers who built this place, now long dead. The skeleton of one such laborer is under a motheaten blanket on a small cot. 4 hungry ghosts linger in this room. There is nothing of value.

 

6: Triangular chamber with 5 jiangshi listlessly lingering. Cushions and broken plates strewn about imply a party was once held here.

 

7: A small shrine room with only one entrance/exit. On the opposite side of the chamber, flanked by facsimile trees, sits a stone statue of a saint that seems to have been doubly defaced, first by spilling blood on it and carving a pentagram into the statue's chest, and then by the affixing of a paper slip with the "abyssal" trigram onto the forehead of the saint. The saint's left hand points down, and on his outstretched finger is a ring of control plants.

 

8: Small square chamber decorated with paintings, all slashed and defaced. A locked ebony-and-silver chest (itself worth 100 gp) on the western wall contains 400 gp worth of spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, long pepper, etc).

 

9: Circular room with a deep turquoise reflecting pool in the center. The water itself reaches up with furtive tendrils when objects of any sort are held over it, and anything which is given over to the water is returned broken down into its fundamental parts. I.e., a sword is returned as the ingots of metal and strips of leather used to make it, and then if the metal is dropped in it is returned as unsmelted ore (or an unprocessed hide in the case of the leather), and so on. A secret door on the south end of the room is only able to be opened if an object refined by the waters is touched to it.

 

10: Hallway flanked by large stone columns, to which stick the still-writhing crushed bodies of a few muttering jiangshi. The flagstones on the floor are decorated with heraldic insignia; if any flagstone (pressure plate) decorated with the cross is stepped on, the columns surge out and crush the stepper, save or die.

 

11: The doors to this room are barricaded shut from the outside. Within, a cloud of seven giant mosquitos suck blood from each other ad infinitum, corpses long sucked dry strewn about on the floor. A single dried-out body in mystical robes (if the sorcerer in room 13 is asked, it is his assistant Pan Qigang) clutches a crystal ball with clauraudience, as well as a small packet of rare spices worth 25 gp.

 

12: A long, rectangular room with a long rug (worth 50 gp) down the room's full length and a large sandalwood chest on the western wall. The chest contains a brocade of silk worth 400 gp as well as a set of silver buttons worth 100 gp. However, the lock on the chest is a complex puzzle lock that, if not solved correctly, instead opens a secret compartment which flings out a magically enlarged saint's tongue that pins the player against the opposite wall of the chamber, immobilizing them and dealing 2d6 damage. If the secret compartment is broken open through means other than the puzzle lock, the player finds a dried flake scraped off of the tongue of a martyr-saint. There is a secret door on the eastern wall (opposite the chest), connecting to room 3. If this secret door is opened even once, the tongue cannot pin the victim against the opposite wall.

 

13: Large, coffin-shaped room visibly carved out more recently than any other room in the complex. Was once the resting place of the vampire which now lives in the garden/hedge maze. Now serves as the lair of the dark sorcerer Xuán Fashi, master of jiangshi. He can cast the spells darkness, sleep, phantasmal force, hold person, and magic missile. In addition to the sorcerer himself, there are 2d6+2 jiangshi in this room at any given time, serving as guards or domestic servants for their master. Underneath Xuán Fashi's cushion, he is hiding a cursed gemstone (functions as a staff of withering); he has a scroll of blight (as the reversed cleric spell) sewn into the sleeves of his robe. There is a large sack of golden animal figures worth 1,000 gp sitting on the floor next to the sorcerer's cushion. There is a barrel full of garlic and onions off to the side of the room.

 

*: Rocky outcrop on the cliff-face, onto which is affixed a rickety rope-and-board bridge. This bridge can only support one person at a time, and if they are fully encumbered they will count as two people for the purposes of risking breakage and tumbling down into the ravine below.

 

14: Half-circle of hedges with three openings to the northwest, northeast, and southeast. An armless marble statue of a beautiful woman (150 gp) stands watch in the center of the "room."

 

15: 7 jack-o-lanterns slumber in this half-circular hedge-room. When "sleeping" they appear as oversized carved pumpkins, but they can be heard to softly snore. When awoken, their full bodies reveal themselves and they attack. There is a wooden table in the center of the room with a picnic arrayed on it.

 

16: A small room, only slightly wider than the halls of the hedge maze, crisscrossed by thorny vines. Must be carefully traversed, lest the player (on a failed DEX check) trips and falls onto the thorns, taking 1d6 damage. A skeleton caught in the vines is holding a silver dagger +1 against apes.

 

17: The largest single area in the hedge maze. Empty save for a stone fountain in the center, burbling with slightly mineral-tasting water. The fountain features a central figure of a robed woman pouring out water from an amphora, flanked by frogs, fishes, herons, and large insects.

 

18: A vaguely triangular clearing in the hedgemaze, featuring a large grandfather clock on the outside (west-facing) wall. This grandfather clock is inhabited by 3 imps of the perverse, but if they are appeased or dispelled then the hands on the clock may be moved to change the time of day manually.

from The Gorilla (1927)

19: Square hedge maze room with a single large peach tree in the middle, on which a tree house sits squarely in the branches. This is the lair of the vampire Frau Viktoria Blutinova and her Gorilla. She despises the dark sorcerer Xuán Fashi for exiling her from her abode in room 13. She has a wooden garden bed filled with her grave dirt on which she sleeps during the day, and is seen presiding over a court of 2d6 giant mosquitoes, 1d8+1 vipers, and The Gorilla at night. She sends The Gorilla (which is under her mind control via a television set embedded in its chest) out on her evil business. There is a televisual transmitter (complete with camera) at a desk in the corner of the tree house lair (the camera and any of the other devices are worth 200 gp each). She does not have much in the way of treasure or magic items, since the dark sorcerer stole most of it when he took her previous lair. A secret door made of vines and roots connects to the hallway between rooms 18 and 20/21/22.

 

20: A stagnant pond in the center of this room is the home of 12 giant mosquitoes, as well as their defenseless larvae.

 

21: A small side area in the hedge maze with a tall wooden gardener's shack. Inside, in addition to the skeleton of the long dead gardener, are several rusted trowels, hedge clippers, sickles, shovels, etc. There is a chainsaw, but no fuel. In the gardener's dead hand is a whittled carving of a bird.

 

22: A pumpkin patch (just normal pumpkins, no jack-o-lanterns present other than from a wandering monster roll). One of the larger pumpkins has pinned a dead squirrel to the ground, on top of a dirty silk cushion. If cleaned properly, it is worth 300 gp because of its fine detail work.

 

RANDOM ENCOUNTERS

Roll 1d6:

1: 1d4 hungry ghosts (stats as wraith, easily pacified/distracted by food or sacrificing money, completely dispelled by helping them move on past their fixation on desire)

2: 1d6+1 jiangshi (stats as wight, cannot be turned as normal, see below)

3: 2d6 imps of the perverse (stats as goblin except with flight and the spells putrefy food and water and cause light wounds)

4: 1d8+1 pit vipers

5: 1d8 jack-o-lanterns (stats as bugbear)

6: 2d6 giant mosquitos (stats as stirge)

7: The Gorilla (stats as white ape with charm person via the vampire's television screen embedded in chest)

 

When the players are in the subterranean halls (west side), roll 1d6. When the players are in the hedge maze (east side), roll 1d6+1. If the dark sorcerer Xuán Fashi has been defeated, roll 1d6 but replace #2 (1d6+1 jiangshi) with The Gorilla. If the vampire Frau Viktoria Blutinova has been defeated, just roll 1d6 as normal for both sides of the dungeon.

from one of the Mr. Vampire movies, I'm pretty sure

Jiangshi  

Stats as wight, except:

Hopping: Jiangshi can only locomote by hopping due to rigor mortis.

Mundane Damage Immunity: Jiangshi are immune to damage from mundane weapons and any magical weapon with a bonus less than +2. They take double damage from any weapon formed from the wood of a peach tree.

Turning: Jiangshi cannot be turned by clerics.

Weaknesses: Jiangshi are turned when presented with mirrors, or when they hear the call of a rooster. They are completely immobilized by a paper talisman being affixed to their forehead. If you hold your breath, a jiangshi is unable to perceive you. 

 

-----------------------------------

 

Just like how the last one lifted liberally from 1950s/60s sci-fi horror (with the two-headed wasps like something out of The Wasp Woman or Monster from Green Hell, the mad scientist, and the robot) as well as undead gothic stuff with the ghouls (Tombs of the Blind Dead or (indirectly) Lovecraft's Pickman's Model), this one takes inspiration from suitably seasonal media and literary sources. This paragraph might as well serve as a kind of appendix N of sorts. The main sources here are Hong Kong horror films (Devil Fetus, Mr. Vampire, Troublesome Night, A Chinese Ghost Story, and especially The Boxer's Omen), vampire media/literature (the original Lugosi Dracula, Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla and 1970s lesbian vampire movies like The Vampire Lovers and Vampyros Lesbos), and, of course, horror movies featuring gorillas (especially poverty row pictures like The Ape (1940) or Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932, also with Bela Lugosi); also of note here is the TV-headed gorilla-bodied Ro-man from The Robot Monster (1953)). Put one of these on in the background for ambience when running this dungeon, why not!! On top of all this, I'll recommend Shigeru Mizuki's GeGeGe no Kitaro, manga or anime either one, for the crossovers between east Asian folkloric creatures and western movie/literary monsters. Backbeard would be a very fun villain to drop into a D&D game.

 

ALSO I got several (exactly two) comments here on the blog/on Discord about how the key for the last dungeon can't fit on a post-it, so I wanted to make sure to go ahead and write a pared-down version to do just that.

 

Transcription of my hard to read handwriting:

1: 7 walls depicting saints. Articulated skeleton in center, 1 gp worth of silver wire

2: Red devil head on wall, opal eyes 25 gp each, stepping on tongue floods room w/ blood

3: Pipes + rag-man

4: Library, skeleton w/ stinger in back. Silver book 1k gp

5: Flickering candle wick w/ whale oil trap

6: empty armor + empty skin

7: Pond w/ 5 pale crocs. Jeweled gauntlet 1k gp

8: 36 ghouls in lair

9: see above. secret door.

10: 5 black puddings + green slime

11: Idealized vision mirror

12: Ghoul princess lair. peacock fan worth 350 gp

13: Antique chair nailed to floor, 600 gp 

14: banquet hall

15: Scientist's lab. The Robot, needs silver wire.

16: 10 wasp-things

17: tiled mosaics

18: tiles on floor, pressure plates launch bricks, 1d6x1d6 damage.

 

This loses a lot of the vibes of the original key but it replaces it with a certain Arnesonian/Castle Greyhawkian minimalism.

 

I will not be doing this for dungeons in the future. I just like drawing the map on a post-it to be completely honest. 

Post-it Dungeon for October

There's been lots of talk among the OSR of character sheets, monster stats, or even whole dungeon maps that can fit on a typical 3x5 index card. But what about something EVEN SMALLER!!! Just on a whim, I drew up a dungeon map on a post-it note and stocked it as basically a funhouse dungeon (albeit with factions) as an exercise of sorts. Its fun to see what sorts of shapes you can just shove into such a small-square area! There's only one entry/exit to this particular locale, so it wouldn't work very well as a modular dungeon morph or anything, but I think you could easy make a modular dungeon out of small post-it chunks too (I'm pretty sure someone else has done that before but I don't recall who). I'm planning on running this as a duet game with my girlfriend so if you're her DON'T READ THIS!

 

ALSO ITS OCTOBER NOW !!!! So the donjon is mildly spooky themed

 

ROOM KEY

1: Heptagonal chamber (where an eighth side would be is instead the entry to a hallway, southeast). Each wall has a carved figure of a martyred saint, representing the seven virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, faith, hope, and charity). Their injuries correspond to their respective virtue (prudence has been gored through the brain (seat of rationality), justice sits on the executioner's block, etc.) A fully articulated human skeleton (1 gp worth of silver wire holds the whole thing together) with one hand held upwards and the other downwards stands in the center of the room, its feet buried into the dark clay of the floor.

2: Square chamber, both door entrances to room 2 are locked, and will lock behind the players if not propped open. The sound of moving liquid can be heard through the walls, vaguely echoing throughout the chamber. The northern wall sports a large red devil head, mouth agape, tongue outstretched, and sporting two gemstone eyes (opals worth 25 gp). The tongue is the most obvious platform from which to pry the opals out, but stepping on the tongue opens pipes that begin to pour viscous blood into the room, steadily flooding it until the whole chamber is filled with blood, floor to ceiling, in 1 exploration turn.

3: The north wall of this chamber bows out in a gentle curve, patterned on the inside like the spine and ribcage of a great turtle. A mass of rusty metal pipes crisscross this room, primarily north-south, leading into the trap in room 2. A rag-man (vaguely humanoid form whose features are indistinct under piles of rags, stats as hobgoblin) with long pallid arms has set up camp in the far northwestern corner of the room, hanging up a dirty cloth over the pipes like a shelter. His name is Yarfan Loam and he wants nothing to do with the fight between the scientist and the ghouls. He is certain that one of the pipes in this room is full of sweet yogurt but is too afraid of breaking open the blood pipes to find it.

4: An abandoned library full of ancient books that crumble to dust when touched. A skeleton lays slumped on the desk in the center of the room, with a large wasp stinger buried in its spine. One book on the shelf on the eastern wall is made entirely of silver, every page a thinly hammered sheet, and written on in blood. This tome is worth 1,000 gp. The southern wall of this chamber is very thin and can be easily broken through with the right tools, leading you to the narrow passageway between rooms 1/5/6 to the west and rooms 14/15/16 to the east.

5: Rectangular chamber with a steep, narrow corner on the northeast edge. A flickering flame behind a pane of stained glass in that steep corner casts multicolored lights in an arc across the room. Stepping too close to the stained glass causes a trap door, hidden under a rug, to collapse, dropping the victim into a cistern full of whale oil (the fuel for the flame behind the glass pane). High risk of drowning follows, and a major difficulty in retrieving anyone who fell in due to the slipperiness of the oil.

6: Small square chamber. Two sets of empty suits of armor flank the room on the north and south walls. An empty husk of human skin lays on the floor.

7: A pond in the center of this chamber is home to 5 pale crocodiles. They are attracted to light, and lay strewn about the edges of the body of water. Going through this room inevitably involves skirting by the edge of the pond. One half-submerged skeleton has a jewel-encrusted gauntlet worth 1,000 gp. The skin of an individual pale crocodile is worth 150 gp to the right buyer.

8: Part of the home base/lair of the ghouls, a community that has made this dungeon home. There are 36 ghouls total living in the dungeon, including their leader, the Ghoul Princess Hyrcania Forsooth. They live in mud-daub huts built directly into the sloping triangular walls of rooms 8, 9, and 12, with the exception of the aforementioned Ghoul Princess (who wears a cape made from moth's wings) and some of her subordinates in their tribe, who live in family mausolea carved directly into the walls. The bodies of the formerly interred inhabitants are left leaning up against the wall with gold coins on their eyes and under their tongues. The ghouls farm giant ticks, which subsist on blood from giant flightless vampire bats, which themselves subsist on blood from pale crocodiles, which eat pale eyeless fish (who in turn scrape pallid algae off the rocks, or eat pale crayfish that scrape pallid algae off the rocks). Many of the ghouls yearn for the taste of human flesh, and would do anything for a bite, even though the Ghoul Princess hasn't allowed them to eat their enemy, The Scientist. The ghouls wield spears and their own paralytic touch, and look like shrink-wrapped corpses with unusually long faces and long silvery mops of hair.

9: Part of the home base/lair of the ghouls. Nothing notable except for more ghoul huts and disinterred corpses leaning on the walls. A secret door (the entire wall can rotate when the right brick is pressed) connects this room to room 14. The ghouls aren't aware of the secret door.

10: Behind the stuck door that connects this room to room 8, this room is crawling with 5 black puddings on the floor and dripping green slime on the ceiling. There is no treasure; indentations in the wall where rich wooden artifacts would have been placed have been eroded by the oozes.

11: There is a tall mirror on the wall opposite the entrance to this room (i.e. the eastern wall), which shows an idealized version of anyone who looks into it. One party member (randomly determined) will not appear in the mirror at all, no matter what, seemingly implying the world would be better off without them in it. As mentioned below, under random encounters, if The Robot is roaming, this room will be full of roosting giant flightless vampire bats.

12: Part of the home base/lair of the ghouls. This room is the location of the grand mausoleum of Ghoul Princess Hyrcania Forsooth. She has a peacock feather fan in pride of place in her mausoleum, worth 350 gp. Directly opposite is the largest giant tick pen where the ghouls farm tick blood.

13: This room is completely empty except for a beautifully carved antique chair, complete with handwoven upholstery in the style of a Persian rug. The feet of the chair are nailed to the floor. This chair is worth 600 gp.

14: This room has the appearance of a throne room and banquet chamber for some long forgotten evil lord. There are tattered tapestries on the walls, cornices in the shapes of bats and spiders, and a central banquet table with fragile, nearly collapsed chairs. There are no cups nor silverware on the table, and no treasure of any kind.

from (I'm pretty sure) The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

15: The laboratory of The Scientist. He is a recent arrival to the dungeon and has taken over what appears to have been formerly an armory or pantry of some kind (complete with crumbled barrels and rusted polearms leaning against the walls) as an impromptu laboratory, having set up tables covered with all manner of alembics, bunsen burners, diodes, electrical equipment, glass containers of sulfuric acid, etc. A humanoid robot stands off to the side, with a door in its torso open to reveal unfinished mechanisms and wiring. The Scientist wants to study the ghouls' paralytic powers, to determine whether it is a venom or a psychosomatic effect; he also looks down on the ghouls, and considers them beneath him, in a manner similar to a scholarly colonialist. He is working on the aforementioned robot to break into the ghouls' lair, but it needs silver wiring to be complete and he currently doesn't have any. In the meantime, he has bred a race of mutated two-headed and two-stingered wasp things that act as his more brutish underlings.

16: Nest of some of The Scientist's wasp things. There are 10 wasp things that dwell in this strangely circular chamber, complete with a domed ceiling. The floor is sticky with their secretions.

17: Circular chamber with a domed ceiling. The ceiling sports tiled mosaics depicting hell scenes, including scenes of sinners having to march into a gaping hellmouth. The mosaic tiles are worth 2 for 1 gp to an artist. 2-in-6 chance that 1d6 wasp things from room 16 will also be present in this room.

18: Circular chamber with a domed ceiling. The ceiling clearly used to sport tiled mosaics, except now most of the tiles have fallen to the floor, and there are some bricks missing in the walls. The fallen tiles obscure pressure plates in the floor which, when pressed down on, activate a pneumatic trap that launches bricks out of the walls straight at head-height. Victims take 1d6 damage per brick for 1d6 bricks launched. Halflings and other diminutive types are immune.

from Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)

RANDOM ENCOUNTERS

Roll 1d6

1: 1d8 giant flightless vampire bats

2: 1d4+1 wasp things (allied with The Scientist)

3: 1d6 ghouls with 2d6 giant ticks on leashes (part of the Ghouls faction)

4: 2d6 black puddings

5: 2d6+1 moss-encrusted skeletons (controlled by a mute necromancer in the next room; if the necromancer is killed, replace this entry with 10d6 dermestid beetles)

6: 1d6 pale crocodiles (if 4 are rolled, one pale crocodile is wearing a black cape)

7: The Robot (stats as iron living statue)

If (and ONLY if) The Scientist is able to finish creating The Robot in his laboratory in room 15, add +1 to random encounter rolls. The Robot is his latest attempt to one-up the Ghouls and find access to their secret chambers. It is impossible to encounter giant flightless vampire bats when The Robot is about, because its slow shuddering footfalls scare them, leaving all of the remaining giant flightless vampire bats to roost in room 11 (as far from The Scientist's laboratory as possible).

wasp-thing photocollage by me

Wasp Thing

No. Encountered: 1d4+1 (up to 2d6+1 in lair)

Hit Dice: 2

Attacks: 2 stings (1d6+1 and venom, see below)

Armor: as chain and shield

Morale: 7

Flying: Wasp things can fly, albeit clumsily. Given the cramped quarters of the dungeon, they don't do that often outside of combat, where it gives them a height advantage.

Venomous sting: Each individual target stung must make a save vs. poison (only one save is made, even if stung twice; receiving 2 stings gives disadvantage on the saving throw) or swell up uncontrollably, making any armor uncomfortable to wear and making any pressure or weight put on the body (like opening a door, pushing an object, lifting treasure, etc.) deal 1d4 damage. This effect lasts for 2d6 exploration turns.

The stats for all the other monsters can be either inferred or are described using equivalents from OSR games, mentioned above :)

This dungeon ended up being a bit less Halloween-themed than I initially intended but its still kinda spooky and I feel like it all came together very satisfactorily :) Hope y'all like it!

Observatory of the Beyond: A Dungeon for GAMMA WORLD

I set a goal for myself of making at least one post a month every month this summer. It's now the tail end of September, and I've got one post to show for it. Shameful! My RPG juices have been really not flowing, busy with personal life events (moved in with my girlfriend which is lovely!) and NOT running or playing in anything has really done a number on my creative output. I'm still plugging away on MORTUARY ON MOTH MOUNTAIN, an adventure location zine for King of Kings that I announced last year; a few months ago I lost all of the image files I used in doing the graphic design, so I've had to start over on that. BUT I will not naysay overmuch. Below is an adventure location for GAMMA WORLD and other post-apocalyptic type roleplaying games that I put together just to get something to go from brain to paper to computer screen, so to speak. Hope you like it!

 

OBSERVATORY OF THE BEYOND

Sitting atop a grassy hill, looming from between the sickly copses of trees that dot the landscape, is a concrete construction that, from afar, looks almost like a slate grey flying saucer, or perhaps a faceless turtle. Once a traveler ventures closer, however, they begin to hear it: the awful, awful buzzing. This is a place of no honor.

Far from any village, mutant or otherwise, this uncanny brutalist structure is a strange type of observatory, built for inscrutable reasons by the ancients. It is not a typical telescope observatory, not like the kind that Amish astrologers use. It was instead a radio observatory, its sensors and dishes tuned into a particular frequency, in this case the frequency that all other observatories do their best to ignore, drown out, and go past: the staticky sound of cosmic background radiation. It is said that the ancients that built this unseemly place wished to meditate on the waveforms of the very sounds of the universe itself, and on the impacts that this sound has on the minds of mortal men. What impact that is, from whispered rumors, is one that surely nobody would like to experience for themselves. It's no wonder the grand civilization of the ancients collapsed into ruin and ash, if they were such perverts who fixated on the evil noise between the stars.

But, perhaps that sound could be put to better use today. Or perhaps the technological wonders rumored to be on the other end of the uncanny sound entice you. Or maybe you just want to be the first to push past superstition and get all the copper wiring out of the walls of the place. The Observatory of the Beyond buzzes uncaringly atop that wretched hill all the same.

 

 

 

Room Key

The Main Facility

1: After entering through the still-operating airlock (marked with a set of two doors ('D') on the map above), this room was originally storage for personal items and hazmat suits worn outside the facility. There are 12 hooks for suits on the walls, all but two of which are empty. One of the hooks has a filthy rag on which is written a confession, while another has a hazmat suit sized for an unmutated human (resistance to toxins and radiation).

2: The main hub of the facility. A short desk faces the doorway leading to room 1, while a circular table set in the center of the room served as a dining table, complete with skeletons seated in the chairs. Ffarad Ssef, Hisser scholar, has set up camp in this room. He has a circular tent pitched off to the north side of the room, between the doors that open to rooms 8 and 14. He has an electric stove, battery-powered, as well as a cassette recorder (also battery-powered).

3: Supply closet. Full of brooms, mechano-mops, rusted hypertechnological vacuums, etc. One hypervacuum is in working order (complexity C, can be operated to suck in 1 human-sized opponent within range or blow air to knock over 1 human-sized opponent).

4: Kitchen. Full of (now long broken) stoves, ovens, microwaves, refrigerators, and dirty plates.

5: Hallway. Lights are flickering on low power in this room, as well as rooms 6 and 7. Visible damage to the walls, caused by Jeb Gorn.

6: Electrical and HVAC room, door locked (this isn't noted on the map above). Any damage done to the electrical system will knock out all of the lights in the entire facility (the speaker system and radio array will be unaffected, since they are on a separate electrical grid). Jeb Gorn really wants to get in here. Hidden in a ventilation pipe is a human skeleton wearing a set of ultraviolet goggles (complexity A).

7: Large pantry. Food is all rotted away, turned to dust, or eaten long ago by now. One crate is full to the brim with 16 stargazing rats.

8: Bathroom with four stalls, no urinals. There is a skeleton seated on one of the toilets. A doorway leads to room 9, while a small tube (only smaller-than-human-sized characters can fit) out the back wall (not noted on the above map) leads to rooms 10 and 11.

9: Multi-purpose room that once did double duty as a shower and storage room. The water still functions just barely.

10: Hydroponic self-cycling garden under a set of fluorescent lights. The garden beds are overflowing with cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, and watermelons. The watermelons explode when agitated, dealing 4d6 damage to those in range and possibly setting off a chain reaction. Living amongst the plants are 24 moldlings with large eyes, who hate the moldlings that live in room 11.

11: Another garden room. The garden beds are overflowing with squat stalks of corn, beans, oversized squashes, and potatoes. Living amongst the plants are 32 moldlings with large eyes, who hate the moldlings that live in room 10. There is a water pump and hose attached to the wall (complexity D) which when operated and placed into a source of liquid can issue forth a blast of water.

12: Office/laboratory. Rows of desks, desktop computers and word processors, knickknacks. Door north leads to room 13, the radio array control room. The narrow passage to room 13 is monitored by the Securitron, a mobile robotic security unit that will not leave room 12 but will attempt to destroy any who attempt to enter room 13.

13: Radio array control room. Door is locked and reinforced. This is the only room in the facility that can turn on and off the radio array, lower or raise the volume of the loudspeakers, etc. A skeleton sits in the command chair, wearing a pair of headphones. Ffarad Ssef really wants to get in here.

14: Sitting room. A skeleton sits in an armchair, holding a rusted knife.

15: Men's sleeping quarters. The ancient mystic-scientists who lived here were gender segregationists for some reason. Some of the 12 beds have skeletons in them. One bed has a single stun ray (complexity C) hidden under perfectly tucked in sheets.

16: Preparation room for the maze. Boots and pairs of goggles left strewn across the floor and benches.

17: Women's sleeping quarters. Some of the 10 beds have skeletons in them. One bed has keys to a hover car stashed under the pillow (whereabouts of the car itself unknown).

18: Secondary bathroom. No shower. Visible damage to the walls caused by Jeb Gorn.

 

The Hypno-Maze

The Hypno-Maze was originally used by the ancient mystic-scientists to study the effects of the cosmic background radiation signal on addled minds. Test subjects (usually volunteers) would be sent through the dimly lit maze, sometimes drugged, made to wander the winding halls until they became confused, and the signal would be played over the loudspeakers to add to their confusion. When wandering the Hypno-Maze, when you roll for a random encounter, roll 1d6:

1: Sources of light go out.

2-3: The players are confused and have been twisted around. Turn them to walk in the opposite direction without their knowledge.

4-5: Hallucination (see below).

6: Exhaustion.

 

Room 19: The only actual room in the Hypno-Maze. Octagonal, with an opening that connects to two passageways in the Hypno-Maze, this served as a resting area and meditation room for those who completed one round of traversing the maze. A ratty rug has a single skeleton in a crumbled lotus pose leaning against the wall. Inside the area where the skeleton's stomach would have been is a keycard to room 13. There is a pile of bottles of purified water on the floor against one of the walls.

 

Random Encounters (for the Main Facility)

Roll 1d6:

1-2: 2d6 Stargazing rats

3: 1 confused and agitated Soul besh

4: Ffarad Ssef, psychic Hisser scholar

5: Jeb Gorn, mutated human copper-burglar

6: Rogue soundwave

Ffarad Ssef and Jeb Gorn are unique characters, and killing them removes them from the encounter table. There are 2 soul beshes total in the observatory; killing both removes them from the encounter table. Replace any removed entries with another result for 2d6 stargazing rats.

A rogue soundwave is a sudden glitch and power surge in the observatory's radio array and internal speaker system which sends out a surprise blast of cosmic background radiation signal through the area the players are currently in. Track the number of rogue soundwaves rolled; after 3 rogue soundwaves, each subsequent one prompts a save vs. mental effects (or a roll against a character's MS score) or else each character experiences a randomly determined hallucination:

Hallucinations from Beyond the Stars (Main Facility)

Roll 1d6:

1: A piercing migraine roils through your skull, as the world around you plunges into the darkest night. Pinpricks of light, stars off in the far, far distance, stab through your eyes like porcupine quills. Collapse to the ground in pain.

2: A looming planet hangs over you, casting a terrible shadow as you fall to your knees in awe and majesty.

3: You feel your skin begin to burn to a crisp. It's only a sensation, not the real thing, but the pain is debilitating until something snaps you out of it.

4: You don't see anything, but you hear the unmistakable rustling sounds of something whooshing past you, the unshakable feeling that you are being watched that won't go away until you leave the room.

5: Rhythmic beeping in your ears that keeps going even after the rogue soundwave falls away, growing louder and louder and louder until you can't function.

6: The walls fall away, revealing a faceless crowd of silhouetted figures just outside of your field of vision. The anxiety caused by this revelations prompts you to flee at high speeds, even though you can't see your surroundings; 3-in-6 chance you hit a wall.

 

hallucinatory horror from between the stars

 

Hallucinations from Beyond the Stars (Hypno-Maze) 

All hallucination rolls on the random encounter table when in the Hypno-Maze prompt a roll on the table below. 

Roll 1d6:

1: A shuddering hallucinatory horror from between the stars melts out from the wall, or suddenly appears when you turn a corner! A pile of shivering visceral tendrils and uncertain limbs, this star vampire lunges at you, you feel its teeth digging into your flesh, but the whole experience never occurred.

2: Suddenly, you collapse to the floor under the weight of gravity on a world you've never set foot on, crushing you, pushing all the air out of your lungs, pinning you down, practically breaking your bones. Once the hallucination is dispelled, it becomes apparent this never occurred.

3: The maze itself falls away, leaving you floating in a formless void. It isn't exactly pure darkness. You are floating among the cosmic background radiation signal, visual noise so dense and confusing it leaves your brain unable to process any of it.

4: You see a large-headed, wide-eyed humanoid peering at you from behind the nearest corner in the maze. A feeling of complete and terrible dread sinks into your body. You are unable to progress further until the feeling has been shaken.

5: There is no air around you. You are in a vacuum. Your body begins to burst at the seams, depressurizing, expanding, exploding, so painful, so excruciatingly painful. You cannot move until the feeling has been shaken, when it becomes apparent this never occurred.

6: An eerie floating light silently hovers at high speed through the maze, colliding with you or flying so close overhead that the sudden whoosh of air painfully explodes in your ears. The heat put off by this floating light blinds and burns you, leaving no real marks.

 

(One possible way to run some of the physically damaging hallucinations could be tracking damage on player characters but making them return to their previous HP upon leaving the maze or the hallucination being dispelled).

 

Stargazing Rat

No. Encountered: 2d6

Hit Dice: 1d6

Attacks: 1 bite (1d6)

Armor: none, but fast reflexes (AC 9 or ascending AC 11)

Morale: (6 for 2d6 morale, 4 for 1d10 morale)

MS: 2d6    IN: 1d4

DX: 2d6    CH: 1d4

CN: 3d6    PS: 1d4

Mutations: none (see below)

Stargazing rats are an isolated population of rodents that have been living isolated within the observatory of the beyond for centuries. The cosmic background radiation signal has directed their evolution. They have large, upward-facing eyes tinted pink, coarse black-haired bodies that splay flat on the ground, and long wormlike tails. They are immune to all psychic effects and mental mutations, but radio transmissions tuned to the wavelength of the cosmic background radiation signal can control their movements. They attack all at once as a swarm with 2d6x1d6 HP and 2d6 bite attacks per combat round.

(Doing a new statblock format for these GW posts that mixes the stuff in my typical D&D statblock with info from the GW 1e and 2e statblocks, to make it essentially edition neutral for Gamma World)

 

I'll always love the GW7e monster art... for comparison, the GW2e Soul Besh below (they're both good in different ways!)

Adapted from GW1e and 2e:

Soul Besh (Skeeters)

No. Appearing: 1

Hit Dice: 10(d6)

Attacks: see description

Armor: 8 (ascending AC 12)

Morale: (7 for 2d6 morale, 1d4+1 for 1d10 morale)

MS: 1d4        IN: 1d4

DX: 3d6        CH: 1d4

CN: 1d10+2  PS: 1d10+2

Mutations: Chameleon powers, intuition

From GW1e: "This is a flightless, mutated mosquito with chameleon powers. It often attains a length of over 1.3 meters and inhabits swamps, marshes, grasslands, and forests, where its powers of concealment enable it to ambush prey. It has a 2 meter long coiled proboscis, which is inserts (preferably into a sleeping victim) causing an immediate 1d6 damage and, in the same melee round, the soul besh begins sucking blood at a rate of 12 hit points per melee turn. The exoskeleton of the soul besh, when boiled down in a large cauldron, will yield 150 cc of syrupy antidote to intensity 18 poison. 10 cc is the required dose for humans."

(The two soul besh in the observatory of the beyond became trapped in the facility when Ffarad Ssef entered some time previous. They are agitated (disadvantage on reaction rolls) because they haven't been able to escape the facility. They will react positively to being ushered out through the facility's front door.)

 

Ffarad Ssef, psychic Hisser scholar

HP: 66

Attacks: 1 sword (1d8, 1d12 vs large enemies) and 1 bite (1d6)

Armor: 3 (ascending AC 17)

Morale: (8 for 2d6 morale, 7 for 1d10 morale) 

MS:  14    IN: 14

DX: 9       CH: 9

CN: 16     PS: 26

Mutations: Mass Mind, Sonic Blast, Telepathy, Repulsion Field, and Multiple Body Parts (arms)

Ffarad Ssef is a scholar from a desert colony of Hissers, a psychic race of matriarchal colonial snake people. He is in the observatory to record the original cosmic radiation signal sound directly from the radio array, in order to amplify his glorious mother's sonic blast with cosmic super-signal. He has a bulging brain tumor that is the source of his psychic abilities, which he dresses up in a miniature set of ritual robes and refers to as his little sister. Like all Hissers, Ffarad Ssef is immune to lasers and sonic blasts.

 

Jeb Gorn, mutated human copper-burglar

HP: 39

Attacks: 1 knife (1d4) and 1 quill-throw (1d12) OR 1 quill strike (1d6)

Armor: none (AC 10)

Morale: (6 for 2d6 morale, 4 for 1d10 morale) 

MS: 9    IN: 9

DX: 14  CH: 13

CN: 13  PS: 13  

Mutations: Vision defect, Quills/spines, Body structure change (one eye), Weather manipulation, Life leech

Jeb Gorn is a wandering copper-burglar who ventures into ancient structures to strip them of their copper wiring and copper plating. She uses weather manipulation to, in the leadup to her expeditions, create stormclouds that dissuade other copper-burlgars from venturing into her chosen quarry. She has set up camp somewhere in the forests around the observatory of the beyond, but has been staying in the observatory for a couple days trying to get access to the insides of the walls. She does not get on well with Ffarad Ssef.

  

Moldlings

No. Appearing: 6d6

Hit Dice: 3(d6)

Attacks: 1 bludgeon (1d4) OR 1 fungal touch (see below)

Armor: 9 (ascending AC 11)

Morale: (9 for 2d6 morale, 8 for 1d10 morale)

MS: 2d6        IN: 1d6

DX: 3d6        CH: 2d6

CN: 1d8+2    PS: 1d6

Mutations: see below

The moldlings are mildly intelligent mutated soil mold that has lived for hundreds of mold-generations in the two hydroponic garden beds of the facility. The two moldling communities in each individual garden bed absolutely despise one another. They tend to be friendly to outsiders, unless they see you collaborating with the enemy. They are limited to areas with mold growth, confining them to the two garden rooms. Their touch communicates a sickening fungus that acts as a strength 6 poison. 

 

Securitron
Power source: Broadcast Power 
Sensors: Standard, infrared, ultraviolet

Control: Vocal (admin ID), programmed

Construction: 2 meters tall, radially symmetrical cylindrical upper body with three tri-jointed arms, two ambulatory lower limbs. Its three arms can lift and move up to 150 kilograms. Two arms end with metallic tentacle-fingered hands, while the third features a metallic claw.  The metallic tentacle-fingers are tipped with paralytic nodules, while the red nodule atop the unit's head is able to emit a high-temperature laser beam that deals 3d10 damage. 12 HD (72 HP), armor 3 (ascending 17).

A Real 17th-Century Dungeon Delve

Earlier this year, I read An Ottoman Traveller: Selections from the Book of Travels by Evliya Çelebi, in part following a very exciting and happy trip to Istanbul in December/early January. Evliya Çelebi was a seventeenth-century Ottoman nobleman, muezzin, Qur'an reciter, and possible Sufi initiate who embarked on a life-long endeavor of travel following a dream wherein the prophet Muhammad, the Rightly Guided Caliphs, and the muezzin Bilal vouchsafed him and gave him the mission of travel. It's a really great book, a super fun read that puts into English translation most of the majorly important, interesting, and sometimes shockingly humorous scenes from Evliya Çelebi's travels (it doesn't feature all of his Seyahatname, which has never been fully translated into English). While there are more tidbits which I think are worth sharing, I wanted to highlight a specific episode which was so surprisingly relevant to this blog and to OSR, location-based adventure design... Evliya's description of what amounts to a real dungeon delve from the seventeenth-century Ottoman Empire!

I finished the book months ago and have been sitting on a draft of this post for a full month, if that tells you where I've been at any. Procrastination central over here.

1839 painting by Francis Arundale

Anyway! I'm not going to quote the entire section in full, because its actually quite long. The dungeon in question are the ancient depths of the pyramids of Giza, which have fascinated people with their age, grandeur, and mystery for just about as long as they've existed. If you're curious as to what medieval Muslims before Evliya's time thought about the ancient Egyptian pyramids, check out this very informative video on the topic from the Islamic history channel al Muqaddimah (while you're there, also check out this video on how the Mongol khans became Muslim sultans, which I wrote most of the script for!). Evliya calls the pyramids of Giza "three mountains," lauding them as the man-made versions of Mount Qaf, the mythical cosmological mountain so large it encircles the world, and even gives names to each of these mountains (these are Mt. Balbahith (aka Belhib), Mt. Malhawiya (aka Belhube), and Mt. Abu'l-hawl (which actually refers to the Sphinx)). He also goes over the many conflicting accounts for why the pyramids were created, which (at least in this translation) reads very much like the kind of fantastical yet purposefully uncertain worldbuilding that is widespread in these circles:

There are thousands of stories about these artificial mountains. Some chroniclers say they were built before the Flood by Ad ibn Shaddad. Others maintain that before the flood, King Surid, at the urging of his soothsayers, built them as a tomb for himself. When they were finished he filled the three pyramids with treasure, put in weapons, and also placed therein the books of all the sciences written by the prophet Idris. He set up talismans and guardians (?) and covered the pyramids with brocade, making them a hidden treasure. He also built a great city on the shores of the Nile where the guards of the pyramid resided. Every year, in spring, all the people of the world came and circumambulated the pyramids, as they do the Ka'ba.

Even now, in the northern pyramid, there is a south-facing gate, inside of which, on the right side, is a Hebrew inscription carved on the rocks. It reads, "I who built the pyramids completed them in six years. May those who come after me be able to tear them down from their foundations in 600 years. Indeed, it is easier to tear down than to build up. And I covered them with brocade. May the kings who come after me be able to cover with them reed mats."

Further, Evliya recounts a tale of the Caliph Ma'mun, who came from Baghdad to Giza to uncover the treasures of the pyramids, and whose efforts to do so proved the above inscription, because after spending seven months just to excavate 20 cubits from the pyramid, his workers only uncovered a jar containing enough gold pieces to exactly cover the exorbitant costs of the excavation thus far and nothing else. But, lest he let his own ego be overcome by this, he boasts his plan to overcome the ancient mountains:

As for the saying of Surid - "I built the pyramids in six years. May the kings who come after me be able to tear them down in 600 years" - the interpretation of this humble one is: If I were to mine the pyramids with 100 quintals of black powder and one 'six-treasure' mine that was used in the siege of Candia castle, the mountains of Ahram (the pyramids) would be blown sky-high like an ihram (pilgrim's garment) and no trace would be left of the building, not even the foundation, but all would crumble to the ground and melt into the Nile.

But, to tell the truth, I have never seen such a huge building on the face of the earth...

Inside the great pyramid of Khufu

And now, the dungeon delve proper: 

God be praised that, during the governorship of Ibrahim Pasha, I spent five or ten days partying next to the pyramids, while our horses were grazing in the nearby meadow, and I had occasion to tour them several times and marvel at them.

On one occasion there were forty-five of us, including some in the retinue of the Master of the Horse and Behlul Agha and other officers. We brought torches, oilcloth lanterns and wind-tapers. After clearing away the sand and rubbish from the door on the northern side of the large pyramid, we took refuge in God and entered with a besmele. This humble one kept an eye on the compass and the watch.

The first 700 paces in a southern direction was a broad highway, fifteen cubits wide and surmounted by vaults 20 cubits high. There were numerous caves on either side, also man-made halls with domes carved from the soft rock stratum and gilded and decorated as though just emerged from the hand of Bihzad. Every cell was full of human bones, and every skull could hold 100 bushels of wheat. Only God knows how many skulls there were, both large and small. In our path lay a shinbone, still covered with its skin, that was 71 spans as measured by this humble one's hand. There were an abundance of such bones.

One large cave was full of human corpses that lay shrouded in date-palm fibres. And there were several hundred skeletons (or mummies), each 70 or 80 paces tall. But we nearly suffocated from the smell of bat droppings, the bats being as large as crows and hanging from the rocks by their claws. Some hurled themselves at the lanterns and torches and scorched their wings. Some struck us in the face.

At this juncture, a few of our companions got frightened and went back with one or two lanterns. The thirty-five of us who were left summoned our  courage and went on for another hour, along a gently descending slope, our compass pointing south. We saw vaulted halls like the Vault of Chosroes, each containing mummified human corpses, and near them, trampled in the dust, rotted reed mats and pieces of cloth woven of date-palm fibre.

Fifty paces further on, continuing on a downward slope, we came upon a large pool of clear water. But all around the edge sat frightful birds, as large as eagles or geese. As soon as they saw us, they flapped their wings and produced a thunderous noise that made our brains ooze from our ears. And the bats besmirched us and our clothes with their droppings. Meanwhile the torchbearers informed us they were running out of kindling. The noise produced by those eagles' wings was particularly dreadful.

We had no heart to advance a single step beyond that pool, and had just decided to turn around when a freezing-cold wind from the direction of the birds made us shudder with apprehension. What would we do if our torches and lanterns went out? The bats meanwhile, that were the size of pigeons, kept fluttering at the flames like moths and brushing against our faces with their wings. It nearly drove us crazy.

To make a long story short, guided by the piles of stones we had set up along the way, we somehow managed to make our way back and emerged safe and sound. Our companions who had fled earlier teased us, saying, "Where did you get these filthy faces and strange looks?" God knows, though we emerged safely, we were completely exhausted. But it was a tremendous experience! Only God knows what lies beyond that pool.

Thus this humble one saw the inside of one of the pyramids. There was no buried treasure, only buried men. But there is no doubt that it is under a talismanic power. For when we came to that pool, all of us were confounded, and we remained in this stunned condition until we came out into the air, when we recovered our souls. God save us! May I never be vouchsafed to enter it again.

After returning to our tents for breakfast and coffee, we surveyed the pyramids from all sides. Two of them have a square base with each side 200 paces long, making the circumference 800 paces. Each of the stones is 20 or 30 cubits. The large pyramid has a door on the northern side through which we entered, but the other two have no visible entrance. The Abu'l-hawl pyramid (the Sphinx) is quite small, but both are mountains with square base and pointed tip reaching up to the sky.

I climbed up the pyramid that we had entered. At the top there isa square or arena large enough to pitch a pup-tent with ten flaps. In some of the crevices I found jesses and hoods and pigeon rings and anklets. All Cairo was spread out beneath my feet - so lofty are these mountains. There are also structures built of black stone and guarded by talismans all around the pyramids. I would need an entire volume to describe them all.

I hope that you may forgive the lengthy quotation! I just loved this whole episode from the moment that I read it. It is so completely unlike what we now know to be inside the pyramids at Giza, to the point that clearly it must be fabricated, but none of the details surrounding the actual expedition into the pyramid appears fantastical or fabricated at all. The talismanic power that surrounds the pyramid fits very well into the aca'ib literature in the Ottoman Empire at the time, the literature of the fantastic and miraculous, more or less the early modern Ottoman equivalent of paranormal literature. But on top of that, the imagery here is just so unsettling! Giant, looming skeletons and desiccated corpses, a pool of dark water thronged by huge uncanny birds (birds explicitly compared with eagles and geese especially, for some reason roosting in this completely closed-in space, just feels so fundamentally wrong). It's just too good!!

Thinking through Evliya's description as an actual dungeon, it reads very much like a classic dungeon where the main concerns are resource depletion brought on by the systemic exploration of large ancient spaces which may have rather monotonous architecture. Not quite a fair comparison, but reminds me some of good ol' megadungeons like what we have of Gary's notes for Castle Greyhawk, or the early OSR favorite Stonehell. None of the giant corpses come to life like something out of Barrowmaze, but they very very effectively set the tone (alongside the giant "vaults of Chosroes" (Khosrau Anushirvan)) for the methodical exploration. This is then capped off with a room that seems to be half "special" (i.e. the mysterious pool with the birds posing a particularly sound-based challenge for Evliya and the other adventurers) and half a monster lair. I love the birds so much dude.

That's all I wanted to make this post for :) It's just a very very cool OSR-y episode from an extensive collection of such evocative anecdotes and descriptions which document a life of travel in the seventeenth century. I would love to run a dungeon with even half the rich oozing darkness of Evliya's description here.

Ottoman miniature of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus (they slept in a cave which is underground like the pyramid dungeon is, so its thematically appropriate)

Joesky tax for this otherwise non-gameable post:

Frightful Birds of the Pyramid 

Number Encountered: 4d8

Hit Dice: 1+2

Attacks: 1 bite (1d6) + 1 claw (1d6) OR frightful flapping

Armor: as leather

Morale: 8

Bat symbiosis: Frightful birds of the pyramid have a mutualistic relationship with the guano-producing bats which dwell in the pyramid and which have the uncanny ability to crawl through the paper-thin gaps in the masonry. They subsist on the bat's guano, given few other food sources. When frightful birds of the pyramid are engaged in frightful flapping (see below), they agitate their bat partners and prompt them to release guano on the birds' interlopers, which applies an additional -1 to the save vs. noise required as well as having a chance to spread disease.

Frightful flapping: When there are six or more frightful birds of the pyramid in close proximity, they may produce a frightful flapping which overwhelms the senses and disempowers those who hear it. Those within earshot must save vs. noise or be overcome with a terrible sense of impending doom and anxiety that prompts them to flee. This save has a penalty of -1 for every 6 frightful birds which are present.

Appearing like great looming shaggy geese, pallid and sickly with uncannily wide and arm-like wingspans and feathers choked with occasional spats of grey, the frightful birds of the pyramid were trapped within this ancient structure long ago, when it was first closed up. This is typically attributed to the long forgotten god of knowledge and writing having decided to do so on a whim. Now, the things are adapted to the darkness within the great pyramids. They subsist on bat guano and linger around deep dark pools of stagnant water. When threatened, they use their numbers to their advantage, flapping violently to produce a horrible echoing noise; when this fails, they attack with their beaks from their long flexible necks and slash with one webbed foot, the other foot comically hopping on the ground like an animal that never properly learned how to walk. They do not guard treasure. "There was no buried treasure, only buried men."

Half-Sunk Chateau of the Vampire Squid (A Small Dungeon for HALLOWEEN)

FUCK IT DOUBLE TRACK DRIFTING, BACK TO BACK HALLOWEEN POSTS, HALLOWEEN FOREVER HAPPY HALLOWEEN

This is a little dungeon that I originally started writing like a full year ago but never finished. Figured this was as good a time as any to work on it some more and put it out there!

------------

 

A small abandoned manse, the ground on which it sits slowly sloughing off into the sea. Its foyer is inhabited by the ancient vampire squid Sosteiromachus, with his henchmen and familiars holding the upper floors. Sosteiromachus slips out of the chateau under cover of night, to slurp the blood out of fishermen and skinny dippers, leaving row upon row of pierced holes on their drained skin.

 

Map Key

D: Old dining chamber, beautiful ornate silver dining set (worth 600 gold) arrayed on table -- 2-in-6 chance of hermit-man presence.

 

K: Half-flooded kitchen, dumbwaiter connects to W (wine/brine cellar).

 

F: Main flooded foyer area. There is a 3-in-6 chance that Sosteiromachus is in the flooded portion, 100% chance at day. The bodies of Sosteiromachus' victims float, some with jewelry worth 200 gold on their necks and wrists. The rafters are teeming with bloodthirsty doves that swarm when agitated, while the ragged rug-shewn seating area is ensnared with thin strands of hagfish mucus (if tripped, they act as wires, loudly knocking over furniture).

 

C: Half-flooded cave. Home to crabs and lampreys. Provides access to the foyer, via an underwater passage.

 

W: Wine/brine cellar. Barrels and bottles float in the waist-deep water. Each bottle is a rich vintage, worth 100 gold, with 18 such bottles bobbing there.

 

T: Turret. The creaking of the steps on the spiral staircase can alert the hermit-men that nest on the roof.

 

R: Roof. Open-air hovel of Sosteiromachus' hermit-man servants. There are 16 crustacean men that huddle together on the roof. They sleep on ragged mats and build statues of their master out of mud and seashells. There is a single such idol of Sosteiromachus with a golden cameo locket for an eye, worth 300 gold (and with the face of a woman whose body decays in the foyer inside it).

 

Wandering Monsters

Roll 1d6:

1-2: 1d8 Hermit-men

4-5: Swarm of bloodthirsty doves

6: Intruding otters

 

Monster Stats

 

Hermit-Man

Number Encountered: 1d8

HD: 1+1

Attack: 1 claw (1d6) + 1 cutlery (1d4)

Armor: as chain + shield

Morale: 7

Under Sosteiromachus' thrall. Hunched, Igor-like manservant mutants uncannily merged with hermit crabs. Under the light of a full moon, they perform a ritual where they form a line and "size up" their giant mollusk shells, the smaller hermit-pages taking over the shells of their senior brethren.

 

Swarm of Bloodthirsty Doves

Number Encountered: 1

HD: 2

Attack: bloodletting peck (1d6 + 1 damage per round thereafter)

Armor: none

Morale: 5

 

Intruding Otter

Number Encountered: 1d6

HD: 1

Attack: 1 bite (1d6)

Morale: 5

Inquisitive, friendly, and will warn allies of nearby danger. They can also use rocks as simple bludgeons.

 

Lamprey

Number Encountered: 2d6

HD: 1-1

Attack: 1 bite (1d6 + latch on for subsequent rounds)

Armor: none

Morale: 4

 

Sosteiromachus the Vampire Squid

Number Encountered: 1

HD: 4+1

Attack: 2 filament lash (1d6) OR 1 bloodsucking bite (1d6 + latch on + 1 damage per round thereafter), OR spell

Armor: as chain

Morale: 10* (will not check morale, can be turned as a vampire)

Psychic seaborne undead cephalopod. Can cross moving water (of course), but cannot crawl on land for more than a few scant moments. Otherwise same weaknesses as a normal vampire. Knows mind control spells (such as charm and hold person) and the spell Darkness, all of which he can cast at-will.

 

------------

 

This is so stark and small because I was squeeeezing it into the front and back of a little graph paper notebook (the same one that I also wrote The Carven Carapace in!), so really a "final" version of this would be much more detailed and probably much larger. But, hopefully this is enough evocative sea-horror, enough wandering monsters, and enough hagfish mucus based traps for a nice little dungeon morsel :)