Third adventure - Skullcap (dum dum DUMMM)

Skullcap

A. Mouth of Skullcap, a large open cavern with `teeth` at the entrance. Dark with the sound of trickling water. The cavern narrows to come to area 1. There are many bones on the floor here, a nature roll v 12 will identify them as humanoid but possibly not human, maybe goblin or dwarven.

B. The two eye sockets are large round caves with tunnels leading down to area 2. It’s a difficult climb (dexterity v 14 roll) if failed a fall for 1D4 damage occurs.

C. The top of the skull there is a wide shallow bowl full of water which cascades down as a waterfall through to area 11.

1. Mouth entrance. Here there are numerous bones including skulls on the floor. The end of the corridor is location 2.

2. Hallway. Decorated with faded and mouldy tapestries on the walls. Broken and rotten furniture litters the floor. It smells damp.

3. Corridor. This has a few inches of water on the floor. Its slippery and smelly. There are 6 doors, all of which are made of rotten wood that needs forcing to go through, a Strength roll v 10 will break through any door. The rooms have broken and mouldy chairs and desks, all are wet and hold nothing of use.

4. Grand hall. Numerous doors from this room. Running water can be heard from area 11. The central stairwell is a mangled heap of metal railings. There is rope attached to some of the sturdier metal dropping down into the darkness, if the characters try to get an idea of how long the rope has been there make a perception roll v 12. If successful they can see it’s been there a while but feels quite sturdy still.

5. Rusty metal covered wooden double doors to this room, a sign above the doors reads `Armoury`. A strength v 14 roll is required to open these doors. There are three armour stands here and numerous scattered pieces of armour and weapons including the following:

A full suit of plate mail.

Two suits of chainmail.

Three metal shields (two plain one with dragon motif).

Two longswords (one with dragon embossed in hilt, one with a skull in the hilt).

A two-handed axe (the handle looks almost new).

A dagger with serpents carved into the blade.

The dragon shield protects from fire, all fire damage even magical does 50% less damage to the wearer.

The dragon sword does +4 damage to reptiles.

The skull sword does +4 damage to undead.

The axe cannot be broken, and any fumble roll is -2 to the fumble roll. Any critical is +2 to the critical roll.

The dagger allows the wielder to speak to and command snakes (snakes will not do anything that puts themselves in danger).

6. Guardroom. There are two armoured human remains in here. Both have been dead a very very long time. They appear to have fought each other as both hold swords that are thrust into the other. No magical items, armour and weapons are very badly pitted and rusty.

7. Gateway. The doors to the hall have been blown inwards by some great force. Inside there is about an inch of water on the floor. There is nothing else in here.

8. Watch hall. Both of these rooms are identical. There is an opening into the hall that used to be a window with metal grill, however the metal grill has rusted through. It would be possible to climb in one at a time. Inside there is an armoured body on the floor with an axe in his hand. If anyone enters the body rises, it is a zombie. Initiative -1, HP 20, Attack +2, Damage 1D6, AC 16 (plate armour). The head of the axe is solid gold and worth about 250gp.

9. East Guards Hall. In here there are rotten and rusted remains of tables and chairs. On one of the tables there are some loose old coins (silver).

10. Storage room. In here there are lots of old wooden crates, most are rotten, some the timber is ok. If searched one of the crates has silver goblets with blue gems, these fill with water when both handles are held.

11. Water filled cavern. There is the sound of falling water in here, inside there is a large round cavern full of water with water falling from the ceiling. There is an island in the middle of the water made of old chests and wooden boxes, glittering gold can be seen. The water is very dark and the bottom cannot be seen (its about waist deep). There is a swamp fiend hidden in the water and it will attack if the characters enter the water. Swamp fiend looks like a reptile squid and can attack two targets at once. Initiative +4, HP 50, Attack +4, Damage 1D6, AC 12. The chests are full of rocks with a few coins sprinkled on top, a total of 35 gold coins can be found.

12. Foyer. This room is damp (like many on this level) there is a table with some old metal goblets and an empty bottle of what may have been wine.

13. 13. Ghostly ballroom. The doors from the foyer have glass panels, within the ballroom can be seen feint ghostly figures of lords and ladies dancing to unheard music. If the characters enter this room they must make a test against wisdom with difficulty 12 or start randomly dancing. When dancing they can test each round to stop. There are no treasures in this room.

14. Meditation room. Both these rooms are identical. They are dry and clean. There are mats on the floor, old and faded, with images of moons on them. An arcana roll v 10 will reveal these are images of the god, Nuitari, the evil god of magic. (Solinari is Good and Lunitari is Neutral). A further arcana roll v 12 will reveal these are meditation mats.

15. Shrine to Nuitari. In this room there is a statue of a man holding up a moon towards the sky. An arcana roll v 10 will reveal this is a shrine to Nuitari. There is a bowl at the foot of the statue with a few loose coins within. Touching these will cause a cold wind to blow through the room. If the coins are not immediately returned the character loses 1D4 HP. If fresh coins are placed in the bowl a warm breeze is felt. If any HP have been lost 1D4 are returned.

16. The upper stairs. There are mangled metal stairs going down and a thick rope tied to the metalwork going down. Looking down there are dim lights set in the walls of a large round well like chamber. The walls show signs of their having been several floors all of which have collapsed down to the bottom. The chamber descends around 50 feet down to a room littered with rubble and twisted metal.

17. The stairwell. Climbing down through the metalwork looks dangerous. If attempted it requires six acrobatics rolls v the following: 8, 10, 12, 14, 12, 10. If one fails the character slips causing 1D4 damage. If two fails back-to-back then there is a crash as a section of metalwork collapses. The character then takes 1D6 damage per `level` fallen.

Climbing down using the rope looks less dangerous. This requires six acrobatics rolls v the following: 6, 8, 10, 12, 10, 8. If one fails the character slips causing 1d4 damage. If two fails back-to-back the character falls taking 1D4 damage per `level` fallen.

18. The skull. Halfway down the characters will notice a stylised skull in the wall with giant rubies for eyes. If the character attempts to pry out the rubies they must make an acrobatic roll v 14 to avoid slipping as per the climb for each ruby taken. Again, two fails will lead to a fall. If a ruby is taken a red coloured tongue comes out of the skull – it’s a snake and it attacks the swinging thief! The attacked person fights at a – 4 Attack and – 4AC.

Tongue snake Initiative +5, HP 15, Attack +3, AC 14.

19. The base. The bottom of the stairwell is strewn with rubble and twisted metal. There are clawed footprints in the dust around the rubble. A nature roll v 12 reveals there are possibly two creatures of an unknown type – no known creature on Krynn has feet like that! There is a large hole in the floor with a drop of about 10 feet to the walkway to the right-hand side of area 20.

20. Broken corridors. This is a large square room with walkways around the edges, as well as a broken walkway across the middle of the room, the gap between the broken walkway parts is about 5 feet. in the centre there is a chasm dropping away hundreds of feet to running water, it looks as though the chasm opened up long after the tower was built taking the floor out of this room.

21. Guard room. There are two trapped human spirits here, they attack, and while attacking beg the characters to take the gold circlets in the storeroom next door and bury them to release their spirits. The spirits can only be harmed by magic. They stop attacking if the circlets are lifted from the storeroom (22). Initiative +2, HP 20, Attack +3, Damage 1D4, AC 16.

22. The storeroom. The room is empty save for a metal stake in the wall with two gold circlets hanging from it. If lifted this stops the sprits attacking.

23. Crystal maze East. Here is a large square room with a drop to a floor 10 feet below. There is a magical walkway across to doors on the walls. If the character step forward they will feel a hard surface like glass. But if they stray to the left or right they will find just air. If they walk on this surface they must make an acrobatics roll v 12 or slip and fall for 1D4 damage, this roll must be made for each door they attempt to reach. This layout is the same for each of the three levels.

24. Crystal maze West. These are the same as the East rooms, however these have no magical walkways and the door at the bottom most level is blocked with rubble.

25. The cyclops chamber. Here there are stairs down to a rectangle room with a humanoid shaped pile of dust and the statue of a large cyclops. If the room is entered the cyclops will animate and attack until the room is left. Initiative +2, HP 45, Attack +2, Damage 1D8, AC 18 (edge weapons) 14 (crushing weapons).

26. Fireball hall. This room floor, ceiling and walls are blackened like some mighty fire has occurred. An arcane roll v 14 will identify it was a magical fire spell that caused this. If the door is opened at the far end a fireball is released causing 2D6 damage to anyone in the fireball room. There is nothing behind the doors but a rock wall.

27. Anti gravity room. In this room there is a statue of a dwarf on the ceiling. Anyone stepping into this room will float to the ceiling. If the dwarf statue is touched they will fall to the ceiling (acrobatics roll v 12 or 1D4 damage). Exiting the room also makes the gravity effect disappear.

28. The alcove of Nuitari. Here there is a statue of Nuitari pointing towards the Rights of passage. There is a bowl at the foot of the statue with a couple of old copper coins in. If coins are placed in the statue it glows faintly and 1D4 HP are healed. If coins are removed the statue goes dark and 1D4 HP are taken.

29. Rights of passage. Each door has been broken down recently. In the alcoves are statues of Nuitari, each with a slightly different face. A religion roll v 12 will identify these signify the 7 faces of Nuitari. An Arcana roll v 12 will identify these were magical doors and whoever broke them must have used magic.

30. A circular room littered with debris and rubble. It was once a beautiful room with high vaulted ceiling. In the centre there is a circle of brass, within the circle are old dusty robes and the skull of a humanoid. If the circle is passed the skull will rise and the robes fill out as a lich of Fistandantilus rises and a voice calls out `who dares disturb the rest of Fistandantilus?` Whatever the characters say the lich moves to attack, if the character leaves the circle the skull settles back down. Initiative +2, HP 50, Attack +4, Damage 1D6, AC 16 There are closed doors to the far side, these show signs of having been opened recently, they have been barred from the other side and require a Strength roll v 18 to force open. Two characters can try with both Str bonuses being added to the single roll.

31. Treasure junction. In here there are two draconians (though the characters wont know what they are) Humanoid reptilian creatures with the features of dragons including bat like wings. As soon as the characters enter they attack. Initiative +2, HP 25, Attack +3, Damage 1D8, AC 15 If destroyed they turn into statues, the slayers weapon can get stuck if a dex roll v 14 is failed. The statues then turn to dust after 1D4 rounds. There are doors to both Left and Right and ahead.

32. East treasure room. In here there is another Draconian, though this one looks taller and slimmer than the others, he is carrying a bundle of books and a staff. This is Jatuk and he will try to bargain with the characters, offering them the treasure of gold if they let him pass. He will not allow the characters to have the books or staff. If the characters wont let him pass he will threaten them with magic creating a glowing ball of flame in his hand. If attacked he will launch a magical blinding attack at the characters then attempt to flee past them or launch into the attack if they have not been blinded.

Initiative +4, HP 35, Attack +2, Damage 1D8, AC 12.

When killed its scaly flesh shrivels and crumbles in on itself then explodes causing 1D6 damage to anyone nearby. The spell Jatuk casts is a blinding spell, the victims must make a Wisdom roll v 14 or be blinded. They can make a wisdom roll each turn to have their eyesight return to them. If Jatuk gets passed the characters he runs into the room of Fistandantilus and accidentally runs into the circle where the Fistandantilus lich slays him.

In this room there are several chests of gold coins – far too heavy to carry. There are shelves with 12 books on them, all of which appear very old but serviceable. Two of the books are magical the rest are rare and valuable books relating to history, bestiaries, herbalist guides, poisons and other similar titles. Each book requires an intelligence roll v 12 to understand the book description.

Book titles are as follows:

History of the dragon wars

Rise of empires part one: Istar

The seven faces Nuitari (magical book)

Beasts of Krynn part one: Reptilians

Bestiary of the seas

History of elvenkind

Herbs of the valleys

Poisonous plants

Poisons of creatures

Treatise of magic by The Lord Magus (magical book) (Holly)

Plants with healing properties

Jakut has three spell books and a magical staff, however the characters need to either defeat Jakut or Fistandantilus to get these.

The spell books are black in colour and require Intelligence roll v 12 to understand what they are.

The staff requires a wisdom roll v 12 to identify it has a magical ability, it needs a wizard to demonstrate how it works. It grants the holder Counterspell 1D6 times, it needs to be recharged by a wizard casting Counterspell on the staff.

33. East cages. In this room there are rusted metal cages some have bones within, one has a dwarven skeleton with tattered armour, a broken axe and an old, battered horsehair helmet. The bars of the cage need a strength roll v 12 to break open. This is the helm Flint is looking for.

34. Treasure room West. This room had chests of gold as per East room but huge amounts of rubble have fallen from the ceiling burying it. Any book shelves that may have been here are now buried under tons of rubble. There is still access to area 35.

35. West cages. In here are metal cages with the remains of hapless creatures of unknown types all are long dead and leave nothing of interest.

36. Access room. This room has large doors with the image of Nuitari on the doors, they are not locked. If opened there is a rush of wind and a faint voice, an arcane roll v 10 will identify some sort of magical effect has happened. The room has another statue of Nuitari with bowl at its feet (this is infact the same one in room 15) If anyone steps into this small room they disappear and reappear in room 15. There is no way back save through the staircase at 16.

Experience:

Giving an offering to Nuitari – 25xp

For passing level one – 150xp

Surviving the stairwell – 50xp

For passing level 2 – 150xp

Fighting the cyclops – 100xp

For passing level 3 – 150xp

Defeating Fistandantilus – 250xp

Defeating the Bozaks – 100xp each

Defeating Jatuk – 250xp

Rescuing Flints helm – 500xp

Rescuing Raistlins spell books – 500xp

Recovering the magical staff – 100xp