Thursday, February 20, 2014

Rooms from the Tower of Violets

Sumptuous, dusty vestibule.  On a small circular table is a vase filled with living violets.

Doors here are all stained glass, and can be broken.  Southern one depicts a nude woman, south-west one depicts the virgin sorceress, north-west one depicts a woman in a violet dress.  In a corked glass bottle on a table is a key to the northern door.  Bottle is filled with a swirling green mist.  Opening the bottle releases the mist, which fills a room and lingers permanently.  Entering the mist causes hallucinations of hands, skulls, flowers, and skeletons, and deals 1d6 Wisdom damage.  Will DC 15 to resist.  

Hallway with windows looking down onto the castle.  Painted on floor in red paint is BEWARE THE SIN TUTOR!  The west door is hung with crow-heads and has a small window, and is fortified from inside, but a 4th level fighter or barbarian force it with a simple Strength check.  Painted on the north door in red paint is STAIRS UP THIS WAY.

This room is freezing cold.  Here is an ice-sculpture of a crane, the size of a dog.  Clerics will recognize this as one of the 1000 gods of wind.  Within the crane is embedded an egg.  Touching the crane with bare hands causes player to freeze to the crane, and anyone else who touched the player will freeze to them.  The crane extinguishes normal flames.  Can be melted with magical flame.  The egg is freezing cold to the touch, and deals 1d4 damage per round to bare flesh.  If it is broken, a swirling mist pours out in a 20 foot radius, causing all within to be frozen solid if they fail a save.

A school room.  Rows of chairs.  At the back of the room a chalkboard covered in terrible runes which cause nausea and unease.  Until they are erased, all saving throws are made at -2.  Windows look out onto the woods.  In the center of the room hovers a reflective red block about three feet cubed.  When a magic-user comes close, they must make a Will DC 18 check or lose a random spell into the block, which becomes inscribed with the spell.  It can be pushed through the air with a Strength check at minus five, moving it ten feet per round.  A secret door to the north, which when found begins to bleed, and causes terrible dread.  

A room that is painted completely white.  Door to north is painted over and must be cut open.  Door from area 28 must be forced.  Sleeping in this room causes nightmares of wandering in white – no benefits from sleeping are gained.

When the door to this room is opened, a deep fog sweeps out and fills the castle to the extent of any closed doors.  Visibility is reduced to five feet.  The room itself is unlit, foul-smelling, and dark.  On the floor is a jawless skull and a pile of broken bones, and scratched on the walls are the words Here lies Skoraz the Wizard, Who felt the Wrath of the Queen of Violets.  The skull has a rune etched in its forehead, and the mist is exhaling out of the skull.  If a player touches the skull, they must make a Will save DC 17 or have their soul sucked into the skull, and their body is replaced by the mind of Skoraz, who is insane and immediately begins attacking the party.  Skoraz will attempt to do this each round until he is successful.  The skull has these stats: ac 15, hp 20, can only be damaged by magic or magical weapons.  He has the physical stats of the player, but none of the abilities, and instead has the following spells which he can cast 1/round at will: slow, summon swarm of cockroaches, lightning bolt.  There is no treasure here.

 A viewing room.  Stone sculptures in the corners.  Curtains over the windows.  Here propped up between two windows is a large mirror which flows like water brushed by wind.  A character can walk through the mirror to the basement.

The air here is heavy and thick.  In the corner is a statue of a centipede, coiled up and around itself, and topped with five human faces.  The faces are featureless, and it rests on a fine red carpet.  In a bowl before it are nine gold coins.  If a player takes a coin, they must make a DC 18 Will or be cursed with fear to flee the room in a random direction for ten rounds.  They cannot thereafter enter the room without running in fear.

On this door in red paint are the words STRIVE TO ATTAIN YE SALVATION, LEST DAMNATION TAKE FROM YOU THAT WITH YOU HOLD MOST DEAR.  Within, stitched together by the back, are three naked guys slain by the Damnation Prophet.  Their eyes and mouth are stitched up also. On a table are needles and spools of black thread, and three black candles.  If anyone touches the nobles, the stitches come loose with a ripping sound and attempt the stitch into the person touching them, while the needle and thread on the table animate and attempt to do the same, while an enchantment compels the person to remove all their armor and clothes.  Will DC 16 to resist enchantment, and the needles attack at +8 and take three rounds to stitch up the back, and then move on to the mouth and eyes, which take one round each.  Each round they deal 1d4 damage, until the stitching is done, and then the player will bleed for 1d10 damage per round until they are dead or the bleeding is stopped.

Each door here is made of glass.  The floor here is made of polished glass tiles, over a deep pit of spikes.  It can be walked on, but will shatter with a hard blow.  Below can be seen room 10.  A statue made of glass standing in the center, of man bearing a hateful expression, and has real organs inside.  The organs seek a true host, and the statue attacks, attempting to rip open an enemy and replace the organs.  Glass golem: hp 30, ac 16, takes half damage from slashing weapons, immune to magic; attack: rip open enemy +10, 2d6+6 damage, on 10 or more damage, there’s an organ swap – 1. heart 2. stomach 3. liver 4. brain 5. spine 6. spleen

A glass hallway.  A red gem on the floor is possessed of malicious personality, and sears flesh if touched, for 2d6 damage. 

In this room, swimming through the air, is a school of glass fish, crafted of interlocking glass and filled with colored liquid. Causes the following effects if the contents are drunk, which last until they pee.  Red: Character may eat metal as sustenance; Orange: Wild-flowers grow where the player treads, if steeped into a tea, can be drunk to restore 1d8 hit-points (once per day).  Yellow: shed yellow light from skin Green: Shrinks by half, as well as all possessions. Blue: A duplicate of the player but of opposite sex is birthed from their head, owning half their hit-points, and of a bizzaro temperament. Indigo: the surface of liquids are now impassable. Violet: Can see secret doors with their eyes closed.

Six lions, lounging on sumptuous pillows.  A dead guy.

A magic rod with a black skull and in the skull is a purple candle.  If the candle is lit, the light produces a Sanctuary for the Insane.  All mind-affecting powers and effects spring from the flame as a random animal, and when the light goes out they are sucked back in.  While they’re manifest as an animal, they can be destroyed.

The doorframe sags.  The room beyond is decrepit.  There is a moldy mattress.  Wooden boards hold up the ceiling.  If the boards are destroyed the room collapses, causing 10d6 damage to all in the room.

Empty.  A desiccated corpse.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Overnight cleric spells

I can't believe I'm awake for three more hours

Spells to Fenrath, God of Wolves

Curses the target with vulnerability to silver.  Being touched by silver causes an extra d8 damage for the duration of the spell, and forces a Constitution check, or be nauseated for 1 minute.

The cleric radiates a poisoned moonlight.  Skin exposed to the moonlight hardens and dries, dealing d8 damage per round and reducing Dexterity by 1 per round.  Lasts 1 round per cleric level.

The cleric's head turns into a wolf-head.  The wolf's fur is incredibly keen and it shines.  The wolf-head can bite for 1d6 damage and it can also shoot a laser from its mouth for d6 damage per cleric level, Reflex save to dodge it.

Spells to Belm, God of Snow and Stone

Cleric's left eye turns to stone. If a foe's blood is smeared onto the stone, then the cleric's spells hereafter effect that foe at double strength (double the damage, or twice the duration, etc.). Spell lasts until cancelled, or until one minute after the foe's blood touches the stone.

Replaces a severed limb with a stone limb that functions at Strength 18, Dexterity 8, and Constitution 20. This limb is immune to poison and disease and possesses magic resistance 50%. The limb lasts for ten minutes per level.

The roads or halls of the cleric's immediate vicinity become rearranged. Roll on your favorite random name list and take the third letter of the name - the road or hallway instantly permutes to that shape, while retaining the same total length, buildings, and exits (if indoors).  Total length is 10' per level (indoors) and 25 per level (outdoors).

Spells to the Fathom Wyrm, God of the Ocean

The cleric vomits forth a swarm of winged flying eels, which has HD equal to his level, AC 14, attacks for 2d4 damage per round and latches on dealing a cumulative 1/round after leaving the swarm, bites with a poison which causes hallucinations of drowning, can fly 60' per round, and is 30' wide. The swarm is permanent and hostile to all.  

Cleric causes target's blood to be slowly replaced with the ocean. First they take 1d4 damage, then 1d6, up to 1d12, then 2d12, cumulative, either until they save or explode and die, releasing enough water to wash knock everyone within fifty feet prone and fill a swimming pool with ocean water. There are fish and crabs in there. 1 in 6 chance of an ocean encounter. No save for first round/caster level.

Cleric causes the water within twenty feet of target (boats okay) to run slow, not thick like mucous, but viscous, impossible to swim in. Boats are trapped, creatures are entangled, fish can't breathe. 1 round/level



Wednesday, February 5, 2014

The Black Dragon

When three thousand years ago, the flames of the Black Dragon Deirregex rolled down his fortress mountain they burned away all compassion, clarity, fortitude, and insight, and left only Sundrgast and Kaldr Hust, the Cities of Poison and Bone. Sundrgast, where the long-armed snail-men toil in malice to grow their yellow master a fitting bride, and Kaldr Hust, where the kenku dance in dim glass palaces the flitting dance to please their twice-blind mother, seek equally and incessantly the Diamond Heart of Deirregex. For to gift the dragon's diamond heart, worshipped now in His White Dungeons by albino hyena-men and midnight salamanders, and recovered each millennium by the Nightmare Paladin who sits dreaming between the paws of Great Deirregex, is to incur a doom upon the recipient, so that, each hating the other, Kaldr Hust and Sundrgast long to trap their brother city in the inescapable fate of

THE BLACK DRAGON'S DIAMOND HEART.
 
 
More information about Deirregex, the Black Dragon.
 
Deirregex does not suffer his own movement without taking at least seventy-seven mortal lives.
 
Deirregex was largely responsible for the downfall of Velenheim, Kingdom of the White Elves.
 
The crown of the Hatemountain which rises east of Velenheim was once the Throne and Parthenon of the frost giants, before Deirregex killed them and forced the remaining giants north, where they built the Fortress of Snow, and continue to seek their revenge.
 
Deirregex breathes fire, and his blood is poison. 
 
He witnessed the battle between the gods and demon lords at the beginning of time and stirred not, except to breathe in the fires of Imix Prince of the Flames as he lay dying, and let them mingle with his own.
 
Along with his Heart, Deirregex is purported to possess the Third Egg of the Unmonkey, a sword which can grant its wielder flight, the Crown, Axe, and Brain of the frost giant king Agalloch, and the phylactery of Teth, one of the Four Dead Kings of Velenheim.
 
The gaze of the left eye of Deirregex corrodes metal, and the gaze of the right eye of Deirregex corrodes air, yet so lazy is he that Deirregex prefers to see with his third eye, which is red, and corrodes only courage.
 
Deirregex learned his magic by crawling the ancient tunnels deep in the earth which form the letters of the First Spell, which the Demon Lords cast to create the world
 
He is worshipped by those taken by sloth and rankor; heretical white elves and frost giants, beastmen, centigors, and several demons; and those who drink blood.
 
His immunities are unknown.
 
His mountain is only a few days east of the furthest inhabited buildings of Velenheim.