The wizards of Kizaad, obsessed with the secrets of the universe, found a secret place beyond the borders of our world, which seemed at once ancient and ageless, and divined that at its center outpoured a power greater than any source in our world. Hoping to bring their academies renown, they established a school within the halls of this place, but were quickly devoured by the shifting walls, and became ageless ghosts, trapped in time, unable to escape the boundaries of their strange new plane.
In more recent times, the mad wizard ILLITH VARN divined its proximity, entered, and with his great power penetrated into its innermost sanctum, where he worked a spell to turn the plane into his own phylactery, so that upon his death, his soul and his most treasured possession, the SKOROS ORB, would return to this sanctum instead of departing to the afterlife. There he rests now, waiting for the time when he can return to his body, and bring about a new reign of terror.
I present to you...
THE MANY PATTERNED HALLS
This is a medium-sized dungeon written for high level adventurers used to dungeon crawling. It is meant to confound many of standard dungeon crawling tricks, particularly the reliability of "clearing" a dungeon. Completing the dungeon requires the players to solve a simple puzzle, made more challenging by the dungeon's central gimmick. At its center is a classic video game style multi-phase boss fight, meant to be attempted several times if the challenge is too difficult when encountered.
WHAT IS THIS PLACE?
This is within the ASTRAL PLANE, a place between places, a realm that connects all realms, thought of as a higher reality, largely desolate, some small outposts and strongholds are secreted here, but there is little to rule over. A lightning struck island, a floating canister, an atom bomb going off forever. Two civilizations once fought a war here, the gith and the githyanki, but they destroyed each other, and what they didn’t destroy the astral sea has taken. It is lonely, psycheledic, and strange. Those who find their way here have trouble finding their way out. Time passes strangely on the astral plane, and the beings that dwell here are not right.
The exact nature of the Many Patterned Halls is unclear. It is a dwelling place for spirits. It looks built, but its true nature is something else. It has been found many times over the eons and added onto, and each time the Halls have folded these additions and denizens into its nature.
THE CENTRAL GIMMICK
Each time the players overcome the challenges of a room and pass through it, its contents will change. The exact timeframe of this change should be up to the DM: somewhere between 2 to 10 minutes. This is meant to feel at once arbitrary and hostile. The players should get the sense of a slowly escalating danger, and of a space that is itself somehow alive in an unfamiliar way, and wants them dead, or taken.
As a result, each room has three to four keyed contents. Cycle through them one after the other, or use them at will. They are meant to be variations on a theme. If the players exhaust the results, write more on the same theme, or simply randomize them. The halls aren't meant to be infinite really, just much larger than at first glance.
Secondly, interdimensional and planar transportation within the halls should be impossible. The shifting nature of the halls makes teleporting impossible. If anything attempts to teleport within the dungeon in a way that they would pass through a wall, the spell fails. The teleporter appears in a random room, having aged d100 days, sets their hitpoints at 10d10 below their maximum, and receives d10x100 XP. The bonus XP only happens once. If the players try to exploit this, roll a d6. On a 2-5, the result is threatening, and on a 6, actively hostile in an unexpected way.
If the players attempt to use magic or items to pass the planar boundary, through a Plane Shift spell or some kind of communication, the spell fails.
If the players try to knock down a wall, or knock a hole in a wall, a shifting, shining void can be found beyond. Entering the light which the void produces causes 4d10 damage.
Thirdly, Regardless of how long they spend in there, when they leave, one hour and one minute has passed.
GETTING INTO THE MANY PATTERNED HALLS
I made the entrance a collection of golden coffins, located in the Tomb of Illith Varn. You crawl inside and pull the cover over you and it magically whisks you to room 1, where you appear in a pile of dilapidated wooden coffins. If you leave the room and come back, the coffins are simply gone, thereby trapping you in the halls.
If you want to go a little easier on your players, just have the coffins stick around, or make a more stable type of entrance. A door or a portal or something.
GETTING OUT OF THE MANY PATTERNED HALLS
If the players are stranded, as I ran it, there are two options: take the exit in room 15, or solve the brazier puzzle, thereby unlocking planar travel. I wrote these ideas with the understanding that my players know Plane Shift and Teleport -- if they're able to get back to reality, they'll be able to Teleport back home. If your players don't know these spells, maybe give them another option for escape. Have a portal or door open when they solve the brazier puzzle.
RANDOM USELESS JUNK
When the players come to a dead-end, there should be an object or small puzzle of no consequence. This should seem like an offering to the players, or maybe an attempt to communicate. Usually I make everything in a dungeon matter, be interesting, or be useful. This is meant to be disturbing in its uselessness. Go through them in order, or roll randomly, it doesn't really make a difference.
A. A narrow, dark closet full of overcoats. In one’s pocket is a locket. The face in the locket is corroded. The silver is worth 200gp.
B. A plague doctor mask.
C. A notebook of medical supplies.
D. shoes with wooden heels
E. 13 copper pieces. One is attached to a string that leads into the wall. If you pull the string it unzips a door. Inside the door is a closet full of boxes and clothes.
F. a white glove. In the index finger is a rock.
G. A bowl of room temperature chili
H. A book of entertaining children’s stories, which quickly grow boring
I. A live cricket, which if followed, can find a crack in the walls of the nearest room which extradimensionally connects to another room in the Halls. These rooms are now functionally adjacent if the players can find a way to break down the wall.
J. d3+1 crimson worms
K. rock candy
L. a stack of dinner glasses in a pyramid
M. a partially dissolved corpse hanging in the air, eyes open, if it sees you, it screams
N. a parasol, does not protect from the radiation
O. a broken teacup
P. an embroidered pillow with a pastoral scene
Q. a broken hand-mirror
R. A wedding ring worth 50 gp
If you need more, keep going along these lines.
THE ROOMS
1. ENTRANCE.
The bottom floor of a fine old house. A pile of coffins. A piano. Peeling wallpaper, mold. The sound of windchimes.
You emerge from a pile of old wooden coffins. Dusty. The pile is unstable, lopsided.
An old green brass brazier on a stand in the middle of the room. The black fire from room 10 can light it.
A note nailed to the floor, written by an old explorer to orient himself. “This is the northwestern room of the halls. The upper landing is southwards facing. That way has been corrupted. The safest way to the school is the left path then, but the parlors there have become confused. Better to lay down in the graves.”
SECOND TIME
The bottom floor of a fine old house.
The coffins are gone, meaning there is no way out.
The note says is the same.
THIRD TIME
The building has rotted completely, the walls are covered in mold in long lines and spatters. Water damage.
The piano has fallen apart.
Where the coffins were, piles of rotting wood.
2. LAMP.
A fine, wall-papered parlor. Filled wall to wall with empty glass cupboards. On a small table in the middle of the room is an oil lamp. It emits hissing static. It seems to be hissing in a pre-determined pattern. Careful study determines that this is a language. If the language is understood or studied, the lamp is saying, “A wave of death / will sweep across you / beware its impact / the land is buckling under it / kingdoms have fallen into the pit / many will die”
East and south doors are through glass cupboards, they must be found through careful checking.
SECOND TIME
The lamp is unlit now and quiet. If lit, a young man appears sitting in a chair. He has a few books in front of him, he is reading a book and making notes in a journal. The books and the man are are no-clip, you can pass through them like ghosts and he can't perceive or communicate with you.
His journal writes, “The black fire that burns at the four corners of the house seems to be blocking something. Verelok says he has perceived the presence of other rooms in this house, but out of sight, or maybe behind the walls, and that the fire is keeping them locked. He has proposed an experiment to extinguish them and allow us to roam this house’s halls fully. A dangerous proposition. Will we accept?”
THIRD TIME
The lamp is fountaining silent fire. It deals 2d10 psychic damage per round to all within 20’ as you’re overwhelmed with the sense impressions of the lamp-being—DANGER! A WAVE OF DEATH WILL SWEEP ACROSS YOU! etc.. The fire can be extinguished by normal means.
3. TAR TILE.
Wooden parquet tiling. White walls have pencil markings on them. Height markings, where someone grew. The moment weight is set on the parquet tiling they buckle and sink, thick black tar comes bubbling up, it emits a terrible smell. Make a Dex save DC 18 or be restrained by the tar, and a Con save DC 18 or be incapacitated by the terrible smell, which fills 50’ radius. At the end of every round restrained, sink 1d4 feet. After submerged, begin to suffocate.
SECOND TIME
A bog of black tar. A tar covered skeleton floats in the tar.
THIRD TIME
Tar is now leaking under the door. Listening makes the room beyond sound solid. If the door is opened, hot black tar comes pour out. Dex DC 18 or be restrained and take 5d6 damage per round until free.
4. BASILISK CAT.
Broken marble statues. Some on plinths. Tall, gnawed barricades of twisted statues.
Intact marble statues among the rubble:
A beheaded man in fine robes (The King)
A boy with one leg on crutches, holding a ball (The Son)
A court jester balancing on his hands (The Fool)
A moon (The moon)
A huge white cat lives here. Its paws don’t touch the floor. When it senses enemy, it opens its mouth way too big, there is a dripping skull inside, brilliant light beams shoot out, petrifying everything they touch.
CR 16
AC 22 HP 260
Immune to poison
2 Bites (range 10) +15 4d8+8 plus 4d8 poison damage plus Con DC 17 or poisoned, and grabbed
Stone gaze: If a creature starts its turn within 60’ of the basilisk, and they can see each other, make a Con DC 17 or do the basilisk turn to stone thing. They can avert their eyes at the start of their turn instead.
SECOND TIME
Bathed in moonlight from an unknown source. Safe to pass.
THIRD TIME
The marble is ground to dust by the passage of time.
5. STATUE GALLERY.
A long, long, black and white chamber, with statues on plinths.
No matter which way you enter, there appear to be no exits, and the room seems very very long. This is because it is actually very long and ill-lit, but it is true to dimensions.
There are also four missing marble plinths. They are labelled. Each one that is placed causes a door to appear. The doors can also be opened from the other side.
“The King”
“The Son”
“The Fool”
“The Moon”
SECOND TIME
Statues in the center are now:
A. A man with a massive third leg growing out of his groin.
“The Mutant”
B. A man with a spiral hole in his stomach.
“The Spiral”
C. A pregnant woman.
“The Mother”
D. A sad woman.
“The Widow”
E. A man injecting himself with a needle.
“The Doctor”
6. VOID.
The ceiling is shattered. The sky is a pulsing, radiant void. Clouds of purple, blue, and crimson stream past, way too fast. A screaming wind is blowing, it’s hard to hear.
A green brass brazier on a stand takes the black fire from room 11.
If you climb up and look out the hole in the ceiling, you’re looking into a void, you can see no buildings or ground.
On entry and at start of each round the radiation damage from the sky deals 4d10 radiation damage.
The flashing lights throw the shadows of floating men along the floor.
10 CR2 shadow-men. They are blind but not deaf.
HP 75 AC 13
Invisible. Blind. Perceive anyone within 15’ at DC 18. Flight 40. Silent.
Slashing claws and human-shaped bites
1 attack +13 1d8+4 (magical)
SECOND TIME
A dead black void outside. No light.
THIRD TIME
A smoldering, unnatural rock has fallen from the sky. It bleeds psychedelic colors, its edges form into curlicues. It deals d20 poison damage every round to everything within 30’. The colors leach into you, you now deal d20 damage every round to everything within 30’. The sky is a calm dark void, filled with streaks of chill nebulas.
7. MEDICAL EQUIPMENT.
Old patterned wallpaper, peeling. Mold on the floorboards.
A room of medical equipment. Tables. Scalpels. In a glass jar filled with sanitizing alcohol is a rough gem worth 2,500 gp. If you’re loud, the worms from 8 come investigate.
SECOND TIME
An old stone hallway. Arched windows look outside. If you look outside, you’re looking down the side of a vast stone castle, a dark and lightless void. You can see a landing 100’ below with another doorway. This will lead into a random room. This doorway will be stable until the room shifts again.
THIRD TIME
Same as the first time. A badly wounded man is unconscious on a table. Blood has soaked through his bandages, he will die in an hour. He has bad bite marks on his side, he is covered in animal wounds.
If saved, his name is Cruel Mote, a doctor of Kizaad. He can give a coherent account of what happened here.
“I’ve become separated from my compatriots. I was savaged by invisible spirits, and they said they would return with supplies. I’m sure they left me here to die. I should return to Kizaad. There is an exit hatch through the lyceum, if you escort me, I can offer you a reward from my house.”
He studies medical biology, the humors, the eighteen ghosts that inhabit a man’s body, anatomy, and fortune telling. He will be confused by the layout.
“Yes, we found a way to ascend to the astral plane, and study the teachings of the higher spirits that dwell here. When these halls were discovered, we established our lyceum and staked out a safe boundary. But then our communications with the lyceum began to fail. I entered with my compatriots, and found it destroyed, and after a brief exploration, we became lost, and set upon by spirits.”
8. CRIMSON WORMS.
More old medical equipment. Broken glass. The wallpaper has peeled away in long folds, revealing more wallpaper underneath.
Squirming crimson worms. They have long, toothed proboscises that can attack suddenly from 20’ away. These things are native to the astral plane, they drop from the crimson planet that comes near every once in a while. Due to the time compression in the Many Patterned Halls, they respawn constantly.
3 CR 5 crimson worms
Blindsight 60’
HP 120 AC 15
Bite +8 (Range 20) 3d10+8 and DC 16 Strength save as they start to swallow you, bite damage is automatic as long as you’re grabbed, escape is a DC 16 Strength check as an action
or SPRAY ACIDIC WEBBING (5/6) in 30’ cone, DC 19 Dex save or 3d10 acid damage and restrained. The acid damage recurs at the end of each round you’re restrained. Takes a DC 19 Strength check to break free.
SECOND TIME
Bright crimson light shining through the floorboards. For ten minutes, the Many Patterned Halls is affected by low gravity, jump distance is tripled. 3 CR 5 crimson worms again, except they are flying. From now on, any crimson worms encountered have a fly speed of 40.
THIRD TIME
Dark, messy. Medical equipment. A doctor with a ravaged and scarred face is crouched on the floor rummaging in the chest cavity of a cadaver. The cadaver is one of the players!! He can’t talk through his disgusting scarred mouth, he can only grunt.
9. BLOOD.
A long marble gallery streaked with blood, leading to 17.
SECOND TIME
A shining, pristine marble gallery. A man in a white robe stands, surveying the room. If approached or spoken too, he blows away, as if in a wind.
THIRD TIME
Same as the first time, but no blood.
10. CAT BED.
Velvet wallpaper and carpeting. An old bar. Jars of old liquor are still good. The cat’s bed is filled with old blankets. An old coin purse filled with astral gold, a shining silvery metal, worth 10x the normal amount of gold. 375 pieces. Pressed with a strange human-like face, the face of a gith.
SECOND TIME
Bathed in moonlight from an unknown source.
THIRD TIME
A stone room of an old castle. Windows look out onto a starry sky. The stars are below as well. There is no facade of a building outside the windows, just a window in air.
11. BRAZIER ROOM.
Big stone doors leading north into the Many Patterned Halls’ interior sanctum. If the four braziers at the four corners of the dungeon aren't simultaneously lit by the black fire that burns in the fireplace in this room, the door will not open, and lead no where.
 |
| The doors have this carved on them |
This room is stable.
Four green braziers arrayed in front of the doors, two to each side. When their corresponding braziers at the four corners of the halls are lit with the black fire from the fireplace, the door becomes unlocked. When the doors are opened, the Many Patterned Halls stabilizes into its current form, all becomes quiet, as if the place is listening.
A fireplace on the south wall has black fire. It makes a crackling and unnatural sound. This is the source of the Many Patterned Halls’ power, it has the ability to stabilize the structure and open the way to the center. However, it has two main rules: as soon as the fire is taken from the fireplace, it will begin to burn lower, and it will burn out in exactly ten minutes, even if brought to a brazier. If all four braziers are lit within ten minutes, they stabilize. Second, it cannot tolerate teleportation. As soon as it is teleported, the teleporter gets shuffled according to teleportation rules and the fire goes out.
12. CORPSE.
A dead adventurer on old carpet. He has 50’ of rope, a potion of healing (2d8+6), a hooded lantern, and a shortsword.
SECOND TIME
He’s alive! His name is Vagrasi. He wandered in here from a dungeon in the Swamp of Monsters. He’s separated from his friends. He’s a little panicked, but confident he can find his way out of here. He’s friendly, and a third level thief.
THIRD TIME
An alligator.
13. ZEREGON THE THIEF.
 |
| He looks like this |
Zeregon the Thief is a spirit from deeper in the astral plane, foolishly summoned by the wizards in 14 to assist with their domination of this place. Its whole thing is simply to steal souls and eat them. It once belonged to a great civilization, but was lost to them long ago. It speaks the Astral Language, but is overcome by ravenous anger.
It has a number of little glass lamps. Inside each one is a flame, and dangling over the flame is a teeny tiny person. Each one is a soul it has procured.
CR 19 Demon: Zeregon the Thief (huge)
HP 350 AC 19
Demon resistances: Immune to fire and poison; resistant to cold and lightning, and nonmagic weapons
Magic resistance: Advantage on saves against spells and magic effects
Truesight 120’
Str 8 (14) Dex 2 Con 6 (12) Int 5 Wis 3 (9) Cha 6 (12)
2 Snakebites Range 15 +14 3d8+8 plus 3d8 poison damage
AND
Lower torso gaze USED (5/6): Cone 60’ DC 18 Con save or paralyzed (save end of each round to recover)
Upper torso gaze USED (5/6): Cone 60’ DC 19 Con save or combust, take 8d8 fire damage (save end of each round to recover)
AND
Demonic powers: Anyone touched by demon causes all missiles within 100’ to seek them until demon is slain
OR
Can target a 0hp person within 30’, sacrifice attacks to steal their soul, causing one of the lamps on the wall to light up and their little image to appear in it.
OR
Teleport 120’
ALSO
He can adjust his size at will to any size.
HIS SOULS:
If the lamps are simply broken, the souls will be freed, they are dimly material, they flicker in a breeze, a strong wind will kill them. If exposed to the astral sky, they’ll be instantly whisked away. They need a living body, if invited in they will struggle to control it.
LADY YEREGETH, from Solemn Cry, an older noblewoman obsessed with astral projection
BAD ACTOR, an assassin from the Temple of Elemental Evil
FRIGOLACH, an opposing professor of Magnodius, who hates him, and helped penetrate into the astral plane from Kizaad
A DOG NAMED BLACKIE
CAMBERLINE, a beautiful young woman, a duke’s daughter from hundreds of years ago
This room is stable! His mighty will has forced the Many Patterned Halls to his will.
14. MOTH ANGEL.
A room filled with desks, all knocked over and fucked up.
A piece of paper face up on the ground. It says:
“Imagine an apple passing through a sheet of paper. First the stem, then the body of the apple, then the core and seeds, then the base. I believe this place is as an apple, and the reality we reside on is the sheet of paper. If the apple is positioned so that only the stem is passing through, we will be only to see a fraction of its true shape. The room at the center of the halls is not only at the center of the square, but also within the core of the apple. Entering it means the apple must pause its passage. To do this, I propose —“ the paper is torn beneath this point.
A chalkboard behind the moth spirit, containing the equation which has trapped the moth angel. If the equation is erased, the moth spirit can be freed. It will simply disappear.
A green big brazier, for room 11. It is of Kizaad make.
A spirit of the astral plane, like a moth angel, surveying the school. Drawn to this place, a curious traveler, caught in a protective circle left over at the school. She cannot communicate with the living without causing harm, every word she speaks cuts like a sword.
MOTH SPIRIT CR 17
HP 315 AC 19
Saves Con 12, Wis 11, Cha 12
Move 120 but trapped
Resistant to magic
Resistant to radiant and nonmagic weapons
Immune to charm, exhaustion, fright
The moth spirit cannot be lied to
Truesight 120’, passive perception 21
It sends its tendrils as whips. It has range 20’
3 attacks +10 8d8 and: Str DC 19 or knock back 1d4x10’ or grab
If it speaks, all within 60’ take 1d8 damage no save, if it’s a full sentence (as an action) it’s 12d8 damage in range 120. If you can’t hear the words, you’re immune.
SECOND TIME
Immaterial, glowing green ghosts examine the moth spirit. It’s struggling and screaming (dealing full damage every round), they are applying a tool to it, they are immune to its screams. The ghosts will attack you if they see you.
7 CR 3 Ghosts
Resistant to all damage
Immune to radiant, poison
Immune to charm, exhaustion, grapple, paralyze, petrify, poison, prone, restrain
Can move through walls and objects as if it were difficult terrain
+8 2d8+3 electric damage
The ghost with the tool you have to make a DC 18 Con save or be paralyzed
THIRD TIME
Plants have overgrown this room. The moth angel, exhausted and ancient, is still here. It can barely speak.
If the moth spirit is freed in all three iterations, it is truly free! And it will help you in gratitude.
15. EXIT.
A locked port-hole that produces a planeshift when opened. It’s a big metal port-hole with a circle handle that can be opened, above it says EXIT.
It takes at least two people to open, and sucks everyone within the room back into reality, it dumps them into DOOMED KIZAAD, an ancient, overgrown city, filled with fog and mist, when the mist parts, sun comes piercing down. A great calamity has occurred here, there is a palace visible in the distance split in two. You appear before a ruined school. There’s skeletons everywhere.
16. CLAY GUYS.
Knocked over bookshelves. The books are partly melted into the floor, like the floor has grown over them.
These guys are kind of melded into the wall. The wallpaper around them is filled with a sort of many-colored bloom, but they looked bleached. They’re happily moaning. If they see you (Perception 18) they’ll peel off and try to grab you, they’re going to happily force themselves into your body.
BLEACH MEN — CR 6
HP 190 AC 16 — floppy and defenseless, but the clay-like flesh that forms their body is disgusting and resilient
2 attacks +8 5d10 damage and grabbed, it’s a tough grab: their grapple is +20
First they just grab you and they’re really way too tight, then they’re forcing themselves into your mouth and eyes (this they have to do with a successful grapple), on a success they’re able to deal automatic damage and the opponent is restrained, if they reduce an opponent to 0 they enter the target body and steal your color
SECOND TIME
The books are all intact. They are treatises on alien biology. On a shelf in a jar is a tiny many-colored mushroom. If the mushroom escapes, it’ll spread and overtake the world at an exponential rate, becoming a new crisis.
THIRD TIME
The room is blocked off by multicolored, bizarre fungus.
17. CANNIBAL WIZARDS.
Chairs with straps, a saw.
3 previous inhabitants of lecture hall, eating an explorer. Guys with the tops of their heads chopped off, and there’s fire burning there. Former lecture masters. Their burning, cannibal eyes. They eat brains to get knowledge.
Surrounded by bloody skeletons. Add cannibal wizards to random encounter table.
They have spells.
CR 6 Cannibal Wizards
HP 155 AC 14
DC 16 Spells (At will)
Psychic Fireball, Slow, Evard’s Black Tentacles
Or one attack +10 FLAME BITE 1d4+8d6 fire damage
SECOND TIME
A bottomless pit splits the room.
THIRD TIME
The remaining cannibal wizard’s burning head has turned into a black hole.
CR 14 Cannibal Wizard
HP 155 AC 14
Immune to ranged attacks, because they just get sucked into his head.
DC 18 Spells (at will)
Psychic Fireball, Slow, Evard’s Black Tentacles
Everything gets pulled towards the black hole at speed 30 each round, and also must Con save DC 18 or take 5d8 force damage. If you touch his head, you’re restrained as you start getting sucked in, and take double damage each round. On 0, you’re sucked inside.
18. RUST MONSTER.
This room is filled with glowing blue slime. An astral rust monster is slurping it up. It has a glowing tail. If it sees you, it flashes its tail, blinding you.
Astral Rust Monster CR 13
HP 270 AC 16
TAIL FLASH (5/6) Bonus action: all in 60’ must Con DC 18 or be blinded (save to end)
Two bites +8 6d8+16
or CORRODE METAL (2 attacks): Dex DC 18 or a piece of metal is corroded into glowing blue slime. This even affects magic weapons. They take a cumulative -1 to attack or AC.
Weapons that damage the rust monster also take this damage.
SECOND TIME
A big metal statue of Moloch, transported from Kizaad. It’s filled with Kizaad gold that's spilling out its mouth, 2500 gp worth.
THIRD TIME
The slime is falling from the sky like a glitchy computer program, a rust monster is stuck clipped into the ceiling, another identical rust monster is floating and trying to drink the slime.
19. TREE OF MEN.
Tree filled with men. The tree branches are undulating slowly, the men watch you.
If encountered, they will ask a single question in a cacophony of indecipherable voices. If you try to pass without answering the question, they’ll issue a horrible command.
THE QUESTION
1. “WHAT IS THE NATURE OF MAN’S SOUL?”
2. “WHAT DOES A DEAD MAN FEAR?”
3. “CAN A MAN EVER BE TRULY SELFLESS?”
4. “WHAT IS THE WAY TO VIRTUE?”
5. “CAN ONE EVER KNOW ONES SELF?”
6. “HOW DOES POWER TRANSMIT?”
THE COMMAND (Wisdom DC 18 to resist)
1. “EAT YOUR OWN HAND”
2. “CLIMB INTO THE SKY”
3. “CHOP OFF YOUR FEET”
4. “THROW YOUR BELONGINGS INTO THE VOID”
5. “JOIN US”
6. “LEAVE YOUR FRIENDS”
After encountering this room, the tree of men enters the random encounter table. If encountered, the tree will appear in an adjacent room, growing from the floor as if it has always been there.
SECOND TIME
An empty tree.
20. SKULL NEBULA.
Another outside area, the ceiling falling in. The skull nebula visible overhead, shining hideous radiation into the room.
Walking into the radiation deals 4d10 damage per round.
SECOND TIME
The skull nebula is closer. Increase damage to 10d10 per round.
THIRD TIME
Skull nebula is right there! Its gravity sucks stuff up through the sky now. If you get sucked up, you’re able to see the rip in space where the Many Patterned halls lives.
21. PROFESSOR MAGDOCIUS.
Filled with ancient Gith statues. A green brazier.
Also here is a single survivor of the school, Professor Magdocius, who has degenerated into a crouched filthy man, who speaks English.
(About the statues) “These are the ancients who warred across the astral sea! They slew each other.”
“We followed the signs of the wizards of Kizaad! Yes, we ventured even into doomed Kizaad, and there found the signs that led us here! At the center, a nexus of great power, a sanctum of power even! Hidden by the black flame. I cannot light it.”
Magdocius knows some defensive spells (at will, but cant cast the same one twice in a row)
POWER WORD PAIN (Affects target 100 hp or less)
MAJOR IMAGE
HARM
A few collapsed shells of hollow people. East door is barricaded.
SECOND TIME:
Magdocius is not there. Just the silent visage of the great titan statues.
THIRD TIME:
Magdocius has declared himself king of the Many Patterned Halls. He recognizes the players, from years ago. He is greatly angered by their long absence, and greets them as traitors.
22. FLIES.
A horrible buzzing fly coming out of what appears to be a person but is in fact just its shell. The room is covered in clinging cannibal flies.
16 FLIES CR 1 HP 65 AC 16 Attack +10 2d8+6
SECOND TIME:
The 16 people are back alive, they are desperately hungry, they’ve been wandering the halls for ages. They are refugees of the Gith--they jumped overboard one of their ships, and landed in the Many Patterned Halls. But the Gith are long dead....? They do not know.
THIRD TIME:
A single fly monster.
23 SAFE.
Counterweight trap from Last of Us 1. Trip wire is laid across the door, walking across it traps your leg and rips you into the air and rings a bunch of bells, counterweight in the middle of the room is a safe. A simple perception check AFTER opening the door can easily find this.
The safe cannot be opened.
SECOND TIME
The safe is upside on the ceiling, held with no restraints. It cannot be opened.
THIRD TIME
The safe is on the floor. When you enter, the dial begins to spin, clicking through the combination lock. In two rounds, it opens, and a blowing wind begins to suck you in. Make a DC 18 Strength save or be knocked prone pulled 2d6x10 feet toward the safe. If you’re pulled into it, you fall into a random room and take 2d6 falling damage. There’s now a pile of skeletons in the room, as well as 100pp.
24 HOSTILE FURNITURE.
A room filled with dark wood antiques. The floor is a simple illusion, there is actually a 200’ pit filled with piles of old antiques, but the antiques that "float" atop are safe to jump on. Save to recover if you just step on the floor without thinking is DC 19 Dex, otherwise you fall 200' into pitch darkness onto a pile of furniture..
SECOND TIME:
The ground is gone. The antiques are now spinning in place really really fast, like a horrible hostile Mario level. If you try to fly through, they’ll animate and fly at you, each one attacking at +12 for 2d10 damage, for a total of 20d10 damage.
THIRD TIME:
It looks like the first time, except the ground is real. If you walk through, halfway through the ceiling falls on you like a smothering, muscular blanket and tries to suffocate you. Run it as a cloaker.
25. GENTLEMAN.
A strange gentleman, barely holding himself together, he's melting kind of, he stands in a room filled with junk and antiques. He can talk, but nothing he says makes any sense. He’s sort of falling apart.
SECOND TIME
This same gentleman, but much more put together, except his eyes have fallen out of his sockets, which are all droppy and shriveled. “Wouldn’t you know it, I’ve misplaced my glasses! Do you think I’ve left them around here? Gosh darn it! Well, it wouldn’t do to crawl around on my hands and knees, would it?”
His name? “Why but that’s just not important right now! Where on earth are my glasses?”
If you get down on your hands and knees, suddenly everything gets really really big and dizzying. You’re shrunk to the size of a mouse, basically. The man goes, “Oh! I think I hear them!” and starts groping for you, at a +10 (at disadvantage). If he hits you, he does 18d10 crushing damage.
THIRD TIME
The man sleeps in a chair, all put together now. If you wake him, he will say, “The red moon has come tonight! Best hide from its bloody presence” and disappear.
From now on, the skies outside are crimson red, and a bright planet can be seen. In ten days it is big enough for its contours to be seen. Crawling worms slide over its surface. It will drop new crimson worms into the halls.
26. ILLITH VARN.
The core of the Many Patterned Halls. It has been hollowed out, the energy is depleted. But Illith Varn sent his soul and the Astral Soul of the Skoros Orb to this place, and for the long and infinite eternity that he has been trapped here, his spirit has been entwined into greater and greater depredations. He attempted to manufacture himself a body, but has been unable.
When the door is opened, first there is a swirling blue fog. It fills the perimeter of the room. It takes two rounds of travel to enter the interior of the room. If you try to leave, it takes two rounds of travel to exit. Illith Varn will not follow you out of the room, in fact, he is unable to leave, as he is dead.
 |
| The illusion Illith Varn has crafted to comfort himself |
 |
| In appearance, a handsome middle-aged man |
If Truesight is used, the illusion is pierced, it can be seen that you are walking on corpses, and instead of a ceiling, there is a broken, darkened sky, and in the distance, are the shattered remnants of a fortress.
Illith Varn wants to return to reality, but does not know he cannot. If he enters reality he will be immediately brought to the afterlife. But if he can salvage the other two pieces of the Skoros Orb, he may be able to use them. He wields the Skoros Orb.
“Kaviel, oh Kaviel . . . finally, you have returned . . . I cannot find the way back . . . “
“Tell me of Orostranthy . . . I cannot see its dappled towers . . . the sun striking Solemn Cry . . . or was that but a dream I had?”
“Father, I have died . . .”
He is too insane to converse with.
When he is engaged, regardless of initiative, the Skoros Orb sinks into the floor, it can be seen glowing blue beneath, a dim outline that shines like a strange sun whenever he taps its power.
Everything he does is casting a spell. It can all be counterspelled.
Total HP 468 AC 19
Attack +14 DPR 150 DC 20
Immune: Charm, Fright, Exhaustion, Poison, Prone, Grapple, Petrify, Restrain — he’s a ghost!
Resistant to non-magic weapons
Legendary saves x3 (If he fails a saving throw, he can choose to succeed instead)
Special: Illith Varn can concentrate on two spells at once
Saves
Str +5 Dex +7 Con +6 (+13) Int +10 (+17) Wis +8 (+15) Cha +8 (+15)
PHASE ONE: 180 HP AC 19
Speed 40 (Fly)
Immune: Charm, Fright, Exhaustion, Poison, Prone, Grapple, Petrify, Restrain
Resistant to non-magic weapons
On engage: Cast Globe of Invulnerability and Mirror Image
Reactions (1/turn): Counterspell, Absorb Elements, Shield
At 90hp, a contingency triggers, casting Invulnerability on him, as written.
MULTI-CAST:
Cast attack spell:
Ice-block (A 30’ cube of ice deals 8d8 cold damage inside it, acts as an ice wall, but deals no damage when walked through)
Hex (berserk brand, no save, when affected by Illith Varn’s spells, take an extra 6d12 necrotic damage, aim to target this target at least twice a round while affected)
Spray lasers (10 attacks +14, d10+2 radiant damage each)
Horrid wilting (8d8 necrotic damage in 30’ cube, Con save DC 20)
Firestorm (as written)
and cast status effect spell:
1. Stop (Recharge 4/5/6) (DC 20 Wisdom save, Fail means paralyzed until end of next turn, on success slowed instead)
2. Azakabar’s (Recharge 5/6) -- See below
3. Any other non-damaging wizard spell of 8th level or lower (Each separate spell has a recharge of 6) (Globe of Invulnerability, Dispel Magic, Mirror Image, Dispel Magic, Walls, Disintegrate not targeting a creature, Dimension Door, Teleport, Antimagic Shield, etc)
Bonus Actions (Recharge 5/6): Misty Step
Legendary Actions (3/turn, at the end of a player's turn):
1. Prismatic Ray (once per turn): 300 range, +14 4d10 damage (1. fire 2. acid 3. lightning 4. poison 5. cold 6. force, target makes DC 16 Con save, on failure, petrified until start of next turn 7. radiant, target make DC 16 con save, on failure, blinded until start of next turn 8. roll twice)
2. Magic Missile (three targets) 3d4+1 damage
3. Chain Spark (once per turn) — one target, DC 20 Dexterity save or 3d8 damage, then chain to another target in 30’, save, and continue indefinitely (cannot target same target twice)
4. Teleport 40’, all within 20’ must Wis DC 16 or be slowed until end of next turn
Reaction (1/round, three times total): Counterspell
When he dies, his soul falls into the floor, and the illusion is broken. At the start of his next round, the corpse mass surges up, his unfinished incubated body emerges. He animates 4 corpses to start.
PHASE TWO:
 |
| HIS TRUE FORM |
They’re standing on a pile of corpses which look like Illith Varn. I suppose there are other corpses underneath that aren’t Illith Varn. The other wizards and explorers which entered the sanctum. Illith Varn’s main clone is in a mass of corpses, which peel apart and reveal a giant-sized Illith Varn with fucked up melted facial features. When he casts a spell, it's the giant corpse that casts spells. When he attacks, the corpses and tendrils which comprise his shell attack. When the Skoros Orb casts a spell, you can see it glowing from deep within the corpse mound, and all the corpses cast the spell at the same time.
CR 19
MAIN BODY — 20’ tall
HP 288 AC 19
Move 40
Immune: Charm, Fright, Exhaustion, Poison, Prone, Petrify
(If the players happen to decide to try to fly around and do strafing attacks, I don't know. I'd say make him power up and do quadruple damage or something until they get back on the platform.)
ACTIONS:
Two attacks, 15’ range, +1 for each corpse that has died: +14 4d6+1 and Str DC 20 or: grab, push 1d4x10’, or knock prone
OR ranged attack, spray bloody body parts +14 8d6+2 plus 1 for each 2 corpses that have died
OR Conjure 1d4 Simulacra — the corpses which protrude from his corpse shell fall to the floor and can act independently
and cast spell:
DISASTER (one-time only) -- See below
OR AZAKABAR’S (5/6) -- See below
OR ALMAGEST (5/6) DC 20 Con save for half, Affects one half the room for 4d8+40 radiant/force damage
OR Any other non-damaging wizard spell of 8th level or lower (Each separate spell has a recharge of 6) (Globe of Invulnerability, Dispel Magic, Mirror Image, Dispel Magic, Walls, Disintegrate not targeting a creature, Dimension Door, Teleport, Antimagic Shield, etc)
LEGENDARY ACTIONS
1: One corpse casts a spell, or melee attacks for 4d6 damage (1 action) 14
1: Vomit poison (2 actions) 90’ cone, Dex DC 20 or 3d10 acid damage, and take damage again if you end turn in it
2: Move (2 actions): Move 40’ and all corpses move 20’
CORPSES
AC 19 HP 40 Move 30
Advantage on saving throws against magic
Each one can cast a single spell on its turn with range 60:
1. DC 20 Dex 4d6 force damage and all within 10’ Wis save or Speed reduced to 10 (14)
2. +14 attack 4d6 poison damage and all within 10’ Con save or Poison (14)
3. DC 20 Wis 4d6 psychic damage and all within 10’ Wis save or Charmed (14)
4. DC 20 Con 4d6 thunder damage and all within 10’ Wis save or Silence (14)
If a corpse is killed, it immediately deals 40 damage to the main body.
If Illith Varn is defeated, his body slumps to the ground. The Skoros Orb continues to glow from within the corpse pile. It has to be dug up.
When held, it grants the holder three powerful spells, which are always prepared, but must be cast using the holder's spell slots. It acts as a spell focus, and once per day without using a spell slot can cast a special version of Fog Cloud, which produces a deep blue colored fog with a radius of one mile.
NEW SPELLS:
DISASTER
9th-level transmutation
Range: 1000 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
Disaster produces an irrevocable disaster. The natural tendency of man-made objects to fall to ruin is tapped, annihilating everything the caster can see. Any number of non-magical objects within range, which the caster can see, are instantly destroyed. Weapons and armor are rendered unusable. Glass shatters. Metal fissures and collapses. Stonework crumbles into rubble, as if it had aged 500 years.
Up to twenty medium-sized buildings within range of the caster’s choice are caused to instantly collapse. A creature within half the distance of a structure’s height must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 5d6 bludgeoning damage, is knocked prone, and is buried in the rubble, requiring a DC 20 Strength (Athletics) check as an action to escape. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and doesn’t fall prone or become buried.
A colossal building, along the lines of a multi-story castle, palace, or temple may be targeted, but instead of collapsing entirely it will be severely damaged in a way according to the DM’s discretion, along the lines of the table below. A building reinforced by magic will be unaffected by this spell.
If the caster is underground or inside, the disaster becomes dangerous to use. Disaster may be used to target walls and supporting stonework, causing an intentional collapse of any room within sight. If walls or supporting stonework are targeted in this way, a wider collapse has a 50% chance of occurring. If this occurs, all creatures within the spell’s area must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 5d6 bludgeoning damage and become buried in rubble, as above. For each room within the targeted area, roll on the following table:
1. One wall partially collapsed. This opens 1d4 openings into adjacent rooms and creates difficult terrain along either side of the wall for 1d4x5’ in each direction.
2. One wall completely collapsed. This opens a clear path into adjacent rooms and creates difficult terrain along the entire length of the wall for 1d4x5’ in each direction.
3. 1d4 walls partially collapsed, as above.
4. 1d4 walls completely collapsed, as above.
5. Room partially collapsed. Entire room is filled with rubble and becomes difficult terrain. 50% chance of clear opening to any rooms above.
6. Room entirely collapsed. The room is rendered impassable. 50% chance of clear opening to any room above.
7. Ceiling collapses in 20’ radius, creating difficult terrain in that radius. Clear opening to any room above. If no room above, then the collapse becomes an impassable pile of rubble.
8. Room is SAFE.
AZAKABAR'S
6th-level Transmutation
Casting time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, M (Skoros Orb)
Duration: 1 minute, by Concentration
An area of effect spell with hideous side-effects, affecting all creatures in a 20’ radius area. They must make a Constitution saving throw or suffer from 2 to 5 effects, occurring simultaneously, but which must be dispelled or removed as separate spell effects.
Roll 1d4+1 times, rerolling any repeats:
1. Switch bodies: Everyone affected has their mind transferred to another random creature affected by the spell. They gain the physical statistics, hit points, armor class, and attacks of their new body, while maintaining their own mental statistics, proficiency bonuses, class abilities, and spells. If only one creature is affected by the spell, they are unaffected by this effect.
2. Shrink: As the reduce spell. Target decreases its size one category, has disadvantage on Strength checks and saving throws, and weapon attacks deal 1d4 less damage.
3. Sleep: As the spell. Each affected creature falls unconscious until the spell ends, the sleeper takes damage, or someone uses an action to shake or slap the sleeper awake. Undead and creatures immune to being charmed aren’t affected.
4. Turn to abomination: Affected creature is transformed into a hideous abomination. The transformation lasts until the target drops to 0 hitpoints or dies. The abomination is a fleshy, weak, slow-moving creature resembling a fucked walrus. It has 70 hit points, AC 9, Movement 15, Str 8, Con 12, Dex 8, and the mental ability scores of the original creature. It cannot hold, grasp, or manipulate objects, except clumsily with its mouth. It may attack at +6 for 1d6+1 damage.
5. Blind: As the condition. Creature cannot see. Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature’s attack rolls have disadvantage.
6. Necrosis: Any healing from a spell or magic effect instead causes equal damage to the creature.
7. Silenced: Affected creature produces no sound. It cannot speak. Casting a spell that includes a verbal component is impossible.
8. Stunned: Affected creature is stunned for one round.
SECRET
3rd-level divination
Casting time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: M (The Skoros Orb)
Duration: Instantaneous
Draws a secret from the place where it is cast. The secret takes the form of a bird of insect, which contains the secret written on its wings. Such a secret is something that is known by only one other person, or known by no one. If there is no secret in the immediate room, the secret will concern something closely nearby, at the DM's discretion.
If you're the DM and you're at a loss, roll a d6:
1. Something directly and immediately useful
2-5. Something a little obtuse, but applicable and useful
6. Something completely out of left field
so AMAZE. Rediscovering your blog after stumbling on it a long while ago. Do you have a higher res version of the map? (I can't read the potato resolution sadly). Also where did you find the awesome moth art?
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