Beneath Castle Everglory: LEVEL 2: Vault of the Scribes

1. Antechamber

This 4 yard by 4 yard room contains a wooden desk and chair, and some balls of animal dung on the floor (anyone with Naturalist, Survival (Underground) or Zoology has +3 to recognize it as the dung of Giant Rats). The walls are stamped all the way around with the emblem of a hand holding a quill.

Monster

Hiding above the doorway waiting to drop on anything that comes through is a predatory Hell Slug.

Hell Slug

The Hell slug is a broad, flat invertebrate of roughly oval shape that hides in trees or on ceilings, dropping onto creatures passing below to grapple and smother them. It has a limited ability to alter the color of its rough, slimy hide for camouflage and may vary in color from light brown to dark brown or green, to black. The slug waiting on the ceiling here is dark brown and well-concealed against its background. PCs coming through the door above which it waits are at -6 to notice it. PCs entering through any other door are at -2. The Hell Slug’s pink blood is extremely thick and sticky. Anyone who damages the slug with a weapon of Reach 1 or less must roll Dodge or be splattered with blood on the attacking limb or limbs (no Dodge permitted if striking bare-handed). If a character is splattered, consider their limb to be covered by units of goo equal to the damage they just caused to the slug (example: a sword blow to the slug causing 4 points of damage will produce 4 points of goo). Until the goo is removed, use of the limb will require the character to win a contested ST roll every second against the cumulative amount of goo on it. The goo can be removed at a rate of one unit per second of cloth-wiping or five units per second of washing.

ST: 40	HP: 50	Speed: 5
DX: 12	Will: 11	Move: 5
IQ: 3	Per: 10	SM: 2
HT: 12	FP: 40	DR: 2, 8 vs Crushing
Dodge: 9	Parry: N/A	Block: N/A

Attacks: Squeeze-16 4d Crushing

Traits: Constriction Attack; High Pain Threshold; Infravision; Invertibrate; Vermiform.

Skills: Brawling-16; Stealth-16.

Class: Dire Animal.

Notes: None

2. Kitchen

This 5 yard by 5 yard room contains four scratched wooden tables and rusty iron cooking implements hanging from hooks on the wall. The rear wall is lined with empty wooden shelves. There are balls of dung here, as in room 1.

3. Bedroom 1

This 5 yard by 7 yard room contains three wooden beds and what looks to be scraps of torn linen sheets and woolen blankets on the floor. The walls have been painted with fake windows, looking out onto a sun-filled garden. There is a small wooden locker at the bottom of each bed. They can be opened with a straight lock-picking roll or by doing 10 damage to them (they have DR 2). Smashing the boxes may damage the contents at the GMs discretion.

Treasure

Locker 1: 26 silver pieces, an ivory makeup kit engraved with a picture of a sleeping white tiger (1 oz, $200), 5 ounces of Frankincense ($80) and a bottle of Jasmine-scented perfume (6 oz, $500).

Locker 2: 41 silver pieces, a steel dagger of very fine quality enchanted with Penetrating Weapon (2) ($5,400, 0.25 lbs), and a vial containing a green Great Healing potion ($1,000, 0.5 lb).

Locker 3: 4 silver pieces, 25 copper pieces, a pair of red silk men’s slippers ($70, 1 lb) and 3 vials, each containing a black Speed Potion. ($550, 0.5 lb each).

4. Bedroom 2

This 5 yard by 7 yard room contains three wooden beds and what looks to be scraps of torn linen sheets and woolen blankets on the floor. The walls have been painted with fake windows, looking out onto a sunny beach. There is a small wooden locker at the bottom of each bed. They can be opened with a straight lock-picking roll or doing 10 damage to them (they have DR 2). Smashing the boxes may damage the contents at the GMs discretion.

Treasure

Locker 1: 4 gold pieces, 66 silver pieces, 37 copper pieces, and four small stones in a green velvet bag. To the untrained eye, the stones look quite like diamonds and are as hard as rock. They are, however, a form of sugary candy, and will dissolve pleasantly in the mouth. They are worth a copper piece each.

Locker 2: For some reason, the locker is filled to the brim with old, broken egg-shells. They are worthless.

Locker 3: 12 silver pieces, a small silver mirror ($400, 0.5 lb.), and an electrum broach in the shape of a scarab ($2,000, 0.15 lbs).

5. Bedroom 3

This 5 yard by 7 yard room contains three wooden beds and what looks to be scraps of torn linen sheets and woolen blankets on the floor. The walls have been painted with fake windows, looking out onto a sun-dappled forest. There is a small wooden locker at the bottom of each bed. They can be opened with a straight lock-picking roll or by doing 10 damage to them (they have DR 2). Smashing the boxes may damage the contents at the GMs discretion.

Monster

The room is currently being used by a spherical, brown, five-limbed earth elemental, who is sitting on the floor and slapping it with its hands/feet, for reasons only an earth elemental can understand.

Five-Limbed Earth Elemental

The elemental has a rough, brown-black round body with five supporting limbs, each ending in five fingers/toes. It has ten mouths in a horizontal ring, rocky, toothless holes that are strong enough to crush rocks. The creature has a name, but to PC ears, it sounds like rocks grinding together.

The elemental speaks the language of Earth elementals and broken Dwarvish. It has no interest in the PCs problems and knows nothing of any use. If asked to help, it will agree to aid the party in return for some interesting stones, provided upfront. The elemental will be satisfied by about 100 gold pieces ($8000) worth of stones. However, once it has swallowed them, it will no longer remember having promised to help.

In Combat, the Elemental likes to cast Mud Jet on groups of enemies, followed by Stone Missile. Anyone who damages the elemental in combat will really annoy it and is likely to be the subject of a Flesh to Stone spell. If fearing for its life, the elemental may cast Walk Through Earth to get away from the PCs, but it will be back to finish the fight as soon as it thinks the PCs don’t know where it is, hoping to come at them from an unexpected direction. If defeated, the elemental will be willing to cast Flesh to Stone on any petrified characters, as well as doing whatever else it needs to do to survive long enough to escape.

ST: 25	HP: 40	Speed: 4
DX: 11	Will: 12	Move: 6
IQ: 8	Per: 9	SM: 1
HT: 14	FP: 40	DR: 10
Dodge: 9	Parry: 9	Block: N/A

Attacks: 2 x Punch-16 2d+2 Crushing

Traits: Dark Vision; Doesn’t Breathe; Doesn’t Eat or Drink; Doesn’t Sleep; Extra Limbs (5 Arms / Legs); High Pain Threshold; Immunity to Metabolic Hazards; Injury Tolerance (No Blood, No Vitals).

Skills: Brawling-16; Innate Attack (Beam)-16.

Class: Elemental

Notes: Speaks the language of Earth Elementals and broken Dwarvish.

Spells: The elemental knows all of the Hard spells of the Earth College except Entombment and Steelwraith at level 20.

Treasure

Locker 1: The locker contains a thick sheaf of yellowed papers, under which are 44 silver pieces, and a bronze ring engraved with the image of a lotus ($30, 0.1 lb). The top sheets of paper are the alphabet written out carefully again and again, as though someone had been practicing their calligraphy. After that are 40 pencil drawings, all of the face of the same man, somewhat fat, balding and middle-aged and with a faint sneer to his expression. The pictures are signed “Marf”. They aren’t bad but nobody is going to pay money for them.

Locker 2: 2 gold pieces, 37 copper pieces, and a delicate knife, fork and spoon set made of billon ($300 for the set, 0.25 lbs)

Locker 3: Locker 3 is trapped with a magical trap.

Shocking Runes Trap

Detect: Per-based Thaumatology, or Per-based Traps -2. It is assumed that the Traps skill includes instruction on recognizing magical traps.

Disarm: No

Circumvent: DX-based Traps roll to scrape the runes off the locker without setting them off. Once removed, the runes are harmless.

Evade: No.

Effects: Resist Runes-15 with Will or suffer 3d electrical damage (burn).

Shots: Infinite.

Steal: No

60 silver pieces and 3 books, all bound in codex form and written in Common.

Jade Path of the Magus.

Primer: Occultism, Thaumatology. Spell: Ignite Fire (which the book calls “Sacred Flame Ritual”). $250, 9 lbs.

An introduction to thaumatology and the occult, this book harps heavy on the awesome responsibility of being a magus and includes many exhortations for the student to lead a virtuous and upstanding life.

The Five Cryptic Keys of Lao.

Textbook: Cryptology, Mathematics, Thaumatology. Spells: Create Fire (“Manifestation of the Sun”), Extinguish Fire (“Banishing the Sun”), Ignite Fire (“Evocation of the Sun”), Seek Fire (“Pilgrim of the Sun”), Shape Fire (“Possession of the Sun”). $850, 14 lbs.

This meandering text can be a little hard to follow, not least because of the author’s reliance on complicated metaphors and cryptic hints. The book includes many logical puzzles which serve no practical use, but might provide some light entertainment over the campfire.

The Last Wizard.

Heavy leather covers decorated with swirling scratches. Thesis: Psychology, Thaumatology, 4 points in each. Spells: Burning Touch (“Close Melee Burn”), Explosive Fireball (“Tactical Area Burn”), Fireball (“Targeted Range Burn”), Firecloud (“Firestorm“), Flaming Weapon (“Armed Melee Burn”), Flame Jet (“Flamethrower”), Heat (“Targeted Armor Scorch”), Ignite Fire (“Targeted Incendiary”), Rain of Fire (“Surface Denial Incendiary Area Burn”), Shape Fire “Tactical Incendiary Area Denial”. $1,500, 24 lbs.

This text is essentially the anonymous autobiography of a mage for hire, woven through with digressions on the subjects of Thaumatology and human psychology and concluding with a grimoire. The mage sees his life as a tale of human triumph. Rising from extreme poverty as a child in the big city, he found success as a mercenary wizard specializing in fire magic, flinging off the chains of morality along the way as he slowly came to realize that only a fool gives a damn about anyone else.

6. Meeting Chamber

This 4 yard by 8 yard room has the emblem of a hand holding a quill stamped all around the walls. The room is dominated by a long wooden table, around which there are twelve wooden chairs. There are two toppled ceramic mugs on the table, a shattered glass vase and a small wooden box holding shards of white chalk. The far wall is paneled with slate and has the words “THE FUTURE” written on it in white chalk with Common capital letters.

7. Workroom

This 5 yard by 5 yard room has the hand and quill emblem stamped all around the walls. It contains six simple wooden desks, each with a wooden chair. A small, blue ceramic inkwell sits at the right hand corner of each desk. There are empty wooden shelves along each wall that an animal of some kind has been chewing on (A roll against Naturalist, Survival (Underground) or Zoology will identify the teeth-marks of a giant rat).

The inkwells are empty, though stained with ink. If the PCs look under the desks, they will find under one of them that someone has carved in Dwarvish “Get a real job, thief!”.

8. Storage

This 5 yard by 5 yard room is ringed with wooden shelves, laden with closed, labeled wooden boxes of different sizes. The boxes contain stacks of old, yellowed, blank paper, bunches of withered writing quills bound with string, and small glass bottles of ink (long dry).

9. Library

The floor of this stinking 4 yard by 4 yard room is covered in torn, stained paper to a depth of about 1 yard, spilling out into the corridor. There are badly-chewed, empty wooden shelves ringing the walls, except where the boards have been torn down. If the PCs stand silently for a few seconds, they will hear occasional shrill squeals and scurrying feet. Eventually, whether they make noise or not, a huge, hairy brown rat head will emerge from the papers and hiss at them, baring yellow teeth.

Once the rats have become aware of the PCs, combat is almost certain. If the PCs invade the rats’ lair, the rats will attack (-4 to hit them through all the paper). On the other hand, if the PCs leave, the hungry rats will take this as a sign of weakness and will follow and attack them.

Monsters

9 Giant Rats

ST: 9	HP: 9	Speed: 6.5
DX: 13	Will: 10	Move: 7
IQ: 5	Per: 12	SM: -1
HT: 13	FP: 13	DR: 1
Dodge: 9	Parry: N/A	Block: N/A

Attacks: Bite-15 1d-1 Cutting

Traits: Night Vision 5; Semi-Upright; Striking ST +2 (ST 11); Wild Animal.

Skills: Brawling-15; Stealth-15.

Class: Giant Animal

Notes: None.

The death of the last rat is the beginning of the party’s problems. A few seconds after the combat finishes, a stinking breeze blows through the room and a Necrodentus arrives from nowhere.

Necrodentus

For reasons unknown, the extermination of a group of rats can sometimes result in the summoning of a Necrodentus, a cow-sized air elemental, cloudy brown-black with floating dust and grit, in the rough shape of a rat. The Necrodentus is evil but is not undead. Its first action upon being summoned is always to try to slaughter whoever slaughtered the rats. If it succeeds, it may return to whatever stranger plane it comes from, or it may decide to remain and hunt for flesh.

ST: 20	HP: 24	Speed: 8
DX: 13	Will: 17	Move: 6
IQ: 8	Per: 16	SM: 2
HT: 13	FP: 20	DR: 0
Dodge: 10	Parry: N/A	Block: N/A

Attacks: Bite-15 1d Impaling

Traits: Dark Vision; Doesn’t Breathe; Doesn’t Eat or Drink; Doesn’t Sleep; Flight (Lighter Than Air, -10%); Immunity to Metabolic Hazards; Injury Tolerance (Diffuse), No Fine Manipulators; No Legs (Aerial); Vulnerability (Vacuum and wind-based attacks x2).

Skills: Brawling-15.

Class: Elemental

Notes: The bite of a Necrodentus may be Dodged, but not Blocked or Parried. Armor does not protect, though magical defenses, including enchantments on armor, do.

A Nectrodentus can do all of the following once every three minutes as free actions:

1. Extinguish all small fires in 30’. Light and Continual Light spells in the area are the subject of a Dispel Magic (17).

2. Utter a piercing high-pitched howl in a cloud of dark dust, causing a Fright Check at -4 for animal allies, drowning out the music of bards, and doing 1d corrosive damage to the flesh of any creature that hears it. Armor does not protect.

3. Make its black eyes blaze a brilliant red as it attacks its chosen target with its bite. As long as the target can see the eyes blaze and regardless of whether the bite hits or not, the target must win a quick contest of Wills or suffer 1d of corrosive damage to the eyes. Armor does not protect.

Treasure

The pages seem to have scribbled writing on them in a number of hands, but the ink has all run, rendering them illegible. Any PC who has experience with old books will know that ink just doesn’t do that naturally.

10. Temple

This round room, 9 yards in diameter, is where all of the Cutnose Orcs’ garbage and dung from Level 1 Room 7 winds up, in a wide lake of filth in the sunken floor, dominated by a hill of trash. The stench is indescribable. On a stone dais in the middle of the hill is a statue, brown with muck. The statue is of man with the head of a cat, holding a stylus and a tablet, upon which is written the word “Wisdom” in Elvish. The filth-caked walls of the room are engraved with scenes of reeds growing on the banks of rivers.

Despite the desecration, the temple is an area of High Sanctity for clerics of Knowledge. Any spells cast to write something somewhere are cast at +6. Any spells that harm a living creature are cast at -4. Mages as well as divine spell-casters are subject to these modifiers.

Monster

Lurker in Filth

The pool is home to a Lurker in Filth, presently happily submerged beneath the surface and impossible to see. The Lurker in Filth is not looking for a fight, but it will not hesitate to defend the great heap of garbage and Orc dung in which it lives. In practice, this means that anyone who touches the heap will immediately be attacked.

The Lurker in Filth is a slimy, greenish-brown, invertebrate scavenger that lives on rotting organic matter and dung. It has six short legs, three on each side of the body, and four tentacle arms that feed the toothless mouth found on the underside. The Lurker can see and hear perfectly well, despite the lack of any visible sense organs apart from a mass of feeler-tentacles at one end (the end that happens to contain the brain, such as it is). In battle, the Lurker will do its best to face away from danger, which does not hamper its ability to perceive its enemy or to fight, but will convince most enemies to attack its rear end rather than the end that contains its brain.

ST: 40	HP: 40	Speed: 8
DX: 15	Will: 15	Move: 4
IQ: 3	Per: 14	SM: 2
HT: 12	FP: 40	DR: 4
Dodge: 9	Parry: 12	Block: N/A

Attacks: 2 Barbed Tentacle Slash-20 4d Cutting

Traits: 360 Degree Vision; Discriminatory Smell; Doesn’t Breathe; Extra Attack; Extra Arms (4 Tentacles); Extra Legs (6 Legs); High Pain Threshold; Infravision; Invertebrate; No Fine Manipulators.

Skills: Brawling-15

Class: Mundane

Notes: The Lurker in Filth’s barbed tentacles are filthy and envenomed. Any character wounded by the Lurker in Filth must roll vs. HT. Failure will reduce that characters HT by 1 for a number of days equal to the degree of failure. Effects are cumulative. This counts as both as poison and disease for resistance and curing.

11. The Stairs Down

A short corridor terminates in a stone stairway, spiraling downwards. Characters walking down the stairs will descend 10 yards until they arrive at the main corridor.

Table of Contents

LEVEL 3: Vault of the Servants