SCAP Ch 1 Descriptive text


 

EVENT 1: THE ACCOSTED PRIEST

A wretched drizzle falls from the ash-gray sky.  The crowded, rain-slicked buildings seem especially bleak and frightful this evening, hunched together beneath gloomy skies.  A few lights burn in their windows, but mostly their shutters have been closed for the night.  The scent of chimney smoke fills the air, and the din of water trundles from the rooftops, splashing into dark alleys and turning street gutters into rivulets.  A sudden, plaintive cry for help from a nearby alley splits the evening air.

 

GHELVE’S LOCKS

A small turret dominates the facade of this two-story black stone building. Iron bars are embedded in the thick window frames. Beyond the turret's ground-floor windows sits a lovely display of locks, from large to small, simple to complex. To the left of the turret, above a heavy oak door, swings a simple sign that reads “GHELVE'S LOCKS”.

 

G1: STOREFRONT

This storefront smells of wood and pipe smoke. Two padded chairs flank a hearth containing a small yet lively fire. The fireplace's carved mantle bears a tinderbox, a small vase of dried smoking leaves, and a finely wrought collection of pipes. A burgundy strip of carpet leads from the entrance to the wall across from it, where dozens - perhaps hundreds - of keys hang from tiny hooks. The keys come in all shapes and sizes. A handsomely engraved mahogany counter stretches along one wall. Behind it hangs a red curtain that neatly hides the rest of the store.

 

G2: WORKROOM

Unlike the front of the store, the contents of this room are not neatly arranged. A stout-legged wooden table and matching stool stand at odd angles in the room, and tiny mechanisms and tools litter the tabletop. The floor is cluttered with upright kegs holding tiny gears, screws, metal lock casings, tumblers, springs, and keys. A bucket of coal, a short-handled spade, and a small iron oven equipped with a miniature bellows occupy the far corner of the workroom. A lantern rests on another stool near the door.

 

G3: LOCK DISPLAY AND STORAGE

Black curtains partially obscure a window niche that faces the street. Ornate locks and complex locking mechanisms are neatly displayed in the niche. The room itself looks tidy, but lived in. Carpets cover the stone floor, and a broom leans against the railing of a wooden staircase leading up to a second floor balcony. Three wooden chests rest in the middle of the floor, their lids bound shut with sturdy iron padlocks. Small tables, shelves, and benches hold various knick-knacks, and a framed portrait of a silver-haired gnome hangs next to a tall wooden box at the base of the stairs. The wooden box contains an intricate array of ticking gears, counter-weights, and cylindrical chimes, surmounted by a circular face that bears the numerals 1 through 12 on its circumference.

 

G4: KITCHEN AND PANTRY

This kitchen contains all the basic amenities, including a table with an hourglass resting atop it. A fireplace dominates one wall, with pots hanging from hooks on either side. Two cabinets with frosted-glass doors hold dishware and utensils. A half-barrel washbasin stands in the far corner next to a locked pantry.

 

G5: KEYGAN'S BEDROOM

This richly appointed bedroom holds furniture sized for a person of small stature. A coat rack sits by the door, while elsewhere in the room sit a cozy bed with a hand-sewn comforter, a clean bedpan, a chest of drawers at the foot of the bed, a wooden screen with birds painted on its panels, a wardrobe, and a small bookcase with some books and trinkets on it. A lantern sits atop a small end table by the bed.

 

VANISHING IN JZADIRUNE

 

J1: DESCENDING STAIRS

A stone staircase, its steps shrouded with cobwebs and dust, descends twenty feet to a ten-foot-square landing, then bends to the right and plunges into darkness.

 

J2: WELL-HIDDEN SECRET DOOR

The staircase descends another twenty feet before opening into a room. From this landing, you can hear strange sounds emanating from the chamber below, specifically chirping birds, rustling leaves, and cheery giggles. The landing itself is bare save for an empty iron torch sconce mounted on the south wall.

 

J3: GIGGLING MASKS

The staircase ends at a forty-foot-square room with a ten-foot-high ceiling. A slight draft blows into the from a ten-foot-wide open passage in the far wall, directly across from the stairs. Two four-foot-diameter circular doors are set into the middle of the south wall. Each door is made of wood and framed with a ring of mortared stones. The westernmost door is closed and inscribed with a strange glyph. The easternmost door bears a different glyph but rests half-open. The half-open door reveals an iron rim of gearlike teeth, and a dim light spills from the chamber beyond. Mounted to the walls of the room are twelve tarnished copper masks. The masks are two feet tall and cling four feet above the floor. Each one depicts a smiling gnome's visage. The soft giggling, chirping, and rustling noises seem to pour from the very walls.

 

Welcome to Jzadirune - behold the wonder! 

But beware, ye who seek to plunder. 

Traps abound and guardians peer 

Beyond every portal, behind every gear.

 

J4: LURKING SHADOWS

A dozen small cots and chests line the walls of this ten-foot-high dusty room. Cobwebs blanket many of the cots and chests, and tiny spiders scurry about. Two rough-hewn tunnels, each five feet in diameter and tubular, breach the eastern and southern walls. Stony rubble covers the floor near each tunnel. A one-foot-long iron rod lies in the middle of the floor, its golden tip shedding enough light to cast lurid shadows on the walls.

 

J5: DUSTY BARRACKS

The room holds fifteen cots and fifteen small chests, covered in cobwebs and dust. None of the chests appears to be locked.

 

J6: TILT-A-PIT TRAP

This dusty, cobweb-filled hall has a ten-foot-high ceiling and walls carved with frescoes depicting dour gnomes clad in chain shirts and helms, and brandishing hooked hammers. There are no obvious doors leading from the hall.

 

J7: SECRET ARMORY

Bare, dusty shelves line the north wall of this twenty-foot-square room. Freestanding weapon racks fill the southern half of the room, but most of the weapons have been removed. Three small steel shields and a suit of cobweb-choked half-plate armor hang from hooks along the south wall. Several more hooks remain bare. Below them rests a large wooden chest secured with a dusty padlock.

 

J8: SLEEPING QUARTERS

Nothing remains in this room except four decrepit cots, four small wooden chests, and a wooden dresser with four drawers. Everything is draped in cobwebs.

 

J9: NURSERY

Eight small cradles line the outer walls of this dark, ten-foot-high room. A wooden playpen, a rocking unicorn, and a lovingly crafted wooden toy box rest in the middle of the room. Everything is shrouded with dust and cobwebs.

 

J10: WRECKED QUARTERS

This chamber's furnishings - three small cots, a small table, and a dresser - have been smashed to flinders, the wreckage strewn across the floor. A lonely chain hangs from the center of the ten-foot-high ceiling, and a lantern lies smashed in one corner.

 

J11: CONTROL LEVER

Small mounds of rubble fill this ten-foot-high, twenty-foot-square chamber. Most of the detritus is piled near a roughly-hewn, five-foot-diameter tunnel bored into the west wall. Three wooden chests sit in the middle of the floor. The chests' lids are carved and painted with anthropomorphic figures resembling a badger, a fox, and a rabbit respectively. The smashed remains of three padlocks lie strewn around the chests. A wooden lever juts from an iron plate set into the south wall. The lever looks like it can slide up or down, and is currently in the "down" position.

 

J12: TILT-A-PIT TRAP

A featureless, thirty-foot-long hall connects two round doors. A narrow, five-foot-diameter tunnel breaches the middle of the south wall and heads off into darkness. Stone debris litters the floor near the tunnel's mouth.

 

J13: CAPTAIN'S ROOM

Rubble and splintered furniture fills this dark, ten-foot-high room.  Most of the detritus lies heaped between a pair of five-foot-diameter tunnels crudely carved into the west and northwest walls.  A wooden lever juts from an iron plate set into the east wall, near the door.  The lever looks like it can slide up or down; it is currently in the “down” position.

 

J14: TILT-A-PIT TRAP

The corridor ends with a pair of circular doors in the west and east walls. Dust and debris cover the floor.

 

J15: SKULK DEN

Dead rats, burnt tindertwigs, and bits of broken stone litter the floor of this room whose only furnishings include a cot against the northeast wall and a wooden chest bearing a dented lantern.  The lantern is lit, but barely enough light escapes through its shutters to illuminate the room.  Across from the round door in the west wall, a five-foot-diameter tunnel carves its way east into darkness.

 

J16: MAP ROOM

Carved into the south wall is a large map showing various interconnected rooms and corridors.  The lines of the map glow faintly but do not shed enough light to illuminate the chamber.

 

J17: HALL OF DANCING LIGHTS

Eight black marble pillars support the thirty-foot-high ceiling of this majestic hall.  The pillars are carved to resemble gnome artisans and warriors standing on each other’s shoulders, bracing the vaulted roof with their collective strength.  The walls are adorned with faded murals depicting gnomes in reverie – playing pipes, dancing, performing acrobatic stunts, drinking wine, and so forth.  The forty-foot-wide hall widens to sixty feet at the south end, where a large circular pool is enclosed by a semicircular, one-foot-high veined marble wall.  Carved into the wall above the pool is a gnome visage with water spilling from its wide grin.  Four bright lights illuminate the hall from end to end, corner to corner.  They flicker and dance like torchlight and drift aimlessly about the hall, changing altitude and direction on a whim.  Two piles of rubble, one in the northwest corner and another in the southwest corner, add elements of imperfection to this grand hall.

 

J18: STORAGE

This twenty-foot-high room has two levels: a twenty-foot-square lower level to the west and a ten-foot-by-twenty-foot loft to the east.  A wooden ladder connects them.  Stacked crates and casks fill the lower level.  A cabinet stands against the north wall of the loft, which also contains a heavy wooden trunk.  Everything is draped with cobwebs.

 

J19: GUEST QUARTERS

Three human-sized beds stand against the south wall.  Other furnishings include a table and four chairs, and a carved dresser.

 

J20: COSTUME AND PROP STORAGE

This room contains six bulky wooden trunks, their lids thrown open and their contents disgorged.  Strewn about the dusty floor are dozens of ornate masks, gaudy robes, fancy costumes, mock weapons carved from wood, gnarled staffs, and similar stage props.  A few costumes dangle from coat racks, wooden mannequins, and wall hooks between some heavier props, including a wooden folding screen painted with stars, a stuffed wolf, and a sun carved with a grinning face.

 

J21: VANISHING SKULK

Dead rats, broken bits of furniture, and debris litter the floor of this dusty chamber.  A torch burns in a sconce between a round door and a crudely burrowed tunnel in the west wall.

 

J22: THEATER

Four ornate pillars support the twenty-foot-high ceiling of this room, which is illuminated by lanterns hanging in the corners.  Tattered red curtains dangle from iron rods mounted to the walls and pillars.  Four rows of ornately carved benches stand in the rectangular area defined by the pillars.  Partially set into the south wall is a raised wooden stage with two short staircases leading up to it.  Black curtains partially conceal the back wall of the stage, which is painted with an elaborate woodland mural.

 

One of the black stage curtains flutters, and a small figure steps out from behind it.  A baby black bear – or rather, a gnome wearing a bear costume – takes center stage, raises a paw to his lips. And begins speaking softly.

 

“Night hath fallen in the Magic Woods, and while myriad woodland creatures dream, Willowbough and her faerie friends frolic beneath the sorcerous moon!”

 

The small bear curls up into a ball on the stage and feigns sleep.  Moments later, a female gnome with briars for hair materializes on stage, as though she were standing invisibly a moment ago, and begins dancing.  Solemn music fills the theater as butterfly-winged faeries appear from backstage and join the ballet.

 

J23: EMPTY GALLERY

Two short flights of stairs lead up to a seventy-foot-long, thirty-foot-wide octagonal gallery with a fifteen-foot-high vaulted ceiling.  Twenty web-shrouded pedestals stand about the room, and the walls show signs of having once born tapestries and other fixtures.  However, the items once displayed here have long since been removed.

 

J24: SECRET ART VAULT

This dusty room appears to be empty.

 

J25: KING'S HALL

Marble staircases split this room into three levels: a rubble-strewn foyer to the east, a ten-foot-square marble landing, and an upper hall supported by two pillars sculpted to resemble petrified trees.  Between the pillars rest a graven throne.  An elderly gnome wearing a silver crown is slumped in the throne, his soft snores echoing throughout the room.  The thirty-foot expanse of wall behind the throne is carved with frescoes depicting a complex array of gears.  Another noteworthy feature is a cherubic gnome’s face carved in bas-relief on the west wall of the landing.

 

Betrayed we are by our own magic, 

One by one, we fade away – 

Jzadirune’s lost!  Oh, how tragic! 

We curse the vanishing day.

 

If you wish an audience with the king, place your finest coin in my mouth.

 

Miser! What a paltry tribute!  I curse you with clumsiness!

 

J26: AUTOMATON FACTORY

Metal wreckage and broken gears lie strewn about this oddly shaped chamber.  Standing in the middle of the room is the half-built metal framework of a four-legged, five-foot-tall construct with one arm ending in a spiked wedge.  Its other arm is nowhere to be seen.  Gear doors are set into the north and south walls.  Near them, two roughly hewn tunnels lead into darkness.  Webs fill the corners of the room.

 

J27: GEARWORKS

Smashed tables and chairs litter the floor of this room.  Hundreds of tiny wooden and metal gear mechanisms spill from sundered crates, and a four-foot-high mound of stone rubble fills the northwest corner.  Mounted to the twenty-foot-high ceiling are two large wooden fans strung with cobwebs.  The fans are connected to some gears and rope belts that cross the ceiling and disappear into the wall on either side of the eastern exit.  In the middle of the room stands something draped in a large gray sheet.  The shrouded object is roughly five feet tall, five feet wide, and irregular in shape.

 

J28: GENERATORS

Set into the north and south walls of this corridor are six ten-foot-deep niches filled with dust and cobwebs.  Some of the niches contain elaborate, gear-covered contraptions.  A makeshift wall composed of wooden planks and braces blocks the eastern end of the hall.

 

J29: SECRET LIBRARY

A thick mist obscures all sight in this area.

 

A thin carpet of stone rubble covers the floor of this room, with mounds of shattered rock piled in nearby corners.  Built into the walls are rows of stone shelves – perhaps bookshelves, although there are no books on them.  A ladder leans against the northwest wall.  An ominous silhouette in the middle of the room turns out to be a harmless wooden lectern.

 

J30: SCROLL STORAGE

Upon entering this empty, dust-covered room, a number of small, harmless spiders scurry away.  An elderly, translucent gnome wizard with a faintly glowing ruby in her left eye socket appears in the room and recites the following words. . .

 

“I am Emirystul, librarian of Jzadirune.  The scrolls you seek have been destroyed to keep you and others from fading into nothingness.  The curse of the Vanishing began here, in these mystic halls, and here it will remain.  Be careful what you find, and mind whatever magic was wrought here.”

 

. . .she then disappears.

 

J31: ALCHEMY LAB

An acrid stench fills this chamber, which contains two large tables draped in cobwebs.  Alchemical apparatus clutters one tabletop, while the other table has been flipped on its side, spilling its contents into the middle of the room.  Amid the fragments of shattered glass lie some candles, some spent tindertwigs, various sundry utensils, and a pile of rags.  A five-foot-wide tunnel in the west wall leads into darkness.  Against the opposite wall stands a cabinet, its doors set with jagged shards of frosted glass.  It looks like someone smashed though the glass to reach the contents within.  Mounted to the ceiling is a web-shrouded wooden fan connected to some gears and a rope belt that crosses the ceiling and disappears into the north wall.

 

J32: SECRET POTION STORAGE

Three cabinets stand against the walls of this ten-foot-high room.  The cabinet doors hang open, and a shroud of dust covers the floor.

 

J33: SLEEPING QUARTERS

As J8.

 

J34: PIT LEVER AND RUBBLE

Chunks of broken stone and smaller debris fill this room.  A wooden lever juts from and iron plate set into the west wall.  A five-foot-diameter tunnel delves east into darkness.

 

J35: FOYER AND IRON DOORS

Four circular doors – each one bearing a different rune – lead from this dusty fifteen-foot-high room.  A semicircular mosaic of engraved floor tiles fans out from an arching set of double doors set in the north wall.  Unlike the other portals, the northern doors are made of iron, embossed with gearlike patterns, and held to a stone doorframe by great iron hinges.

 

J36: GREAT FACTORY

This enormous chamber has a ceiling that soars to a height of forty-five feet at its peak.  Two great marble pillars support wooden balconies fifteen feet above the chamber’s west and east wings.  Two iron-wrought spiral staircases – located in the southeast and southwest corners – connect the balconies to the ground floor.  The furnishings on the ground level suggest some sort of assembly area.  Desks occupy much of the area, although a few boxes and crates fill various corners and nooks.  An eight-foot-diameter wooden gear hangs from the ceiling at the north end of the chamber, suspended by a pair of great iron chains.  A bright light burns in the hollow center of the huge gear, illuminating a large mosaic of interconnected gears painstakingly painted on the ceiling and walls of the room.  The singular light casts many shadows throughout the chamber, and the faint sound of clattering gears resonates from somewhere not too far away.

 

J37: CLASSROOM

Small desks have been arranged in three concentric semicircles facing the south wall of this fifteen-foot-high octagonal room.  Chalkboards set in stone frames along the three southernmost walls bear faded equations and formulas.  A web-shrouded lectern stands in front of them, facing the desks.  A pile of stony rubble spills from the mouth of a five-foot-diameter tunnel that breaches the north wall.

 

J38: WEAVER'S WORKSHOP

A large wooden loom, its skeletal frame draped with cobwebs, stands in the middle of this fifteen-foot-high octagonal room.  Three smaller spinning wheels surround it, also covered with cobweb sheets.  An iron coat rack stands next to one of them.

 

J39: MAKESHIFT WALL

You come upon a makeshift wall made of wooden planks.  Iron spikes hammered into the walls and iron braces bolted to the floor keep the wall from tipping over.  There is no easy way past.

 

J40: WOODSHOP

Half-made kegs, tables, bookshelves, and chests clutter this dark room.  Most of these unfinished works have been pushed against the outer walls, making room for four cots in the middle of the floor.  Two workbenches covered with carpenter’s tools flank the north exit.  A few rat bones litter the floor.

 

J41: FORGE

Four soot-blackened hearths are set into the corners of the room.   In front of each rests an anvil and bellows, and implements of the smithing trade hang from nearby hooks.  Two barrels of scummy water, once used to cool searing hot iron weapons and implements, stand against the north wall.  Two more flank the south exit, and a pair of empty weapon racks stands in the middle of the room.

 

J42: SECRET HALLWAY

Empty

 

J43: SECRET VAULT

Empty

 

J44: HIDDEN FOES

A five-foot-wide, rough-hewn circular tunnel breaches the west wall of this chamber.  Another punches through the east wall.  The rubble left by the excavation of these tunnels has been pushed into the northeast part of the room, leaving the rest of this chamber clear.  A few rat bones litter the floor, but otherwise the room appears empty.

 

J45: GLASSBLOWING WORKSHOP

This dark room has exits in the north and southwest walls, plus gear doors set into the south and east walls.  A stone oven fills the northwest corner.  Iron tings hang from a hook nearby.  Bottles, flasks, and pottery clutter shelves and tables haphazardly pushed against the bare walls.  Shards of broken glass and ceramic cover the floor such that you think it would be difficult to cross the room without stepping on them.

 

J46: JEWELER'S WORKSHOP

This chamber contains a stout desk and matching chair.  The table bears a set of copper scales and a jar of dried-up ink with a feather quill sticking out of it.  Shelves line the far wall.  Everything is caked in dust.

 

J47: SECRET TREASURY

This chamber is completely free of dust and cobwebs.  Green marble tiles cover the floor, and the walls are painted with bright murals depicting a forest of enormous fungi.  A gnome-sized suit of full-plate armor, complete with visor and helm, stands in the middle of the room.  Next to it sits a two-foot-tall clay urn filled with treasure.

 

J48: SECRET VAULT

Standing against the south wall of this room is a gnome-sized suit of banded mail clutching a finely forged gnome hooked hammer.  At its feet rests an iron chest secured with an iron padlock.

 

J49: SECRET VAULT

Three chests lie in the room, strange glyphs upon their lids.

 

J50: FALSE FOREST

This section of the dungeon looks like a small forest.  Four great trees sprout from the grassy floor, their leafy crowns fanning out twenty feet overhead to form a roof of deciduous leaves through which rays of sunshine filter.  Brambles and thickets form impassible walls, although bramble archways set into the north and south walls lead to dark passages and chambers beyond.  Two mounds of stony rubble flank a hole in the middle of the east wall that appears to be a tunnel through the underbrush.  A gentle zephyr causes leaves to rustle, and birds chirp merrily in the boughs above.

 

J51: DINING HALL

Once a dining hall, this chamber contains only the wreckage of once-fine furniture.  Two iron chandeliers dangle from the ceiling, while a third – its rope severed – lies amid the debris on the floor.

 

J52: KITCHEN

Two stone hearths fill the east corners of this kitchen.  Stone shelves, barren and dusty, fill the wall space between the blackened fireplaces.  In the middle of the room stand two stout tables covered in old webs, while against the south wall rests a dilapidated wooden cabinet on the verge of collapsing under its own weight.  Debris from a roughly hewn, five-foot-diameter tunnel in the north wall spills into the room.  Near the opening are heaped the shriveled husks of three enormous spiders.

 

J53: PANTRY

This is a nearly-empty pantry.

 

J54: SLEEPING QUARTERS

As J8

 

J55: LATRINE

Thin wooden walls separate six curtained stalls that stretch across the northern wall, although none of the dividers prevent the stench of this chamber from filling the air.  A fish-shaped fresco carved into the back wall once served as a waterspout to a rectangular pool of now-brackish water, although water no longer pours from its gaping mouth.

 

J56: SKULK TREASURY

Bits of rubble and debris cover the floor of this cold room.  Patches of green mold grow on the damp walls and cling to the ceiling.  Lying in a heap in southeast corner are the gutted, putrefied remains of an eight-foot-long green worm with multiple legs and eight slimy tentacles sprouting from its bulbous head.  A heap of armor and shields lies nearby.

 

J57: FLOOR TRAP

Trap

 

J58: BATHROOM

Turquoise ceramic tiles adorn the walls and floor of this room, in the middle of which rests a large octagonal bathing pool with a two-foot-tall raised lip.  Pristine water pours into the pool from a smiling stone face carved into an overhanging wall.  The water exits through a small circular drain at the east end of the pool.  A narrow stone ledge encircles the ceiling, which is hidden behind a tangled mass of thick webs.  Suspended from the webs by ropy filaments is a cocooned humanoid corpse that dangles five feet above the pool’s glassy surface.

 

J59: SECRET CLOSET

 

J60: CAGED RAT

Empty weapon racks line the walls of this dusty, 10-foot-high room.  In the middle of the floor rests a large wooden chest with a flat lid and iron hinges.  Atop the chest sits a small silver cage holding a rat with a white star-shaped splotch of fur on its tiny forehead.  It grips the bars and squeaks excitedly.

 

J61: SECRET SLIME ROOM

 

J62: SLIME PIT LEVER

 

J63: ELEVATOR SHAFT

The floor of this octagonal room is actually a large wooden platform supported by taut iron chains looped over eight enormous pulleys bolted to the fifteen-foot-high ceiling.  One end of each chain is fastened to a corner of the platform, while the other end drops through a hole in the platform, connected to something far below.  Set into the northeast wall is an iron panel with an iron lever jutting from it.

 

KAZMOJEN'S BAZAAR

 

M1: ELEVATOR SHAFT

The walls turn from bare grey stone to polished black malachite as the elevator creaks and groans. After a minute-long descent down the dark shaft, the wooden floor shudders as it comes to rest, and the chains stop rattling. Above, the shaft rises into darkness. The only exit from this room appears to be an iron-reinforced wooden door set into one wall.

 

M2: SECRET LEVER

This is a cold, dark room. An iron lever juts from an iron plate bolted to the eastern wall.

 

M3: STONY GREETINGS

The ceiling of this hall rises to an apex of twenty feet overhead. The floor, walls, and vaulted ceiling are composed of smooth black stone that almost seems to absorb light. Two cylindrical iron cages, each one five feet tall and two feet wide, dangle from the ceiling by iron chains. The base of each cage hangs five feet above the floor. A strange sculpture stands in the middle of the hall between the two cages: a five-foot tall column of roughly hewn gray stone covered with sharp protrusions. Four crystal-tipped appendages jut from the stony mass, each one pointing in a different direction.

 

M4: MAJOR-DOMO'S QUARTERS

A putrid stench fills this room.  The rectangular chamber beyond is splattered wall-to-wall with filth, bile, bones, and other disgusting remains.  Although the room contains no furnishings per se, some of the older refuse has hardened into a crude chair, and an iron chest rests half-buried in a small mound of dung in the southeast corner.

 

M5: SECRET CORRIDOR

 

M6: ZENITH'S HALL

The ceiling in this square chamber rises to an apex thirty feet overhead.  Great pairs of iron doors are set into opposite-facing walls, although only the northwest doors are sealed with a heavy iron bar.  Each corner of the room holds a two-foot-tall stone brazier carved in the likeness of an ovoid creature with three stubby legs, three eyes, and three spindly arms spaced equidistantly around its pebbly body.  Smoke issues from a gaping mouth atop the creature’s “head”.  A dark, pungent haze fills the room.  A nine-foot-tall gray stone statue of a dwarven warrior stands before the southeast set of iron doors, facing northeast.  The dwarf stares blankly forward, two glistening black gems embedded in his eyes, a spiked helmet resting atop his formidable brow.  His armor bears graven glyphs, and a shield is slung over his back.  His stony gauntlets rest on the handle of a stone greataxe etched with fiery patterns.  The head of the weapon is planted firmly on the floor.  Draped over the statue is a mass of iron chains ending in nasty barbs, spikes, hooks, and blades.  Some of them are coiled around the statue’s arms and legs to keep them from sliding off.

 

M7: ARCHED STONE BRIDGE

A stone bridge arches across a chasm.  Thirty feet below lies a pool of still black water.

 

M8: TO THE UNDERDARK

A wide tunnel at the back of this dark, cold cavern slopes down into darkness.  A small forest of stalagmites sprouts from the uneven floor, but the cavern otherwise appears empty.

 

M9: GUARD BARRACKS

A hellish glow fills this room, emanating from a two-foot-long beetle imprisoned in an iron-wrought cage suspended from the ceiling.  Glands above the beetle’s eyes shed the light, illuminating the sparse furnishings of this rectangular chamber.  Four malachite slabs, each one covered with a pallet of greenish-black moss, jut from the walls.  A wooden table stands in the middle of the room, surrounded by four chairs.  The table bears four empty clay flagons and an iron cask.

 

M10: KAZMOJEN'S QUARTERS

This room is horridly appointed.  The walls are carved with tall, narrow niches piled high with skulls, and the skinned hides of various monsters hang on the bare walls between them.  A large chair made of monster skins stretched over a framework of  bones stands in the middle of the room.  A draconic skull surmounts the chair, empty eye sockets staring menacingly.  Behind the chair, near the far wall, a bed of soft moss and fungi sprouts from a large heap of carrion.  A few bones lie scattered around the bed.

 

M11: SECRET VAULT

This thirty-foot-square room has no other visible exits.  In the middle of the chamber rest three padlocked chests, three casks brimming with coins, a small stone bowl filled with gems, a heap of armor, and two large shields used as trays to hold more coins.  Various other trinkets and trophies add to the trove, including a gem-encrusted horn, an ornate walking cane, and an engraved golden gong hanging from an intricately sculpted wooden frame.  An iron level juts from an iron plate in the south wall.  The lever is currently in the “down” position.

 

M12: TRAPPED ROOM

 

M13: ARCHED BRIDGE

An arched stone bridge connects to a ten-foot-wide causeway that spans one wall of a great cavern.  Fused with the rough-hewn cavern walls are smooth walls of dull black stone, some with doors and windows set into them.  Two nine-foot-tall statues carved from white marble stand in alcoves on each side of a reinforced wooden door set deep into the west wall.  The statues depict a male and female dwarf clad in armor, each of which brandishes an urgosh.  The cavern plunges thirty feet below the level of the causeway, ending in a pool of still, black water.

 

M14: AUTOMATON GUARD

 

M15: SLIDING BLOCKS

 

M16: EMPTY CELLBLOCK

This corridor stretches for neary 100 feet, ending at a blank wall.  In the east and west walls are several six-foot-tall, two-foot-wide iron doors kept locked by iron bars.  The iron doors are typical except for the six-inch-wide, three-inch-high berred windows set into the at dwarven eye level.

 

M17: EMPTY CELLBLOCK

 

M18: CELLBLOCK

 

M19: PRISON GEAR

Two stone slabs jutting from the west wall of this room bear a number of common items, from articles of clothing to daggers.

 

M20: JAILER'S QUARTERS

Moss pallets cover five malachite slabs that protrude from the walls of this rank chamber.  A somewhat mistreated wooden table and four chairs stand in the middle of the room.  A rack of javelins occupies the northeast corner.

 

M21: TORTURE CHAMBER

Ghastly furnishings decorate this hellishly lit chamber.  Glowing-hot coals fill the black belly of a six-foot-diameter iron oven that dominates the room.  Three branding irons lie half-immersed in the coals.  Two iron cages hang from the ceiling on either side of the oven: one holds an enormous beetle with red-glowing glands, and the other holds a pile of bones and skulls.  The latter cage hangs by a narrow window that looks out into a dark cavern.  Against the south wall, a haggard woman sits in a tall, iron-wrought chair, metal clamps around her wrists, ankles, and neck.

 

M22: MAIN HALL

 

M23: GUEST QUARTERS

An iron cage dangles from the ceiling in one corner of this room.  Trapped inside the cage, a large beetle with glowing glands bathes the room in an infernal light.  The room contains a pair of simple beds and a table with two chairs.

 

M24: GUEST QUARTERS

 

M25: PYLLRAK'S QUARTERS

An iron cage dangles from the ceiling in one corner of this rectangular chamber.  Trapped inside are two enormous beetles that shed a hellish light.  The room’s furnishings include a large bed covered with animal hides, its corner posts shaped like dwarven sentinels.  Next to the bed sits an iron trunk with claw-shaped feet and four chains bolted to its sides.

 

M26: MAIN BARRACKS

 

M27: FORGE

This smithy is unpleasantly warm and filled with the stench of hot metal and ash.  A blazing forge dominates the east wall, flanked by malachite caryatids depicting dwarven metalsmiths.  In front of the hearth rests a ten-foot-wide, twenty-foot-long slab of gray stone surmounted by two black anvils.  Barrels of water and metalsmithing tools rest nearby.  Two cylindrical iron cages, each one five foot tall and two feet wide, dangle from the ceiling by iron chains.  The bottoms of the cages hang five feet above the floor, and the giant fire beetles locked within them shed a lurid orange glow.  Atop the slab, a female dwarf and three goblins hammer away at a pair of newly forged javelins while two halflings  sit on the floor nearby, linking together tiny chains for what will ultimately become a suit of armor.  The dwarf and halflings have manacles binding their ankles.

 

M28: SECRET ARMORY

Dozens of forged weapons are neatly arrayed on four wrought-iron weapon racks standing in the middle of this floor.  Pushed against the east wall are two tables covered with suits of armor.

 

M29: DINING HALL

 

M30: COOK'S QUARTERS

 

M31: LARDER

Four slabs of meat hanging from hooked chains are the skinned, dried corpses of four medium-size monsters: a giant lizard, a krenshar, a hunting bat, and a snake.

 

M32: PANTRY

 

M33: KITCHEN

This sparsely appointed kitchen has a stone hearth set into the southeast corner, a worktable in the middle of the room, and some shelves carved into the west wall.  The table bears many pots and utensils, and clay dishware clutters the shelves.

 

M34: SLAVE BAZAAR

Four malachite pillars support the twenty-foot-high ceiling of this grand chamber.  Hanging from an iron brace mounted near the top of each pillar is a cylindrical iron cage containing a giant beetle that sheds an infernal orange light.  The southern half of the chamber rises five feet, and a wide black staircase leads up to the raised floor.  Just past the top of the stairs, an eight-foot-tall iron post erupts from the floor.  Iron shackles hang from the top of the post.  Five narrow windows carved into the south wall stand open to the darkness beyond.

 

EVENT 5: INTERVENTION

"I have come for Terrem Kharatys.  That boy should not have been taken from Cauldron.  I intend to see that he is safely returned to his orphanage.  You can keep the others.  They are of no consequence.  Come, Terrem – you will be safe with me."