Monday, November 8, 2010

The Ruins of Soguer - The Mages's Guild Tower, Part 2

Once again we return to the adventure The Ruins of Old Soguer, being posted piece-by-piece here on Tailslap.  Today's post details the first two floors of the Mage's Guild Tower in the central portion of the ruins.  There, a figure from the past languishes under a mysterious curse.

Previous sections of the adventure can be found here:
The Ruins of Soguer - Introduction
The Ruins of Soguer - Start of the Adventure in Aguies Town & Castle
The Ruins of Soguer - River Journey to the Ruins
The Ruins of Soguer - The Western Ruins
The Ruins of Soguer - the Central Ruins
The Ruins of Soguer - The Mages's Guild Tower, Part 1


Journeyman's Hall

I - Haunted Mirror - here a cursed magic mirror shows the night of Soguer's destruction and serves as a conduit to the Shadowfell.

Stepping into the thick fog at the top of the stairs you see the corpse of a long-dead man in worn leather armor. Patches of fog fill the room and partially conceal the tables and chairs scattered about. Corpses of men in ragged leather armor and light hand weapons surround a stand-up mirror near the center of the hall.
A DC 10 Arcana check reveals that the mirror is magic. DC 16 Arcana reveals that is is useful for scrying, DC 21 Arcana to know that it is somehow broken. A DC 25 Arcana check reveals that the barrier between the worlds is thin in the city, and that the mirror is stuck showing scenes from the land of the dead - the Shadowfell.

Looking at the mirror causes it to show scenes of the twilit city as it once was - bustling with people and commerce - with the regal king in gleaming mail astride a green dragon outside a magnificent palace. Then, the scene turns to night. Some type of calamity seems to grip the city. Some people shuffle down the street with blank looks, transfixed by some type of ominous droning, while others scream and flee in the opposite direction. Then shadowy figures are drawn to the scene, approach the mirror's view, and come out of the mirror into the hall.

Encounter (level 12 +, xp 2400 / 3000 / 3600)- Wraiths from the Shadowfell come through the mirror and attack the players. A DC 28 Arcana check is required to control the mirror enough to stop the additional wraiths from coming through, or a DC 25 Strength check to break it will stop the tide of wraiths. Otherwise another wraith comes through the mirror every other round.
2 x oblivion wraiths (level 14 brute - xp 1000)
1, 2, or 4 vortex wraiths (level 9 soldier - xp 400 each) + one additional vortex wraith every other round.

Treasure - the dead adventurers carry shoddy armor and weapons, and 500 gold worth of scavenged jewelry, flatware, and other art objects.


J - Dead Journeyman's Apartment - Here a dead journeyman, Malaki guards his chambers and his spellbook.

These chambers feature two small apartments, each with a disheveled bed, and a chair and small table broken and knocked to the ground. Debris litter the floor, including a large illuminated tome lying open on the floor, its pages open to reveal some type of arcane diagram. Standing above the book is a ghostly apparition of a young mage wearing robes and wielding a runed dagger and a wand of oak.
Encounter - xp 1200
1 x watchful ghost (with magic ritual dagger instead of sword and spectral wand instead of crossbow) - (Open Grave)

Treasure (parcel 8) - The ghost's ritual book contains the following rituals: Water Walk, Phantom Steed, Silence, Shadow Walk, Wizard's Sight, Water Breathing, Arcane Barrier, Detect Treasure and Shrink.


K - Crumbling Masonry - An open pit that falls through to area A.

Hazard
Level 10 Warder - xp 500
The bottom ten feet of these stairs have collapsed, leaving a large hole that plunges down to the floor of the main hall twenty feet below.
Hazard - Careful climbing or a great leap are needed to ascend these stairs. Failure results in a painful fall.

DC 21 perception or dungeonering check to notice the cracked stonework at the edges of the pit.

Trigger - If anyone comes within 5' of the edge of the pit.
Attack - immediate interrupt
Target - the first creature coming within 5' of the stairs
+13 vs Reflex
Hit - 2d10 falling damage and secondary attack from falling stones
-Secondary Attack - +13 vs Fortitude, 1d10+5 damage
-Effect - the floor at the edge of the pit crumbles, widening the pit that looks down into the Main Hall (area A).

Countermeasures
- DC 16 Acrobatics check to to gingerly stand at the edge of the pit without the masonry opening up further (player is attacked as above on failure).
- DC 21 Athletics or Acrobatics check to cross the pit (player falls for 2d10 damage on failure).


Master's Chambers - these rooms contain only fine furniture in various states of decay, except one chamber.

R - Alidol's chamber

This chamber's walls and ruined furniture bear are cracked, scorched, and twisted. Above the door a curse still burns on the wall in letters of cold black magical flame - it reads "Alidol - you are cursed to languish here, un-helped within your tower until you have died here."

Master's Workshops - The landing at the top of the stairs leading up to this floor features doors carved with stars and constellations over tall mountain peaks.

L - Master's Workshops - these chambers contain tables and a few pieces of discarded alchemical equipment but are otherwise empty.

M - Alidol's Private Laboratory - The door is arcane locked and requires a DC 21 Strength or Thievery check to open it. The laboratory is currently occupied by a mute, mad naked old man who is an incomplete simulacrum that looks just like Alidol, and a shield guardian that guards the clone.

Overturned tables and broken alchemical equipment litter this chamber. A stone door leading to a side chamber on the north wall lies broken on the ground. A large humanoid made or stone, wood and metal stands still near the southwest corner for the room, and in the middle of the chamber stands a naked old man with a long beard that hangs to his knees and a mad gleam in his eyes. Catching sight of you, he screams wordlessly and lunges at your throat!
A DC 16 Arcana check identifies the old man as some type of magical copy of Alidol. DC 21 Arcana reveals that it is a simulacrum - a copy made of snow - that is incomplete and therefore not controlled by its creator.

Encounter - level 12 - xp 2800
Uncontrolled simulacrum (use flesh golem stats) - xp 1400
shield guardian - xp 1400


N - Warded Treasury - The secret door to this area is DC 21 Perception check to find, unless they specifically search that wall, in such chase it is a DC 16 Perception check. Within is a magic staff and a tome guarded by two deadly traps.

Opening the secret door reveals a small vault, with a table at the west end. Upon the table are a steel staff tipped with a pointed mason's plumb and a brass-bound tome.
Traps - spectral tendrils - level 13 trap - xp 800 - (DMG p.91) will attack any entering the treasury, and a kinetic wave (level 19 trap - xp 2400) which wards the staff's display table and will also attack any who approach the table.

Treasure - PARCEL #1 - Architect's Staff +3 (level 15, Arcane Power), Summoner's Tome +1 (level 5, Arcane Power) - contains the Summon Fire Warrior (Arcane Power) and Summon Shadow Serpent (Arcane Power) powers.


O - Simulacrum Creation Chamber

The stone door to this chamber lies broken on the floor outside in the laboratory. Within a large metal coffin covered with runes lies empty, and various labeled vials and boxes of reagents stand on some shelves and a table.
A DC 16 Arcana check reveals that this coffin is the focus for a ritual used to make magical copies of oneself.

Treasure - PARCEL #9 - 1,000 gp worth of arcanum and 2 emeralds worth 500 gold each.


P - Master's Hall

A large stone table is set in the middle of this solemn hall, surrounded by four stately chairs and flanked by stout pillars. Surrounding the table is an engraved magic circle.
A DC 10 Arcana check reveals that the circle is some type of runes of protection or privacy, and a DC 16 Arcana check determines that the circle is inactive.

Q - Roof
From the wide, flat platform that is the top of the mage's guild tower there is a magnificent view of the ruins of the city - the river, the trees, the ruined buildings, the walls and gates, and towards the sea, another stone tower. Near the south edge of the roof there are faintly glowing arcane runes in several overlapping circles.
A DC 21 Arcana check reveals that these hastily summoned but very powerful runes ward the tower and permanently protect it from intrusion by demons.

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