FOREST of DOOM
An adventure for AD&D players
Designed by Scott Butler
| General Information | The Forest | The Fortress | First Level | Second Level |
| Third Level | Dragon #73 | - | Adventures | Dragon |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | - |
F o r a s f a r b a c k
i n t i m e a s t h e t
a l e s o f
history stretch, the area bordering what is
n o w t h e L a n d s o f
L a u n e w t h a s b e e n a
f o r e b o d i n g , p r a c t i c a l l y
i m p e n e t r a b l e
forest. When the lords who ruled the various borderlands united to
form the
C o u n c i l o f L a u n e w t
a c e n t u r y a g o , t h e
f o r e s t w a s i n t h e
s a m e p h y s i c a l c o n d i t i o n
a s i t i s n o w :
t h i c k , d a r k , a n d e x p a
n s i v e ,
said to be so dense at the center that sunlight pervaded the foliage
only on the
brightest days.
T h e f o r e s t i s a l s o ,
a s i t h a s a l w a y s
b e e n ,
h o m e t o a l l m a n n e r
o f v i c i o u s a n i m a l s
and evil-minded denizen. The animals are
generally only dangerous when one
i n t r u d e s o n t h e i r t
e r r i t o r y . T h e m o r e
i n t e l l i g e n t e v i l c r e a t u r
e s o f t h e f o r e s t ,
however, often come out to the borderl a n d s t o
m a k e t r o u b l e . I n e v e n
t h e o l d e s t
h i s t o r i c a l a c c o u n t s , m e n
t i o n i s m a d e o f
sporadic raids by the evil creatures on villages and outposts in the
borderlands.
T h e s e t r i b u l a t i o n s h a v e
l o n g b e e n a f a c t
o f l i f e f o r t h e
c i t i z e n s o f t h e L a n d s
o f
Launewt ? bothersome, sometimes to the
extreme, but usually not mounted by a
large enough force to do any lasting
damage.
Two generations of men have come
and gone since the last time a group of
such assaults took place ? but now there
is evidence, at least in some people?s
minds, of a conflict that threatens to
escalate into another costly war. A minority faction in the Council
of Launewt
believes that the so-called sporadic raids
have, of late, become systematic and purposeful; several villages have
been plundered in a short time.
But most of the council members have
turned a deaf ear to the assertions of their
more cautious fellows, insisting that the
raids do not fall into a pattern and maintaining that occasional conflicts
of this
nature are not worthy of the Council?s
attention, and should be left for the local
militias to deal with. A splinter group
within this majority has a neutral outlook;
its members realize the dangerous
potential of a united enemy, but hesitate
to believe that there is a single force capable
of consolidating and unifying all the
evil humanoids of the forest.
Such differing opinions don?t mix well.
As a result, the Council of Launewt is in
turmoil, its normally well-ordered
decision-making process now paralyzed.
N o t h i n g is being done, even to the extent
of preparing a contingency plan just in
case the minority turns out to be right.
The council members predicting a
mass invasion have gathered physical
evidence and information to support their
position: items like small, strange darts
smeared and smudged with a harmless,
fungus-like substance; stories like those
told by men who claim to have ventured
close to the forest?s edge in pursuit of an
evil band, and then turned back after
glimpsing dark, shadowy shapes in the
underbrush .
None of the evidence gathered so far
has swayed any of the other council
members, though. They assert that the
darts are simply ordinary objects, and
since the fungus coating is harmless, it
must be symbolic, and not dangerous, in
nature. As support for their position, they
cite examples of strange short swords and
other weapons recovered from the sites of
battles ? their blades so pitted and
poorly worked that they bear mute witness to the inferiority of the
creatures who
forged them. The tales of dark shapes in
the trees they dismiss as nothing more
than fable, stories invented by terrified
peasants and soldiers as a way to gain a
certain measure of notoriety ? or to hide
their cowardice.
In hopes of obtaining conclusive evidence to support their position,
several
members of the minority faction have
sought the aid of small groups of adventurers who would be willing
? for a
price, of course ? to brave the evils of the
forest and get at the truth of the matter.
During the last few weeks, several bands
of explorers have set out on missions into
the forest. So far, none of them have been
heard from ? meaning, perhaps, that
they have met and fallen to stronger
adversaries, or perhaps that they have
thought better of the whole idea and
decided to not enter the forest after all.
Now, another such opportunity is
being offered to a band of adventurers
who seem more stalwart than any who
have gone before them. A young lord of
the Council of Launewt, after seeing his
father die in a recent raid on his family?s
home village, has collected a few scraps of
information that he hopes will demonstrate that the threat of an evil
invasion is
indeed real, and will encourage this new
group of adventurers to seek even more
information ? and avenge his father?s
death at the same time.
?Goblins are not the most reliable
source of information one could want,?
says the young lord, ?but there seems
good reason to heed something I heard
about just three days ago. Several of these
vile creatures were killed during one of
their raids into our countryside. One of
them, just before it died, became delirious
and babbled almost incoherently about
someone or something called ?Arron? ?
perhaps the name of a leader, or the name
of a ruling order the goblins pay homage
to. One of the goblin?s babblings translates roughly as ?victory will
belong to
the noble.?
?We know that goblins are certainly
not ?noble? ? and, from what we have
learned about them, they do not see themselves as noble. These words,
if they are
more than just the ravings of a mad goblin, seem to point to the existence
of an
evil force stronger and more devious than
the goblins themselves. But the exact
nature of this force is still unknown to us.
?I strongly suspect,? continued the
young lord, ?that the creature or organization called ?Arron? is responsible
for
pulling together the evil creatures of the
forest into a fighting force that threatens
the life and property of every resident of
the Lands of Launewt. As revenge for my
father?s death, I want proof that the evil
designs of Arron have been ruined and
the threat to our homeland destroyed. I
offer you 5,000 gold pieces as a reward,
plus the gratitude of everyone in the
Lands of Launewt. Even those who have
foolishly refused to recognize the threat
will see the wrongness of their views
when your proof is put before them.?
After the adventurers accept the young
lord?s offer, he concludes his instructions
to them with a brief description of how to
get to the edge of the forest. It is at this
point, on the fringe of the unknown territory, where the adventure
begins.
For a party of 4-8 characters,
each of 4th-7th level
First place, Module Design Contest category A-2
G E N E R A L I N F O R M A T I O N
T h e p r e c e d i n g b a c k g r o u n d
i n f o r m a t i o n w i l l g i v e
p l a y e r s s u f f i c i e n t f a c t s
t o
understand the history of the area, in
a d d i t i o n t o p r o v i d i n g
a p u r p o s e f o r t h e
j o u r n e y i n t o t h e f o
r e s t . T h e b a c k g r o u n d
includes some hints that dark elves
(drow)
are behind the organization of the evil
forces within the forest.
A general description of the motives of
t h e d r o w w i l l b e
h e l p f u l t o t h e D M
i n
g i v i n g t h e a d v e n t u r e
a l o g i c a l f o u n d a t i o n
and, if desired, incorporating this advent u r e i n t
o a n o n g o i n g c a m p a i g n
. T h e r u l ing forces in the drow underworld
are
noble houses, whose actions are sometimes influenced by the merchant
clans
they are allied with. Inter-house rivalries
pervade drow society; one faction or
another is always trying to demonstrate
its superiority over the others by wreaki n g m o r e
h a v o c a n d p l u n d e r i n g
m o r e
treasure than its competitors.
O n e n o b l e h o u s e h a s
g o n e t o g r e a t
lengths to formulate a scheme designed to
a s s u r e i t s r i s e t o
t h e t o p o f t h e n
o b l e h i e r a r c h y . T h i s
h o u s e , l e d b y a
n o b l e n a m e d
E r i h n ( ? A r r o n ? ) , h a s
a c h i e v e d t h e c o n s t r u c t i o n
a n d o c c u p a t i o n o f a
h u g e
above-ground fortress, deep inside the evil
forest. It serves as a base from which the
drow, and various evil creatures in their
s e r v i c e , c a n r a i d t
h e p r o s p e r o u s L a n d s o
f
L a u n e w t , s t r i p p i n g t h e
c o u n t r y o f i t s
v a l u a b l e s a n d r i c h e s
a n d f u n n e l i n g p r i s oners and possessions
by caravans back to
the dark elves? underworld home.
T h e f o r t r e s s t o o k y
e a r s t o b u i l d , b u t
t h e
p a s s a g e o f t i m e h a s
l i t t l e s i g n i f i c a n c e t o
elves; the end result is something that
might be called a masterpiece, were its
o r i g i n a n d p u r p o s e
n o t s o s h r o u d e d i n
e v i l . W h i l e t h e c o n
s t r u c t i o n w a s p r o c e e d i n g ,
d a r k e l v e s f r o m t h e
h o u s e o f E r i h n
b e g a n t o m e t h o d i c a l l y
m a k e s u b j e c t s a n d
a l l i e s o u t o f t h e
e v i l h u m a n o i d s w h o l i
v e
in the forest, working toward the day
w h e n t h e y c o u l d c o n
s o l i d a t e e n o u g h e v i l
power to overrun every community in the
L a n d s o f L a u n e w t .
T h e r a i d s t h a t h a v e
t a k e n p l a c e i n
recent weeks were disguised to appear as
i s o l a t e d i n c i d e n t s , b u t
t h e i r i n c r e a s i n g
frequency and ferocity suggest to some
m e m b e r s o f t h e c o u n
c i l t h a t t h e y a r e
really the first skirmishes in a massive
a s s a u l t w h i c h c o u l d
d e s c e n d u p o n t h e
L a n d s o f L a u n e w t a t
a n y t i m e . A s t h e
members of the adventuring party will
discover when they reach the site of the
f o r t r e s s , t h e t h r e a t
o f a n a l l - o u t a s s a u l t
i s
a very real one indeed.
Except where otherwise specified, the
drow encountered in the forest and
w i t h i n t h e f o r t r e s s
c o n f o r m i n a l l r e s p e c
t s
to the description of the dark elves in the
F I E N D F O L I O ? T o m e .
T H E F O R E S T
T h e F o r e s t o f D o o m
i s a t h i c k , d a r k
c u r t a i n b i s e c t i n g a
p e n i n s u l a , c u t t i n g o f f
t h e L a n d s o f L a u n e w
t ( l o c a t e d a t t h e
t i p
o f t h e p e n i n s u l a ) f
r o m t h e r e s t o f
t h e c o n t i n e n t . I t i s
a b a n d 3 0 m i l e s
w i d e a n d
m o r e t h a n s i x t i m e s
t h a t l o n g . T h e r e i s
n o w a y t o g o a
n y w h e r e o n f o o t f r o m
t h e
L a n d s o f L a u n e w t w i
t h o u t p a s s i n g
through the forest. (Player characters and
other adventurers new to the Lands of
Launewt are assumed to have approached
the country by sea.)
T h e f o r e s t , i n a d d i
t i o n t o p r o v i d i n g t h e
surrounding environment for the drow
f o r t r e s s , c a n a l s o
b e b u i l t i n t o a n
extended wilderness adventure. This
e x p a n s i o n i s p a r t i c u l a r l
y a p p r o p r i a t e i f
this adventure is being integrated into an
o n g o i n g c a m p a i g n ?
s e v e r a l p a r t i e s o f
a d v e n t u r e r s m a y g o into
the forest, but
perhaps not all of them will come out.
It is a thoroughly evil place. No goodaligned creatures will be encountered
inside the forest; otherwise, treat it as a
faerie/sylvan forest setting in a temperate
climate. A suggested random encounter
table is given below. The chance of a
random encounter is a roll of 1 on d6,
and should be checked every hour.
Encounter table
| d% number | Creature type | Number |
| 01-02 | Al-mi'raj | 1-10 |
| 03 | Ape, carnivorous | 1-6 |
| 04 | Basilisk | 1-2 |
| 05-11 | Bear, brown | 1-2 |
| 12 | Beetle, bombardier | 1-8 |
| 13 | Beetle, boring | 1-8 |
| 14 | Beetle, stag | 1-8 |
| 15-20 | Boar, giant | 1-3 |
| 21-27 | Bugbear | 5-12 |
| 28 | Cockatrice 1 | 1 |
| 29 | Dragon, green (young) | 1 |
| 30-35 | Drow Patrol 2 | -- -- 2 |
| 36-41 | Goblin | 5-30 |
| 42-43 | Gorgon | 1-2 |
| 44 | Groaning Spirit | |
| 45-48 | Hobgoblin | 2-12 |
| 49 | Lycanthrope, werebear | 1-2 |
| 50 | wereboar | 1-2 |
| 51-52 | Minotaur | 1 |
| 53-55 | Ogre | 2-8 |
| 56-59 | Orc | 3-24 |
| 60-63 | Quaggoth | 2-12 |
| 64-65 | Skunk, giant | 1 |
| 66-67 | Snake, giant, poisonous | 1-3 |
| 68-78 | Spider, huge | 1-12 |
| 79-86 | Stag, giant | 1-2 |
| 87-89 | Stirge | 2-20 |
| 90 | Su-monster | 1-4 |
| 91 | Tick, giant | 3-7 |
| 92 | Toad, giant | 1-6 |
| 93-95 | Troll | 1-4 |
| 96 | Weasel, giant | 1-4 |
| 97 | Whipweed | 1-2 |
| 98-00 | Wolf, dire (Worg) | 3-8 |
1 -- 75% likely to be encountered
while airborne
2 -- A drow patrol encountered in
the forest will be composed of 2- 12
male drow fighters, all of 2nd level,
sometimes (20%) accompanied by 1-8
bugbears. Commanding the patrol
will be either a fighter of 4th-7th level
(70%) or a magic-user of 5th-8th level
(30%). Note: All drow encountered outside the fortress will be using
ordinary
armor (chain) and weapons, not special items of drow manufacture.
The forest springs up abruptly at the
edge of the Lands of Launewt. It is thick
and dark, with no patch of land within it
that could be called a clearing. There are
no paths, and the forest floor is covered
with a thorny underbrush that inhibits
movement (two-thirds normal movement
rate for overland travel). Negotiating the
underbrush entails a great deal of noise,
so that any creature?s or party?s chance of
being surprised is halved ? unless those
attempting to surprise remain motionless
and quiet.
The thick overhead growth starts to
blot out daylight almost as soon as one
sets foot inside the forest. At a point only
a few hundred feet inside the forest
perimeter, the light conditions are similar
to twilight on a cloudy day. The darkness
gradually deepens as one moves closer to
the center of the forest until, for a radius
of five miles around the drow fortress, the
forest is as dark as night. Even on the
brightest day, the sun produces no more
light than a full moon.
The center of the forest?s evil activity is
located, logically enough, in the exact
center of the forest. If the adventurers are
actively seeking the drow fortress but
have wandered far from its location, the
DM can point them in the right direction
b y t h e u s e o f
s u b t l e c l u e s : a d e e p e
n i n g o f
the darkness as they move toward the center, and vice versa; the fact
that encountered creatures (intelligent ones, at least)
will tend to retreat in the general direct i o n o f
t h e f o r t r e s s ; a n d o t h
e r i n d i c a t o r s
of this sort.
Any time the adventurers are within
one mile of the fortress, there is a 20%
chance per turn of movement that they
w i l l d i s c o v e r o n e o
f t h e m a n y t r a i l s
t h a t
radiate into the forest from the drow fortress. There are 18 such radiating
trails,
spaced at roughly 20-degree intervals.
They have been cleared to make it easier
for slaves to forage raw materials (for the
purpose described below) from the immediate area around the fortress.
T H E F O R T R E S S
T h e h e a d q u a r t e r s f o r
t h e h o u s e o f
E r i h n ? s e v i l c
a m p a i g n i s a p h e n o m
e n a l l y
h u g e t r e e , w i t h a
t r u n k m e a s u r i n g 1 8 0
f e e t i n d i a m e t e r a t
t h e b a s e . T h e t r e e ,
most likely related to the sycamore family, is made of relatively soft
wood. Large
s e c t i o n s o f t h e i n s
i d e o f t h e t r u n k
h a v e
b e e n h o l l o w e d o u t t
o f o r m r o o m s a n d
passages, but the tree is so massive that
these cavities have not weakened it struct u r a l l y .
T h e t r e e i s a l i v e ;
i t i s n o u r i s h e d
by a wide, shallow river that passes
w i t h i n a f e w h u n d r e
d f e e t t o t h e s o
u t h o f
t h e t r u n k , a n d i n
a d d i t i o n i t i s b e i n g
c o n tinually fertilized by a procedure devised
by the drow which is carried out through
the efforts of several dozen slaves.
O n t h e n o r t h s i d e
o f t h e t r e e , o p p o s i t e
the river, are two semicircular trenches,
each 15 feet wide and 10 feet deep and
separated by a 50-foot-wide walkway.
These trenches are always kept at least
h a l f f u l l o f f e r t i l
i z e r , w h i c h c o n s i s t s
o f
decaying organic matter gathered from
the surrounding forest as well as a
c o m p o s t - l i k e m i x t u r e t h a
t i s m a n u f a c tured inside the tree. For
most of every
day, all except for the darkest hours of the
night, slaves are kept busy gathering raw
m a t e r i a l s f r o m t h e
f o r e s t , h a u l i n g w a t e r
i n b u c k e t s f r o m t h e
r i v e r t o i n s i d e t h e
tree, and bringing out buckets of sludge
to deposit in the fertilizer trenches.
If a party approaches the fortress by
w a y o f a n y o f
t h e f o r a g i n g t r a i l s ,
t h e r e i s
a 10% chance every 3 turns, cumulative, of
e n c o u n t e r i n g a g r o u p
o f 3 - 6 s l a v e s . T h e
slaves will be supervised by 1 bugbear, if
there are 3 or 4 slaves in the group, or by
2 bugbears if 5 or 6 slaves are working
together. (For detailed descriptions of
these creature types, see the notes followi n g t h e
F o r t r e s s E n c o u n t e r T a b l e
b e l o w . )
T h e b u g b e a r s a r e n o
t e s p e c i a l l y b r i g h t ,
a n d n o t o v e r l y a n x i
o u s t o e n g a g e i n
c o m bat. They will probably (60%) believe any
plausible reason for the party being in the
vicinity of the tree, and in that event they
will be willing to let a party advance
toward the fortress unopposed.
The chance of a random encounter
within the tree is a roll of 1 on d6, with
checks made every turn after the party
gets inside. If an encounter is indicated,
refer to the table and notes below to
determine the creature type involved:
Fortress Encounter Table
| d10 roll | Creature type | Number |
| 1-2 | Quaggoth | 2-8 |
| 3-5 | Drow | 2-4 + leader |
| 6-8 | Slaves | 2-8 + guard |
| 9-10 | Bugbears |
Quaggoth groups encountered inside
the tree will be unarmed. These creatures
are servants of the drow whose main purpose is to shepherd and supervise
slaves
working inside the fortress.
Drow random encounters inside the
tree will be with groups of 2-4 plus a
leader, with a 30% chance that each character in a group is a female.
The nonleader types are all 2nd level fighters (AC
2, MV 12? or 15?, HP 11 each, #AT 2, D
sword 1-6, dagger 1-4). The leader of a
party who is male will be a 3rd level
fighter/magic-user (AC 2, HP 13) who
can cast burning hands, shield, and mirror image
in addition to the innate magic
ability possessed by all dark elves. The
leader of a party who is female will be a
3rd level fighter/cleric (AC 2, HP 20, D
mace 2-7) with the ability to cast cure
light wounds, remove fear, and chant in
addition to the innate spell abilities possessed by all female dark
elves. Any drow
encountered inside the tree, randomly or
otherwise, will be using the special drow
weaponry and armor.
Slaves are various human,
demihuman, and humanoid creatures who
have been captured and put to work
maintaining the fertilizer system, serving
food, and doing other sorts of maintenance. Slaves encountered randomly
inside the fortress will not be working on
the fertilizer pit (see the descriptions of
area 6 and area 7 in the first level), but
will be engaged in other sorts of activities. Slaves are all AC 10,
MV 9?, HD l-l,
HP 3, and unarmed (usually carrying
buckets or sacks, if anything) and connected at the waist by 5-foot-long
chains.
A group of 4 or fewer will be guarded by
an unarmed quaggoth; a group of 5 or
more will be guarded by a single bugbear
with a wooden club.
Bugbears will only
be encountered on
the first level (ground level) of the fortress; for random encounters
on the other
levels or in the passageways between levels, roll d8 instead of d10
to determine the
creature type. Each bugbear in a random
encounter will be armed with a long
sword or a mace (50% chance for each).
There are no stationary light sources
inside the fortress. Servants and slaves
will carry lanterns or torches for illumination when such equipment
is necessary. The fortress has no stairs as such;
chambers located at different elevations
are connected by rough-hewn, sloping
passageways.
FIRST LEVEL
Elevation ranges from -5 feet (below
ground) to +65 feet (above ground)
1. Sentinel Posts:
If adventurers
approach the fortress from the north, they
will be spotted by drow sentinels located
behind concealed doors that are 10 feet
above ground level. There is a secret door
at ground level between the two sentinel
posts.
Characters approaching the tree will be
fired upon as soon as they are within
medium range if they do not give the
proper signal, which consists of dropping
one?s weapons and continuing to advance
empty-handed. If a party attempts to bluff
its way into the fortress, the female elf at
sentinel post (b) will use her detect lie
ability to try to determine the truth of the
characters? statements. If a full-scale battle breaks out at the base
of the tree, the
fighters at each sentinel post will fire
their missile weapons at the rate of one
shot per round. Meanwhile, the
fighter/magic-user will go inside the tree
and attempt to sound an alarm inside the
bugbear barracks (area 2). The bugbears
will arrive on the scene via the secret door
in 10 rounds after the sentinels start their
missile fire. When the bugbears engage
the party, the two sentinels will drop
down from their elevated posts and join
the melee.
A. This post is occupied by a 3rd level
male drow fighter (AC 3, HP 20)
who
benefits from 75% cover as long as he is at
the post and protected by the half-open
concealed door. He has a + 1 buckler, +1
sword and dagger, and a light crossbow
plus 10 darts coated with sleep poison.
B. This post is occupied by two elves:
a
male fighter/magic-user of 2nd/3rd level
(AC 4, HP 14, #AT 1, D sword 1-6) and a
3rd level female fighter (AC 2, HP 19)
armed identically to the sentry at post A.
The magic-user can cast magic missile,
hold portal, and detect invisibility in
addition to his innate magical abilities.
2. Bugbear Barracks:
All of the bugbears in these three chambers who are
able to do so will respond to a general
alarm within 10 rounds, donning scraps
of armor and taking up weapons as they
go. All of the doors leading between these
chambers and into the corridor are closed
but not locked.
A. These sleeping quarters contain
eight sets of sturdy double bunks around
the walls. Seven of the beds are occupied
by sleeping bugbears (AC 5, MV
9?, HD
3+ 1, HP 14 each, #AT 1, D 2-8 or weapon). They will awaken instantly
if
intruders enter the room without being
absolutely quiet, and will fight fiercely,
using their natural attacks. Each bugbear
has the equivalent of 1-8 g.p. somewhere
on its person or nearby in its personal
belongings.
B. This is a common kitchen and dining
hall, currently occupied by three
g r o u p s o f b
u g b e a r s , c l a s s i f i e d a c c o
r d i n g
t o t h e i r s t a t e s o f
i n e b r i a t i o n : f i v e c o m a tose bugbears
(effective AC 8, MV 0?, HP
6 e a c h ) ; s i x h i g h l y
i n e b r i a t e d b u g b e a r s
( A C 5 , M V 6 ? ,
H P 1 0 e a c h , + 3 d
u e t o s t a t e
o f i n e b r i a t i o n = 1 3
, # A T 1 , D 2 - 8 )
w h o
s t r i k e a t - 5 ? t o
h i t ? ; a n d f o u r m o d e r a
t e l y
i n e b r i a t e d b u g b e a r s ( A C
5 , M V 9 ? , H P 1 0
e a c h , + 1 d u e t o
s t a t e o f i n e b r i a t i o n
= 1 1 ,
# A T 1 , D 2 - 8 )
w h o s t r i k e a t - 1
? t o h i t . ?
T h o s e w h o a r e a b l e
t o m o v e w i l l s t a r t
a
f i g h t a t t h e s l i g h t
e s t p r o v o c a t i o n . I f c
h a r acters sample the drink the bugbears are
c o n s u m i n g , t h e y m u s t
s a v e v s . p o i s o n t o
avoid suffering paralyzing cramps and
sickness for 1-3 rounds thereafter.
C . T h i s i s
a n o t h e r s l e e p i n g a r e a
i d e n t i c a l i n c o n f i g u r a t i o n
t o c h a m b e r 2A .
N i n e
o f t h e b u n k s a r e
o c c u p i e d b y c o m a t o s e
b u g b e a r s ( e f f e c t i v e A C
8 , M V 0 ? , H P 6
each) who will not awaken even under
extreme provocation.
3 . S p i d e r L a i r :
This chamber, earmarked for possible future use as slave
quarters, is presently the home of a giant
spider (AC 4, HP 22) which
hangs suspended from webbing attached to the 20-
foot-high ceiling. It will scuttle silently
along the webbing and drop down on any
character who advances more than 10 feet
inside the door to the chamber. The floor
of the chamber, except for a 10-foot
radius right inside the door, is covered
with tough, sticky webbing that will
entrap a character who comes into contact with it.
4. Slave
Quarters: This ?barracks,?
nothing more than a hollowed-out area
devoid of furnishings, is where slaves are
quartered when they are eating or sleeping. At any given time, from
11-30 slaves
(d20 + 10) will be present, overseen by a
pair of quaggoth guards stationed at the
opening in the southeast corner. If the
guards are attacked or threatened, they
will run outside, abandoning the slaves,
and attempt to re-enter the fortress by way
of the secret door at area 1 or the double
doors leading to the storeroom (area 6).
The slaves will not take any aggressive
action and will not flee except in a life-or-death
situation, realizing that their
chances for survival outside in the forest
are virtually nil.
5. Armory: This chamber is separated
from the corridor by a thick wooden door
bound with iron and closed with a large,
intricate metal lock (-10% to any thief's
chance to pick it). A glyph
of warding
has been cast on the door; anyone who
picks the lock and attempts to open the
door without neutralizing the glyph will
take 1-10 points of damage unless a save
vs. paralyzation is made.
Inside the chamber is a storehouse of
weapons and armor. The following are
all of drow origin: five javelins, two light
crossbows, 30 crossbow darts, four +1
short swords, two +1 daggers, two suits of
+1 chainmail, three +1 bucklers, and two
packets of drow sleep poison, each sufficient to coat 10 crossbow darts.
One of the
packets is trapped with a needle mechanism that will be activated by
anyone
who handles the packet without first disarming the trap. The handler
must save
vs. poison at -4 to avoid being affected by
the sleep poison..
Also in the room are several sets of
ordinary armor and weapons (chainmail,
bucklers, short swords, daggers, light
crossbows) used by the drow when they
go outside the fortress.
6. Storeroom and Sludge Well: Stacked
along the walls of this large chamber are
various sacks and crates of foodstuffs and
trade goods, but not gems or jewelry or
other valuables. This material is booty
from various raids that has not yet been
transported back to the drow underworld.
In an alcove in the northern part of the
room is a 5-foot-diameter hole that leads
to the lowest depth of the fertilizer pit
located beneath this level. Slaves draw fertilizer up from the pit
by lowering
buckets into the hole on ropes and
winches, then pulling them back up with
full loads of the sludge. The buckets are
then carted outside, and their contents
dumped into the trenches that ring the
northern edge of the fortress complex.
The two sets of double doors between
this area and the outside of the fortress
are wide open any time slaves are on
duty. The slaves work in pairs, filling
their buckets with sludge and then going
out through the northern doorway, heading for the fertilizer trenches.
Once every
1½ turns, two different slaves return from
the trenches, entering through the northern doorway, with buckets to
be re-filled.
It only takes one turn for a pair of slaves
to load their buckets and leave again,
which means that for five minutes out of
every fifteen the northern end of this
room is vacant.
The southern doorway opens onto a
short corridor leading into the storeroom;
directly across the room at this point is
another corridor which leads to area 7.
Once every 1½ turns, two slaves enters the
southern doorway, laden with sacks of
raw materials or buckets of water from
the river, and disappear into the long
corridor.
The slaves who work in this area are
not strictly supervised or even necessarily
watched over. However, bugbears and
q u a g g o t h a r e c o n s t a n t l y
r o a m i n g t h e
r o o m s a n d c o r r i d o r s
o f t h i s l e v e l , a n d
c a n
b e e x p e c t e d t o r u s h
t o t h e s c e n e i f
t h e y
hear sounds of excessive activity, or some
sort of disturbance.
7. Fertilizer Chamber: This featureless
room, in the exact center of the tree
trunk, is located at the end of a steeply
ascending corridor that rises to 65 feet
above ground level. The corridor is
separated from area 6 by a set of wooden
double doors that (like the doors in area
6) are only closed and locked during the
few hours each night when the slaves are
not working..
The floor of the chamber itself is level.
In the center of the room is a 10-footdiameter hole that serves as
a receptacle
for the water and raw materials (dumped
into it by slaves) that combine and
decompose into sludge. It is this sludge,
which settles to the bottom of the pit
beneath this area, that is hauled up
through the hole in area 6 and taken out
to the fertilizer trenches. (See the crosssection diagram on the preceding
page.)
<><><><><><><>
Pairs of slaves come up the corridor
and into this chamber every 1½ turns. It
takes only a moment for each two
workers to dump their burdens into the
hole, and the return trip down the corridor and into area 6 takes only
a round or
two. Consequently, the corridor and the
chamber are unoccupied more often than
not. As with area 6, the slaves working to
keep the sludge pit full of raw materials
are generally unsupervised, but there are
guards continually roaming around the
area who might be (randomly) encountered, and there is almost always
at least
one quaggoth in area 8, which is adjacent
to the fertilizer chamber.
8 . Q
u a g g o t h Q u a r t e r s : This chamber
is
?decorated? with large, strange-looking
furs that cover most of the floor. The only
other objects of note are two wooden
chests on the westernmost wall. The
larger of the two is unlocked and holds
several more of the strange furs. The
smaller chest is locked; it contains an
abundance of wood shavings with 80
copper pieces and 50 silver pieces scattered throughout the pile. The
chest can
be unlocked with a key which is found
beneath one of the furs on the floor.
There are 10 such furs, and there is a 10%
cumulative chance that the key will be
found under any one of them.
There will be from 0-7 (d8-1) quaggoth,
unarmed and asleep, in this room at any
given time. The door to the chamber is
always closed, but never locked. However,
it is a very noisy door ? if precautions
are not taken by anyone opening it, the
movement of the door will disturb any
quaggoth inside the room. If the creatures
inside the room are outnumbered, they
will try to flee into area 7 and down the
corridor. If the quaggoth outnumber the
intruders, they will fight ferociously until
and unless the battle seems to be going
against them, and the survivors will then
try to escape the area.
9. Stirge Nests:
This chamber is reached
after passing through a locked door on
the south wall of area 6, going up a narrow, curving corridor, and
opening an
unlocked door in the northwest corner of
the chamber. The door in the southwest
corner of the room is locked.
10. Water Trap:
This irregularly
shaped chamber is located behind an
unlocked door and at the end of a curving, gently descending corridor
which is
very smooth and has a thin film of water
over most of it, making it even more
slippery. The walls of the corridor are
covered with a mass of thorny material.
Characters who attempt to negotiate the
sloping passageway without taking some
precautions against the slipperiness must
roll their dexterity or less on d20 every
round to stay on their feet. Failure to
make this roll means the character has
lost his balance and hit the thorns for 1-4
points of damage. The corridor levels out
over the last half of the distance between
the door and the chamber, so that movement becomes considerably easier:
In this
section of the corridor, a character must
fail two consecutive saves vs. dexterity (as
described above) in a single round to take
any damage from the thorns.
If characters travel to the end of the
corridor, they will see a chamber of no
special note, except that the floor is
covered with a semi-transparent membrane. Hung on a single large thorn,
just
above the floor right at the end of the corridor, is a pouch which
will be spotted by
anyone who examines the wall. The
pouch contains a ring of swimming.
This chamber is relatively close to the
river, at a spot where the water table is
exceptionally high. The membrane is
holding back a large pool of water. If any
character weighing more than 120
pounds (including his or her possessions)
steps onto the membrane, or if it is hit or
punctured with a weapon, the membrane
will rupture. Water will cascade out, filling the chamber and quickly
rising to
inundate the level part of the corridor
nearest the chamber. Characters must save
vs. strength on d20 to avoid being swept
off their feet and back down the corridor.
Failure to save means that the victim
takes damage equal to his or her armor
class rating, plus 1-4 points (but never
less than 3 points altogether), from contact with the thorns. A character
wearing
the ring of swimming when the membrane is ruptured will
be able to swim to
higher ground (further back in the corridor) without taking any damage.
11. Drow Barracks:
All of the doors
leading off the corridor to this threesection area are closed and secured
with
simple latches ? not locks. Opening any
one of them, or making any measurable
noise anywhere near a door in the level
part of the long corridor, will alert all of
the occupants of the section in question.
A. This is a barracks for drow females.
Six living areas, each containing a cot
and a wooden chest, are along the walls,
partitioned off from each other with silk
curtains. One curtain, in the northwest
corner of the room, is open. Sitting on
her cot (if the party achieves surprise) will
be a female dark elf preparing to go on
guard duty. She is a heroine
<4th level fighter> (AC
2, MV 15?, HP 25, #AT 2, D sword 1-6 or
dagger 1-4) with +1 chainmail, a +1
buckler, and +l weapons.
If she is not aware of the party?s presence before they open the door
to this
chamber, she will immediately scream an
alarm which will be heard by the occupants of section B. If she has
been alerted
to a possible disturbance, she will be
poised for battle when the party opens the
door (and perhaps will have been readying a spell in the meantime).
The elves
from section B will arrive to assist her on
the round after the party enters the
barracks.
Each wooden chest that is investigated
will be found to contain ordinary (nonmagical) clothing, personal items,
and
the equivalent of 2-12 platinum pieces.
B. This is a cooking and eating area
containing two large tables and a total of
12 chairs. The doors leading to sections A
and C are closed but unlocked. Seated
around one of the tables are three male
dark elves, two of them wearing black
chainmail and the third one more casually dressed. The two elves in
chainmail
are 2nd level fighters (AC 4,
MV 12?, HP
17 and 12, #AT 2, D sword 1-6 or dagger
1-4). If they are intruded upon, they will
immediately draw their +1 weapons and
attack.
The third elf is a fighter/magic-user of
4th level (AC 8, MV 12?, HP 15, #AT 1, D
dagger 1-4). At the first sign of any sort of
d i s t u r b a n c e , h e w i l l
s h o u t a n a l a r m t h a t
w i l l b e h e a r d b y
t h e o c c u p a n t s o f s e c t
i o n s
A a n d C , a n d t
h o s e e l v e s w i l l j o i n
t h e
fight on the second round thereafter.
I n s t e a d o f g e t t i n g
i n t o t h e m e l e e , t h e
third elf will attempt to stay away from
t h e a c t i o n a n d c a s t
s p e l l s . I n a d d i t i o n t
o
the innate magical abilities possessed by
a l l m a l e d r o w , t h i s
m a g i c - u s e r c a n c a s t
forget, shatter, burning hands, shield, and
p u s h .
This room contains little of value ?
some miscellaneous foodstuffs and ordinary utensils; plus a set of
dinnerware
spread out on the table the elves are
occupying. The plates and cups are made
of hammered silver and are worth a total
of 75 gp.
C. This is a barracks for drow males,
identical in configuration to the female
barracks (section A), except that there are
no partitions separating the sets of cots
and chests. Sitting on a bed in the southeast corner of the room is
a 3rd level
fighter who is unarmored (AC
7, MV 12?,
HP 18, #AT 2, D sword 1-6 or dagger 1-4),
but with his weapons close at hand. He
will shout for help if the room is broken
into, and then will attempt to hold off the
invaders until the elves from the kitchen
area arrive to join the fight one round
later.
Each of the chests in this room contains ordinary clothing and personal
items, plus the equivalent of 1-10 platinum pieces.
1 2 . A n t e r o o m :
The corridor leading to
this chamber is sealed off from the main
corridor by a locked door. The passage
slopes gradually downward
until opening
onto a room that is little more than an
extension of the corridor. The chamber is
empty and featureless.
13. Sludge Chamber: The door
leading
to this room is securely bolted. It also
happens to be watertight ? a fact that
will become obvious when anyone lifts
the single bolt. As soon as the door is
freed, it will burst open, releasing a
stream of thick, black liquid that will
cover the floor of room 12 to a depth of
five feet before the flood subsides. This
room was the original outlet for the
sludge pit, where slaves went to fill their
buckets with fertilizer for the trenches.
The outlet was poorly engineered, however, and the sludge backed up
into the
room, making it necessary to block the
chamber off from the rest of the complex
and build another outlet (in area 6).
The sludge is not harmful in itself, but
the stench of such a large quantity of the
stuff can be overpowering. A character of
five feet or less in height will be submerged in the sludge within
five segments after the door bursts open, and will
suffocate within a number of segments
thereafter equal to his or her constitution
score, unless the victim can get back to
the sloping corridor in time, or unless his
or her head is lifted above the surface of
the liquid by a taller companion. A character who is not immediately
submerged
must save vs. constitution on d20 or be
overcome by the stench. Failure to save
will cause the victim to become dizzy and
keel over into the liquid, with the same
chance for suffocation thereafter as for
shorter characters who become
submerged.
1 4 . T e n t a m o r t
L a i r : If characters stay
on the main branch of the long corridor
and do not notice and pass through the
secret door, they will attract the attention
of a tentamort (AC 3/1, MV 1?,
HD 8, HP
10 per tentacle, 20 for body, #AT 2, D
1-6/1-6 plus special; see FIEND FOLIO
Tome) that resides in the chamber to the
south. This chamber is separated from
the adjacent corridor by a curved wall
running the length of the corridor at this
point ? except for a two-foot-high opening between the wall and the
floor. It is
through this opening that the tentamort
will attempt to attack with its tentacles.
To attack the body of the monster, characters must slide themselves
through the
slot and carry the battle into the room.
The tentamort will not try to move
through the slot to escape an attack, and
can draw its tentacles back into the room
if it desires to attack an intruder.
If characters detect the secret door,
move through the passage that leads off
it, and exit through the other secret door,
they can avoid the tentamort and gain
access to a small, empty chamber with a
locked door on its west wall. This doorway leads to an ascending passageway
that spirals up inside the trunk and eventually leads to the second
level of the
fortress.
S E C O N D L E V E L
Elevation ranges from 200 feet to 300
feet above ground level.
1 5 . S n a r e T r a p
: The ascending, spiraling passageway ends at an archway that
opens into the outside air. A small
wooden door (actually a false
door) is in
plain sight along the inner wall of the
corridor right at the end of the ascent,
and seems to lead back into the tree.
There is light here in the outside area ?
just enough illumination to make out
general features, such as the door.
Pulling open the false door will trigger
a trap. A rope of entanglement will lash
out from inside the false doorway, wrapping itself around the legs
of the character in front of the door and continuing to
push outward until it ?shoves? the victim
off the branch. This activity all takes
place virtually instantaneously ? the victim being held cannot react
quickly
enough to grab a handhold, and no one
else in the vicinity is able to keep the
entwined character from falling off the
branch.
The rope is 50 feet long, with its other
end anchored to a post inside the false
doorway. A victim who, is pulled off the
branch by the rope will dangle in the air
against the side of the tree, roughly 40
feet below the branch and more than 150
feet above the ground.
The rope of entanglement will remain
stretched out to its full length and will
not attempt to entwine other characters
unless they try to grab it or sever it. This
rope can entangle up to four man-sized
creatures before its length is ?used up,? at
which point the first character grabbed by
it will have been pulled back up to a
point just below the branch. If the rope is
severed or untied from its mooring within
the false doorway, any characters being
held by it who aren?t also anchored to the
branch will plummet to the ground.
1 6 . R a t C a g e :
The door to this room is
different from all the others in the fortress. It is made of metal
mesh reinforced
by wood strips, with a sliding panel in
the bottom of the door. (The entire door
is also hinged and can be unlatched and
opened wide if anyone cares to enter the
room.) By looking through the mesh,
characters can see a large number of giant
rats inside the chamber.
T h e r e a r e 1 5 o f
t h e s e r a t s ( A C 7 ,
M V
12?//6?, HD ½, HP 2 each, #AT 1, D 1-3
plus disease). They are used as food for
t h e g i a n t o w l n e s t i
n g i n a r e a 1 7 . T
h e s l i d i n g p a n e l a t
t h e b o t t o m o f t h e
d o o r o p e n s
t o r e v e a l a c h a m b e r
l a r g e e n o u g h t o h o l d
o n e r a t a t a t
i m e . T h i s p a n e l w o r k s
i n
conjunction with another panel at the
rear of the chamber ? when the door
panel is closed, the rear panel is open,
and vice versa.
The way to get a rat out of the room
without actually entering the chamber is
to open the panel on the door, place a
small amount of suitable food in the
chamber, and slide the panel shut again.
This action opens the rear door to the
small chamber, allowing one rat to move
into the feeding area. Characters will be
able to see through the mesh covering the
panel and know that this has occurred
(always within one round of the time
food is placed in the chamber). Then
someone must slide the panel open again,
kill the rat before it can escape, and throw
the carcass to the owl to allow the party
unimpeded access to the rope bridge.
(Once they figure out what the rats are
for, characters may also figure out that
it?s a good idea to kill two rats and save
one to give to the owl on their return
trip.)
17. Owl Nest: The passage leading
past
the rat cage opens onto a large branch.
Thirty feet from the opening is an
assortment of twigs and small branches
? the nest of a giant owl (AC
6, MV
3?/18?, HD 4, HP 25, #AT 3, D
2-8/2-8/2-5).
Twenty feet from the opening and ten
feet away from the owl?s nest, an 80-footlong rope bridge is anchored
into the
branch, extending across to another
branch that allows access to area 18. If
characters approach the rope bridge
without first tossing a dead rat in the
direction of the owl, the bird will screech
a warning and move toward the party,
attempting to cut off their access to the
bridge. It is possible for one character, or
two at most, to run to the bridge and
begin to move along its length before the
owl gets within attacking range ? but in
such a case, the character(s) on the bridge
will be the owl?s preferred target, and
they will be hard pressed to keep their
footing on the bridge while the owl is
hovering over them and swiping at them
with its claws and beak.
The bird will try, first and foremost, to
force characters to retreat back along the
bridge to the branch containing the nest.
If the characters do not retreat, the owl
will make a direct attack, attempting to
either disable the invaders or knock them
off the bridge (a fall from this height
would almost certainly be fatal). If no one
tries to move immediately onto the
bridge, the owl will take up a defensive
position at the entrance to the bridge and
try to keep the party from moving any
further into the fortress.
Characters who are still on the branch
will not be able to offer any direct assistance to those on the bridge,
except possibly through magical means or by attacking the bird with missile
weapons. If
characters on the bridge demonstrate an
i n t e n t i o n t o r e t r e a t
b a c k t o t h e b r a n c h
c o n t a i n i n g t h e n e s t ,
t h e o w l w i l l b r e a k
o f f
any direct attack it may have made and
a l l o w t h e r e t r e a t t
o t a k e p l a c e .
T h e o w l ? s n e s t c o n t
a i n s t w o e g g s w h i c h
t h e b i r d w i l l d e f e n
d t o t h e d e a t h .
I f c h a r acters move toward the nest, the owl will
abandon any characters on the bridge and
move to protect its eggs instead.
A l l o f t h e s e p o s s i b
l e p r o b l e m s c a n b e
a v o i d e d i f t h e b i r d
i s f e d o n e o f t h
e r a t s . I t
w i l l s n a t c h u p t h e
c a r c a s s a n d r e t i r e t o
i t s
nest, taking five rounds to devour its
meal. During this time, the party can
move onto and across the bridge without
resistance.
The rope bridge is somewhat rickety,
but strong enough to support a fully
armored human (or any smaller creature).
Characters who attempt to negotiate it at
their full normal movement rate have a
5% chance per point of dexterity to make
it all the way across without losing their
balance and possibly falling. If a character
loses his balance while on the bridge,
he or she must save vs. dexterity on d20 to
a v o i d f a l l i n g o f f .
T h e d a n g e r o f s l i p p i n
g
a n d f a l l i n g c a n b e
n e g a t e d i f c h a r a c t e r s
m o v e a c r o s s t h e b r i
d g e c a u t i o u s l y , g o i n g
a t h a l f t h e i r n o r m a
l m o v e m e n t r a t e ?
w h i c h s h o u l d s t i l l
g i v e t h e m p l e n t y o f
t i m e t o g e t a c r o s s
t h e b r i d g e a n d t h r o u g
h
the passage into area 18 before the owl
gets hungry again.
18. Corridor of Captives: This long,
curved corridor has no features except for
many pairs of wrist and ankle shackles set
into the walls ? and the unfortunate
creatures connected to those shackles. It is
a ? h o l d i n g h a l l ? f o
r p r i s o n e r s o f t h e
drow, humanoids who have been captured
out in the forest as well as inside
the fortress and who, for one reason or
another, are unsuitable for slave work.
T h e d o o r l e a d i n g t o
t h i s a r e a i s l o c k e d
o n t h e i n s i d e b u t
c a n b e o p e n e d e a s i l y
f r o m t h e o u t s i d e . I
t w i l l s w i n g s h u t
a n d
l o c k b e h i n d a n y c h a
r a c t e r o r g r o u p w h o
e n t e r s t h e c o r r i d o r
i f i t i s n o t p r o
p p e d
o p e n . T h e c o r r i d o r
h a s n o l i g h t s o u r c e s
o f i t s o w n ; a s
s o o n a s t h e d o o r
i s o p e n e d ,
m u c h w a i l i n g a n d w h
i m p e r i n g c a n b e
heard coming from the darkness ahead.
A f t e r a s c e n d i n g t h e
r a m p u p t o t h e
m a i n p a r t o f t h e
c o r r i d o r , c h a r a c t e r s w i l l
b e a b l e t o s e e
( i f t h e y h a v e a
l i g h t s o u r c e )
t h e f i r s t o f t h e
p r i s o n e r s . H e h a s b e e
n
h e r e l o n g e r t h a n a n
y o t h e r p r i s o n e r , a n d
h e l o o k s i t : e m a c i a
t e d , n e a r d e a t h , a n d
delirious ? of no use to the party, either
for assistance or information. His wrists
and ankles are shackled and bound to the
wall by foot-long chains imbedded into
the wood, holding him in something of a
spread-eagle position.
The chains and shackles are ordinary
iron. The shackles cannot be broken open
without causing fatal injury to the prisoner being held by them. (They
can be
opened by using the key possessed by the
guard in area 19.) The chains can be
snapped by repeated blows with an edged
weapon at least as long and as heavy as a
long sword. Each chain takes 24 points of
damage before breaking.
Additionally, a chain cannot be damaged at all unless it is struck while
draped
across a surface harder than the surrounding wood ? the stone or metal
head of a
hammer, for instance, would suffice. If a
chain is struck while it is simply lying
against the wood wall or floor, the force
of the blow will dent or splinter the wood
beneath the chain, and the iron will not
take any damage. The ends of the chains
are imbedded so deeply into the wood
that any attempt to loosen them by chopping away at the wall or floor
will be
futile.
Sets of chains and shackles are spaced
about 20 feet apart along both the outer
and inner walls (at the places marked on
the map), staggered so that no two prisoners are closer than about
10 feet from
each other. There are a total of 17 sets of
shackles, and 10 of them are currently in
use.
Seven of the other nine prisoners that
characters will encounter on their way
through this corridor are almost as bad
off as the first victim ? able to do
nothing but scream and wail, begging for
their release. They are unarmored, in very
poor health, and would not be of any
measurable benefit to the party if they
were released. Some of them may actually
beg the adventurers to end their suffering,
instead of screaming to be freed.
The two healthy prisoners ? captured
most recently of all ? are shackled in the
l a s t t w o s p o t s i n
t h e c o r r i d o r , a t t h e
f o o t
o f t h e r a m p t h a t
l e a d s t o a r e a 1 9 .
T h e f i r s t
is a female dwarven fighter (AC 5, MV 6?
i f f r e e d , H D 1 ,
H P 7 ) w h o i s a r m
o r e d b u t
w e a p o n l e s s . S h e w i l l
f o l l o w t h e a d v e n t u r e r s
i f f r e e d , a n d w i l l
b e w i l l i n g t o a s s i s t
them in any way she can that does not
i n v o l v e a d i r e c t t h
r e a t t o h e r l i f e .
T h e
second is a 3rd level female human
m a g i c - u s e r ( A C 1 0 ,
M V 1 2 ? i f f r e e d ,
H P 9 )
w h o s e o n l y r e m a i n i n g
s p e l l a t t h i s t i m e
i s
m a g i c m i s s i l e . I f f
r e e d , s h e w i l l r e a c t
t h e
same way as the dwarf.
1 9 . G u a r d R o o m
: This sparsely furnished, irregular chamber, located behind
an unlocked door, is occupied by a 2nd
level male drow fighter (AC 2,
MV 12?,
HP 15, #AT 2, D sword 1-6 or dagger 1-4)
who is ?guarding? the prisoners. The
captives in the corridor don?t need to be
looked after closely; basically, the guard
in this area is only responsible for making sporadic checks of the
corridor to see
if any prisoners have died. When he finds
a body, he unlocks the shackles holding it
and arranges for the remains to be transported to the fertilizer pit.
A key, which
fits any of the shackles in the corridor, is
on a cord around his neck.
The guard is accustomed to hearing the
delirious moans and groans of the prisoners, and will not be alerted
to the presence of intruders by any sounds or statements the captives might
make. He will
be automatically surprised if the party
approaches the door with caution and
pulls it open quickly.
The guard will be able to hear if any
attempt is made to release a prisoner from
any of the five sets of chains closest to the
door of this room. If this occurs, he will
burst from the room, attacking only if a
lone character is the adversary. If outnumbered, he will try to flee
in a counterclockwise direction, heading back out of
the corridor and toward the first level to
sound an alarm. He will only engage in
combat if an opponent stands in his way,
and under no circumstances will he lead
the party clockwise through the corridor
and deeper into the fortress.
20. Shadow in the Shadows: This
roughly square chamber lies behind a
heavy wooden door that can be locked
from the outside but is not locked at the
present time. The room is pitch dark, and
even if the chamber is illuminated by
light sources carried by characters, the
northeast corner will remain shrouded in
shadow. This is because a four-foot-high
partition of wood (indicated on the map
by dotted lines) has been built up, closing
off access to the corner except through a
narrow passageway along the north wall.
Characters who advance close enough
to the partition to see over the top of it
will spot a gem in the corner of the
chamber, glowing with a faint red color
and seemingly suspended in the shadows
a few inches off the ground.
The shadows cast by the partitions are
designed to conceal the presence of a
shadow demon (see the FIEND
FOLIO
Tome), whose inert body lies in the
corner (at the spot marked ?x?). The
demon has cast a magic jar, causing its
life force to be contained within the gem
that is hung around its neck.
The demon will try to take over the
mind of the first character who
approaches to the outer edge of the partition, or who comes through
the narrow
passageway and moves toward the gem. If
no one heads for the northeast corner and
characters decide instead to move to the
opening to area 21, the demon will
attempt to magic jar into the mind of the
first character who moves through the
narrow opening.
For purposes of determining the specifics of the victim?s saving throw,
consider
the demon?s combined intelligence and
wisdom scores to be 28. If the victim (or
intended victim) of the magic jar makes a
saving throw after being possessed, the
demon?s life force will be cast out of the
character?s mind and back into the gem,
and the demon will not be able to attempt
the same feat again.
The character whose mind is taken over
by the magic jar will act accordingly,
doing its best (as the demon would do) to
foil the party?s attempts to proceed
further inside the fortress. The demon
will have access to its darkness and fear
spell capabilities while in the body of the
possessed character, and will also use the
character?s available physical attack ability to best advantage. The
demon will not
immediately reveal its presence inside the
mind of the possessed character ? unless
another character tries to steal the gem
which is being used as the magic jar
receptacle. The possessed character will
fight to the death to prevent this.
2 1 . F a r t h e r f r o m t
h e J a r : If the demon?s
magic jar takes effect, no matter
where
this occurs, the possessed character will
immediately begin to try to get the rest of
the party to turn around and leave the
fortress the way they came. The resistance will be somewhat passive
at first, as
the possessed character tries to talk the ?
others into abandoning the adventure,
but the possessed character will put up no
physical resistance right away if the party
keeps moving through the entranceway
into area 21. This chamber is empty and
has no distinguishing features.
(If the player of the possessed character
demonstrates a desire to do something
else, the DM may have to indirectly reveal
to all the players that something is amiss,
by making it clear that the actions of the
possessed character are now being controlled by the DM and not the
player of
that character. But in no case should it be
necessary to reveal the exact nature of the
situation; the fact that a character is possessed is something that
the players
should have to figure out for themselves.)
The possessed character will reluctantly
move along with the rest of the characters
into area 21, all the while trying to persuade the party to turn back.
If these
pleas fall on deaf ears and the rest of the
characters persist in their desire to move
deeper into the fortress, the conflict will
come to a head when the first party
member reaches the bottom of the narrow
ramp that ascends into area 22 .
The demon, acting through the character it has possessed, will employ
its spell
abilities and the physical attack abilities
of the possessed character in order to halt
the party?s progress at this point. (The
demon does not want to move any farther
from the magic jar gem than it has
already, for fear of getting out of range of
the gem and making it impossible for the
demon to transfer its life force back to the
receptacle.) Unless the possessed character
is knocked unconscious or otherwise restrained, he or she will fight
fiercely in an
attempt to disable or destroy the party if
more gentle forms of persuasion have not
produced the desired result.
If the party is somehow able to neutralize or immobilize the possessed
character
and force him or her to keep moving with
the group, the demon will voluntarily
abandon the possessed character when the
character?s body reaches the top of the
ramp leading into area 22. The demon?s
life force will travel instantaneously back
into the magic jar gem in area 20, and the
once-possessed character will regain control of his or her mind. The
demon?s life
force will be back in the monster?s physical body if and when the party
comes
back along this route on its way out of
the fortress, and will attack if
encountered.
22. Perilous Pool: The only noteworthy
feature of this oblong chamber is a shallow pool containing what appears
to be a
shimmering liquid. Any and all characters who move to within 5 feet
of the edge
of the pool while facing toward the pool
will see their reflection in the surface, and
will soon discover that the pool is actually a type of mirror
of opposition.
Duplicates of characters who look into
the pool will come into being one round
later, so that the mirror?s true nature will
not be immediately evident to the party,
and more than one character might
approach the pool before its delayedaction magic goes into effect.
Any duplicate created by the magic of
the mirror will attack only the character
who was duplicated, ignoring the presence of any other party members
who
may be in the room, unless or until
another party member joins in the attack
against someone else?s magical adversary.
23. Cleric?s Chamber: This room,
located behind an unlocked door, is the
study and living quarters of a female
drow cleric of 4th level (AC 7,
MV 15?,
HP 21, #AT 1, D mace 2-7). She will be
o b l i v i o u s t o t h e p r
e s e n c e o f c h a r a c t e r s
i n
the area outside her chambers, because
s h e i s d e e p i n
m e d i t a t i o n , p r a y i n g f o r
r e p l e n i s h m e n t o f h e r
s p e l l s . H e r m e d i t a t i o n
w i l l e n d a t p r e c i s e l y
t h e m o m e n t a
c h a r a c t e r p u l l s o p e n
t h e d o o r t o h e r
q u a r t e r s ( b u t s h e i s
s u s c e p t i b l e t o b e i n g
surprised).
I n a d d i t i o n t o t h e
i n n a t e m a g i c a b i l i ties possessed
by all female drow, this
c l e r i c h a s t h e f o l l
o w i n g s p e l l s : cure light
wounds, protection from good, sanctuary,
silence 15? radius, and spiritual hammer.
If outnumbered, she will attempt to
escape into area 22 and from there into
and through area 24, using her superior
movement rate to outdistance the intruders and warn the occupants of
the
uppermost level.
The room contains ordinary furnishings of no particular value, plus
a
wooden chest that is locked and protected
with a poison-needle trap. Anyone who
opens the chest without finding and removing the trap will take 2-8
points of
damage from the needle and must save vs.
poison or fall unconscious for 2-5 turns.
The chest contains ordinary clothing and
personal items, a suit of +1 chainmail
sized to fit a female elf, 20 gold pieces in a
leather pouch, and three gems worth 10,
25, and 125 gp.
24. Catwalk Challenge:. After going up
the ramp leading from area 22, characters
will find themselves on a narrow catwalk
elevated slightly off the floor of the
chamber and set off from the surrounding
area by a wooden ledge three feet high
and six inches thick. The catwalk is too
narrow to allow anything other than
single-file passage through this chamber.
The terrain on either side of the catwalk
appears to be overgrown with mushrooms and other sorts of fungus. The
catwalk twists around, following the path
indicated by the dotted line on the map,
and eventually leads to the base of a ramp
that ascends to the third and uppermost
level of the fortress.
The area around and beneath the catwalk has been magically altered by
a hallucinatory terrain spell. The surface of
this chamber is actually covered by a series of jagged wooden spikes
that have
been chiseled out of the floor. The spikes
are all between 2 and 3 feet tall and are
very closely packed together. If a character vaults over the ledge
framing the catwalk, the hallucinatory terrain will be
dispelled as soon as that character drops
down on the outside of the ledge and falls
onto the spikes below. A character will
always take damage from the spikes, but
has a chance to make a saving throw for
half damage. The chance for taking full
damage (4-16 points) is a base 100%, modified downward by 10% for each
armor
class factor the character possesses ? not
counting bonuses for dexterity or other
advantages. (For instance, a character
with a ?real? armor class of 7 has a 70%
chance of taking full damage and a 30%
chance for half damage.) Any character
who lowers himself carefully into the area
of the spikes, once they have been ?discovered,? will not take damage
from the
descent.
Twenty feet from the foot of the ramp
leading up to the third level, the catwalk
opens out into a clearing. Right at the
edge of this clearing (at the location
marked ?x? on the catwalk), the party?s
progress will be impeded by a powerful
(32 hit points) giant spider that has been
trained to attack any non-drow character
or creature who advances this far into the
chamber. The spider will begin its attack
by dropping a bundle of webbing on the
first character in line, and on the same
round will then drop itself down from the
darkness above and attack either the character ensnared in the webbing
or the next
character in line (50% chance of each). A
character holding a light source above his
or her head and actively scanning the
ceiling of the chamber has a 20% chance
of detecting the presence of the spider just
before the creature drops its webbing,
thus negating the spider?s chance to surprise the invaders.
Any character in the area of the spikes
must move slowly (at a 3? rate). In addition, characters in the spikes
must save vs.
dexterity on d20 every round to avoid
stumbling and taking 1-6 points of
damage.
T H I R D L E V E L
Elevation ranges from 300 feet to 350
feet above ground level.
2 5 . D
r o w B a r r a c k s : This chamber is
used by male drow for sleeping and storing their personal belongings,
but is only
occupied when the male barracks on the
first level is filled beyond capacity. The
door is unlocked.
The room contains six cots and the
same number of wooden chests, plus a
small table and two chairs. Only two of
the six living areas are presently being
used; each of the (locked) wooden chests
in those two areas contains ordinary clothing and personal items, plus
(in one) 7-
12 platinum pieces and (in the other) two
gems of 25 gp value apiece. The room
will be unoccupied, unless any of the
dark elves from area 29 have retreated into
this chamber.
2 6 . D
r o w B a r r a c k s : This room, for
females, is identical in contents and configuration to area 25, except
that curtains
divide each living area from the others.
As in area 25, only two of the six living
areas are currently being used, and the
only items of value in the chests in those
areas are (in one chest) 11-20 gold pieces
and (in the other) a pair of non-magical
necklaces worth 30 and 50 gp apiece. As
with area 25, this area will only be occupied if any of the elves from
area 29 have
retreated into this chamber.
2 7 . E r i h n ? s C h
a m b e r : This is the living
quarters for the drow noble Erihn,
the
commander of the fortress, and his
henchman Tarmar. The room contains
two beds strewn with silk coverings, one
of them set off from the rest of the
chamber by silk curtains; two desks; and a
single wooden chest.
The desk on the north wall belongs to
Erihn. In its compartments and drawers
are material components for Erihn?s
spells, plus a set of ledger books in which
the commander keeps track of plundered
goods that have been transported back to
the drow underworld. The books are written in drow language, which
is unintelligible to anyone not familiar with the
dark elves? secret writing. Inside a drawer
that is wizard locked are Erihn?s spell
books, plus a letter signed by Erihn and
bearing his personal seal. The spell books
contain instructions for all the spells
Erihn currently carries (see the description for area 29) plus
jump and fire trap.
The other desk, against the west wall,
belongs to Tarmar. In its drawers are a
jeweled dagger (non-magical) worth 200
gp, some writing implements, and a partially completed report on the
recent
activities of the drow which includes a
section relating how three promiment
members of the Council of Launewt have
been bribed into siding with the drow
and trying to discourage concern on the
part of other council members.
The wooden chest bears a fire trap
which was cast upon it by Erihn. Inside
are 200 silver pieces, 150 gold pieces, 300
platinum pieces, a scroll with ESP and
jump inscribed on it, a small pouch containing 500 gp worth of
gems, and a +1
dagger of drow manufacture. The door to
the room is wizard locked.
2 8 . M e r o n a l ? s
C h a m b e r : This room,
slightly smaller than the quarters occupied by Erihn and Tarmar, contains
a
large, round bed with silk coverings in
the center of the floor; a desk and chair
along the east wall; a small wooden altar
in the southeast corner; a small, freestanding closet along the north
wall; and
tapestries of silk on all the walls. This is
the living area of Meronal, a female who
is Erihn?s consort and (for the moment, at
least) his second in command.
The door to this room is trapped with a
glyph of warding
that will explode for 16
points of fire damage if it is not bypassed.
The closet contains ordinary clothing and
clerical vestments owned by Meronal.
The desk holds incense and other sorts of
clerical items of no particular value. The
tapestries are all of no great value, except
for one behind the altar bearing a portrait
of a huge spider with a female head that
is worth 200 gp. The altar has a secret
compartment in the front (same chance to
locate as for a secret door) that contains a
gold statue of Lolth, the drow spidergoddess, that is studded with
gems and
worth a total of 3,000 gp.
2 9 . H a l l o f
H o m a g e : This spacious
chamber is located at the top of a winding ramp that leads up from
the second
level. The double doors at the top of the
ramp are not locked, but they have a
L e o m u n d ' s
T r a p cast on them, and they
are so massive that a strength of at least
13 is needed to pull one of them open.
The room is principally used for worship ceremonies and celebrations.
It is
mostly open space, with massive pillars
of wood arranged in a rough circle
around a center clearing where the activities are conducted. These
pillars are integral parts of the tree that were not
chopped away when the cavern was hollowed out, primarily so that the
tree
would not be overly weakened by a fullscale excavation of the chamber.
They are
gently curved and tapered at the top and
bottom so that they blend smoothly into
the ceiling and floor of the chamber.
In the center of the chamber are two
ornately carved and engraved wooden
thrones. The one to the west is Meronal?s,
and the one to the east is Erihn?s. Both
thrones are currently occupied by their
owners, and each seat is flanked by a pair
of guards. Under no circumstances will
the dark elves in this chamber be surprised by the arrival of invaders;
as soon
as even a single character advances to a
point between any of the surrounding
pillars, the drow guards will stand at the
ready, prepared to beat off any assault
directed toward them or the occupants of
the thrones.
The guard on Erihn?s left is his
henchman Tarmar, a 5th level fighter
(AC -4, MV 12?, HP 33, #AT 2, D sword
1-6 or dagger 1-4). His chainmail, sword,
and dagger are all +2 items of drow
manufacture. The other three guards are
all 3rd level male fighters (AC 2, MV 12?,
HP 24, 20, 16, #AT 1 or 2, D crossbow
dart 1-3 plus poison, sword 1-6, or dagger
l-4) with +1 weapons and +l chainmail of
drow manufacture.
Meronal is an 8th level cleric (AC -1,
MV 15?, HP 55, #AT 1, D mace 2-7) who
has the following spells in addition to her
innate magical abilities: bless, command,
cure light wounds (×2), protection from
good, chant, detect charm, hold person
(×2), snake charm, resist fire, cause blindness, feign death,
remove curse, cure
serious wounds, and speak with plants
Erihn is a fighter/magic-user of 7th
level in each class (AC 0, MV 12?, HP 45,
#AT 1 or 2, D crossbow dart 1-3 plus poison, sword 1-6, or dagger 1-4)
who has the
following spells in addition to his innate
magical abilities: friends, hold portal,
magic missile (×4), message, feather fall
detect invisibility, ray of enfeeblement,
shatter, lightning bolt, protection from
normal missiles, and wall of ice. He
wears a ring of wizardry which doubles
his first-level spell ability. Erihn wears +2
chainmail and uses +1 weapons, all of
drow manufacture. Around his neck is a
pouch, attached to a string, which contains 5 platinum pieces, a gem
worth 100
gp, and a metal stamp that produces a
seal identical to the one found on the letter inside his desk (see
the description for
area 27).
Starting on the tenth round after a conflict breaks out in this chamber,
any and
all dark elves from the lower levels who
are still alive and able to fight will arrive
on the scene, entering the room at the rate
of one per round thereafter. The ?rear
guard? will attempt to block off the exit
back to the ramp, while at the same time
mounting enough of an offensive to
direct the invaders? attention away from
the occupants of the thrones. Erihn and
Meronal will refrain from physical combat as long as possible, staying
behind
their guards and using their spell-casting
powers to complement the fighters?
attacks. If the battle goes against them,
the dark elves will try to flee through the
double doors and down the ramp ? but
in no case will they surrender.
OUT ON A LIMB
‘Extremely accurate’
Dear Sirs:
While reading issue #73 of DRAGON Magazine,
I came across something peculiar, and I
wondered if you noticed the same thing. If you
turn the map of the Lands of Launewt so that
the top is east, you get an extremely accurate
map of Brittany, including even the scale and
the rivers. It excluded only some canals and the
cities (and the name).
Allen Tulchin
New York, N.Y.
(Dragon #77)
Congratulations for your perception,
Allen.
(We hoped someone would notice. . . .) The
coastline described in the map is Brittany -we
"stole" that shape for the Lands of Launewt
because (a) the map needed to be redrawn and
(b) it's easier to use Mother Nature's ideas than
come up with our own. Look for other famous
geographical features in upcoming maps
inside your favorite magazine. . . .
-- KM
(Dragon #77)