by Ed Greenwood
In the Forgotten Realms, the famed
city of Waterdeep is ruled by a secret
council, the Lords of Waterdeep. Great is
the Lords’ power, widespread their watch
— and for those reasons, no thieves’
guild exists in that city any longer. A
handful of Waterdeep’s former thieves
survived under magical protection, but
Waterdeep was not safe for them. The
thieves moved to a nearby city and spon-
sored the formation of an assassins’
guild there. The guild’s purpose is to
eventually cause the deaths of the Lords
of Waterdeep — not an easy task. The
Guildmaster, however, is a fanatic who
trains even the novices with an expert,
ruthless hand. Part of this training is an
elaborate obstacle course, a testing
ground in the cellars of the guild head-
quarters: The Assassins’ Run.
Built at the expense of the guild’s pa-
trons, the Shadow Thieves, the elaborate
facility serves many purposes. Primarily,
the Run is a gymnasium for the practice
of assassin’s skills not easily performed
repeatedly with discretion in public
places.
By the use of a Wizard Eye (cast by a
magic-user who serves as one of the
guild’s lieutenants), the Guildmaster
watches those negotiating the Run. Also
with the Guildmaster are clerics, ready
to heal or raise the unfortunate. Novices
must satisfy the Master in their Run be-
fore they achieve second level, and the
experienced veterans of the guild con-
tinually use the Run to test themselves,
challenging it while heavily encumbered,
to beat a time limit, or both. (As the
famed adventurer Steeleye once said of
assassins, “In that profession, men must
work to keep their status as survivors.”)
If the guild headquarters is ever at-
tacked, the Master has instructed all
members to retreat to the Run and use its
familiar traps to kill the intruders at a
minimal loss to the guild. It is also said
there are secret apartments at the center
of the Run where the Master lives. . . .
And there may well be, as you the DM
wish. Little of the guild headquarters is
shown in this presentation, merely a few
of the corridors and rooms that directly
service the Run. These are included for
using the Run in a party-attacking-the-
guild scenario, or for using the Run as a
stage for a one-on-one duel between ri-
val player-character assassins, or a play-
er character and a non-player character,
or as you will. . . . (It is rumored that the
guild has a hidden highway through the
sewers of the city, and that the Run is
connected to it.)
The multi-level nature of the Run re-
quires the DM to study the layout before
play, perhaps moreso than most dun-
geons. Although rumors within the guild
say the Master has used the Run’s traps
and defenses to kill off those guild mem-
bers he saw as rivals or traitors — and
assassins have very definitely died in the
Run—the complex is not intended to be
a killer. DMs should bear this in mind
when adding to, or modifying, the Run’s
traps and encounters; these embellish-
ments should disable by ensnarement or
render unconscious the victims, but not
slay or maim. (Players, of course, need
not know this.)
THE ASSASSINS’
RUN
All areas have roofs, walls, and ceil-
ings of stone, kept in good repair, unless
otherwise noted.
A) Entry Hall: The Run is entered by
passing along a hall lined with trophies
— mementoes of famous deeds and tales
of the guild’s past. These are intended to
inspire both dedication and nervousness
— and they work well.
B) Master’s Chamber: In this room the
Guildmaster and his attendants monitor
the performances of assassins in the
Run by means of Wizard Eye and
Clair-
audience spells.
C) Armory, Storage Rooms,and Spar-
ring Room: Relevant facilities of the
Guild headquarters are near the Run,
behind the indicated doors.
D) Trainers’ Quarters: Beyond these
doors lie the apartments of the guild’s
trainers, all of whom assist in operating
the Run.
1) Waiting Room: All assassins begin
and end their journeys through the Run
here, as do the trainers operating the
Run. An assassin taking his first Run
may well find the room brilliantly lit, with
the westernmost door on the south wall
ajar. Seconds after his entry, the room
will be plunged into darkness. A voice,
which a guild member will recognize as
that of the Guildmaster, will seem to
sound inside the assassin’s head (this is
the Guildmaster using a Helm
of Tele-
pathy), saying, “Go
through the open
door.” Even though he is groping, blind-
ed, and perhaps unsure of the door’s lo-
cation (if he didn’t see it before the lights
went out), the assassin should neverthe-
less follow through, for he has been
taught to obey that voice without ques-
tion or hesitation.
2) Trip Step: This stone step is raised
up from its fellows, rather than descend-
ing, so that the unobservant or unwary
(or an intruder chasing an assassin down
into the Run) will fall headlong down the
stairs into area 3.
3) Pit Trap: At the bottom of the stairs
is the Run’s first lesson in mistrust. The
floor here is illusory; the pit beneath it is
20 feet deep and has smooth-polished
sides that have been oiled and are im-
possible to negotiate by normal means.
The trap causes 2d6 damage (1d6 per 10
feet fallen) if one is caught unawares and
falls, rather than jumps, into the pit.
4) One-Way Secret Door: This portal
allows trainers into the Run unseen to
pursue or await runners. One trainer
who always awaits novices is an expe-
rienced assassin armed with a
short,
weighted club, a grapnel and fifty feet of
black silk cord, four darts tipped with
sleep poison, and a soft leather strap
used to simulate a garrote. “Red Champ-
ion” is the title given to the Guildmaster’s
right-hand man, the foremost active as-
sassin. The Guildmaster has devised
many practice routines using trainers in
the Run.
5) Gong Room: Waiting just inside
both doors leading from the east are
guards, usually novices, armed with
wooden bars or staves (the ends padded
and covered with leather). The guards
have orders to drive off and/or knock
cold the runner. When the runner opens
either door, he will be accosted by the
guard behind that door and told that his
Run will be ended if he takes one step
into the room, and the guard is then able
to ring the brass alarm gong on the op-
posite wall. (The gong can be rung by
any blow from a part of the body or a
hand-held object or weapon — not by a
thrown object or weapon.) If the runner
overcomes the first guard encountered
and moves into the room, he will also
have to contend with the other guard.
The runner can prevent the ringing of the
gong by disposing of both guards, or by
picking or forcing open the locked portal
leading to chamber 5A before a guard is
able to sound the alarm. Chamber 5A is a
shaft with a grab-iron ladder descending
10 feet into a corridor that runs west.
(Most runners, especially when speed is
a consideration, will elect to simply drop
down the shaft and not use the ladder.)
6) Pit Trap: This is 20 feet deep. The
corridor floor is a “teeter-totter” block
which pivots on a central axle to flip over
and close again, depositing the victim in
a covered pit if he is not quick enough to
jump back from the edge or get to
the
other side before the slab pivots. Most
runners trapped here must wait for some-
one to come and release them. A victim
will take 2d6 damage, as for the pit in
area 3.
7) Pit Trap: Identical to area 6.
If a
near-miss at the earlier pit trap does not
warn a runner to probe the flooring
ahead (the “teeter-totter” block will sink
at the slightest touch), he will almost cer-
tainly end up here. Again, 2d6 potential
damage (as in area 3).
8) The doors to this 10-foot-square
cubicle are unlocked, but the area itself
is a 30-foot-deep pit; in other words, this
is a floorless room. Before proceeding,
the runner must figure out how to reach
and open the far door. (There are no
spikes below and nothing to swing or
hang on from above.) Both doors open
inward, and they are heavy. They can not
easily be struck from their hinges or
broken through, nor swung without
some force.
9) At this point the runner’s corridor
ends in a glassless window, a large open-
ing (3 feet wide, 4 feet high, with a 4-
inch-wide sill) that faces another glass-
less window across a chasm. The bottom
of the chasm is 60 feet below the ceiling
of this area, and contains an 8-foot depth
of cold water because of its connections
to the sewers (refer to area 17 for details
of these connections). The target win-
dow (to the south) is 2 feet wide and 3
feet high. It is 10 feet away from the
(ahem) “launch window,” and its sill is 5
feet higher than the sill of the north win-
dow. Both corridor floors are at the same
level, and the smaller opening has been
known to be guarded on occasion by a
scything blade, flames, or some other
sadistic trick. A fall here will do 4d6 dam-
age (water will break the fall somewhat),
plus possible unconsciousness and/or
drowning. The cold water flows west
from here and then south to area 17. At
times, archers with padded-tipped shafts
will be waiting in the water to fire up at a
runner at area 9 or 10, or an archer
or
trainer armed with a padded lance will
wait on the bridge to the west of area 9
and attempt to strike down a leaping
assassin.
10) & 11) After proceeding
down and
to the east from the small window at area
9, a runner looks out a window at area
10,
down a sloping roof and across a chasm,
to area 11, a gallery 20 feet lower than the
corridor floor south of the window at
area 10. Typically, x, y, and z are dum-
mies (stationary or moved by means of
control rods). The runner is required to
hit the rearmost figure (z) with some sort
of missile weapon, without touching the
other two figures. In other practice situa-
tions, an armored archer may be at area
11, firing at a runner at area 10, who must
“beat him to the punch” in missile fire, or
even leap the chasm to grapple with him.
There is usually a faint blue light, similar
to a faerie fire, coming from the ceiling
above the gallery.
12) A blindfolded archer in this cubicle
fires “paint-bomb” darts — blunt rubber
projectiles which split upon striking,
splashing a dye or paint onto the target
— out through slits at anything he hears.
A runner is not usually allowed to strike
in through the slits.
13) The passage ends here in a 20-
foot-deep shaft (which may lead upward
via chimney vents to the surface above, if
the DM wishes) with a cushion of rotting
fabric and pine boughs (to negate nor-
mal falling damage) at the bottom. On
the north wall of the shaft, directly be-
neath the end of the corridor, is a win-
dow or opening, 4 feet high and 2½ feet
wide, with its lower sill resting 10 feet
down from the corridor floor. The sill is
only an inch above the floor of the
chamber (area 14) it opens into, so that
this room lies directly beneath the corri-
dor. A runner must turn and drop off the
end of the corridor, and catch hold of the
sill while falling.
14) This room is usually empty, but is
the favorite site for “attacks” of an illuso-
ry nature, or complicated lock-and-trap
puzzles fashioned upon chests by the
guild trainers.
15) This chamber usually contains a
zombie, an automaton or a living
trainer
seated in a chair at x, facing the south
wall. The runner must leap to the chair
and knock it and its occupant over be-
fore the latter turns and fires a dart gun
loaded with paint-bomb darts (see area
12). Sometimes this weapon is replaced
by a Wand of Paralyzation — or, in
another variation, the room is criss-
crossed with many strands of fine silk
attached to tiny bells, with a blindfolded
dart-gun marksman in the northwest
corner.
16) This lightless, slickly greased
chute drops over 40 feet into a pool (see
area 17). The speed (and violence) of
one’s descent can be controlled by exert-
ing pressure against the walls of the
shaft. A runner must do this quickly and
correctly if he is to come to a stop in the
shaft level with the door at area 17.
17) The locked door at this spot opens
away from the chute, and its lock must
be picked while the runner braces him-
self against the greased wall of the chute.
The chute drops very steeply (see cross-
section map) into the pool, a 12-foot-
high chamber which has an 8-foot depth
of water within. This pool is connected
via the “canal” (the chasm at area 9) to
the “waterway” (area 25) and drains into
the sewers through an opening in the
floor along the east wall. In the ceiling
directly above the drain is an overflow
pipe which also drains into the sewers.
An inscription in Common is carved into
the south wall, 2 feet above the 8-foot
water level. It says simply, “Go back up
the chute to the door,” and is lit by a faint
green radiance. Such a climb will not be
easy, given the conditions in the chute.
Most runners who miss the door are
forced to wait for a rescue here or around
in the “canal” by area 11. On one occa-
sion an electric eel was found to have
made its way into this area, perhaps with
the aid of human hands.
18) This “teeter-totter” trap is identical
in construction to those in areas 6 and 7,
but it is so large that it is difficult to avoid
unless one knows of its location before-
hand. It flips over to drop a runner into
area 20, described below.
19) This 4-foot-wide curving flight of
stairs exists to provide access to the
(presently) unfinished end of the corri-
dor. If a runner avoids the trap at area 18
and locates the stairway’s concealed
upper end, he will usually find the stair is
equipped with one or more trip-wires
(silken cords placed at varying heights
above the steps), and the passageway
occasionally contains a stirge or a volt.
20) In this chamber are two guard
dogs, “de-barked” and with blunt-filed
teeth. They are trained to disarm and
harry anyone entering the room from
above. All the doors opening into this
room are false except for the one in the
north wall; it is locked, and the mecha-
nism contains a spring-loaded pin coat-
ed with sleep poison that will advance
into the hand of anyone trying to pick the
lock unless special care is taken and it is
detected, or the lock is opened in such a
way that no flesh is within reach of the
pin. A dose of this poison will cause in-
stantaneous lassitude, followed by the
onset of sleep within 1-4 rounds thereaf-
ter. The slumber is deep (slapping, cold
water, and the like are usually ineffec-
tive) and lasts for 3-6 rounds. Victims
who save vs. poison are unaffected.
21) Five segments after the door lead-
ing from area 20 is opened, a portcullis
here will fall from the ceiling with light-
ning speed. It is well oiled and almost
silent, and its bottom consists of bars
bent outwards in alternately opposite di-
rections (so as to form an inverted “Y” in
cross-section), trapping the slow or un-
wary between the diagonal bars. The tips
of the bars have been bent back so that
there are no points. The bars are closely
spaced (only 6 inches apart), and the
iron gate is heavy. If anything is pinned
beneath it, or trapped within its “jaws”
(where a fine sensor wire runs from end
to end of the gate), it will lock in place,
and a bell will ring in the winch room
above. This bell can be heard by anyone
in this area of the corridor. A trapped
individual will find the gate’s construc-
tion and iron composition aids his at-
tempts to bend the bars (+10% to the
usual chance). The winch mechanism,
however, will prevent all attempts to lift
the gate until it is itself destroyed or re-
versed (which things, magical means
aside, can be done only from the winch
room). The gate could do 1d6 damage
and/or (20% chance) stun or knock un-
conscious a victim, if by chance it strikes
him squarely while falling.
22) This door is a massive stone portal
which can’t be opened (it is held by a
Wizard Lock spell). Behind
it, a Magic
Mouth spell speaks instructions. A run-
ner is usually instructed to eavesdrop
upon this faint muttering, and report
what he can remember of it upon com-
pleting his Run.
23) A triple crossbow fires through
three ports in the wall down the length of
the hallway, 2½ feet off the ground. The
crossbow fires a salvo rack of three bolts
every two rounds, rotating to the next
rack when one is exhausted. The present
version is activated by the triggering of
the portcullis in area 21, begins firing
one round after the portcullis falls and
has eight racks. (The mechanism will not
operate automatically if the portcullis
trap is not tripped.) These racks can be
loaded with various projectiles: padded
bolts, the aforementioned paint-bomb
darts, sleep-poisoned darts (see area
20), standard “war bolts” (heavy cross-
bow bolts), even flaming bolts. These
last two types of ammunition are used
only in defense of the guild headquar-
ters, during which time the crossbow
would be manned continually (the oper-
ators can load empty racks as the ma-
chine fires full ones, can speed up the
firing rate to two racks per round if they
are nimble, and can keep the crossbow
firing continually until its ammunition is
exhausted). The weapon must be manned
if it is to fire flaming projectiles, since
someone must touch them alight just be-
fore the weapon fires. The firing ports
are 2-inch-diameter holes bored through
the 6-inch stone wall.
24) The door at this location is trapped;
a runner who does not have a healthy
distrust of doors by this point in his Run
deserves all he gets. The door is of wood,
sheathed and strapped with iron bolted
on, and it is electrically charged (due to
two metal tanks containing captive elec-
tric eels, and a clanging
bar in each tank
which is connected to the door and acti-
vated by the weight of someone stepping
into the 10-foot-square area in front of
it). The conducted jolt does 1-8 points of
damage.
25) The Waterways: The electrically
charged door opens into a shaft whose
bottom is 15 feet down. Water just over
eight feet deep overlies it, opening into a
seven-foot-high, water-filled passage
supplied through nine 1-inch-diameter
holes in the ceiling with water from the
sewers. This passage is connected to the
“canal” (see area 9) via three 6-inch-
wide pipes. The long, elbow-crooked
passage must be swum in a single breath,
unless a swimmer devises ways of stor-
ing air in helms, waterproof sacks,
cupped clothing, or wineskins.
26) At the far end of the Waterways is a
locked iron grating. The lock is large and
simple to force open or pick, but a
swimmer must locate it quickly and work
deftly in the darkness to ensure survival.
The grating swings away to the left when
unfastened, allowing access to a rough-
walled shaft (see area 27). Grating and
frame are fashioned of greased steel; in
the frame above the grating, nineteen
grooves are scratched — one for each
runner who has died here.
27) From the water, a runner must
climb up 10 feet inside a wet, rough
stone shaft to emerge in this chamber.
An experienced or successful runner
may encounter a barehanded human foe
or a blunt-toothed dog here, with orders
to keep the runner down in the water and
not allow passage onward. Trainers can
quickly reach an unconscious, drowning
runner via this room, and it contains yet
another trap for ongoing runners. The
door to area 28 has a pull-ring to open it,
and this ring must be turned twice around
to the right to disconnect the trap. If this
is not done, a pull outward on the ring
will cause the floor in front of the door (a
4-foot-square area) to collapse down-
ward, dumping the runner into a 10-foot-
deep pit in which are suspended a net of
criss-crossing, rubber-like cords. Any-
one trapped here will be unhurt, and
should (once he masters the art of move-
ment in this springy, shifting environ-
ment) easily win free of the pit, the floor
of which will swing back up into place
when no weight is in the web.
28) This chamber contains a 4-inch-
wide wooden beam stretching 20 feet
from the entry door to a ledge, spanning
a huge 10-foot-deep pit which is filled
with criss-crossing, stretched rubber
strands, as in area 27. A runner may have
to get past a creature guarding the beam
and/or firing missiles from the ledge.
The beam is removable, and this room is
often used to train or practice hand-to-
hand fighting amid obstructions, firing
missiles or catching objects on unsteady
footing, and such activities.
29) This chamber serves as an arena
for many combats between runners and
trainers. It is always at least dimly lit by a
light similar to Faerie Fire, and more
often is brilliantly illuminated by a Con-
tinual Light spell cast upon the 35-foot-
high ceiling. A balcony supported by
four smooth stone pillars (indicated on
the map by dots) stands 20 feet above
the floor. From this platform, archers
often fire down upon a runner with pad-
ded shafts or paint-bomb darts, while
protected by a 3-foot-high parapet. Al-
ternatively, target dummies or armored
trainers may walk the balcony, imper-
sonating sentries or street strollers, and
a runner is ordered to “kill” one with a
paint-bomb dart (see area 12) and es-
cape before the target’s fellows can strike
him with return fire. Various obstacles
and common street objects are often
placed in this chamber so that the use of
“cover” can be practiced. Teams of run-
ners may be matched against other guild
members who pose as guards, with or-
ders to protect an object or a dummy in
area 11 or elsewhere on the balcony,
perhaps with a time limit on their suc-
cess, or with an alarm gong present that
the attacking runners must prevent the
defenders from sounding. The Guildmas-
ter has shown a devilish inventiveness in
devising new encounters and uses for
this room.
30) From area 29, a steep, twisting
flight of stairs climbs 30 feet to a room
which usually contains a chest or chests
with intricate locks, poison-gas traps,
and the like. Over the entry door is a
ledge, which may support a tripwire-
activated crossbow trained on such a
chest, or the ledge may be the locale of a
threatening encounter with a creature or
group of creatures. Spiders, stirges, or
other such beasts work well for this pur-
pose. The far (exit) door of the room is
often intricately locked.
31) From area 30, a corridor
slopes
upward 5 feet until it reaches a false trap
— a stone block upon which a Leo-
mund’s Trap spell has been placed rests
upon several inches of woven matting,
so that it will sink slightly when stepped
upon, Nothing else will happen here, un-
less the Guildmaster has added some-
thing special for the Run in question; this
toothless “trap” is sometimes used to
train novices in recognizing and avoid-
ing pitfall traps in various conditions
(such as darkness). In this case, the no-
vice and trainers enter the area by com-
ing directly down the stairs (at area 32)
from the Waiting Room.
32) From the corridor, stairs rise 40
feet to this door, which opens into the
Waiting Room. Sometimes the Guildmas-
ter will have a Symbol cast upon the por-
tal (one of pain or hopelessness, usually
— although it is feared that those who
anger the Guildmaster may encounter
the symbol for insanity here, or some-
thing worse), to test the runner one last
time. The door is never locked, and op-
ens into the Waiting Room (area 1).
E) Western access area: This and the
other access areas described below are
off limits to all but trainers or others who
have reason (according to the Guildmas-
ter) to occupy the passages. This corri-
dor runs west from the northeast corner
of the Waiting Room, dropping 15 feet
and 10 feet in two flights of stairs before
opening onto facilities related to the Run
(refer to C above), and into the Run itself
(via the secret door at area 4).
It then turns south, drops another 10
feet, crosses the canal on a low (3-foot-
high) parapeted bridge, offers access to
the archer’s cubicle (area 12), and ends
in a shaft connected to the canal, where
a rope ladder is fixed to two iron rings set
into the rim. This ladder is kept rolled up
unless in use.
F) Central access area: This passage
leaves the Waiting Room by a secret
door in the southeast corner and drops
55 feet by stairs to a secret door opening
onto the balcony above area 29.
The passage runs on and behind the
balcony, turning south before meeting a
door opening onto the gallery at area 11.
From there it continues via a secret door
east and south, crossing the canal with
another 3-foot-high parapeted bridge,
and turns west to enter the bottom of the
“drop-shaft” (area 13) via a secret door.
This allows access to trainers and work-
ers for repair of the fabric-and-pine-
bough cushion, and the rescue of unfor-
tunate runners who missed the window.
Often, if these are novices, they will be
blindfolded and disoriented by lifting
them clear of the ground and spinning or
turning them about for part of the jour-
ney, to prevent them knowing too much
of the “backstage” areas of the Run until
they have gained more training.
The Winch Room (see area 21) and
another corridor open off this route; this
other corridor leads to pens (marked “P”
on the map) for creatures such as stirges
and trained dogs that may be used in the
Run. These, of course, can also be used
as cells for prisoners or hideaways for
hunted guild members.
A trapdoor with an overhead sling
(marked “S”) opens 20 feet down into the
Run corridor between areas 22 and 23
which lie below, serving to release or
take up creatures or trainers from or into
the Run. The corridor also opens onto a
20-foot-long stairway down into a 10-
foot-square room containing the triple
crossbow (area 23) and racks of its am-
munition, affording room for two or at
the most three operators.
G) Eastern access corridor: This is
simply a stair leading from the Waiting
Room (assassins sometimes refer to this
latter jokingly as the “waiting tomb”) via
a secret door, to a landing and then
down 75 feet to a one-way, counter-
weighted secret door (a block of wood is
kept at the bottom step to prop this door
open when necessary). This door opens
into area 27 for rescues, the entry of
trainers into the Run to serve as oppo-
nents, and so on.
The Run may have more or different
features than those shown here, as a DM
wishes. It would be a relatively simple
matter to alter the configuration of some
section of the Run to incorporate a favor-
ite trap, and many such changes could
be made without needing to alter the ac-
companying maps at all — an especially
advisable tactic if players have previous-
ly examined this article.