by James M. Ward
| Introduction to players | Notes for the Referee | First Floor | Second Floor | Third Floor |
| Dragon 42 | - | AD&&D | - | Dragon |
Introduction
to players
You are all young campers on a week-long
camping trip through
the woods and wilderness.
In the middle of a nighttime hike, you
become separated from the rest of your
group. None of you is
worried, however; you have all taken excellent
compass directions
and are sure you can eventually find your
way back to the campsite.
So, with this great chance to do a little
exploring on your own, you set
out into the woods as a group.
Each of you carries the following items:
a large backpack with
sleeping bag attached underneath, a canteen
of water, a jackknife, a
large, rough-cut walking stick, heavy hiking
boots, a compass, cooking gear,
food for
3 meals, 2 changes of clothes, and a flashlight.
In addition, young campers have a tendency
to bring along things
which their leaders didn’t say they would
need, so each of you may
make a list of 10 things which you are
carrying in your pockets or
backpack that are not required. Objects
which are unreasonable for
young campers to have will not be counted,
since they would have
been confiscated by the leaders long ago.
Each camper is permitted to declare himself
or herself the holder
of a certain achievement badge, which had
been earned before the
trip for above-average skill and knowledge
of something. Since this
camping organization is so sophisticated,
just about anything (again,
within reason) can be made a special skill.
Campers with a certain
special skill could have equipment supplied
to them specially, such
as a first-aid kit for someone with that
skill or a set of walkie-talkies for
a camper with a badge in communications.
The group files through a path in the woods
and suddenly comes
upon a small valley.
There is a mansion nestled among the trees
about a hundred feet away.
A member of the group claims to have heard
of the place. He
says it is the mansion of the mad Professor
Ludlow, and you all creep
closer to take a good look. Some of you
want to go in, but others
rightly point out that such an act would
be breaking and entering, and
it would be wrong to do. Suddenly, from
somewhere within the old
house, you hear a cry of “Help! Help!”
Being the good young people
that you are, you all RUSH
for the big front doors, push them open, and
run inside to help the person in trouble.
Be sure to check each player’s list of 10
extra items before they
begin, and be careful that no one is allowed
anything which an
upstanding young camper would not take
along. The characters are
young teenagers who would not have access
to such things as drugs
or weapons.
While this adventure takes place in an AD&D
setting, players
should not be allowed to take along things
which an AD&D player
would normally use. For instance, graph
paper would not be allowed
for mapping, unless a camper had selected
a mapping achievement
badge. The achievement badges are just
a fun thing, to allow the
players to take a few more items that might
help them, and they
should not be abused. It is possible to
have a gunnery achievement
badge, but no camper will automatically
possess a gun (though the
badge may well be useful if the rifles
are found in the trophy room).
The first-aid badge allows a camper to
carry a first-aid kit with ten
“doses” of treatment. 1 dose will heal
half of the damage done to
an individual as the result of a single
encounter, or will totally negate
the effects of poison
bites on 1 individual. Athletic achievement
badges would allow campers to sustain less
damage from falls and
enable these campers to jump
further and be a bit stronger than the
other characters. Benefits for other badges
can be determined as the
referee sees fit.
The group should be expected to travel together
and to re-form in
a large group as soon
as possible when any of them become separated from the main body. Under
“ON CLOSER INSPECTION” in a
room description may be several facts,
all of which would not necessarily be read to the players. “ON CLOSER INSPECTION”
will not
be read until all characters planning to
enter the room have done so,
and only after the players say that they
are indeed looking around
closely to gain information. If there is
no mapper in the group, do not
give any specific measurements. Specific
locations and configurations of exits from a room will be visible “on closer
inspection.” The
referee should refer to the floor plans
to provide any measurements
which the players request and have the
right to know. You may prefer
to not use compass directions to help keep
players disoriented,
instead referring only to directions of
left, right, ahead and back
whenever possible.
Characters should be allowed to do virtually
anything they desire
within the mansion, which will sometimes
cause them to act in a less
than upstanding fashion. Players should
be permitted to do this, but
once in a while should be reminded that
they are supposed to be
upholding high moral and ethical standards.
You may ask, “Would a
good camper do a thing like that?” to keep
players somewhat in line,
or you might remind them that their mission
is to try to find out who
screamed for help. (Actually, the sound
was a recording made by the
professor which is activated whenever humans
approach the entrance.)
Many forms of “death” (in a game sense)
which might happen to
characters are not fatal. Any time a camper
is not utterly destroyed or
eaten by a creature, that character simply
lapses into unconsciousness when he/she reaches 0
HP, and then must be carried
by 1 or 2 other characters whenever the
group is moving. If the
number of unconscious characters exceeds
the number of carriers,
the 1st characters who were rendered senseless
will awaken and
stumble along, able to do little more than
follow the path taken by the
more alert members of the group. If the
entire group is taken to zero
hit points, they are immediately brought
out of the mansion on a slide
which appears at their location and gently
deposits them on the
grass outside.
Each camper begins with 50 HP, an AC of
10,
and hits as a Vet.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J |
| K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T |
| U | V | W | X | Y | Z | Up | - | - | 1e AD&&D |
A: The beams of the
flashlights reveal a hall with a mirror
at its
end and 2 openings, 1 to the left and 1
to the right.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The hall has inch-thick
red carpeting and walnut-paneled walls. The mirror at the end runs
from the
floor to the 20-foot-high ceiling and covers
the 40 feet of wall
section on that south face of the hall.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: The mirror can be
lifted up with 1
hand, revealing a door
with a handle that easily opens to the touch.
All of the walls on the 1st floor will
appear to be normal material of
1 type or another, but are actually made
of an unbreakable metal
that cannot be marred by any device in
the mansion or by anything
the scouts may have. All of the ceilings
on the 1st floor are 20
feet tall. The only wall sockets for power
appear when there are
electronic devices mentioned in the text.
The light source comes
from within the ceilings; therefore, there
will be no lamps in the entire
area, and light
is shed from a celling only when mentioned in the text.
B: The beams of the
flashlights show a room paneled in red-stained barn
boards with a floor of the same substance. There is a
couch in the northeast corner of the room
and an opening out of the
room on the east wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: There IS a musty
smell to the room,
and leaves are littered on the floor. The
couch is an old, dusty,
overstuffed relic with several cushions
and rips on all parts of it. The
room measures 60 feet east and west and
40 feet north and
south, if paced out.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: If the couch is disturbed
in any
way, 3 giant
rats come out and attack the party nearest the couch
(HP 4,3,2; #AT: 1; D: 1-3; AC: 7; SA: Bite
has 5% chance of causing
disease (save versus poison).
C: The beams of the
flashlights show a hall with pink WALLS and
a
floor made of red
marble.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The walls have clean
squares all
over them where pictures were obviously
once hung, but are no
longer. The floor has dried leaves littering
it. If paced out, the hall is
80 feet long east and west and 20 feet
long north and south.
D: The beams of the
flashlights show a room with gray painted WALLS
and
a cement floor. It is filled with wooden
crates and there are
leaves all over the room in large piles.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: There are 200 empty
wooden
crates of differing sizes, and the biggest
concentration of leaves is in
the southwest corner of the room. The room
measures 60 feet east
and west and 40 feet north and south and
has a side alcove to the
south starting on the east wall that is
40 feet long east and west and
20 feet long north and south; it is here
that the concentration of
leaves is located. Behind a big crate along
the east wall, 30 feet
from the north corner, one finds a door
with a normal handle.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: If that large pile
of leaves is at all
disturbed, a group of 3 rattlesnakes attacks
(HP: 10,8,5; #AT: 1; D:
1-3; AC: 5; SA: Save
versus death caused by poison).
E: The beams of the
flashlights show a room with gray painted
WALLS and
a cement floor. It is filled with boxes and barrels.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: There are 13 barrels
of grain
alcohol each with the number “50” painted
on it. There are 13
boxes filled with pairs
of white gloves. A metal chest contains a silver
set made to
serve 18 people, 4 pairs of silver candlesticks,
3 huge silver carving
knives (like short swords),
and 18 <cf. improvised weapons>
solid silver goblets
(total worth of the silver items is 20,000 silver
pieces). There
are 13 chests filled with books about plants;
13 boxes filled with assorted sizes of
clay pots; and 10 large
crates with mattresses in them. When paced
out, the room is 40
feet wide east and west and 60 feet wide
north and south. A door
on the east wall is originally hidden by
the mattress crates.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: When the players
enter the room,
they will be immediately attacked by an
incredibly old man dressed in
rags and carrying a butcher knife (HP:
7; #AT: 1; D: 1-6; AC: 10; SA:
None). This old man will leap out from
behind some of the boxes and
surprise the entire group. He will never
follow a retreating group out
of the room, but will act dangerously at
all other times and will never
listen to any type of reason.
F: The beams of the
flashlights show a room paneled in oak with
an oaken floor that is filled with shelves
upon shelves of rocks. From
the door, a set of stairs is visible going
up from the south section of
the room.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: These shelves are
obviously a
geological exhibit of some type, since
every sample of rock has a
scientific name on it. Each of the samples
weighs about a pound. If
paced out, the room is 60 feet west and
east with a partial wall
running north, starting 20 feet from the
east wall and extending
40 feet. The room is 80 feet long north
and south. On the west
wall in the north corner is a passageway
out of the room. Also on that
wall, 60 feet from the north corner, is
a doorway. Further down from
this door is a 20 x 20 feet corridor section
that ends at the
bottom of the stairs up; on the east wall
section by the stairs is
another way out of the room.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: All of the valuable
minerals in the
rock collection like gold,
silver,
platinum, and copper, are on shelves
on the south wall in the small corridor
created by the dividing north|south wall. They will all be on the highest
shelves and above the
normal eye level of any scout. There are
no crystal samples in the
entire room.
G: The beams of the
flashlights show the passageway has
strange objects hanging on its gray
painted WALLS. The floor is of black
marble. There
are openings out of the hall from the east and west
ends.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The hall is lined
with hanging
medieval weapons: 3 heavy maces <footman's
maces>, 2 halberds, 3 crossbows with
1 bolt each, 3 short
swords, 5 huge two-handed
swords, 5 daggers, 4 boar spears,
and 3 flails. All of these are easily detachable
and have traces of preserving oil on them.
The hall is twenty feet
wide, north and south and 100 feet long
east and west.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: The weapons are all
in perfect
condition and do the following damage:
Maces-2-7 pts.; Halberds-
1-10 pts.; Crossbows-1-4 pts.; Short Swords-1-6
pts.; two-handed
Swords-1-10 pts.; Daggers-1-4 pts.; Boar
Spears-2-7 pts.; and
Flails-2-7 pts.
H: The beams of the
flashlights show a room filled with furs
covering the walls, ceiling, and floor.
There is a large spiral staircase
in one corner that seems to be made out
of metal.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The
furs are purple in color and
very rough to the touch. They do not appear
to be dyed, and each fur
is very large and cannot be cut or moved
from any section of the
room. The spiral
staircase is in the northwest corner of the room. It is
made of Metal and painted with purple enamel
paint. If paced out, the
room is 80 feet east and west and 60 feet
wide to the north and
south.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: If any tapping is
done to the wall
section marked with the secret door symbol,
it will show a hollow
sound. If the wall is closely examined
by hand, that whole section of
fur will appear to be loose. It will easily
move to the side with the push
of a hand, revealing a normal door.
I: The beams of the
flashlights show a room filled with statues of
differing types. The
walls, floor and ceiling are of green paneled
wood.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: There are 15 statues
in this
area: 3 Viking types with ring
mail for armor, horned helmets, and
drawn swords in their hands; 2 female amazon
types, each with a
bow and arrow ready to fire; 4 men in plate
mail with plumed
helmets and swords at their sides; and
5 Wisconsin State Highway
Patrolmen with pistols and equipment on
their belts and nightsticks in
their hands. The room is paced out to be
60 feet to the east and
west and 40 feet to the north and south.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: All of these beings
have been
petrified and would be very grateful if
freed from this state. They are
fully aware, but unable to communicate
in any way.
J: The beams of the
flashlights show a bathroom with all the
things one would expect to find in such
a place. There is a sink with a
mirror
above it, a stool, and a bathtub. The floor, walls,
ceiling, and all
fixtures are of black
marble.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The water
works fine in this area,
except when it is about to overflow any
sink or tub or stool for any
reason. It will cut itself off first. There
are hinges on the door frame but
no other sign that there ever was a door
there. If paced out the main
room is 40 feet by 40 feet, plus a hall
section that has the tub at its
end. This hall section starts on the south
wall and is 20 feet wide
(east and west) and 40 feet long.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: The
mirror over the sink has a
recessed cabinet. In it are two small plastic
bottles of pills: One has
10 green pills
that will SPEED any being up to twice normal for 3
melee rounds; the second bottle has 20
pink pills that will restore
10 lost hit points per pill.
K: The beams of the
flashlights show a large room with animal
heads hanging on the walls and large animals
mounted fully on
stands. There are many of these all over
the room. There are exits on
the east and west WALLS.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: This is a trophy
room of some type
with stuffed felines of all different descriptions
along the brown
painted walls.
On the north wall is a cabinet with 3 long rifles that
are very heavy and 2 shorter rifles that
have 2 barrels apiece.
There is a drawer under these rifles, containing
2 boxes of what
must be shells. Besides the triggers, there
are 2 levers on each
gun; 1 is large and on the stock and 1
is small and near the
trigger. If paced out, the room is 40 feet
east and west and 60 feet
north and south.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: The rifles were made
by the professor. The long ones do 2-20 points of damage to anything hit
by
them and the shooter should be treated
as a 9th-level character for <Lord(9th-level
fighter)>
hitting purposes. The smaller rifles are
shotguns; both barrels will
always discharge when the gun is used,
but only one barrel needs to
be loaded to fire the gun. It does 1-10
points of damage to everything
in a 5 foot spread in front of the gun,
whether 1 or 2 barrels is
loaded. The large lever breaks open either
weapon for loading and
the smaller lever is a safety device, which
must be disengaged
before a weapon will fire. There are 10
shells in each brown box, 1
box for the shotguns and 1 for the larger
guns. If none of the
players are holders of a gunnery merit
badge, do not let the players
assume that they know of firearms. Novices
will suffer 1-4 points of
bruising damage per shot.
L: The beams of the
flashlights show a room covered in small
furs of some type and a spiral staircase
leading up through the
ceiling.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The fur seems to
be rat fur. It has
lice and smells of rotten meat. It covers
the walls, floor and ceiling
and when cut it shows bare cement floor
and metal walls underneath. If the room is paced out, it is 60 feet square.
The
staircase is
made of Metal and
painted with black enamel paint and is located in
the northwest corner of the room.
M: The beams of the
flashlights show a room with WALLS, floor,
and ceiling of white
marble. There is a bed in one corner of the room,
several dressers, and a floor-to-ceiling
mirror
on one wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The bed is a
huge four-poster with
dust covering the
green satin bedspread, sheets, and pillows. There
are 4 dressers, each with 4 drawers. Each
one of these is filled
with white operating
gowns and masks. There are 2 bedstands,
each with a small drawer. In these are
a roll of dimes (5 dollars’
worth); 2 dry cell batteries; and a
solid gold letter opener (worth 5
gold pieces). The mirror
is on the north wall in the west corner and
has an ornate brass
molding around it in the shape of a praying
mantis about to strike.
If the room is paced off, it is found to be 60
feet square.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: Under the pillow,
on the bed, is a
red plastic disc
with a pin on its back. When the disc is worn, every
room the wearer enters in this mansion
will light up. When any
character puts his/her entire body on the
bed, the canopy falls down
in an attempt to suffocate that character.
It does 5 points of
damage per melee round until it is cut
away or the character dies—
upon death,
the canopy springs back up again. The canopy is easily
cut.
N: The beams of the
flashlights show a room with 12 figures
dressed in Metal standing about. On the
opposite side of the room is
another exit.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The
room appears to be entirely
paneled in red oak.
The 12 figures are suits of armor that line
both walls in rows of 6 to a side. Each
one has a sword in an
upraised hand. If the room is paced out,
it is 40 feet east and west
by 60 feet north and south.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: If the 2 northernmost
figures are
touched in any way, they will animate and
attack the group (HP:
19,19; #AT 1; 1; D: 1-12; AC: 3; SA: None).
These things will hit on a
25% chance every melee turn and they will
not follow anyone out of
the room, but wiII go back to their places
when the room is empty, to
await the arrival of another character.
Note: There are 2 rooms
labeled “N”, identical in all ways but
the location of the exits.
O: The beams of the
flashlights show a room with a large table
and chairs in its middle. There are cupboards,
metal sinks, a gas <chairs=x>
stove, and some type of huge refrigerator.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The
room is painted yellow on the
floor, ceiling, and
walls. The gas stove and metal sinks all work as
they should. There are 7 cupboards filled
with canned goods of
all types from soup to canned meat. The
table and chairs are made of
metal and quite heavy. There is a cupboard
filled with pots and pans,
and a cupboard filled with dinnerware of
fired clay. There is a frozen
food locker with a large padlock on the
metal door The locker feels
cold to the touch and produces a humming
vibration.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: When and if the freezer
is broken
into, a white
pudding will rush out and attack (HP: 38; #AT: 1; D:
3-24; AC: 6; SA: Dissolves wood and metal).
It will not pursue
intruders out of the room, and if left
alone in the room for 2 melee
rounds, it will return to the locker and
shut the door. There are 2 of
these rooms and they can’t be paced out
because of the things which
obstruct the area.
P: The beams of the
flashlights show a room filled with plants
from wall to wall and traveling up to the
ceiling. One also notices a
strange purple glow
from the bottoms of all the plants. An exit is
visible on the other side of the room.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: All of the plants
are in tanks that
are filled with a
glowing purple liquid. The plants seem to sway
towards any people entering the AREA.
Some of them bear fruit and
berries. The room cannot be paced out because
of the plants, but the
path from exit to exit is 80 feet.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: The secret door is
blocked by
dense, thorny brambles which will have
to be cut away. If the foliage
is cut in any way, 7 stirges
come flying down to attack (HP: 5 (x
7); #AT: 1; D: 1-3; AC: 8; SA: Drains blood).
Q: The beams of the
flashlights show a room with stone walls,
floor, and ceiling.
The body of a skeleton lies in the middle of the
room and its head is in a far corner. There
is another exit.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The
skeleton is old and yellow, the
size of a small child.
There is a golden ring on one of its bony
fingers.
If the room is paced out, it is 40 feet
east and west by 70 feet
north and south.
NOTES. TO THE REFEREE: If the head is brought
within 2
feet of the rest of the body, it will fly
out of the hands of the holder and
rejoin the body. The skeleton
will animate and attack the group
(HP: 10; #AT: 1; D: 1-6; AC: 7; SA: None).
The skeleton will chase
characters outside the room. The ring contains
3 Wishes, but it
cannot be removed from the skeleton or
used until the skeleton has
been animated and killed.
R: The beams of the
flashlights show a room that is filled top to
bottom with small bits of
foam rubber. These bits are easily moved,
but will take time.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: If the players take
the time, they
will find all interior surfaces made of
dark oak. The spiral staircase
which may be uncovered is of Metal.
S: The beams of the
flashlights show what is obviously a huge
computer filling the
room on both sides and there is only a small
pathway between the
machines. There is a table and chair on the <table=x, chair=x>
east side of the room and what seems to
be a typewriter on the table.
Above the typewriter is a television screen.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The pathway between
the 2 machines is 10 feet wide and 40 feet long north and south. The
machines light up and START
to hum whenever a character enters the
room.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: The computer will
answer any
question the players type on the machine
by printing out an answer
on the TV screen above. It knows all about
the house and will tell of it.
Any question that is beyond the limits
of what a character might know
enough to ask will be answered with a line
of question marks
????????? Any question that is technical
in nature will be answered
in Latin, which no one should be allowed
to speak for the game
purposes.
T: The beams of the
flashlights reveal a bathroom with stool,
sink and mirror,
and a bathtub.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If paced off, the
room is 40 feet
square. Everything
is made out of pink fiberglass and the tub is filled
with some type of bubbling liquid.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: The tub is filled
with hydrochloric
acid and dissolves anything put in it except
for glass. There is a
cabinet behind the mirror, but it is empty.
U: The beams of the
flashlights reveal a room filled with books.
on shelves. There is a desk and chair in
the room and another exit in <chair=x>
the middle of another wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If the room is paced
off, it is 40
feet east and west by 60 feet north and
south. There are exits in the
middle of the north and east walls. The
room has a green, inch-thick
carpet and
the
ceiling is white marble. It smells like mildew in this
area and when the books are looked at they
fall apart in the hands
and huge silverfish (harmless) leap out
from the pages. The desk
has 3 drawers, filled with scientific papers
on the wave motion of
elements in their plasma states plus about
200 number-two pencils.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: There is a secret
drawer in the
middle of the desk that contains a .45
automatic pistol with 6 bullets
in it (each shot doing 1 to 8 points of
damage and the shooter will hit
as a 5th-level character), plus a sack
of 200 silver dollars. <Attack
Matrix for Fighters, et al.>
V: The beams of the
flashlights reveal a room occupied by a
huge,
jade-green, stone snake that stands almost to the ceiling.
The
room is otherwise bare and seems to be
made of cement. There is
another exit on the opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: When the 1st character
enters the
room, the statue will come alive and strike
that person. A crossbow
bolt will embed itself in the arm of that
character.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: A bolt does 1-12
points of damage.
After the 1st shot (an automatic hit) there
is a 75% chance of the
statue hitting any moving target in the
room (chosen at random). The
statue has 50 crossbow bolts and fires
2 per round. It will not fire
at any character wearing white,
except for the 1st character it sights.
The creature will continue to fire until
it has sustained 25
points of damage (AC: 2).
W: The beams of the
flashlights reveal a room empty of furniture
and a spotlight shining down in the center
of the chamber. It illuminates a 5-foot staff of what appears to be oak.
There is another exit
on an opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The light
will shift and the staff will
fly to meet any characters who enter the
room. The staff will begin
hitting those who have entered.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: The staff hits 35%
of the time on
random players. It does 1-10 points of
damage and will continue to
strike as long as the spotlight in the
ceiling in the middle of the room is
intact.
X: The beams of the
flashlights reveal a room with floor, walls,
and ceiling covered
in fragments of green glass. All of it appears to
be very sharp. There is another exit on
the opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The glass is so sharp
that it cuts
deeply into the soles of all normal boots.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: The glass is glued
to the room
surfaces, so it cannot be removed. There
is a 25% chance per 10 feet
of crossing that boots will be cut through
to the feet, causing 10 points
of damage. There are 2 rooms labeled “X.”
Each has 2 normal
exits and a larger opening. In the
larger room, the opening leads to
the Silver Hall.
In the smaller room, there is a set of ascending stairs
through the opening.
Y: The beams of the
flashlights reveal 10 large wire cages in the
room with another exit on an opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: There are bones noticed
in each of
the cages. 5 giant
ants suddenly come out of a hole in back of the
cages and advance.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: The ants will follow
any group until
they or the group are dead (HP: 9 each;
#AT: 1; D: 1-6; AC: 3; SA:
Poison sting (save versus poison at +3).
The hole is much too small
for characters to follow. Note: There are
2 rooms labeled “Y”, of
different sizes and configurations. There
are cages and ants in both.
Z: The beams of the
flashlights reveal a chamber with floor,
walls and ceiling
covered with brown fungus. In the middle of the
room is a raised pile of the stuff. There
is no other apparent exit from
this room.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: When anything touches
the fun
gus, clouds of the spores billow up and
hinder vision in the room. As
rough estimates, the room appears to be
40 feet square with the
fungus at least 5 inches thick on every
surface.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: The fungus is harmless,
but smells
terrible. The pile hides a set of +4 plate
mail that glows in the dark
with a strange green
luminescence.
GOLD
HALL: The beams of the flashlights reveal a short hall
with metal walls,
floor, and ceiling. The metal has a gold color to it.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION:
The hall is 60 feet long east and
west and 20 feet
long north and south and made of 3-foot-square, thin plates of this metal
all riveted on.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE:
The plates are all of gold and worth
9 gold pieces each.
MIRROR
HALL: The beams of the flashlights
reveal a hall lined
with mirrors.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The hall is 140 feet
long east and
west and 20 feet wide north and south.
With every round spent in
the hall, a “natural” illumination in the
area becomes brighter.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: The professor cut
this mirror glass
specially to gather and direct 100% of
all light brought into the room.
Every 21st melee round, all of the energy
stored in the preceding 20 rounds is directed at the darkest thing in the
hall (perhaps
someone without a flashlight), hitting
it for 100 points of disintegration
damage. The room returns to normal illumination, and the process then starts
all over again. In the case of a large number of
eligible characters, the tallest gets hit
first.
SILVER
HALL: The beams of the flashlights reveal a hall with
metal walls, floor,
and ceiling. The metal has a silver color to it.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION:
The hall is 80 feet long east
and west and 20 feet
wide. The plates are 3 feet square, thin,
and all riveted in
place.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE:
The plates are all solid silver and
are worth 3 gold
pieces each.
CLOSETS: The beams
of the flashlights reveal rooms filled with
clothing hanging
from the walls. There are also shoes of some type
under some of the
clothes.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION:
There are men’s coats of all different types hanging in these rooms. There
are raincoats, heavy wool
winter coats, spring
windbreakers, and light jackets. The shoes are
boots of high quality.
All of them are made for a tall man.
AA: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room that contains a
swimming pool that is filled with a dark
liquid of some-type. There are
no other apparent exits.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The room is paced
out to be 80
feet east and west by 50 feet north and
south. There is a sickeningly
sweet odor to the liquid. Characters can
go around the pool on a
10-foot border of concrete.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: The liquid is grape
juice and is
fresh and drinkable. The pool is 30 feet
deep.
BB: The beams of
the flashlights reveal an empty room whose
walls are made of some type of Metal. There
are no other apparent
exits.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The room is paced
out to be 40
feet square. The
metal is copper in color and dulled, as if from
oxidation.
CC: The beams of
the flashlights reveal an empty room whose
walls appear to be paneled oak, with floor
and ceiling of grey marble.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The room is L-shaped,
with a wide
hallway exit and a normal open exit diagonally
opposite each other.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: There are 2 rooms
labeled “CC”
which differ slightly in configuration
but are otherwise identical. The
wide openings in the western and eastern
rooms lead to the Silver
Hall and the Gold
Hall respectively.
DD: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room that has a spiral
staircase at one end. The
walls, floor, and ceiling appear to be made
out of black barn
boards.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The staircase goes
up and is made
out of Metal. If the room is paced off
it is 80 feet east and west and
40 feet north and south.
EE: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room with several
objects apparently covered by sheets. The
walls, floor, and ceiling
seem to be made of padded leather.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: Each sheet covers
an
overstuffed
black leather chair.
There are a total of 10. If the room is paced off it
is 40 feet by 40 feet.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: Each one of the chairs
has a
hidden dagger
positioned in the seat of the chair so that anyone
trying to sit in a chair will be stabbed
for 1-4 points of damage.
FF: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room with a spiral
staircase in it. The
walls, floor, and ceiling appear to be made out of
green glass.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The
staircase of metal is painted
with blue enamel
paint. If the room is paced off, it is 60 feet east and
west by 40 feet north and south.
GG: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room covered in a
metallic-looking substance with a
large iron box in one section of the
AREA. There
is another exit on an opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The room’s surfaces
are very slippery and going through the room causes much falling and sliding.
When a character falls, he/she will notice
that a gray substance
comes off the floor and onto their hands
and clothes. The box has a
large handle and it cannot be moved.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: The slippery substance
is graphite.
If the lock is broken on the metal compartment,
a howling wind comes
out and knocks everyone in the room to
the floor with stunning force
(doing 1-4 points of damage). The compartment
will then be empty.
XX: THE LOWER TREASURE
ROOM: The beams of the
flashlights reveal a room with large
tables along the walls and a pool
of water
in its middle. The walls, floor, and ceiling are
of paneled
black wood.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If paced out, the
room is 60 feet
north and south by 60 feet east and west.
There are large tables
along the north, east, and south walls.
Each 10-foot-wide table on
the north wall has a small wooden coffer
on it. Each 10-foot-wide
table on the east wall holds a pile of
coins. The only table on the south
wall with anything on it is the one in
the middle. It has the following: a
wooden platter of huge size,
a small, single-bladed knife, and 3
small, blue quartz
bottles with some type of liquid in them. Shining
light into the pool will reveal a deep,
clear pool with a chest at its
bottom.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: Each coffer has a
poison-needle
trap in the lock, and ten rubies inside
(100 gold pieces each). There
are a total of 4,000
gold-piece coins on the tables along the east wall.
The platter is a +5 <large>
shield, the knife is a
luck blade with 2 wishes on
it, and the bottles are potions
of storm giant strength. When the chest
under the water is moved or opened in any
way, the act causes the
room to fill with poison gas from all sides.
The pool is 11 feet
deep.
ZZ: The beams of
the flashlights show a room paneled in some
type of blue wood
with the same substance on the floor and ceiling. It
seems to be empty of all materials. There
is another exit on an
opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If paced out, the
room is 60 feet
square. A strange odor of bananas fills
the room and is very strong.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: The odor is a gas
which slows all
who enter the room for 30 minutes of game
time, so that they think
they are at normal speed, but actually
do everything at half speed.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: Every one of these
rooms is
covered in sheet metal, on the floor, walls,
and ceiling. There are no
joints or edges to this metal. There are
electrical outlets for every
machine in any given room, but they are
all single-receptacle devices and the machines that plug into them all
have just one long
silver prong.
All of these rooms are so designed that no noise can be
heard around any of the corners of any
room, no matter how loud the
sound.
I: The beams of the
flashlights show a room with yellow carpeting.
Huge spiderwebs are
hanging down from everywhere on the
ceiling and upper walls.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The carpet has dark
red stains all
over it, and there is movement among the
webs on the ceiling. If the
room is paced out, it is thirty feet square.
There are ascending stairs
along the west wall.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: There are 3 giant
spiders
near the ceiling (HP: 7,5,5; #AT: 1; D:
2-8; AC: 4; SA: Save versus
poison). They will come down and attack
only when 2 or more
characters enter the room.
II: The beams of
the flashlights show a room with benches all
over the area. These benches are loaded
with glass beakers, jars,
and test tubes. There is another exit on
a side wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: There are 9 benches.
Each one
holds a large group of beakers with powder
in each of them, some
empty test tubes with cork stoppers on
them, and some stoppered
jars with liquid in them. There are a group
of 3 cans on each table
with a green jelly-like
substance in each. One of each of these cans
of jelly on every table has burn marks
on it and there is a smell of
sulfur about the cans. If paced out, the
room is 40 feet east and
west by 50 feet north and south.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: All of the liquids
are acids that will
do 2-12 points of damage to exposed skin.
All of the powders are
chloride salts and will cause dense smoke
when mixed with the jar
liquids. The green jelly is highly flammable
and burns intensely when
set afire. Through the other exit is a
spiral staircase going down.
III: The beams
of the flashlights show a room bare of all things
except for a creature chained to the floor
in its middle. There is an exit
to this room on the opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If the room is paced
out, it is 40
feet east and west by 50 feet north and
south. The creature is
obviously evil in nature, with horns, long
pointed ears, fangs, a tail
with many pointed projections, and a leathery
skin with more sharp
projections coming off the skin. It is
chained by a set of silvery
handcuffs
to a silver pin in the floor and contained
within a 20 foot
circle by the chain. The creature is 7
feet tall and hunched over
in what looks like an uncomfortable position.
It immediately notices
the group and begins talking in a foreign
language. The tone of voice
is a pleading one. Under its feet are a
small square box and another
longer metal box.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: This creature is
a barbed devil
(HP: 40; #AT: 3; D: 2/8/2-8/3-12; AC: 0;
SA: generate FEAR, pyrotechnics,
produce
flame, hold person, or summon another
barbed
devil) and can use none of its arcane power
(special attacks) unless it
is attacked while it is still chained to
the floor. Under its feet is a small
box containing a ring of 1 wish
and a long metal box filled with
13 applications of dust
of disappearance. The creature will
begin talking English when the players
talk it among themselves, and
it will promise them anything to be released.
All of these promises will
be lies; it will attack when released (normal
attacks only) and try to kill
the whole group. It will chase any fleeing
group until it has killed 1
of the party and then it will eat the character.
From then on, until it is
killed, there will be a 20% chance to encounter
this creature in every
2nd room that is entered by a character
or group.
IV: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a bare room with another
exit on the opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: When all the group
has entered the
area, a dazzling light
comes on and strange sounds start coming out
from the walls. If the room is paced out,
it is 60 feet east and west by
40 feet north and south.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: The lights are capable
of giving
severe sunburns if characters stay in the
room longer than a minute.
The sounds are strong vibrations that will
make each party member
deaf for 3 times the number of minutes
they stay in the area.
V: The beams of the
flashlights reveal a room bare of everything
but a large Persian rug
at its center. There is another exit on a side
wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If the room is paced
out, it is 60
feet east and west by 40 feet north and
south.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: There is a slit
in the middle of the
rug that causes all those who do not stay
within 20 feet of the sides of
the room to fall into a 15-foot-deep pit.
The pit walls are made of
metal, and characters will take 1-6 points
of damage for the fall. The
rug stays tight to the floor in all other
areas.
VI: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a bare room and 2
other exits on side walls.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: When a character
wearing a loaded backpack enters the room,
he/she is pulled to the ceiling and
stuck tight.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: The room has a super
magnet in
the ceiling which pulls all ferrous metal
in that direction. In the middle
of the floor is a small glass
plate where one can see a shiny bulb
underneath. If this plate is broken and
the bulb underneath is taken
out or shattered, the magnetic force is
turned off. The glass is very
hard and will take a great deal of force
to break. Players will take 1-6
points of damage from falling off the ceiling
unless they have an
athletic merit badge. They can shrug off
their backpacks and fall to
the floor, but they will then have their
clothes ripped by the metal
parts which are ripped out of them by the
still-active magnet.
VII: The beams
of the flashlights show a room with a number of
Metal chunks littering the floor. There
are 3 doors, each 1 on a
different wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: When one enters the
room, Metal
chunks fall from the ceiling, and characters
can see that the ceiling is
massed with millions of these chunks stuck
to it.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: After a character
or party enters
the room, every melee round 3-18 of these
chunks will fall. They
weigh 15 ounces each and do 1-6 points
of damage when hitting
a player. There is only a 15% chance that
any given one will hit, since
they fall throughout the general AREA
of the player. The doors are all
fake and while the handles will turn, they
can’t open. They appear to
be made from oak, but are Metal like everything
else.
VIII: The beams
of the flashlights reveal a bare room. There is
another exit on an opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If the room is paced
out, it is 60
feet east and west by 40 feet north-and
south. Stairs going down
are found on the south side of a 20-foot-square
landing on the south
wall in the west corner. One can notice
a strong odor of some type of
flower in the room.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: There is a secret
door on the
west wall of the landing that will open
automatically when light is
shone on it for 1 minute. The odor is a
gas which makes all who
breathe it have 1/2 their STR
for the next 60 minutes. This
causes characters to do 1/2 damage on all
physical blows, and they
will not be able to carry their backpacks
or heavy rifles unless they
drag them.
IX: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room with several
benches that are crammed full of equipment
of some type. There are
several large barrels
on the floor and another exit on the opposite
wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: This is obviously
an electronics lab
of some sort. There are 5 benches, and
they all hold electronic
equipment: computer chips, transistors
by the thousands, vacuum
tubes, television readout screens, circuit
boards, cathode-ray tubes,
soldering guns, solder. The barrels are
spools
of copper wire differing in size from hair-thin to inch-thick. These
are all under the table
on the north wall. If the room is paced
out, it is 60 feet north and
south by 40 feet east and west. There is
an ascending stairway in
the east comer of the south wall.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: There is a
spool of hair-thin gold
wire hidden
in the middle of the spools of copper wire.
It is heavier
than the other spools (none of them can
be carried). There is a giant
ant
in the core of this spool (HP: 19; #AT: 1; D: 1-6; AC: 3; SA: Poison
sting). It will attack anyone who moves
its spool.
X: The beams of the
flashlights reveal a room covered in furs of
various types. There is also an exit out
of the AREA on a side wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The furs are all
very thick and there
are some recognizable ones including: zebra,
lion,
leopard, and
polar
bear.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: There are 8 of these
rooms,
each containing a spiral staircase. The
dimensions of these rooms
vary from place to place. Each fur is worth
at least 50 GP
and easily detachable from its mounting.
When more than one
character walks onto the furs, the characters
are attacked by 4
giant
centipedes (HP: 2,2,1,2; #AT: 1; D: Nil; AC: 9; SA: Save versus
poison). These creatures are hidden under
furs until movement
rouses them.
Xl: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room with a set of
bunkbeds in one corner, 2 dressers, a card
table with 3 chairs, <chairs=x>
and a desk and chair in another corner.
There is another exit on the
opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If the room is paced
out, it is 40
feet square. The dressers each have 3 drawers,
and each is full
of men’s clothes
(pants, shirts, socks, and the like). The desk has
been ransacked and there are papers everywhere.
They all contain
biological terms which relate to the cloning
of cells.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: There is a secret
drawer on the
right-hand side of the desk with the following
inside: A photo of a thin
man touching the left side of a giant robot,
a
black glass quartz bottle
with a stopper, filled with poison gas
under pressure that fills any
70-foot-square (this room and parts of
the adjacent rooms)
when released; and a plastic sack with
40 cut rubies inside (100
gold piece base value for each). <roll
for gem values>
XII: The beams
of the flashlights reveal a room with odd animal
images at its far end. There is a bench
in front of them, and no
apparent exits out of this room on any
other walls.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The lights show what
is obviously a
shooting gallery. On the bench in front
of the machine is a set of 9
rifles that everyone can tell are air rifles.
There are boxes of pellets
beside each rifle. There are targets of
all different types, from clay
ducks and pipes to bullseyes and swinging
bell-arms. The rifles are
the pump type and easy for everyone to
use.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: When any of the
rifles are
touched or someone goes over the bench
and comes close to the
targets, the characters are attacked by
a lion (HP: 15; #AT: 3; D:
1-4/1-4/1-10; AC: 5/6; SA: Rear claws for
2-7/2-7) that has its den
behind the targets. The lion will pursue
characters out of the room.
The air rifles do 1 or 2 points of damage
and those shooting are as
11th-level Lords for purposes of determining
a hit. They have an <Attack Matrix for Fighters,
et al.>
effective range of 50 feet. The room is
60 feet east and west by
50 feet north and south. If the lion is
killed, a secret door in the
northeast corner will open automatically.
XIII: The room
has its own lighting and shows an area filled with
cushions of satin and silk. There are no
other apparent exits from the
room and players can see a winged woman
asleep on one of the
cushions in a far corner.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If the room is paced
out, it is 40
feet east and west by 60 feet north and
south. The female has a
belted dagger
and no other article of clothing.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: The being is an
Erinyes
devil
(HP: 48; #AT: 1; D: 1-4 with venom dagger;
AC: 2; SA: Save versus
poison dagger) and will sleep
unless she is purposely wakened or a
loud noise is made in the room. When wakened
gently, she will seem
kind and ask one of the players to release
her from her bondage. All
characters will notice a
silver chain on her ankle (hidden by a pillow
until THEN).
The chain can be easily cut and she will promise anything
to get it off. When released, she will
try to kill the whole group and will
follow them everywhere in this attempt.
XIV: The room is
aglow with a strong purple light.
It is a bare
room, and there is another exit on the
opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The room is very
hot. If paced off it
is 60 feet square.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: The light
will instantly heal all
damage done to any character who enters
the room, but the characters will not immediately know this. If characters
stay in the room for
longer than 10 minutes, they will turn
bright
red as if they were
severely sunburned, but this will wear
off in 24 hours.
XV: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room with a large cage
in the southeast corner with some type
of large creature shambling
around in it. There is another exit on
the opposite wall of the room.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If the room is paced
out, it is 40
feet east and west by 60 feet north and
south—counting the
10-foot-square cage in the corner. The
creature seems to be a giant
man, who will not answer questions but
will motion for the players to
get closer.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: This giant is a
hill
giant (HP: 42;
#AT: 1; D: 2-16, AC: 4, SA: Hurl rocks
for 2-16). It will try to get
players to come close so that it can grab
them and pull them into the
cage, where it eats them. There are bones
littering the cage, but they
will only be seen if the players ask about
the appearance of the cage
AREA. There
are 5 skulls, and many other bones broken open with
the marrow extracted. The giant is able
to hurl the skulls. There is a
pile of rags in one corner of the cage
that also contains the following:
a wallet with no identification and five
$100 bills; a laser pistol doing
5-30 points of damage with every shot (every
shot hits and there are
9 shots in the pistol); and a
large knife (treat as dagger, 1-4
pts. of
damage) that has bloodstains all over it.
The cage lock could be
easily opened by any intelligent person,
since it is just a series of
levers that the giant is too stupid to
figure out.
XVI: The beams
of the flashlights reveal a room with closed
cabinets on every wall. There are no apparent
exits and no other
objects in the room.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If the room is paced
off, it is 60
feet square, counting the depth of the
cabinets. There is an open exit
on the south wall, and a door on the north
wall. Each cabinet is locked
and will require all the STR of several
characters to break open.
All the cabinets house containers of various
types.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: This was the professor’s
chemical storage area. All naturally occurring elements can be found here
in their refined states. They are in variously
sized and shaped containers which have their chemical symbols on the sides.
The contents of the gas containers are under great pressure, and the canisters
are cold to the touch. The radioactive containers are also
marked with a red
skull-and-crossbones symbol and weigh 100
pounds each; they are stored on the bottom
of 1 cabinet. Characters who can properly quote a chemical symbol may have
the use of
the material in that container.
XVII: The beams
of the flashlights show what is obviously a
shower room with 10 stalls and no other
apparent exits.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If paced out, the
room is 60 feet
east and west by 50 feet north and south.
Water
comes forth
normally from the shower heads when one
is turned on, and all of it
drains into a central drain in the middle
of the room. If that drain is
blocked by anything, the water will not
flow.
XVIII: The beams
of the flashlights reveal broken furniture in
several parts of the room. There are 2
other exits.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The furniture consists
of tables and
chairs and boxes and they have all been
ripped apart. When all of the
party has entered the room, all are attacked
by an invisible force.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: The force is an
invisible
stalker
(HP: 37; #AT: 1; D: 4-16; AC: 1; SA: Surprise
on a 1-5). It will attack
the least damaged player in the group;
if there is more than 1
player with no damage, it will attack the
tallest one. These attacks will
continue until all the characters are dead,
or until all of the survivors
leave the room.
XIX: The beams
of the flashlights reveal a room with a spotlight
shining down at its center. Floating in
the beam of this spotlight is a
pistol made out of glass which appears
to be suspended in mid-air.
There are 2 other exits on side walls.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The 1st character
who enters this
room is “shot” with the pistol.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: The weapon will
always hit, and it
knocks its victim out for 30 minutes. When
things are thrown at the
pistol from outside of the room, they will
all miss. When players try to
RUSH the beam
of light and grab the gun, the pistol rises
over their
heads, then tilts downward and keeps firing.
The pistol fires twice
every round. Breaking the spotlight, which
is 20 feet above floor
level, will do the trick (the object has
15 hit points, AC: 3). When
the light goes out, the pistol falls to
the floor with a 30% chance of
breaking. There will be 5 shots left in
the gun, if it ever comes into
the possession of the players. Each shot
makes its victim unconscious for 30 minutes.
XX: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room lined with
shelves that are filled with some type
of pipe. There are several other
machines in the room. There is an exit
on the opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: All
of the pipe is copper and it
comes in several different sizes. The machines
are obviously de-
signed to work the pipe and bend it into
shapes. There are hundreds
of pipe couplings in wooden crates at the
bottom of every set of
shelves. If paced out, the room is 40 feet
east and west by 60 feet
north and south.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: If players want to
make clubs and
other unusual things from the pipes there
is enough threaded pipe
here, in any reasonable length, to do the
job.
XXI: The beams
of the flashlights reveal what looks like a torture
chamber. There are a great number of devices
all around and
another exit on the opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The following things
can be found
around the room: a brazier with cold coals,
chains on the walls, an
IRON MAIDEN,
a rack, stocks, and a huge wheel, suspended on a wall,
that will turn freely. Located on 2 benches
are the following: hooks
of differing sizes, an
iron boot, branding irons with differing
sizes of
the letter “L” on them, fetters, knives
of differing sizes, pincers,
pliers, small round lead balls, a funnel,
3
sets of thumbscrews
made of gold,
5 torches, 2 whips,
and a disposable butane
lighter. The room is impossible to pace
out because of the contents
all over the floor.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: Keep in mind that
these players
are all good campers and such things as
these should be revolting to
them. They should be admonished if they
want to steal anything,
especially the gold
thumbscrews.
XXII: Flashlights
are not needed here, since the room is brightly
lit. Rows of chairs face a projection screen
on the south wall. There is
a projector against the north wall. There
is another exit on a side wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: There is a light
switch on the wall
above the outlet that the projector uses,
and it can turn the room
lights off. There are 40 Metal folding
chairs in the room. Under the
stand that the projector is on, one can
see a film canister that reads,
“Putting Together and Caring for a Laser
Rifle by Professor Ludlow.”
If paced out, the room is 60 feet square.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: Only if players
say they are looking up will they notice the 3 holes in the ceiling. The
projector only
works when the light switch is off. 5 minutes
after the film has
begun, 3 ropers come out of the ceiling
and attack any characters in the room (HP: 59,50,42; #AT: 1; D: 5-20; AC:
0; SA: 6
poisonous strands). It takes 1 hour to
view the film in its entirety. It
will stop automatically when the ropers
appear, but can be restarted
later.
XXIII: The beams
of the flashlights reveal a room that has 8
benches along the walls, each containing
various materials. There is
another exit on the opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The benches contain
the following:
Bench 1: 2 types of
large circuit boards with transistors already attached;
Bench 2: 2 different
types of vacuum tubes attached to plastic terminals;
Bench 3: two different
types of 20-sided red crystals that are connected
to glass tubes with convex ends;
Bench 4: rifle stocks
and trigger mechanisms;
Bench 5: power cells
of some type and circuit boards with other types of transistors on them;
Bench 6: 19
spools of silver wire with 2 soldering guns;
Bench 7: long crystal
tubes with concave ends and 8-sided plastic pieces with recesses on 3 sides;
Bench 8: 2 large electronic
devices of some type.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: The film from room
XXII
tells how
to put a laser rifle together from these
parts. Anyone who has viewed
the entire film without interruption is
able to construct 1 weapon in
an hour. If the floor under Bench 8 is
looked at, a character will
find a completed model with 10 charges
that do 10-60 points of
damage, with the beam always hitting its
target. When the room is
paced out, it is 40 feet east and west
by 60 feet north and south.
XXIV: The beams
of the flashlights reveal a room filled with
paintings on the WALLS and several canvases
on stands in the middle
of the floor. There is another exit on
the opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The paintings are
all landscapes
depicting lands like none on Earth. There
are bright green skies with
double suns and pink-toned
night skies with 2 moons, and unearthly monsters traveling through
the scenes. The 2 canvases in
the exact middle of the room show different
views of a thin man in a
white smock
talking to small green things that have come
out of some
sort of saucer-like spaceship. If the room
is paced out, it is 40 feet
square.
XXV: The beams
of the flashlight reveal a room filled with Persian rugs
of large size on the floor, walls, and ceiling. There are exits
on the east and west WALLS
and a flight of stairs going down from the
southwest corner of the room.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If paced out, the
room is 60 feet
square (counting the landing atop the stairs).
The 2 carpets hanging on the north wall have a green
design; the 2 on the east wall
have a blue design;
the 2 on the south wall have a red design;
and
the 2 on the west
wall also have a green design. The floor and
ceiling carpets have
white patterns.
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: If any of the carpets
on the walls
are disturbed, 4 giant
ticks will fly out and attack (HP: 20 each;
#AT: 1; D: 1-4; AC: 3; SA: Blood drain).
One of the red carpets has
computer chips woven into the fabric, which
will not be noticeable
unless it is carefully studied. If this
carpet is taken off the wall it will
float 3 feet above the floor and will act
as a flying carpet, moving
to the verbal commands of the 1st person
to sit on it. It will support
the weight of 4 of the scouts.
XXVI: The beams
of the flashlights reveal what must be a bedroom of some type. There is
a bed covered in curtains. There is a
floor-to-ceiling mirror
on the north wall and a closet on the south wall.
There are stairs going up from the northwest
corner of the room, and
another exit across the room.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The canopied bed
is covered with
dust. It has green
silk curtains, bedspread and sheets. The closet is
filled with white
smocks and women’s dresses of several different
types. There is a chest in front of the
bed containing the following: <chest=x>
22 canes of differing styles (all with
ivory
heads); there are
5 shoeboxes containing differing types
of high-heeled shoes; and
a sequined purse with comb, brush, mirror,
and lipstick inside
NOTES TO THE REFEREE: On the floor on the
closet in 1
corner is another shoebox with $2000 inside.
One of
the canes is a sword cane, for which squeezing
the
ivory top releases
the blade. Each shoe has a gem
worth 100 GP hidden inside
the heel. If someone lies on the bed, the
canopy comes down with
crushing force, doing 4-40 points of damage
to all underneath. It will
then rise again and will be activated again
by another body lying on
the bed.
XXVII: The room
is lit by a glow from the ceiling which reveals
the following: thick
gold carpeting, walls covered with gold velour,
a
stuffed blue fabric chair, two short tables,
and a gold hassock. On the
west wall is a painting of a thin woman
holding a baby, and there is a
large potted plant in the southeast corner.
There is another exit on
the wall to the side.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If the room is paced
out, it is 40
feet square. The plant has sticky thorns
on it and the chair has green,
jelly-like masses
on it.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: Behind the picture
of young Ludlow and his mother is a wall safe with the following items
in it: 5
diamond rings each worth 5,000 GP, 3 rolls
of silver
dollars (50 per roll), the deed to the
mansion, and a ruby rod which
will cause any creature that normally remains
in a certain room to
chase the holder of the rod until one or
the other is dead or the rod is
discarded. The combination to the safe
is written on the back of the
picture, since the professor was sometimes
absentminded.
XXVIII: The
lights of the flashlight reveal a room that is covered
with frost on the walls, ceiling, and floor.
There is another exit on the
opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The cold
is unbearable in this
room; unprotected characters find it necessary
to leave its influence
quickly.s
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: The room is 5 degrees
below
zero F. There is a 25% chance for each
of slipping if characters walk
through and 75% if they run through. This
slipping causes 1-4 points
of damage per character.
XXIX: The beams
of the flashlights reveal a room filled with fog
of some type.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The room smells of
a bitter gas,
and the floor and walls are covered with
condensation. No character
can see more than 2 feet in front of his/her
face.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: There is a giant
square vat of
water
in the center of this room, and dry ice is being fed into the water
from below floor level. If characters go
further than 10 feet from a
wall, they will fall in and take 10 points
of damage per round until
they are pulled out, since they will be
too numb to get out themselves.
XXX: The beams of the
flashlights show an empty room with no
other apparent exits.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The room is empty,
and if paced
out is 60 feet square.
XXXI: The beams
of the flashlights reveal a room whose only
piece of furniture is a bench with a Metal
chest on it. There are exits
on 2 walls and a door on another wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If the room is paced
out, it is 40
feet east and west by 60 feet north and
south. The chest on the
bench is locked, and the bench is made
of Metal.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: If the chest is
broken open, 3
glowing cylinders are found inside. Each
cylinder has a screw top. If
any one of the tops is removed, a pellet
of U-235 falls out and kills all
of the characters in the room with radiation
contamination, unless
they are protected from radiation.
XXXII: The beams
of the flashlights show a room with 3
unusual glass benches. There are 2 other
exits in the room.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If the room is paced
out, it is 60
feet east and west by 40 feet north and
south. Each bench holds a
pair of silver fiberglass
gloves, a suit made out of the same material,
designed to cover the entire body, with
a hood of some type of clear
plastic, a large glass
box on each bench with a movable lid, and a set
of 3-foot tongs. In 2 of the boxes are
the skeletons of what look
like squirrels.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: All of the materials
mentioned
(except the skeletons) are radiation-proof
and were designed to be
used in conjunction with the pellets in
XXXI.
XXXIII: The
beams of the flashlights reveal 7 military cots
and 7 duffel bags in a comer of the room.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The duffel bags are
stuffed with
military equipment, including a helmet,
bayonet, canteen, 3
green uniforms with
no patches, and 2 pairs of boots. If the room is
paced out, it is 40 feet east and west
by 80 feet north and south.
Just as the players notice the western
entrance, something comes
out of it.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: A very young brass
dragon
comes out of the upper treasure room and
attacks all players in this
area (HP: 8; #AT: 3; D: 1-4/1-4/3-12* age
difference; AC: 2;
SA: Breath weapon of fear gas or sleep
gas).
XXXIV: The beams
of the flashlights show an empty room with
1 open exit, a door
on another wall, and a set of stairs going up.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If the room is paced
out, it is 80
feet east and west and 60 feet north and
south.
XXXV: The beams
of the flashlights show a room with a large
black box
in its middle. There are no other apparent exits in the room.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The box looks just
like a coffin. On
the far side of it is a set of 3
black candles mounted on ivory <candles=x>
candlesticks.
No amount of physical effort can open the Metal coffin
lid. If paced out, the room is 60 feet
east and west by 40 feet north
and south.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: When all of the
candles are lit, the
coffin lid flips up, and a wight
comes out and attacks the players (HP:
23; #AT: 1; D: 1-4; AC: 5; SA: Energy drain
that takes 10 hit points
from any struck player). The creature will
also come out and attack if
all of the candles are taken from their
holders.
XXXVI: The beams
of the flashlights reveal a room with a sand
floor. The room has no apparent exits,
and there is a dusty smell in
the air.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: Stepping into the
room stirs up
quite a lot of dust, and when a character
enters the room, a huge,
ghostly apparition
appears.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: The professor used
this room for
holograph experiments and the machine now
shows ghosts through
the dust. These projections shoot a light
beam that does 1-4 points of
heat damage to a random character in the
room each turn. There is
no way for the characters to turn off the
action of the ghost. The
projector works only while there are characters
in the room.
XXXVII: The
beams of the flashlights reveal a room with shelves
on all the walls. There are 2 tables in
the room with some small <tables=x>
objects on them. There is another exit
on a side wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The shelves are filled
with miniature human figures of many types.
They are all painted and made of
metal. The figures are arranged so that
one can see them progress in
time from cavemen
to science-fiction figures. There are several
sections of the wall devoted to monster
types. The tables have a
large array of bottles of paint on them
and several monster figures in
the process of being painted. If the room
is paced out, it is 80 feet
east and west by 50 feet north and south.
XXXVIII: The
beams of the flashlights show a room with a large
machine of some type
in its middle. There are 2 other exits.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The machine is quite
long and
there is some type of large
receptacle on its front and a microphone
type device beside this receptacle. There
is another similar receptacle, but smaller, next to the floor on the far
side of the machine. If the
room is paced out, it is 40 feet east and
west by 80 feet north
and south.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: This is a matter-conversion
machine. When materials are placed in the larger hopper and the
operator says into the microphone what
object is desired, the material put in is converted to the object desired,
which comes out the
other side. Twice an object’s weight in
raw materials must be used;
for instance, if a flashlight is wanted,
it takes twice that flashlight’s
weight in other types of materials for
the machine to function. It will
“eat” amounts of raw material insufficient
to construct the desired
object, or material which exceeds the needed
amount. If volatile
substances are put into the machine (such
as gunpowder or gasoline), the machine will explode, killing everyone in
the room.
XXXIX: The beams
of the flashlights reveal an empty room with
no apparent exits.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: When the first character
enters the
room, a dazzling light
blinds him/her and all other characters who <cf. blindness>
have looked into the room.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: Only the PRESENCE
of heat (such
as body heat) will activate this light.
It will turn on every time someone
enters the room, and turn off if all characters
leave the room. If
someone remains inside, the light will
turn off after 1 round, THEN
on again 1 round later, and so on.
UPPER
TREASURE ROOM: The beams of the flashlights reveal a
large room with a pile of stuff in the southwest corner. There is
the smell of <shit> in the room and
players can also see a pile of bones
along the northern wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The bones are all
human
except
for one bear
skull. There are several sacks in the pile in the corner. If <sacks=x>
the room is paced out, it is 40 feet east
and west by 60 feet north
and south.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: 1 sack contains
3 potions <sacks=x>
of extra
healing in milk bottles; another sack contains an ebony
wand
case with
a wand of magic missiles
that none of the campers will be
able to use; another sack contains boots
of levitation, and another
sack contains a +3 <horsemans'>
mace. Under the sacks is a coffer holding 30
pieces of jewelry, worth 250 gold pieces
each. <base value?>
CLOSET: The
2nd floor closet is lined with empty coat pegs.
Above these are shelves for hats. There
are all sorts of hats there:
top hats, stocking caps, ski masks, leather
hats, felt caps, wool caps,
and cloth hats. On the floor are several
different sizes and types of
rubber boots. There are enough of these
to fit all the characters if
they all wish to wear boots and hats.
WASHROOMS:
All 2nd-floor washrooms are the same.
They have a sink with a mirror
and an empty cabinet behind the
mirror, a stool, and a bathtub. All of
them work perfectly well and will
not overflow. All washrooms are made of
the Metal that all of the
other rooms are walled with.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: Every 1 of these
rooms is
covered in green
tiles that are 4 inches square. These tiles
are
unbreakable and cover
the walls, floor, and ceiling. All noise in these
rooms is magnified so that sound volume
is doubled. The noise
made by a rifle shot will do 1-4 points
of damage to all creatures in the
same room. Sound also carries up to 3 rooms
away so that no
one is ever surprised by anything.
1: The beams of the
flashlights reveal a glowing pillar in the
center of the room. There is another exit
on the opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If the room is paced
out, it is 30
feet square. The pillar is a 10-foot-diameter
beam of light emanating
from the ceiling, with an indistinguishable
shape inside about 3 feet
off the floor.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: If the beam is broken
in any
manner above the creature that is inside,
the light goes off and a hell
hound is released. Tossing things into
the light will cause them to go
through and then fall to the floor, but
the beam is not broken. The hell
hound
will follow and attack retreating players until it is dead (HP: 40;
#AT: 1; D: 1-10; AC: 4; SA: Breathe fire).
2: The beams of the
flashlights reveal a room with 1 exit plus a
spiral staircase. There is a <large>
leather sack suspended in the air in the
middle of the room.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The sack is 10 feet
above the floor
and appears to be filled with little round
things. It is drawn tight and
is about 3 feet long by 2 feet wide.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: These rooms are
all the same,
though they vary in dimensions. The sack
is magnetically positioned
and if someone applies more than 2 pounds
of pressure on the
thing, it will fall to the floor. It is
filled with several thousand ball
bearings that weigh 5 ounces each.
3: The beams of the
flashlights reveal a science lab of some type
with benches that have many different types
of microscopes on
them. There is another exit on the opposite
wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: There are a total
of 22
benches and each one has a different type
of microscope. There is a
huge one in the northeast
corner of the room that is too big to fit on a
bench. The tables are also filled with
slides, glues, and the materials
to make other slides. If paced out, the
room is 90 feet east and
west by 30 feet north and south.
4: The
room glows from its own purple light. There is another exit
on the opposite wall. There is a
pile of bones in a southern corner.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The bones are dried,
yellow human ones and fall apart upon touch. It feels very hot in
this room. If
paced out, it is 60 feet east and west
by 70 feet north and
south.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: For every 60 seconds
the players
stay in the room, over and above the time
it would have taken to pace
it out, they will take 1 point of sunburn
damage from the action of
the ultraviolet light.
5: The beams of the
flashlights reveal a room filled with benches
and Metal parts of all different types.
There is some type of robot in
the northeast corner of the room, and another
exit on a side wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The parts all appear
to be used to
make robots; there are several things that
must be robot heads,
robotic tentacles, robotic legs, robotic
chests, and robotic hands.
There are wires and transistors everywhere.
If the room is paced out,
it is 60 feet east and west by 70 feet
north and south.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: If the players ask
about tools
present for putting robots together, you
ask them what they think
should be there—and whatever they name
will be there. The robot in
the corner is activated by touching its
left shoulder with anything
Metal (HP: 100; #AT: 1; D: 5-50; AC: 1;
SA: None). When started, it
will advance on the players and attack.
If the players flee, it wiII START
roaming the building and there will be
a 10% chance of meeting it in
every 3rd room.
6: The beams of the
flashlights reveal a room coated in what
appears to be red
plastic. There is another exit on the opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The
red stuff is hard enough to
walk on.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: As a character takes
his/her
10th step into the room, feet or foot coverings
will stick to the floor,
and no amount of pulling will rip shoes
or other footwear loose from
the floor. This action works with all things
from socks to bare feet.
Moisture is the only thing that frees the
stuck materials; bare feet wiII
sweat enough in sixty seconds to free themselves.
After sticking
once and being freed, another 1000 steps
will cause a character to
stick again.
7: The beams of the
flashlights reveal a
room done in red materials all over. There is red
velvet covering the walls, 5 red curtains
along the WALLS,
and an inch-thick carpet, burgundy in color. There
are 13 stuffed red
satin chairs about the room. In the southeast
corner is a red jade
throne and on it is a skeleton made of reddish-white
bone.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: When the last player
has entered
the area or when one player comes within
20 feet of the skeleton,
it says, “I am Professor Ludlow. Why have
you come to disturb my
REST?”
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: The skeleton will
attack the characters if any of them have any objects from the mansion
visibly on
their persons (HP: 50; #AT: 2; D: 15 points
per strike; AC: 4;
SA: None). It flails with its arms to attack;
when it sustains 25 points in
damage, 1 of the arms will fall off. It
will not chase characters out of
the room, but it will follow them if attacked
from outside of the room.
The throne is true jade and of value if
pieces are chopped off. The
skeleton will talk to the players for as
long as they want about the
mansion, if they have no objects that cause
it to attack, but it is a liar
and knows nothing of the AREA
(though it claims to).
8: The beams of the
flashlights reveal a room that has Metal
balls all over the floor. There is another
exit on a side wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: There are 5 different
sizes of
balls and there seems to be about 50 of
each type lying around the
room. They include 1-inch, 4-inch, 8-inch,
12-inch, and
18-inch diameter balls. They all appear
to be made of Metal. If
the room is paced out it is 60 feet east
and west by 40 feet north
and south.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: If any 3 balls of
different sizes
are put together and left that way (as
in putting several in a sack) for
more than 30 seconds they will start to
make a beating noise like
the beating of a heart. If 4 of different
sizes are put together and
stay that way for more than 60 seconds,
they will disappear in a
flash of light and cause 1 point of damage
to any member of the
group. If 1 of every size are put together
and left for 120 seconds
they disappear in a flash, taking 2 points
from every character.
These 5 balls will reappear when any of
the same characters are
next threatened and instantly pound to
death
the thing that threatens
them.
9: The beams of the
flashlights reveal what looks like a 2-man
helicopter. There is another exit in an
opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The helicopter has
only 2 small
seats and the keys are in the ignition.
If the room is paced out, it is
80 feet east and west by 70 feet north
and south.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: When 1 character
sits in the
machine and there are no other characters
in the room, the ceiling
slides away to reveal the sky. It closes
when others enter the room.
10: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room with 2 cabinets
on the south wall and 2 cabinets on the
west wall. There is another
exit on a side wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: Of the 2 cabinets
on the west
wall, the right one has a piece of wadded-up
paper on it and a bronze
latch and
the left one is covered in what looks like gemstones of
differing types. Of the ones on the south
wall, the right one has a
picture of a bowl of popcorn and the left
one has a picture of a wine
bottle. The latter three all have steel
latches. If paced out, the room is
80 feet east and west by 40 feet north
and south.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: The 1st cabinet
mentioned
opens to reveal a black
space that will not reflect the beams of the
flashlights. When things are tossed inside,
they disappear. When
fingers or the like are put inside, the
whole character disappears. The
gem cabinet, if opened, releases poison
gas that does 25 points of
damage to each character in the room who
fails a poison saving
throw. The
popcorn cabinet creates any type of food
on demand in
plastic bowls. The wine-bottle cabinet
produces any type of drink
asked for in plastic cups. The production
must take place behind
closed cabinet doors.
11: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room filled from top to
bottom with pink
feathers of differing sizes.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The feathers are
easily dug out,
but there are a great many of them.
12: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room filled from top to
bottom with human
teeth.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: These teeth come
from all the different parts of the mouth. There are many with gold
fillings. They can
be dug out, but there are a great many
and it will take a long Time.
13: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room containing some
type of electronic equipment on benches.
There is a large, single
machine to 1 side.
There appear to be no other exits in this room.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: This AREA
appears to be filled with
radio equipment. The big machine, located
in an alcove, has 10
switches and a speaker attached. When a
character flips a switch, a
radio station broadcast is heard. The side
benches are filled with
transistors, receivers, speakers, and tools
to help put these parts
together. The room is too filled with stuff
to accurately pace out.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: When more than 1
switch is
flipped on, the machine will produce a
new radio broadcast, but when
all the switches are flipped on, characters
hear a loud squeal. All the
glass items in the room are broken and
turned to dust, while characters in the room take 25 points of damage apiece.
The secret door is
a loose wall that will be noticed if players
say that they are feeling or
pushing the WALLS.
14: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room that is filled with
beach balls of differing sizes. To get
in, it is necessary to pull out a lot
of balls.
15: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room with plush blue
carpeting
and pictures hanging on the WALLS. There is
nothing else in
the room and no other apparent exits.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: There are 20 pictures
and 10 of
them are signed by “da Vinci” and 10 of
them are signed by “Picasso”.
If the room is paced out, it is 60 feet
east and west by 40 feet north and south.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: The paintings are
originals and
are priceless.
16: The beams of
the flashlights reveal what seems to be a hall
packed full of cobwebs.
17: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a creature in the middle
of this room spread-eagled on the floor.
There is nothing else in the
room and there is another exit on the opposite
wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The creature is winged,
has fangs
and horns and looks immensely strong. It
is fastened to the floor by
glass bands around its extremities. When
a character or party enters
the room, it will talk to them in a calm,
pleasant voice and ask to be
released. If paced out, the room is 60
feet east and west by 40
feet north and south.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: This creature is
a pit fiend (HP:
70; #AT: 2; D: 1-8 (+3)/1-8 (+3) with claws;
AC: -3; SA: None, in
this mansion). It will say anything and
do anything to get released,
and will then try to kill all of the players.
18: The beams of
the flashlights show a room paneled in white
marble slabs.
In the middle of the room is a stone platform
with a
pyramid of glass balls on it. There is
another exit on the opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: When players approach
the pyramid, the balls start changing colors, and the pyramid will respond
verbally to questions. It will tell the
players anything they want to
know and can comprehend. If players ask
questions with answers
too complicated for them to understand,
the machine will START out by
trying to teach them the mathematics of
the answer they want.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: There is no power
in the mansion
powerful enough to hurt the pyramid device.
Once it has started
telling characters a complete answer, it
will not stop until it is done, no
matter what characters do or say. Therefore,
if the characters ask the
machine how to use something, it will first
tell them how to construct
the materials needed for the thing and
THEN
proceed slowly through
the assembly process and otherwise take
so much Time that the
characters should soon see that sitting
around there is getting them
now here.
19: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room filled with cardboard boxes that are all
closed. There is another exit on a side wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: All of the boxes
which are looked at
are filled with new toys of one type or
another. All of the toys require
batteries. The room is too cluttered to
pace out.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: There is every toy
imaginable in
those boxes, and there are thousands of
individual toys.
20: The beams of
the flashlights reveal an empty room that has
some type of small body
at its center. There is another exit on the
opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The small body is
that of a dead
Persian
cat. If the room is paced out, it is 40 feet east and west by
50 feet north and south.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: The cat is only
there to make the
players worry.
21: The beams of
the flashlights reveal what appears to be a
large telescope pointed at the ceiling.
There is another exit on the
opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If the room is paced
out, it is 70 feet east and west by 50 feet north and south.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: When one looks in
the telescope,
the ceiling slides back and players can
see a small, red planet
in the <cf. Mars>
lens. The ceiling will remain back as long
as someone looks and will
slowly close when no one is at the telescope.
22: This room has
its own red light,
which reveals holes all over
the walls. There are no other apparent
exits from the room.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If the room is paced
out, it is 40
feet square. The holes are all 3 inches
in diameter and about
9 inches deep. There is a glass ball in
each of them, about the
same size as a golf ball.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: These balls are
the eggs of yellow mold. When broken,
they do 1-8 points of damage apiece to all
beings in the room. These spores are not
quite ready for growth and
will die after a few minutes’ exposure
to the outside air.
23: This
room glows greenly and is covered in some strange
type of mushroom growth from floor to ceiling.
There is what appears
to be another exit out of the room.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: Characters stepping
into the room
will find themselves enveloped in spores
from the mushroom growth.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: Nothing else happens
to the
characters, but the spores will cling to
clothes and will not be easily
brushed away.
24: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room that has its floor
covered with hat boxes of differing colors.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: There are only 2
exits out of the
room, both of them on the east wall. There
are 5 basic colors used
in the hat boxes and these are further
divided into about 20
shades of each color, with a single shade
used for every box. These
colors are: red,
blue,
green,
brown,
and yellow.
51.
RED
52. Carmine
53. Cerise
54. Cherry
55. Cinnabar
56. Coral
57. Crimson
58. Madder
59. Maroon
60. Pink
61. Rose
62. Ruby
63. Russet
64. Rust
65. Sanguine
66. Scarlet
67. Vermillion
72.
BLUE
73. Azure
74. Cerulean
75. Indigo
76. Sapphire
77. Turquoise
78. Ultramarine
16.
BROWN
17. Chocolate
18. Ecru
19. Fawn
20. Mahogany
21. Tan<s>
22. Terra cotta
40.
YELLOW
41. Amber
42. Buff
43. Citrine
44. Cream
45. Fallow
46. Flaxen
47. Ochre
48. Peach
49. Saffron
50. Straw
NOTES’ FOR THE REFEREE: The red
boxes contain 1,000-
gold-piece diamonds. The green ones each
contain an ochre jelly
which will jump out and do 3-12 points
of damage per touch after a
box is opened. The rest of the boxes have
hats in them. Under the
9th hat looked at is a ring
of three wishes.
25: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room that is bare
except for a horse standing in its center.
There is another exit on the
opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If the room is paced
out, it is 80
feet east and west by 90 feet north and
south. The horse is gaunt
with a huge head, glowing
red eyes, and a sulphurous odor. The coat
is dead black;
the mane and tail and wild and rugged-looking. There
is a strange Metal saddle on its back.
It does not move or appear to
be alive.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: This is a nightmare
(HP: 60;
#AT: 3; D: 2-8/4-10/4-1 0; AC: -4; SA:
None). If a character mounts
this beast with magic in his/her possession,
the beast animates and
takes that player to the lower planes of
hell forever!
26: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room that has hundreds of potted plants on shelves
along the walls. Players also see a
winged white horse
that looks like the pegasus of Greek lejend. <update the link>
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The creature appears
tame, but
rears up when characters try to mount it
|or| get behind it. There is
another exit on a side wall.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: This is a pegasus
(HP: 35; <don't update the link>
#AT: 3; D: 1-8/1-8/1-3; AC: 6; SA: None).
It will let female characters
ride
it, but will stop others from getting on. When mounted, it will fly to
the ceiling and appear to go through the
roof (actually, the ceiling is
an illusion). It will obey the commands
of a female if she demands
that 1 or more male characters get carried
out of any mixed group.
27: The beams of
the flashlights show a room with a mist floating
above the floor at about knee level. When
the lights enter the room,
Music comes out of the walls as if an orchestra
were playing. There is
another exit on the opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The mist
seems harmless and is
wet to the touch. The Music comes from
all over the room.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: The secret
door is a sliding panel
that is loose to the touch and easily movable
only if characters are
touching the wall.
28: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a large glass coffin with a
tall, thin man in it.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: This man is wearing
a
black uniform of some type with the following visible things: a
holstered pistol,
a glass rod in his Ieft hand, a helm on
his head, a belt pouch of some
leathery substance, and silvery
boots on his feet. There are signs all
over the room written in several languages
(including English), and
they all say the same thing:
“I am Professor Ludlow and I was forced
to put myself
hence when struck by leprosy. I wish to
be released
when an instant cure for this sickness
has been found.”
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: When the glass is
broken, the
professor will jump out and asks the party
if the cure is at hand (that
is, if the party doesn’t attack him first).
If they say they do not have the
cure, he flies into a rage and tries to
kill everyone. The pistol does
10-100 points of damage with every shot,
never misses, and has 20
charges. The glass rod is a universal translator.
The helm allows him
to move as a blink
dog. The boots are boots of flying. The belt pouch <cf. winged
boots>
has ten 10,000-gold-piece diamonds in it.
The professor has 5 hit
points and A.C. 10.
29: The
room glows green and appears to be empty. There are
3 ways out, a door and 2 open exits.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: If paced out, the
room is 60 feet
east and west by 40 feet north and south.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: All characters who
enter this AREA
will be turned green-skinned
for the duration of the adventure.
30: The beams of
the flashlights show a room with a great many
folding metal chairs and tables lying about.
There is another exit on
the opposite wall.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The chairs and tables
are all numbered. The highest number is 2,500. The room is too cluttered
to
accurately pace out.
31: The beams of
the flashlights reveal pulleys and lead weights
all over the room. There is a supply of
rope
in one corner. An open
exit and a doorway are opposite one another.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The room is too cluttered
to pace
out. There are hundreds of feet of rope
and lead weights ranging
from 1 pound to 1,000 pounds. There are
hundreds of pulleys of
differing sizes.
32: The beams of
the flashlights reveal 3 palm trees growing
from floor to ceiling.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: If the players ask,
there are 5
coconuts on each tree. The 10th one taken
down has 22
gems in it, each worth 500 gold pieces.
33: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room where milkweed
seeds are suspended in the air all over
the place. An exit in the
opposite wall is barely visible.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The seeds will cling
to any skin
they touch and will move about strangely
on the surface of the skin.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: The seeds will plant
themselves
on the surface of any flesh. The seed does
no damage, but it looks
very strange. Efforts to take the seeds
off will result in 1 point of
damage per seed. If characters clear a
path, seeds will not go into the
space made.
34: The
room has an orange glow which reveals a set of stairs
and a total of 2 other exits on side WALLS.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: The
orange glow makes any
liquid the characters are carrying turn
orange
and taste terrible.
35: The beams of
the flashlights reveal a room filled with 1-foot-by-2-inch
bars of a gold-colored substance.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: One of the bars can
be pulled out
for examination, but it is very heavy and
marked with the Roman
numeral “III”.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: This is iron pyrite,
“fool’s gold,”
and the room is filled with it.
CRYSTAL HALL: The beams of the flashlights
reveal a hall
paneled on the walls,
floor and ceiling with faceted crystal. The light
is refracted off the walls and made into
colors all over the area. The
hall starts to hum.
ON CLOSER INSPECTION: The humming gets
louder, the
longer the lights shine in the hall.
NOTES FOR THE REFEREE: The humming will
cause 4
points of damage per round per character
if the lights shine for more
than 120 seconds in the room. The humming
stops if the lights are
turned off or taken out of the room.
WASHROOMS: See description of washrooms,
2nd floor.
‘Pleasant jolt’
To the editor:
I would like to add a word or two to Kim
Mohan’s response to Patrick Amory’s Letter
in TD 45. <link>
I think that the criticisms of “The Mansion
of Mad Professor Ludlow” were somewhat
off-point.
Even going beyond the artistic obligation
of DRAGON magazine
to publish a
variety of material to satisfy a variety
of tastes,
I consider “The Mansion of Mad Professor
Ludlow” to have been quite a successful
simulation.
In addition to giving me a pleasant
jolt of nostalgia for all of the old science
fiction
and boys-adventure books I used to read
in the golden days of my youth, I found
it quite
a challenge to yield up a normal, hard-bitten,
cynical, prepared-for-the-worst gamer’s
persona
and adopt that of a Boy Scout who is
trying to cope with something completely
outside of his experience. It was not easy.
It
generated a lot of very interesting arguments
between myself and my fellow gamers concerning
what a Boy Scout would do in certain
fantastic situations that tend to become
ordinary
and unsurprising to experienced garners,
and brought home to us just how insensitive
we’ve all become to the bizarre things
that are sprung upon us in FRP games.
Additionally, I think any defensiveness
about
the amount of advertisement in the magazine.
is misplaced. One of the major advantages
of
a magazine like DRAGON magazine,
equal in
my mind to any prose contained therein,
is
access to the games and playing aids that
are,
after all, the basis of this hobby. What’s
the
use of a magazine telling you about something
if you don’t know where to get one? I regard
the advertising in DRAGON magazine
as a
valuable contribution to the hobby, and
hope
that it’s never reduced much below 20%.
Tim of Angle
Bloomington, Ind.
(Dragon #47)
