If the bronze doors
in area 145 (Dungeon
Level One) are sundered, the stairs
therein
descend south to this room. However, entry
is blocked by another
set of like doors, set in
the north wall of this AREA.
T5 correction:
145 leads up to 7 in the upper
Temple.
148 leads down to the northern doors in 210.
T5:
Room 210
Basically, the description of Room 210 (The
Air Temple) is hard for me to make sense of.
In the center of the area is said to be a “great
pierced square of bronze, 10 feet on a side.”
Pierced by what? Is it sitting on the floor of the
chamber, or is it a cube suspended in the true
“center” of the area, pierced by support
beams?
I believe the bronze square thing
is a sort of
hanging wind chime, a draft from the shaft
could whistle through holes in it (thus pierced)
to make an eerie sound. However, it should
be circular as squares are not an Air Temple
symbol.
In fact, this entire section is fubared in its use
of symbols. Every time you see the word
"square" associated with the Air Temple
you
should change it to "circle" and vice versa
when seeing "circle" in regards to the Water
Temple. At some point Gary changed his mind
or got mixed-up on what symbol was used for
these 2 temples. The proper symbols are:
air=circle and
water=square.
A dome is said to be “pierced” in the
“northern ceiling” of the area, but again it isn’t clear what it’s pierced
by. I assume it’s pierced
by the 20’ shaft which I know extends down from the well on the Temple’s
upper floor. The
module says that directly below this shaft is a pit that’s 20’ in diameter
and 5’ deep. The map
shows this pit being in the exact center of the room, but shouldn’t it
be more to the north,
since the description says that the dome with the shaft is in the “northern
ceiling”?
The opening in the dome and the pit below it should be on the northern
area (10' south of the
doors). That, of course interferes with the stairs to the north doors.
My guess is the map is
incorrect which is consistent with the generally shoddy map work for the
module. Perhaps
there were to be no steps before the bronze doors and an overzealous cartographer
added the
stairs to the north for symmetry and then needed to center the pit to get
it out of the way.
| Illumination in this large octagonal room
seems to come from everywhere — ceiling, walls, floor — a milky radiance which gives a dim and eerie glow to the whole scene. The floor of this place is 15 ' below the level of the normal dungeon floor, with short broad stairways leading to it. The ceiling vaults to a height of 40 feet. The walls and floor of the room are of polished gray stone with with whorls of glittering mica; the floor is partially obscured by swirling, eddying, softly glowing mist. In the center of the AREA is a
great pierced
Flanking the pit are 2 crystal braziers,
suspended
The doors to the north
are bronze,
|
The altar stone and crystal service pieces
are
protected by a special glyph
of warding suitable to the place. They cannot be safely
touched unless the symbol of the Air Temple
is worn and the glyph name, whah-duh, is
spoken. Failure in either requirement causes
a whirlwind to suddenly form and spin from
the pit to the altar, inflicting 12 points
of
damage to each creature within 10 feet
of
its path (save vs. spells to take 1/2 damage).
This also triggers an alarm; the whole AREA
gives off an evil-sounding chiming and
tinkling, and the guardian (see area 210a) is
summoned. The 2 crystal knives are
worth 250 gp each; the bowl, 1, 250 gp.
(Total XP: 1,750)
If the braziers are disturbed, they begin
pouring out clouds of dense, choking smoke
which fills 20, 000 cubic feet of volume
each
round, continuing for 11-20 rounds. This
vapor is heavier than air, and thus builds
from the floor upwards. Treat it as a wall
of
fog,
though each victim within it takes 5-8
points of damage per round from smoke
inhalation. After 10 rounds of outpouring
smoke, any creature within the pit is teleported
to the Air Cavern (area 526). <Air
Node?>
If holy
water is poured into a brazier, a
Type I
demon is instantly summoned and <HP: 51 (59), 31 (39)>
attacks everyone within the room. (Note
that, with 2 braziers, 2 demons may be
summoned.) Pouring any other sort of liquid
into a brazier causes the smoke to be
twice as voluminous and twice as harmful
for 1 round (after which output and toxicity
return to normal). Each brazier is worth
10, 000 gp, and functions in perfectly
normal
manner once removed from this Air Temple.
The secret door to the west opens to a flight of steps to area 301 (Dungeon Level Three).
The doors to the North bear the familiar
runes of antipathy.
Anyone failing any prior
saving throw against the effect (found
also in
the main Temple entrance
aboveground, as
well as certain areas within the dungeon)
cannot approach the doors; anyone making all
prior saving throws must again, when
approaching within 10 feet, make a saving
throw vs. spell, (with a -2 penalty) to
avoid
this effect.
This area quarters a drelb, the guardian
of
the Air Temple. (See Appendix A, New <trim?>
Monsters, for a full description.) The
room
is otherwise empty — but a careful SEARCH
reveals that a section of floor is movable,
being a secret trap door. The
small space
underneath holds a censer
of controlling air elementals. (XP: 4,000)
Drelb guardian:
AC 2, MV 6 ", HD 5 + 3, hp
24, #AT 1, D 3-12, SA appears as wraith,
shrinks while attacking (90% seems
retreating), touch chills (victim hit drops
items, cannot function the round thereafter),
SD hit only by magick weapons,
reflects psionic attacks; XP 944
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