Crowdsourced Wizard Tower is 90% complete!

So, last week I put up a call for a crowdsourced wizard tower.  After some contributions, editing, and lots of writing, that wizard tower is now 90% complete.  A lot of the monsters don't have stats, most of the magic items don't have descriptions, and I haven't gone through the tower to make sure that it has (roughly) the right amount of treasure, but I'll do all those things later.

I intend the bottom half of the tower to be burgle-able for a party of six level 3 characters.

I'm posting the room descriptions below, so that authors +Alex Chalk, +Cédric Plante, +Christopher Wood, +Claytonian JP, +Michael Raston, and +Greg Acker can read and review them in the context of the mostly completed tower.  Guys, if you want to edit your room, this is your chance.

I figure that I'll compile all of this into a PDF as soon as it's complete.  People seem to like PDFs.

So here's a random wizard tower. Ready to be plopped down anywhere.

This is intended to be used as either:

• A totally naïve encounter. The PCs just stumble into it. Plop it onto a random hex.
• A provider of wizardly services (information, identification, scrying).
• A place that can and should be robbed. A planned dungeon.
  • Maybe use Rumor #4: The wizard is dead and his loot is ripe for the picking, etc.

Rumors

1. The master of the Spire of Righteous Verticality is half man, half machine. (T)
2. Khazan Khiraj is called the Machinist because he can turn into a train. (F)
3. Khazan Khiraj has built himself an artificial moon. (T)
4. The Machinist is dead! Someone should rob his tower. (F)
5. Khiraj the Machinist killed his first wive with a demon! (T)
6. Khiraj the Wizard once struck a deal with a dragon! (T)
7. The Machinist has traps in his tower specifically designed to foil thieves. (T)
8. There is a tapestry or painting in the tower that is a portal to Khiraj's vault. (F)

NPCs

Khazan Khiraj the Machinist is a wizard at the end of an illustrious career. (See Room #46.)

The Spire of Righteous Verticality is his tower. He built it.

Bossic and Bartleby are servants. They cook, clean, arrange deliveries. (See Room #1.)

Doxum and Scarlip are his apprentices. Doxum is fat. Scarlip, skinny. (See Room #40.)

Laridia is Khiraj's second wife. She's a succubus, and usually confined to Room #25.

Situation

After traveling the world and wizarding the shit out of everything he came across, Khazan settled down and built a tower. He is trying to achieve immortality by transferring his consciousness into a perfect metal shell that he has built by following the instructions given to him by the concept god that Khiraj calls The Great Machine. It might just be an artifact of spirit journey hallucinogens, though. Either way, building the perfect metal body that will house his consciousness for all eternity is a demanding task.

Khazan Khiraj has been at it for years, but has become especially obsessed nowadays, since he fears that he is getting old, and may die soon. He's stopped eating, stopped being interested in sex with his succubus “wife”, has stopped teaching his apprentices, etc. He's just sealed himself up in his artifical moon. This is the final dash for the finish line, the way he sees it.

Towers

Khiraj's research and experience are mostly in the field of machine magic, mechanical grafts, and creating animal cyborg servants. In fact, the nearby forest is filled with his creations (he used to release his cyborg animals into the wild in order to test which enhancements made the animals stronger and more likely to survive). His tower reflects this focus.

The Tall Tower – The Little Tower – The Red Tower – The Crystal – The Moon

The Tall Tower and the Little Tower both have windows every floor (every 20'). None of the other towers have regular windows.

The Little Tower has a diameter of 20'. The Tall Tower, the Red Tower, and the Crystal have diameters of 30' (although this is a rough estimate, in the case of the Crystal. The moon is not as big as it looks on the map, and actually has a diameter of 40'.

The towers are all stone, except for the Red Tower, which is made of wood. However, it is alchemically treated to be completely inflammable.

The floors are about 20' apart. The Tall Tower is 280' off the ground. The Moon is at 500'.

Random Encounters

1. 1d6+3 berserkers arrive on pterodactyls, intent on robbing the tower. They perch their mounts on the top of the Tall Tower, and rappel down. If this encounter doesn't happen on the first day, it will automatically be the first encounter of the second day.
2. 1d4+2 giant spiders, they're the size of loyal hounds, act like loyal hounds, covered in an extremely soft purple fur. Morale 4, but only because they like to conduct hit and run attacks.
3. 1d3 mundane objects / items of furniture in this room are actually constructs. Roll 3d6 for each to determine its Intelligence score. If you want, you can roll an additional d6 for each. 1-4 it's an animated objects (a la beauty and the beast). 5-6 it's a motherfucking Transformer disguised as furniture.
4. A random visitor to the tower. Roll a d3. 1 bandit king, impatiently waiting for an audience. 2 alchemy reagent merchant carrying samples. 3 wizard-associate snooping around.
5. Scarlip the apprentice, fumbling with an erection, on his way to visit Laridia the succubus in Room #30 WIFE.
6. Doxum the apprentice, grumbling as he heads to Room #4 DINING for a couple glasses of scotch to warm him up.

Room Key

a

Although this bridge appears to be broken, the 20' gap is actually illusory, and can be safely walked across.

1 CARETAKER

This is the home of Bartleby and Bossic, the caretakers of Khazan's tower. If the PCs just walk up to the tower and knock on one of the doors, this is who they'll meet.

Bartleby was once a singular human, until Khazan cut off his head and put some propellers and mechanical manipulators on it. He flies around, cleans the tower, and interacts with visitors.

Bossic is Bartleby's old body. After cutting off his head, Khazan implanted a silver-plated psuedo-golem head on it, creating a new flesh-and-metal servant. Rather than look freakish, it looks quite refined.

Bossic-the-pseudogolem cannot talk, but communicates by showing the most relevant page of a 30-page phrasebook of common responses. It usually cleans and cooks.

This operation was done to reward Bartleby for his years of service. Bartleby is a little over sixty years old and quite loyal to the wizard. He keeps half a dozen cats, and grows sunflowers beside his small, 2-story cottage-tower. He is also a secret opium addict and keeps his stash in a snuff box on the mantle.

At any given time, one of the two caretakers is in the mansion, while the other remains at home (determine randomly). Bartleby has knowledge of all rooms #1-8, #15, and #16, but is very loyal to his master, and very scornful of other wizards.

2 BARRELS

This is the storeroom. Dirt floor, dirt walls. A few barrels on pallets (to keep them off the damp soil). Flour. Salted herring. A few bottles of expensive wine, carelessly stored. A mummified bear is in the corner of the room, under a tarp. It is fearsome looking, but completely harmless.

3 TAPESTRIES

The front door leads to this room. It is usually locked, but Bossic and Bartleby both carry a copy.

This room contains three large tapestries and an elaborate chandelier, as well as a small golden timepiece on a tiny table, doggedly ticking away the hours.

The tapestries show Khazan Khiraj in some of his greatest moments of triumph: paying dragons with several chests of gold, seducing a succubus on top of a church (Khiraj is a famous blasphemer), and speaking with the God Machine in the astral sea.

The golden timepiece is valuable and nonmagical, but it is still a trap. If it or any of the tapestries are removed from their places, the chandelier will animate, drop down, and attack like a mantis made of steel and crystal. It will also emit metal shrieks (a mundane alarm), activate the guardian in Room #34 (a magical alarm), and the tapestries will all shout imprecations and threats for a couple of rounds. Roll for more random encounters.

4 DINING

This is a dining room. White, wood-paneled walls. U-shaped, mahogany table. Softly glowing globes of different colors and sizes, arranged unevenly around the upper periphery of the room, representing the planets. The table's centerpiece is a miniature, techno-organic angeloid (modeled after the Guardian in room #34). If the tiny sword is pulled from its scabbard, it is revealed to be a corkscrew.

Well-stocked, locked liquor cabinet. (Neither Khiraj nor his caretakers are boozers, but both his apprentices are.)

5 KITCHEN

This is a large but surprisingly mundane kichen. Pans. Bread. Fruit. Cast iron oven in the shape of a pig. The only thing out of the ordinary is a tiny packet of black lotus (deadly poison) hidden in the back of the pantry. Khazan Khiraj is immune to black lotus poison.

The way up is blocked by a heavy steel door. No door knob. The keyhole is a false one, and is electrified. The door is apparently engraved with pictures of faces--many copies of the wizard, the caretakers, the apprentices. There's even a carving of a darkly beautiful woman (the succubus) and the face of a local duke.

The door only opens when you push on it with your bare hand. However, doing this also allows the door to "take your picture" and add it to the collection of engravings on it's front (potentially overwriting a previous face).

6 TROPHIES

There are six glass cases here, each containing different treasures that Khiraj has accumulated over his lifetime. These are all fakes, although this isn't apparent at first glance.

<The real versions of the six treasures are all in different room. I'll add their descriptions in this room as I write them.>

7 PORTRAITS

This room is a small gallery for paintings. It has 12 paintings in it, mostly mundane. The first 8 paintings are by Khazan's brother.

#1 – A young woman walking to the gallows. Her face is not visible. (The church hung Khazan's sister, Pafionne, for witchcraft.)

#2 - Red horses on a yellow field, gathered around something on the ground.

#3 - A toothless beggar, huddling under his coat. This is Omezon, who was once Khiraj's former rival, until the latter robbed him over his memory. Omezon doesn't even know that he can cast spells anymore. Khiraj sometimes goes into town simply to see his old rival digging through the garbage cans. The old man's memories are stored in a golden thread, woven into the back of the canvas. The players might recognize this beggar from seeing him in town, but probably not.

#4 - A dashing young man with a magnificent goatee. This is a self-portrait of Khazan's brother, Aumenteen.

#5 - A clock tower, in the rain.

#6 - Bartleby, the Caretaker, standing proudly beside his sunflowers before his decapitation. (See Room #1 CARETAKER).

#7 - A voluptuous woman in a black dress, who is sitting cross-legged above a still life (fruits, flowers, and a wine bottle) apparently hovering 3 inches above a table. This is Laridia, the succubus.

#8 - An imperious mage with a tremendous nose holds a phoenix egg in one hand, and a complicated gearshaft-staff in the other. This is a portrait of Khazan. Although it doesn't detect as magic, Khazan can see through it's eyes at any time, as well as sense where the portrait is relative to him.

The last four paintings were painted by different artists. Their styles are dissimilar.

#9 - A fungal skeleton, blending into a fungal throne. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYvt5KQgSD5HndQeCTr9Mh_o_yO9DUkwSgJ8ZX8gDzWxLKpqAUfRYMyrgsCcY6D48Y6UOVfg7FZo0NGbtwgkfUzyrZVMQVkl0uTHps3HUlBv1V4tlZpyPiPH9fI5UXGmaKO0LDnSG1T5w/s1600/funguspaladinprimogen1L.jpg (by +Cédric Plante)

#10 - A foul and noisome beast, vaguely sharklike, but on four legs. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhaEt5RbqxFbxDajFqAh0-uEoP9ikq-NXT7-v71-N66e_RZI7fktXh_ZneHWQqTnmqNCakQlrRS2JJ0sFWxbSnpT4WPLk2pie0kfxHgFLtm3HoPv5UXDrbM1Qmt9nSZM-hUtgeb_Ai5F0/s1600/zhark.jpg (by +Scrap Princess)

#11 - A girl and an octopus, embracing on a floor. http://fredericksfreisergallery.com/zaxart/octopus_girls/g03.html (by +Zak Smith)

#12 - An androgynous halfling holding an umbrella.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-oPpFG92Q9wE/UvOuemSQrFI/AAAAAAAAFDM/jxUMXP8l2Ss/w406-h566-no/14+-+1 (by +Logan Knight)

8 BEASTS

Big windows, warm colored lights, sumptuous wooden chairs, small table. A large cat is sitting on the table, watching out the window. A small-but-athletic dog is sleeping under the window. At the other end of the room is a pair of mechanical suits of armor, except that they cannot be worn, since they are completely full of gears and pistons. The helmets of these suits of armor open and close like clamshells, and are much too small for a human head anyway. They appear inert. There's also a bookcase here filled with sketchbooks and a few, elementary-level books on engineering.

The cat and the dog each have Int 12. They are residents and guards of the Spire. If the PCs come stomping into the room, the dog will emit a growl and hide behind the table, while the cat will not move from the windowsill, although it will allow itself to be petted. Examining the back of the cat's or dog's head will reveal a bunch of scar tissue and electrical ports. Their usual strategy is to pretend to be normal animals for as long as possible. They can't speak.

The two animals can jump into the “helmets” of the “suits of armor” and be mechanically grafted to it. Then they can pilot them around like a gundam and break shit. They might use this to attack the party from behind after the party passes through the room, or they might armor up and head downstairs if they hear a disturbance, or if one of the caretakers or apprentices alerts them. While piloting the armor, their faces are hidden unless someone peers into the helmet.

Small Animal Warbody Armor

HD 4

AC 18

Atk buzzsaw +4 (1d8+1)

Atk laser +6 (3d6, 1/hour only)

Move 12

Save 12+

Morale 9

9 SLIME

This room contains a sludge vampire (detailed in this post: http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2013/10/when-is-wolf-not-wolf.html) named Omox.

Omox is currently in slime form, and trapped inside a pump system, where is forced to pump himself around, turning the gears that provide the towers with electrical power. The room has pipes, turbines, gaskets, and a stack of wrenches.

If Omox hears someone in the room, he will speak to them from the pipes, trying to convince the PCs to let him out. He may try to convince them that he is an imprisoned djinni prince (false), or that he will help them kill Khiraj (possibly true), or might just beg.

Omox HATES Khiraj for enslaving him, but his biggest impulse is self-preservation and greed. If he thinks he can kill the PCs and take their stuff, he will do that. If he thinks that the PCs have a shot at killing Khiraj, he may join them for a while (only to betray them later). Otherwise, he will flee the towers, intending to revenge himself on the wizard at some later date. He may grow quite powerful with an appropriate source of corruption.

Freeing him will turn all of the electric lights off in the tower, which is a pretty big heads up for the apprentices, cartakers, and succubus.

Omox is not just an ordinary sludge vampire, but is actually more of a toxic sludge vampire. In addition to normal sludgey vampire powers, he can (a) turn into smog, (b) breath flammable gases, and (c) grow very powerful is provided with a source of pollution. He's pretty much just Tim Curry from Fern Gully.

10 PEARLS

Catwalk over a giant fan used to circulate a lot of air through the chamber. This is necessary so that the clams can filter-feed.

There are 3 of the clam demons who are anchored high up on the wall. If they haven't been fed today (50% likely, but if not check again later) they will attempt to eat people by launching out sticky, black frog-tongues and pulling people into their crushing mouths.

If one of the clam demons is injured, all of them will simultaneously change tactics, detach themselves from the wall, and hover-fly after their prey while screaming blasphemies.

Their mouths are full of dull teeth and eyeballs. They move slow, but if their prey gets too far away, they will shoot flaming pearls after them.

A mechanical, hovering seahorse also floats around in this room, grooming the demon clams with a variety of tongue appliances. It will also attempt to follow and groom the party.

Clam Demon

HD 3

AC 16, or AC 20 when clamming up defensively

Atk tongue +3 grab (30' range, pulls target into mouth)

Atk crushing bite +3 (1d6+1 damage)

Atk spit flaming pearl +3 (1d6+1 damage, 60' range)

Move 6

Save 14+

Morale 10

11 FIRE

White stone room. Angelic busts protrude from the walls. Advancing through this room requires going through a wall of fire (a permanent enchantment on the room). The wall of fire can be dispelled with the word "quietus" and can also be used to scry on stuff, like a crystal ball (although this secondary usage is not obvious).

12 URNS

This is the graveyard centrifuge, where Khiraj continuously spins the incinerated remains of of the dead around the circumference of the room. This centrifugation is required to keep them in a state of half-summoning. So yeah, it's a centrifuge for cremation urns and coffins, and it's always spinning.

Basically, if you stick one of the urns into the corpse-clock (in the center of the room), the skulls of the corpse-clock will be animated by the spirit of the deceased and will be able to speak, sharing the knowledge/advice that the spirit had in life.

The corpse-clock looks like a cross between an orrery, the gears of a clock, and a hastily machined jumble of corpses. In it's central rib cage, it is currently holding the remains of Volzhulai, a necromancer who died over 200 years ago.

It's actually an extremely dangerous machine when it has the soul of a spellcaster in it. Only Khiraj knows how to use it safely. Each time the PCs enter the room, there is a 4-in-6 chance that their psychic yammering will "awaken" the corpse-clock. Once it is awake, it will try to kill people.

The corpse-clock portion has numerous attack limbs (skull bites and skeleton claws), and it prefers to fight in melee. It also has the powers of a powerful poltergeist, and can attack by throwing urns (getting corpse dust everywhere and royally pissing off Khiraj if he finds out).

It'll also try to hold the door closed, so the PCs can't escape. It's a pretty horrible encounter.

Corpse-clock Centrifuge

HD 8

AC 15

Atk claw/bite/slam +8/+8/+8 (1d6, can only attack people near center of room)

Atk centrifugal arm +8 (1d6, attacks each target near the walls of the room)

Move 0

Save 8+

Morale 12

Special telekinesis, ash jar

Note: It can use either the claw/bite/slam or the centrifugal arm each turn, not both.

Telekinesis: In addition to it's normal attack, it can throw urns at people (1d6 damage), attempt to hold the door closed, or throw people around (if they fail a save vs spells).

Ash jar: In the center of the centrifuge is an urn (AC 20, HP 3). If this urn is broken, the corpse-clock centrifuge immediately grinds to a halt and Volzhulai the Ash-wraith emerges.

Volzhulai the Ash-wraith

HD 4

AC 14

Atk claws +4/+4 (1d4 HP and 1d4 Con)

Move 12

Save 10+

Morale 10

Special choking cloud, possession, immunities

Choking cloud: all breathing creatures within 30' of Volzhulai's whirlwind of choking ash take 1d4 damage each round if they fail a CON check.

Possession: Volzhulai can attempt to possess a person by flying into their lungs, similar to the magic jar spell. They get a save vs spell to resist this.

Immunities: Immune to non-magical weapons.

13 DUST

Players enter the room through an ornate set of solid, wooden double doors. Intricately carved upon the wood on the left door is what appears to be the rear half of an ostrich, upon the right is the front half of what is most definitely a gazelle; the doors appear to be a matching set, and upon closer inspection the carvings together clearly represent a singular creature. Players proceed through the unprotected door into a room approximately 20 feet wide and 50 feet deep. The room has dark, wood panel lined walls, and smooth well crafted wooden floors. The right wall is lined with a series of thin, yellow leaded glass windows, emitting several small, blinding rays of light that give the room a warm, welcoming glow. Standing on the floor, lining the other three walls, are what must be Khazan Khiraj’s abominations. Nearly a dozen taxidermied statues representing the mage’s penchant for “improving” animals surround the room; hewn together - some with great care but most haphazardly - bodies and limbs magically stitched to one another. The suffering of these creatures is permanently affixed upon their lifeless faces. Curiously, each creature is adorned in bright, garish clothing, the likes of which is not found in this world. Some wear weapons upon their belts, others hold nautical devices or implements used to perform acts of magic. For the GM, these creatures provide a red herring to distract the players. These creatures no longer pose a threat, and their items are worthless.

Everything in the room is covered by a thick coating of dust. The statues are so thoroughly encrusted, the details of their appearance are difficult to make out from the entryway. Cobwebs line the corners of the room, and the sills of the windows look as if they are ensconced in a fresh winter snow. One could kick the dust on the floor into piles and scoop it with their hands if they were so inclined, though this would be unwise.

At the center of the room is a 4 foot tall, thin, smooth brass pedestal with a slightly enlarged platform resting at the top. Upon the pedestal sits an upright, silver tuning fork, and upon the tuning fork sits a perfectly balanced creature. It stands only about 12 inches tall, and 4 inches wide. It also appears to be constructed of smooth brass. It looks innocuous, as it has a gentle smile upon it’s cheerful face, and is sitting with it’s eyes closed, humming an almost inaudible, though pleasant, tune.

After the players have entered the room, the tiny brass creature opens its eyes and whispers ‘dust.’ Regardless of the players response, the creature again whispers, ‘dust...’ Any attempt to attack the creature are rebuffed by a small protective force being emitted from the pedestal. After several hushed warnings, if the players remain in the room, the creature drops from atop the silver tuning fork, and shrieks, ‘DUST!’, grasping the tuning fork tight, it strikes the fork against the top of the brass pedestal. The noise is deafening.

Players have a 1d6 chance of being affected by the sound (no save): 1-2 no effect, 3-5 deafened for 1d4 hours, 6 deafened permanently.

The vibrations emitted from the tuning fork cause the dust to fall from the walls and statues like cascading water, creating a thick, acrid cloud in the room. Players begin to choke and wheeze, and their eyes begin to burn. Players have a 1d6 chance of being impacted by breathing the dust (no save): 1-2 minor cough with no effect, 3-5 severe, lingering cough causing -1 to hit for 1d4 hours, 6 lungs fill with mixture of dust and blood causing death in 1d4 rounds.

Players have a 1d6 chance of their vision being impacted by the dust (no save): 1-2 no effect, 3-5 character’s vision is impaired causing -2 to visual/spot checks and -1 to all ranged attacks for 1d4 hours, 6 permanently blinded.

The brass creature vanishes in the dust cloud, he’s achieved his goal in deterring the party from continuing on; he has caused an array of lasting damage to the characters. However, 2 large spiders (very easy encounter) drop from the corners during the confusion to ensure his escape. The magic, silver tuning fork provides a sizable treasure.

14 LIQUID BEDROOM

This is where Khiraj lives. The door itself is a giant mechanical head shaped like Khiraj's head. The giant mechanical head is also an airlock, since Khiraj's room is filled with a green, oxygenated fluid. (It only feels like you're drowning--once you get it into your lungs, you're fine. Although breathing it is exhausting if you don't have reinforced bellows-lungs like Khiraj.)

The door is imbued with a simple elemental spirit. It has been commanded not to let anyone except Khiraj enter, and it will communicate this in harsh, grunting tones. It is, however, quite stupid, and it has no magical way of verifying Khiraj's identity.

The face-door has no attacks except a bite, if someone is halfway through it at the time. However, it CAN awaken the Guardian in room #29.

Inside the bedroom (which feels like swimming around in the aquarium), you can find all the important stuff you'd expect to find in a wizard's room.

The spellbook is a mechanical head that can project it's pages onto a flat surface. By holding a metal stylus, anyone can edit those pages. So it's like a cross between a projector and a laptop (and the pages are like individual files).

There's no bed. Khiraj prefers to sleep floating in the center of the room, drifting like an embryo. It reminds him of his mother's womb (his earliest memory).

There's a work bench. Khiraj does a lot of work with volatile metals here, some of which explode upon contact with air. On this bench you can find samples of gold, silver, iron, adamantine, starmetal, nectarite, prosperitine (turns into a poisonous gas upon contacting air), tantalum, tungstun, scalavite (burns when it touches air), infernite (explodes when it touches air), potassium (burns in water), cesium (explodes in water), lead, and pyrite (fool's gold).

There's also a mechanical octopus that guards this room. It lives inside an ominous iron barrel and has the head of Khiraj's first wife grafted on it. In addition to tentacles and the biting beak, it can also electrocute people.

The walls are magically-strengthened green glass, so that anyone in the room can see the surrounding landscape for miles around.

There's also a closet containing a bunch of clothing (men's and women's), a keychain with all the keys for the dungeon, a Staff of Bottled Lightning affixed to the wall, and a thing that looks like a motionless mechanical crab but is actually a harmless chest containing 1000pp and a jeweled helmet that has glowing rings around the eyes, and can shed light like a bullseye lantern.

I've decided that the two "ears" on the sides of this tower are just boring old lightning rods. They're made of gold-plated copper, though, so they're worth a ton if you can find a way to get them off the tower. (If the barbarian-burglar event has occurred, these prongs will probably be where the the pterodactyls roost.)

15 MEAT

This is where Khazan disposes the meat that he strips from his experiments. An otyugh (with wheels for legs) lurks in this room, unable to climb the stairs. It is enchanted to smell like lilacs and pile garbage/bones into tidy piles. It is domesticated, but if the PCs knock over its bone piles or menace it with weapons, it will attack. It will fall asleep instantly if it ever hears the word, "apsa", which means "meat" in Elvish.

16 STAIRS

Stairwell landing has a stuffed sloth-bear on a pedestal, holding a small lantern in each of it's claws. The sloth-bear has a magic mouth cast on it, and will speak when the PCs approach, saying "Greedy eyes will never gaze upon the wonders of Khazan. Wisdom only comes to those who do not seek it." It's a clue to the staircase. Unless a PC closes their eyes while on the stairs, the staircase will loop back around to the landing, trapping them there. (Khazan is immune to this, natch.)

17 LIZARDS

The walls contain a complex mural of lizards. Many shapes, many colors. There's a rack containing saddles and harnesses here, as well as a tightly sealed bin full of rancid meat (the gecko's favorite food, aside from fat halflings.)

In the center of the room is a raised altar with a complicated clockwork mechanism of some sort. It's missing a gear, but Khiraj can use this device to submerge the entire tower in the ground. (The towers spiral down like a screw.)

Every time someone says the word "lizard" in this room, a giant gecko of a random color will leap out of the wall. These summoned lizards always obey the wizard or the apprentices, but everyone else gets a reaction roll (modified by rancid meat and halflings, as appropriate). The lizards disappear with a poof once 4 hours and 1d20 minutes have passed.

Giant gecko

HD 2

AC 14

Atk bite +2 (1d6)

Move 12, climb 9

Save 15+

Morale 9

18 CLEAN

This room is filled with a central work bench and four un-lidded vats. Everything is made of white marble and an itchy heat pervades the room. Mounds of flesh, organs and bones are heaped on the work bench. The mounds are tended by a variety of golems, who dip the myriad of meat parts into the vats. The end result of the golem's work is neatly stacked piles of calcified organs and bones.

The exit from this room leading to the Golem's Crystal part of the Tower is a tubular, glass decontamination chamber. Khazan is loath for any flesh to enter and taint the Crystal. Exiting golems stand in the decontamination chamber until all organic matter is radiated from their bodies. Any organic based life form caught in the decontamination chamber will have their fur, flesh, muscles and organs burnt into nothingness. Their bones will be left behind, clean as whistles. Calcified organs and flesh may be able to withstand the process.

The background radiation of the decontamination chamber will very slowly start to singe all organic matter in this room, affecting it in the following manner: 24 hours: the flesh suffers first degree burns. 48 hours: severe burns to the flesh and the destruction of cloth and paper armor/items. 72 hours: Flesh is cooked and destroyed, destruction of leather armor and items.

Vat 1: Clear, tasteless and odorless liquid. Turns the outer covering of organic material (ie: skin) translucent.

Vat 2: Looks, tastes and smells like milk. Calcifies organic, fleshy matter into rocky, inorganic matter. The right amount applied to skin may increase it's hardiness, but the procedure may lead to the eventual petrification.

Vat 3: A pleasingly colored blue liquid, the smell of which can't be pinned down but recalls childhood memories. Liquifies flesh. Used to remove large swathes of organic matter from test subjects. Once liquified the flesh can be combined with Vat 2's contents to make a putty like substance.

Vat 4: A beige colored liquid, smelling of oil. This is organic matter sealant. It will close all pores and orifices in organic matter. Could probably be used to close grievous flesh wounds and burns, but the over use off the stuff will affect the skins ability to sweat, breathe and move.

By +Michael Raston

There's also a rack here, containing 3 decontamination suits (and one empty, fourth slot). -AK



19 EYE

The only entrance to this chamber is a series of long chains connecting it with the floors above and below. The fleshless remains of 6 adventurers lie on the ground here. Only the ends of bones and burned clothing remain, although metal weapons and bits are strangely clean and shiny. The walls are covered in emerald wallpaper in a fern motif and framed in wood paneling.

Anyone climbing down from the chains onto the floor must save vs spell or be compelled to walk to the wallpaper and embrace it. Anyone still on the chains will see the wallpaper patterns wink open with a multitude of eyes. The wallpaper is actually a colony of paper thin creatures created by the wizard. Their hypnotic effect is powerful but only works on one creature at a time. Anyone touching the wall takes 1d6 damage a turn from the potent acid excreted by the creatures, who lap up the digested remains with impossibly long, dark tongues. The wallpaper colony can withstand 20 points of damage before expiring.

20 POOL

Mechanical piranhas swim in a pool of clear, watery acid. One of the pirhanas is solid gold. The acid only dissolves flesh and other organics. A ordinary but well-crafted sword lies on the bottom, along with a single gold coin. 

21 PIXIES

This room is full of (hidden) zombie pixies. But they aren't dead; Khiraj merely removed their consciousnesses and placed it cubic box in the center of the room. The box resembles a metal-and-paper lantern (complete with a red light inside).

Khiraj uses the bodies of the tiny pixes as spies and messengers, and sends them out into the world as he pleases. The enslaved zombie-pixies are hidden in this room. There's over a hundred of them.

The rest of the room is crowded with techno-organic sculptures of trees (complete with copper and brass leaves) and with a small desk, which contains writing material and a small journal, where Khiraj has been writing down the most recent news that his spy-pixies have brought him. If the journal is opened without the password ("solitude") the book will erase itself.

If anything in the room is touched or messed with, all of the zombie pixies will erupt from their hiding places inside the metal trees and attack with toothpick-sized swords (they like to attack the eyes and face) and with tiny pixie bites (10% chance of catching Pixie Rot, a wholly unique disease, and potentially valuable to people who are interested in rare diseases).

The glowing box in the center of the room, containing the bound souls of the pixies, constantly mumbles lamentations about how much they miss the sunlight on their cheeks. If there is a commotion in the room, the box will clamor loudly as all the pixies beg to be put out of their misery. ("Kill us! No, kill me! You must!")

Sending the pixie souls to the afterlife is as simple as opening the box (it's sturdy and sealed shut) and having a cleric perform the appropriate rites. Or sprinkle holy water. Whatever.

For killing them, the grateful pixie souls will pass on some secrets, including the secret door on the East Tower, Khiraj's plan to build a new body for himself, and what they know about the guardian in room #34 (not much).

Zombie Pixie Swarm

HD 4

AC 10

Atk swarm (1d6 + 10% of contracting Pixie Rot) automatically hits all targets in 10' area.

Move fly 15

Save 12+

Morale 12

Swarm: Take minimum damage from weapons and spells that don't affect an area.

Undead: Exactly what it says on the tin.

Pixie Rot: This disease your skin to turn into glitter and slough off. Does 1d4 damage to Cha and Con every few days, until recovered. It also ensures that you are always visible, even when invisible or in absolute darkness.

22 GOLEMS

This room was once a stone cavern, but every single surface has been “painted” with smooth contours of gleaming chrome. A duo of asymmetrical golems are hard at work here, monotonously polishing the body of a third golem that lies on the ground. All three of these golems are active. Their skulls are those of a tiger, a stag, and a goat.

Three more golems stand against the back wall. These are inert, and require a couple hours of work before they can be used.

The golems will ignore anyone who is wearing a decontamination suit from Room #18 CLEAN. The golems will attack anyone who is unsanitary (not wearing a decontamination suit) and drag the corpses back to Room #18 CLEAN for reprocessing. And the golems will obey any command given to them by Khiraj or his apprentices.

These are bone-and-metal golems—asymmetrical mechanical bodies with the polished skulls of animals (their only organic part). Metal claws and hoofs. Everything else is gears and pipes and pistons with no biological analogue. Their eyes are glowing red LEDs, and arcane runes are scratched on their foreheads.

Bone-and-Metal Golem

HD 6

AC 15

Atk fist (1d8)

Move 12

Save 14+

Morale 12

Immunities: Immune to all spells except fire damage (which heals them for 1/3 of the damage it would normally do) and lightning damage (which automatically slows them).

Weaknesses: Take double damage from bludgeoning weapons.

Strobe Eyes: 1/day, they can howl and strobe their eyes. Targets in a 60' cone in front of them who are looking in their direction must save or be blinded for 1d6 rounds.

23 SALT

This room is filled with a number of rare salt crystals growing on the walls and ceiling. A small fountain puts a thin fog into the air. This solution is mildly poisonous, and those who breathe it must save or suffer nausea for 1d6 hours (-2 to hit).

The crystals are valuable magical components that are useful in the construction of golems. Each crystal is worth 1d4 x 100 gp, depending on size and quality. There are 8 such crystals in this room. Retrieving them requires a good blow with a sledgehammer, or equivalent.

24 MIRRORS

This room is a madhouse, filled with crystal mirrors of all shapes and orientations. A shred of pink light filters in through the mirrored crystals, casting the room in a reddish-pink gloom. In the center of this room, Scarlip the apprentice attempts to bind an elemental spirit into the body of a bone-and-metal golem. This process will take 1d20 more minutes, and he has a 100% chance of success.

If intruders just walk up to him, he will attempt to hasten the process, immediately binding the elemental spirit with a 75% chance of success. If he is tackled or otherwise immediately distracted, he has a 0% chance of success.

If he succeeds in binding the elemental spirit into the golem, it is now a new bone-and-metal golem under his control. If he fails, the bone-and-metal golem goes berserk, attacking everyone impartially.

The mirrors in this room have a strange effect. Firstly, every attack has a 2-in-6 chance of affecting someone else within range (unless you're super close up, like grappling). Secondly, whenever a bone-and-metal golem uses its Strobe Eyes ability, it affects everyone in the room, and they must all save at a -2 penalty.

Scarlip is carrying 50gp, a wand of paralyze golem (6 charges left), a ruby ring that gives him immunity to ingested poisons (worth 200g as a gem, 500gp as a magic item), and has his spellbook, containing five level 1 spells, two level 2 spells, and two level 3 spells. His familiar is perched on his shoulder—a mechanical owl worth 300gp. He is a level 5 magic-user.

25 HOLE

The door to this room reads “Test Subject Disposal Area”. The door is locked by a huge, reinforced lock. Despite its strength, the huge lock is easy to pick (+20% success). Only Khiraj carries a key for this room.

Inside the dirt-walled chamber, a small desk holds a dull knife and a scrap of paper, written in code. If the code is deciphered, it is revealed to be a list of pit occupants. These are the failures that Khiraj released into the wild, but then later returned too soon, or with injuries or signs of malnutrition. It reads, “bear 40% replacement FAIL, stag 20% replacement with Auroch vacillators UNSATISFACTORY, etc”.

The pit is sealed with a mechanical blast door. If someone listens at this door, they'll hear groans, grumbles, and metallic screeches. The pit can be opened with a nearby lever. If the pit remains open for more than a minute, the inhabitants of the pit will begin their escape.

The pit contains 1d6+2 creatures, each of which has 1d6 HD. Use animals from the local wildlife tables (possibly bears, bobcats, wolves, etc). Each one is partially mechanical, extremely aggressive, and has some sort of deficiency. Roll a d6: 1 attacks inanimate objects 25% of the time, 2 missing legs, 3 weakened attack, 4 catches on fire the first time it takes damage, 5 half health, 6 explodes when killed.

26 BLOOD

This dark, dirt-rimmed room contains a blood jelly sitting in a vat. The jelly is magically calmed, and will not leave its vat unless it is attacked. It will, however, still attack things that fall in it. This is where the wizard disposes of organic stuff that he is certain he wishes to eradicate completely.

The vat that the blood jelly is sitting in is lined with beaten gold, about 1/100” thick. Still, it is a huge vat, and if the gold is scraped off, it will be worth about 500gp. Players can estimate this by examining the thickness of the gold near the lip of the vat.

Blood Jelly

HD 8

AC 14

Atk pseudopod +6 (1d6 damage + 1d6 acid + poison + grab)

Move 6

Save 13+

Morale 10

Poison: Save or suffer chills and vomiting for 1d6 hours, as heavy metal poisoning turns your blood to sludge in your veins. -2 to hit and all healing is reduced by 50%.

27 CELLS

This is where Khiraj keeps prisoners and creatures. This is also where the PCs will be thrown if they are captured, while the wizard decides what to do with them (horrible experiments, probably).

There is a bone-and-metal golem standing here (elephant skull for a head). It will ignore everyone who enters the room. It's only job is to guard the cells and protect itself. It has a spare key around it's neck.

Cell 1: Empty.

Cell 2: Pitiful goblin named Gutch, begging for release.

Cell 3: Sickly robo-bear (use grizzly bear stats). Fearsome and aggressive, but the first time it takes damage, sparks will shoot out of its nose and it will collapse. One round later it will catch on fire.

28 SECRET ENTRANCE

The base of the East tower is accessed by casting a spell on the base. Any spell will suffice. Even a minor magical effect produced by an item or something. If the PCs observe the tower over a long period of time, they may notice the apprentices using this entrance (and lighting magnesium torches before they go inside). The east tower is where Khiraj does most of his biological-mechanical conversions and experiments.

29 DARKNESS

The darkness in this room is profound and hungry. Light sources will dwindle under the fantastic shadow-pressure exuded by this room.

Torches will flicker, turn pale, and only illuminate for a couple of feet. Candles, even less. Unless everyone in the party is holding a torch (or some brighter alternative), some of the PCs will be in darkness (and blind).

Being in darkness is a terrible idea. The darkness will literally eat you, and you will never be seen or heard from again.

The darkness is created by a number of magical, 6" square plates on the wall, made from anti-gold and bought from the drow in exchange for many human slaves. They're very valuable, but the party will never see them unless the examine the upper reaches of the walls or have a fantastically bright light source.

The 4 plates of anti-gold only have this hungry darkness power when arranged in a room, facing each other.

30 WIFE

This is where Laridia lives. She is a bound succubus, serving Khiraj until he dies and she may claim his eternal soul. She's also his second wife (not sanctified by any church nor cult). Khiraj summoned her fourteen years ago, and her first task was to kill his first wife, Eliza.

The room is just a circular room with mirrors on every wall, arranged around a heart-shaped bed in the center. By the terms of the contract, Laridia can never act against Khiraj or assist his enemies, either with words or with deeds. But Khiraj rarely visits her anymore, claiming that "the joys of the flesh are nothing compared to the purity of the machine". She's massively bored, and more than a little bit concerned that Khiraj might actually complete his machine-body and become immortal, thereby increasing the length of her servitude indefinitely.

Laridia knows an awful lot about the Towers of Righteous Verticality, but cannot leave her room. The circle of silver wire that goes around the circumference of the room prevents her, but she is forbidden from mentioning it, even indirectly. She's very evil and very friendly (unless the party gives her a reason to be otherwise). It has been months since she has been allowed to leave this room. She has also been sleeping with both of the apprentices.

31 ECHOES

This room is filled with a scrap, tools, and machinery. On a table in the center of the room is a clockwork man, all brassy and lanky and made from hundreds of non-matching pieces. It's chest is opened up and a few screwdrivers are hanging out.

There's a desk, containing the blueprints for the clockwork man, that describe it as a "psychic puppet". There's also a bunch of wires everywhere. Some of these wires link the clockwork man to a strange helmet that is sitting on the desk. A dull grey wire bridges a small gap in the helmet's forehead.

If the helmet is placed on someone's head (1) the dull grey wire in the helmet's forehead burns out, and (2) the person's consciousness is transferred into the clockwork man.

Reversing or repeating this process requires another dull grey wire (actually made from noetic tungstun, an extremely rare meta-material). The spares are kept in Room #40 SHADOW.

While inhabiting the clockwork man, all of their physical stats are treated as 10s (so adjust your character sheet accordingly) and you are immune to disease and poison. Electrical damage stuns you for 1d6 rounds, however. You can speak in a faint, tinny voice. Every 100' away from the towers that you travel reduces the physical stats of the clockwork body by 1 (reversibly).

Your body is incapable of doing anything except sitting there and breathing. However, your meat-body will echo whatever you say in a breathy voice, no matter how far away you travel in the clockwork body.

32 GARDEN

This spherical room is surrounded on all sides by green glass. It can be reached by a short walkway through an airlock that resembles a pair of rubber, beaded curtains with a vacuum between them.

Most of the plants in this garden are harmless. There's a tiny artificial waterfall and a non-agressive gardener-golem, shaped like a small gnome. The only real danger in here comes from the two miniature tigers that lurk among the orchids. The tigers are 4' long and are best buddies. They have metal teeth and wear gem-studded collars.

33 ICE

This is where Khiraj keeps stores the creatures he intends to work with at a later date, so that they don't rot. A bunch of creatures are stacked on shelves in here, frozen solid in a room-temperature gelatin clathrate.

A blue pedestal freezes things. A red pedestal thaws them.

Currently stored: 24 blackbirds, two ettin heads, a dead beholder missing half of its eyestalks, two ham hocks (destined for the kitchen) and an owlbear. The owlbear and the blackbirds can be revived alive.

Doxum the apprentice can usually be found here. He is being punished, and his current task is counting the feathers on the frozen blackbirds. He is fat, sullen, and cold. He is a level 4 magic-user, but he's also a bit of an oaf.

34 GUARDIAN

The contents of this room are Khiraj's pride and joy. Since his early days, he has been building a guardian construct. Originally a beautiful woman crafted in the likeness of an angel, made from elegant, symmetrical metal and golden wires, Khiraj has been gradually refining her shape into something more industrial, more utilitarian, more powerful, more inhuman.

He calls her his Iron Angel. Although she no longer looks an angel, he still appreciates the irony of a godless man having an angelic protector. That's why he left the halo.

The Iron Angel is an 8' metal woman-golem. Her legs are huge, thick, and armored. She has a sword-arm and a crossbow-arm. She has two faces that revolve around her head. Just picture a metal angel sculpture and fuck it up until it looks scary.

In the corners of the room, underneath cloth sheets, players can find all the pieces that Khiraj has been removing from the Angel, discarding them as symbols of human weakness and fleshy weakness. The gracile, feminine hands. The supple legs. A metal boob.

It doesn't speak, and it doesn't activate itself unless an alarm triggers it from elsewhere in the dungeon, or if someone starts messing with it. Otherwise, it just sits on it's pedestal, looking metal as fuck.

While his interest in the fleshy succubus has waned, Khiraj has grown to love his Angel romantically. He intends to find a way to bring her to life after he finds immortality, and then the two of them can shed their last vestiges of human form together.

The Iron Angel

HD 8

AC 17

Atk sword +8 (1d6+2 plus metal infection)

Atk crossbow +8 (1d6+1 plus metal infection)

Move 12, Glide 18

Save 8+

Morale 11

Metal Infection: Treat this as a magical disease. While you suffer from it, you must make saves to avoid eating any small scraps of metal or machine fluid that you come across (screws, bolts, shavings, gasoline). Every day, make a save. It takes three consecutive saves to cure yourself. If you fail your save, you lose 1d4 points in 2 random stats, and gain 1d4 points in a random stat. If you fail 5 of these saves, you become an insane NPC in thrall to the God Machine.

35 DEMON

In this room, bound and floating within a summoning circle, is a cyber-demon's mechanical constituents (an arm/gun, a leg, an laser eye, and misc smaller components). The summoning is incomplete, as the demon has fleshy components with a different secret name that is suspended between worlds.

Anyone crossing the bounds of the circle will be accepted as a substitute body part (the missing leg, arm, abdomen, or head) and effectively killed automatically. A demon completed this way will be free to leave the circle. Any robot parts will similarly be accepted, but a complete robo-demon will be freed and friendly to the party.

Any wizard with moxie can attempt to complete the ritual and summon the missing fleshy bits. This is a bad idea though, as fumbling the process will have a bad result such as:

• Possession of the caster
• Cyber-NPCing of the caster
• Releasing a complete cyber-demon
• Caster switching places with the demon in hell

36 SKULL

In this room stand the lead-plated remains of 9 ogres. In life, they called themselves the Skullcrusher Clan, ironically enough.

After Khiraj killed them, he plated their bones in lead and turned them into his servants.

The lead-plated ogre skeletons can be controlled by used of the Skullcrusher staff, topped by the jeweled skull of Hagrigosh, the clan's chieftan.

However, every command given to the lead-plated ogre skeletons requires an opposed charisma check against the resentful spirit of Hagrigosh, with failure always meaning that the ogre skeletons abandoning everything else in order to murder the staff holder. This caveat isn't obvious, not even when an identify spell is cast. (It's hidden, much like a curse, because it sorta is a curse.)

If the Skullcrusher staff is not used to (foolishly) attempt to control the ogre skeletons, it can be used as a normal staff. It can cast enlarge on the wizard who wields it or cast rage on anyone. It can also be used as a mace +1 (the lead-plated skull of an ogre magi makes a great weapon--and even sullen, furious Hagrigosh appreciates the irony of crushing a foes skull with your own lead-plated one).

37 TRAPS

This room has a checkboard floor with a single red tile near the center. The ceiling has four globes hanging from it that look like sequined balloons, each containing poisonous gas. There are a couple of slits on the walls, not apparent at first glance.

On a plinth in the center of the room is a small chest made of verdigris and gold. The chest is trapped with a needle coated in anti-toxin (gives a new save against any poison with a +2 bonus). The chest contains a perfectly ordinary 100gp. The chest itself is worth 500gp.

The walls are covered with wallpaper that contains a dense pattern of trees and animals, repeating but with some differences from area to area. This is the trap.

Anyone inspecting the wallpaper will be struck with the idea that the wallpaper is hiding some secret pattern, and if they keep on inspecting it, they'll figure it out. Anyone watching someone inspect the wall will notice them unfocus their eyes and run their fingers absentmindedly over the wallpaper. As soon as someone searches the wallpaper for the third time (prompt your players) the enchantment takes effect, and anyone searching the wallpaper at that time must make a save vs spell or be affected.

Those who are affected by the wallpaper suddenly say, "Aha!" or whatever, and then just step into the wallpaper. Once they are inside the wallpaper, they will travel round and round the room, hunting through the dense wallpaper pattern for clues. While trapped in the wall, they will respond to people talking to them by saying, "Not now! I'm busy! I've almost got this figured out! Etc."

Anti-curse or dispel magic shit might work here, but another way to get them out is to present them with an item or concept that they care about intensely, which gives them another save to free themselves.

38 SWINE

The room is full of clockworks and steam pipes. A gigantic steam-powered clockwork swine reclines on a central throne. She is the engine that powers most of this tower. The cyborg pig  is quite motherly once you know how to approach "her". Eight humanoid piglets tend to her and rotate shifts to suck at her cyber-clockwork-udders. (use your favorite humanoid monsters stats for the piglets). Naturally, the steam powered pig-milk has special properties. 

39 AQUARIUM

This room is sealed by a mechanical fish head that also functions as an airlock. The fish head-door will allow anyone into the room who steps inside it's mouth.

The aquarium is a sphere of green glass, 100% filled with water and home to several exotic fish. The fish are all harmless, but they are delicate, and if a dirt-covered adventurer goes in there, they water will get muddy and kill all the fish. Two of the fish in here are jewelled sculpins, and are worth 400gp alive.

Exiting the room is as simple as knocking on the side of the airlock. It does take a few seconds for it to fill up the airlock with water, though, and once you step inside, it takes several more to drain the water.

40 SHADOW

This is the room where Doxum and Scarlip live. They are Khiraj's apprentices. The room has a pair of beds (with footlockers beneath them), a pair of desks, and a scroll unrolled on the wall, that shows the circulatory system of a human being as well as some arcane encryptions. If anyone casts read magic on the scroll-poster, they will see that it contains a spell called command blood.

Command Blood

Level 1 Magic-user spell

Range: 20'.

Has 3 uses. (1) can close or open a wound. (2) can deal 1d6+1 damage to a creature that has blood. (3) Can restore hp that a creature lost to injury, but can only restore HP that was lost last round, and cannot restore more than 1d6+1 HP.

A black cat is floating 8" off the table. This is Doxum's familiar, who has been put into a magical coma by Khiraj as means of motivating the sluggard apprentice. It cannot be woken up without magic (such as an inverted _sleep- spell).

The desks contain paper, pens, quills. Doxum's desk contains 34gp. Scarlip's desk contains a bunch of amateruishly-drawn erotica.

Doxum's footlocker contains wizard robes suitable for a chubby apprentice, as well as a full loaf of bread, stuffed with jelly and butter. Scarlip's footlocker is trapped with mechanical viper (poison) that is worth a good bit of money unharmed. It also contains skinny wizard robes and his spellbook, which contains 3 level 1 wizard spells and 2 level 2 wizard spells.

Doxum and Scarlip have had their shadows separated from their bodies by Khiraj. If anyone looks closely at the desks, they will notice that the _shadows- of the chairs seem to show the two apprentices sitting in them, laboriously copying their notes. The two shadows cannot be roused through normal means, but if anyone fucks with their desk or the papers that they are copying, the shadow will attack (as a shadow). Killing the shadow will also kill the linked apprentice.

There's also a barrel of water here, with 2/3 of a cheese wheel atop it, along with a small cheese knife.

41 EMBRYO

This room is bisected by a dimensional placental barrier. Quite visible and floating about beyond it is a gigantic embryo. The embryo reached up through time to answer the arcane summons performed in this room. The embryo will one day be born at some point in the past and become a power in the world. It is at a very impressionable age, and so it will reflect (when it grows up) the actions on any PCs or NPCs that interact with and around it.

The barrier is crossable if you are riding a lizard from Room #17 LIZARDS or carrying one of the large iron keys such as Bartleby carries. It would be quite detrimental to the embryo for such a thing to happen, and it will be a malformed thing if that case. The embryo will know any that have interacted with it (though not sure how) when it grows to maturity in the past.

The species of the embryo is completely in the hands of the DM, as the dimensional shenanigans at play have things not to scale.

42 PORTAL-A

The room at the top of the giant egg is circular. The walls are coated with padded, red velvet pillows (like a posh asylum cell).

In the center of the room is a dull silvered mirror, facing up. Inspection reveals that is slightly rusted in some parts. On a small table is a large carafe (suitable for about 8L of fluid), currently empty.

If the dull mirror is ever covered with water, it will open a portal to 44 PORTAL-B, and half of the water will seep through the portal so that both dull mirrors are activated.

43 MEMORY

A spherical room, coated on all sides with spirals of pink carpet. A green pearl the size of a man's fist hangs in the air in the center of the room.

As soon as the PCs get to the center of this spherical room they will fall into a deep slumber. Tell them to give you their character sheets. Then give them a new character sheet, describing a young 12HD dragon. Give everyone a different color.

The players are suddenly dragons, flying through red evening clouds to conduct a raid on a flying castle. They have forgotten their previous identities as PCs, and think only of completing their current mission.

The city is defending with ballistas, knights, and lots of crossbowmen. There's also a single cyclops on one of the towers, throwing stones. Also a trio of wizards. As dragons, their objective is to crash into the castle's vault (they know where it is) and steal a fist-sized green pearl that hangs in the air. The dragons know the pearl as _The Wing of Heaven-.

The dream ends when they die, escape with the pearl, or flee. If the player-dragons successfully steal the pearl, the flying castle will fall out of the sky a few minutes later. After the dream ends, they will wake up. If they fell asleep, there is a 2-in-6 chance that Khazan Khiraj discovered them while they are sleeping.

If the PCs successfully complete the dream, have them each make a CHA check. Those that succeed are imbued with the dream of a dragon. This means that, once in their lifetime, they can use the breath attack of the dragon that they "piloted" in the dream. It does 1d6 damage per character level, with a save for half.

If the giant green pearl (The Wing of Heaven) is taken from this room, Khazan's artificial moon will begin tilting to the side 1d6 minutes from now, and will plummet from the sky 1 minute after that.

The Wing of Heaven is the most valuable thing in the whole dungeon. So valuable, that simply finding a buyer who can afford to buy it will be a quest in itself. Of course, there's no limit to the people who are willing to kill to possess it.

The Wing of Heaven can also be used to build flying castle, tower, or whatever, but that's another quest as well. Lastly, the Wing of Heaven can be hatched into a baby rainbow space worm, since it is an egg, after all.

44 PORTAL-B

This room is hewn from light blue marble, veined with white streaks and crimson flecks.

In the center of the room is a dull silvered mirror, facing up. Inspection reveals that is slightly rusted in some parts. On a small table is a large carafe (suitable for about 8L of fluid), currently full of water.

If the dull mirror is ever covered with water, it will open a portal to 37 PORTAL 1, and half of the water will seep through the portal so that both dull mirrors are activated.

45 DREAMS

Floating in this room are 1d3 creatures. They just float in the air, inside softly glowing bubbles. Bookshelves along the walls contain tons of books. Mostly bestiaries, but also histories, maps, and quite a few children's books. All of the books are fictitious (at least in part) but this will not be obvious at first. The shelves also contain a spellbook (with an animal on every page) that contains 2 level 2 spells, 2 level 3 spells, and 1 level 4 spell.

Unless the room is entered in a state of perfect calm (WIS check to succeed), a character's psychic disturbances has a 4-in-6 chance to wake up one of the sleeping creatures. (Roll separates for each creature and each PC.)

The creatures are imaginary creatures that have dreamed themselves into life, spawned by the imaginations present in the books. The creatures are not real, and as such, they take 1/3 of their HP as damage each round that they are awake. When they die, they disappear in a puff of dreamstuff, and will then permanently reside in the dreams of whoever killed them.

The 1d3 random creatures are taken from a random encounter table of the most dissimilar module that the DM has within arm's reach.

Khazan Khiraj is also in the adjacent room most of the tiime. He has a 4-in-6 chance of hearing any commotion that takes place in this room.

46 AVATAR

This is where Khazan Khiraj has been for the last couple of weeks. In the center of this room is a raised workbench containing the new avatar that Khiraj has been building to receive his consciousness.

His avatar is an utterly inhuman him, a mass of mechanical tentacles of different diameters and materials. A few of the tentacles have handlike manipulators on the tips. Neon lights travel through grooves in the tentacles, from the central mass to the tips. It is monstrous, heavy, entirely metal, utilitarian, and brutal. The only concession that has been made towards beauty is the metal face-mask that Khiraj has placed on the top of it, which looks like a steel burial mask with Khiraj's features (which is appropriate, since Khiraj intends for the Avatar of the Machine to be the herald of his flesh-death). But the mask is just an ornament, in the end, on final nod to it's creator's inhumanity.

The Avatar of the Machine can fly, shoot lightning bolts, grab things with it's powerful tentacles, and shred them with it's garbage disposal-mouth. And once Khiraj has completed the process of transferring his consciousness into it, it (he) will be able to cast spells as well.

Khiraj is a high level wizard. He is also completely naked, and most of his body parts have been replaced with cyborg substitutes. His most notable feature is his hunched back, which is actually a mechano-hive for his 4 flying, quadrotor-servitors.

If there is trouble, Khiraj may (in order of escalation). (a) send this flying quadrotor-servitors to investigate, (b) send his incomplete Avatar of the Machine, which he will control like a puppet, or (c) go in person.

The room also has four big mechanical arms, one in each corner. Khiraj can control this as well as his own arms, but if so, that's all he can do on his turn.

He has the Staff of the God-Machine as well as a Screw-Worm Symbiote. His left hand has been replaced with the Black Hand of Ruin.

47 ALCHEMY

This room has a full alchemy kit (worth many thousands of GP), all the equipment required to add and remove cyber-grafts and mechano-symbiotes, as well as Parsemmex, a symbiotic suit of armor that can control others through a series of pheromone vents.

Credits

Alex Chalk: Random Encounter #3

Cedric Plante: #38 SWINE

Christopher Wood: Room #19 EYE

Claytonian JP: Room #35 DEMON, Room #41 EMBRYO

Micheal Raston: Room #18 CLEAN

Greg Acker: Room #13 DUST

Everything else written and designed by Arnold Kemp.

shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License