Level 10: Palace of the Blood Queen, Week 2

Ivan Belikov

 

I'm back!

8: Hall of Leaves

(present)

• Riot of overgrown shrubs, flowered and thorned

• (!) Thorn trap. Trees saw at exposed limbs.

(past)

• Perfumed garden, lovers' trysts in shady alcoves 

9: Serving Hall

(present)

• Collapsing sideboards.

• (?) Broken dumb waiter chute leads way down to the kitchens in the  fortress of doors.

(past)

• Harried servants rush hither and yon.

10: Amusement Arcade

(present)

• Manacles in a wheel of pine. A skeleton on the ground, alongside rusted hatchets.

(past)

• (!) 3 drunken aristos throwing axes at a tarred & feathered person in tied to a spinning wheel. Participation is compulsory.

• (?) The victim is Nil, a clerk, guilty of trying to smuggle victims out of the spa. he knows the layout of the palace.

11: Dressing Room

(past/present)

• Statues of nude nymphs and satyrs, some serving as furniture, one proferring a golden pomegranate. Wall panel frescos showing people in various states of deshabille and playful poses, sometimes amorous. Changing screen of polished bronze.

• (??) The fruit is fixed fast, but can be twisted to switch the wall panels to mirrors. One panel opens to reveal a secret passage.

12: Imperial Box

(past/present)

• Luxurious couches and table, marble balustrade, overlooking the Courtroom on level 5.

13: Imperial Stair

(past/present)

• Descending spiral of marble stairs.

• (?) Connects to the imperial stair tower on level 8.

14: Rooms of the Youngest Princess

(past/present)

• Hardwood four-poster, silk covers, the works.

• (??) Under her mattress: the diary or Erhua. Inside cover holds two little brass keys, 1 for the imperial stair tower and 1 for the spa.

  • (?) Diary of a teenage narcissist with a thirst for blood. Finishes: Mama is up to something. I’ll keep these little keys as insurance.

Level 10: Palace of the Blood Queen, Week 1

Sebastian Kowoll

 

1: Ziggurat Stair

• (?) Rises into ornamental gardens before the gates; descends into the Temple of All Gods 3.

2: Palace Grounds

• Dead grass and spiny bushes, raked with old scorch marks. Two colossal bronze statues with smiling faces, covered in verdigris, flank the palace doors, themselves shaped like outstretched hands in relief.

• (!) The statues are imperial war automata. They use their death rays against anything approaching the palace, from any direction.

• (?) The doors are heavy but unlocked.

3: Foyer

• Marble statues, tall mirrors, chaises longues

• (?) dresser with silver plate & candlesticks

4: Passage of Ages

• Dancing mementos mori in relief. Chequered marble tiles; clean and polished to the East, dusty, cracked, and invaded by weeds to the West.

• (!?) Leaving from the East takes you into the past version of the palace (the sky and time of day are different here). Leaving from the West returns you to the present.

5: Great Hall

(present)

• Floored with tiled hardwood and dragonbone. Glittering chandeliers high above. Sideboards against the East wall. Wind whispering through 4 empty hearths.

• (?) Sideboard has silver plate worth 1000gp (5 slots).

(past)

• Aristocratic revellers in masks. Musicians, drink, scurrying servants.

• (!) Being here without looking the part will draw unwanted attention.

6: Hall of Mirrors

(present)

• Lit by high windows. Lined with full-length mirrors, cracked and dusty. An empty pond with old fishbones.

• (!) The blood queen can appear, see, and pass through intact mirrors, though she has no reflection.

• (??) One of the panels is a secret door; it moves when pushed.

(past)

• Sounds of revelry from beyond.

7: Cloakroom

(present)

• Moth-eaten garments and dusty carnival masks hang on racks.

(past)

• A servant in a mask of comedy keeps watch.

Level 9: Temple of All Gods, Week 4

Marcus Luotero

 

 

I'm back! A few days late due to life getting in the way, but I made it. Hard to believe there are only three months left in the year.

This level turned into less of a funhouse and more of a weird amalgam of paths and themes -- a sublevel made of sublevels. I'm OK with that, though I feel it needs more monsters and traps. Next month will be much more thematically coherent, with a nice little gimmick, as well.

22: Forgotten Colossi

• Dusty stone colossi holding lanterns and reliquaries, under a hazy red sky, ankle-deep in sand .

• (?) Beyond the portico: sandy desert, as far as you can see.

23: Shrine of Rain: Frozen Courtyard

• Portico pillars piled with snow. The wind howls; an alien sun leaks bleakly through.

• (??) flickering fire within the sanctuary.

24: Shrine of Rain: Tomb of Tears

• A frozen waterfall against the wall. Shaggy demons with icy antlers huddle around flickering braziers.

• (!?) Lair of the Congregation of Tears, silently mourning their dead god.

  • Mien: rumbling, depressed

  • Wants: some kind of hope or purpose

  • Needs: fuel to keep their braziers lit

  • Fears: the dark

  • Knows: a little about the other temples

• (?) A dwindling pile of charcoal in the storeroom.

25: Shaft of Portals

• A cylindrical room with portals at many different levels, each about 30’ up or down from the next. The floor and ceiling are shrouded in darkness.

• (?) There is no floor – it leads 120’ down into into the Shrine of the Dark: Pit.

• (?) There is no ceiling – it leads 60’ up into the midden chute on level 10: the Palace.

26: Maze

• (!??) The halls here are superimposed on the map, passing ‘through’ one another as they move in impossible directions.

• (!) Shadow demons stalk these halls, waiting for easy prey they can snatch away.

27: Temple of the New: Facade

• An ancient and monumental facade of white marble and columns. Completely free of any ornamentation.

28: Temple of the New: Renegade Magician

• A dusty room with books and personal effects piled about.

• (!) Lair of the Emperor’s renegade high priest, now a cantankerous lich, Qargan.

  • Mien: Hmm? I’m busy. Oh, wait, visitors!

  • Wants: to kill the emperor & his cult, and claim the secrets of the archive for his new god.

  • Needs: followers for the New God, so that it will begin to manifest. He isn’t very good at recruitment, and something happened to his old congregation.

  • Fears: the Avatar of Empire.

  • Knows: all about the palace (as it was), and the existence of the archive at the city’s highest level.

• (?) A veritable library of books on magic, history, religion, and all manner of arcane subjects, including Qargan’s spellbook. He may not appreciate people digging through them.

• (?) Qagan is happy to expound on the wickedness of the emperor’s murderous regime and the need to birth a new god to take its place in the cosmology. He has no idea the empire is dead.

29: Temple of the New: Cella

• A vast but mostly blank marble statue, suggesting a person, but without detail.

30: Shrine of the Forest

• Musty courtyard overhung with canopy of massive trees. At its heart: a fungal menhir the size of a house, hard, grey, and pocked with holes of varying size.

• (??) The largest hole – 2’ across – is filled with glittering offerings: weapons, golden goblets, jewels, and a golden war mask, but you have to climb inside to reach them.

  • (?) Treasure is worth 300 coins, including a magic axe, Red Torrent.

  • (!) The menhir will of course release its spores if interfered with – save vs. infection. Psychic contact with the vengeful forest god will be established shorty thereafter.

  • (??) A passage within the menhir leads to a tree bough in the forest garden.