Level 11: Temple of Industry, Week 1

Craig Mullins. I always did like Marathon.

 

1: Ziggurat Stair

• Golden lion doors bar the way down to the palace.

2:  Freight Elevator

• Sliding brass doors hide a dingy lift.

• (?) No power – doors can be pried open, manual crank on the wall slowly lowers or raises the perforated metal platform. Goes down to the freight elevator in the Ziggurat Plaza (level 8) and the green room in the Fortress of Doors (level 5).

3: Vigilator Ultimus

• (!) Vigilator Ultimus, an armoured war machine with death ray and energy sword.

  • Mien: imperious, inflexible

  • Wants: extermination of the intruder bees

  • Needs: new catalysts (human sacrifices) for the machine heart

  • Fears: intruders entering the machine heart (will not allow passage)

  • Knows: the layout of the level; the bees’ sickness.

4: Blockage

• Passage is blocked by a waxy, dried mud-like substance.

• (??) Like an insect’s nest.

• (?) Soft enough to be dug through, with some effort.

5: Construct Alcoves

• (!) Lair of 2d6 vigilators, villeins, and velocipedes.

6: Canal, Ladder

• Ladder descends 5’.

7: Canal, Lock

• Huge metal door with a wheel in the middle.

• (?) Opening the door without purging the canal results in a flood of toxic effluvia pouring out. Even cranking the wheel a bit will result in a rapid leak.

Level 10: Palace of the Blood Queen, Week 4

Bastien Lecouffe Deharme

 

22: Ziggurat Stair

(past)

• (!) Two Iron Maidens at the top of the stair. Passphrase: onyx.
• (?) Golden lion doors to level 11.

23: Chamberlain’s Roost

(past)

• Lair of the chamberlain. Opulent rooms and vast black hardwood desk.
• (!) The Chamberlain, stuffed layers of silk and fur, gold chains, rings over white gloves, brass keyring on his belt, luxuriant ringlets and beard framing a mask of comedy. Hovers above the ground.
  • Mien: the cat that got the cream. Followed by a gaggle of interjecting sycophants.
  • Wants: amusement
  • Needs: to gather the keys. Do you have a stray key?
  • Fears: the Empress, and no other.
  • Knows: everything, including the passphrases.
  • treasure: jewellery worth 200 coins, keys to the palace rooms & vault.

(present)

• Still the chamberlain’s lair, but ruined. The chamberlain is alone, undead.

24: Throneroom

(past)

• The Empress holds court, surrounded by masked courtiers and trestles laden with food and wine. The emperor’s throne lies empty. The Eldest Princess, Mira, is chained to one wall, dead, her blood pooled in a trough at her feet.
• (!) The Empress Aurelienne, blood queen of the ziggurat.
  • Mien: a cat playing with its food
  • Wants: flattery, and to humiliate
  • Needs: blood
  • Fears: treason, her daughters
  • Knows: surprisingly little. Passphrase to her rooms. Doesn’t know (yet) that Mira wasn’t the one who stole her giant black diamond, the Storm Adamant.

(present)

• Stone and ashes. The dais is empty.

25: Her Rooms: Foyer

(past/present)

• (!) An Iron Maiden, encased in steel plates pinned to her body with rivets. Blocks all unauthorised guests. Passphrase ‘chrysanthemum’.

26: Her Rooms: Closet

(past/present)

• (!) Locked, with needle poison trap.
• A truly vast collection of expensive clothes.
• (??) d100 coins worth item each time you dig through.

28: Her Rooms: Bedroom

(past/present)

• Pristine four-poster with furs and silks. Heavy desk with writing paraphernalia.
• (?) Portrait of a family: Emperor Titus, Empress Aurelienne, Princesses Mira and Erhua, and sickly little Prince Ambrose.

27: Her Rooms: Bath

(past)

• 6 young women hang from meathooks, bleeding into Her gilt marble bath.

(present)

• (!) Lair of the blood queen, undead and insane. She sleeps in the bath and wears the Storm Adamant (unless someone stole it in the past?).

28: His Rooms: Foyer

(past/present)

• (!) An Iron Maiden. Passphrase: amethyst.
• On display: two exquisite suits of armour, gilt and shining, one formal and one for the field, plus His gun and sword.

29: His Rooms: Solar

(past/present)

• Vast hardwood bureau. Shelves lined with books of every kind. Luxurious carpet.
• (?) Inside the desk: papers, seals, His lion signet ring.
• (??) A thin, door-shaped seam on the one section of wall without book-cases.
• (??) Secret switch under the desk opens the door to the secret room.
• (??) If you want a particular book, there’s a good chance it’s here.

30: His Rooms: Bedroom

(past/present)

• Opulent and immaculate.
• (??) Under the mattress: The Storm Adamant, a thumb-sized black diamond set in a gold pendant. The wearer can turn into smoke at will.

31: His Rooms: Secret Room

• Bare stone room with a spiral stair ascending to Level 12: Archive.
• (?) Brass switch on the wall to open/close the secret door.

Level 10: Palace of the Blood Queen, Week 3

'Enothar'

 

15: Guard Room

(past)

• (!) 12 guards in crimson livery and shining cuirasses and helmets, armed with rifles and swords.

(present)

• (!) The guards remain, undead in rotten livery.

16: Larder

(past)

• Peons in smooth masks and loincloths sit shackled in rows.

(present)

• Empty brick room with iron rings for shackles.

17: Chamber of Her Beauty

(past/present)

• Portraits, in all shapes and sizes, of one person: the Empress.

18: Rooms of the Eldest Princess

(past/present)

• Hardwood four-poster, silk covers, the works.
• Signs of a struggle.
• (??) Under the mattress: wooden case with scissors, needle, thread, and potions of enlarge and reduce.

19: Balcony

(past)

• Intense, drunken conversations beneath the blood moon.

(present)

• A view of the city. Ziggurat plaza lies a good 100’ down.

20: Servant’s Rooms

(past/present)

• Mostly deserted hall lined with garrets & cubicles of the help.

21: Dollhouse

(past)

• A grand dollhouse in the form of a palace, roughly similar to this one.
• (?) The roof can be lifted.
• (??) The dolls are alive; 6 miniature lords and ladies.
  • Want: to escape and be returned to normal size.
  • Fear: torment at the hands of visitors, especially the Eldest.
  • Know: the Eldest has the potions.

(present)

• Six tiny skeletons in dolls’ clothing inside the house.