Fortress of Doors, Week 3

 

Veli Nyström

15: Kitchens

• Warm light leaks from a high and greasy window. An industrial-scale kitchen, with black ovens, stained benches, crumbling herbs hanging from walls, every kind of pot, pan, knife, and spoon. Stone basin fed by a thick pipe with a brass tap handle.
• (?) Tap water is clean and cool.
• (??) Metal grate in the floor leads to the cloaca crawlspace. Corroded and brittle.​​​​​
• (??) Dumb waiter chute leads up scores of feet into darkness, to the banquet hall on level 3. The waiter itself is gone. Chute is stone, maybe 2 feet across, and goes straight up.

16: Cloaca: Crawlspace

• The sewer pipes are dark and crawl-height only. Narrow enough that turning back is difficult. Mostly dry, but reek of blood and filth.
• Many small pipes lead in from various places.
• (!) Occasional skittering bonerats. They may swarm , especially if nest is threatened.

17: Cloaca: Exit Shaft

• Long crawlspace, mostly 45 degree slope. Just wet enough to be slippery.
• Joins to the city sewer.

18: Cloaca: Bonerat Lair

• (!) a collapsed section of pipe, dug out into an egg nursery for a swam of eyeless, hairless, pale, clicking bonerats. Rats will swarm from the sewers to defend eggs or grab an easy meal. They eat pretty much anything.

19: Cloaca: Pit Trap

• 10’ pit, floor bursting with the points of long rusty nails.
• (?) The roof of the pit has a tangible seam that can be pried open with a tool, but will close on its own unless held. Connects to the outside of the green door.

20: Spore Hive

• (!) Lair of the sponge-like, fleshy nest of the spore hive. Kill with fire only.
• (!) Air thick with spore haze that spreads to nearby areas.
• (!) Disturb hive = bad time. Rapid spore deployment, assault of confusion -> madness -> direct control.
• (?) An exposed bit of pipe leaks water into a puddle below. Healing grubs swim in the puddle.
• (?) Water, d6: 1 = tastes bad, but OK; 2 = saline; 3 = entheogens (trip); 4 = toxins (poisoned); 5 = virus (disease); 6 = clean.

21: Ghoul Barracks

• (!) Filthy lair of the ghoul army. Broken bunks, blackened central firepit, scraps of blankets, rusted weapons, tiny black insects, evil smell. The ghouls sleep piled together like corpses.
• (??) Brass keyring with two keys hangs from a nail at the back of the room. These open the blue and crimson doors. Keys are colour-coded with stones in their bases.
  

Fortress of Doors, Week 2

Arcane Dimensions is great.

 

8: Cool Rooms: Wolf Door

• A stone door carved in the shape of a snarling, wolf-like face bars the way.

• (?) Door is locked.

• (?) There is an iron handle within the jaws that can be grasped by reaching in. It can be twisted to the left or right, making an audible click with each rotation.

• (!) One full rotation left, followed by one rotation right, unlocks the door. Two full rotations in either direction cause a blade to drop onto the wrist of whoever is grasping the handle.

9: Cool Rooms: Storage

• These stone rooms are oddly cold and smell like blood. Visibility is poor.

• A frigid maze of shelves piled with pottery, meathooks holding dubious sides of meat, and creeping mist. Illuminated by glass wall fixtures that glow dim and cool but give off no heat.

• (?) Sour wine; old grains; pickled meats.

10: Cool Rooms: Butcher’s Lair

• (!) Lair of the butcher, an ogre-demon with meathook and cleaver, mouth stained with viscera. The butcher demands fresh meat, and isn’t picky about where it comes from.

• A bloody work table, piles of knives, and an awful sleeping pallet. There is also a grimy trough with a tap.

• (?) The tap works and the water is clean.

• (??) A metal grate in the floor bars the way to the cloaca.

11: Ghoul Refectory

• (!) 2d6 ghouls gnawing on bones in a scene of carnage. Their helmets and weapons are piled against one wall.

12: Midden Chute

• Lit by tiny high windows. Smells like burnt hair.

• A room smeared with old blood and detritus – fragments of bone and pottery and glass and hair. A blackened, square hole in the floor, 2’ across, shoots almost straight down into darkness.

• (!) This chute ends up in the hall of leavings in the midden.

13: Armoury: Brass Door

• A thick door of solid brass, cast with the shape of a grinning skull in relief.

• (?) Keyhole in the nasal hole.

• (!) Difficult to pick. Failed attempts trigger a hail of adder-venom needles from tiny holes in the door.
  

• (??) Pin-sized holes all over the door’s surface.

14: Armoury: Weapons

• Rows and rows of weapons and helmets in various states of repair.

• (??) Any common weapon you’re looking for is probably here.

Fortress of Doors, Week 1

Strong Quake vibes on this level.

 

1:  Gates

• A pair portcullises, each shaped like a cyclopean hand, left facing outward, right facing inward. There are gaps between the fingers, wide enough to stick an arm through, which allow someone to peek through – into the gloomy stone hall within, or the ruined city outside.

• (?) Arrow slits in the gatehouse overlook the space between the portcullises.

• (?) The fingers lock into pits carved in the stone floor.

• (?) Each portcullis is of titanic weight and strength, cast in solid bronze encased in verdigris.

• (!) The gates open periodically to admit or release a patrol of ghouls.

• (!) 2 ghoul sentries in the gatehouse.

2:  Gatehouse

• Stone stairs rise to firing platforms overlooking the street and the space between portcullises.

• (!) A pair of ghoul sentries lurks in the dark.

• (?) A pair vast wheels of solid bronze, each joined to a portcullis hand by chains and gears. It may take some effort, but the portcullis can be raised.

3: Mustering Hall

• An empty hall with a floor of polished marble. Lit by natural light from high, narrow windows, near the 60’ high vaulted ceiling.

• Doors to the East and West, framed in grotesque mouths carved from marble. One door is blue stone, one crimson.

• (?) Both doors are locked.

• (?) Behind the blue door, sounds of grinding metal and hammers.

• (?) Behind the red, animal growls and gnawing.

4: Great Stair

• A great stretch of polished marble. A staircase without stairs, at a 45 degree incline. Marble bannisters run either side.

• (?) The individual marble panels have tiny gaps every foot or so.

• (!) The wheel in the control room flips these panels so that they become stairs.

5: Blue Hall

• A long, winding corridor. Dim light from flickering lamps.

6: Machinery Room

• Loud grinding and hammering sounds. Flickering lamps. Smell of grease and something awful. Heat like a furnace.

• Massive furnace and complicated machinery involving trip hammers and presses.

• (!) Lair of the ogre smith, and giant pale naked thing with a black metal mask. Too busy working to bother with intruders, unless they make a nuisance or interrupt the work.

7: Red Hall

• A long, winding corridor. Dim light from flickering lamps.

Midden, Week 4

The great Kay Nielsen.

 

 

22: Three Queens of Ash

• A vast cavern, naturally lit from a narrow rift in the ceiling. Nothing grows here. The floor is a beach of ashes.
• (?) The ashen floor under the rift slopes down into a suspicious looking area of shifting ashes. A spear juts from a raised area in the centre.
• (!) The shifting ashes consume things, like quicksand.
• (!) Under the ash live the three Ash Queens, undead, eyeless, ash-smeared beauties with crowns of wire. They command the royal guard.
  • Ruby: wants lovers/companions/sacrifices.
  • Sapphire: wants revenge against the cleaning demon and the ‘new masters’ above.
  • Emerald: wants unique and precious things.

23: Buried God

• Head of a vast and deific statue, buried up to its nose in ash.
• (??) Counts as a shrine.

24: Royal Guard

• A forest of human figures, standing perfectly still, distorted by the layers of ash in which they are entombed.
• (!) The guards sleep deeply, but will be summoned to undeath if disturbed, a few at a time.
• (!) The ground here is treacherous with pitfalls under the ankle-deep ashes.

25: Ruin Homes

• (!) Ash ghouls shelter here, huddled and hidden in corners. Make a reaction roll.

26: Sunfire’s Home

• A ghoul huddles foetal, caressing something that burns brilliant orange.
• (?) Sunfire is the peaceful ghoul and the magical jewel they hold. It’s light attracts the undead.

27: Lost Temple

• Facade of great marble columns built into the cave.

28: Anchorite

• A ghoul in a bricked-up cell adjoining the temple. Only a small opening (hagioscope) looks inside.
• (?) Doesn’t remember its name, wants to be left alone to admire the Great Divinity. Knows the door combination.

29: Cella

• A large bronze statue with three heads, horns, and a giant axe, frozen mid dance.
• (?) A shrine.

30: Treasury

• (?) Brass door leads to the treasury.
• (!) Door is locked by a kind of twisting brass circle with archaic glyphs – a combination lock. Two wrong combinations causes the roof above to shudder and then collapse.
• 2d6 ivory statuettes worth 3 coins each.

Midden, Week 3

An homage to Morrowind by artist 'apathie'. I wasn't thinking of this when I wrote 'ash ghoul', but it fits.

 

15: Hall of the Right

An ossuary made entirely of right arms and legs.

16: Incinerator

A room-sized furnace with a heavy stone door on great iron hinges.. Every surface has a thin layer of ashe.

A narrow passage with a smaller but similar door leads down to the city of ashes.

17: Hall of Hooks

A cold room, hatched with dense layers of black and brown stains. It smells like rust. The walls are covered in long nails pointing inward and up at 45 degree angles.

(?) A heavy metal grate leads down to the blood pit.

18: Blood Pit

Dark, low ceiling, hideous smell, sticky floor. White, sweet-smelling flowers burst from the walls.

(!) The stick floor is a carnivorous blood ooze.

19: Hall of Skulls

A vast ossuary made from skulls of every kind, arranged into a spectacular set of swirling patterns.

(?) A narrow stair leads down to the necropolis.

20: Jewel Midden

A glittering pile of gold and jewels beneath a heavy grate.

(??) True jewels, pretty rocks, gold, bronze, and glass baubles are mixed together; sorting them takes a long time. Raw baubles (to be sorted later) are worth 10 coins a bag.

Low passages lead to the blood pit and city of ashes.

Region: City of Ashes

Restless and vengeful dead lie under piles of dirt and ashes, discarded and forgotten.

21: The Unwanted

Something like a mine works, filled with the ruin of crude houses made from heavy stones, potshards, and mine tailings. Ash covers all and heaps in every corner.

(!) Many, many mindless ghouls slumber under ash piles and the ruins of their homes.

Midden, Week 2

The cleaning demon is a Beksinski painting, but worse. Heavily inspired by the recycling monster in The Stars Are Legion.

 

 8: Fisher’s Grotto

• A little room in the rock, connected to the boardwalk.
• A hoarder’s room, filled with weird detritus & crude fishing rods. If you need something, it might be here.
• (!) Lair of the Fisher, an antisocial mutant. Likes to trick intruders into upsetting the Judge. Might be persuaded to trade.

Region: Ordered Halls

The cleaning demon makes its home here, ordering the filth of the midden.

9: Hall of Leavings

• Ascends from the wound in the earth.
• A rough tunnel, like a mineshaft. The floor is covered with crunching layers of worthless human possessions – dice,  wretched clothing, clay amulets, fractured lamps, knucklebones, soiled ragdolls.
• (!) DIfficult terrain due to the detritus. Movement makes noise.

10: Hall of Swords

• A vaulted gallery, its sides piled with weapons and armour of all kinds, broken, corroded, chipped, and ruined.
• (??) Whichever weapon or piece of armour you want, a successful search will reveal a crappy but usable version.

11: Cleaning Demon’s Lair

• (!) Lair of the shaggy, many-jointed nightmare beast that tends the midden. Intruders are to be placed in the Hall of Hooks until it can sort them out.
• An immaculate stone room that smells like death. The reek is overpowering.

14: Hall of the Left

• An ossuary made entirely of left arms and legs.

Midden, Week 1

1: Wound in the Earth

• An indescribable smell. Air thick with gloom, flies and rot.
• The ground is sticky black earth heaped with bones, paving stones, broken statues, roof tiles, broken weapons, tufts of hair or fur, and potshards. A widening chasm reaches 90’ up to the open sky. Gnarled bushes with purple leaves clutch the walls.
• This is the base of the midden on L1.
• Two rough, shallow sets of stairs are bored from stone and earth:
• one descends slightly, to somewhere damp. One ascends, littered with broken trinkets.

Region: Toxic Sump

(!) Radiation sickness (start a clock), centred on the Headless Judge.

2: Radiating Mire

• Descends from the wound in the earth.
• A narrow earth tunnel. Ankle-high water glows phosphorescent blue the dark. Clusters of strange plants and fungi burst from the floor and walls.
• (!) The far exit is blocked by a cluster of explosive bluefruit.
• (!) Do not, under any circumstances, drink the water.

3: Hall of Gods

• A vast stone room with phosphorescent puddles. Rows of statues of every size are stacked at every angle.
• (?) If you worship a god, you can probably find it here.

4: Drowned Ghoul Lair

• (!) Bloated husks of men, curled foetal against the walls, filthy water at their ankles. They rise hungry if disturbed.

5: Colossus Boardwalk

• A maze of rickety wooden scaffolding, chained to headless stone colossi.
• (?) The colossus sump is 100’ below. The water glows faintly.

6: Colossus Sump

• Phosphorescent blue water, opaque and 30’ deep (up to the knees of the giants?).

7: Headless Judge

• This colossus has a break in its chest. Inhuman viscera throb within. One hand holds a colossal executioner’s sword.
• (!) The colossus sleeps, but intruders will be punished if it is woken.