Level 9: Temple of All gods, Week 3

By 'fallstrider'. I had a perfect Beksinski for this week, but I felt like something different.

 

15: Shrine of the Dark: Hall of Echoes

• (!) Lair of the Darkwights. When awoken: mimic speech; move like leaves in the wind; hunger for tender eyes.

• Sound travels far and strangely here, like in a cathedral.

• (?) The great statue of the Dark is a fractal chimera, ice cold, rippling with impossible shapes. Reproductions of its surface (charcoal rubbings, sketches from memory) reveal things that cannot be seen and risk madness or blindness. They may also fetch an incredible price, with the right buyer.​
  

16: Vault of Little Gods

• Thousands of statuettes of every size and material, jumbled everywhere. Smells of old incense and dried flowers.

• (!) Difficult terrain. Don’t tread on a little god, or you might get a little curse.

• (??) If you’re looking for a minor deity, it’s in here somewhere.

17: Well of Stars: Empyrean Vault

• A courtyard under a night sky. Crickets and jasmine. Paper offerings and a golden dagger (100 coins) on a huge stone slab at the end.

• (?) The slab is loose and can be moved, with difficulty. Beneath: the Well of Stars, water shining with the night sky, even when in shadow.

• (?) The water feels normal, until you reach an arm’s length through…

18: Well of Stars: Fountain

• (!) Gravity reverses on the path through the deep water.

• A fountain with marble steps, starts shining in the water. Surrounded by a portico of marble nymphs; water trickles through their hands. Unfamiliar trees with sweet-smelling fruit.

• (!?) The water is clean and refreshing; the fruit are nourishing and delicious. Consuming them makes you more susceptible to the Prince’s suggestions.

19: Well of Stars: Cell

• (!) Lair of the Star Prince. Eternally beautiful inhuman youth under a dread skeleton that burns with starfire.

  • Mien: oh, won’t you stay?

  • Wants: stories and company from beyond

  • Needs: to stay here – it cannot leave the cell.

  • Fears: being alone

  • Knows: all about the other temples

• The cell is a comfortable room with lounges and a chest against the wall. Smells of jasmine and incense.

  • (?) Chest contains great fistfuls of Sapphires worth 10,000 coins, but you have to dig them out of the powdery incense a few at a time. The Prince may offer some in trade.

20: Caterpillar Shrine: Lost Souls

• Walls like fingers, limbs. Become more fleshy as you advance. Faint groans.

• (!) Lair of the Lost Souls, warped faces peeking from behind their long fingers in the walls, begging for a little water, or blood. When roused, some pull themselves out of the wall to attack. When killed, their waxy flesh melts from their bones and their skeletons burn black and keep fighting.

21: Caterpillar Shrine: Sanctum

• High granite walls covered with spiral patterns. A vast sacrificial altar stained black with blood. A ragged wound in the wall, about 20’ up and 10’ wide.

• (?) The hole leads to the sump in the Spa.

• (!?) Placing blood on the altar summons the Caterpillar Demon from the Spa; she just crawls out of the hole in the wall.

Level 9: The Temple of All Gods, Week 2

Beksinksi, from his megadungeon period

 

 

This level is a lot of fun to write. It's basically a funhouse with a set of weird sublevels, and the level conceit means that it doesn't have to make sense to make sense.

8: Imperial Shrine: Hall of trophies

• Rows upon rows of of treasures and grotesques. Weapons and armour piled on racks. Taxidermied people in diverse ethnic clothing styles with jewels for eyes. Priceless funerary urns from extinct eras. Mouldering heaps of silk brocade. A pile of crowns.

• (!) All the good treasure is trapped.

  • 12 taxidermied people – the gemstone eyes are worth 100 coins each, but they are also stoppers, holding in toxic spores.

  • Arms – any weapon or armour you can think of, plus a paired sword and energy pistol, gold-chased and sapphire-encrusted. All are rubbed with Prince’s Embrace, a deadly contact venom

    • (??) Venom visible as a faint blue sheen on careful inspection.

  • 7 funerary urns – not actually priceless, 1000 coins each – sit on plinths with pressure sensors. Removing the weight causes lead darts coated in adder venom to fall from the ceiling, landing in a 5’ radius below.

    • (??) Many coin-sized holes in the ceiling in the area above the plinths.

  • 100 silk robes with brocade, half damp and soiled. The good ones are worth 100 coins each. Beneath the pile of robes sleeps a bone-eater.

9: Colonnade

• 60’ high colonnade with columns like vast marble tree trunks. Lit by dim lights shining from beyond.

• (??) The light seems to change depending on where you stand – each passage between the columns goes to a different place.

10: Shrine of Tears

• A garden courtyard. Water pours from a weeping statue into a clear pool.

• (!) Drinking the water causes you to fall into a deep sleep for 3d6 hours. When you awake, your injuries are healed, and you have permanently forgotten something.

• (??) Something is wrong…

  • There shouldn’t be a courtyard here. It’s under the city.

  • You can hear the sea.

  • The sky is hazy turquoise.

  • …Beyond the high courtyard wall is a tiny temple island on an ocean planet.

11: Shrine of the Dark: Corridors

• Long corridors lead into absolute darkness.

  • Don’t reveal this sublevel on the map, if you are using one. Characters must navigate by feel, players by vague description.

• (!) The dark here is magical. Fierce and sudden gusts of wind blow out flames. Magical or technological lights flicker and die. Night vision goes blind.

• (!) Without precautions, getting lost is easy.

12: Shrine of the Dark: Carvings

• The walls here are carved into all kinds of strange reliefs and pillars.

• (!) The jumbled layout of this room makes it extremely easy to get lost.

• (??) The carvings are grouped by theme, one around each entrance.

  • (a) Bizarre chimeras with a mix of human and animal features – ridged tusks; smooth bodies; barbed tentacles; tiny hands emerging from eye sockets – lead to the Hall of Echoes.

  • (b) Skulls with faceted eyes lead to the Pit.

  • (c) Hunched, weeping, naked figures clutching their faces lead back to the temple proper.

13: Shrine of the Dark: The Pit

• (!) Pit trap. The curving stone is polished and slippery. Fall 15’ down sheer slippery walls into the pit. At the bottom: Eyeless ghouls, feeble but hungry.

• (??) There is a small ledge along one side that you can sidle along the wall without falling.

• Leads to the Treasury.

14: Shrine of the Dark: Treasury

• (?) Writhing, scaly snakes of cold hard metal (gold); fistfuls of faceted stones (black diamonds); an icy hilt in a polished wooden scabbard (Lightdrinker, a legendary sword).

• (!) Robbing this room will awaken the Darkwight in the Hall of Echoes.

​Level 9: The Temple of All gods, Week 1

Pierre Raveneau

 

The temple is a vast, decrepit maze of impossible geometry.

Was: A monument to the vanity and greed of the Emperors.

Intruder: the High Magus, turned traitor along with his followers.

Synthesis & Fallout: Warring congregations looking for followers. The Magus attempts to birth the New God.

1: Pantheon

• Lined with marble statues. The gods have all turned their backs. Natural light from high windows.

2: Imperial Shrine: Great Hall

• Gloom and smoke. A high-vaulted hall with rows of bone-packed gibbets, glowing braziers,  and smouldering incensors hanging from the ceiling. Floor is littered with human bones, ash, and broken swords.

• (?) The massive doors leading to the ziggurat stair are made of solid gold and shaped like snarling lions. They open easily, but are far too heavy to be stolen unless broken apart somehow.

• (?) Gibbets, braziers and incensors hang from heavy chains of uneven length; from 10’ up to 30’ (near the ceiling). It might be possible to move upward from one to another if you find a low one.

• (?) There is a mezzanine floor overlooking this hall, hidden by shadow and pillars.

3: Imperial Shrine: Ziggurat Stair

• The stair is made of human skulls.

• (!) At its summit: the Avatar of Empire.

• (?) The door at the summit leads to level 11: Imperial Palace.

4: Imperial Shrine: Mezzanine Arcade

• 30’ up. Clear view of the great hall from between the pillars.

5: Imperial Shrine: Deacons’ Quarters

• (!) Lair of the Imperial Deacons. Skin and bone and empty eye sockets, chained to an unlife of eternal service.

  • Mien: whispered chorus, sinister chanting

  • Want: more victims for the Avatar, especially apostates

  • Need: to keep the fires lit

  • Fear: the renegade magician

• A gloomy barracks.

6: Imperial Shrine: Storeroom

• Gloomy cellar with seemingly limitless bags of charcoal and incense.

7: Non-Euclidean Corridor

• (!??) This corridor winds back on itself in ways that shouldn't be possible.

Reasons I Hate the Term 'Elfgames'

Ivan Belikov

 

 1: The Presumption of Elves

What if I want to play a game without elves? Or even, without dragons or goblins or any of that? Tabletop roleplaying is an entire medium. As hilarious as it would be if I started calling all films 'superhero shows', people would rightly be confused and annoyed.

 

2: Disavowal

Ok, this is the real reason. 'Elfgames' is blithely cutesy while also being snidely dismissive. It's a way of disavowing emotion and complexity. I tend to associate the term with the sort of person who will argue passionately, ferociously and at very great length about some minor aspect of roleplaying, and then, sensing that they are losing an argument, turn around and go 'whatever, it's just elfgames, bro.'

That's not to say that RPGs are somehow Serious Business. But, triviality (in the scheme of things) has no relation to simplicity or emotional resonance.

Ziggurat Plaza, Week 4

Ben Andrews

 

 

 22: Imperial Stair Tower

• Locked (extreme difficulty – purple key or imperial blood unlocks) and magically sealed bedchamber of the captive princess.
• Small barred widows allow a view to/from the courtyard.
• (?) Spiral stair goes down to the spa and up to the palace.
• (!) Lair of the Princess of Sorrow, Erhua. Appears to be someone the PCs know, bound by iron shackles (the shackles are magical and she cannot remove them herself) . Her chains are long enough to allow her free roam of the room. In her true form, Erhua is petulant and sadistic in blood-drenched feathers and grasping talons
  • mien: plaintive whispers, always about herself or her persona
  • needs: to feed on human blood – she can survive in hibernation without eating, but must to feast to regain her full strength.
  • wants: revenge on her parents, who put her here
  • fears: the same
  • knows: the layout of the palace level and how to get there

23: Vigilator Bays

• (!) Lair of the vigilators. Those not on patrol are always here recharging. The recharging ones are dead to the world, but there is a high chance each tick that one will either wake up or return to recharge.
• Rows of alcoves with brass flutes and prongs. Some contain a sleeping vigilator. Workbench with spare parts and d half-assembled automaton.
• (?) The work area has all kinds of parts and doodads.

24: Warehouse

• Rows and rows of shelves lined with pots, chests, sacks and bottles.
• (??) Many units of flour (stale but edible), wine (mostly vinegar), charcoal (fuel), fat and oil (somewhat rancid).

25: Grand Arcade

• Curving marble path with a view of the city below. Planters filled with spiny weeds; apartment doors between the marble columns and arches.
• (!) A vigilator patrols this path.

26: Empty Townhouses (downstairs)

• A row of townhouses, mostly empty aside from the odd bit of rubble or broken furniture. A search may reveal… (d6)
  • 1 = nothing
  • 2 = a child’s doll
  • 3 = 2d6 coins
  • 4 = an antique vase worth 10 coins (delicate!)
  • 5 = a lot of functional but worthless crockery
  • 6 = the husk of a giant beetle grub, long empty

27: Empty Townhouses (upstairs)

• Upstairs balconies overlook the city.

28: Beetle Lair (downstairs)

• The entrance to this townhouse has collapsed, and part of the balcony has caved in along with it. A truly awful smell emanates from with, ripe and rancid.
• (!) The carrion beetles bring the wyvern’s discarded meals here and lay their young in the rotting flesh. The floor is covered in bones, hair, rotting meat, and pale grubs the size of a person. The grubs are mostly defenceless but spew corrosive bile, and their parents will not be happy with any intruders.
• (??) Beneath the whole stinking mess, buried under bones and filth, is a great treasure.

29: Beetle Lair (upstairs)

• (!) Lair of the carrion beetles. As with all lairs, they may not be home, but random encounters are much more likely.
• The room is completely bare aside from dried blood smeared all over the floor, especially toward the stairs. The smell from downstairs is overpowering.

30: Warzone

• Signs of battle: husks of giant lavender beetles, carved up and scorched; a dismembered vigilator automaton.

31: Courtroom Balcony

• Overlooks the courtroom in the Fortress of Doors (level 5). Dusty but intact chaises longues and coffee table.

Ziggurat Plaza, Week 3

Another wonderful Ivan Belikov.

 

15: 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 ~100’ down, to the green room in the Fortress of Doors (level 5); or 20’ up, to the Factory (level 10).

16: Market of Grotesques

• Bizarre statuettes of camphor, ambergris, dragon ivory, sandalwood. Wolf-headed nymphs, melting cherubs, moth-gargoyles.

• (?) 2d6 statues are worth a few coins each.

• (??) One is a cult icon for someone’s god. Magically potent.

17: Market of flesh

• Gloom, iron wall restraints, stained floor.

18: Market of Pharmaca

• Rows of little drawers with every kind of herb, drug, and incense.

• (??) Searching can reveal a specific thing if you know what to look for. Otherwise, roll:

  • 1 = health potion

  • 2 = exotic contact venom – blue powder in a tiny clay pot, 2d6 doses

  • 3 = crumbled deep lotus, narcotic and anaesthetic, 2d6 doses

  • 4 = rare incense, worth 5 coins

  • 5 = dehydrated star larva. Add water and apply to wound (or anywhere on the body) and it will crawl in and take up residence as mutant, symbiotic organ.

  • 6 = powdered demon, 1d6 doses. Imbibe to fall into a trance and astrally project.

19: Vigilator Alcoves

• 3 alcoves with brass hooks and spouts.

• (!) 50% chance of a vigilator in one of them; otherwise, check each tick to see if it returns.

20: Teahouse

• A charming and spacious teahouse. Upper story has a balcony with a nice view of the courtyard of bones.

• (?) Hardwood furniture in disrepair; 20 ticks of fuel. 10 slots of fine porcelain cups, pots, & plates worth 3 coins per slot, each, but good luck transporting them.

21: Teahouse Kitchens

• Pots, pans, range

• (!?) There’s an ooze in a casserole dish in the oven.

Ziggurat Plaza, Week 2

Finally, a dragon in my dungeon. And a magnificent one, by Ivan Belikov.

8: West Guard Tower, Lower

• Wreckage of a bulbous invigilator, spilled across the room.

• (??) Random mechanical wreckage – lenses, gold wire, a weird crystal – worth a few coins. Maybe something useful for a tinker?

9: West Guard Tower, Upper

• Musky and strange air.

• (!) Lair of the Wyvern, Gyezlakur

  • 50% chance to be home. If away, test for return each tick of the clock.

  • mien: venomous, playful; a flying housecat-scorpion

  • wants: entertainment

  • needs: fresh meat

  • fears: the demons in the spa – they compete for food, and it can’t fight them all at once

  • knows: the everything that happens in the open below

  • treasure: a pile of worthless sentimental baubles; beneath which, an antigravity harness, still on the skeleton of the unfortunate victim, along with their gilt dagger.

10: Great Stair Arcade

• Tiles mostly intact. Marble columns wrapped with gods and beasts, carved in relief.

• (?) The arcade provides a covered path between the two courtyards, so that people can pass from the plaza door to the temple stair with only a small chance of being spotted by the guard towers.

11: Anatomical Theatre

• A small theatre or stadium with a stone table in its centre.

• (?) Old surgical instruments.

12: Food Market

• Airy vaulted hall, lit by the courtyard.

• (?) Smashed amphorae.

• (??) Two intact amphorae are filled with dates and saffron, respectively.

13: Crippled Invigilator

• (!) A rotund robotic invigilator with broken legs. Its death ray still works.

  • Mien: it’s a robot cop

  • Wants: to destroy intruders

  • Needs: repairs to its legs

  • Fears: the wyvern

  • Knows: everything about this level

14: Arms Market

• Short vaulted hall. Brass gates are held with a huge padlock. 4 large hardwood chests lie beyond.

• (?) The lock is rusted and can probably be broken or cut.

• (?) The chests are locked, and have classic poison needle traps laced with blood poison.

  • chest #1 = an antigravity harness, leather straps with shining metal globes and a brass dial on the belt to adjust the gravity.

  • chest #2 = masterwork suit of custom plate armour, polished to a mirror finish, engraved with amaranth leaves, lined with crimson velvet. ⅙ chance of fitting you without alterations.

  • chest #3 = a stack of 6 vicious-looking daggers

  • chest #4 = an energy rifle with silver and mother-of-pearl casing.