DUNGEON23 - ROOM 1

Below are the beginnings of what I'm doing with Dungeon23. Obviously, it needs rewriting, editing, etc. It no doubt needs the word count cutting. I hope most entries won't be this long. Skip past the table of contents stuff to get to the actual Room 1 entry. I have written entries for Room 0, 0.1, and Room 2 on paper, but have not had time to type them up yet. But this Room sets the scene for my level 1.

THE DELVE

A GLORIOUS AND RUNIOUS DESCENT INTO A HELLHOLE

LORE & BACKGROUND

THE CITY OF DELVESTER

DELVING SEASON

DELVING CREWS

THE FAMOUS AND THE INFAMOUS

THE DELVERS CHARTER

JOINING A CREW

FORMING YOUR OWN CREW

HENCHMEN & HIRELINGS OF THE CREWS

INTO THE DELVE

GOING IN

ROOM 0 - STAIRWAY TO HELLHOLE

ROOM 0.1 - ANTECHAMEBER OF HELL - PICK YOUR POISON

LEVEL 1 - WAR RARELY VARIES

ROOM 1 - FOREST SHRINE OF WISDOM AND DOOM

The party teleports here if they touched the door in room 0.1 with the dead tree on it.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS - cold, frosty, distant battle noises, cries and screams, the woosh of thousands of loosed arrows, fire and lightening illuminate the night sky, the beating of great wings and massive shadows flying overhead.

POINTS OF INTEREST

• East, West and South - A blasted no-man's land of death and destruction.

• North - Withered tree festooned with 13 hanging warriors weapons lean against the trees blackened trunk.

• Beyond the tree, the entrance to a trench system that quickly branches in three different paths.

Teleporting in from the antechamber the first thing the party notices is the dark and cold, and the fact that they stand in what was once a forest clearing, but is now part of a larger war torn waste land. 

The ground underfoot is frost covered and hard. All around is a wasteland of war-torn plains. Muddy craters, burnt, broken, and withered trees. In the distance, they can hear the sounds of battle, the cry of men dying and killing, and blade against blade. They can hear, but don’t see, the eerie woosh of massed volleys of archery. Intermittently huge balls of fire, and massed bolts of lighting arc across the night sky, illuminating the hellscape before crashing earthward and ending in a wave of fresh screaming. 

Most ominous of all are the great winged beasts that circle overhead, strafing the wasteland with great gusts of flame, venom, and ice. Strangely, the small clearing is untouched by the chaos of war.

Just ahead of them is the only intact tree. There are weapons leaning against the tree, and beyond the tree the entrance to a trench that gutters into no-man’s land. 

Most notable though are the thirteen corpses hanging from the leafless dead branches of the tree. Twelve hang frozen and dead, with icicles of blood hanging off them. One however has been hung upside down. In one outstretched fist, she holds her own severed head towards the party, in the other she holds golden coins. Her eyes are open and watching the party.

The PC’s can of course ignore the corpse tree and head straight into the trench (ROOM 2) 

Anyone who decides to chance no-man’s land from here will die in a hail of arrows, dragon breath, lightening bolts, fireballs, or the various traps that litter the battlefield. This is a simple intelligence check for the players. The warning signs are clearly there, don’t go trekking across fantasy no-man’s land.

The Tree of Wisdom and Doom 

If the party approaches the tree. The severed head speaks to them . . .

“Of this place, I speak wisdom, I speak doom, ask three questions and leave this tomb.”

The hanged woman will answer three questions about this level. She knows the location of treasures, she knows what lies ahead, and the routes out of the war torn hellscape.It’s up to each individual Referee how cryptic, useful, evasive or outright dickish you want to make her answers, but she will always answer as truthfully as possible.

For each question asked the asker also receives a doom from her. Roll 1d4 . . .

Doomed to die by . . .

1 - The Sword: Take +2 dam from any attack that hits

2 - The Dogs of War: All monsters are +2 to hit this character.

3 - The Evils of Sorcerery: All saving throws against spells, wands, etc are at +2 difficulty

4 - The Fog of War: 1 in 6 chance that any miss by a friendly will hit you for half damage

These dooms last as long as the doomed are in this section of the dungeon.

After answering the three questions, the hanging warrior woman tells them they must take the King’s Shilling, and leave via the trench entrance to the north. After that, she will say nothing more.

If the party decides to attack her, each to-hit roll forces a roll on the Doom table for the attacker. Other than that she won’t defend herself and is AC: 9 HP: 10.

There is one King’s Shilling for each PC. They are magical, and in this level they allow allies to identify each other. Once back on the surface, they are worth 200gp each to Delve enthusiasts and collectors, but their magic no longer works.

There are 13 weapons laying against the tree trunk. If the PC’s try to claim them, the other twelve hanging dead warriors will drop down from the tree and attack. The headless warrior woman will not intervene unless she is attacked.

Frozen Dead AC 8 HP1 HD1 Attk 1 special Icy Death, Save as Fighter 1, immune to all cold spells, and effects, poison and mind control. MV 40’ MRL: 12

Icy Death: The frozen warriors jab at the PC’s with the frozen blood icicles. If they hit, the PC must Save vs Paralysis or Turn to Stone. If the PC saves, they take 1 point of dam. If they miss, they take 1 point of damage, and icy death spreads from the wound, causing 1 point of damage per round until either they die, or all twelve Frozen Dead are dispatched.

The weapons are . . .

A two-handed sword, a battle axe, longbow, and quiver of arrows, a crossbow, and a case of bolts, a pole arm, a sword, a hand axe, a short sword, a spear, a staff, a dagger, and a war hammer. They are all in surprisingly good condition, and all are mundane except the war hammer, which is enchanted, and in Dwarvish Runes bears the name Deadhead.

DEADHEAD

Forged by the Dwarven Smith Belter as a holy weapon against the dead, Deadhead is a 2-handed war hammer (Wt: 55, 1d8dam, Melee, Slow, Two-handed). It is +2 to hit and damage against all undead and has other magical qualities

When wielded by a cleric with a Wis of 13 or greater and used against Skeletons and Zombies, a natural ‘to-hit’ roll of 3,7, or 11, even if the ‘to-hit’ roll was a miss, will always crush the skull and insta-kill the target.

Clerics with a WIS score of 16 or higher can also use Deadhead as a Holy Symbol +1 when rolling on the Turn Undeaded Table.

Whatever happens with the tree, although they are safe in the clearing indefinitely, nothing will happen. Unless they stray into no-man’s land, then they die. Unfashionably, the only option is a ‘railroady’ trip into the trench north of the tree. (ROOM 2).