Tunnels Beneath the Earth — Week 3 (#Dungeon23)

"The Storerooms"
Level 1 (JAN) – The Upper Works
Section 3 (1/15 – 1/21)

Scale: Ea. square = 10x10 ft.

These chambers beneath The Pile (1.1.2) serve as the lair of a tribe of norkers. 

• As spawns of evil, they spontaneously reproduce; this tribe is steadily building its forces so it can attack the nearby human town.
• The tribe numbers 30-40, but only half to two-thirds are in the lair at any time; the rest are out roaming the ruins or nearby woods.

The masonry down here is stacked and mortared stones (solid).

–Passages = 8 ft. high walls with angled stone slab ceilings (10 ft. at peak).

–Many cracks and shifted joints; the place constantly drips with moisture and puddles on the floor; cold and damp.

Encounter chance = 1:6 ea. turn to encounter 1d3* norkers.

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 SECTION KEY — WEEK 3 

1.3.1 The Hatch (01/15)
Stairs down to tower basement; empty except set into the floor in one corner is a thick hatch made of impervious blue metal.

–Muddy footprints up and down stairs, in and out all passages.

–The hatch features a panel of (9) buttons (3x3); each button produces a musical tone when pressed.

• If the correct sequence of tones is not entered within 30 seconds of the first button being pressed, a deadeye is magically summoned in the center of the room. Description: "shamblingly upright" humanoid pig with black rubbery hide, long tusks, milky-white dead eyes.

•  Deadeye (ATWM II – AC 2, HD 10; HP 43; AT 2 tusks, DAM 2-12/2-12; SA death gaze (as finger of death spell, 4d6 damage if save is made); SD immune to non-magic weapons, fear, charm, hold, and confusion.

• Sounds of combat in here draw 6d3* norkers to investigate.

• The deadeye remains for 10 min. after a threat retreats, guarding the room until it vanishes. Once killed outright, it will no longer appear; otherwise, it is fully-healed each time it is resummoned.

–The Crone (1.1.1e) knows the 6-note song that opens the hatch, which leads to DUNGEON LEVEL 4 (down a deep shaft with ladder).

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1.3.2 Barracks (01/16)
Each of these litter-strewn chambers is a filthy dwelling for 3d3 norkers.

–Bedding made of straw, animal skins, and debris. Various containers hold rancid water, maggoty rations, and bits of useless scavenge.

• Norker (FF – AC 3, HD 1+2, HP 3-10; AT 2 (bite/handaxe), DAM 1-3/1-6)
• 1-in-3 has extra axe, and will hurl it before moving in to engage.
• 1-in-6 has a minor treasure (coins, gem, jewelry, trinket) worth 2d10 gp, which it hides from the greedy chief (who takes everything for himself).

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1.3.3 Ape Pen (01/17)
The norker chief keeps (3) carnivorous apes here behind a cage wall (a grid of steel bars with 9-in. sq. openings). A gate door is chained and padlocked (chief has the key).

• Carnivorous Ape (AC 6, HD 5, HP 24, 28(x2); AT 3, DAM 1-4/1-4/1-8; SA mangle (+1d6 dam if both fists hit)).

• The apes obey the chief, but if he is killed, they flee the tower and return to their forest home, smashing anyone in their way.

• Anyone openly wearing the ruby pendant from 1.1.2 triggers the apes' rage; they attack immediately to recover the jewel.

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1.3.4 Storerooms (01/18)
Open chambers with 12-ft. high walls and 15-ft. high peaked ceilings. Muddy footprints everywhere. Roll an extra encounter check each time the party enters one of these rooms.

–(a) Empty; the norkers recently bricked up a passage on one wall that leads to a tunnel into the sewers.

–(b) Mostly collapsed; a search of the visible rubble finds a 6-in. tuning fork made of impervious blue metal.

–(c) Empty; the norkers recently built a barrier of timbers and metal panels, with a door (padlocked; chief has key). The tunnel beyond leads into the sewers and a nearby drainage shaft to the surface.

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1.3.5 Vaults (01/19)
The door frames of each of these chambers are made of impervious blue metal (all four sides), but no doors or obvious hardware is visible. Inside, the walls, floor, and ceilings are lined with perfectly-fit ceramic plates (2-ft. wide hexagons). Sound is dampened by 50% in the chamber.

–(a) Lined with steel cabinets; most battered open and plundered long ago; a few still contain racks of  rusting handaxes.

–(b) Empty

–(c) Empty

–(d) Empty save for a scabrous tumor (3-ft. diam.) in one corner, growing out of a tiny crack in the ceramic floor. It jiggles if prodded and bleeds if cut. While it lives, the tumor (AC 5, HP 7) pustules and bursts every 2-5 days, spawning a new, fully-grown norker.

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1.3.6 Leader's Room (01/20)
The norker chief holds court in area (a), sitting or standing atop a 4-ft. cube of seamless, impervious blue metal in the center of the room. His (4) bodyguards stand at the ready to defend him (but each secretly plots to overthrow him and take over). 

–1-2:6 chance that 1d3* norkers are also present.

• Norker Chief (AC 2 (shield); HD 2+3; HP 15; AT 2 (bite/axe); D 1-3/1-6+1 (due to strength)). He wears a Ring of Animal Control and has a ring of (3) keys to the padlocks in 1.3.3, 1.3.4, and 1.3.6b.

• Bodyguards (AC 2 (shields); HD 2; HP 10, 12; AT 2 (bite/axe); D 1-3/1-6+1 (due to strength))

–The bodyguards sleep on mats in (a). The chief sleeps in (b) on a pile of animal skins and bones.

• A heavy iron chest in (b) is padlocked (chief has the key); it contains 18 gold bars (100 gp ea.), a gold and sapphire bracelet (350 gp), and a cleric scroll of Remove Fear in a silver tube (50 gp).

–The cube weighs several tons. If the tuning fork (1.3.4b) is struck against it, the cube unfolds and reforms into a 3-ft. high, 4-ft. sq. table with several objects on it:

• A 2x3 in. tab of impervious blue metal, pierced with a hole and marked with a strange glyph.
• A small bag made of woven fibers of impervious blue metal; has the weight and feel of silk, but anything held inside is completely safe.
• A half-eaten meal (but still warm and fresh): mincemeat loaf, mashed orange starch, and a green paste that tastes like broccoli.

–When the table is struck with the tuning fork, it reforms into a 4-ft. cube. Anything left on the table is held inside in a timeless void.

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1.3.7 Secret Vault (01/21)
A 3x6 panel of impervious blue metal is set into the wall here (door height). A strange glyph is etched into the metal. If the tab (1.3.6) is touched to the glyph, the panel slides open (if the tab is touched to the vault door frames (1.3.5), those panels slide shut). Inside the room is...

–A ceramic chest (part of the floor; lid comes off) containing...

• 1,200 pp, 2,600 ep (ancient coins embossed w/images of long-forgotten king and a mighty city).
• (6) lacquered wood boxes each containing a weird piece of jewelry (gold, silver, and platinum with gems) worth 1d6 x 1,000 gp.
• A ceramic case containing (12) translucent crystal shards perfectly-cut into 1x2 in. rectangular wafers (blue x4, red x4, yellow x3, and green x1).

–A stone shelf with a sealed glass case (2x4x2 ft.) filled with opaque pink gas. If the lid is opened, the gas disperses quickly to reveal an unconscious carbuncle, which awakens 1d4 rounds later.

• Carbuncle (FF – AC 2, HD, 1, HP 4; AT nil, DAM nil; SD cause antipathy)

• The carbuncle telepathically offers its gem (currently worth 2,000 gp) to the party as a reward for its rescue, and will grow more for them (at 100 gp value per month) if the party will take it along with them. While the carbuncle is with the party, however, wandering encounter chances increase by +1 (i.e. 1:6 becomes 1-2:6). The carbuncle feeds off the strife.

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