The Tower in Thunder Rift

 Back to the grindstone 😋 1-19: Siege wreckage This tower base has been badly battered by demonic siege weapons. The rubble has been scattered about ever since the siege, resisting the decay of time. The rubble is difficult terrain; in addition, any character who starts their turn standing in it takes 1d6 fire, 1d6 evil, and 1d6 chaos damage (basic reflex DC 19). Investigation reveals that this is the result of some kind of demonic activity (Religion DC 17), but more evidence is needed (for example, from the next level up). The room has stairs which lead up (north) and down (south), and unlocked doors in the south and east walls, leading to 1-24 and 1-18, respectively. The bandits haven't passed through this area, after discovering its dangers. 1-20: Corrupted Floor  The stone panel floor in this room is warped by some kind of demonic attack. Instead of the normal masonry, the whole floor apart from the corners appears to be like a glassy flat sheet of marble - but a purple m...

 Hey! So with the beginning of school, life got in the way. As you know, the more days past without me being able to update, the more unmanageable the deficit felt, and the harder to get started. So I've officially given myself permission to try to post a handful of rooms a day until I've caught up, not try to rush through the 19 rooms I haven't shared. I have been mostly caught up on actually sketching in the rooms, but not necessarily putting them in Dungeon Scrawl or posting them here (or putting in a concrete writeup). Anyway, we'll cover a few rooms today, working our way to get to the towers of level 2 when we get there. 1-16: Wrecked Controls This small room has been trashed by the giant ants (likely encountered in 1-15), and determining what was here is a challenge. The south wall has been destroyed by the ants, leaving rubble. In the southeast corner of the room, runes are faintly glowing (DC 16 perception or a dedicated effort to search). A DC 18 Identify Magi...

  And here we are, the first chamber on the western side. This room is filled with statues of serpentfolk writhing in pain (something about serpentfolk culture, I guess). Two of the statues are wearing cheaply made silver crowns, each worth 20 gp. There are several doors, besides the one in the east wall the party likely enters from. The western and SE doors are heavily built but unsecured; the door to the north is a heavily barred gate (a pile of snow just inside the door is difficult terrain), which isn't locked but frozen shut (DC 21 athletics to budge it). The door to the south is a steel-reinforced stone door, barred from the far side. Encounter (Moderate 2) A pair of giant ants have been digging in the room through the SE door, but if they smell anyone (within 30 ft of the door), they rush out aggressively, attacking. Also now I'll be adding a nest of giant ants somewhere in the level(s) below here, so we've got that to look forward to. Ok, I need to build a habit of...

  Today I'm kind of 'cheating' by filling in some negative space, rather than drawing a whole new room. This is the courtyard the party has been skirting around; it's important because it allows access to the west side of level 1, and eventually to the heart of the tower and the areas underneath. The door in the Northeast is opened by Key 1A. The door in the Southeast, from 1-06, is opened by a key which hasn't been discovered yet (would I surprise you if I said it was opened by Key 1B? Maybe not, though). The wall between this courtyard and Room 1-06 can be climbed over, as described in that entry. The western door, to 1-04, isn't locked. Incidentally, if a party rushes through the wall of fire in 1-02, they may find themselves locked into the second-level content I'm putting on the west side of this floor, since they can't easily get out of this courtyard or back through the Cobra trap. Reminder to myself to make the west side via 1-04 survivable (or a...

This room, through the (locked) door from 1-12 is accessible before the party finds the force key via the stairs which reach up to L2 and down to L3, thanks to the ladder in the west side of 1-12. The room is the support to another of the fortress's minor towers, built out of the shoulder of the mountain (at some point I should give the mountain a name, right?) A door in the west side gives access to the eastern courtyard. The door is locked, but with Key 1A the party is likely able to get past it. The other exit was once in the NW corner of the room, but it has now been blocked by a landslide which filled up the tunnel leading out, spilling into this room and wrecking that wall and door. Encounter (Severe 1) A trio of earth mephits inhabit this room, continually rearranging the rockfall to their incomprehensible whims. They burrow through the rockfall and mirthlessly attack any of the party nearby; the party can retreat, but they'll find that the mephits are also active in the...

 Well, it finally happened - last few days have been relatively busy and I've been distractible, and I wasn't able to get daily posts up. I did actually design each room on the correct day for what it's worth (ok, I didn't get to 1-11 until after midnight last night, which is why I stuck to a small, simple room). Not that anyone is policing me except myself, anyway. 1-10: Gatehouse Overlook This space is on the west side of 1-08; the locked door can be opened with Key 1A. This space has small arrow-slits and barred windows on the west wall which overlook the gatehouse (to be designed). The only other exit from the room are stairs leading up to level 2 in the northeast corner. The western wall is coated with runes which glow with lights swirling through the magical writings, changing color from green to red, blue, orange, indigo, yellow, violet, and octarine as they move. An Identify Magic Check (Arcana DC 18; other skills DC 20) determines the runes' purpose. Any ch...