D19 - D23: more catchup

 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 marble flecked with electric blue.

In the middle of the room the corpse of a bandit lies face-down. A perception check (DC 23) reveals that the body is unnaturally flat on the ground, as if it was supporting the body (like memory foam).

The doors to the west, north, and east are unobstructed apart from the dangers of this room. The door in the south wall is barred from the south side.

Encounter (severe 2)

The floor acts like quicksand, except as noted: only one character can be affected at a time; once a character reaches the "surface" the stone solidifies under their feet, but another randomly-determined character immediately falls to waist-depth. A trapped character can't move laterally, only trying to swim back to the "surface" within their square (reduce their submerged level by 1, 2 on a crit success). The "quicksand" doesn't trigger until a character reaches the middle of the room, and the athletics check to 'swim' is DC 18. Demons are not effected by the marble.

Additionally, as soon as a character is sucked in, a dretch surfaces from the floor and starts attacking anyone nearby. If the dretch is killed, it swiftly sinks back into the floor, leaving behind no evidence of its body (normally outsiders either fade away insubstantially, or dissolve to dust on death).

Treasure

If anyone is able to reach the corpse and search it, they find most of the gear and equipment is fused with the marble floor and can't be removed without destroying it. However, they're able to pull out a frost vial (lesser) and 12 (slightly melted) silver coins.

1-21: Collapsed by blizzard

The wall leading to the courtyard has collapsed long ago, giving full access to the storm outside. By some trick of the rubble, the wind blasts through this area as a full jet constantly, filling it with snow. The area is all difficult terrain to wade through the snowdrifts. Neither door is blocked or locked (apart from needing considerable force because of the snow piled in the room); the wall is collapsed in the north, and a character can cross through there.

Any character in this area takes 1 cold damage/round, and must make a fort save (DC 14) to avoid being knocked over (on a failure, fall prone; on a critical failure also take 1d6 bludgeoning damage).

In exploration mode, crossing the room is still dangerous--each character crossing the room much succeed on a DC 16 acrobatics check to keep their footing crossing the room; DC 19 if crossing out over the broken wall to the outside. On a failure, they fall prone into the snowbank and take 1d12 cold damage before they can extricate themselves (if another character helps them and passes a DC 18 athletics check to clear snow for them, halve the damage, but if the helper fails, they take damage as if they had failed the acrobatics check too)

Reward: treat the room as a level 2 simple hazard for experience purposes.

1-22: Rotten kitchen

This room has a series of stone tables, with large ovens built into the southwest wall. The corner in the far southwest exposes the natural cliff face; otherwise, the room has a mix of artificial walls and excavations of the mountain stone.

The doors to the north, northeast, east, and south are all unsecured, except the south door, which is secured by the magic key which will be useful for the northern tower. A survival (DC 16) check confirms that there has been considerable traffic by the bandits through this area, tracking in snow from both the northeast and eastern door, leading toward the north door. The bandits have generally left the tables alone.

Encounter (moderate 2)

A pair of giant centipedes nest in one of the stone ovens, and a character investigating will disturb them; they will attack to see off any threat. Additionally, any sudden movements (such as reacting to combat) will trigger the rusted kitchen implements, which have imbued the magic of the place for millennia, to emerge as an elite animated silverware swarm, which attacks until it has been damaged enough to lose its animation.

Treasure

Investigating the pots which once held stores, very little is left, except for one amphora of some kind of liquid which has become extremely hazardous to consume--or maybe that's what the serpantfolk liked to drink. In any case, its contents can now fill vials or flasks to serve as three acid flasks (moderate) (DC 18 craft check to recognize the uses for this).

1-23: Fossilized cliff face

This room is only accessible from the door in the north, which requires the magic key to access (details tbd). The bare cliff face makes up the west wall of this room, covered by a heavy vaulted roof and with reinforced masonry on the other walls.

The cliff face here has been preserved with intact fossils appearing out of the stone. A nature check (DC 18) recognizes the fossils as belonging to some great serpant, likely as wide around as a sailing ship and three or four hundred feet long. An ancient stone stands below the fossils, with vats on either side (originally burning with oil, long ago).

Treasure

Laid flat on the table, untouched in all this time, sits a powerful storm hammer.