Tomb of the Doomed One
Regdar leans against the stone wall, sliding down it until he sits in defeat against the masonry. "How much farther does this lich's dungeon run? Ye told me the Doomed One's tomb was a small one. I swear, if I have ta fight one more dire rat..."
"Quiet Regdar," hushed the tall elf, his bald head slicked from humidity of the corridors, "...I already told you that we have not reached his tomb yet, this is merely the remains of his city we traverse. The entrance to his tomb should be just around this..." Glaur mumbles off just as his head peeks around the corner.
"Blast yer premonitions Glaur, did ye see another lass pine fer her true love?" Propping himself up by his axe, Regdar stands and strides to face the stammer's cause. It seemed a courtyard, with a small monument in the center of the entrance to the Doomed One's tomb, the slick moss draped over the ruined city. It was dry however, at the border to the tomb's entrance itself, cobwebs drooped across. The skeleton of a glabrezu lay just within the confines of the tomb's entrance, it's pincers outstretched before it, and heavy grooves line themselves out and into the courtyard; as if the tanar'ri were dragged back in.
Physical Description: The Tomb of the Doomed One is to be the final portion of an otherwise fully active dungeon of the DM's choice, with the expected dangers already overcome by the party. By all appearances, this is your typical dungeon tomb, full of traps and immortal guardians waiting to destroy any who dare to violate its sanctity. However, the dungeon itself is in ruins. Traps lay in open disrepair, inspection revealing that many of the components rotted from the inside. Golems, fiends, and normally eternal creatures who seek not food nor sleep are all destroyed. Their remains in positions of defeat, as if they had begun to wither from the inside and could do nothing to fight.
Catalyst/History: Long ago, there was your typical master of the arcane who took over his city with an iron fist. Seeking immortality, he turned to the powers of lichdom, and as time passed, he spent less time ruling in person, leaving the duty to his minions. For sanctuary, he built a tomb in the center of the city, his studies conducted within the bottom of the dungeon. It was built as a maze to confuse any intruders that attempted to disturb him, and many a trap was built to further eliminate adventurers. As time went on, his city fell into ruin, but the lich had long since given up the desire to rule and only sought to study and stop intruders. His dungeon became more dangerous, and famous for its supposed treasure within.
Untold numbers of adventuring parties have attempted to storm the dungeon and obtain the treasures within. But time after time, yet another team of intrepid adventurers went into the dungeon only to meet their end. The dungeon had become infamous for its dangers, and the rumours of its treasure only inflated with it. Thus, the deaths continued in their horrible fashions. However, all things must end, and the toll of deaths grew too great for adventurers to risk venturing forth.
Something happened since that time though. The souls of the adventurers lost within the dungeon are countless, and their pain great. Eventually, the collective wrath of the parties lost got too great for even the lich to contain. Limitless, formless wrath rose up and took its vengeance upon both trap and guardian. Nothing survived, and even the lich was sundered. However, their lost lives remain unfinished, and remnants of the horrors seen within the dungeon remain. Some of the spirits are still trapped, reliving their last moments while the ruined traps retain a palpable horror to them.
Alignment: Neutral Evil is the dominant alignment. Unfettered wrath and angst from the lingering spirits that died within, combined with the feelings of loss and hopelessness make the dungeon feel like one has entered a microcosm of the Gray Waste of Hades. In fact, the crushing despair and agony from the spirits of the slain adventurers continue to weigh heavily on the psyches of any who enter, as listed below for long-term effects.
Rumours: Gather Information (DC 25) will reveal the historical elements of the tomb (Bardic Lore DC 20), as far as why the tomb was constructed and its bloody history. The fact it's now dead and haunted is not a fact known to anyone by this point. Information of historical value can be gleaned through the writings found in various situations (particular binding circles, bloodied transcriptions of someone's last words, etc), but the age of the place as well as deterioration will require a Decipher Script (DC 25) or so to understand.
Encounters: Many of the encounters of this dungeon are more flavour descriptions, as is shown by a few examples below. The order they are encountered in is up to you, as the actual layout of the dungeon is fairly freeform. In order to prevent the dungeon from being too much of a good thing, as it were, it is suggested that you try not to have too many more encounters such as these.
- A room with a handful of stone golems, either broken in half or significant portions fallen off. Attempts to examine the remnants show that they are mere sandstone, crumbling in the adventurer's hands like sand.
- A plain hallway with a pit in the center, the trap door swinging loosely open. Those that look for the first time at the bottom the pit trap will see a still living person impaled upon a barbed spike, blood flowing and arm reaching for the person who looks. Any who attempt to climb down and get a closer look will find the vision changing, and see that it is actually an old skeleton with a locket wrapped around its hand (its image aged into obscurity)
- Coming upon a closed iron door, a careful rogue will find a swinging scythe trap. But whether he attempts to disarm it or the party trips it, the result is the same. The scythe will come out of its slot, and fall to the ground, the metal rusted from the inside.
- Screams bellow from the room ahead, those that look see a vampire holding a battered human mage that only screams. The vampire leans against the wall, releasing a green cloud that causes the human's face to break into boils, eventually the screaming stops due to swelling in the throat. If the party tries to open the door fully to stop the vampire, the scene will change, and the vampire will be alone and leaning against the wall, face withered and eyes glazed over with lifelessness.
- Several of the spikes on the broken traps still have their poison on them. The centuries of neglect have caused them to fester and mutate, becoming small spore colonies of several types of disease, Slimy Doom being the most dangerous among them. Feel free to include a lone colony of yellow mold in one of the broken pits or in the corner of a room where a fungoid monster used to be.
In order to spice up the dungeon, more active remnants of the horrors from before remain...
- Before the encounter, have the party make a Will save such that only one is likely to succeed at. Entering an otherwise empty room, a creature of a CR roughly 7 higher than the party's average level enters through a secret door. The creature, immune to fire, will set off a trap that fills the room with flames that damage the party for about 2d6 per round, on top of the attacks the creature will levy forth upon the party until all have fallen (along with much boasting of its supremacy). The party will then awaken, realizing the encounter to be only a quasi-real illusion that deals subdual damage. If one of the party members either makes the save or was is immune to illusions, then they get to watch the party scream at nothing and fall unconscious.
- A slightly more vibrant room, there will be a tough monster remaining, attacking the party (roughly CR = party level + 3 or 4). However, 2 rounds into the fight, the damage will be revealed as fake (not even subdual damage) and the monster will get attacked by the collective spirit of dead adventurers from prior forays. Blue soul-stuff seeps from the masonry cracks, surrounding the creature and pulling it against the wall. Faces of wrath can be seen in the ephemeral smoke while they howl, causing the creature's ears to bleed while it's vital force is seen drained away until it lies motionless. The room's colors will fade to the usual color, and the drained creature will remain, almost totally untouched from the moment it was destroyed in the vision.
Treasure: The actual treasure of the dungeon is the lich's stash, famed and coveted by all of the adventurers that dared to enter and failed horrifically. It has, of course, been exaggerated in value, but remains of some significance to the party. Once to the bottom of the dungeon tomb, they will find a lich seated in a formerly lavish chair before its desk, its face one of horror and the body 'lifeless'. If they disturb the lich at all, soul-stuff (see last example encounter above) will rise from the body of the lich as if smoking. Its body will jerk artificially to face the party, and speak a cryptic riddle, sounding like a chorus of thousands speaking in unison.
You can use whatever is appropriate here, but it is suggested for the room to have astrological diagrams covering the walls and the riddle be "Born with the world, destined to live as long as the world, and yet never five weeks old.". The mechanism to uncover the treasure will be where the moon should be, as it is intentionally removed from the diagram. Thus, you need to figure out both the riddle and make a Knowledge (astronomy) check (DC 15). As most will not have ranks in astronomy, Knowledge (the planes) can be substituted at a +5 to the DC.
The actual treasure itself should be a variety of nonmagical, yet lavish, scepters, jewels, and velvet bags with diamond dust. All of these items are components for the various spells of the lich (jade circlet, etc), and are worth in total equal to the average treasure award for an encounter roughly 4 higher than the average party level. For example, a level 6 party will find 7,500gp worth of treasure.
The lich's tomes and spellbooks have been destroyed with him, due to age. However, a couple golden medallions are inscribed with highly complex geometries and symbols, containing encoded spell script. Learning spells from here are as from a normal spellbook, only the DC is +10 due to complexity.
Long Term Effects: This is a quality few adventuring parties will experience, but if they attempt to stay too long within it, they might succumb to the mental horror of the dungeon tomb. In a manner similar to the Gray Waste of Hades, every day spent within the dungeon requires a Will save (DC 10+total number of days in tomb). Failure will result in the player's mind being crushed beneath the weight of horror, pain, agony. His eyes will become dead, his mannerisms will be paranoid (as if the tomb was still active), and attempts to leave the dungeon tomb will cause blue soul-stuff to rise from the cracks and consume the character.
