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Below the Abandoned Dormitories

The ceilings here are 10' high and the doors are not especially sturdy, unless otherwise stated.

Rooms

1.1. Forgotten Cellar

As you descend, the scent of musk, mold, and dirt fills your nostrils and the sound of chittering fills your ears.

You can see that the room is filled with crates. Expired food and drinks are packed in each crate. Some bags of once edible staples lean against crates and walls. There is a set of stairs along the northern wall and a hole in the floor in the southeast corner of the room. At the edge of the hole, you can spot the top of another ladder. Mold fills the room and every surface seems to be covered in a carpet of brown, orange, and white. Making the most of the spoilage throughout the room, you spot hundreds of rats and mice chewing crates, food, and moss alike, and scurrying in and out of holes they've made in the crates.

Investigate

DC 17 Perception reveals:

The rats themselves are covered in fuzzy brown mold

Dangers

Any characters bitten by the rats are exposed to the mold. On his initiative, the Earl burns the rats to death with a careful fireball, leaving the mold untouched.

1.2. Excavated Ruins Attic

Descending again, you no longer smell the pungent scent of mold. Instead, a cool and damp feeling assaults you. The sound of dripping water hitting a wood surface is the only sound you hear.

You find yourselves in a place altogether more ancient. The floor is made of partially petrified wood with a substrate of some kind of ceramic, maybe. Small stones and pieces of misshapen brass and other metals are scattered across the floor. Along the eastern wall, there's a ladder leading upwards. Across the room, you see a square hole with the top of a ladder propped against the edge.

Investigate

  • DC 16 Int (Investigation) reveals

The room is likely over eight thousand years old, and could be as much as thirteen thousand years old.

Dangers

  • Collapsing Roof - Earl Nolthe Torbogenfällt falls through the floor, landing in the basement. Unluckily, a sharp piece of wood has entered his heart. He is paralyzed until the party are able to remove the piece of wood.

1.3. Lost Ruins Floor 2 Bedroom

The sound of confusion and shouting can be heard from below. The same dampness as above is present here too.

You arrive in a similarly ancient room as the one above. It's been carefully excavated, and little dirt remains. The collapsed ceiling seems to have collapsed the floor of this room as well, and, from the looks of it, at least one floor below this one. On either side of the recently-installed door in the eastern wall are a pair of ancient-looking bronze statues depicting a wolf on the left and a deer on the right.

Dangers

1.4. Lost Ruins Floor 2 Hallway

The sound of people grows louder as you enter this room. Light flickers through the gaps in the floor and the staircase against the southern wall which leads downward. There is also a door leading west.

Standing against the southern wall of the room are a pair of statue-still constructs made of now-almost-melting flesh.

Dangers

  • Damaged Flesh Golem x2 (instructed over a thousand years ago to attack anyone who enters the room. They're damaged because of lack of maintenance over the long years since they were buried)

1.5. Lost Ruins Floor 1 Common Room

This large and well-lit room is filled with unorganized bedrolls, folding chairs, and tables. Stored in the south eastern corner of the room are several crates of supplies. Along the southern wall, a staircase ascends to the floor above and an open and recently-installed door leads east. Four men and two women are alert around the room and obviously spot you as you enter.

Dangers

  • Cultist x6
  • The sound of fighting here draws the attention of the cultists in area 1.6 one round later.

1.6. Lost Ruins Floor 1 Storage Room

This small dark room is filled with rubbish and timeworn containers of what once may have been tools, toys, and documents. The ceiling above has collapsed and smashed into the floor below, destroying a ladder to the next floor down close to the north wall. An open door leads to another room to the west.

If the room still has cultists in it:

It's well lit only by the torches of the six hooded individuals investigating the collapsed ceiling that has crushed the floor below.

If the room does not have cultists in it:

The room is unlit.

Dangers

  • Cultist x6
  • The sound of fighting here draws the attention of the cultists in area 1.5 one round later.
  • The edges of the collapsed hole are dangerous. If a player approaches within 5' of the open hole, they must make a DC 12 Reflex save or fall in, taking 1d6.

1.7. Lost Ruins Basement

Your lost companion is close to the northern wall, lying atop a pile of rubble, and still stunned from the fall. Two cultists, one of whom is injured from the collapse, also occupy the room. The dripping water across the upper floors appears to settle here, as a foot of water fills the room, making it difficult to walk. In the western wall, there is an open entrance to what appears to be a tunnel. It's roughly square, approximately ten feet tall, and ten feet wide and the entrance is about two feet off the floor, keeping the water out of the tunnel.

Dangers

  • Cultist x2 (One has taken 2d6 damage, possibly killing him)
  • Gray Ooze (Hiding in the water, and attempting to attack the party's ally)
  • The water and debris here is enough to make the entire room difficult terrain.
  • The party likely wish to rescue their friend before the cultists or gray ooze do further harm to them.

Treasures

1.8. Tunnel

The solid stone walls of this long roughly hewn tunnel are cold but dry. The passage leads steadily down at a gentle angle and towards the north west. It seems to be several hundred feet long, but a light can be seen at the far end.

1.9. Excavated Cathedral

The tunnel exits in the southeastern corner of the room into a massive space fourty feet high, a hundred and fifty feet wide, and five hundred feet long north to south. The walls, ceiling and floor seem to be made of thousands or tens of thousands of years worth of archeology. In the northwestern and southwestern corners of the room are two massive golden pillars. Near the western end of the room is a chalk ritual circle approximately fourty feet across. Candles are placed equally distant throughout the circle. Twelve chanting cultists stand at regularly spaced points along the outer perimeter of the circle.

If the Earl Nolthe Torbogenfällt accompanied the party:

Of greater concern are the four monstrous human-headed beasts standing between the party and the cultists. Without a doubt, they cannot be mistaken for anything but female sphinxes.

Otherwise:

Of greater concern is the monstrous green giant in the centre of the room. It can be mistaken for no creature other than a troll.

Dangers

  • Gynosphinx x4 (If Earl Nolthe Torbogenfällt accompanies the party. The Earl warns the party to avoid the Sphinxes and to leave them to him, no matter what. The sphinxes will not interfere with the party's actions as they are too busy fighting with the Earl.)
  • Troll (If different NPC accompanies the party)
  • Cultist x12 (Busy completing the ritual. One of the cultists is Shamash Vrondiss.)
  • The ritual is due to complete within 5 rounds. Place a visible counter in front of the party. Alternatively, place a 10 minute real-life timer in front of them. After the ritual is complete, one of the cultists needs to press a button on the gold pillar in the southwestern corner of the room. If both of these events come to pass, the party have 5 more rounds before the Gate awakens again, bringing destruction instead of salvation this time. They can stop the gate from opening by passing a DC 13 Int (Arcana) check at either of the gold pillars in the western corners of the room.

Map

below-abandoned-dorms-map