The Tombs of the Maze-Builders

THE TOMBS OF THE MAZE BUILDERS

Level One

The tombs are built from large black stone blocks, very different from the construction of Magda's prison complex. The ceilings are 10ft high in the alcoves and small rooms, but 50 foot high in the large pillared areas. There is no natural light in the tombs.

On the first floor of the tombs, the PCs must roll on the encounter table for each hour they spend exploring, or if when make a loud noise. 

Remember that the numbers of Dimensional Vermin and Chaos Eaters are finite, and should be marked off against the dungeon manifest. 

• 1 - 4: The air is close, dead, thick, and silent. 
• 5 - 8: You hear a distant thud, or a soft dragging closer by. Further rolls on this table are at +2.
• 9 - 11: 2 Spine Demons, a bonded hunting pair. 
• 12 - 15: 2d10 Hunter Maggots.
• 16 - 17: d4 Dimensional Vermin. If all Vermin have been killed, replace with 2d10 Hunter Maggots. 
• 18: a Chaos Eater! If all Chaos Eaters have been killed, replace with d6 Cuckoos.
• 19: 2 Chaos Eaters! If all Chaos Eaters have been killed, replace with a single Peacebody Soldier, stalking you through the darkness.
• 20: The Ancient Psychonaut. If it has been killed, nothing. 

Room key:

• 1: Painted Hall. The black stone walls of this enormous room have been richly decorated with thick, blood-red glazes. The designs shift and glow under torch and lantern light. They show complex labyrinths, contained inside abstract geometric patterns. Gigantic crimson figures with obscure faces are painted at either side of every door that leads out from the room. The air is still and dead, and the silence is thick. 
• 2: Exit. This tunnel leads directly out into the open area of the Underground. From inside the Painted Hall it looks like the tunnel ends in solid blackness.
• Starred Rooms: Tombs of the Gods. All starred rooms are identical. Stone doors can be pushed open with difficulty. The walls inside feature three rows of stone shelving, on which are placed clay urns of various sizes. There are 30 or 40 urns to a room. There is also a beaten bronze cauldron in the centre of the floor of each room, filled with ancient ash and many burnt clay effigies depicting fish and krill. Each urn contains a small idol, painted in bright glazes, and they have a hundred different body-types and faces. Smashing an urn has a 1 in 6 chance of destroying the idol inside. Intact idols are worth 200s each to the museum in the capital, or an interested noble. Each urn you smash has a 1 in 10 chance of cursing you with horror hunger - you must immediately eat five rations or lose 1 max HP; corpses count as rations for this purpose. Elf-Friends can attract motes in the Tombs of the Gods as though they were areas of pristine wilderness.
• 3: Empty Tomb. The shelves in this room are empty, but there is a silent and invisible presence that you can feel immediately on entering. It is hostile and murderous, and though it cannot hurt you physically, you cannot fall asleep in this room. If you force yourself to sleep with sedatives you become a sleepwalking, ravenous, cannibalistic murderer under the control of the DM until you can be woken up (a point of damage will do it), at which point you suffer d3 points of horror (as fatigue).
• 4: Sage. Large, naked White Ape sitting amongst the detritus. The room smells strongly of incense. She does not speak common, and will become agitated if you start smashing urns. She will trade for rations (at normal value), or clothing, tools, and weapons (at 5 times their usual value) - she doesn't care about money or treasure. She has 2 black pearls that can be sold for 250s each or used as prosthetic eyes by hammering them into empty sockets (no normal vision but blindsight out to 10ft, you must install both for them to work). She will also sell you incense, small stone carvings, and a handwritten manuscript of her own literary efforts. If you can translate it, you will find that it is a work of political philosophy, extolling the importance of the sage in shaping and guiding the decision-making of the sovereign. It is ruthlessly pragmatic, and places a high value on the suppression of kindness and altruism. If you can convince someone powerful of its worth they might give you up to 800s for it. After one year, the book will have destroyed the reader's capacity for empathy, with potentially serious political consequences.
• 5: Mercury. A deep channel has been carved into the floor of this room, following the base of the walls. It is filled with liquid mercury that shines dully. For every minute you spend in here you must save CON or take d4 damage. The walls are painted with the same strange crimson figures as the Painted Hall, but here they are depicted lying on top of one another in twisted heaps. The broad stone stairwell leads down into the floor.

For Dimensional Vermin and Chaos Eaters, see HERE.

For Spine Demons, Hunter Maggots, Peacebody Soldiers, and Cuckoos, see HERE.

The Ancient Psychonaut: Something with disturbingly human proportions that crawled up from the centre of the earth centuries ago. It is encased head-to-toe in delicate, pale, ceramic armour. A walking psychic apocalypse: anything living that comes within 20ft of it is immobilised, and dealt d8 psychic damage per turn, as they are crushed and maimed by invisible forces. You can check STR to move 5ft closer to the Psychonaut, and all attacks made from within 20ft are made with disadvantage. A vile, high-voltage buzzing is audible at all times. 

HD2, psychic attack as above, armour as plate, speed: slow walk, disposition: lonely, curious, insane.

Exoskeleton: Each attack that hits the Ancient Psychonaut reduces its AC by one. The Psychonaught will also take damage per turn equal to this reduction - if its armour has been reduced by 2, it will take 2 damage per turn, etc. Once its armour is damaged it will attempt to flee. 

The Ancient Psychonaut has a strange, protective relationship with the Sage in room 4. If the Sage is killed, the next roll on the encounter table will always count as a 20.

If you kill it, you can loot the Helm of the Psychonaut, an exquisite pale ceramic helmet with a decorative proboscis. The helm is completely sealed and without eyeholes. While wearing it you generate the psychic attack aura exactly as above, with the following exceptions:

• You also take damage from the attack, but yours is a d3 instead of a d8. You are immobilised like everyone else, but can check STR to move 5ft. 
• You must check STR to remove the helm. 
• While wearing the helm you cannot see or breath.

Its armour can also be looted, and is completely fire and heat proof. It counts as plate, but degrades the same way that it does while the Psychonaut is wearing it. At -2, the armour halves heat and fire damage instead of providing immunity. At -4 it provides no special protection. 

Level Two

All doors are heavy stone, and shift with effort unless otherwise noted. 

On the second floor of the tombs, the PCs must roll on the encounter table for each hour they spend exploring, or if when make a loud noise. 

• 1 - 12: The air is close, dead, thick, and silent. 
• 13 - 16: A high-pitched buzzing noise, just outside hearing. Further rolls on this table are at +2.
• 17 - 18: 2d10 Hunter Maggots.
• 19: The second Ancient Psychonaut. If it has already been killed, nothing. 
• 20: The second Ancient Psychonaut, accompanied by the Veteran of the Psychic Wars. 

Room Key:

• 1: Entrance Hall. Black stone, echoing silence. Empty.
• 2: Painted Antechamber. This room is painted in a similar fashion to the Painted Hall on the first level - in thick, shining red glaze. The motifs are similar, but also include a complicated labyrinth painted onto the floor. Scuffs and wear on the floor show that it has been traversed often. The maze ends at the centre of the room, with a deep pool of liquid mercury. For every minute you spend in this room you must save CON or take d4 damage.
• 3: The House of the King. The walls are completely clad in mirrored bronze. A very large clay pot in the centre of the room, containing a large and horrible painted clay figurine. The pot is heaped with obsidian and platinum grave goods, mostly spears and jewellery, both too large for a human. There is probably about 10000s worth of grave goods here, but all of it is bulky and heavy. If you remove any of the loot from this room, you must save CHAR or suffer the Curse of the King. Smashing the clay pot will inflict this curse immediately, without a save. Curse of the King: you can no longer eat rations - you can only feed yourself on the flesh of humans of lower rank than yourself. This includes all commoners and criminals by default, but you may be granted official titles etc. that increase your feeding possibilities. 
• 4: The House of the King's Consort. The walls are completely clad in mirrored silver. A very large clay pot in the centre of the room, containing a large and horrible painted clay figurine. In front of the pot is laid a platinum recurve bow, strung with bright wire. It is too big for a human, but might be used with difficulty by a character of STR 16 or more - it will need custom arrows made, has -1 to hit, and deals 2d6 damage. If you remove the bow from this room, you must save CHAR or suffer the Curse of the Consort. Smashing the clay pot will inflict this curse immediately, without a save. Curse of the Consort: you can no longer eat rations - you can only feed yourself on the flesh of humans of higher rank than yourself. This will be everyone if you are ever legally convicted of a crime.
• 5: Tombs of the Warriors. This long room has 8 identical tombs branching off from it, and a pit in its floor that drops away into darkness. The painted murals are in garish yellow and blue glazes, and depict furious battle. A complicated maze is painted onto the floor, scuffed with use. At its conclusion is the bottomless pit. This room also includes a mercury channel at the base of its walls - for every minute you spend here you must save CON or take d4 damage. Each of the radiating tombs contains a nine-foot-tall humanoid mummy frozen in a pose of mourning or weeping. All mummies are dressed in bronze armour and carry bronze swords. 
• 6: Tomb of the Sadist. In the centre of this room is a raised stone dais, on which sits a cross-legged, nine-foot-tall humanoid mummy. In its lap sit bronze chains and a bronze needle. There is no ornamentation, the walls and floor are black stone. Standing in front of the dais, silent and utterly still, is a Maze-Builder Protector Thane. 
• 7: Tombs of the Priests. This room reeks of ammonia. It has 8 identical tombs branching off from it, and a pit in its floor that drops away into darkness. There are dark stains on the surfaces, like drags marks. The painted murals are in white glazes, and depict communion with the sun at the centre of the earth. A complicated maze is painted onto the floor, scuffed with use. At its conclusion is the bottomless pit. This room also includes a mercury channel at the base of its walls - for every minute you spend here you must save CON or take d4 damage. Each of the radial tombs has had its door forced open, and they each contain d3-1 Tomb Slimes. If this roll is a 0, it instead contains a nine-foot-tall humanoid mummy, frozen in a pose of adoration. 
• 8: Tomb of the Mystic. This room reeks of ammonia. In its centre is a raised stone dais, empty. There is no ornamentation, the walls and floor are black stone. Everything is covered in thick, transluscent residue, and a desiccated Protector-Thane lies dead in the centre of the floor. 4d6 Tomb Slimes hibernate here, three of them inside the corpse of the Thane. 
• 9: Tombs of the Domestics. This entire room is crammed with nine-foot-tall mummies, as are the three tomb-corridors at its rear. They are packed in so densely that moving between them is hard - the room counts as difficult terrain. They have not been posed at all and lie where they were thrown. The room has no ornamentation. The two 'secret' doors are sections of wall that have obviously been blocked up with heavy stones after the original construction. It will take two hours of work for a single person to remove them such that the entrances are useable. They reveal rough and unfinished tunnels that were obviously not part of the original design of the tombs. 
• 10: Nest. Rough hewn rooms with furniture, where people obviously once lived. All of the furniture is human scaled, and it look like there are bunks for 15-20 people. There are containers, a large table surface. Everything has rotted to uselessness except two bronze and bone knives in functional condition.  
• 11: Geometry. The walls of this room are thin masonry, which can be knocked through without too much difficulty. It looks as though the room was sealed at some point. Inside, the walls, floor, and ceiling have been scored with twisted mazes of extreme complexity. They are not at all like the mazes in the main tomb complex, they feel paranoid, recursive, insane, and hopeless. There are also various technical drawings that attempt to describe geometries beyond the Euclidean. PCs may check INT to understand that the premise of these experiments is flawed, making the conclusions useless. 
• 12: Bone Pile. Another bricked up room. This one contains human skeletons that have obviously been gnawed on and broken open for marrow. A count will reveal 16 adult and 9 child skeletons. 
• 13: Painting. A wall painting that depicts the sun and the ocean, and another that shows a hollow sphere containing a second sphere. Both have been messily and hastily defaced, but the originals were executed with some skill. The paint is the same white glaze that was used in the Tombs of the Priests. 
• 14: Hideaway. Four human skeletons, two adults, two children. Their bones have not been bitten or otherwise disturbed. They died in each others' arms. The 'secret' door is another pile of heavy rocks. The bronze dagger Nameless is held in the hand of one of the adults.  
• 15: Refuge. This long corridor ends in a dead end, where the wrappings of mummies have been used to make a soft bed. If you have not killed either the Ancient Pyschonaut or the Veteran of the Psychic Wars, they will be found here, curled in an embrace (in full armour). They will be immediately hostile if found this way, and will not flee when they begin taking damage from their exoskeletons. If you attack without hesitation, you will get a surprise round. Their psychic suppression fields will flick on with a cracking whine when they become aware of you (after any surprise round). 

The Second Ancient Psychonaut is identical to the one on the first floor, but without any special love for the Monkey Sage. 

The Tomb Slimes are hd1, attack by engulfing, unarmoured, speed: as a sprinting human, disposition: pack hunters, drawn to heat sources (will go for a torch before a human). Engulf: If the slime hits with its attack, it engulfs you. You cannot breath or see, and you take d6 damage each turn you are engulfed. Any torch you are carrying is immediately extinguished. You take half of any damage inflicted to the slime while engulfed by it. 

The Veteran of the Psychic Wars is identical to the other Ancient Psychonauts, but is HD3, and carries a Heat Lash and a shield. The Heat Lash is a whip +2 that does fire damage. The Veteran can attack normally while its psychic aura is doing damage. Moving while under the effects of two psychic fields requires two STR checks. 

Protector-Thane: HD6, bronze war-axe d10x2, armour as plate and shield, speed: slow walk, disposition: guardian. The Protector-Thane is a nine foot tall humanoid armoured head-to-toe in heavy bronze. The style of the armour is like nothing in the Barony. Its features are covered in mummy wrappings, but this is a ritual affectation, and the creature beneath is alive. It will not be hostile unless attacked, or if you are carrying grave goods or mess with the mummies. If it decides to kill you it will fight to the death. 

Nameless is a bronze and bone dagger with a deeply stained blade. It does 4d6 damage to enemies that are bound or otherwise made helpless.