Ancient Sewers and Sihedron Shrine
DERRO VAULT
“Blue, glowing fungus grows in numerous patches across the walls of this large chamber. To the east, a shadowy balcony overlooks the room at a height of ten feet, while in the center of the room a wide spiral stairwell descends into the darkness. A second flight of stairs descends along the western wall.”
The patches of glowing blue fungus are cytillesh, a toxic fungus that causes birth defects and madness—and constitutes one of the staples of derro diet and alchemical research. A patch of cytillesh provides bright illumination to 20 feet. Every 24 hours a creature spends in this illumination it must succeed at a DC 15 Will save (+1 to the DC for each previous save) to avoid taking 1d4 points of Wisdom damage, to a maximum equal to 5 less than its normal Wisdom score. Further failed saving throws once this limit is reached cause lingering madness, such as those detailed in the GameMastery Guide. This is an insanity effect, and as such, derros are immune.
The stairs along the northwest wall lead down to Khrysm's Laboratory. The spiral stairs in the middle of the room lead down much farther than that—after descending for nearly 400 feet, they suddenly end at an open gulf, exiting into the roof of a large cavern filled with all manner of deadly fungi and creeping oozes. It's an 80-foot drop to the floor below—this cavern is one of the chambers of the upper reaches of the Darklands known as Nar-Voth. It is from this route that the derros first came to the region (with their leader Khrysm granting them all the effects of levitate), but further details are beyond the scope of this adventure.
The secret door leading to the Forgotten Corridor can be found with a successful DC 30 Perception check—but a character who carries the Shard of Pride feels a sudden urge to search this portion of the wall as soon as he enters the Derro Vault, gaining a +10 insight bonus on that Perception check as the urging to proceed toward the Shard of Greed compels him forward.
Journals: The source of the vanishings that have plagued Magnimar can be found here, in this room and its adjoining chambers. A group of four derros, led by a witch named Khrysm, have come to Magnimar via the deeper caverns below. For several months, they've been using the eastern tunnel from Sewer Falls to abduct stock for their experiments. The majority of their victims are subjected to hideous procedures (most of which involve vivisections and other studies the derros hope will provide a solution to their aversion to sunlight) before having their minds wiped clean via poison and magic, at which point they're returned to Magnimar's streets, typically with enough Wisdom damage from cytillesh exposure that they're barely able to function on their own.
The derros are each responsible for their own specialized type of experiments carried out in the adjoining rooms. They use this large central area for meetings , particularly to discuss tactics for upcoming raids. The first time the PCs approach this room, that's what three of the derros are doing here—arguing in Aklo about the best type of victim to abduct (their leader, Khrysm, remains in her laboratory for now). If the PCs approach stealthily, they find the derros finally coming to an agreement about abducting several fishermen from a Dockway tavern. If the PCs wish to ambush the derros at this point, the derros take a -4 penalty on Perception checks. Alternatively, if the PCs wait, the three derros split up to their own rooms, allowing the PCs to pick and choose whom they fight.
The derros are named Caedimus, Portioque, and Atlatia—see areas following for information about each's personality. The three are bitter rivals; each believes hisor her own specialty represents the best approach, and they argue bitterly even in combat. If one of the derros is defeated, the other two immediately break off combat and flee to their respective chambers, planning on utilizing their own personal defenses and guardians in each room to increase their own chances of survival rather than rely upon each other.
CAEDIMUS'S LABORATORY
“This twenty-foot-square domed chamber contains a juryrigged pair of low operating tables, complete with leather straps at both ends to hold the patients down. It holds vial after vial of preserved specimens along shelves in the wall. The second room contains an office and bedroom. Journals written in Undercommon are stuffed in bookshelves. Papers of various notes and maps litter the desk.”
Journals: Caedimus is most interested in how the body decays after death sets in—the derro believes that this decay is linked to the decay that derros suffer in the sunlight, and if he can find a way to retard or reverse the decay, he can adapt that solution to the larger problem. His primary subject has been a hunch—backed carrion golem he found in the caverns deep below—a creature the derros captured and whom Caedimus has managed to surgically reprogram so that it thinks of Caedimus as its father. To date, the derro has not been able to discover why the carrion golem's body refuses to rot further—a failure he is ever more frustrated by. Caedimus is by nature a loner, and only associates with the other derros because of strength in numbers.
Treasure: The surgical tools, while filthy, could be cleaned up; they are of quite good quality, and are worth 200 gp as a set. The Journals and specimens together represent a vast representation of underdark flora and fauna. Used as a reference, it grants a +2 on any knowledge nature or dungeoneering checks specific to flora and fauna of the underdark. Taken as a whole, after being properly catalogued, and to the right buyer it could fetch as much as 10,000 gp.
PORTIOQUE'S LABORATORY
“The corridor splits and ends in two equally sized square rooms—a bedroom to the northeast and some sort of abattoir to the southwest.”
Journals: The room to the northeast is the home and study of the derro Portioque. His favored theories on the nature of the derro vulnerability to sunlight is that the decay is caused by warmth, and that by protecting or canceling the sun's heat, a derro could exist with comfort under those deadly rays. The room to the south has several haunches of meat kept at a freezing temperature due to the presence of a patch of carefully cultivated brown mold. Whenever Portioque gets a living victim, he alternates his experiments between exposing the victim to the mold and then pulling it back from the brink of death, and injecting victims he keeps bound in his room with solutions of distilled brown mold spores mixed with various bodily humors extracted from previous victims or himself.
Portioque fancies himself an alchemist, and has studied the effects of various bodily humors for many years. To date, none of his subjects have emerged from their torments alive, and as such the other derros are hesitant to allow him to take the lead on experiments, knowing full well that victims who aren't returned to the surface are more likely to arouse unwanted attention. Embittered and vile, Portioque prefers to fight with a sinister weapon called an injection spear (see below) he keeps loaded with 5 doses of his own brew of brown mold spores—a concoction he calls frostspore (see below).
Treasure: An alchemist's lab, used primarily for distilling the inherent qualities of bodily fluids, sits on a table in Portioque's bedroom. His greatest treasure, an extraction scarificator (see below), sits amid the lab's components. In addition, 7 more vials of frostspore sit nearby.
ATLATIA'S LABORATORY
“This square room seems to serve a dual purpose as a bedroom and a torture chamber.”
Journals: Atlatia takes a less invasive approach to her researches—she believes that the key to defeating the killing rays of the sun lie in the minds of those who live on the surface. She uses a wand of charm person and noninvasive (but nonetheless painful) surgical torture to break the minds of her victims, then subjects them to extensive interrogations and thought-expanding injections of various drugs and toxins to try to navigate the pathways of the surface-dwelling mind. Alas, her own madness means her interrogations follow a recursive pattern that frequently drives her victims permanently mad, forcing her to replace her subjects with new ones.
Treasure: masterwork torture tools, +1 virulent darkwood repeating light crossbow (small), +1 darkleaf cloth lamellar armor (small), wand of charm person (19 charges), 1 dose purple worm poison, 2 doses bloodroot, 3 doses gelidburn oil, 2 doses bloodbrain venom, 1 dose blistercap spore.
PRISONER PENS
“A curved hallway stretches to the left and right, with stone cell doors lining the inner wall.”
These cell doors are used to keep recent prisoners the derros haven't yet started work on. Currently, six of these cells contain hapless, unconscious victims snatched fromthe streets of Magnimar—these NPCs can be significant characters the PCs have encountered, named NPCs from Magnimar: City of Monuments, or merely unfortunate citizens. Rescuing these prisoners is a part of Lord Mayor Grobaras's mini-quest (see the inside cover of this book).
The door to any cell containing a prisoner is locked (Disable Device DC 30 to pick the lock); Khrysm carries the keys to these doors. The prisoners are naked, and any gear they may have been captured with is kept in Khrysm's Laboratory.
FORGOTTEN CORRIDOR
“A curving stairwell shrouded in tattered cobwebs and a thick layer of dust extends into the darkness. A bulky cobweb shrouded shape looms in an alcove directly to th e east.”
These stairs wind 250 feet down into the dark, eventually leading to the Sihedron Shrine. The large bulky shape is a long-dead and well-preserved shriezyx—a monstrous, spiderlike aberration. A successful DC 14 Knowledge (dungeoneering) check is enough for a PC to recognize the dead thing for what it was, while a PC who succeeds at a DC 14 Knowledge (history) check recalls the event in 4623 AR in which swarms of these creatures clambered up out of the Irespan to menace Magnimar—an event that caused the lord mayor to issue a ban on quarrying the Irespan's stone.
KHRYSM'S LABORATORY
“This large room is set up as a crude alchemical lab—planks laid over barrels and crates serve as tables, but the alchemical gear set upon these crude tables appears to be quite high quality.”
Journals: This room has been claimed by the leader of the derros—a derro magister named Khrysm. An unabashed hedonist, Khrysm seeks to experience the full range of mortal sensations both personally and by observing others. She is a master torturer and has learned to use her aklys, drugs, alchemical skill, and inhuman instruments of her own design to bring victims to the heights of pleasure and the depths of agony again and again until they eventually go mad. The victims who survive are broken shells of who they once were—if indeed Khrysm deigns to leave any memories intact at all. She has largely abandoned the pursuit of discovering a cure for derro sunlight vulnerability, instead viewing her role as a magister as affording her the luxury of exploring the realm of pleasure and pain while her underlings toil on more immediate concerns.
Khrysm is attended by a pair of homunculi she created with the aid of long-dead allies from Nar-Voth—both creations look like tiny, bat-winged duplicates of the derro magister herself, and are completely loyal to their mistress.
Treasure: The equipment on the table constitutes a masterwork alchemist's lab. The northeast room serves as Khrysm's personal chambers—in addition to a large mound of cushions and blankets, she keeps her supply of cytillesh extract (the toxin she brews and uses to ensure that victims the derros are done with have no memories of their time as experiments) here in a wooden case—there are currently 3 doses of cytillesh extract. Any gear taken from prisoners is stored in the northwest room, along with several bags of coins the derros have taken from previous victims. In all, this area contains 232 pp, 1,423 gp, 2,100 sp, a lens of detection, a golembane scarab, and a wand of spiritual weapon (11 charges).
SIHEDRON SHRINE
“The room shines with a golden light emanating from crystals embedded in the domed ceiling. The entire dome is painted in reds and golds depicting the glory days of ancient Thassilon and remain as pristine as if the pigments were just laid. An altar shaped like a seven-pointed star sits in the center of the room—a smaller seven-pointed shape has been carved into the center of this larger block of stone. Sitting in one of the star's arms is a shard of black metal.”
This secret vault was used by Runelord Alaznist not only to hide the adamantine Shard of Greed she stole from one of Karzoug's vaults long ago, but to house a potent creation of her own she built in secret—the stone itself is a Sihedron Shrine, a replica of the one King Xin used to first create the Sihedron. The indentation in the center of the Sihedron Shrine is sized perfectly to fit all seven of the Shattered Star shards—with the proper ritual and magic, this stone can be used to rebuild the Shattered Star!
Creatures: Alaznist once kept much more powerful guardians in this room, but when Thassilon began to fall, she called the more dangerous of them from this room to her side, leaving behind only a pair of particularly large but (in the grand scheme of things) not so particularly powerful monsters—spiderlike horrors called shriezyx. Citizens of Magnimar know these monsters as the strange beasts that swarmed out of the Irespan back in 4623 AR. These two shriezyx have remained in temporal stasis since the fall of Thassilon, but as soon as the door to the room is opened, that effect ends and restores the two monsters to animate life. They have no idea that Thassilon has fallen, and assume the PCs are agents of Karzoug come to reclaim the Shard of Greed—they accuse the PCs of this in Thassilonian as they swiftly move to attack.
Being in such close proximity to both the Shard of Greed and the Sihedron Shrine for millenia has had its effect on these monstrosities. Both have absorbed some of the energy imbued in these artifacts that has, over time, turned them into Mythic beasts.
Treasure: The Shard of Greed lies atop the Sihedron Shrine, nestled in one of the arms of the indented Sihedron.
Index
EXTRACTION SCARIFICATOR
Aura faint conjuration and transmutation; CL 3rd
Slot none; Price 2,500 gp; Weight 1 lb.
DESCRIPTION
An extraction scarificator is a horrid variant of the more common bloodletting device used by healers and doctors. An extraction scarificator can be used only on a willing or helpless target. When placed against exposed flesh, the extraction scarificator's blades deal 1d4 points of damage plus 1d4 bleed. Once per day, an extraction scarificator can be used to extract and concentrate one of the four bodily humors from its target as well. The humor to be extracted can be adjusted as needed, and must be immediately poured into a potion vial or the extracted humor is lost. Extracting a humor takes a variable number of rounds—as soon as the victim has taken a total of 6 points of damage in all from the bleed effect, the extraction is complete. For 24 hours after extraction, this purified humor has an additional effect, functioning as one of four potions as listed below (all function at caster level 3rd).
- Black Bile: potion of lesser restoration
- Blood: potion of cure moderate wounds
- Phlegm: potion of calm emotions
- Yellow Bile: potion of rage
CONSTRUCTION
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, bleed, calm emotions, cure moderate wounds, lesser restoration, rage; Cost 1,250 gp
CYTILLESH EXTRACT
Brewed from the spores of the glowing blue fungus called cytillesh (or "brain mold"), this extract is often used by derros to cloud minds and instill amnesia in their victims.
Cytillesh Extract poison—ingested; save Fortitude DC 18; frequency 1/hour for 8 hours; effect victim loses all memory of events that took place in the previous hour and cannot form new memories as long as he remains poisoned—after he recovers, the time spent poisoned (plus the hour before his poisoning) is simply missing from memory (these missing memories might return later as dreams, and can be returned with a restoration or heal spell); cure 2 saves; cost 800 gp.
FROSTSPORE
This blend of brown mold spores in a pale blue solution feels cool to the touch.
Frostspore poison—ingested or injury; save Fortitude DC 13; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d6 cold damage plus staggered for 1 round; cure 2 saves; cost 100 gp.
INJECTION SPEAR
This exotic two-handed weapon allows the user to inject targets with liquid on a hit. The spear's reservoir can hold up to 5 doses of a single fluid—a single dose is automatically injected when the spear hits a target. A non-proficient user can wield an injection spear as a standard spear but cannot trigger the injection. An injection spear is otherwise identical to a normal spear, save that it cannot be thrown, weight 8 pounds, cannot be used to brace, cost 60 gp.
BLISTERCAP SPORE
Found in remote regions deep underground, the blistercap takes its name from the blisters on the bruise-colored cap atop its stem, which weep a toxic yellow fluid. The spores it produces often contribute to the dangers of underground exploration.
Blistercap Spore poison, contact; Save Fortitude DC 20, Frequency 1/round for 6 rounds, Initial Effect 1d2 Dex drain and 1 Con drain; Secondary Effect sickened for 1 minute; Cure 2 consecutive saves; Cost 1,125 gp.
BLOODBRAIN VENOM
The morlock creepers brew a potent and fragrant poison harvested from the bright red sap of brainshaped mushrooms that flourish in the lower caverns. Creatures struck by the poisoned darts are marked with a pungent fungal aroma for 10 minutes, even if they succeed at their Fortitude save. The scent is particularly potent to morlocks, allowing them to detect creatures tainted by it with their scent ability at a range of 100 feet even in the still air of the caves. The smell can be scrubbed off as a full round action with an alkalai substance, such as milk or soap. Cost 400 gp.
BLOODROOT
Bloodroot injury; Save Fortitude DC 12; Onset 1 round; Frequency 1/round for 4 rounds; Effect 1 Con damage and 1 Wis damage and confusion 1 round; Cure 1 save; Cost 100 gp.
GELIDBURN OIL
This greasy pale-blue liquid delivers a shocking sensation that is both freezing cold and searing hot.
Gelidburn Oil poison, injury; Save Fortitude DC 12; Frequency 1/round for 4 rounds; Effect 1d3 fire damage, 1d3 cold damage, and staggered 1 round; Cure 1 save; Cost 75 gp.
PURPLE WORM POISON
Purple Worm Poison injury; Save Fortitude DC 24; Frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; Effect 1d3 Str damage; Cure 2 consecutive saves; Cost 700 gp.
SHARD OF PRIDE (Major Artifact)
SHARD OF GREED (Major Artifact)
