Estimated reading time: 2 minutes (4 with room descriptions)
As I mentioned in the last update, in March we’ll see some more action. In this post a new level of the dungeon begins, one that is lower than the prison level we finished last time. Six rooms are featured in this update, together forming one complex. The drawing style is a little different from the last level. I’m trying out new techniques in pursuit of raising the quality of the maps. Since I’m sharing them with the world, they could use more attention.
I started below room II/49, or the isolation cell in the gnomish part of the abandoned prison. A shaft leads down from there some 25 ft., first few feet furnished with iron rungs, then a rope ladder leading into a rectangular room with six sarcophagi. The tomb contains the bodily remains of six high priests of a long-vanished cult, and can be left by a door on the eastern side of the room. Someone barricaded the door with slabs of stone that probably come from the ceiling.
The door leads to the nave of a temple. Four alcoves in the shape of a cross contain more sarcophagi, and on the other side of the nave the door leads to an anteroom. One of the alcoves has been breached somehow from an adjacent natural cave (we’ll get to it in the next update). The antechamber is plain and leads to another two rooms serving as shrines for artefacts. One is still present, the other is missing. The whole temple is decorated with murals depicting pastoral scenes, mostly with goats. Some murals are damaged, in the main nave it’s mainly the faces of people that are defaced. In the easternmost room a wide stairway leads down to lower levels.
The temple has been abandoned long ago, althought it seems the tombs haven’t been looted. Whoever made the access shaft to the tomb probably found it wise to barricade the door. The party is free to loot the sarcophagi, but this should prove difficult enough. With a trap to soften the robbers and then a mummy inside, each sarcophagus could be their last. The horn in room 4 is free to take with no strings attached.
Rooms
- Tomb with 6 sarcophagi, there’s a rope ladder dangling from a hole in the ceiling
- the door is blokced from the inside with large stone slabs, probably from the ceiling
- each sarcophagus contains the remains of a high priest – there are glyphs documenting their names, rank, and deeds
- potential grave-robbers might want to open the sarcophagi, though each is trapped and the mummified corpses come to life when tampered with
- T: each corpse is adorned with jewellry, some have ceremonial regalia such as a dagger or scepter
- E: up to 6 mummified high priests
- Temple nave with pews, altar, and 4 alcoves with sarcophagi
- the altar is on a raised dais
- the walls are covered in faded murals depicting pastoral scenes, faces deliberately damaged
- alcoves – ii has 1 toppled sacrophagus behind which a tunnel leads to III/7; one sarcophagus in alcove iii contains a simple lapis lazuli necklace
- antechamber, walls covered in murals showing goatherds and scenes from goat husbandry
- small shrine, on the altar is a goat’s horn with silver fittings, murals on walls show flocks of goats, sheep, and cattle
- T: horn of animal friendship (1 use/day, as spell cast from 5th level slot – 5 animals affected, works only aboveground)
- small shrine with empty altar, walls defaced, but remains of hunting scenes can be seen
- room with a wide flight of stairs leading one level down
In the next update we’ll have a look at the cave leading from the breached alcove. What will avait intrepid explorers in the darkness behind the toppled sarcophagus? Follow the blog or our social networks so you don’t miss anything!
Rashundai Games 