THE GROUNDS 8N CUSTODIAN'S ROOM.

8N CUSTODIAN'S ROOM. A tiny wizened old man is in this room. This room is located immediately below Room 8M and also resembles Room 8B. The bed is in a different place, there is a small fire in the fireplace (the venting goes back further to allow the smoke to escape), there no portrait, and there is a passage leading to Room 8O.

The little old man is actually an undead creature named Scaramouche. He looks like he could still be alive, for the most part, but he is actually undead and is the caretaker in charge of maintaining this complex.

Scaramouche, Restless Dead (AC 8; MV 12”; HD 4; hp 18; #AT 1 cold touch; D 1-4; SD Limited spell immunity; XP 157)

• Neutral alignment
• Does not walk, but floats about a foot off the ground, though he is corporeal.
• Immune to sleep, charm, hold, and cold-based magic.
• Turned as a Special or removed by an exorcism.

Many years ago one of the Triskelion wizards helped his family out of a scandalous situation. In return he agreed to serve the family for a period of two hundred years. Such was the magical potency of his bond that he remained here even after his death. He is reasonably polite and willing to talk with visitors. In many ways he still has the attitudes of a normal human and he will not want to fight under normal circumstances. He only wants to do his job until he is released from his term of service and truly dies. He repairs the traps and tricks in Area 8 using a set of tools and the materials stored in Room 8N. He doesn't know what the purpose of the complex is for sure but he suspects it is here to keep intruders out or to serve as some sort of test.

He keeps himself busy with his large collection of books, mostly novels and similar material, and because he is dead he finds he is not really lonely most of the time. He doesn't mind talking about the secrets of the complex because he has never been told not to. He knows about the goblins in Room 8Q, but doesn't worry about them since there are no specific rules about them not being there.

Scaramouche spent his life as a handyman and also worked for an alchemist in the Triskelion family. He knows the secret to brewing draughts of dreath. He would be willing to share the secret and the draughts he has in Room 8O for valuable spices, wine, flowers, or more reading material. He finds that heady fragrances make him remember life a bit more.

NEW MAGIC ITEM: SOUP STONE

This rock is indistinguishable from a stone of good luck, a stone of weight, or other magic stones. Carved on the rock are the words “make soup”. If the rock is thrown into a pot of hot water and the commands words are spoken, it will turn the water into nourishing soup. It works up to three times per day.

XP VALUE: 100

GP VALUE: 2000

THE GROUNDS 8M BEDROOM.

8M BEDROOM. This room greatly resembles Room 8B, but there are a few key differences. The portrait over the fireplace is not here, instead a darkened area is behind, as if a portrait was once present. The bed is not occupied, the bowl of fake grapes holds no key, and there is no secret door in the wall. The fireplace can be explored, as in Room 8B. A drawer is present here as well, and holds a soup stone and a painting of the character who opened the drawer showing them wearing a big smile riding a donkey with a swan's head. The painting is signed by Patrizio.

A trapdoor is under the bed, leading down by a ladder to Room 8N.

THE GROUNDS 8L CHAMBER OF SIX PATHS.

8L CHAMBER OF SIX PATHS. A symbol is painted in pale green phosphorescent paint over each exit.

Exit	Symbol
North-West	Laughing Triskelion face
West	Scowling Triskelion face
South-West	One-eyed Crying Triskelion face
South-East	A crossed hammer and crowbar
East	Bridge over water
North-East	A little silhouette of a man

Red leather couches are against each wall where there is no exit. They are slightly sticky and have a strong chemical smell (some kind of cleaning agent). The concealed door in the north wall under the Laughing Triskelion face looks just like normal wall, but is made of plaster papered over to look like stone and leads to Room 8D.

THE GROUNDS 8K CONVEYOR BELT TRAP.

8K CONVEYOR BELT TRAP. This corridor is pleasantly warm and dry.

The inside of each door is decorated with a metal one-eyed crying Triskelion face, about four feet high and three feet wide. The floor is made of metal bands of regular size each about a foot wide, reaching from wall to wall. At the areas marked by a gray band there are pressure plates on the floor that will activate a trap. The trap will not spring until the second pressure plate is touched, and this will, of course, depend on the direction the party is traveling.

When the trap springs, the floor will reveal itself to be a conveyor belt that moves at 6”. This is actually two conveyor belts, neatly dividing the hallway and moving objects towards the center of the hallway at a 6” rate. Both doors will auto-lock.

Shortly after the conveyor belt begins, about 6 segments or so, six cords will descend from the ceiling. In addition, a wall of fire, similar to the magic user spell, will form at the exact center of the room. The wall of fire will affect both sides of the conveyor belt and does 2d6 damage to those passing through it, 2d4 damage to those in 5' and 1d4 damage to those in 10'.

Three of the cords will be ten feet from the north door and the other three will be ten feet from the south door. These cords resemble pull switches for a ceiling fan and each has a metal fob. One fob near each door looks like one-eyed crying Triskelion, one is green, and the last is red.

Pulling the one-eyed crying Triskelion fob will cause the face in the door to shoot a dart trap as if a 4th level thief aimed at the nearest person to the door. Pulling the green fob speeds the conveyors up by 3”. Pulling the red fob slows the conveyors by 3”. Each fob may be pulled as many times as desired, the effects being cumulative.

When the doors are unlocked, the corridor will turn itself off and will remain inactive for between 1 and 4 hours.

THE GROUNDS 8J NICHE.

8J NICHE. Sitting in this niche is a small gold statue of a one eyed crying Triskelion, worth 1500 gold crescents. If this room is approached from the east, it is a dead end. The way to Room 8I can not be opened by conventional means.

THE GROUNDS 8I COMPACTING WALLS ROOM.

8I COMPACTING WALLS TRAP ROOM. A huge metal one-eyed crying Triskelion face is mounted in the center of the west wall, about a foot off the ground, about eight feet high and five feet wide. When the room is entered, a falling block will drop down blocking exit in a fashion like that described in Room 8E.

The east wall will begin moving towards the entrance to Room 8H. It moves slowly, taking about 3 rounds to crush any victims into the wall. It does not quite reach the west wall, because the Triskelion face sticks out a little bit. If the wall succeeds in crushing the adventurers, they must make a save vs death magic or die immediately. Even if they make the save, they will take 1d20 + 10 hit points of damage, which may prove fatal.

At this point a staircase will form in the north portion of the room, leading down fifteen feet to a passage leading to Room 8F. Meanwhile, the collapsing wall will retract to its original position.

The trap can be disarmed, however. The eye in the giant Triskelion face looks like red concentric circles, like a target for archery. If the eye is struck by significant force (such as an arrow or even a punch), the wall will stop compacting and slowly return to its normal position. A staircase will then form in the south portion of the room, leading to 8J.

Each staircase will remain for 1 turn before closing up again. Both staircases can not be active at the same time. Once the staircase closes back up, this room will become inactive for 24 hours.

THE GROUNDS 8H SUCTION TRAP.

8H SUCTION TRAP. The staircase leading to this room goes up fifteen feet. The party will be able to hear a low humming as they approach this room. The ceiling is twenty feet high and covered with a fine grid of black metal. The floor is graced by a very large tile mosaic of a crying Triskelion face with one eye, cyclops style. There is a noticeable breeze in the room and the hum is coming from the ceiling.

When the center of the room is reached, a row of pressure plates running from north to south will activate strong fans above the ceiling, which will suck any adventurers in the room upward twenty feet, doing 2d6 damage as they hit the grid. The fans are strong enough to lift objects smaller than an ogre or horse.

The fans respond to a sudden loss of pressure on the grid, so if a person on the ceiling manages to separate themselves from this surface, the fans will turn off and the person will fall back twenty feet to the floor. The distance between the ceiling of the room and the ceiling of the passages to Rooms 8A and 8I is ten feet.

THE GROUNDS 8G ROOM OF DOUBLES.

8G ROOM OF DOUBLES. This room will behave like Rooms 8E and 8F in regard to blocked entrances. A weird purple crystal is embedded in the ceiling. Shortly after the fall of the bock, the crystal will emit an eerie purple light, which will coalesce into duplicates of the adventurers.

The duplicates that are created look just like the party members but have purple skin. They will have the same weapons, armor, armor class, hit points, movement rate, etc. as the party member they are duplicating but cannot casts spells, use thief special abilities, etc. In other words, they are only good for fighting. Duplicates have no real intelligence or personality and cannot be targeted successfully by mind-affecting spells such as sleep, charm, or hold.

Each duplicate will have a 500 gold crescent value amethyst embedded in their forehead. The duplicates' equipment is real and will remain even after they have been defeated and dissolve into purple gas. The weapons, armor, rope, iron spikes, etc. will have the same value as normal items. Treasure carried by the duplicates will not be valuable. Coins will only be iron instead of gold and sparkly glass instead of gems, for example. Magic items will be replaced by non-magical analogs (a normal sword instead of a magic sword or a blank sheets of vellum instead of a scroll).

When the duplicates are defeated the room behaves like Rooms 8E and 8F.

THE GROUNDS 8F ROOM OF TROUBLED DEAD.

8F ROOM OF TROUBLED DEAD. When the party enters a bock will fall behind them like in Room 8E. The floor is dark brown earth. Hundreds of dead bodies are buried in its soft embrace. Shortly after the fall of the block a number of dead bodies equal to the number of party members will animate and claw their way from the dirt.

Zombies (AC 8; MV 6”; HD 2; hp 12 each; #AT 1; D See below; SA Always lose initiative; SD Limited spell immunity; XP 44 each)

The secret staircases from Rooms 8C and 8I are not visible unless the adventurers have triggered one of them. When the zombies are defeated, the room behaves like Room 8E.

THE GROUNDS 8E ROOM OF THE TUBES.

8E ROOM OF THE TUBES. This walls of this room emit a dim purple radiation, enough to see by but too dim for reading, for example. The twenty foot high ceiling is marked by rows of three foot wide black circles, ten per row for a total of one hundred circles.

When and if the entire party enters the room the exit back to 8A will be closed off by a falling block of stone. If any person tries to escape back out through the passage, they must roll a save vs petrification (to jump out of the way) or be crushed. Those crushed must save vs death magic or die immediately. Even if they make their save they will take 1d20+10 damage, which may kill them.

Within ten seconds of the stone block falling, a number of transparent tubes equal to the number of party members will descend from the ceiling, each depositing a purple blob with about the same mass as an adult human. These blob monsters will form into humanoid shapes and attack.

Purple Blob Things (AC 7; MV 9”; HD 1; hp 8 each; #AT 1; D 1-6; SD Blunt weapons score half damage only, immune to charm, hold, sleep; XP 18 each)

The path to Room 8F is also obstructed by a block of stone. When the last blob monster is defeated, then the blocks of stone obstructing the passage to Rooms 8A and 8F will raise. The blob monsters bodies will dissolve into purple gas. Note that this room, as well as Rooms 8F and 8G, will function equally well in reverse if the party is traveling from east to west.

THE GROUNDS 8D ROOM OF THE WELL.

8D ROOM OF THE WELL. A circular well (eight feet diameter) is in the center of the room. A heavy chain hangs from the twenty foot ceiling down into the well. At the bottom of the well (fifteen feet down) and tied up by the chain is a wooden chest (1000 gp weight). The chest fits snugly in its roost and requires quite a tug to unseat it.

If the chest is pulled out it will release thousands of tiny but ravenous moths which will proceed to eat all the clothing and paper that they can. The Dungeon Master will need to rule on the resistance of magical clothing and armor that relies on cloth straps to stay together. Paper scrolls or maps kept in sealed tubes are safe but others will be consumed. The moths can be deterred by intense flame or large amounts of smoke. The chest holds a small gold statue of a laughing Triskelion worth 1500 gold crescents.

The concealed door in the east wall looks just like normal wall, but is made of plaster papered over to look like stone.

THE GROUNDS 8C TWO LEVERS.

8C TWO LEVERS. On the east wall are two bright red levers. One is labeled “Pull Me” while the other is labeled “Don't Pull Me”. If the “Pull Me” lever is pulled, a staircase will form out of the floor leading north to Room 8D going down fifteen feet. If the “Don't Pull Me” lever is pulled, a similar staircase will form leading south to Room 8F.

When one lever is pulled the other becomes inactivated. Each staircase will remain for 1 turn before closing up again. The lever will then swing back to its original place but the room will not be able to be activated again for two hours.

THE GROUNDS 8B BEDROOM.

8B BEDROOM. This stair leading to this room ascends fifteen feet. The room is chillingly cold and breezy. The corners appear dark even when bright light is brought in. It is furnished as a bedroom for a person of upper middle class standing. A large fireplace is in the east wall, with a portrait above it. The bed holds the gently breathing figure of a person under the blankets, with old boots sticking out from under the sheets. A small table holds a bowl containing purple glass grapes.

The figure under the bedclothes is a special wooden mannikin which is gently moving because a small windmill runs through its body to under the bed. It is the breeze that acts upon the arms of the windmill, operating a piston in the mannikin's torso causing it to move rhythmically up and down.

The portrait is of a man wearing purple robes and holding a bowl of grapes. If the portrait is examined, the observer will notice that the portrait shows that the man is standing in this very room, to the left (to the south of) the fireplace. There is a opening behind him in the portrait. This is a clue to the location of a secret door, which can be easily found if the clue of the portrait is discovered. The painting is, of course, signed by Patrizio Triskelion.

At the bottom of the bowl of glass grapes there is a small glasteel key, which can be used to open the secret door by application in a small keyhole. The secret door will not open unless the key is used or magic such as the knock spell is used.

If the fireplace is explored, it goes up about twenty feet before ending bluntly. A halfling or gnome will easily fit but a dwarf would be a tight squeeze. A stone drawer is built into the wall. It holds 200 Jalluxian gold dragons and a manual of stealthy pilfering.

THE GROUNDS 8A CHAMBER OF THE FOUR PATHS.

8A CHAMBER OF FOUR PATHS. Above each of the four exits there is a glowing symbol.

The symbols are painted in phosphorescent paint that glows pale green. Over the western exit is a leaf. Over the southern exit there is a crying Triskelion face, unusual because it only has one eye. Above the northern exit there is a laughing Triskelion face and above the eastern exit there is scowling Triskelion face.

THE GROUNDS 8 CAVE ENTRANCE.

8 CAVE ENTRANCE. Cold air blows from the cave entrance and the ground is sandy, spilling out on the grass of the hedge maze. The natural passage runs for several dozen feet before opening upon the worked chamber at Room 8A.

THE GROUNDS 7 NORTH TRISKELION STATUE.

7 NORTH TRISKELION STATUE. This statue is of a scowling man with a sword. The first time the adventurers encounter the statue, it will have a silver bracelet on the sword, valued at 100 gold crescents. If the adventurers take the silver bracelet, then nothing else will happen, but if the adventurers leave the silver bracelet and come back later, a gold bracelet valued at 500 gold crescents will be on the sword. If the adventurers take the gold bracelet, nothing else will happen. If the adventurers leave the gold bracelet, then the next time they come back to the statue, nothing will be there.

THE GROUNDS 6 FORGOTTEN STATUE.

6 FORGOTTEN STATUE. Half buried in the hedge is the large (eight foot tall) statue of a hooded man with arms outstretched. He wears a fine silver chain necklace (25 gold crescent value). If anyone tries to take the necklace, it will unbalance the precarious statue, calling for a save vs petrification at -2 or it will fall on the person for 1d6+3 damage. Under the statue is a box holding pieces of string, thimbles, acorns, and 3 Jalluxian platinum imperial coins.

THE GROUNDS 5U THE PRESSES.

5U THE PRESSES. Either approach to this room entails descending a staircase of about twenty scale feet. When the room is entered the characters will see a huge ramshackle contraption in the center of the room complete with conveyor belts, swinging levers, pulleys, and pistons. Three pea heads are about to stuff a an unconscious tomato man into one end.

3 Pea heads (AC 5; MV 9”; HD 1+1; hp 4, 5, 9; #AT 1; D Battle axe; SA Vomit; XP 36, 38, 46)

Each pea head has 2-8 gold crescents.

Tomato man (AC 10; MV 12”; HD 1; hp 7; #AT 1; D By weapon type; XP 17)

The huge machine is a combination presser/ juicer/ blender. The pea heads put the vegetable men in one side, make a setting on a dial and let it chop up and juice the unfortunate vegetable man.

The tomato man, Nullamo, will remain unconscious for another 1d6 turns. If he wakes up he will immediately get a saving throw vs spells to throw off the effects of Wandra's charm power.

THE GROUNDS 5T ICE CELLAR.

5T ICE CELLAR. The wheezing of many torpid vegetable men can be heard as this room is approached. This room is very cold and characters will feel very uncomfortable here, although it does not cause damage.

16 Vegetable men (AC 10; MV 12”; HD 1; hp 4, 3, 5, 1, 2, 8, 2, 1, 5, 5, 4, 5, 7, 5, 6, 1; #AT 1; D By weapon type; XP 14, 13, 15, 11, 12, 18, 12, 11, 15, 15, 14, 15, 17, 15, 16, 11)

The following unarmed vegetable men are here: two carrot, three broccoli, one asparagus, two potato, one turnip, three spinach, and four tomato. They have succumbed to the cold and will remain unconscious for as long as they are here. When the pea heads from Room 5U want to make soup or juice they take them from here.

There are large blocks of ice, buckets, tongs, and chisels.