These rules are adapted from a published D20 sourcebook. My primary design goal here was to both streamline the system and increase its versatility by introducing the concept of faint taint (which allows the GM to use taint more frequently due to its lower stakes). I unified these rules with those for kaostech (which I’ll be presenting separately), and both of these are used in the Laboratory of the Beast Scenario.

BECOMING TAINTED

If a character remains exposed to a tainted place or object for more than 10 rounds, they must make a Fortitude check (DC 15) or immediately suffer 1 point of taint. In addition, if a character uses or wields a tainted object, they must make a Fortitude check (DC 15) or immediately suffer 1d3 points of taint.

For every 24 hours spent in a tainted place, or spent carrying a tainted object, a character must make a Fortitude saving throw. The base DC is 15 + 1 for every consecutive 24 hours of exposure. Multiple, simultaneous exposures (such as carrying a tainted weapon in a tainted place) increases the DC by +2 per additional source of exposure every 24 hours. If the character fails this saving throw, their taint increases by 1.

FAINT TAINT

Some objects and places are only faintly tainted. Characters exposed to such objects and places still risk becoming tainted themselves, but the risk is not as great.

A character who is exposed to a faintly tainted place or carries a faintly tainted object for more than 1 day must make a Fortitude save (DC 15) or immediately suffer 1 point of taint. In addition, the first time a character uses or wields a faintly tainted object, they must make a Fortitude save (DC 15) or immediately suffer 1 point of taint.

For every week spent in a faintly tainted place or carrying a faintly tinted object, a character must make a Fortitude save (DC 15) or suffer 1 point of taint. Unlike fully tainted objects and places, multiple or simultaneous exposure to faintly tainted objects or places do not increase the DCs of these checks.

TAINTED PLACES

When a character casts an evil spell in a tainted area, the caster is considered at +1 caster level for spell effects that depend on level. When a character casts a good spell in a tainted area, the caster is considered at -1 caster level for spell effects that depend on level. (This has no effect on spells known, spells per day, or highest level of spell available.)

Faintly tainted places have no effect on the casting of such spells.

DETECTING TAINT

The use of a detect evil spell can detect taint. It reveals itself as an oozing, purple pulsation within the blackish aura which normally detects the presence of evil. The strength of the aura depends on the amount of taint present:

• 1 taint point = Faint aura
• 2-4 taint points = Moderate aura
• 5-10 taint points = Strong aura
• 11+ taint points = Overwhelming aura

EFFECTS OF TAINT

A character’s taint score applies as a penalty to his Constitution and Wisdom scores. Thus, a character with a 16 Constitution and a 14 Wisdom who acquires a taint score of 4 has an effective Constitution of 12 and an effective Wisdom of 10. These penalties reflect the taint’s impact on the character’s physical and mental health. Characters who embrace taint (see below) and make use of it can ignore some of these penalties. These penalties are not treated as ability damage, ability drain, or any other penalty to an ability score that can be removed by magic.

The effects of the tainted character’s Constitution and Wisdom penalties can be experienced in many ways, depending on the level of taint. A character who has lost 25% of their Constitution to taint is mildly tainted. A character who has lost 50% of their Constitution is moderately tainted. A character who has lost 75% of their Constitution is severely tainted.

MILD TAINT EFFECTS:

• Occasional nausea or vomiting
• Pain in joints
• Hair goes white
• Mild paranoia
• Disorientation
• Increased aggressiveness
• Mild hallucinations
• Phlegmy, wracking cough
• Eyelid swells, obscuring vision
• Pale, grayish dead complexion
• Sunken eyes, cracked lips
• Skip seeps greasy, yellowish “sweat”
• Skin thickens, turns leathery

MODERATE TAINT EFFECTS:

• Bones begin to warp, thicken
• Black, lichen-like skin growth
• Reddened, burn-like sores
• Eye clouds or blood vessels break
• Lips shrink back from gums
• Gums swell, bleed, rot
• Bleeding from orifices
• Hair falls out
• Uncontrollable seizures
• Eruption of painful sores
• Sores ooze blood, pus, ooze
• Sores ooze spiders, insects, maggots
• Hear the voices of evil spirits
• Severe paranoia
• Fits of disturbing laughter
• Disregard of hygiene

SEVERE TAINT EFFECTS:

• Flesh of nose rots away
• Mutated, deformed extremities
• Spine twists, back hunches
• Severe warping of skeleton
• Skull enlarges and deforms
• Great, swollen growths on the body
• Lungs eaten away from the inside
• Eye falls out, leaving gaping socket
• Skin peels off in papery sloughs
• Fingers or toes begin to web and fuse
• Irresistable murderous rages
• Reduced to primitive beahvior
• Eats inedible or still-living things

IGNORING TAINT

Only undead and creatures with the evil subtype are unaffected by taint.

DEATH FROM TAINT

If a character’s Constitution score reaches 0 from the effects of taint, they die. 1d6 hours later, they rise as a hideous, evil creature under the control of the DM.

CLEANING TAINT

Taint can be removed in a number of ways, particularly through the use of spells.

• Remove curse and remove disease each reduce a taint score by 1 point, although they cannot reduce a taint score below 1.
• Heal reduces a character’s taint score by 1 point per three caster levels, but it cannot reduce a taint score below 1.
• Restoration reduces a character’s taint score by 1 point per four caster levels, but cannot reduce a taints score below 1.
• Greater restoration reduces taint by a number of points equal to the caster level of the cleric casting the greater restoration, it can also reduce a taint score to 0.
• Miracle or wish spells cannot remove taint except by duplicating the effects of other spells described here.

CLEANSING PLACES AND OBJECTS: Clerics may use hallow to remove the taint from an area, but it takes time. The spell must remain intact for a year and a day to remove the taint from an area. If, during that time, an opposing character casts unhallow on some or all of the area, the effort is lost and must be begun again.

Unintelligent items left in a hallowed area for a year and a day lose their taint. Items that have an intelligence score are cleansed as if they were characters.

TAINT-ABSORBING ITEMS: Some items can naturally absorb taint, either cleansing those affected by it (rare) or protecting those who carry them from taint (more common).

TAINTED FEATS

Tainted feats require that a character have at least 1 point of taint (as specified in the feat’s prerequisites).

CORRUPTED BODY [TAINT]

Prerequisites: 1 taint point

Benefit: You do not suffer any penalty to your Wisdom score as a result of the taint. However, you suffer twice the normal number of mutations.

Special: If you are ever completely cleansed of the taint, you may immediately choose another feat to replace Corrupted Body. A character with both the Corrupted Body and Twisted Mind feats suffers no penalties, mutations, or insanities from the taint.

MASTERY OF THE TAINT [TAINT]

Prerequisites: 5 taint points

Benefit: You have learned to use the taint within you to channel powerful magical energies. You cannot cast spells of the good and lawful types, but you cast chaos and evil spells at a +1 caster level. In a tainted area this bonus is doubled to a +2 caster level.

Special: This feat can be selected as one of the wizard’s bonus feats.

MASTERY OF THE TAINT, GREATER [TAINT]

Prerequisites: Mastery of the Taint, 10 taint points

Benefit: Your mastery of the taint has grown, allowing you to cast chaos and evil spells at +2 caster level and all other spells at +1 caster level. In a tainted area these bonuses are increased by one (+3 caster level for chaos and evil spells, +2 caster level for all other spells).

Special: This feat can be selected as one of the wizard’s bonus feats.

TAINTED EMBRACE [TAINT]

Prerequisites: 5 taint points

Benefit: You gain protection from good and protection from law as supernatural abilities.

TAINTED STRENGTH [TAINT]

Prerequisites: 4 taint points

Benefit: Your muscles and sinews have been infused with the taint, lending them unnatural strength even as your body rots from within. You gain a +2 bonus to Strength.

Special: Because your tainted strength requires the taint to corrupt your body, you cannot benefit from the Twisted Mind feat if you possess this feat.

TAINTED STRENGTH, GREATER [TAINT]

Prerequisites: Tainted Strength, 6 taint points

Benefit: You gain an additional +2 bonus to Strength (for a total bonus of +4).

TWISTED MIND [TAINT]

Prerequisites: 1 taint point

Benefit: You do not suffer any penalty to your Constitution score as a result of the taint. However, you suffer twice the normal number of insanities.

Special: If you are ever completely cleansed of the taint, you may immediately choose another feat to replace Twisted Mind.

A character with both the Corrupted Body and Twisted Mind feats suffers no penalties, mutations, or insanities from the taint.

This material is covered by the Open Gaming License.

When you’re drawing lines on a map, it can be very easy to see them as very neat divisions: You’ve got the elves over here and then the nagas over there. The sun-worshiping samurai are in this bit, with the Daejongist Empire tucked away on this peninsula. And the Goryō Kingdoms take up this big chunk to the north. If you’re in the kingdom of Taiyō, then you’re going to see a bunch of melanin castes. But if you’re over in the Daejongist Empire, you’ll have a bunch of shaman lords running around.

And nary the streams shall cross.

In the real world, of course, cultures blend at the borders and draw together into the melting pots. So the first thing you can do, if you’re near the border in your campaign world, is to reach across it and selectively draw in elements from over there. For example, in In the Shadow of the Spire, the city-state where the campaign takes place is located in Arathia (whose architecture is primarily Greco-Roman in influence), but it’s very near the border with the Vennoc Protectorates. Which is why you’ll see the faintly gothic architecture of the Vennocan style creeping into my descriptions of the city.

You can take this technique to the next level by thinking about how both cultures are shifted as a result of this cultural exchange: It’s not just that there are death shamans near the border of the Goryō Kingdoms, it’s that many of the ghosts in this region have learned to murder the animistic spirits and take their place like spiritual doppelgangers.

But the cultural penumbra of a people or nation is often more significant than that. Consider, for example, the region of Brittany in northern France. It’s called Brittany because in the 4th century people from Britain crossed the channel and created a colony. In the 5th and 6th century, this immigration by the British exploded as a result of the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain.

Or look at Franconia, a region of Germany so-named because it was conquered by the Franks (the same Franks from whom France takes its name). Although the Frankish dominion of the region has been swept away by countless invasions and regime changes, that historical legacy nevertheless endures.

These vestigial or tributary realms not infrequently outlast their motherland, leaving them as a living tribute to a lost history.

There are a couple of ways that you can build this kind of dynamic cultural legacy into your campaign world.

First, you can meticulously plot out the entire history of your world, tracking invasions and cultural migrations and regime changes in the detail necessary to know that, for example, the Bakunawan serpent clans swept down the seven valleys of the Nauteka river delta, drove the Bathalan people to the west (where they warred with the proto-Daejongist civilization), and claimed the so-called lunar cities for themselves, only for those cities to become isolated when the Shwe Nabayan empresses seized the Celestial Throne and began a purge of the Bakunawans. Six of the seven lunar cities were destroyed during the Shadow Wars, and then all these lands were claimed by the kingdom of Taiyō as the wars came to an end. The province of Bakunawa remains, with the old city of Maiphai as its capital, its rocks riddled with the infamous wyrm-caverns, and its samurai favoring serpent-hilted swords.

But working out your fictional history to that level of detail, while fun, also takes a lot of work and time.

Once you know that this sort of pattern exists in history, though, you can skip the laborious steps and jump straight to the effect.

For example, if you’ve got a big old kingdom full of elves (or maybe a region where there’s lots of ruins from the Old Elven Empire), then you can look across a channel or a river or maybe even just a couple hundred miles away in a semi-arbitrary direction and… Yup, there’s Alvland. Probably filled with an anomalously large population of half-elves. (Most people have at least a hint of a point on the tips of their ears.)

Once you’ve placed one of these vestigial realms, of course, you’ll probably want to fill in some of the details about why it exists. In the case of Alvland, for example, it turns out that about six hundred years ago one of the crystal citadel-cities of the elves abruptly vanished from the sky, reappeared a couple hundred miles away, and crashed. After the initial catastrophe, during which the local populace swarmed to their aid, many of the elves chose to remain in the area and settle down.

(Hmm… I didn’t even know the elves used to have flying cities made out of crystal. I wonder what happened to the rest of them?)

Go to Part 1 – Maps

AREA 2-11 – OFFICE

A large desk on the far side of the room has been smashed to pieces. The once-luxurious carpet is stained and soiled. Surprisingly, nothing here looks particularly rotten or aged — merely damaged.

SEARCH (DC 18): A concealed trapdoor in the floor hides a safe.

• OPEN LOCK (DC 30): The safe is empty except for a scroll – Ghul’s Commission.

GM Background: This area is protected by a preservation spell, but the ichorclaw has inflicted damage in random bouts of rage over the years.

GHUL’S COMMISSION
(ORCISH – UNTRANSLATED)

This heavy roll of parchment unrolls to reveal a text of thick, reddish-black Orcish characters. Despite being written in Orcish, the entire document appears to be elegantly scribed. Near the bottom of the page an immense black seal has been set — impressed in the wax is a skull-shaped sigil, and the wax also attaches a piece of black-and-gold ribbon to the parchment.

GHUL’S COMMISSION
(ORCISH – TRANSLATED)

This heavy roll of parchment unrolls to reveal a text of thick, reddish-black Orcish characters. Despite being written in Orcish, the entire document appears to be elegantly scribed. Near the bottom of the page an immense black seal has been set — impressed in the wax is a skull-shaped sigil, and the wax also attaches a piece of black-and-gold ribbon to the parchment.

The parchment reads:

By the divine hand of Ghul – Skull King, Banelord’s Heir, Sorcerer’s Get, and Blue Lord of the Arathian Stock – Ulthorek tal Yattaren is thus set down as the Chieftain of the Laboratory of the Beast. Within such domain, he shall rule by the Hand of Ghul.

                                                                GHUL THE SKULL KING

AREA 2-12 – GREAT HALL

A massive table of stone stands in the middle of this room. Massive, yet elegant, high-backed chairs stand around it. A large ambry of oak stands against the north wall.

AMBRY:

• 18 silver goblets (worth 25 gp each)
• 3 bottles of ancient orcish bloodwine (worth 250 gp each)

GM Background: The room is protected by a preservation spell.

AREA 2-13 – TORTURE CHAMBER

This room is filled with implements of torture, including a bloodstained rack, iron maiden, and manacled chair. (The room is protected by a preservation spell, so the blood is still fresh.)

AREA 2-14 – PRISON CELLS

The bars of each cell are activated by a switch on the wall opposite the doors.

SHATTERED CELL (A): This cell is empty and the bars have been broken and bent outward. (This is where the ichorclaw came from.)

SKELETON (B): An orc’s skeleton lies in this chamber.

SKELETON (C): An elf’s skeleton lies in this chamber.

AREA 2-15 – BATTERED BLUESTEEL

This bluesteel door has been battered from the outside, bending it hideously inward. However, it has lost none of its strength and remains equally impassable. No password is written nearby.

AREA 2-16  – SMASHED CENTURION CHAMBERS

The centurions are absent from these chambers, but the smashed remnants of their machinery is still present. (See Area 2-10.)

AREA 2-17 – EMPTY CHAMBER

This chamber appears empty.

SEARCH (DC 18): There is a keyhole in the center of the southern wall. Cleverly hidden.

KEY: The key for this secret door is located in Area 2-8.

AREA 2-18 – VAULT SECURITY

Four iron rods, each topped by a ball of brass, stand in the corners of this room. The iron door in the far wall has no handle. Instead, a large impression in the shape of an orc’s hand is in the center of the door.

IRON DOOR (3 in. thick): hardness 10, hp 90, break DC 30. The door will open if anyone holding Ghul’s Commission (from Area 2-11) places their opposite hand in the depression.

• It can also be fooled with a Use Magic Device check (DC 30).
• Any other attempt to open the door will trigger the trap.

TRAP (CR 4): magic device, proximity trigger (alarm), automatic reset, spell effect (lightning bolt, 5^th-level wizard, 5d6 electricity, DC 14 Reflex save half damage); Search DC 28, Disable Device DC 28. (Cost: 7,500 gp, 600 XP)

• A lightning bolt bursts from each of the four iron rods.

AREA 2-19 – THE RESEARCH VAULT

The walls of this iron-shod chamber are lined with numerous shelves both little and small. The shelves are covered with small, carefully crafted niches, each of which was clearly designed to hold some unique item. All of the niches are now empty.

GM Background: The vault was emptied when the complex was abandoned. It once held a variety of odd artifacts and the like, waiting to be analyzed by Ghul’s researchers, but now nothing of value remains.

AREA 2-20 – BEAST KENNELS

These were once beast kennels. The wooden doors leading to them are almost entirely rotten away through sheer age.

The kennel rooms contain feeding troughs and watering troughs.

Large channels from each room lead out to a 6-inch-wide gap in the middle of the hall’s floor. Beneath this gap is a 50-foot-deep pit down which charnel waste was washed. (There’s nothing on interest down there.)

AREA 2-21 – THE ARENA

This bloodstained arena was once used to test the creations of the laboratory and instill a blood-thirst in the hounds. It is an open pit, with the upper level described in Area 1-19.

AREA 2-22 – WEAPONS STORAGE

Hanging from the walls and iron racks down the middle of this room are a great variety of weapons, all designed for beasts: Tines, serrated harnesses, and the like. All of them have been crafted to appear as vicious and merciless as possible.

There are also a selection of short iron spears, designed to enrage creatures.

The vast array is impressive, but a closer inspection reveals that most of them are unusable — either custom-crafted for unusual creatures; with important bits rotted away; or their metal rusting and fatigued from age.

AREA 2-23 – COLLAPSE

The ceiling of this room has been weakened by the fissure (which was created by an earthquake many years ago).

OPENING THE DOOR: Opening the door to requires a Strength check (DC 18), but also causes the ceiling to collapse.

• TRAP (CR 6): mechanical, location trigger, repair reset, ceiling falls down (8d6, crush), multiple targets (all targets in room), never miss; Search DC 20, Disable Device DC 16

FISSURE: The fissure leads down to Area 1 of Goblin Caverns of the Ooze Lord.

Go to Part 1 – Maps

AREA 2-1 – THE COLD THRONE

GLOWGEMS: The vast chamber is filled with an eery, silver, sepulchral light emanated from countless small glowgems in the ceiling.

• The glowgems magic is failing with age, but each would still be worth 5 gp. (There are a total of 600 such gems, although prying them out would be a major undertaking.)

POOL: Most of the room is filled with a large, but shallow pool of dark, silvery-grey liquid.

• UNHOLY WATER: The pool is unholy water. (Elestra and Dominic will suffer damage as if exposed to acid.)

AROUND THE POOL: A ten-foot-wide walkway circles the pool, with various hallways and doors leading out of it. A bluesteel door can be seen along a wall near a recessed edge of the pool.

PLATFORM: In the center of the pool there is a raised platform surrounding a large pit of some sort. Several large rods of iron with large brass balls at the end of them are positioned around this platform. An arch of stone rises over the pit and, at the apex of the arch, there is a huge throne wrought from intricately detailed and gothic steel.

• BOTTOMLESS PIT: The pit seems to be bottomless. Lights dropped down it seem to go on forever before finally passing beyond sight. (It’s actually 10,000 feet deep, ending in an immense pit of Pits of chaos are described in The Complex of Zombies.)
• PITONS IN THE PIT: The goblins have driven pitons to climb up more than a hundred feet from a fissure below. This leads down to Area 2 of the Goblin Caverns of the Ooze Lord.

THRONE OF THE OVERSEER: The throne is kaostech. The metal is cold to the touch, but not harmfully so. A hidden panel (Search DC 25) can be recessed, revealing a long, spongy cable with a plug at one end of it (which could be plugged into a headclamp).

• If activated, 12 separate spheres emerge from the throne of the overseer. The operator of the throne can control these spheres to fly anywhere within this complex. The operator can see and hear through them and even manipulate objects through them with an effect similar to telekinesis.
• The throne is a fully tainted (not faintly tainted) object.

AREA 2-2 – LARDER OF GREEN SLIME

Various pieces of ancient and scarred wood lie scattered here and there, suggesting that this might have been a storeroom of some sort.

SPOT (DC 18): The green slime on the ceiling.

GREEN SLIME: Currently quiescent, but 1d4 rounds after someone enters the room, the presence of life rouses it and it drops from the ceiling.

• 5-foot square deals 1d6 Con per round or 2d6 damage vs. wood/metal (ignoring hardness). It does not harm stone.
• First round of contact, it can be scraped off. After that it requires cold damage, fire damage, sunlight, or remove disease. Can also be hacked off, but this causes at least 1d6 points of damage to the victim and requires 1d3 rounds.

GM Background: The preservation magicks on this larder wore out and the green slime got in. It devoured everything edible and then entered its quiescence.

AREA 2-3 – JEWEL SCARABS

The walls and floor of this chamber glitter. It takes a moment to realize that they are completely covered in the gleaming carapaces of large scarab beetles. Each carapace appears to be studded with large gemstones.

JEWEL SCARABS: There are 10 surviving jewel scarabs in this area — 3 ruby scarabs, 5 emerald scarabs, 2 opal scarabs.

• +15 racial bonus to their Hide checks from being able to scuttle through the “dead” shells covering the floor.
• GM Note: Jewel scarabs were a personal pet project of one of the researchers here. He used this area to display them, but the shelves they once occupied have long since rotten away.

TREASURE: There are 54 scarabs here. Each is a beautiful work of art. Although some of their gems have been destroyed or lost, they have an average value of 350 gp each. They weigh 10 pounds each. (Total Value: 18,900 gp. Total Weight: 540 lbs.)

CONSTRUCT LORE: Three successful Knowledge (arcana) checks (DC 25), each requiring eight hours of work, could reverse engineer the workings of a jewel scarab. An additional eight hour session for each of the other two jewel scarabs would discover their gem-type properties. Such techniques could probably fetch another 5,000 gp for each type of jewel scarab if explicated.

JEWEL SCARAB (CR 2) – N Small Construct
DETECTION – tremorsense 30 ft., Listen +6, Spot +4
DEFENSES – AC 16 (+1 size, +1 Dex, +4 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 15; hp 17 (2d10)
ACTIONS – Spd 30 ft., fly 40 ft. (average), burrow 15 ft., climb 10 ft.; Melee bite +1 (1d4-1); Ranged +2; Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.; Base Atk +1; Grapple -4; SA spell-like abilities
SQ –

STR 9, DEX 12, CON –, INT 1, WIS 15, CHA 10
FORT +6, REF +4, WILL +2
FEATS: Alertness
SKILLS: Climb +9, Hide +7 (+15 in sand), Listen +6, Spot +4

Spell-Like Abiltiies

Ruby scarab: 6/day—flare (DC 14)

Emerald scarab: 6/day—acid splash (+3 ranged touch, 1d3 acid)

Sapphire scarab: 6/day—ray of frost (+3 ranged touch, 1d3 cold)

AREA 2-4 – LAB OF CONSTRUCTS

A large forge is built into one corner. Strange metal frames are built up here and there throughout the room. The middle of the room is dominated by a large stone worktable.

GM Background: This room was once used as a lab for building constructs.

TOOLS: The material here is badly damaged, but could still be of some use (2,000 gp). The transportable goods weigh 5,000 pounds.

AREA 2-5 – PARTS STORAGE

The walls of this room have been carved out with numerous cubbyholes, cabinets, shelves, and other storage areas. They are covered in a great, eclectic variety of materials.

KNOWLEDGE (ARCANA) (DC 15): Identifies the material as golem construction parts worth 5,000 gp. (Total Weight: 1,000 lbs.)

AREA 2-6 – RUINED CONSTRUCTS

Several large, rack-like structures run down the length of either side of the room. Most of them are empty, but two of them contain mechanical constructs.

CONSTRUCTS: These contructs have been opened up and have either been disassembled or were never complete to begin with.

• The lazuline razor that patrols this level was also built in this lab. The two constructs here clearly come from a similar school of design, but are quite distinct in form and (presumably) function.

AREA 2-7 – THE ADAMANTINE DRILL

A large drill (literally ten feet long and half as thick) is suspended from a scaffolding in the center of this room. It’s flanked by two workbenches.

DRILL: The drill is clearly unfinished, but enough of its mechanisms are intact to show that it would be some sort of self-propelled drilling construct.

• APPRAISE (DC 15): The drill’s cutting surfaces are edged with 9,000 gp worth of adamantine.

SEARCH (DC 15): Turns up a stasis box of cedar inlaid with Ghul’s skull sigil in blackoak on its lid. Within the stasis box:

• Half of the schematics for the drill (worth 500 gp). (The other half were left out have rotted away centuries ago.)
• The schematics are titled, in Orcish: DRILL OF THE BANEWARRENS.
• There are also several arcane notes, also in Orcish, that can be understood with a Knowledge (arcana) check (DC 18). These describe, in general terms, the properties of walls sealed with incredibly powerful spells and exotic materials far beyond mortal ken. Whoever was writing them seemed unsure of the exact characteristics, but the tensile strength of the drill seemed calculated to overcome them.
• GM Background: This drill was designed to penetrate the walls of the Banewarrens (a mega-adventure by Monte Cook).

AREA 2-8 – RESEARCH QUARTERS

These are similar to Area 1-10, but are under the effects of a preservation spell. The furniture is pristine, as is the floor of white tile with Ghul’s skull sigil worked into it as a mosaic.

SEARCH (DC 12): In one of the bedside tables there is a key (which goes Area 2-17).

AREA 2-9 – GHUL’S TELEPORTAL

The walls of this chamber are carved from pitch-black stone. A strange spiral pattern has been carved into the floor. Orcish letters have been carved into the far wall (reading “LABORATORY OF THE BEAST”).

TELEPORTAL: These teleportals appear throughout Ghul’s Labyrinth. The teleportal network was powered through the Tourbillion (Ptolus, p. 453). After the Signet of Shallamoth Kindred was removed from the Tourbillion, the teleportal network was left unpowered and useless. (If the teleportal network were active, one could stand on this teleportal, say the name of any other teleportal, and appear there.)

AREA 2-10 – BLACK CENTURIONS

All eight of these areas hold a black centurion. They are suspended from metal machinery bolted to the wall.

MACHINES: These kaostech machines are powered by the pit of chaos beneath the complex (thus avoiding the dangers of chaotic failure). The black centurions are connected to the machines by headplugs.

ACTIVATION: When activated, the centurions simply drop to the floor and begin moving sinuously.

• If anyone disturbs the throne in Area 2-1 they will activate in waves: 2, then 2, then 4.
• If anyone passes through this area, one will automatically activate. If it meets with difficulties, the rest in the local area will activate. If two of them are destroyed, the four in the other area will activate.

Go to Part 10

Go to Part 1 – Maps

LOWER LEVEL – PATROLS

ICHORCLAW: Areas 11 thru 15

• Attacks anyone entering those areas.
• Starts in Area 2-12.
• It originally escaped from the cells in Area 2-14.

The ichorclaw is a skeletal undead, but its chest cavity is filled with internal organs that still glisten with pulsing blood. Often too many internal organs, as it will frequently harvest organs from its victims. Its phalanages have been unnaturally lengthened, creating disturbingly gracile claws.

ICHORCLAW (CR 5) – CE Medium Undead
DETECTION – darkvision 60 ft., Listen +8, Spot +10; Init +6; Language Ancient Common
DEFENSES – AC 16 (+2 Dex, +4 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 14; hp 78 (12d12); Immune undead immunities (mind-affecting, poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability drain, energy drain, ability score damage, fatigue, exhaustion, any effect requiring Fort save)
ACTIONS – Spd 40 ft.; Melee 2 claws +9 (1d8+3 plus blood drain); Ranged +8; Space 5 ft.; Reach ft.; Base Atk +6; Grapple +9; Atk Option blood drain; SA ichor spray; Combat Feats Combat Reflexes
SQ darkvision 60 ft., sure-footed, undead traits
STR 16, DEX 15, CON —, INT 7, WIS 10, CHA 14
FORT +3, REF +7, WILL +7
FEATS: Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Improved Toughness, Lightning Reflexes
SKILLS: Balance +10, Listen +8, Spot +10

Blood Drain (Su): The long, slender claws of the ichorclaw are venous. When plunged into the body of a living victim (any time a target suffers damage from its claw attack), the ichorclaw can suck blood from them, causing the internal organs which dangle within it to pulse with fresh ichor. The target suffers 1 point of Constitution damage. Each time the ichorclaw inflicts 1 point of Constitution damage, it heals 5 points of damage.

Ichor Spray (Su): Swift Action—The ichorclaw inflicts 5 points of damage on itself and sprays blood from its dangling organs. As per the grease spell (Reflex DC 17), centered on the ichorclaw. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Sure-Footed (Ex): The ichorclaw is not affected by slippery terrain, including its own ichor spray.

LAZULINE RAZOR: Areas 3 thru 7.

• Patrols constantly through these rooms.
• Will not move into Area 2-1, but may observe from hallways or southern end of pool. (It tried to harvest the Cold Throne and got itself tagged as an enemy by the black centurions in Area 2-10.)
• If he’s having problems, he will try to lure the PCs to Area 2-3 (the jewel scarabs consider him an ally and will not attack).

The lazuline razor is a construct made up from interlocking plates of blue-tinted metal. Its head, studded with a single eye which glows like a sickly emerald, arches out with an almost prehensile neck. As it jettisons its outer mechanisms, it reveals biomechanical components at its core.

LAZULINE RAZOR (CR 5) – CE Medium Construct
DETECTION – darkvision 60 ft., Listen +9, Spot +9; Init +6; Aura disorienting (5 ft.); Languages Ancient Common
DEFENSES – AC 18 (+2 Dex, +6 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 16; hp 53 (6d10+20); DR 3/–; Immune construct immunities (mind-affecting, poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, necromancy effects, critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, massive damage, effects requiring Fort saves)
ACTIONS – Spd 30 ft.; Melee 2 slams +9 (1d6+4 plus 1 Wis); Ranged +6; Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.; Base Atk +4; Grapple +8; SA razor’s edge; Combat Feats Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Mobility
SQ darkvision 60 ft., construct traits
STR 18, DEX 14, CON —, INT 11, WIS 10, CHA 8
FORT +2, REF +6, WILL +2
FEATS: Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Mobility
SKILLS: Balance +6, Escape Artist +7, Listen +9, Spot +9, Stealth +11

Construct Traits (Ex):

• Cannot heal damage on their own.
• Not at risk of death from massive damage.
• Immmediately destroyed at 0 hit points or less. Cannot be raised or resurrected.
• Does not eat, sleep, or breathe.

Disorienting Aura (Su): 5 ft.—Will save (DC 12) or affected per lesser confusion.

Razor’s Edge (Su): Swift Action—Once for every 10 points of damage the lazuline razor suffers, it can jettison its outer layers. These sharp metal plates explode outward, dealing 3d6 damage to all creatures within 20 feet (Reflex DC 14 for half damage). In addition, for each layer jettisoned the lazuline razor will pick up speed, which has the following effects:

• -1 natural AC
• +2 Dex (note that this keeps the razor’s base AC unchanged)
• +1 to attack and damage rolls
• +10 feet speed

When the lazuline razor reaches half of its starting hit points, it is affected as per a haste spell.

BLACK CENTURIONS: Area 2-10.

• Ordered to protect the Cold Throne at all costs. If the Cold Throne is touched, they move to attack in waves (2, then 2, then 4).
• Will also attack anyone passing through Area 2-10 who isn’t authorized. (Which is essentially everyone at this point.)

A humanoid construct of pitch black metal suspended from an elaborate half-cocoon of complicated machinery. A black centurion is utterly featureless – their faces flat black planes. They are formed from a black, mercurial substance crafted by the cunning of the master-crafters of Ghul. Normally highly unstable, the centurion’s creators have managed to both stabilize the substance into a humanoid matrix and exploit its unique properties to create a dangerous mimic.

BLACK CENTURION (CR 3) – N Medium Construct

DETECTION – darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Listen +7, Spot +7; Init +2 (Dex); Languages Ancient Common
DEFENSES – AC 17 (+2 Dex, +5 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 15; hp 64 (8d10+20); construct immunities (mind-affecting, poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, necromancy effects, critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, massive damage, effects requiring Fort saves); Resist cold 10, fire 10; Weakness vulnerable to sonic
ACTIONS – Spd 30 ft.; Melee +3 longsword +9 (1d8+3/17-20) or +3 lance +9 (1d8+3/19-20/x3); Ranged +3 heavy crossbow +8 (1d10/19-20); Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.; Base Atk +6; Grapple +9; Atk Options absorb properties; SA create weapon; Combat Feats Combat Reflexes, Dodge
SQ absorb properties, create weapon, construct traits, death vapors
STR 17, DEX 14, CON –, INT 12, WIS 11, CHA 10
FORT +2, REF +4, WILL +2
FEATS: Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Critical (created weapon)
SKILLS: Balance +4, Escape Artist +4, Hide +5, Jump +7, Listen +7, Move Silently +6, Spot +7, Tumble +6
ADVANCEMENT: 9-15 HD (Medium); 16-24 HD (Large)

Absorb Properties (Ex): If a black centurion is successfully struck by a magic weapon, all that weapon’s properties are absorbed by the black centurion for 1 hour. The weapon loses its properties during that time (or until the black centurion is slain). A black centurion can manifest any of these properties (up to a total +5 enhancement bonus) in its created weapon as a free action.

A black centurion cannot hold more more than a total of +10 enhancement bonus worth of properties. Additional properties are not absorbed. As an immediate action, a black centurion can choose to give up absorbed properties to absorb new properties.

The manifested properties must be applicable to the created weapon (for example, a mace cannot be imbued with the keen property). The total enhancement bonus on a created weapon cannot exceed +5.

Create Weapon (Ex): A black centurion can spontaneously create a single weapon from its flowing metal form as a swift action. Such weapons have a +3 enhancement bonus. Created weapons are part of the black centurion’s form and cannot be used by other characters.

Construct Traits (Ex):

• Cannot heal damage on their own.
• Not at risk of death from massive damage.
• Immmediately destroyed at 0 hit points or less. Cannot be raised or resurrected.
• Does not eat, sleep, or breathe.

Death Vapors (Ex): The black mercury from which black centurions is constructed is highly unstable. If they are prevented from returning to their chambers at least once every 12 hours, a black centurion will being losing cohesion (losing 1d6 hit points per hour).

In addition, when a black centurion is destroyed they immediately sublimate into a caustic black vapor. Everyone within 30 feet of the black centurion suffers 5d6 points of acid damage (Reflex save for half damage).

Go to Part 9