AREA 1-8 – MODIFICATION COMPLEX (MAIN HALL)
DOOR FROM HALLWAY: This is a door of glass-and-bronze. It has not been broken, but stands ajar. However, if any of the doors in Areas 1-8 thru 1-12 are opened, the door will swing shut and seal itself. It can only be opened with the correct password (which is not available). Breaking the door creates a feeblemind effect (Will save, DC 24).
SEARCH (DC 12): Age-old scratches cover the floor, creating a trail from the bluesteel door to Area 1-12.
- GM Note: These are the marks of hundreds of cages having been dragged in and out of the complex.
DOOR TO AREA 1-11: Open Lock (DC 25). All other doors are unlocked.
AREA 1-9 – THE CHAOS BEAST
An acrid stench assaults the senses.
RUBBLE: The floor here is covered two or three feet deep in rubble — most of it seems to be large chunks of stone, but mixed into the debris is broken glass. Here and there you can see that pools of some sort of thick, black liquid has coalesced.
DORMANT CHAOS BEAST: Mixed into the rubble is a dormant chaos beast. 1d4+2 rounds after the door is opened, the chaos beast spasms into action.
CLEARING RUBBLE: Reveals a floor of badly damaged white tile with Ghul’s skull sigil worked into it as a mosaic. There are also footings for two stone tables (which would appear to be where all the rubble came from).
CHAOS BEAST (CR 7) – Medium Outsider (Chaotic, Extraplanar)
DETECTION — darkvision 60 ft., Listen +11, Spot +11; Init +5
DEFENSES — AC 16 (+1 Dex, +5 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 15; hp 44 (8d8+8), Immune critical hits, transformation; Resist spell 15
ACTIONS – Spd 20 ft.; Melee 2 claws +10 (1d3+2 plus corporeal instability); Ranged +9; Base Atk +8; Grapple +10; SA corporeal instability; Combat Feats Dodge, Mobility
SQ darkvision 60 ft., spell resistance 15STR 14, DEX 13, CON 13, INT 10, WIS 10, CHA 10
FORT +7, REF +7, WILL +6
FEATS: Dodge, Improved Initiative, MobilityCorporeal Instability (Su): Fort DC 15, or become spongy, amorphous mass; shape melts, flows, writhes, and boils. Cannot hold any item. Worn items become useless. Large worn items afflict -4 Dex penalty. Speed -10 feet. Cannot case spells or use magic items. Attack blindly at random target (-4 penalty, 50% miss chance).
1 Wisdom drain per round. If Wisdom reduced to 0, victim becomes chaos beast.
Can attempt Charisma check (DC 15) as standard action to regain normal shape for 1 minute. Permanent cure requires restoration, heal, or greater restoration.
Immunity to Transformation: Can be affected by polymorph or petrification effects, but can resume mutable form as free action.
AREA 1-10 – PRIVATE CHAMBERS
These rooms are filled with furniture ruined and rotting from age. Each room has a floor of white tile with Ghul’s skull-sigil worked into it as a mosaic.
- GM Note: These were all private chambers for the researchers and laborers who lived here.
AREA 1-10A – LABORERS QUARTERS
As per Area 1-10. Several large bunkbeds have been crammed in here.
- GM Note: These were the laborers quarters.
SEARCH (DC 20): Wedged under one of the mattresses are some research notes written in orcish. The paper has been badly damaged by age, but even a casual perusal will see that it deals with alchemy.
- KNOWLEDGE (ARCANA) / CRAFT (ALCHEMY) (DC 15): The alchemical calculations seem to be related to the effects of alchemical concoctions on living flesh and bone.
AREA 1-11 – CHAMBER OF SKULLS
The walls of this dome-shaped chamber are covered with skulls. All the skulls would appear to belong to wolf-like creatures, but they don’t seem to have any relationship to any living creatures you’re familiar with. Some seem almost normal, but even these seem curiously (or horrifically) warped.
HOUND HOWL: If any of the skulls are disturbed, it causes all of the skulls to begin howling. The effect passes through the room in a cacophonous wave and then the skulls fall silent.
- The skulls never howl again.
- The entire collection of skulls would be worth 500 gp to a collector.
GM Note: This was something of a “trophy room” for the researchers here. Many of these represented their successes; others merely their most impressive failures.
AREA 1-12 – LABORATORY
The first thing one notices about this room is the smell: A metallic odor fills your nostrils, and the air feels moist and greasy.
WORK TABLES: Tables line the walls, littered with alchemical equipment. Broken beakers, flasks, tubes, and syringes lie haphazardly.
GREASY FILM: The walls and floor seem to be coated with some sort of greasy film.
- BALANCE (DC 12): If moving faster than normal in this room.
- GREASY RESIDUE: After spending 5 minutes here, PCs wearing metal armor may notice an oily film beginning to form on the surface of it (Spot DC 15, decrease DC by 2 every 5 minutes). This isn’t harmful, just hard to get off.
SPOT (DC 12): It’s clear from looking around the lab that whoever worked here were slightly larger than humans — the tables are just slightly too high and the equipment just slightly too big.
SEARCH:
- DC 10: a set of keys (to the cages in Area 1-13) hangs from a nail on the wall
- DC 12: potion of spider climb (that causes one to actually grow arm-sized spider legs, two on each side; Fortitude DC 25 to resist, but if resisted the potion is useless)
- DC 15: five unbroken syringes; two filled with potion of bull’s strength, 1 filled with potion of bear’s endurance, 2 empty
SCRATCHES: The scratch marks from Area 1-8 continue through this room and into Area 1-13.
AREA 1-13 – CAGES
Maverick Monarch – Monster Manual V
The room is filled with large cages of wrought iron. Each of the cages has a large ring attached to the top of them.
- CAGE A: Contains the bones of a dire wolf.
- CAGE B: Contains the bones of a bear.
- CAGE C: Contains the bones of a ghulworg, but the skull has been smashed, making identification impossible. (Comparison with the ghulworg skeleton in Area 1-34 is quite possible, however.) It is clear that the bones are laced with metal, and an Appraise (DC 15) check will identify it as 1,000 gp worth of adamantine.
- CAGE D: The remains of an ankheg, its armored plates lying haphazardly.
- CAGE E: This unusually large cage contains the remains of a mockery monarch (Monster Manual V, p. 126). In life it would have stood twice as high as a man. It was bred here from ankhegs as part of the experimentation. Its large armored plates are silver in color and might be worth 250 gp to a collector.
Mockery Monarch – Monster Manual V, p. 126
SCRATCHES: The floor is covered with scratches from where the cages were dragged from Area 1-12 and through to Area 1-14.
