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Rules • Themes • Bestiary • Religion • Races • Guilds • Families • Arlinac City • Maps • Adventures • Stories |
The PC is hired by some of Arlinac City's Dweorgs to retrieve a sthelmi hammer from a tomb far under the city. This adventure works well as a sequel to kidnap escape, although it does not matter if it immediately follows that earlier adventure.
"A newly unearthed Dweorg religious relic--an intelligent sthelmi hammer of madness--is causing imbalance among my friends. I'd like to hire you to retrieve its mate, an intelligent sthelmi hammer of order. That should bring back peace to the city's Dweorgs before factions form.
"As a Dweorg, I don't feel comfortable fetching it from one of my ancestor's tombs. Oh, I don't believe in ghosts or anything. But the old burials were big productions. The tombs contained a small theatre, and my ancestors said farewell to their chieftan by performing a dramatic summary of his life and valorous deeds. That should be the last time a Dweorg, especially family, is in the tomb. I can trust you to retrieve the relic but put back anything else you touch.
"The job should not be dangerous, but may be frustrating. Dweorgish tomb builders in those days used puzzles to secure the tomb. You'll find doors that will not open unless levers are moved, or wheels are turned, or something like that. Only the tomb builder knew how to open the doors, but he would leave clues in case the tomb ever needed to be entered.
"Here is a map. You'll want to get to the room farthest back in the tomb.
"I can pay you well. Those tomb builders used alchemy to mix a special compound. When mixed with stone, using transmutery, the result is stone forever after immune to transmutery. That's what keeps the tomb walls secure, so robbers could not disable or bypass the locked doors. I will pay you with several vials of that compound. You can sell it, or use it yourself. It's rarely owned by a non-Dweorg."
This adventure uses the Dweorg Tomb map. Both the GM and PC use the same copy of the map.
The adventure has the usual three objectives.
The tomb has no living NPCs. In the tomb are two crypts. The first belongs to Vrakmor, the chieftan's right-hand man. The second belongs to Zminthul, a chieftan during 300 years that rival Dweorg clans fought over Arlinac Mountain during the Age of Dragons.
The Dweorg who hired the PC gives the false name of Jakmeld. He is pretending to be opposed to the trouble caused by the hammer of madness but actually belongs to the cult that created these intelligent hammers and wants to restore their worship. He will not actually pay the PC with the promised potion, but with potions that will explode after an hour has passed. Alternately, if the PC is an alchemist he will have promised the recipe to make the valuable potion, but instead provide a recipe that creates a useless but dangerous poisonous gas. (The Dweorg is trying to get rid of the witness to his crime!)
In the tomb is an especially powerful shelmi hammer dedicated to change and chos. It is intelligent and can speak telepathically. It will lie about its name, identity, abilities, and purpose to any non-Dweorg.
The sthelmi hammer is initially seven pieces that need assembly. If the PC does assemble the hammer then the adventure will end unexpectedly. The hammer will speak to the PC telepathically, thanking the PC for restoring it and saying that it senses its "brother". Then the hammer will say that it must depart but will give the PC a gift by which to remember it. The PC will glow but experience no obvious effect, and the hammer will teleport away, leaving the PC in the tomb. The effect on the PC will soon become clear, and may either be created by the GM or chosen from among the following:
The city's Dweorgs maintain the tunnels and stairs leading down from Arlinac City to their ancestral tombs. After the PC makes preparations for the adventure, his or her travel to the tomb's entrance will be unevenetful. The huge cavern at the bottom of a long stairwell has opening to many tombs, including Zminthul's. Small bones on the floor of this cavern hint that at least one of the tomb entrances has become a lair for small- or medium-sized creatures.
The entrance to Zminthul's tomb is clearly marked with a carving of his hammer. This hammer has an odd shape with thin and thick parts: bulbous but not organic in appearance.
If the GM desires, the adventure may have an extra-complicated adventure as Dweorgs opposed to the cult of the intelligent hammers arrive at the tomb as the PC is departing. The PC will then need to convince these Dweorgs that he or she is an innocent pawn of the cult, not a genuine supporter of its goals.
If the GM desires additional traps can be added to the tomb. For example, the set of ten levers might be trapped and break vials of poisonous gas when set to positions other than the two puzzle solutions or necessary intermediate positions. Or the patches of moss and fungus might be hiding pressure plates in the floor that trigger large blocks of stone to fall into those corridors.
As mentioned above, all of the walls are made of stone and resistant to transmutery.
1. Entrance This is the tomb entrance, from a large cavern.
2a. Audience Hall This is where the performance dramatizing Zminthul's life happened. There are no seats; the audience stood. The room has become the lair of small Inferno Dragonflies (one more than twice as many as PCs) that each have 2 FP. (These are the only monsters in the adventure.) In the southeast corner of the room, in the hallway heading east, are ten levers. The levers have only two possible positions: up or down. All are initially down.
2b. Stage The stage is one meter higher than the audience hall. The back of the stage is a three meter wall. The audience hall is open, past the stage, to the loft above. On the walls behind the stage a mural is painted of Zminthul and Vrakmor fighting members of the traditionally evil races. From left to right the mural features a slain Mer, Vrakmor, an Ogre, Zminthul, a Kobalt, an Unseemly, a slain Kobalt, and a slain Ogre. Something about the mural is obviously odd. A successful Perception skill check will reveal a counting sequence: only Vrakmor has a shield, only the two Dweorgs have axes, there are three helmets, four flags, five swords, six spears, seven wounds, eight boots, nine belts, and eleven gauntlets. Looking more closely will reveal there is no equipment corresponding to the number ten. But the PC will eventually realize that there are five living combatants and thus ten open eyes. (The three slain combatants have closed eyes.)
3. Three Sealed Doors These doors should be impossible to open except by using the ten levers. The doors unlock when the ten levers match the up and down positions of the open eyes in the mural (remember Dweorgs are short, so up-up, down-down, up-up, down-down, up-up, up-up). If the PC's player needs a hint the GM could have the levers decorated with runes and other symbols that are difficult to see in the PC's lantern or lamp light, with open eyes being the image on the end of each lever.
4a. Bell Choir Loft Here a bell choir of 7 Dweorgs assisted the dramatic performance below. A shelf on the northwest wall hold seven gold-plated hand-bells. The bells are of increasing binary size: each is twice as heavy as the previous one.
4b. Vocal Choir Loft Here a vocal choir of 7 Dweorgs assisted the dramatic performance below. A shelf on the southeast wall holds a long, gold-plated trumpet (a simple horn, without valves). If the trumpet is removed from its shelf then a melody of ten notes is revealed, engraved on the side of the trumpet that was facing the wall. The melody goes: dee-dee-dum-dum, dee-dee-dum-dum, dee-dum.
5. Inclined Hallway This empty hallway slants upward from the audience hall to the lofts.
6. First Crypt A stone sarcophagus holds Vrakmor. The sarcophagus is probably impossible to open, for the lid is now sealed on and all the stone is resistant to transmutery. Along the north wall is a table with 7 hammers of increasing size. Similar to the bells, each hammer is twice the weight of the previous one.
7. Room of the Golden Scale This room is empty except for a gold-plated pedastal in the center, upon which is a golden balance scale. The scale has a stone weight on one balance pan (a rectangular stone carved with a picture of Zminthul's hammer). Although they appear to be important, the pedastal and balance scale do absolutely nothing.
8. Two More Sealed Doors These doors unlock only when the ten levers match the melody engraved on the trumpet: up-up-down-down, up-up-down-down, up-down.
9. Damp Hallway The floor of this hallway has become coated in Heat Moss. Any living creature on it takes 1 FP of damage per turn. The doorway at the far end of the hallway is made of thick wood and unlocked. On it is carved a scene of four elemental creatures (one of each element) rushing forward.
10. Plaque Archive This room is empty of furnishings except for shelves along the west and north walls. Many plaques carved with Dweorgish runes fill the shelves. The plaques describe every notable event in Zminthul's life, as well as detailing the dramatic presentation and music performed at his burial. Also in the room are four meter-tall golemns, made using advanced transmutery to be solid humanoid forms of each of the four elements. The golems will attack anyone they see but not leave the room. Their chems are rigged so that destroying a golem will also destroy its chem.
11. Another Damp Hallway The floor of this hallway has become coated with Fight Fungus. Any living creature who breathes its spores must succeed in an Escape skill attempt or being to fight anyone else of their species. The compulsion ends when the fungus-stricken person or animal suffers any damage.
12. Crypt Foyer This square room is empty except for a large, steel golem in its center. The golem is facing the door on the room's east wall. Instead of hands the golem has sharp axe blades. Ringing any of the hand-bells will cause the golem to attack anyone on the room's floor, except for the proper sequence of bell notes that unlocks the door to Zminthul's crypt. The door is made of heavy wood and locked. Its lock can be picked with a successful Machinery skill check of Challenging difficulty. The door can be possibly be destroyed. The lock also opens if six specific bell notes are rung: two rings each of the smallest three bells. On the door is a carved scene of seven Dweorgs, each ringing a hand-bell. A close inspection will show that the bells in the image are only of three different sizes, and the final Dweorg has no bell. Another look will show the bells are of consecutive sizes, two bells of each size. The PC cannot determine which three bells are in the carving because the Dweorgs are not shown properly to scale. A clever player will realize the first three weights add up to 7 times the lightest weight; alternately, starting with the smallest bell by guesswork will work since the golem remains stationary if the sequence 1-1-2-2-3-3 is rung.
13. Second Crypt This is Zminthul's crypt. His sarcophagus is similar to the other. A table along the east wall has a T-shaped iron tray into which fit the seven golden hammers: the handle is made of the three largest hammers, and two smaller hammers extend at the top to each side. The completed shape is indeed Zminthul's bulbous-looking hammer symbol. If the PC places the seven golden hamemrs into the tray they fuze together and the relic is restored and reactivated.