This adventure was designed using the Central Casting: Dungeons book, published by Task Force Games. Therefore, unless you own the book, some of the terms may need explaining. Room descriptions are given as numbers, with sub-rooms being a decimal. Non-room descriptions or special notes are given as alphabet characters (e.g., A,B,C,etc.)
Dungeon notes: the dungeon is located in some hills roughly sixty miles west of where the characters are coming from (the town of Crossway in my world). The dungeon, when still in use, served a dual purpose. First, it was the burial ground for an old ruler of the area (county, duchy, barony, etc.) when it was still a province of the empire. Second, it served as a barracks area for officers and nobility staying in the area. The dungeon was quickly abandoned and sealed up 5 generations ago when the uprising took place that shattered the old empire. There is still much treasure inside because the Imperial inhabitants never dreamed that they would be defeated by the insurgent forces brought against them in the war.
Notes about the burial practices at that time: 1) The dead were buried whole. 2) The dead were buried in the earth. 3) The dead were placed in stone caskets. 4) The dead were clothed as warriors. 5) The dead's possessions: The dead were buried with weapons and armor; the dead were buried with works of art and sculptures, some of which were representations of themselves during life; the dead were buried with writings and engravements to remind them of their past lives; the dead were buried with fragrances, precious oils, and ungents; the dead were buried with some of their jewelry, gems and personal wealth; and the dead were buried with personal items which may have had sentimental value.
Room 101: This room is a burial chamber, 20'x30'. There were 4 people buried in this chamber. TRAP: 2 seconds after the entry door is knocked down, a statue of a warrior with a crossbow will fire his medium crossbow for 4D direct damage on the first person in line. The bolt is shot at a 4'6" height, so a dwarf or hobbit could be missed. Guarding this room are 4 stone worms, with MRs of 12/10 each. The 4 dead are buried in the ground. The floor is covered in stone blocks, and the 4 burial areas are signified by large, single stone slabs over the area where the casket was buried. One of the bodies will be clothed in armor that contains a small gem in the breastplate worth 25sp. The weapons and armor in the chamber are worth 30gp (they are rusty and only worth anything to a historian). There is an assortment of weapons, a few complete suits of armor, several shields and many score arrows, bolts, and stones. There are also 3 magical weapons; a prodd that fires explosive stones for 6D damage (there are 20 stones with it), a 4D+5 taper axe (requires a DEX of 8), and an enchanged short sabre that gets 5D+3. There is also an enchanted piece of back and breast armor that only weighs 100 coins and absorbs 6 hits (11 for a warrior). All of the corpse's personal items are worth 9gp (and weigh 250 coins). The personal wealth for the corpses consists of 50gp, 500sp, and 5000bp in chests along the walls. The art and sculptures are worth 3gp each and weigh 75 coins apiece. The precious oils and fragrances are worth 20gp. Both bottles weigh 100 coins each. There is one door and two corridors exiting the chamber. The door is shut and locked. Note: The fourth time that a corpse is disturbed, it will rise up and attack the desecrator. The corpse will have a MR of 30/20 and will only be affected by magic or enchanted weapons.
Room 102: The door to this room is shut and locked. This room is an armory. There is no encounter, and there is no treasure. The armory is almost empty. It contains a few weapons, a target shield, a metal breastplate, and 2 score arrows on racks along the walls. Only the arrows are in usable condition.
Room 103: Both doors to this room are shut and locked. The room is empty. Totally.
Room 104: The door to this room is stuck and must be forced. The room is a chapel. There is nothing of worth left in the chapel. There is a raised platform for an altar on the far south wall, and about six benches in the room.
Room 105: The door to this (short) room is stuck and must be forced. This room is an exhibition room. On exhibition are two great tapestries showing warriors in glorious and victorious combat, along with a few spoils of war against foreign nations. There are two rock lizards (MR 20/30) in the room, one on the wall and one on the ceiling when the first PC enters. The room has a door on the left wall that is shut but unlocked. There are corridors branching off to the north and west, giving this room an odd configuration.
Room 106: This is actually a corridor, but is also a catacomb that includes 5 stone coffins in the walls of the corridors. If the characters bother to check, each coffin has a corpse in it. These corpses will not animate if disturbed. Only one of the corpses is buried with anything of value (a small necklace worth 12sp), and it is under the corpse.
Room 107: This room acts as a guard room for the barracks beyond. There is a small table and a shelf on one wall. There are three magically animated skeletons in the room. They wield rusty broadswords for 3D+4 and take 10 hits before they collapse. One of the skeletons wears a small obsidian stone on a chain around its neck, worth 12sp.
Room 108: This group of rooms was barracks for officers and nobility. Unless otherwise noted, each room housed 2 officers, with 2 beds, a table, and 2 chests being in each room.
108.1 - In one of the chests in this room are 15sp.
108.2 - Under one of the beds is a small gem worth 3gp.
108.3 - 2 giant centipedes inhabit this room, and will attack the first person to enter the room. They have MRs of 10/10. There is a total of 10sp and 120bp strewn about this room.
108.4 - On one of the beds is a small ring worth 3gp.
108.5 - This room was the barrack for a member of the ruling family stationed on site, and only accomodated one person. In the chest (which is locked, by the way) is 200sp.
108.6 - Empty.
108.7 - There are 4gp scattered around the room. Can the PCs find them all?
108.8 - Empty.
108.9 - Empty.
108.10 - 2 more of those pesky 10/10 giant centipedes.
108.11 - There is one 20/30 rock lizard here, along with 15sp in the chest under some ancient and decaying clothes.
108.12 - The (locked) chest contains 60sp.
Room 109: This room is a great hall. The door leading to it has been smashed down. In the center of the room is a raised platform covered in dust-covered, red rugs. Sitting on the platform is an earth elemental. 8 feet tall, with a MR of 65/60, the earth elemental can not be harmed by normal bladed weapons. The elemental wears a crown of gold with several small gems imbedded in it worth 150gp, and weighing 40 coins. When the party enters, the elemental will be openly hostile and will give the PCs 10 seconds to leave the chamber. If they don't, then he will charge them and try to kill them to the best of his abilities.
Room 110: The door leading to this room is stuck and must be forced. It is empty.
Room 111: The door to this room is stuck and must be forced. This is the guard room for the torture chamber beyond. There is an old table on one side of the room, and 3 chairs strewn about the room. There is a silver ring underneath one of the chairs worth 30sp. Guarding this room are 4 stone worms, MR 12/10.
Room 112: This door is locked and must be broken through. Torture methods available in this chamber: 1) Whipping, 2) Beating, 3) Cutting, 4) Poison, 5) Crushing [thumb screws]. On the ceiling of the room lives a black slime. The first person with a torch to walk under neath the slime will have the dubious distinction of being the slime's victim, for the slime will drop on and smother the heat source (and the adventurer carrying it). The victim must make a L1 saving throw on LCK each combat turn or lose the difference from his/her CON. The slime takes 100 hits to destroy (the victim can't fight at all), and blunt weapons only do half damage.
Room 113: Here is another burial chamber. 29 people are buried here. The door to this room is locked. Outside the door is a block of obsidian embedded in the wall to the right of the door. A special magical amulet (the obsidian stone from room 107) must be held up to this block to de-activate the trap in the antechamber. If the corpses themselves are checked, they will not re-animate and attack. 3 of the corpses are buried with jewels in their armor worth 20, 22, and 25sp specifically.
113.1 - The antechamber holds the items buried withe dead interred beyond. It also holds 2 rock lizards (MR 20/30). The weapons and armor in here are worth 10gp. There are 29 suits of armor, 29 missile weapons, and 55 melee weapons in the chamber, all rusted beyond effective use. The personal items are worth a total of 13gp and weigh 75 coins per gp. The personal wealth consists of 10gp, 200sp, and 1350bp. The art and sculptures are worth 3gp and weigh 300 coins. The oils and fragrances are worth 25gp and weigh 400 coins. the trap in this room is thus: the door to the actual chamber will lock, and a nigh-undetectable poison will be emitted out of the helmet on a suit of armor (which cannot be moved, by the way). This poison will cause the PCs to feel dizzy, loose coordination, and eventually pass out. Then they will die. Nice stuff.
Room 114: This room is a teleportation chamber. The door leading here is a double-door, and is not locked. The teleportation feature is activated by speaking the key-word "Travel" in the original inhabitant's language. If this word is spoken, then the whole party will be sent to a sister teleportation chamber in the lost city of Zarpatan. (can you say, "adventure opportunity"?)
Room 115: This is another torture chamber. The door to this room isopen. This one was utilized for the following torture methods: scalding (with oil), maiming, crushing of legs, and piercing (2 iron maidens in the room). 5 animated skeletons wielding scimitars for 4D and target shields that take 3 hits per round (the skeletons take 10 hits each) protect this room. Of course, there's nothing of interest in this chamber, so why mess with it?
Room 116: This room's entrance door is shut and locked. Inside is a small burial chamber, holding ten tightly-fitted burial spaces. There is an earth elemental in this room, also. He wears a beautiful gold pendant inset with gems that would be worth 200gp to a jeweler. He will not attack unless provoked, but doesn't like the party much and will try to get them to leave him alone. His MR is 65/60. As with the entrance chamber, the fourth corpse that is disturbed will come to life and attack its defiler (MR 30/20, only harmed by magic and enchanted weapons). There is nothing of much value buried with the corpses. The weapons and armor in the chamber are rusted and worthless. The personal items are worth 5gp and weigh 320 coins. The personal wealth consists of 110sp. The art would net 4gp from a novelty dealer and weighs 100 coins. The oils and fragrances are worth 20gp and weigh 100 coins. The last 2 corpses in the eastern part of the room are buried under rock from the cave-in in note E and cannot be inspected (but they don't have anything with them anyway, so it doesn't matter).
Room 117: The door to this room is shut but unlocked. This room is yet another burial chamber. It is preceded by an antechamber, which holds the goods of the dead. There are 5 dead in the chamber. The second corpse that is disturbed in search of wealth will rise and attack the party, followed 2 turns later by the rest of the corpses. Each corpse has MR 25/15 and is only harmed by magic and enchanted weapons. There are no valuables buried with the dead. There are, however, 3 stone worms (MR 12/10) in the chamber.
117.1 - The weapons and armor are worth 30gp to a historian (weight of 3000 coins for the whole lot). There is a small assortment of weapons, one suit of armor, 3 shields, and many arrows and bolts (the only usable items). Additionally, there are 2 pieces of magical armor; enchanted leather that takes 8 hits (15 for warriors), and light scale mail that protects from 10 hits and only weighs 300 coins. The personal items are worth 10gp and weigh 400 coins. The personal wealth consists of 150gp, 500sp, and 1000bp. The art and sculptures are worth 8gp and weigh 300 coins. The precious oils are only worth 15sp (weight 130 coins) as they have lost most of their potency.
A: This door is stuck and will have to be forced or broken down.
B: The corridor here was never finished. There are 2 elaborately painted statues of armored warriors at the end of this corridor.
C: There is some beautiful stonework in this stretch of corridor, showing the old inhabitant's diety intervening on their behalf in battle.
D: This section of the hallway has a beautiful, full-color carving of the Imperial crest in the floor.
E: This whole blocked-off area is covered by tons of rock and dirt resulting from a large cave-in.
This dungeon was designed for a party of 4 first-level adventurers using the 5th edition T&T rules, with no house rules other than the use of split MRs (which is mentioned in the rulebook). To bring this adventure into line with 7th edition rules, either only use the first of the two MR numbers for encounters, or (my preferred suggestion) you can add them and divide by 2. If a larger party, or a more experienced one enters the dungeon, either increase the strength of the encounters, or add more of them. Also, there is a lot of treasure in this dungeon, but don't just hand it to them the instant they walk into a room. Make them look for it. Also, looking takes time. A large burial chamber (like 113) can take many hours to search. Will their activity attract wandering monsters? Did they bring enough food to spend 3 days breaking into every coffin? And if a chase results, will they be too weighed down by their plunder to flee? Lastly, the dungeon is sealed when found by the characters. Once they open it, will humanoid tribes move in? Will other adventuring parties clean out what they don't get on their first trip? Only creative groups using the proper amount of cleverness should have a shot at all the treasure.
