Adventure from a Picture- Strange Beautiful Light

I've done magic spells based on albums and their artworks before. In those cases, if the artwork looks cool, I'll be inspired to listen to the songs of the album, using their names as spell names, and going where the music takes me. Terrible cliche and pretentious I know, but no album art has inspried a real sense of fantasy adventure in me; until this one. Take it from me, I did not expect it to be from a band named Weed Smoke Rising.

Art & Inspiration from this album

Strange Beautiful Light
In the valley of our lady, stands a great statue to her honor. The lady was a fantastic hero, perhaps a goddess, who once carried a lantern. Maybe she ferried slaves to safety along an underground railroad. Maybe she was the first cleric of the light, or is some kind of lanternkeeper/firekeeper Dark Souls knockoff. Regardless of the reason, she is honored here.

However, a great treasure from the lady's tomb has been taken. Her death mask, golden and unchanged by time, was taken from her corpse that lays within the consecrated church on the hill. Her body, once pristine and impervious to rot and decay, has now lost its supernatural protection. You must return the death mask to her corpse before necrosis begins to destroy the last remains of a great hero.

The most likely suspect to the robbery is a powerful mage- once a friend of the lady, now jealous and depraved. The lady's light-bearing lantern, her greatest symbol, was actually forged by this mage to be immune to wind and rain, to cast supernatural light that blasted apart the undead, and protected from dark sorcery all who lay within the lantern's rays. Of course, where he is and, more importantly, where the mask is now is a mystery you must solve.

The Statue
The statue of the lady is a huge stone construction, well detailed, and true to life beyond its epic scale. The large lantern she holds glows with an unnatural light at all times, though it only becomes truly visible at night or on an overcast day. This lantern is the same one she carried in days of yore, though it has been magically transformed into a huge stone and class chamber suspended from the statue. Travel and camp in this valley is extremely safe, because of the light- it automatically turns the undead, stops evil spells, and makes creatures of chaos vulnerable to attack. The lady's light can be used as a holy symbol for cleric meditation or spell preparation for any clerics of light. 

The first time anyone sees the Strange Beautiful Light, they are fascinated for about an exploration turn, staring at the light's beauty before snapping out of it.

The statue itself is apparently a great stone construction, and has no doors or openings to enter. The statue could be climbed by a very skilled thief or a powerful magician.

The Church Tomb
In the basement of the small church is a tomb. Surrounded on all sides by stone walls with only one stairway down, guarded by heavy oak doors, it is clear magic was used to steal the death mask.

The church tomb is a small five room dungeon inhabited by 2d6 skeleton warriors. They have colorful painted bones and were once the protectors and lovers of The Lady. Normally, these skeletons stay still and silent, happily guarding the tomb forever, but have become animated and attack anyone who enters the tomb. Successful rolls of Turn Undead cause them to go back to sleep for 1d6 turns, and if the result is Destroyed, these skeletons instead go back to sleep until something else is stolen from the tomb; these are holy guardians, not the creations of foul necromancy, so holy magic does not burn them.

There is also a silver line "trap" on the floor that, if crossed, causes a bell in the church to chime softly. This also was not triggered on the night of the theft; hence why the wizard is such a prime suspect.

Searching The Lady's casket, one can see how perfectly preserved her body is, and the faint outline of a mask that was once pressed down on her face. If you examine the area for clues, you can find a feather and a small amount of arcane dust. You can also loot a few other pieces of jewelry and treasure here, but they belong to the lady or are the heirlooms of the wealthiest families from the nearby village and the priest would be very cross with you.

The Lake
In the center of the valley is a small watering hole built up by the rains. The water here is clean and this place can be used as a resting spot. It is about equidistant from everything else.

There is nothing special about this lake but if you sleep on the side of the bank not shrouded by the statue's light; your party has a 1 in 6 chance to be attacked by a gang of fish people (or Kuo-Toa). They are led by a 3 HD sorcerer whose favorite spell is Acid Fog. He'll cast it on the shore so you're forced to fight waist deep in water or run away.

The Roaring Recess
Framed by a great roaring stone mouth, the fearsome gateway is said to scare away evil spirits and protects the foundations of the great statue of the lady. This is the main dungeon. I don't have a map for it, so you'll have to supply one yourself. Just insert a funhouse dungeon you like, or go use donjon and generate a new one. Should be full of generic monsters, traps, magic, and a bit of loot.

Just add the following feature to empty rooms- metallic bird statuettes. Each statuette is located on a stone plinth and is protected by a magical trap. Roll on your favorite spell failure table or random spell list to generate a fitting trap. There are four birds and each is made of a different metal; lead, copper, silver, and gold.

The dungeon also has a secret entrance or exit to properly jaquay the dungeon. Roll a 1d6 to find out where it comes out.

1. Secret door at the base of the Lady's Statue
2. Tunnel connected to underwater cave in the lake 
3. Behind some random rock on the hillside of the dungeon mound
   
4. Very long escape tunnel built into the tomb of the church
5. Secret door along wall of the tower's basement (requires Lead Bird to access)
6. One-way exit from the dungeon; teleport tile makes you appear in the middle of the valley
   

The Tower
This crumbled wizard's tower stands in the dark part of the valley; its view to the Strange Beautiful Light cut off by the body of the statue. It appears as only the ruined base of the tower, with steps that extend and curve into nothing around a central support pillar. If you begin to climb the steps, you can sense strong magic in the air and can see a scrawled drawing of a bird on a pillar. If you continue climbing and follow the steps around the curve, you disappear and end up in an alternate pocket dimension.

The "Tower" dimension is a very dark place shrouded in shadows. The way you came is also gone; you are stuck on an endlessly repeating stairwell. If you go up or down the stairwell, every exploration turn of climbing or descending makes you end up on a large stone landing. This space is wide enough to sleep or rest, and has windows that show the black smoke, but no doors or side rooms. Once you are within the tower dimension, you are trapped and cannot escape. No matter how many flights of stairs you climb in either direction, it repeats endlessly. If the party spends more then 4-5 turns climbing or descending, they become exhausted and get -1 on all combat checks and saves. Jumping out the window is also no escape- you will fall forever through the shadow realm!

However, it's not so inescapable. If you fall from the window or are on any landing, you can look out of a window and see the Strange Beautiful Light from any distance. Characters who stare at the light feel like its guiding them to safety- and if they stare at it for a turn, they are whisked away from the shadowy tower dimension and find themselves back in the realm world, at the base of the statue of The Lady. The only way to access the rooms of the tower are to posses the bird statues, kept away for safe keeping within the Roaring Recess.

Bird Rooms
Each room can only be accessed by its matching bird statuette. However, it may also be possible to bypass these with enough luck or circumstance. If your fighter belongs to a foppish order of knights that adorns their helmets with hummingbirds made of iron, then perhaps you can find the lead door without needing the statuette. Maybe if your party carries around a little yellow canary in a cage to detect poisonous gas; you can find the golden door and the wizard's lair on your first visit. Why not?

Lead Room- Requires the lead bird, and is the only room found if you travel down the staircase from the "entrance". The lead door will appear on the first landing you reach traveling down. As the door is made of lead, it's incredibly heavy and requires someone of 18 Strength to pull open, or a team of people and a lot of patience.

The lead room is a storage room, especially for failed experiments. Because of how annoying it is to get to this room, it is rarely used by the Wizard and the whole thing is covered in a layer of dust. The room is filled with small displays, boxes, disorganized piles of books, and oversized taxidermist monsters looming in the darkness. If you mess with anything roll 1 in 6 for a random monster encounter- the monsters coming out of whatever thing you bumped or animating from the stuffed corpses.

If the party fights two encounters or searches this room thoroughly for a while; they'll eventually find a little locked lead box with an Amulet of Protection within. This amulet makes it so you always succeed your saves vs spells, wands, and magic devices. The amulet almost certainly belonged to The Lady and the Wizard was unable to find a way to destroy it, so locked it away.

Copper Room- Requires the copper bird, and will be the first door you come to after one turn of walking up the tower's steps. The copper door leads to a set of three hallways with more copper doors leading to small rooms. The floor of this level is made of stone, but a long single piece of copper flooring connects every room and crosses under every doorway; stopping only at the main door to enter this room. The end of each hall spits out into a large common room with a huge table for meals and adjoining kitchen and pantry.

This was once a servant's quarters, or perhaps barracks for The Wizard's apprentices. Around this floor are several traps in the form of electrical devices, or electric eels in water urns in the kitchen. If any of this hits the copper floor, it will shock anyone in the hallway or touching a door for 1d6 lightning damage. If you are in a room when this happens, you can't open the door without getting shocked. One room has an almost complete demonic summoning circle underneath the bed; if the players complete it with the red chalk in that apprentice's room, the circle spits out 50 1 HD imps, two at a time, until the floor is totally overrun. Yes, you are supposed to zap all of them if you want a chance. One room also contains a 4 HD minotaur barbarian, napping peacefully under the effects of a permanent sleeping spell. The wizard intends to make him solve mazes- if he ever gets around to building one. If you wake him up he'll assume you're working for the wizard and attack with his battleaxe.

Silver Room- Requires the silver bird. The wizard's private quarters. The doorway is magical and makes the sound of a chime when opened. Since it's made of silver, it also bares passage to lycanthropes and magical creatures like faeries, who cannot pass through even if held open by something else. The doorway opens into a circular chamber with two curved doors and four windows. Each window looks out onto a beautiful vista of a random far away place in a different season- one summer field, one autumn forest, one winter lake, etc. Each one of these places is actually another pocket dimension, and getting shunted out of a window traps you in a strange wilderness; but you can return to the valley of the lady by looking up into the sky and seeing that Strange Beautiful Light once again.

The central room is a sitting room and living space, with a desk and writing table. Crammed in the fireplace is a cauldron too big for it. There is a tiny switch that turns on the fire; it is a magical golden flame that warms and heats, but does not hurt living flesh. It deals double damage a fire of that size would deal to undead creatures. The candles and lanterns of this tower are lit with its golden radiance.

The two doors lead into a bathroom and a bedroom. The bathroom has a waterfall "cut out" from another place, with rocks and lichen growing on the stones roughly inserted into this room. Occasionally, a fish or random animal will fall down the waterfall and exit out the bottom- a grate covers an exit portal. There is also a small toilet in this room with a portal to dispose of waste.

There is a 1 in 6 chance that the Wizard is in his chambers when you visit. Because the door alerts the occupant that somebody is coming, you won't find him sleeping or on the toilet or anything UNLESS you dispel the door first, or have some kind of magical super-thief that can slip under doorways or something. In which case you could probably just stab him in his sleep. Scattered around this place are several expensive pieces of jewelry and a small hoard of silver coins. On the desk is a small glass prism with a blue tint- it glows a deeper shade of blue whenever a Wizard touches it. This is a major magic item called a Spell Prism that can split magical effects into multiple smaller copies- such as a fireball being turned into a bunch of 1d6 mini fireballs if the spell is cast directly on the prism itself. The prism is invulnerable.

Golden Room- Requires the golden bird and is the last door you will find while going up the magic tower. The door is enchanted and will cast a save or die curse on anyone who touches it without the wizard's permission. It is possible to "trick" this door if you are dressed up as the wizard, or are carrying one of his special artifacts.

This door leads to a magical workshop. It is a rectangular room with several tables and large, esoteric arcane machines. The wizard is here almost all of the time. Several half-finished magic items litter the tables, and many gemstones and magical reagents are scattered among the shelves on the sides. On the close end of the room is a huge glass orb, similar to a bubblegum machine, filled to the prim with lightly glowing marbles of a million different colors. On the far end of the room is a large window which shows a view to the actual valley from the vantage of where the tower and this floor would exist in the real world- and the back of the statue of The Lady and the ominous Strange Beautiful Light. just behind her arm.

If you get into a fight in this room, the wizard will engage you. If you tip over or break the marble jar, all hell breaks loose as a random magical effect goes off every round.

At the base of the window is the golden Death Mask of the Lady. Whenever the Wizard leaves this room, he conjures a magical glass case over it to protect it. If you touch the glass case, it shrieks like a banshee and explodes, dealing 1d8 damage and instantly alerting the Wizard wherever he is.

The Wizard
The Wizard was once a companion to the Lady. He made the magical lantern of light that made her so famous, but it became her symbol, not his. It was so much thought to be hers that once she died, it was magically bound to her statue and soul, meaning he could not take it back. In jealousy, he began to hate the Lady and the people of this town, and hid his tower away with his magic. He's not evil yet- his alignment would probably be neutral at this point. If he starts killing people to keep hold of the mask, he will certainly become more depraved. The Wizard could probably be reasoned with; but he's likely to lash out at anyone trying to steal the mask with spell and fury.

After finishing his lastest great work of artifice, the Wizard realized he could steal the Death Mask and use it in a magical ritual to return the light to him. If you don't stop him, he will perform a ritual at the foot of the state of The Lady and absorb the light; gaining +1 HD and the power of a Limited Wish spell as a daily power.

Give the Wizard stats equal to a level 20 or name level Wizard. He's an archmage and pretty scary. However, he casts spells as though he was a few levels weaker. That's because he both drained some of his power to create the light AND his specialty was always the creation of magic items, not spellcasting. The wizard once had to use the four metal birds to access his own tower, but once he completed his great work, he no longer needed them and put them in the Roaring Recess for safekeeping. The Wizard always carries three of his great works;

The Coring Tool
Looks like a metallic wand with a button on the side. Can be stuck in something to take out a portion of its magic or enchantments on it. Things like water, stone, or the earth can just be stuck, where as creatures would need to be hit with an attack roll. This tool crystalizes a portion of the magical essence into a tiny marble. These marbles are used by the Wizard and his machines to transfer or craft magical essences.

The Tileothfric
Small finely crafted wooden box with dozens of ivory tiles within. Each tile is double sided and has a character of Angelic script on one side and another character of Infernal on the other. If these tiles are laid out before a magical item, the will scramble up and reveal the enchantment or magical effect of the item- good effects will flip the tiles to the Angelic side to be named, and cursed or destructive magic effects flip to the Infernal side to reveal themselves. Essentially it allows you to identify magic items as long as you know Angelic for positive effects and/or Infernal.

Ring of Transportation
This magic ring is the Wizard's greatest creation. It looks like a golden band, with the engraving of a bird in flight along its length. As long as you wear this ring, you can teleport to any location you can think of. You have to either have visited that place before, or be able to envision it; some sort of knowledge of the place, however tertiary, is required. Every time you use this ring, it leaves behind a feather. It also grants the power of the Flight spell on the wearer at all times at will, even after all the charges of the ring have been used up.

The ring has about four charges remaining.

Storylines & Conclusion

If the party kills the Wizard and returns the Death Mask, they will be paid a pittance by the church, but are local heroes. (And can still steal everything in the Wizard's tower) The one who places the death mask on the corpse of The Lady will be rewarded by being able to conjure the Strange Beautiful Light once per day. This light grants a roll of Turn Undead equal to a Cleric one level higher then the character, cancels ongoing magic effects cast by evil beings, counts as a light spell for one exploration turn, and can also Charm Person if shown to someone who has never seen it before. Additionally, the Strange Beautiful Light stays where it is, keeping this valley as a safe place.

If the party kills the Wizard but do not return the Death Mask, they can instead choose to try and steal the Strange Beautiful Light for themselves. Stealing the light requires a bit of research and a ritual to be cast at the foot of the statue of the lady. Whoever steals the light gets +1 HD and the ability to cast a Limited Wish once per day. If the "power" of the light is shared among the whole group using the Spell Prism, each party member can reroll their HD and take the new result if higher, gets +1 to their highest ability score, AND gets the ability to cast one 1st level spell once per day for free, regardless of their class. The spell they can cast is determined randomly.

If the party tries to ransom the mask back to the church for a bigger payout, or stick around in the valley a few months after the light is gone, they will be hunted by a squad of Paladins.

If the party helps the Wizard he will reward them with a fitting magic item, one per party member. The fighter will be given a +1 magic sword, the thief a cloak of shadows, etc. He'll probably give them something out of storage then commission something new- but he has plenty. Under no circumstances will he give anyone the Amulet of Protection.

If the party convinces or threatens the Wizard into giving up, he'll begrudgingly return the mask in exchange for all four of his statuettes back before kicking them out of his tower. However, it is not easy to threaten a Wizard, and anything you have to offer in exchange will have to be either very valuable or very magically important- he'll gladly give up the mask in exchange for a genie, for example.

If the party interrupts the Wizard's ritual to steal the light he will summon monsters to try and stall them. He'll also probably fly up to finish the ritual in the air out of reach. If he is struck with an arrow or other ranged attack, he'll fail the ritual and be burned alive by the light- taking 4d10 damage. If he survives, he'll teleport away and leave a single feather behind- but not in his tower. He will retreat to a far away elvish land to nurse his wounds and scheme.

If the party does nothing or fails to stop the Wizard in time, he'll probably just ignore them and lord over this valley. His magic tower will be returned from its pocket dimension and he'll recruit a small army of chaotic creatures to do his bidding. By the end of the first year; he'll have torn down the statue of The Lady, have shifted fully to an evil alignment, and be well on his way to researching spells to make him into a God.

If the light goes out for any of the reasons above; the statue's protective powers will fade away. After a few weeks, the fish people will begin attacking people who pass by, goblins will begin to hunt the mountainsides, and eventually more powerful evil creatures will come as well bringing darkness and fear to the people. This also means the dimension of the tower will be permanently separated from the prime material plane; meaning anyone who enters will be trapped there unless if they have the Ring of Transportation or some other highly powerful magic ability to escape the tower.

Glacial Cave Encounters

Glacial Cave Encounters
[1] An otherwise boring hallway which hides a crevasse past a dip in the floor. If you aren't paying attention or your party has a light source weaker then a torch or Light spell- you won't see it. Anyone who falls through falls 1d4 floors down deeper into the ice dungeon.

[2] This room is the lair of a Bloodwind. The walls are streaked with light pink, light scratches and erosion on the stalagmites of ice giving a hint. There is a 1 in 4 chance it will return if you delay here; treat any wandering monster encountered here as (1).

[3] The party walks onto something dark and mildly softer then the compacted ice in this cavern- if examined closely, they will find it is a giant upturned whale, beached and well preserved onto this glacier many eons ago.

You can dig into and thaw the whale meat- it is still edible, requiring a fire and one turn to melt a ration of meat. For each ration you dig out, roll a 1d20 and if you ever roll equal to or under the number of rations taken from the whale, the next one you cut some giant whale parasite corpse worms that have been feeding on the corpse for all this time pop out and attacks you.

Whale Corpse Worm (5+2 HD, +2 To-Hit, +2 AC, 1d6+2 worm teeth, Blood Coating)
Morale- 11
Numbers- 1d4

These giant white worms are gastrointestinal parasites that have grown to huge sizes over the centuries. Each worm is coated in a bit of blood that has been kept warm for all this time; once they exit the body to fight the party, after 3 rounds the blood on their bodies freeze and turn to icy armor, granting +3 AC unless they are hit with something warm enough to melt it.

[4] The massive fur-coat of a giant. Looks like a pond of fur at first. If you riffle through its pockets you find 2d2 massive gold coins. Each gold coin is almost as big as a standard shield and weighs an absurd amount- takes a crew of people to carry just one of these coins, but worth a fortune. Each coin is worth 20,000c each. The fur coat itself is very difficult to carry unless chopped up into pieces, which would diminish its value. If delivered to a giant; 1000c or he'll crush a castle for you. If chopped up and sold at market price, 400c total.

[5] The heated hand. It looks like a severed hand, in a small "bowl" of ice and water that it has melted since it fell. The hand is always just about room temperature, but to the ice of this glacier, it is only very slowly melting it away. The hand feels like it was just cut off a few seconds ago from body heat and anyone who carries it feels a very bad feeling when they hold it, like it's about to come alive and try to strangle them. However, it is always warm and could help stave off the bitter cold.

The heated hand has two properties. Firstly, it is considered sacred by the Hot Shamans (2), and can be used as a holy symbol by their order. Also, treat any reaction check with the Hot Shamans as the highest possible result; they view whoever finds the heated hand as a blessed person, as they themselves cannot find it. The second property is magic. Whenever you cast an Endure Elements spell or a Fire-Based spell, you can boost your caster level by +1. Each time you do this, one finger on the hot hand is burnt black down one joint. This allows for fourteen (3 on each finger, 2 on thumb) empowered casts. Once all fingers are burnt off, the hot hand loses its heat and begins to rot away like any other chunk of dead flesh.

[6] You find a wall of carvings made into the ice. The carvings were made with a hot knife, and depict (roll 1d6)

1. The end of an ancient eskimo-like civilization as they are overrun by yeti.
2. Humorous depiction of a dragon eating a bunch of snow and farting out a steam cloud
3. Woolly mammoth fighting for its life against several giant saber-cats.
4. Food, trees, grass, flowers, and the sun. Whoever drew it was pining for better days.
5. Symbol that roughly means "safe" in draconic. Resting place of local kobolds (2)
   
6. Very rough cave map depicting a sleeping giant in a coat. Shows location of [4]
   

[7] Lair of a giant leopard seal. There is a black hole in the floor that leads to the water underneath the glacier ice. 1 in 6 chance of the seal being here when you visit. The seal is scary but still just a wild animal and will only fight if threatened; instead preferring to just swim out through the floor if you surprise it. The lair also contains a small golden penguin statuette with bite marks all over it. (6000c)

Giant Leopard Seal (6+1 HD, +1 To-Hit, +3 AC, 2d8 bite, slow on land, Blubber, Cold Resistance)
Morale- 9

The Giant Leopard Seal is built for freezing cold water, not land. It is very slow and easy to avoid. It's body is coated by a thick layer of blubber that makes it take half damage from blunt weapons, and it also takes half damage from cold spells and attacks. The leopard seal's blubber can be turned into ~100 units of lantern oil if processed.

[8] Chamber with a high, cavernous ceiling. The icicles that hang down tinkle and sway with each motion. If you speak above a whisper here- save or an icicle falls and stabs you for 1d6+1 damage. This also works on monsters; the louder the enemy the better.

[9] Five carved ice sculptures are fit along this hallway. The ice sculptures each have a bowl and tracks that let melted water travel between them. If you fill all five sculpture bowls with water, they unlock a secret passage to a treasure room that contains unbreakable ice tools used for ice/mason work (worth 10,000c to a dwarf) and a collection of water from ancient, secret hot springs.

[10] Witch's Ice Cream. Several metal tubs are placed neatly in this room, each filled with an unusual, very sweet smelling substance. It's ice cream and tastes amazing. If you eat only a spoonful, there are no averse effects. If a character eats enough to count as one ration, they suffer the following effect based on whatever flavor they ate.

Vanilla: Infected with a Random Disease 1d4 turns after eating.

Chocolate: Get drained by 1d2 levels. After being drained, a "chocolate" ghost appears of your drained levels, taunting you. If you can turn undead on this ghost, it will be stunned and you can stuff it back in your mouth and regain the lost levels. Otherwise it phases through a wall and you can't retrieve it.

Strawberry: Your skin starts to turn red or pink. You develop Darkvision, but find yourself getting angry at the smallest things. In combat, you deal +1 damage from pure rage but have a 1 in 6 chance to attack an ally instead of an enemy. The next time you venture directly into sunlight, you take 1d6 damage as the sun burns you and destroys the strawberry's effect in your body.

If you take any of the icecream away for later, you now have a 1 in 6 chance to encounter the Dairy Witch whenever you roll a wandering monster encounter until you get rid of it or kill her.

Dairy Witch (3+3 HD, +1 AC, 1d4 butter hammer, spells, Dairy Items)
Morale- 10
Number- Just one, with 1d4 Lesser Ice Golems

The Dairy Witch is a woman who moved to the icy wastes to practice her magic in the cold- where her milks and cheeses remain unspoiled from the heat. She gets her milk from her snow white goat familiar, random polar bears, and herself.

The Dairy Witch carries around a few magic items in the form of her foodstuffs. The first are pieces of Hard Cheese which grants the consumer +1d6 AC for three rounds and restores the same amount of hit points. The second are small bottles of milk, which consumed grant +2 To-Hit and restore 2 hit points. The Dairy Witch carries around 2d4 units of each which can be looted from her corpse and used if she is slain. The cheese lasts basically forever but the milk bottles remain warm right until they spoil and the magic is lost in 3 days after you take them from her body.

[11] Extremely light, powdery snow has piled up in this chamber from a crack in the top of their glacier. After many years, it has become a great hill. It's just a hill of very light snow, but makes excellent material if you want to roll a giant snowball down it at a monster or maybe make a big slide. You could also dig into it and make a warm igloo shelter but it would take at least 3d3 turns of effort even with a big group unless you use magic. Ice wizards can also take a pinch of the stuff and throw it with any spell cast to grant +1 to the difficulty of their spells saving throws.

[12] Floating in a crack in the ice above you is a strangely rotating blue cube. It has eyes along its sides that make a very rough impression of a face- a cubit cube. If the cube is attacked, spoken to, or if a spell is in effect within its presence (like a Light spell) it will come down and start to boss you around.

Cubist Dominator (2 HD, +2 AC, Command, Must make save to attack)
Morale- 12
Number- Just One

The Cubist Dominator is a strange creature appearing as a cube with a face inspired by cubist art. It speaks in a whiny, multifaceted voice that echoes strangely in the icy caverns. It cannot attack and isn't very strong- but its words carry great power. Its alien voice and circular logic make it capable of commanding others to obey it. It can say STOP to make you stop in place, BLEED to make you take 1d4 damage, or more if you have a weapon in your hand, RUN to make you save or run away, etc. The Cube can issue up to two commands a round, and its unusual commanding presence makes attacking it difficult. You must succeed on a saving throw to attack it for the first time, but once you've succeeded you can attack it as much as you want.

The Cubist Dominator is not aggressive at first and doesn't want to kill anyone; it mostly is just an annoying control freak. Make the wizard carry the pack so he can bulk up, put your potions in this order, keep your sword on the right side so you're symmetrical, and so on. If you let it boss you around for 1d4 turns, it will eventually get bored and go back to where it was. During this time, its commands will give you at least one important roll that will be made at disadvantage. However, in combat, it will generally try to help you over your enemy- causing confusion and damage among the enemy ranks that make it a powerful ally.

Killing the Cubist Dominator will drop a blue cubist key; which looks like a key but is bent at a 90 degree angle and is blue. This key doesn't open anything in this dimension, but a Wizard (or Sage) of 7th level or higher can use this key in place of a spell component for any blink, teleport, or summoning spell; with anything brought there or back being forced to make a save or look like it is a cubist painting. This is permanent unless you get a remove curse cast on you/it. You can also just sell the key for 350c.

[13] Crystal Flowers. Small chamber with an uneven floor with small red and blue crystalline flowers poking up from the snow. They are obviously magical and somehow "grow" from the cold, possibly feeding off magical energy over light and heat from the sun. Each flower is made of crystal; very lightweight but razor sharp like glass. The flowers are highly anomalous however; each one seems surrounded by a slight haze of a distortion field, and the smell of burnt ozone is strong as you come close.

Whenever you put your hand near a flower, you will see it disappears. Somewhere else in the room is another flower with your hand next to it- the flowers are surrounded by distorting teleportation fields. Your only clue is that red flowers only connect to blue flowers, and vice versa. If you try to uproot a distant flower, the flower will pull up but your hand will return to your wrist once out of the first flowers bubble, causing the flower across the room to fly up and then shatter against the floor, dealing 1d3+1 magic damage to anyone standing nearby. Each flower must be very carefully wiggled free remotely (takes 3 turns) and left gently on the snow or all flowers of one color destroyed to remove the distortion for the remaining flowers. Each flower sells for 200c and are incredibly fragile.

[14] Gruesome Gittern. This instrument is caught between a few ice-pillars in this side chamber. The ice pillars are magically enchanted to cause anyone to touch one to fly backwards. If you're nearby another pillar, you slam back into it, but take no damage and can stay standing. If you're on the outside of the pillars, you fly back and slip across the floor. The pillars magic refuels every few seconds, meaning you can only retrieve the instrument by standing with your back to a pillar and moving quickly after the bump- if you get thrown away from the pillars you can't reach it in time before it resets. This feat requires at least a Dexterity score of +1 to get into position.

The Gruesome Gittern is a magic item. With a few pickings of the strings, small holes open in the instrument that release small metal spikes in a spray. These do little damage to man-sized creatures and bigger- 1d4 damage, but do massive damage to hoards of small creatures like rats or insects. The music it produces is scratchy and gives a haunting feeling, and counts as a +1 magic item for any bardic or rogueish feats that use it. It can also be sold for 800c

[15] Spankblaster. It's basically a magical crack in the ice, about waist level, that fires out a blast of kinetic energy. If it hits, leaves a painful red welt through clothing and thin armor but deals no damage. Since people are usually walking away from it when it fires, it tends to hit them on the ass, hence a Spankblast. It goes off once every two or three minutes- so if you try to study it it might hit you in the crotch instead.

The Spankblaster's magic can be drained by sticking a wand or staff inside. The spankblaster becomes inert permanently and the magic implement restores 2d6 charges.

[16] Airy chasm in the glacier that reflects torchlight beautifully. Light tinkling sounds from the wind give it an almost musical quality. This is a beautiful place. Meditating here will restore one sanity, or let an elf recover a 1st level spell slot.

[17] Frozen Foam. This sticky mass of white foam looks like very, very soft snow in the dim light of a torch or lantern. When touched, it will stick to whatever was used to touch it and begin to rapidly cool and freeze the point of contact. If you jump in you'll probably die. Every party "action" used in a situation where the foam is stuck to someone or something causes 1d6 damage of cold damage. If you try to scrap off the foam with an object, that object will start to freeze, if you scrap it off on a wall, ice will grow out of it, etc. You can contain some of this in glass for a minor magic item or treasure to be sold; worth 200c per jar of foam.

[18] You come across a Heatwhore. She's a fat, heavily-wrapped-up woman who trades her body heat for food or coin in this desolate place. She got separated from a different traveling group, and has almost run out of supplies. She'll cling to party members and grant heat whenever you make camp with cuddles in exchange for food and protection; but she doesn't give it for free. Oh and absolutely zero sex by the way, she's not a whore whore.

[19] Cramped side area with holes in the wall and little mounds of some kind of biological material. This is a nest of flightless midges- big black ones about as large as your thumb. These ice-midges excrete antifreeze-jelly from their butts; if you spend time squeezing some you can gather enough jelly to rub over the skin, an item, mix into a potion, etc. preventing them from being frozen into ice in combat. If you spend a turn gathering enough goop, you can slather yourself up and become resistant to cold damage, taking half damage. If more then one person does this however you will carry a gross smell that makes random encounters +1 in 6 more likely.

These midges will eat basically anything, but aren't fast or aggressive enough to kill living things. If you throw dead body parts, decaying leather items, bones, feces, etc. onto the nest they will associate you with food and start to mass up when you approach; such as letting you squeeze them for their jellies or even following you a short distance from the nest. You can totally offer these to the Hot Shamans (2) as a meal and treat their reaction as a Friendly result.

[20] The ice here is well carved. Following the carving to a passage that looks almost regal; a headless man will be found sitting on a pillar made of ice. His neck is torn open with a black void down in his torso. He only wears a single blue sheet over his body, with a bare chest, arms, legs, and feet- yet suffers not from the cold. He carries a golden staff with a magic orb floating on the end, which lags to keep up with each motion. This being is a Keeper of Ancient Knowledge, and turns away travelers who are not serious about learning the ancient truths from him.

This being is semi-divine and can bestow powers onto mortals. If any 0 level characters, hirelings, or seriously aimless player-characters approach him, he will offer to grant them guidance and purpose. Accepting this means he will touch their forehead with the floating orb on his staff; causing a galaxy symbol to be burned onto their forehead. This grants the character +1d6 Wisdom and causes them to instantly level up if they have at least 50% of their current exp (or just a 3 in 6 chance). This character still retains their free will and abilities; but they simply can't settle down anymore. Retiring, spending a few years of downtime tending a farm, becoming a lord and tending your lands, etc. all become unavailable to this character- they are caught up in a greater destiny now.

If you pick a fight with him, he'll just like teleport away into a nebula cloud or something. He's a badass wizard too you know.

Wandering Monster Encounters
(1) Bloodwind (4 HD, +2 to hit, 2d6 on hit- armor protects, save to cover, always moving)
Morale- N/A
Number- Just one

The Bloodwind is an invisible creature. It is an animate wind. It does not speak or seem intelligent, but has a certain sense of cruel purpose. The wind cannot be seen but its aftermath can; it blows through sharp icy passages and crevasses while carrying tiny snowflakes and ice-crystals that rend flesh and skin; spraying blood into the wind and leaving a red mist in its wake.

As a wind, it cannot be fought by traditional means. Only magic weapons or spells can harm it. It could be trapped in a magical box or bag of winds; but traditional bags would just rip open from its cutting power. If the wind blows over you, you can make a saving throw to fall to the ground fast enough and cover, meaning it can only deal 1 damage to you. If you fail the save, the wind gets an attack to try and jam its sharpness into you, dealing 2d6 damage on a hit. For each point of AC you get from armor, reduce the damage taken by 1 point from its protection.

The wind is always moving. Once it "attacks" a party member, it then must continue moving and can only attack the next party member in its path, and so on, until it is clear. The wind can turn around and come back around for another pass- this will take a minimum of 3 rounds giving you time to run or prepare for the next attack.

(2) Hot Shamans (1+1 HD, +1 to hit, carved walrus tusk at 1d4+1, +1 AC furs, cast Spells)
Morale- 9
Number- 1d3 with 2d4 Kobolds

The Hot Shamans are a sect of kobold shamans who protect and guide their people through these cold and arctic lands. As kobolds are dependent on heat to survive, their rule is law and the kobolds who fight with them fight with a higher morale of 12. As most of their magic is used to keep their tribe alive in these frozen lands; mostly creating ever-warm stones to carry or magical furs to ward away the winds, they have only limited magic to fight with. Most of their spells are related to fire.

As intelligent creatures; you must roll a reaction check when encountered.

Reaction Table- Roll 2d6

12+: Friendly. Willing to trade and barter, as well as share heat. Ask (politely) to stick their hands into your crotch to share your body's heat- it's not a sex thing, we swear. They won't give you anything for free or help you fight monsters unless if you gave them something valuable from this list or a way to generate more warmth to survive this harsh environment.

11-9: Cautious. The kobolds will willingly trade information for enough fresh linens for three of their kind (one human outfit) or a magic artifact that provides enough heat for their whole group. Under no circumstances will they tell you about anything that grants warmth. They know the location of [16] which is the "pretty place". They can also warn you about the Spankblaster [15] and will also warn you about the Closed Eye Woman (5) - who they say is "very bad for the men-boys and might make your pee pee fall off!". 

8-6: The Shamans threaten and spit curses at you- mostly about getting frozen to death in the near-constant blizzard outside the cave. If you approach, they attack.

5-3: The shamans yelp and assemble their force into a formation. Spears forward, shamans behind, they march towards you- aiming to pin you into a corner. If you run away down a side passage, they'll guard the way for two turns to make sure you've left for good.

2 or less: Instant Attack. The kobolds throw their javelins before charging in to attack with knives made of tusks and polar bear claws. The Shamans will expend their spells on fire spells if they view you as enough of a threat to use them.

(3) Wandering Polar Bears (4+2 HD, +2 To-Hit and AC, two claws at 1d6, one bite at 1d8, dumb)
Morale- 13
Number- 1d2+1

Small group of polar bears. Polar bears are very big and scary, but very stupid. Can't expend energy to the brain when their optimal survival strategy is just to charge straight at anything that moves and attack it. The ones that live here are strangely social; perhaps enchanted by the ambient magics.

(4) Werepeng (5 HD, +4 To-Hit, murder beak at 1d10, webbed feet at 1d4, need silver to damage, ice sickness)
Morale- 10
Number- Just one

Looks like a cute, cuddly little rock-hopper penguin from a distance- this is its camouflage to attract would-be predators towards it. Once it is aware of you and you are within 10 paces, it suddenly starts to grow over the course of 1d4 rounds, giving you a moment to prepare, attack, or run away. The penguin turns into a huge werepeng; an evil bipedal murder-bird. As a werecreature, you need silver or magic weapons to actually harm it.

If you surprise this creature, you'll see it at a distance hopping around on some rocks or something. If it surprises you, it just comes around a corner and fully transforms in one round.

Within its decoy form, it only has 1 HD and no special defenses. Meaning if you shoot it with an arrow at a range, it will just die as though it was a normal penguin. These creatures are dying out from intelligent humanoids- though this is less of a problem because nobody uses bows in the artic wilderness where there are no trees.

While this creatures attacks carry a curse, normal people can't catch this form of lycanthropy (only penguins can), instead you can catch the Ice Sickness. After taking at least one hit from the creature, roll a saving throw to see if you catch the disease (only roll once per character at the end of a combat encounter)- if they catch it, the disease causes them to exponentially get more cold if they are exposed to cold. If you step from the glacial caves into the outside air, get dunked in ice water, struck by a cold spell, etc you must save or get even colder- increasing the damage or penalties by 50% of whatever they were normally. If this causes death, the victim will transform into a pile of snow in their shape and be utterly destroyed, leaving no body behind.

(5) Closed Eye Woman (2+2 HD, +5 AC, 50% Magic Resistance, 1d4 Yin Orbs per round)
Morale- N/A
Number- 1d2

These beings look like the head of a beautiful woman, magically severed, floating along with their long hair twisting in the breeze. There is no gore or blood from their stump of a neck; and the women never open their eyes. The Closed Eye Women sense the world around them through energy, and are seemingly monsters created from isolation and powerful yin energy. These monsters are also heavily resistant to magic; and every spell has a 50% chance to be deflected.

Yin energy is the feminine, destructive force. It is also very cold. Every round, the Closed Eye Woman will open her mouth and release 1d4 glowing silver orbs of Yin energy that seek nearby targets. They always hit unnervingly; but these orbs can be deflected with something hot (torch) or Yang enchanted- one orb per object. When struck, take 1d8 cold damage. If a struck character is a male, they must also save or take a level of level drain as the Yin energy saps your masculine essence.

(6) Arctic Jar-Hares (1 HD, +1 To-Hit, +6 AC, fast, Magic Jar, lucky)
Morale- 8
Number- 1d4

These Arctic hares are clothed in all white fur. They walk bipedally and balance a small glass jar on their head, which bounces around with each hopping step- they seem very precarious but never actually fall from the Hare's own accord. The Hares are very fast and cowardly, but are spiteful and aggressive enough to kick snow at people's faces while dancing at the edge of your spear. If all the hares have used up their jars- they run away. You can't catch them on foot, unless if you got dogs.

Each Hare has a magic jar. Each Hare will use their Jar when cornered, when nearly missed (the attack roll being 1 away from a hit), or when injured in some way. When the Hare is slain, the jar falls down with their body and shatters anyway- unless if the slayer is in melee range and catches it with a hard roll modified by Agility. The exception is if you fight the Hares in a place with very soft powdery snow; like after a blizzard or at [11], in which case the jar falls to the ground but doesn't shatter and can be picked up and used.

Finally; the Hares are lucky. This means they can ignore their first failed saving throw.

Whenever a jar is smashed or thrown, it explodes on impact and releases a wave of prismatic energy from the center point in a straight line in all directions. Everything hit by this become kaleidoscopic, making the colors, textures, and patterns random and oscillating at all times along with an unnatural glow. This makes it nearly impossible to sneak around in a snowy place (disadvantage on stealth). This effect fades on living things over the course of one season, and fades on objects over the course of a few years, in which case a random rainbow vomit pattern will be "stained" onto the object permanently after that point. Each recovered jar could be sold for 400c

Magic Mansion Soiree Encounters

[1] Room that is 5ft longer on one side then it physically should be. There's a red line painted on the floor that shows this; it's just bragging rights, as even she couldn't afford a spell that made her house much larger on the inside then the outside magically. If wall is broken there will cause a sucking sound and the room will crack to snap back to where it 'should' be in 3d space.

[2] Room with an aquarium of rare fish. There's a sad little seal in a little wooden pool in the corner. He's trained to feed all the fish and take one for himself whenever the bell rings, and it's tied a magic hourglass in the adjacent room via cord.

[3] Doll room, filled with hundreds of dolls. Many in the center are life sized as big as children, and match descriptions of missing orphans.

[4] Spiral staircase leading up to the next floor, crafted by a dwarf. It's made of sawdust, cobwebs, and glass. It's far too fragile and delicate for anyone to walk on it while wearing armor.

[5] Urn of a long dead patriarch on a mantle. If knocked over the ash will animate into an angry ash wraith.

Cremated Ash Wraith (2 HD, ethereal, touch causes 1d6 damage. On 6 save or take 1 level of level drain of your primary class)

Morale: N/A

The Ash Wraith is angry of being disturbed, but does not attack those belonging to its family. Can be turned by a Sage or by someone waving around a flaming object.

[6] Crawlspace between all the walls in the house for young servant boys to use to carry around packages without actually using the immaculate hallways. Little sliding doors hidden into the walls allow dirty little hands to give you letters. Might be incorporated into some kind of fancy "fake" murder mystery the noblewoman has set up for the guests.

[7] Study with a magical chess set, which plays by itself when nobody is touching it. The chess pieces have become very cruel and cunning after dying and fighting for hundreds of battles, and can defeat almost any human opponent. The horses on the knight pieces nip at your fingers when you touch them, and the pieces cry out for blood.

If you manage to simulate a battle or army on the chess board out of chess mechanics they may just reveal the secret strategy to defeating them.

[8] Rainbow washbucket, by tossing in a garment and declaring a color it will both wash and magically change the color of the garment. Still not gentle enough to work on high quality clothing, the lady of the manor still has several washing servants.

The water will splash on a random party member and the first color shouted out will be what color their armor or robe becomes permanently.

[9] Hallway with a gargoyles head carver into the banister above it. It will stop you and demand you answer a riddle to pass. The lady of the house knows all of its riddles and their answers, but you can just pass under it without answering by making a save.

If you teach the gargoyle a new riddle, it gains the power to deal 1d6 damage to anyone who fails to answer it. Until the lady of the house knows that riddle as well, the gargoyle can wreck havoc.

[10] Animated portraits line across a dining hall. The figures are usually in parades or noble attire, and freely swap between paintings to meet with each other.

A few doodles from the children and graffiti from the servants have managed to sneak their way into the paintings and hide in the background making the painting a poor juxtaposition. If you spend more then a few minutes examining the paintings you take 1d4 Charisma damage, unless if you have a bottle of paint thinner and blot out the offensive creatures from existence.

[11] There is a waiter carrying a silver chalice filled to the brim very carefully, but isn't watching where he is going. Make a save or you bump into him and he drops it; the liquid forms into a minor water elemental and attacks.

Minor Water Elemental (4 HD, +4 AC, 3 water whip attacks 1d4, Immune to ice damage, Ice spells that deal at least 6 damage stun for 1 round instead)

Morale: N/A

[12] Mask Party. Several nobles are sitting on chairs in a circle, given spooky masks and told that their “true selves” will be revealed. All the nobles will turn into a semi-monsterous version of the creature on their mask- they are much lesser then the creature itself, just having some of its abilities at a weakened state and having their normal hit die per character. Some of them will lose themselves to this new form, while others will accidentally harm others, and some may accuse anyone nearby of being in on the curse.

One chair and mask stands vacant, in which case a character who wore it will need to make a save or lose their free will as a monsterous form. The mask can only be removed via a wish or if the character lives virtuously for a year.

Mask Monsters – 1d8

1. Basilisk
2. Lich
3. Golem
4. Beholder
5. Troll
6. Devil/Oni
7. Owlbear
8. Werewolf

[13] The Fool's Shoes. Placed in a decorated wardrobe, they're a magical pair of shoes that make anyone who wears them tumble, fall, twist, jump, and look like a total fool of themselves.

Wearing the shoes makes your Dexterity modifier treated as +2, unless it was already +2, in which case it is now +3. The shoes could be very valuable and useful if stolen from the manor.

[14] Room contains several young men dressed in full body, skin tight suits made of a semi-magical substance called latex. Each man is wearing a painted outfit the corresponds to one of the fruit on the endless fruit & juice fountains in the room. They are tasked with offering guests fruits, and will brutally beat and strangle each other for the amusement of the guests.

The one who gets the most guests to eat the most of their fruit will win a prize; the Panacea Pineapple. It is said to be able to cure most earthly diseases or cause a painless and merciful death to those with terminal illness. All of them will turn on anyone who tries to take it for themselves, as all of the young men have dying grand parents or siblings and they need to win, and will do anything it takes to claim the prize. It's nearly priceless if you managed to find the secret hidden chest in the hidden room it's locked in.

[15] 'Lil Genie Room. This room is done up in a not!Arabian style and has several throw cushions, phantasmal veiled belly dancers, and a big hookah in the center with a smokey genie hovering over it. The genie has been imprisoned and must grant “unlimited wishes”, but its wishes are stretched so thin as to only apply to within this room.

The genie could, for example, grant you untold riches. But the moment you tried to take any of the gold outside of the room, it would disappear. Injuries you wished to heal would reappear, age you wished away would return. You could wish to be King of the world, and all would respect your authority and it would be true, but only in that room. Two guards stand outside the room with bows; to stop anyone from casting any truly destructive or wishes that go against their lady's best interests. There is a young servant girl hiding away in this room; she'd asked the genie for food for so long that she would starve to death the moment she left the room.

[16] Nap tablets. Within this darkened room full of beds and curshions are little pink tablets that, when swallowed or mixed with a drink and drunk, make the user feel very tired and fall asleep. They fall asleep for two exploration turns, and then wake up as refreshed as though they had slept a full 8. These tablets are used by the guests so they can sleep and continue to enjoy the festivities after many, many hours, but each could be sold on the black market for 2d6x30 coins.

The room also always contains 3d6 sleeping noble party-goers, wealthy merchants with treasure tucked under their pillows, and powerful wizards resting to restore their spells. Most of them have guards, who will probably notice you trying to steal or murder their boss, or steal the tablets. The tablets are located within three crystal chalices floating around the room.

[17] The Wondrous Wall. Small “spots” of glowing light travel along the wall's surface, and anyone who touches the spot feels the sensation of the color and texture of the spot. So the spot may appear as rushing water, and touching it will cause your fingers to feel wet and cold from the spring. There is a spot that appears as a hot flame, and the moment it touches your fingers you will pull them back from the heat, but if your hand was forced to stay you'd take 1d4 fire damage.

The spots slowly drift around the wall, and a few nobles crowd around it and daring each other to touch the different spots.

Each spot can be removed with a paint scraper and a little bit of patience. After slapping it on another surface, it will start to “explore” its environment, but cannot leave its new wall. By rolling up the spot like a scroll and “invoking” it, a magic user can conjure a tiny amount of whatever the spot represented; a bucket's worth of river water, 1d4 jet of flame, a small fox for the spot that appeared as a soft animal's fur, a stingray for the bumpy gray skin spot on the wall, etc.

[18] Dragon egg in a glass case. The case has a lair of frost on it, hinting at the fact that anyone who touches it will take 2d8 ice damage and a loud banshee scream will alert the nearby guards.

Wealthy merchants crowd around the dragon's egg, as if amazed at the sight of a dragon up so close. The dragon egg is worth 2d4x5000 coins.

[19] The Season clock. Up in a taller tower room of the mansion; by turning the key on this huge magic clock, the room and viewing windows change entire seasons. The trees outside bloom, and butterflies go by in spring, before cold icy winds come and the trees lose their leaves for winter if you turn the key two more times, etc. The temperature of the room also changes depending on the season, and the servants here have magic outfits that change color and theme to fit whatever period of time of the “year” it is in the room. The key of the clock is magic and could be used to operate many different magical devices.

The time distortion is kept contained within this room, and your ears pop would you leave it. If any of the reinforced windows are broken, it causes a magic backlash that hits everyone in the room. Make a save to simply grow a beard or have some of your wrinkles disappear. If you fail the save you turn 1d8x10 years old.

[20] The Wine Cellar. Down carpeted steps into a small dark cellar, filled with many open caskets of wines and alcoholic drinks. There is a siren suspended into a magical bubble half filled with ocean water floating above the room, taking song requests. The wines include regular, vintage, and magical drinks. The siren's music is muffled so she cannot control people, but she will try to get the party to fire arrows or throw things at her so she can pop the bubble and start eating or controlling the house guests below.

Wandering Monsters

Roll 1d6

[1] Plucky Thieves (1 HD, +2 AC, 1d4 knives, blending in as servants, +1 to saves)

Morale- 9

Numbers- 1d6+1

[2] Fed-Up Summon (3 HD, +1 AC, 1d8 sledgehammer, scary gargoyle face -1 hireling morale, scares away other house guests and guards, smashing holes in wall)

Morale- 12, 14 when damaged from rage

Numbers- 1

[3] Sleeping Magus Dream-Projection (2 HD, casts 1^st and 2^nd level spells, ghostly and must be harmed with magic spells or weapons)

Morale- 10, gets bored instead of retreating

Numbers- 1 or 2

[4] Revolting Guards (2 HD, +2 to hit, +4 AC from armor, want your money not your life)

Morale- 7

Numbers- 2d4

[5] Loose Oven-Bound Fire Elementals (1 HD, 3 HD, +4 AC, 3 flame spark attacks at 1d4 fire damage, immune to fire damage, splashing water on it kills it)

Morale- N/A

Numbers- 1d4

[6] High Noble Duelists (2 HD, +2 to hit, +3 AC, 1d8+1 magic rapiers, wearing jewlery worth 1d8x100 coins, drugs make them ignore mind-effecting spells)

Morale- 12

Numbers- 1d6

Fantasy Slum Apartment Encounters

[1] Spider Floor. The main hallways are covered in massive tangles of cobwebs, and the rooms are much worse. Whenever a wandering monster is encountered, treat it as (5). One of the residents of this floor is a drow spy.

[2] Floor designed with magic sliding sideways elevators to get people to and from their rooms. Mischievous children try to trick people into walking around the apparently empty hallways only for them to get battered or crushed by the sliding elevators.

[3] This floor has a door bolted and chained shut with many heavy locks and contains a small collection bowl and 'slit' coated in dried blood. The door opens if blood is fed into the bowl, which awakens and agitates the monster within. If the locks are picked instead, the monster will be asleep and easy to avoid waking it up.

Assassin Vampire Bug Monster (3 HD, +2 AC, attacks twice on first round, d6 talons, d4 proboscis that restores health equal to damage)

Morale: 16 if hungry, 12 if it ate some blood

Number Appearing: 1

The room also contains a sack of 1d10x10 copper and 1d6x5 silver coins on the body of the old landlord, whose corpse is dried and was totally drained of all fluids.

[4] Every resident of this floor is an ex-lunatic who are eccentric but otherwise not hostile. This floor contains secret entrances through trapdoors that lead to a Silent Hill-esque otherworld that contains the negative psychic energy of the residents. The residents are all aware of it. Every turn in the otherworld roll 1d6 and encounter that many fleshy projections.

Fleshy Projections (1HD, d6 body slam, shaped like personifications of psychological issues.)

Morale: N/A

[5] This floor is the territory of the Silver Cup gang. This minor gang is only really known in this building and around it, but they are extremely territorial and will kill anyone who crosses them.

If the party makes a strong reaction check, they'll ask you to steal some silver heirlooms from [11] and pay you half. They'll ambush you if you return for any reason; assuming you have the prize.

Silver Cup Thug (1HD, 1d4+1 shiny knife, can 1 in 6 escape a fight by ducking into a side room with a loyalist hiding them within)

Number: 1d6 if cup disturbed, 1d6+2 with leader

Morale: 11 + 1 with Leader

Silver Cup Leader (2 HD, 1d8+1 shiny sword, can 1 in 6 conscript a random floor tenant to attack the party with an improvised weapon with -2 to hit)

Number: 1

Morale: 13

[6] This floor has no windows. Everyone living here is a vampire, but are respectful and do not attack the party unless the party attacks first or tries to use holy symbols to turn them.

The vampires also have 1d6 human & halfling blood cattle in each of their rooms; the drugged up beings are criminals and runaway slaves and were granted to the vampires by the lords of the realm in return for not hunting normal citizens and to use their powers to serve the crown when asked.

[7] This entire floor has been turned into a massive board game. Every spot on the floor has been turned into small tiles with little carved and painted game pieces everywhere. The rules seem similar to chess but with many more complex pieces and movement rules, as well as objectives. Knocking over any of their game pieces makes the genius children, who control the floor, furious.

Assisting them in making a useful move against a rival and the child's insight will grant the character a permanent +1 intelligence.

[8] Haggler's Den. This floor of the slum apartments is filled with all kinds of traders, merchants, and craftsmen. Several supernatural creatures appear here through paper charms tied over doorways that lead nowhere in the physical world. These creatures along with the merchants here means you can buy almost anything here, but you must give up pieces of yourself to afford it.

[9] The dragon floor. All the doorknobs here are carved into poorly made dragon heads. The walls are painted with doodles of dragons of all colors and kinds. The residents are totally enamored with them. 1 in 4 chance that they're under some kind of dragon hypnotism magic trying to gather information of juicy hoards for a dragon to steal. Needless to say, if anyone in the party is a dragon, dragonborn, or somehow related to dragons they will be subject to much attention by the residents.

You can purchase dragon fireworks for 150 coins each. The fireworks act like ranged arrow attacks that deal 1d6 fire damage, or can be shot into the sky to create a dazzling display. One spark could set the whole seedy workshop up in smoke.

[10] This floor is filled to the brim with junk, everyone here is a hoarder. If you pay the landlord 1d10x10 silver, he'll let you take a handful of items you want from the piles of junk, since everyone here owes him rent anyway.

If you search the junk, you'll find a minor magic item. Roll 1d6-

1. Useless clay doll worth 50 gold. Nobody knows why it's worth that much, it's just the agreed upon price by basically everyone who sees it.
2. Ring of Summon Insignificant Earth Elemental. Creates a tiny golem out of dust, dirt, and pebbles that is just heavy enough to activate pressure plates. One use per day.
3. Yesterday's News. Piece of paper that constantly writes out just forgotten bits of gossip and rumor from recent memory.
4. Mummified corpse of a Jurik dwarf. Useless on its own, but if blended and mixed in with a potion, the potion's effects last for weeks.
5. Shard of a wise, talking sword. The Shard could be made into a dagger, which has an ounce of the sword's original personality.
6. Tiny immortal beetle that shapes the sand in its box to spell out the name of the last person who cast a spell upon its owner. It doesn't write in common.

[11] This floor is filled with Og. Tall, fat, and somewhat dull creatures closely related to ogres. They are intelligent and friendly, and have some skill in magic. The ceilings here are much higher then normal and all the furniture is oversized and made of stone. They'll invite you to dinner as long as you don't attack them or call them Ogres.

The eldest Og has a stone chest which contains 2d8 silver bracelets, which around a human could serve as a stiff belt. They are worth their weight in silver, literally.

Og Strongman (3 HD, 1d6+2 stone club)

Number: 1d6+1

Morale: 12

Eldest Og (2 HD, 1d4+2 stone knife, can chant instead of attack- increases friendly Og's strength by +1 for rest of combat)

Number: 1

Morale: 13

[12] This floor is staffed with a small army of hobgoblins who serve every whim of the residents. The hobgoblins are clearly unhappy, but are bound to the magic of a sage who bound them by speaking the secret words. The secret words are in a book hidden behind a secret panel in a closet in one of the rooms; occupied by a paranoid resident.

If you manage to find the secret words and speak them again, the hobgoblins will be freed and slaughter all the residents of the floor. They will spare you if they know you freed them, and will let you keep a pair of ruby earrings from the sage.

[13] This floor is covered in dirt and has plants growing around it everywhere. Large windows are kept open during the day to allow in birds and insects, as well as fresh air and as much light as possible. There are a few deer and even a fresh “stream” of water made up of metal pipes with a cycling fountain system.

Most people that live on the floor are either druids or elves and love it. The rest aren't and are miserable. You can spend a turn to gather 1d4 rations but have a 1 in 6 to encounter the bear.

Bear in the Rafters (4 HD, +2 AC, 2 claw attacks at 1d4, 1 bite at 1d8, enrages and gets +3 AC when at 6 or less HP, doesn't run once enraged)

Morale: 11

Number: 1

[14] This floor is a construction yard for an adjacent building. Instead of climbing all the way down every day and having to carry up and down their equipment, the workers just sleep in the next building over and zipline to the adjacent highrise being built.

It's noisy and smelly, and there are tools left out everywhere along with 1d4 grappling hooks. You can use a grappling hook to easily latch onto a building up to a street away or 3 stories higher up then you. You can also use a grappling hook while falling and make a save to catch yourself. The grappling hooks are worth 400 coins each and the workers will notice that they are missing in 1d6 hours and come looking for the thieves.

[15] This floor is made of stone and is home to dwarves. They prefer it to be pitch black, or at least as dark as possible, and ask people put out their torches. 1d6 human spectral-albino snake sorcerers also live here and will attack the party if any of the party members have ever stolen anything from a lost jungle snake-infested temple that the sorcerers just so happen to regard as a holy site. Spectral-albino people have semi-transparent white skin, and any amount of light can harm their organs, dealing 1 damage per round they are exposed to something as bright as a torch.

Spectral-albino Snake Sorcerer (1 HD, 1d4 poison fang-knife- easy save on hit or take 2d6 poison damage, can summon one 1HD poison viper- same poison as the knife)

[16] This floor is filling with retired veterans, burn victims, and people who live in pain due to injury or diseases. There is a kind old woman who comes from an exotic land that helps tend to the suffering here, and makes them feel better through her homemade rolls. Eating a roll will restore 1d4 HP and will also cure 1 point of any damage attribute.

The woman will gladly share 4 on a neutral or good reaction check, but is saving the rest for her other residents. She warns you that the rolls only work “in the home” and that the entire apartment complex is what she considers home, so the rolls will lose their magic the moment you leave.

You can also kill her to take all the rolls. If you do, she'll whisper the words “Karakazora” as a death curse. The person who delivered the killing blow or spell will be cursed to turn into a Karakazora over the next 2d6 weeks unless the curse is lifted by a Wish or magic of a strong Sage.

Karakazora (4 HD, +3 AC, long leg kick at 1d6, pulls weapons from pouch)

Looks like an evil furry kangaroo. It's pouch is similar to a bag of holding and holds several one handed weapons, the handles sticking out. It collects weapons and eats bugs. The Karakazora likes to jump around and wield two weapons at once if it can. It's native to a distant land.

[17] Floor for the guards. These guards patrol the city streets as well as the apartments, and only half of this floor can be visited by civilians. There are also several cells along the outside wall with a locked switch that can be pressed to remove the floor and drop the cell resident to their death on the streets below.

The guards who patrol this floor and make sure nobody is sneaking around their quarters are polite but professional and double check all visitors against wanted posters. Some guards carry a scroll with hundreds of tiny sketches, each a wanted criminal. If your characters are wanted, or Rogues of at least 3^rd level, they're probably on there and would need a disguise. If anyone in the party is a legendary criminal and identified, or if they are forced to call in for backup twice; the Guards will call in the Warden of the floor.

Polite Guards (2 HD, +4 AC from armor, 1d6 door-breaking axes, can pin your arms- make combat save + str bonus to break free)

Morale: 13, 15 with Warden

Number: 1d4+1

On a Good or Neutral reaction check, the guards pass you by, but will stop and question you if they see you loitering or on more then one round of patrols around the floor.

On a Bad reaction check, the Guards will demand you stop and explain what you're doing on the floor, as well as compare you to the faces on their wanted bounties scroll. Since there is always at least two guards, one of them watches you and the other reads the scroll, as to not be taken by surprise. Guards prefer not to kill if possible, instead using grabs and holds. When they lose morale, they will whistle for backup as they retreat to call more guards to aid them.

Warden (3 HD, +1 to hit, +4 AC from armor, 1d6+1 Unharming Sword, 1d4 Bolas, makes all combat saves at +2 from training)

Morale: 15

Number: Always 1

The Warden is the captain of this guard and also the Warden of the prisoners on this floor. He's a strong man that used a magic sword; deals hit point damage like a normal weapon but on a lethal hit instead of killing the wielder can choose to make it a nonlethal blow instead. He can also throw Bolas which ensnare a target's feet and preventing them from moving. Get -2 to all combat saves while still ensared and it's easy to be knocked over if you fail a save to hop around.

[18] Dirtier, dingier floor then normal. There is a man who has a little sign outside his door; he is a fleshgrafting doctor. If you bring him an antenna from (1) he can craft it onto your head, meaning you get no penalty “see” in darkness within a few feet for 1d4 days before the antenna dies and falls of naturally. He may also be able to do other hack jobs and will bind up wounds; health 1d6 and heal x10 that amount in standard coins. All random encounters with (1) have +1d6 roaches.

[19] Utilities floor. The management and city wanted to try and revolutionize this floor by providing flowing, clean water to every resident. There is an aqueduct that travels along each hallway and the entire floor is damp, rotted, and moldy from the humidity. There is a creature inside the central storage tank, as well as a huge pile of coins thrown into it as per a wishing well. Pile contains 2d10x50 coins.

The creature is determined randomly; roll either on your favorite aquatic monster table or use a baby giant squid.

Baby “Giant” Squid (2 HD, -1 AC out of water, 3 tentacle attacks at 1d4-1, entangles on a roll of 4, after entangle roll save to escape, will bite with beak at 1d6 if entangled)

Morale: 7, cannot flee and loses a turn instead

Number: 1

The baby squid dies after 2 exploration turn out of water. The bottom of the main water tank can be easily shattered by anyone with a blunt weapon and it is behind a locked door. The water will flood the floor and will only be ankle deep.

[20] This floor is crammed and extra packed. It's like a maze; some rooms are little bigger then the size of a closet, with tiny hallways everywhere. Also includes 1d6 tiny shop stalls; a hole cut into their bedroom wall to the outside adjoining hallway is the best they can do. The shops stock simple rations, rope, basic tools, money exchanging services, and materials for maps, and some common spell components.

Every fight here draws a crowd. If you roll a (2) on the Encounter table; there will be +1d6 extra hooligans and the residents will pass them simple weapons. They're rooting for the kids.

Wandering Encounters

Roll 1d6

(1) Giant Cockroach (2 HD, +3 AC, 1d4 Pincers, too dumb to die, scared of light)

Morale: 6, 11 in Darkness

Number: 1d6

The first time a Giant Cockroach takes lethal damage, it can act for 1d2 more rounds, despite it clearly being dead at this point. If its head is removed, it just runs around uselessly before dying. Extreme crushing damage, such as from a great maul or a golem's fist, negates this ability.

(2) Hooligans (1 HD, -2 AC, +1 to hit, 1d4 fists, scared of a real fight)

Morale: 9

Number: 1d10+1

Young punk kids looking to start fights. They want to fight with fists and feet for street cred and to show off to their friends, and will suffer a morale check when the first damaging spell is cast or real weapon is drawn. The Hooligans are multicultural and include humans, dwarves, young ogs, orcs, and a 60 year old “teenager” elf.

(3) Feral Cat (1 HD, +1 AC, 2 claw attacks at 1d4, surprise attack)

Morale: 10

Number: 1 or 2

This feral “cat” has taken the place of any feral or street-roving dogs would in any proper urban fantasy world. Bigger then a Serval. Their cat form makes them more suited to this vertical environment anyway. When you roll this encounter and players do not specifically mention being on the lookout, nothing happens and instead it attacks one of the party the moment their back is turned or they bend down.

(4) Wererats (3 HD, +4 to hit, 1d4 bronze dagger, 1d6+1 rat bite, immune to disease, rodenthropy)

Morale: 12, 8 after a bite

Number: 1d4

Wererats, looking to convert more poor fools into their own. Anyone hit and damaged by a Wererat has to make a save or else be cursed with their version of the werewolf curse; rodenthropy.

Instead of transforming at the full moon, wererats transform against their will while within dark, tight, cramped places. They also have an urge to steal shiny objects (usually money), and wrestle with other rats to establish dominance. The rats of this building are more aggressive then most due to long periods in the urban sprawl.

Once someone becomes a wererat, they can mostly control their urge to bite and attack unturned mortals, but treat their Wisdom modifier at -2 while transformed.

(5) Giant Spiders (2 HD, +2 AC, 1d4 bite save vs poison on hit, progressive poison, climbs)

Morale: 10, 12 if on Floor [1]

Number: 1d6 + Weaver Spiders

Giant Spiders who are very aggressive at hunting mortals for food; guests in the apartments are much more likely to set them off and get attacked and caught up in their webs. Giant Spiders always have a 50% chance of being encountered along with Weaver Spiders.

When bitten, save vs poison. If you fail, you take 2d6 poison damage and have to save again next round. Each round you fail the save, you add +1 to your next save, making it a little easier to shake off the poison the longer it goes on. After killing a spider, it's venom sac can be drained to create your own weapon venom with the same effects; 3 uses per venom sac.

Weaver Spiders (1 HD, +2 to hit, throws webs, deals 1 damage on a bite, climbs)

Morale: 9, 12 if on Floor [1]

Number: 1d4

Smaller, weaker breed of spider without venom. Fights by shooting webs instead. Getting entangled requires a save and a knife to get free, else cannot move and -2 AC.

(6) Extortionist Guards (2 HD, +4 AC from armor, 1d6 axes, can pin & twist your arms- make combat save + Str to break free or pay them 1d10x10 standard coins)

Morale: 9, 10 if you look rich

Number: 1d4

These are corrupt guards from [17], looking to shake people down, especially merchants, for coins. If you kill a group of these, you get -1 reaction check with all further Guards.

On a Good reaction check, they'll let you walk past with an apology for getting in their way.

On a Neutral reaction check, they'll do some basic roughness and arm twisting to get you to drop a few coins. Move directly to armed combat if you draw weapons or fight back.

On a Bad reaction check, they'll try to arrest you and take you back to a holding cell and steal some of your money or valuable items.