Perinocles

(Note: this adventure makes use of a segment of a published module called "Wonders out of Time" written by Kevin Wilson and published by Eden Odyssey Studios. Anyone wanting a more complete description of the library, a map and a full description of that portion of this adventure should seek out that product.)

 

The PCs have arrived in a large camp set up near the ruins of a 2nd Empire city known as Eburacom. Considerable archaeological digging is going on and thus the camp has sprung up offering many services to the several hundred diggers, scholars and guards who are found here. The PCs have been led here by information found in previous adventures. They seek the lost Capitol city, Derimos, of the Principality of Merithia, once a large part of the 2nd Empire.

 

After they meet their contact (a very nice older man named Diodoric Furius, who actually takes Maxima’s interests seriously and treats her with respect (he’s evil)), they go to a tavern for a meal, and to find a place to stay. Are told who rents tent space. Eat a meal. Next door, building is going on. Tavernkeeper Lucius Clodius tells them he’s owner of space next door, is having a “real building” built, with a cellar and all; Because it’s on a hillside, the “cellar” is actually a room/pit dug into the slope.

 

Harry is approached by Lucius Clodius, first offering to sell him some “lovely statuary - guaranteed real 2nd empire goods; half price!” Soon he confesses he has a problem; he’s found a “collapsed passage” under his new cellar. He admits that when the passage was found a few days ago, he sent two workmen in to investigate. They haven’t come back.

 

Innkeeper quickly offers PCs a deal: if they go into hole “now” he’ll divide any monetary value 50/50 with them, and they can keep any “scholarly material” for themselves. But go now before churchmen arrive. And be careful coming out; if church are here, they’ll seize anything “really special”.

 

The Guard Post

 

1. The tunnel that Clodius’ workmen “found” goes about 30’ south from his cellar, slanting down. It is muddy and rough, no more than 5’ wide and very wet. However, at about 20’ below ground, it widens out to about 10’ and becomes rather dryer and more solid. The walls look older than a few days or weeks old at this point. DC 20 Int check to realize that this passage looks deliberate. It ends in a wooden wall. The wall looks like a mix of old and new wood, with old support beams and fresh new planks. A door has been roughly cut into the wall, and is barred shut on this side. The bar easily lifts away. On the far side, a large open circular chamber about 20’ high. Steps lead 10’ down from the door into the area. Five ancient-looking but still sturdy wooden buildings flank the room.

A - empty - a deep bed of old hay, food and water dishes, rope and other goods make it look as if someone was thinking of kenneling several dogs here recently. However, there is no sign a dog actually lived here.

B - empty

C - wooden bunks for six men and six footlockers. Bedrolls, some dirty clothing, a few personal belongings, etc... indicate that six or so men lived in this room for a few days, maybe a week, recently.

D - the roof of this building has collapsed. It is empty. In front of it is the dirt-filled remains of an old well.

E - empty. This was an open-sided gazebo-like building.

 

2. Wooden doors, now standing open and badly warped, lead into this large hall. A fire obviously burned here recently in the center of the chamber, and the bones of a dozen or more giant rats can be found in the ashes.

 

6 dire rats attack the first person who steps into this chamber

 

3. The doors leading into this area are barred and several large stones piled in front of them. Someone has written in common in charcoal on the door - Danger - do not enter - and drawn a crude skull below the words.

2 wraiths hover here, waiting for their next victim

 

A body lies over near the arrow slit, about 4 days dead and stinking. It appears to be that of a common workman, but he is carrying a shortsword and the smashed remains of a lantern lie beside him. If searched, he has 23 sp in his pouch.

 

In the small room at the far end of this area, the wraiths have a treasure pile. (random rolls)

 

4. this empty area is unremarkable except for the masses of tree-roots that hang down from the ceiling above! The double doors leading south are open and there are signs that at least 2-3 people passed that way fairly recently, possibly dragging some heavy object.

 

5. half-hidden in the hanging tree-roots (which dangle to about 3’ off the ground), is a statue. When examined closely, it is a remarkably lifelike human man - he appears to be a common workman, clutching a shortsword and screaming. The doors to the small chambers are both open. In the southern one is the basilisk. He also has random treasure in his den.

 

6. The heavy stone door to this room appears not to have been opened by the recent explorers - it is wizard locked shut. Within this chamber three more wraiths dwell; they have been shut in for over a century and are so enraged and starved that they will attack at once, all lighting on the first person who steps into the chamber.

3 wraiths, enraged and desperate, attack.

 

7. This set of triple doors is in bad condition, warped by damp and smashed by some heavy force. They stand open, hanging and cracked. Passing through is dangerous: make a reflex save DC10 to avoid jarring the heavy timbers and taking 1d4 pts dmg from a shifting weight. If 2 or more people fail their checks within 3 minutes, there is a 1 in 4 chance of a major collapse, doing 3d10 pts dmg to anyone caught in it.

 

The Baths:

The air in the passage leading to this room is damp, and the temperature is warm. Mold and green algae grow on the walls, especially near floor level. There is a distinctly mineral-like smell in the air.

 

1. There was a doorway here, but it is now merely a gaping hole. The floor beyond is tiled, smooth blue-green tiles about 4” square. Similar tiles in white and yellow form a random pattern on the walls. The doors into rooms 4 and 2 stand ajar, but into 3 is closed. Doors are wood, badly swollen in their frames. Any closed door is stuck and will have to be forced open.

 

2. This chamber is warm and very humid, almost misty. Small whisps of steam rise from the surface of the pool. A slow current passes through this pool from north to south. The water is cloudy, and the heavy rotten smell of sulphur hangs in the air. A crusty yellow stain rings the tile border of the pool, and the floor of the chamber is also stained yellow, where it is plain that the pool has sometimes overflowed it’s basin.

 

Seven steam mephits have taken up residence here

 

Their treasure is in the bottom of the pool, which can only be drained if the floor is ripped up just to the south of the pool (there is a cover but it takes a search DC of 30 to find) and the drain mechanism uncovered.

 

The floor around the pool in this chamber is an intricate mural of fish, seaweed and shells among other sealife. If it were removed and rebuilt somewhere else it could bring in several thousand silver pennies profit (but the labor would be intensive and expensive).

 

3. women’s dressing room; empty

 

4. Great Spring

the spring wells up here in the center of the pool. It is hot, but less sulpherous than area 2 ( no mephits!). The water is steamy, but clear. A steady bubbling up at the center reveals the spring’s source. Within this pool resides

 

1 water elemental, huge

 

The elemental’s treasure is again in the bottom of the spring, but there is no way to drain this pool.

 

Around the pool are four pillars that touch the ceiling. Fine mosaics of water and nature motifs surround it. Again, these would be worth up to 10,000 sp reconstructed for the right owner. The double doors leading from this room are standing open, but the small door into 2 is swollen shut.

 

5. this lounging room has fine mosaic floors and walls, but is filthy. Slimy ooze covers most of the floor, and the ceiling is full of more dangling roots. Among them is a greenvise (this is actually just part of the creature, which lives in an as-yet little explored patch of ruins above ground. If killed here, the top half will have a decent chance of dying also; this will eventually be noticeable as a large patch of dead vegetation at the center of a hillock in the ruins.

 

Greenvise

 

The greenvise has no treasure, but there are a number of fine pieces of statuary in this chamber: four are depictions of mermaids, and four are water-nymphs. These are carved of semi-precious stone and their size and craftsmanship means that each is worth in the neighborhood of 1,000 sp. However, they each weight in the region of 50 - 100 lbs, so moving them will be a challenge.

 

6. this empty room has no apparent purpose. It is dirty and smelly

 

7. men’s changing rooms; nothing here

 

8. Swimming Pool: this room’s mosaics are simple bands of color with a wave-pattern. Colors are various greens and blues and creams. The water is noticeably cooler than in the other rooms, but fairly dirty and almost stagnant. The pipes leading from 4 here are broken, and the water-flow is reduced to a trickle. Nothing lives here. One corner of the room is partly collapsed, and a determined person could possibly widen the collapse into another passage - either further into whatever ruins lie below, or up, back to the surface 30’ above.

 

9 and 10 are empty, the storerooms behind them also bare and featureless. Stone tables and shelves stand in the rooms, where people could stretch out for a massage and oil.

 

11. This circular room has a tiers of benches all around it. People could sit here while the air was heated: a pipe under the floor carried hot water through the room, and a furnace on the outside wall increased the heat; however, from inside this is not noticeable; little trace of the heat remains now.

 

12. This antechamber was used by loungers and game-players. Several mosaics on the floor show men and women practicing archery, dancing and hawking. The door into 13 stands open, but into 14 is swollen shut. A strong smell of rotting vegetation seeps into this room from area 13. A flood of debris surrounding the door clearly indicates that at least once a flood of water has come out this door.

 

13-15. These three chambers were once separate rooms, but a collapse has partly merged them. The pile of debris on the floor fell from a gaping hole in the ceiling, which is some 20’ deep. Above, if someone were to check, the only thing preventing a collapse into daylight above is a flagstone floor supported on ancient wooden beams. More than the weight of a single person entering the structure above will precipitate a collapse.

 

The mound of dirt is about 6’ tall at the highest point, leaving good clearance for climbing over the mound, but it is unstable, filled with voids, loose stones, roots and pockets of mud. Water drips slowly down from above, courtesy of the last rainfall a day or so before.

 

The pool in the rear corner is partly filled with debris, the water turned into a muddy, fetid mess. The walls are mostly collapsed, allowing anyone who skirts the mound to squeeze past the dangerously unstable walls to access the pool area. Both doors are shut and swollen tight in their frames.

 

Climbing the mound: DC 15 if moving normally, DC 20 if fighting, to avoid a stumble and fall; 1d4 pts dmg and only able to move at 1/2 speed until healed (twisted ankle, wrenched knee, etc).

 

Moving past the walls: DC 10 if normally, DC15 if fighting, to avoid knocking stones from the wall and causing a collapse - 1d6 dmg, 1/2 if reflex save of DC 15.

 

 

Any time after the water is disturbed (1d6 melee rds later) the ooze mephits who live here emerge from the mound near the pool and attack anyone in the chamber. There are 10 of them, but only 5 emerge the first round, and the other 5 1d6 rounds later, from anywhere on the mound. They have standard treasure, buried under the muck in the northwest corner of the room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Library:

 

1. The tunnel that leads here from the cellars is a narrow, deeply slanted passage, about 30’ long. It drops into the chamber from above, with about a 12’ fall. The floor is very muddy, and the walls show signs that at various times water has stood at least 4’ deep in this chamber. There are thick growths of fungus and lichen everywhere. Once the golem is dealt with, a search can be made of the shelves and desk. Very little remains. Blue clay scroll is under altar in compartment that remained water tight. Otherwise, clay scrolls have dissolved in mud or are unreadable due to mold. About 1 minute after entry, PCs hear heavy foot treading, and golem emerges moments later from room 3, circling around to room 2. If PCs scramble back up into the cleft, they can go unnoticed.

 

2. Standing water compounds troubles in this room; walls are slick with damp; air is hard to breathe. Muddy tracks show where the golem marches on his rounds.

 

3. Floor map is buried in several inches of mud and debris. Only a few spots are bare enough to show color through, revealing the presence of the floor map.

 

The Map: this map shows the province of Merithia, which stretches from the tip of the peninsula, north to present day Laigladen, and as far west as the center of the great gulf. Marked on the map are places of great learning and power. Some of them are: Bastothenes Library (current location, indicated by a scroll), Derimos (symbolized by a crown - Maxi knows it was the capitol city), the City of Colors (symbolized by a broken tower), three locations marked by red teardrops, and two other locations marked by scrolls. None of these are named, except Derimos.

 

Powers of the Blood scrolls:

Six scrolls bound together that describe red sorcery: anyone who wants to can learn to use blood scrolls (see p 40). The text also states the following:

 

Alas the great red sorcerers are no longer with us. The talents of Jerinias, who slew Coriovalus in single combat with a mere whisper, have been gone from us for over a decade, as his ship was lost at sea. Two years ago, Erithocles also was lost as he slept, all his secrets locked into his head; had he only taken an apprentice! And Perinocles, ah - the greatest of them all, whose blood boiled with spells of power so great that a single gesture could bring down the walls of a city - what was his fate? He left us years ago, abandoning his beloved Prince, retreating to obscurity, and fell from all knowledge of man. I fear that with this loss, we have seen the passing of red sorcery out of the world. It is said that he left word with the Prince of his whereabouts, but times grow very troubled, and he does not come back. Why have they all left us?