I vividly remember the evening I ran this scenario. It
was in 1982 or ’83. Mike Polling and Mark Smith had been in my Tekumel campaign
at Oxford, and on moving to London I started a new game that
included their school friend Jamie Thomson as well as Oliver Johnson, who also role-played
with me and Mike at college but only in my Medra campaign.
I can even tell you where we played. It was Yve
Newnham’s flat in Edgeley Road, Clapham, and I can remember how Mark read out
the entries from the temporal codex and then concluded grimly, “A brave man…”
Nomikaru, who appeared in the published scenario as an
NPC, was Jamie’s character before he began playing the much more esteemed and
exalted Baron Jadhak hiVriddi. I don’t recall what system we used. This was
years before Tirikelu with its
tactical choices of full- and half-attacks. I think we must have used was a
modified form of Mortal Combat that I’d
adapted based on what Prof Barker revealed in correspondence about the
(then) forthcoming Swords and Glory rules. We
used to use hit location back then, which made the conversion to RuneQuest less arduous than it might
have been.
The RQ and AD&D stats included in the White Dwarf version of the scenario were a sop to ensure I could get away with including Empire of the Petal Throne stats too – even though Games Workshop
had no interest in EPT, and neither did TSR by then. Because I had the Rune
Rites column and an instalment of Castle of Lost Souls running in that issue of White Dwarf (#54, June 1984), this
scenario went out under the byline “Phil Holmes”.
The Jalush was inspired by Steve Ditko, by the way, as
so many of my ideas have been. On Dr Strange’s first foray into the world of
Nightmare he was threatened by the spinybeast, and obviously that left a
powerful impression on my young mind because fifteen years later this thing
leapt out of the unconscious. It gave the players quite a scare, if for no
other reason than that a monster you couldn’t find in the rulebook might be
capable of anything.
THE TEMPLE OF THE DOOMED PRINCE
by Phil Holmes
An
adventure for five to eight Dungeons and Dragons or EPT characters of 4th-6th level or RuneQuest
characters of 45%-65% weapon skills. Tirikelu characters should have main skills around 8-10th level.
Referee’s
introduction
This adventure is based on Professor M A R Barker’s
fantasy world of Tekumel described in Empire of the Petal Throne. For AD&D
or RuneQuest just assume that the adventure is located in some distant part of
your campaign world. Where EPT monsters are used I have reinterpreted these for
AD&D and RQ use. I apologize in advance for having to reduce the complexity
of Tsolyani religion and moral philosophy to D&D’s simplistic alignment
system.
The worship
of Lord Ksarul
Ksarul, Ancient Lord of Secrets, Doomed Prince of the
Blue Room, Master of Magic and Grammarie, is the god of those who seek knowledge
for the sake of power. Long ago, when gods still walked among men, Lord Ksarul
gathered his forces and brought these against the other gods in a war for
supremacy of the Universe. He was aided by his monstrous servant, the minor
deity Gruganu, the Black Sword of Doom. Together these two came close to attaining
the ultimate victory they sought, but at last the other gods joined together
and defeated Lord Ksarul at the fabled Battle of Dormoron Plain. They stripped
him of much of his power and then imprisoned him in a place between the planes
of existence – a chamber of flickering azure light where Ksarul is sunk in deep
stasis-sleep. Even the dreaming mind of Ksarul is still powerful, however, and
thus he guides the loyal Gruganu (who escaped his master’s fate) in an effort
to find the Ten Keys of the Blue Room which will free him to wreak vengeance on
all the gods.
The priesthood of Lord Ksarul (who wear smiling masks
of silver, black velvet robes and a mortarboard-shaped head-dress) is very
highly organized and secretive. But despite their theoretically ‘evil’ aims,
many of the priests are simply dedicated men of learning, respected scholars
and physicians. In D&D terms most of the Doomed Prince’s followers are thus
Lawful Neutral in alignment - although there is a small inner clique of
zealots, the Ndalu Society, who devote their lives to the search for the Ten
Keys and whose methods and alignment are definitely Evil. [Ugh – how it pains me even after all these years to have to leave
those lines in! – DM]
The
Goddess of the Pale Bone
This should be revealed at the appropriate time only
to clerics, Lhankor Mhy Initiates or EPT characters with the scholar skill. The
Goddess of the Pale Bone is one of the Pariah Gods, an utterly inimical and
Chaotic deity whose worship is almost universally proscribed. Her few followers
are the sort of psychotic outcasts who give Chaotic Evil a bad name; human
sacrifice is the least appalling of their activities.
PLAYERS’
INTRODUCTION
By chance one of you discovered some information
concerning a temple to Ksarul located in the Do Chaka Protectorate, a region
far to the west. The records you have looked at show that the temple was
founded in the year 2157. (The year is now 2361). Another brief reference,
dated 2270, states that the temple was abandoned during the reign of the
Emperor Heshtuatl (sometime between 2168 and 2234) and that the priests’ exodus
was apparently so hurried that most of the temple relics and treasures had to
be left behind. You set out at once.
Your journey west has brought you over a thousand
miles – much of this along the Sakbé roads, huge raised causeways twenty feet
or more in height and up to fifty feet across. You left the Sakbé road three or
four days ago and travelled north along the River of Red Agates towards the
mountain range known as the Atkolel Heights. Through a pass you have come to
the village of Mandir, nestled at the foot of impressive cliffs. Somewhere
beyond – only a few miles away now – lies your goal
REFEREE’S
NOTES
The
Village of Mandir
The sun is low over the western hills as the party
approach Mandir. In the north, storm clouds gather. The village consists of
about thirty houses - low wooden buildings with many-sided totemic pillars at
each corner supporting roofs of black tile.
The party are greeted formally by Tulkesh hi-Nraga (surnames carry the ‘hi-’ prefix.) Tulkesh, a
slightly-built man about forty years old, is village headman and senior member
of the Clan of the Advancing Shadow, a foresters clan which traditionally reveres
Lord Ksarul, to which more than three-quarters of the villagers belong. He is
quite affable towards strangers – particularly if the party includes Ksarul
worshippers – and will invite them to dine with him and stay for a few days. No
payment is expected unless the party presume too much on the villagers’
hospitality.
Also at dinner is a strange young man called Nomikaru hi-Teteli, the local priest of
Lord Ksarul. As soon as the meal has begun he starts to chew hnequ weed (a narcotic) and becomes by
turns either vague or abstractly argumentative. He is in fact a disgraced
member of the Ndalu Society, who chafes at his demotion to lowly village
priest.
Tulkesh will freely answer any questions. Mandir was
settled by pioneers from the east two hundred years ago. The temple that the
players are interested in was founded at about the same time, but it appears to
have become deserted only a half-century later. Tulkesh is not sure of the
details – just that the priests abandoned the place after a number of unexplained
events. One story he has heard is that the priests were later attacked and
killed by outlaws as they made their way back to the Sakbé road, so a full
report was never made. From time to time since then there have been mysterious
disappearances, and nowadays people try to give the temple a wide berth.
Nomikaru adds that there are probably Hra and Vorodla
(see below) guarding the temple compound, and will relish describing these
creatures to the ignorant. The party may choose to look around the village
before heading for the temple. If so, they will certainly encounter Major Chengath hi-Lantau, a retired army
officer who carves and lacquers decorative wooden screens. He will carve a
screen to order for 200 kaitars / 100gps / 200 lunars.
Getting
There
The trail from Mandir into the hills is steep and
overgrown, and now quite arduous after a recent storm. There is a steady, grey
drizzle and the skies threaten further storms, for this is Shapru, the month of
rains.
The whole trek takes about seven hours for a
moderately-burdened party. This assumes ten minutes’ rest each hour. The last
part of the journey involves trudging up a particularly steep and muddy path,
and characters who don’t take a ten minute break at the top will fight at -1
for the next hour owing to fatigue.
Temple background
(for the referee only)
Although founded ostensibly as a centre of worship for
the people of Mandir, its major value to the priesthood of Lord Ksarul must
have been as a spiritual retreat; an isolated monastery where priests could
conduct their studies and research without disturbance from the factional
disputes common within city temples. A number of Hra and Vorodla were provided
by the funders of the temple, the Society of Blue Light, a faction devoted to
pure scholasticism and opposed to the Ndalu Society.
Unbeknownst to the temple founders, the caverns below
the shrine were used millennia ago by devotees of the Goddess of the Pale Bone.
In fact this was the root cause of the troubles at the temple, as will become clear.
The
abandoned temple
As the party approach, the temple’s ruined state
becomes clear. Some time in the past the gatehouse was shattered by lightning,
charred, and then rotted by the elements. The stone wall around the temple
compound has collapsed at several points. The paving stones within are cracked
and subsided, the buildings are tangled with vines and in disrepair.
Dominating the temple is the twenty-foot pyramid on
which stands the shrine dedicated to Lord Ksarul. Just as the party pass through
the ruined gate, dark, winged shapes rise up from here and the colonnade below,
soaring aloft and then swooping down to attack.
These are Vorodla, guardians of the temple. There are
seven of them:
VORODLA
RQ:
5-point armour; HP10, 11, 12, 13, 13, 14, 15; Move: 6/12; POW: 13; Sword
(1d8+1+1d4 and exposure to Soul Waste), SR7, 45%.
AD&D:
AC5; HD4; HP12, 18, 21, 10, 15, 22, 23; Move: 6”/24”; 1 attack for 1-8 +20%
chance of energy drain.
EPT:
AC5; HD4; HP1O, 14, 16, 9, 12, 18, 19; 20% chance of level drain.
Tirikelu: Melee 19, 1D10+3, hit points 11 [-/-/-], armour 3/2, Evade 8, Mag Res 13.
Notes:
Vorodla are winged undead; dead warriors restructured and reanimated by the
arcane sorcery of the priests of Lord Ksarul. They fight fanatically until cut
apart, and must then be burnt or they will regenerate and rise up within two
turns. By night, or in pitch darkness, Vorodla fight at +2 (RQ: +10%). There is
a 20% chance that a hit by one of these creatures will lower the victim by one
experience level (RQ: exposure to Soul Waste. Tirikelu: a wounded character makes a Psychic Ability check at +4; failed roll costs 1 from Psychic Reservoir and requires another check (this time at +2) after one hour; each failure reduces Psychic Reservoir by 1 and necessitates another hourly check, with the modifier diminishing by 2 each time; stops when the character either succeeds in one of the checks or has had Psychic Reservoir reduced to 0). AD&D: Vorodla are turned as
wights by priests of Ksarul and as ghasts by other clerics. (On a ‘D’ result, a
priest of Ksarul has a 35% chance of bringing the creature into permanent, if
grudging, service.) They are Neutral (evil).
Because it is heavily overcast they attack at + 1 (RQ:
+5%) even during the day, unless one of the characters uses weather control or the like to dispel
the clouds.
The
Library
The roof has fallen in at the western end - many of
the books are rotten and worm-eaten, but three sealed Chlen-hide (bronze)
chests have preserved the most important books in excellent condi–tion. There
is also a scroll of necromancy and the grey hand (AD&D: hold monster and
disintegrate; RQ: scroll giving 10% increase in Knowledge skills; Tirikelu: Command Undead and Speak With The Dead spells inscribed by a scholar with +8 in the Necromagy phylum) written in
the Tongue of the Priests of Ksarul. The real find, though, is the temporal
codex of the temple - the daily record of events. The entries of interest deal
with the months Hasanpor and Shapru of the year 2215:
13th
HASANPOR, 2215
In the
midst of preparations for the coming ceremony, two priests who had climbed down
to the forest to collect sauqun
flowers for the festivities went missing. One crawled back into the temple
compound in the early hours of this morning, bloodied and tattered. His tongue
had been ripped from his head. Ministrations proved ineffective and he died without
providing an account of what had befallen.
15th
HASANPOR, 2215
The
Eventuation of Holy Pavar was commemorated. The celebration was more muted than
in previous years owing to the absence of four of the six slaves prepared for
streblosis. These four must have escaped just a few hours before dawn, but
their means of egress from the temple precincts is by no means apparent. None
of the other slaves seems to have witnessed the escape - a story which they
maintain even under diligent torture. It remains a mystery.
27th
HASANPOR, 2215
Archdeacon
Ishankoi hi-Reshlan has disappeared – spirited away, so to speak, in the middle
of the night. Magical means have been employed in an effort to contact him, to
no avail. His Holiness the Archimandrite has sent word via Mandir to the Palace
of the Realm in Khirgar. Ishankoi has always seemed a stable fellow, and it is
difficult to believe him capable of such dereliction of duty as to go missing
only hours before the Returning of the Mantle of Blue.
29th
HASANPOR, 2215
Those of
us who thought ill of Ishankoi have had cause to revise our judgement since his
mutilated form was found in the Lower Shrine shortly after lunch. Who can have
performed this horrible deed? Recalling the fate of Shrakan and Elvaru earlier
this month, one is forced to the conclusion that some monstrous being has come
up from the forests. In spite of the heavy rainfall, Yugao hi-Ludum insisted on
taking another message to the runner in Mandir.
3rd
SHAPRU, 2215
The heavy
storms of the last few days continue unabated. Tekketal hi–Kuroda has gone
missing. One can only hope he has not suffered the fate of Ishankoi. Yugao
hi-Ludum suggested at dinner that these strange events result from an incursion
of Shunned Ones from the forest, and is himself preparing a note to this effect
to send to the Omnipotent Azure Legion in Khirgar – though some of us believe
it would be more seemly to first inform the Temple at Mrelu.
6th
SHAPRU, 2215
Tekketal’s
corpse has been located in the Hra pit, mutilated if anything even more
gruesomely than Ishankoi. To some extent this was due to several of the Hra
having mistaken his body for an exotic item of their diet. Further, two
acolytes have gone missing.
8th
SHAPRU, 2215
Goduku
hi-Raitlan has now vanished, along with his personal servant. On the orders of
His Holiness, Yugao hi-Ludum used mediumship to communicate our troubles to the
Temple at Mrelu. We are assured that investigators have been despatched.
9th
SHAPRU, 2215
Like one
who is infected with the eggs of the nkek-worm,
we have suffered from a traitor within! Yugao hi–Ludum has been uncovered as
the source of our woe! Along with two young acolytes he has been worshipping at
an ancient shrine to the terrible Goddess of the Pale Bone in the caverns below
our temple. After a few minutes of careful questioning he lapsed into a ghastly
calm which he retained even when flayed alive. After this his heart was cut out
and the corpse flung into the catacombs where he had his shrine. The acolytes
were similarly treated, but spoke freely of a baleful influence which called
them to the caverns. They died more insane than a Hli’ir. Our troubles are at
least now at an end.
10th
SHAPRU, 2215
After the
Visitation of the Dormant Lord, His Holiness the Archimandrite was found to be
missing. A thorough search of the catacombs uncovered his butchered form,
treated not unlike that of Yugao. No magic could resurrect him. Moreover, there
was no sign of the carrion deposited in the catacombs only yesterday.
11th
SHAPRU, 2215
Two more
were found dead, and those who remained have been forced to evacuate the
temple. Apart from a few slaves only! remain, for l am too infirm to travel
far. land the slaves keep to the library now. I have released the Hra and even
the Vorodla in the temple precincts, with instructions to attack even those
robed as priests of our Supreme Lord. The Vorodla accommodate themselves to
such orders with relish, of course, but the Hra seemed dully reluctant. It is
tempting to think of this as a sort of loyalty, but I know that the spark of
true reason has jaded from their dead minds and it is only the illusion of
thought that I perceive in them. The rain is a heavy curtain in the courtyard.
Once or twice I thought I glimpsed a figure out there.
12th
SHAPRU, 2215
There is
food for only two more days, but I do not think it will come to that. I have
had an idea for a treatise on the ethology of the Hra. A pity I will never get
the chance to write it.
There are no further entries.
The Shrine
The roof of the shrine is of a sturdy, black-lacquered
wood which has suffered little from time and the elements. There are steps up
the south side of the pyramid. The doors are locked.
1. The Outer Shrine. There is an altar stone of blue
marble against the north wall, under a silver crescent moon and azure beetle -
one of the insignia of Lord Ksarul.
2. Side-chapel. Behind a locked bronze grille is a
small shrine to Ey’un, Knower of Skills, the aspect of Lord Ksarul to whom this
temple was particularly dedicated. There is a small steel (AD&D: platinum;
RQ: iron) statue of the skeletal Ey’un. This is worth up to 150,000 kaitars /
75,000gps / 150,000 lunars, although it would be considered an act of terrible
sacrilege if anyone less than a Cardinal of the priesthood of Lord Ksarul were
to remove it from the shrine. AD&D players should not be given its full XP
value, if it is taken. (It should be worth about 3,000XP).
3. Steps lead down within the pyramid.
4. A landing. The steps continue down and there is an
archway to the east, from the chamber beyond which issue forth four Hra:
HRA
RQ:
6-point armour; HP20, 21, 22, 23; Move: 8; POW: 14; Sword (1d10+1+2d6), SR7,
75%; will regenerate unless slain by magic; can detect life at no POW cost.
AD&D:
AC4; HD7; HP31,28,28,24; Move: 12”; 1 Attack for 4-11.
EPT: AC4; HD7; HP24, 22, 22, 20.
Tirikelu: Melee 22, 1D10+4, hit points 30 [-/-/-], armour 6/2, Evade 5, Mag Res 18.
Notes:
These huge (7-foot) undead warriors are sometimes used by the priests of Ksarul as
temple guards – but only in the lower catacombs, as they cannot stand the light
of day. They are turned as spectres except by priests of Ksarul, who turn them
as wights and gain permanent control of the Hra on a ‘D’ result. (Tirikelu: a priest of Ksarul can stop a Hra from attacking by making a -5 Theologian check) Even if
completely hacked apart in melee, a Hra will reanimate after two turns (Tirikelu: one hour) and
pursue its opponents; it has the tracking abilities of a ranger (RQ: detect life; Tirikelu: 15th level Hunter). In appearance Hra are
gaunt and grey, seeming much like a wight. After killing their foes they drain
them of all blood and bodily fluids, leaving only a shrivelled husk. If
dispelled by a cleric or slain by a paladin with a Holy Sword, the Hra is
completely and permanently destroyed.
5. The Lower Shrine. A chamber of black stone,
intended for the more sacred and secret rituals. There is a crescent moon
symbol inlaid in polished quartz shards into the floor.
6. The stairs end. A locked bronze grille bars the
way.
7. Antechamber to the Inner Shrine. Each of the double
doors to the east bears the Bound Claw emblem on panels of beaten silver.
8. The Inner Shrine. An effigy of Lord Ksarul, carved
of black wood and masked with silver, lies on a couch studded with blue mosaic.
He holds a silver staff topped with a large sapphire cut to resemble a beetle.
The whole room is faced with blue marble.
The mask is worth about 200 kaitars / 100gps / 200
lunars; the staff, 150,000 kaitars / 75,000gps / 150,000 lunars. The same
applies as with the statuette of Ey’un in the side-chapel above.
A search of this room will reveal lines of faint
scratches on the floor running between the couch and the east wall. If the
couch is lifted up slightly it can be slid aside to reveal a pit. This requires
a combined strength of 150 (AD&D/RQ: 28).
The
Caverns below the Pyramid
These caverns were a centre of worship for the sect of
the Goddess of the Pale Bone centuries before the eastern pioneers colonized
the area and built their temple to Lord Ksarul. The only worshipper here now is
Yugao hi-Ludum, the treacherous
priest of Ksarul mentioned in the extracts from the temporal codex.
YUGAO
HI-LUDUM
AD&D:
9th level cleric; Str: 16; Int: 11; Wis: 10; Con: 15;
Dex: 11; Cha: 13; AC6; HP50.
Equipment:
Shield +3*, Lucern hammer +1*, Wand of Fear (2ch)
Spells: 1st
- Curse, command, cause light wounds,
sanctuary.
2nd - Hold
person, know alignment, spiritual hammer (x2).
3rd - Cause
blindness, cause disease, dispel magic.
4th - Cause
serious wounds, poison.
5th - Commune.
EPT:
9th level priest; Str: 89; Int: 55; Con: 81; Pow: 60;
Dex: 52; Com: 1; AC5; HP38; (+2 hit, +2 damage).
Equipment:
Shield +3*, Warhammer +1*, Excellent Ruby Eye (6ch), Eye of Allseeing Wonder
(31ch).
Spells:
Basic MU skills to Nature Control.
I - Fear,
plague, shadows.
II - Cold,
creatures, the hands of Kra the mighty.
Ill - Doomkill,
the silver halo of soul stealing.
(*These items are only magical when used by Yugao.)
RQ:
STR: 16; CON: 15; SIZ: 11; INT: 11; POW: 18; DEX: 11;
CHA: 13; HP16; Defence:5%.
Equipment: Medium shield, warhammer (iron); special
powered crystal which gives protection
3 at all times.
Spells: Befuddle,
demoralize, disruption, bludgeon 3, darkwall, invisibility, (repair, detect
life, silence, extinguish, mindspeech 3, dispel magic 2).
Rune Magic: Shattering,
blinding, shield 3, summon small shade.
Skills: Combat
skills 55%; stealth 55%; perception 80%.
Allied Spirit in bone talisman: INT: 11; POW 15.
Tirikelu:
Melee 16, 1d10+1 HP: 14 [3/5/8] Mag Res +27
19th level Ritual Sorcerer Spellpoints: 300
Ceraunics +7
Guarding +6
Malediction +9
Necromagy +7
Psychethesis +3
Vallation +6
Yugao’s life-force has been sustained all these years
by the power of the Goddess. He presents a grisly spectacle, still in the state
that his erstwhile comrades left him – flayed to the waist, his skin hangs like
a kilt leaving an upper torso of raw flesh and sinew, a skull-like mask of a face
with lidless, staring eyes. There is a gaping hole where the priests tore his
heart out. Most of his abilities now derive from his deity and so he should be
treated as a priest (AD&D: cleric) as indicated above. Outside the caverns
Yugao’s life would ebb away at the rate of one hit point a turn.
Besides Yugao the caverns hold another danger – the
Jalush, a creature which has guarded the Goddess’ fane for hundreds of years.
The Jalush may be a unique, demonic creature or it may be the last survivor of an
extinct species. It has six limbs, walking on the back four and using the
forelimbs for grasping and striking. It has an outer integument, smooth and
ivory-pale, with sharp clusters of spines at its joints. It stalks with the
slow, precise movements of a praying mantis and strikes with a scorpion’s
vicious speed; any NPC of 4th level (RQ: lay member) or less has a 15% chance
of fleeing in terror if suddenly confronted by it.
THE JALUSH
RQ:
HP28; Move 8; POW 20; Talons (1d8+3d6), SR4, 95%
Right hindleg (01) 10/9
Right foreleg (02-04) 10/9
Left hind leg (05) 10/9
Left foreleg (06-08) 10/9
Abdomen (09-10) 10/10
Chest (11-12) 10/10
Right arm (13-15) 10/9
Left arm (16-18) 10/9
Head (19-20) 10/10
AD&D:
AC0; HP54 (from 11 dice); Move: 12”; 1 attack for
4-24; Neutral Evil.
EPT:
AC1; HP44 (from 11 dice); Move: 12”; Other notes: see
below.
Tirikelu:
Melee 30, 1D10+6, hit points 44 [9/16/23], armour 6/3, Evade 9, Mag Res 24.
Any character hitting the Jalush has a chance of being
scratched by its poisonous spines: 15% if the character is AC5 or less,
increasing by 1% per AC point above 5. If the character fails his saving throw
he loses 5 EPT points of constitution (AD&D: 1 point) at once and a further 5
EPT points (AD&D: 1 point) every two minutes. This continues until the
character is dead or the poison neutralized. This can only be accomplished with
the Ineluctable Eye of Healing (AD&D: Keoghtom’s Ointment or full wish), and even this will not reverse
the damage! The poison also causes 1-3 hit points permanent damage whether or
not the character makes his saving throw! Nothing short of Divine Intervention
will heal its effects.
RQ: the character must make his luck roll to avoid the
spines. The poison is potency 15, and if it overcomes the character’s CON, he
should be considered to have contracted the terminal form of Creeping Chill
disease. If the poison does not overcome the character’s CON, he merely loses 1
point permanently in the scratched location.
Tirikelu: Anyone striking the Jalush must roll their armour value or less on D6 to avoid being scratched by the spines. If scratched the character loses 1 point of Stamina every two minutes until they die or the poison is neutralised with Detoxify, Invigoration, or an Eye of Healing. Lost Stamina is not regained without a Restoration spell or a charge of the Eye of Regeneration.
The Jalush has a saving throw of 6 against all spells,
technological devices, etc. It has keen senses and moves almost silently
despite its size: it surprises the party on a roll of 1-4 on d6 and is itself
surprised only on a roll of 1 on d10.
For any encounter in the caverns, roll d6:
1-3 the Jalush
4-5 Yugao
6 Yugao and the Jalush
Of course, Yugao is always somewhere in the caverns.
Have the party encounter him in the Goddess’ fane if they haven’t run into him
before then.
9. Low chamber. There is a drop of about twenty feet
from the floor of the Inner Shrine down a narrow shaft which opens into the
roof of this cave. The climb down is not difficult. A tunnel slopes gently
downwards from the south-west part of the chamber. The sound of running water
can be heard.
10. Underground stream. This dries up in summer, but
at the moment is in full flood. The stream is 4 feet at its deepest point.
11. Secret ‘door’. A boulder conceals the narrow
passage. It takes a combined strength of 85 (AD&D/RQ: 16) to roll it back.
12. The Goddess’ Fane. This cave is taller than most
of those here and seems to have been enlarged by excavation at some time in the
past. The walls have been stained white and covered with squarish crimson designs.
There is a rough altar, a natural table of rock, to the south-east. On this is
a rough, pitted idol of light grey stone, depicting a globular being with six
thick, curving legs and the face of a thin-lipped woman.
Anyone touching the idol will receive a fleeting but
horrible vision: a tall, unsmiling woman dissolves into the repulsive
apparition of a torn, rotting monstrosity – the woman’s head, shoulder and
right arm – flying through illimitable darkness towards the viewer. She wields
a great warhammer and seems to be shrieking in rage with her hair streaming as
if in a wind. However, there is no sound.
After a moment this vision fades; the idol will not
affect a character more than once. Removed from the fane, it loses this power.
13. Skulls and broken bones, the Jalush’s victims over
the years. There is a 4’ wide shaft in the floor of this chamber, set with many
razor-sharp chips.
If a character manages to get down the shaft he or she
will feel a sense of tremendous premonition, as though on the verge of a great
discovery. Rather than merely telling the player this, the referee should try
to create a mood, to heighten the sense of significance. Describe the dank air
at the bottom of the pit, the rasping of the character’s own breath in the
stillness, the rough wood of the torch in his hands, its heat on his face...
There at the bottom of the shaft lies a 6” sphere with a stylized eye-symbol
inscribed into it, seeming to watch the character. When the character picks it
up it feels almost icy cold, and remains so even if heated. Though it seems to
be made of grey marble, it cannot be cracked or damaged in any way.
This is one of the Ten Keys required to free Lord Ksarul,
presumably concealed here by one of the followers of the Goddess of the Pale
Bone. It cannot be detected as such by magical means, and only a great scholar
could identify it for certain. Nonetheless, anyone who sees it will have some
kind of ‘sixth sense’ as to its importance.
14. Cave entrance and waterfall. The stream emerges
from the cliff face. The forest is a hundred feet below. From here characters
can see Lake Ngusinaa stretching to the west and, mistily through the
continuing drizzle, the great mountain peaks in the north. There are a number
of ledges and handholds which make the cliff an easy climb.
After the
adventure
For those who like to loot, there’s about 900
kaitars/450gps/900 lunars in cash distributed around the temple – mostly in the
bursary strongbox in the administration building, but some also in the private
quarters.
If the players take the temple relics (the statuette
of Ey’un, etc) then they had better be careful about where they sell them if
they don’t want the priests of Ksarul as enemies. Even if they return the
relics to the priests, the latter may still view the removal of these items
from the temple as questionable or even sacrilegious. The optimum course would
be to leave the relics in place and bring back a Cardinal from the priesthood
to recover them. The priests of Ksarul will give about 25% of the relics’ value
as a reward to their discoverer.
If the party show the Key to Nomikaru hi-Teteli, back
in Mandir, he may try to get it from them so that he can take it himself to the
priesthood. This is not to say that Nomikaru will recognize it as being one of
the Ten Keys, merely that it is an interesting artefact which could help him to
ingratiate himself with his superiors.
Trivia: This scenario was slated to appear in a different version in Questworld, the supplement that Oliver Johnson and I worked on for Games Workshop. I drew the monastery and a cutaway of the shrine in 3D view, and sketched out some of the book spreads like the one below. The accompanying notes to the artist read:
"The main spread [for this scenario] shows the protagonists' first view of the monastery after climbing up the mountain path. It is heavily overcast and there is a curtain of fine drizzle. Hovering in the sky over the ruined monastery are seven winged creatures ('corposants')."
So that's what would have been instead of Dragon Warriors, if things had turned out differently.
