Art Landing - 2-1
Room Type: Special
Light Level: Dim Light
This thin landing, made from the same fine wood as the staircase, offers a nice place to view three paintings lining the north wall. The stairs wrap around to continue up, connecting the Ballroom 1-9 to the Grand Corridor 3-35
Magical Paintings
The paintings in this room are magical portals to the places they depict. Each looks photorealistic with no brush marks visible, but they are not live images. You can place any body part through the paintings and pull it back. The moment you completely go through, you can't return. These are one-way portals.
These paintings can be picked up and moved to any location and still work.
Aviary Painting - Huge dark domed ceilings painted to look like a blue sky, loom over a sand-covered space. A small oasis can be seen in the sand, with a single sad-looking palm tree leaning toward a large archway that provides a channel of light. This painting leads to the Dragon Aviary on Floor 29.
The Grand Lounge Painting - A beautiful lounge with richly decorated walls and stunning furniture. This painting leads to the Lounge 1-11 in the middle of the room.
Cliff Tower Roof Painting - Moody painting of the tower looking over the roofs of a busy Grimrest. Smoke rises from chimneys, and people are at the base of the tower. This portal leads to the roof of the Cliff Tower .
Secret Passages
The east and west wood-panelled walls hide secret passages; simply pushing against them on the correct section will open them. They naturally close shut. They have handles on the inside so they can be opened from the not-secret side.
Long Trap Corridor - 2-2
Room Type: Trap
Light Level: Dark
This long corridor has beautiful floors of fine wood, but the same dark stone walls provide a strange contrast. There are 2 traps in this room, one of which has obviously broken, and each was hidden under a large square carpet. There are three carpets in total:
H3 Black Carpet - Broken Trap
A trap was hidden under this southernmost carpet, but it has since malfunctioned. Stepping on this carpet would trigger a platform from below and above to meet in the middle of the corridor, crushing anything it touched. Lucky for you, however, the platforms are stuck in the middle of their movement, with the bottom one 3ft off the ground. To pass through the corridor, you must squeeze through the gap between the platforms, which is not hard, just unnerving.
Placing too much weight on the platform will cause it to go down, and if it is pushed all the way down, it will reset the trap to working order.
Blue Carpet - Trapped
This carpet hides a pressure plate. If the weight of 2 people (1 in platemail) steps on the carpet, then it will open up a trap door below, sending you down 20ft to 1-19. The trap door is on arms, splitting the carpet in half and turning vertical before quickly resetting. A careful inspection of the blue carpet will detect the blue seam down the middle.
Red Carpet - Hidden Treasure
This carpet is not attached to anything and can be rolled back to reveal a locked floor safe.
- 700sp
- 200gp
- Small black bag containing 3 rings.
- Ring of Caltrops
- Twisted gold ring with a sigil of the tower decorated with dark gemstones (1000gp)
- A lady's wedding ring with a small diamond (600gp)
Hidden Storage - 2-3
Room Type: Empty
Light Level: Dark
This dark, dank chamber has been converted by the Children of the Tower into a storage space. Simple shelves and cabinets line the walls, holding a mix of mundane supplies. This spot is not regularly used; it's more of a supply cache.
Supplies
- 50 Iron rations from a range of different places
- Big bundles of fabric
- Spare tools: hammers, drills, etc.
- 3 small sacks filled with caltrops.
- 2 empty small sacks.
- 5 Darkness Devouring Torches
Hungry Darkness Chamber - 2-4
Room Type: Special
Light Level: Magical Darkness
This room is lined with large, square black tiles on the floor and walls. Well, you would see that if the chamber were not filled with magical darkness emanating from the powerful magical item in the centre of the room.
The centre of the room is raised into a plinth holding this item. The Children of the Tower have laid caltrops around this to try and deter creatures from interfering with something they don't understand. The floor is littered with a real pain to deal with in the dark.
This chamber is open to the west, allowing the darkness to spread throughout the central part of this floor.
Hungry Darkness Relic
This powerful relic was not created in the tower; it was found and kept for study. Its secrets were discovered, and now it's been left to slow down intruders inside the dungeon.
This twisted lump of leathery flesh is squishy to the touch but dry. If you attempt to rip or squeeze it too hard, you pass through it, making it impossible to damage. This thing emits a magical darkness that flows like oil filling up any space it can. Once all space has been filled, it maintains its darkness until more darkness is needed, such as when a new door opens.
If the darkness is separated from its relic, it will slowly dissipate over a turn; it also dissipates when exposed to sunlight. If all the towers' doors were left open, it would eventually fill up with this magical darkness. You could also put the relic in a jar and have nothing to worry about.
Hidden Ladder Down - 2-5
Room Type: Empty
Light Level: Dark
This small, dark, hidden chamber is often empty but does feature a handy hole in the ground that leads down to The Better Union territory in 1-17.
There is a 3-6 chance of running into a couple of guards protecting the ladder down to their floor. If they are not present, the ladder will be taken down. They sometimes scavenge/explore on the 2nd floor, but they are rarely successful.
Disorientation Chamber - 2-6
Room Type: Empty
Light Level: Magical Darkness
This strangely shaped chamber is designed to disorientate anyone who is travelling through it blind. It attempts to split parties with angled walls and attempts to lead people through one-way doors.
The one-way door (→) to the east is designed to be pushed open like a drawbridge and then sealed shut once no weight is on it.
Once the magical darkness is removed, this room becomes incredibly simple.
Guardian Lore Room - 2-7
Room Type: Special
Light Level: Dim Light
This large, strangely shaped room depicts the Guardian room on floor 7. The floors and walls are lined with magical tiles that seem to be made of glass, looking through into a dark void filled with speckled light and nebulae. This strange tiling makes the room feel much bigger than it is and very off-putting and alien, but the tiles are just creating illusions and dim light.
The room contains 3 large pillars and a statue against the north wall. The sculpture depicts the guardian on floor 7, a large bull creature covered in overlapping armour plates, its head raised, roaring into the sky. Its horns look deadly, and it's standing on piles of the dead. Text can be seen on a small plac: “To Ascend and meet your host, three offerings must be made”
The three pillars depict the three offerings required to break the seal to access the higher floors. They are made from dark stone but seem to glow from an inlay of translucent amber coloured material depicting scenes on each:
- The same creature depicted in the statue is shown dead, surrounded by figures with weapons. The creature's blood runs from it down the pillar into a sigil. Text around the base of the pillar reads “The Blood of the Beast”
- A group of faceless humanoids are holding down and stabbing a figure just like themselves. The victim's blood was running down the pillar into a similar sigil. Text around the base of the pillar reads “The Blood of an Ally”
- Faceless individuals are holding up a twisted knotted object (The Hungry Darkness), its darkness flowing down the pillar into the same sigil. Text around the base of the pillar reads “Endless Darkness”
Against the south wall of this room is a large painted silhouette. It looks like a figure watching over the room; its arms and legs look thin and skeletal, but any detail is really hard to make out.
Posioned Well - 2-8
Room Type: Trap/Special
Light Level: Dark
Decorated room with marble and walls lined with artwork, it feels like you are standing in an expensive outdoor fountain. In the middle of the room is a deep stone basin. The ceiling has many cracks, all centring on a point over the basin, which looks close to collapsing.
The cracks in the ceiling are decorative and pose no danger; they funnel liquid from the room above (3-20) and drip slowly into the basin below. The liquid looks like slightly cloudy water and has an organic smell; this is Medusa poison. Not dangerous to drink, but not recommended. Careful if you have wounds or cuts!
Bloodstaned Chamber - 2-9
Room Type: Empty
Light Level: Dark
This room has dark stone walls and floors with heavy signs of battle and death. Groves in the stonework from blades and splatterings of dried blood. There are clear blood trails leading to 2-10 with Ghoul footprints moving in and out of that same door.
Ghoul Lair - 2-10
Room Type: Lair
Light Level: Dark
This room has been controlled by a large pack of Ghoul (2d8) for centuries, and it shows. The floor is littered with bones and debris, so much so that the southeast door is blocked by a large pile of bones.
Anyone attacked by Ghouls will eventually end up here. There is a range of mundane weapons and armour littering the floor, most in horrible, unusable condition. If you are willing to dig through the muck, there are some things of value:
- 2000cp
- 2000ep
- 3000gp
- +1 Sheild
Failed Barricade - 2-11
Room Type: Empty
Light Level: Dark
This large, dark chamber is full of damaged furniture from various rooms. This furniture has been piled up against the Northwest door as a barricade, but it seems to have failed.
Blood and gore are splattered on the walls and floors; a fight must have taken place here.
Darklock - 2-12
Room Type: Empty
Light Level: Dark
This room is made from the same dark stone and lacks any decoration. Its actual use is as an airlock for the hungry darkness, but many different groups travel through this room
Ghouls prints coming from the west and humanoid prints to the south
Divine Barrier - 2-13
Room Type: Special
Light Level: Dark
This room has the same dark stone walls and floors as many other rooms on this level, but these have been cleaned and polished to an incredible level. The entire room reflects torchlight, illuminating the room with little effort.
Splitting the room down the middle from east to west are a number of holy symbols carefully carved into the stone and then filled. This has created a divine barrier that will stop any undead from passing. This feat was created by Jon Jon and would have taken many years to complete.
Jon Jon's Space - 2-14
Room Type: Lair
Light Level: Dark
This room has been occupied by Jon Jon. He has spent time cleaning the room and setting out his things, as if he plans to stay here for a long time. There is a 5-6 chance he is in this room unless he was spotted elsewhere on the floor.
The room is set up with a bedroll, rations and writing covering one of the walls. This writing seems to be an attempt at communication with his god; he asks many questions, but there are no visible answers.
Jon Jon has piled up furniture to block the west door.
Abandoned Camp - 2-15
Room Type: Empty
Light Level: Dark
This room is vast and empty except for a small abandoned camp in one corner. The camp consists of a trampled tent and empty bags.
A small scrap of paper can be found at the end of a diary entry, mentioning the following people into the darkness, who were able to burn it away. The person ended up getting lost loosing some of his party and winding up in this room.
Robber Fly Nest - 2-16
Room Type: Lair
Light Level: Dark
Robber Flies have infested this room; the walls and floors are covered in a slick, grimy coating from the long time they have controlled this space. A large papery nest can be seen in the corner of the room, with flies often crawling in and out of it.
These flies travel around this floor, feeding on the leftovers from other creatures.
Encounter - 2d6 Robber Flies.
The nest in the corner is built over a door; destroying the nest is the only way to see or access it. There is also a portcullis that the flies can move through without issue; the lever to raise this door is against the north wall.
Obviously Trapped Chest - 2-17
Room Type: Trap
Light Level: Dark
This chamber's sole purpose is to store a large stone chest that rises out of the floor as if it were moulded from the same stone. On the ceiling above this chest are a range of strange sigils and chunks of crystal, all pointed towards the chest.
Trapped Chest!
If someone fails a roll to pick the chest's lock, the sigils activate, and anyone 5ft from the chest is teleported to the middle of 1-7
There is loot inside the chest!
- 1200sp
- 400gp
- 100gp Gems x4
- Ring of Swimming
Stairs Up - 2-18
Room Type: Empty
Light Level: Dark
This room is very plain, with just a large stone staircase leading up to room 3-6.
Civic Library - 2-19
Room Type: Special
Light Level: Dark
This rundown room has warped wooden floors and rows of dilapidated bookshelves, filled with loose papers in various folders. This room contains all the civic information about the village of Grimrest, including the number of people, their family units and occupations.
Some hidden information that can be found if time is spent investigating these “books”:
- Hidden passages have been discovered under the tavern, leading to a chamber around the well - the Mayor complains.
- Just a mention that the investigation was dropped
- Hidden Spell Book
- Level 1: Detect Magic, Floating Disk
- Level 2: ESP, Wizard Lock
Unfinished Hallway - 2-20
Room Type: Empty
Light Level: Dark
This long hallway looks like it's in the middle of being decorated, then abandoned. Warped wooden flooring is present at the north end, but it ends before getting halfway down the room.
A small workstation for whoever was working on this floor has some scribbles on it:
“This tower makes no sense. Why build a village in the tower when the Grimrest is so nice? Why hide the entrance to it? “
Troublesome camp - 2-21
Room Type: Empty
Light Level: Dark
This empty, dark stone chamber has a simple camp set up in one corner. Everything looks in its place, except the bedroll is twisted, as if someone had been dragged out of it. The only other sign that someone was here is a lost shoe by the southwest door to 2-22.
A book in the camp includes notes about the adventurer's exploration of the tower, his separation from his party in the darkness, and a small section of a map.
Loot!
- Staff +1
Meat Storage - 2-22
Room Type: Trap
Light Level: Dark
This metal-box room is enchanted to keep cool, making it ideal for storing food. 6 meat hooks hang from the ceiling, each with a body impaled, one is missing a shoe. These are, in fact, undead, waiting like meat puppets for a meal.
Encounter 6 classic Zombie
Some Loot can be found!
- 1000sp
- 600gp
- Magic Book
- Floating Disk
- Magic Missile
Brazier of Fireball - 2-23
Room Type: Trap
Light Level: Dark
This chamber is set up like an old wizard's lab, now abandoned; all that is left is a fancy-looking brazier and a bookstand. The east door appears complex, with a numeric combination device built into it.
The book on the bookstand is titled “Magical Codes and Combinations.” On the inside pages, the text gets smaller the harder you look. This book is, in fact, cursed and contains no information. This book is immune to fire.
The Brazier in the middle of the room contains strange magical components and oil sprinkled over the coals, ready to be lit. This is a trap! When lit, the brazier creates a fireball at its location. (2d6 20ft sphere)
The east door has a complex mechanism that makes it look like you need a 4-digit code to unlock it. This is not the case, and simply testing the handle will show that the door is unlocked.
Pipe Room - 2-24
Room Type: Lair
Light Level: Dark
This room is dank and grimy, with dark stone walls covered in a layer of damp, and two large metal pipes hum violently in the middle of the room. These pipes are pulling water from B2-2 and are showing signs of wear, with small drip leaks at several points.
Living between the pipes is a Grey Ooze that is slowly breaking down the metal in this room.
The pipes run from floor to ceiling and have small hatches with windows on their sides. There are filters that can be pulled from here, and the north pipe already seems to be missing one. The south pipe has its large metal filter in place, and a body is trapped against it; at this point its mostly bone. This body can be removed by opening the hatch, but a large amount of water will flood the room.
Loot on the body!
- 1100sp
- +1 Short sword of water breathing
Adventurer Honeytrap - 2-25
Room Type: Trap
Light Level: Dim Light
This tiny storage room has been mined out over time, revealing a strange pillar in its corner. This pillar runs from the ground to the ceiling, with crackling green energy pulsing up it in waves. This pillar is one of many transporting corrupting energies throughout the tower.
On the floor 10ft from the pillar, is a burnt and twisted body with a hammer and chisel melted into each hand. In his bag, a ball of 300sp is found all melted together.
Spaced evenly along this pillar are a number of small, smooth holes with scratch marks on their exteriors; something seems to have been removed. Further down the pillar, there are larger holes, each filled with a gem worth 100gp 6 in total. These gems are magically attached; any attempt to remove them will cause the pillar to spark, filling the room with corrupting energy that deals 3d6 damage and moderate corruption. Dispelling each gem will release it.
Fungles Entrance - 2-26
Room Type: Lair
Light Level: Dark
This chamber is the entrance to the Fungles' territory. Fungles are very shy creatures, so their main entrance rarely has members of their community on guard, but they are often listening in. If an encounter happens here, then it will be a pack of Fungles.
This room is covered in a thick, fluffy moss that covers all the floor and goes most of the way up the walls. This is harmless, but very flammable and hides some traps:
- There is a 10ft-deep pit trap hidden beneath the moss. Thorns pointing downward line the edge of the hole like a carnivorous plant.
- Thorns under the moss in front of both doors that lead deeper into their territory. Deal 1d4 damage if someone is unaware they are there and steps on them. Unless they have very good footwear.
Fungles Main Chamber - 2-27
Room Type: Lair
Light Level: Dark
This room is packed with Fungles, so much so that it's impassable with all the members inside. They sit cap to cap here in cramped conditions and are very happy about it. The room stinks of mould and damp.
Fungles Spawning Chamber - 2-28
Room Type: Lair
Light Level: Dark
This room contains the Fungles “King” and is where new Fungles come from. This room is always heavily guarded. The walls and floors are covered with fluffy spores that float like snow when disturbed. Anyone breathing in the room must save vs poison or be infected by the spores.
Fungles Hallway - 2-29
Room Type: Lair
Light Level: Dark
This hallway is part of the Fungles' territory and is often occupied by members. They have built a barrier splitting the hallway in two, made of dried mycelium and moss packed together. This is a reasonably strong barrier, but very flammable.
The Rotting Room - 2-30
Room Type: Lair
Light Level: Dark
This chamber is designed to generate food for the Fungles. They bring in corpses and other compostable things they find and throw them all together. Once it's in a more digestible state, they move it into their main room to use as fertiliser 2-27.
There is a glistening of coins in the piles of rot and mould, but it's also very infectious to non-mushroom people. If searching through the rot, you must Save Vs Death or get Moss Growth.
There is one body that is unlike the others. One of the Goldcoats, Madyx, ended up here and got consumed by Moss Growth; they now lie here waiting in ambush. They do not bother the Fungles.
Loot!
- 1200sp
- 400gp
- Madyx's Gear
Simple Stairs - 2-31
Room Type: Empty
Light Level: Dark
This room contains stone stairs going up to floor 3.
Cults Hidden Highway - 2-32
Room Type: Empty
Light Level: Dim Light
This simple stone room is very plain, as if it were never meant to be seen by anyone except the staff. Large stone blocks make up the walls and floors; the only standout feature is an enclosed spiral staircase built into the corner of the room. This staircase is the quickest way to travel between Floor 4 and Basement 2, but is always heavily guarded by The Cult of the Tower.
Guards and Procedure
Each floor of this Hidden Highway has 1d6 cultists who can often be found around a table playing cards or relaxing. They don't usually get visitors. If anyone outside the cult comes in through the secret doors, they will be killed. This secret passageway can't be discovered, as it leads directly to the cult's home. Once combat starts, they have a procedure:
- Engage the invaders
- Shout up and down the stairs to alert the floors above and below.
- These floors then shout up and down again.
- Every floor will then go up to the 4th floor, fighting any invaders along the way.
If the invaders survive and learn of this secret passage, the cult will utilise its Magic Users to lock the highway entrances with Wizard Lock (Level 3). They then use a secret knock to gain entrance through these doors.