Sauna Elementals and a Mummified Goose (d23 Week 1)

 Introduction to the Sunset Palace of the Starry Sultan: here.

I am using my own system for notation reference, but I think it will be easily convertible to any OSR system or DCC.

The first level of the dungeon is the floor just beneath the furthest reaches of the current royal apartments. Guards rarely patrol this way, but they can sometimes be seen on this level.

Tonight is the Parade of Crowns where all the rulers of Itarra from the beginning are resurrected in the form of giant papier-mâché heads styled after the fashions of their deaths. This long night of drunken debauchery is a reminder to those in power of how fragile that power is. It is also the perfect night to sneak off to the Obsidian Gardens where you know the entrance to the lower levels lies.

This level is split between the ancient-beyond-ancient obsidian halls that are the oldest parts of the whole palace, the rough stone tunnels dug into the Impaling Cliffs, and the immaculate Byzantine tile, work of the Akavasian Emperors with the more modern refurbishments of Baloram the Great.

Factions:

The Custodian and his Interred Builders: Emperor Callaesis II interred his builders in the walls of the palace and even mummified much of his house staff upon his death. They now guard his treasures even in death. The Custodian the chief servant, a tall and rail-thin mummy in black-moth eaten robes, and blue sash, ever accompanied by his beloved mummified goose, Pickles. They want to protect the treasures of this place. They are at odds with the Gutter Kings and Vermen.

Gutter Kings: The Gutter Kings under the orders of the Crown of Buttons have begun to raid the palace. Their current leader is Patchface Gubbins, a business minded individual who has high reverence for Gutter Law and no reverence for anything else. They want to acquire loot and protect their own skins.

Vermen: Beast men who are hybrids of all vermin: rats, moths, worms, and raccoons. They are the lost descendants of some cursed royals sometime after the Myriad King but before the Akavasian Emperors. They dress in the ruined garb of nobility. They have come up to make their homes in the caves along the cliffs. They want to find food and survive.

The Star Seekers: The cult of those who worship the Gods from Beyond the Stars. They have been constructing a vessel for the Sultan to travel to the stars. They are also growing Silver Guards in vats to ensure their total loyalty. The Star Seekers want to maintain the secret of their work down here and complete the Silver Chariot of the Heavens.

Made with Dungeon Scrawl

1: The Obsidian Gardens 

The entrance you know into the lower levels of the palace is in the Obsidian Gardens, one of the oldest parts of the palace.

The gardens bear many ancient stones of pure obsidian which are wrapped around with large thorny vines that all appear to emerge from a thorny mass of a rose bush that has mostly consumed the largest stone in the center of the garden.

The door to the palace is an archway made of obsidian ringed with thorns. 

Examining the bush in the middle reveals that there is an ancient skeleton tangled in the roses with something shining around its neck. 

If any of the vines or the bush are disturbed, the Petal Wight is awakened.

Petal Wight: +4 Thorny Claws (2d6+2), 22HP, 14AC, Saves: +2. Immune to Poison. SP: Thorn Whip: In addition to attacking, the Petal Wight may select a creature within 20ft of a thorny vine and command the vine to lash out. Save or take 1d4 damage. 

Soul Suck: A single target within 10ft of the Wight must Save or their maximum HP is reduced by 1d4. This can only be removed by a Remove Curse or similar spell.

1d6 Happenings Outside the Gate

1: 2 Silver Guards patrol the gardens with a baleful green lantern. They bear large two-handed axes and wear silver masks like the face of a child with large lumpy turbans. 

They fight with eerie silence and, if they are disrobed, the party will discover inhuman bodies beneath like tumors grown into the rough shape of large men with no discernable sense organs or any features at all but lumpy growths.

Silver Guard: +3 Brutal Halberd (1d12), 12HP, 15AC, Saves: +0. Immune to Blindness and Charm.

2: A thief (lvl 1) in a black cloak appears to be standing outside the door trying to convince himself to enter. Benedar Pahreem is an inexperienced and cowardly thief. He might be inclined to join you but he also might run away. He is a spoiled noble son with minimal experience, but he has finery worth 20gp on his person in addition to 3 decorative letter openers worth 3 silver each. His mother might repay you if you bring him to her.

3: The thorns have grown over the door and must be removed to pass.

4: A crew of 1d4 Gutter King Smackers and 1d4 Shooters are also entering the palace along with their leader, Patchface Gubbins. They are only concerned with profit and will only commit violence to protect their claim according to Gutter Law: "He who finds keeps."

Gutter King Smacker: +2 Begging Cudgel (1d6), 4HP, 12AC. Saves: +1.

Gutter King Shooter: +1 Crossbow (1d6), 2HP, 10AC. Saves: -1.

Patchface Gubbins: +3 Spiked Cudgel (1d6+1), 6HP, 13AC. Saves: +2.

5: A dead adventurer is entangled in the vines. It looks like they got out of the palace only to die in the gardens. On their person is 2d6 gp in exquisite silks, a Ring of Lesser Invisibility, a short sword, and a map that reveals layout of the first level where he has marked the location of the resting place of Grand Student Gamaliel but it is also marked with the warning: "Guarded by the Thing."

6: The spirit of Princess Mera weeps in the garden. She will tell how she took poison as their enemies took the palace, and how her spirit cannot go to the afterlife since she was not given a proper burial as per the rites of the Living Temple. She can direct you to her body but warns that a giant hand, a holy relic of Saint Armasius, is guarding her body.

2: The Too Still Pool

An indoor pool like a tub for personal bathing set into a floor made of obsidian bricks. The pool is filled to the brim with what might be mistaken for water with a thick gray film but closer examination reveals it to be a cloudy gray gelatinous substance. The ooze makes no move to attack unless something touches it. 

At the bottom of the pool is the skeletal body of a human. They have something shiny on their finger. Up close it is a gold ring with a huge ruby gem worth 50gp. 

There is a damaged brick at the lip of the pool. It looks like the mortar holding it in place is gone and there is a large crack on the side adjacent to the pool. If anyone lifts up the brick as it is, the ooze will spill into the place the brick was. 

Underneath the brick is a golden bottle. If you want to snatch it up as the ooze pours in, you'll have to Save, otherwise the ooze will be alerted. Within the bottle are Lotions of Desire. 

Lotions of Desire: 3 Uses. Apply to the skin and say aloud the name of the person or creature you wish to attract and you will become the object of their rabid desire. This isn't necessarily sexual but could be hunger or merely possessive depending on the target.

Sticky Gray Ooze:  Surprisingly Quick Pseudopod (Save or be grappled as the ooze tries to draw you in. Save each round or be pulled 5ft.) 35HP, 3AC, Saves: +4 Mgt, +0 Mnd -3 Agl. SP: Sticky to the Touch. Anyone who touches or is touched by the ooze automatically find ooze clinging to their body that simply will not come off. So long as the ooze sticks to a creature, the ooze always knows where it is. 

Quicky Pudding: the ooze can move with surprising swiftness, surpassing most characters. However, it has minimal control over its rolling movements and turns very poorly. 

Choke: The ooze eats by choking its victims within its mass and then slowly digesting their body over years. Each round a consumed creature must Save. If they fail three times, they are choked to death. 

Acidic Weakness: The ooze is not weak to water but it is weak to acid, even weakly acidic things like vinegar or alcohol. Each time anything acidic touches the ooze, it takes 3d6 damage and any damage dealt with acid attacks is doubled. 

3: Wine Cellar

Ancient forgotten wines line the walls in nooks in the obsidian. All have become vinegar by now. 

One of the nooks has moss growing out from it and spilling onto the wall. If the bottom bottle is pulled out, a secret tunnel is revealed that leads to Area 5.

On subsequent delves or upon returning to this room after an extended period of time, roll a random encounter in this room. 

4: Steamy Sauna

At first, the room ahead of you merely appears to be full of steam and yet passing through it appears to not be possible. There is a feeling of tension that increases like a wall of pressure of a gale force wind. After being rebuffed, you can make out two round, chubby faces made out of steam, looking at you with placid smiles. One of the three Sweatloafs turn to you, “Greetings, friend. Come in! The steam is wonderful today! There is room for all!” 

There is evidently not room for all as their large bodies prevent all from entering. You can see through their semi-translucent bodies that there is a glowing coal in a stone bowl in the middle over which one languidly pours water with a little scoop, seeming to create the very steam which composes their bodies.

All passage through the room is impossible. It would take something hitting with the force of a cannonball to just shove through.

The Sweatloafs totally lack the ability to read the room. They mean no ill will, but they are very unaware. They are literally created of the steam, but the reason they give for staying in the sauna is that it is pleasurable. They want you to come join them, but are totally confused by your inability to enter the room with them. They, as vapor, easily share space with each other. They are not aggressive at all and will not attack even to defend themselves. If they are driven out of their sauna with no easy way back in, they will simply fade away.

Magic can affect them, but regular physical weapons are useless. It is like trying to swing a sword at a gale force wind. A strong gale of wind might blow them around. The Coal cannot be permanently extinguished, but it can be temporarily cooled which is uncomfortable for the Sweatloafs. They might also be enticed to move to a better sauna if they can be given a path of alluring steam to sustain themselves.

This sauna is fueled by a Living Coal, a smack talking flame demon bound into a coal which is perpetually alight. Set on any flammable surface, it will start a small fire. Introduced to any person, it will insult them. The Living Coal also has a rather remarkable capacity to magically fuel and control any magical apparatus which is empty of fuel or control mechanism, so long as the Coal can physically fit. Any golem that would ordinarily be commanded by a demon but which stands empty can instead be possessed by the Coal.

5: Mossy Nook

To get in this nook, you must crawl through a tunnel, entirely covered in moss. It opens up into a tall space with sunlight coming from above with a mossy floor below, dotted with gray flowers. Floating and climbing around this room are several rabbit sized moth-like creatures, glowing soft white light. 

In the middle of this room, there is a mostly moss covered obsidian statue of some ancient person. It has an air of holiness. It looks like a woman that the moss has given a cloak. She is an ancient spirit known as the Moss Mother. If you bring her samples of the moss from around the palace, she can turn them into magic portals for you to travel to this room and to any moss you have already discovered. 

6: Stores

Old crates fill this room, yet some of their contents might yet be viable. Each crate has elaborate, apparently decorative markings on them. Magic Users might recognize them as Wards of Silent Alarm and Thief Mark. If any of the boxes are taken or opened without the wards being dispelled, the Custodian will know and will be able to see whoever did so outlined in golden light. If the wards are triggered, the Custodian will immediately go to the room followed by 1d4+1 Interred Builders. They will arrive in 1d6 rounds. The Thief Mark can only be removed with a Remove Curse or similar spell.

The Custodian: +3 Thief Fire (1d6/1d8 against Thief Marked targets, range 50ft, gives the next ally who attacks the target Advantage on their attack roll) 13HP, 12AC, Saves: +3. SP: Chief Servant: Each round the Custodian may direct one of their Interred Builders or Pickles to make an additional attack against any creature that bears the Thief Mark.

The Custodian is a rail-thin undead chief servant from a forgotten monarch. He wishes to protect the palace from robbers and is relentless against thieves and vandals. He might be convinced to overlook your trespasses and even reward you, if you will help him against the Gutter Kings and Vermen. If he is killed, his body turns to dust and reforms in his sarcophagus, unless the sarcophagus is destroyed, in which case, he is immediately killed. He is accompanied by his pet mummified goose, Pickles, which also reappears in the Custodian’s sarcophagus when killed.

Pickles: +1 War-like Bite (1 damage, Save or Pickles holds on, giving you Disadvantage on any rolls you make until the goose is removed.) 2HP, 9AC, Saves: +1. 

Pickles has seen some shit.

Interred Builders: +2 Hammer or Pick (1d6), 5HP, 10AC, Saves: -2. SP: Double Tap: When an Interred Servant hits 0 or less HP, roll 1d6. On a 5+, the Servant returns to life with 1HP. This happens unless the Servant is damaged with holy magic or fire.

The revenant builders who made most of the palace were rewarded by being entombed in its walls. They do not truly die but reform over time so long as their original bones remain in the walls.

Searching the crates takes a turn but reveals the following valuable contents:

• Fragrant Herbs from Axum. This large heavy crate is worth 100gp or 5gp for each small bag taken from it. The whole crate would require a person to carry it slowly with both hands.
• Exotic Yellow Spice from the Purple Deserts of Khanum-Nor. This large heavy crate is worth 100gp or 5gp for each small bag taken from it. The whole crate would require a person to carry it slowly with both hands.
• 4 Golden Fertility Idols/Marital Aids: Worth 25gp each.
• A Large Sparkling Egg: Some might be convinced this is a true dragon egg and pay upwards of 100,000gp, but this is only a wyrm egg and is more worth 500gp. When exposed to fire for a month, the egg will hatch into a wyrm and imprint upon the first living thing it sees. Wyrms are dragon-like creatures that do not grow larger than a donkey. They can breathe fire and are vicious hunters, but they do not fly.
• An Orb of Scrying: So long as you have a small piece of a creature or item, you may scry it through the orb, knowing its current condition and general location.
• Sparking Dust from the Rainbow Isles: Metallic-dust the color of bronze that sparkles and makes a loud popping sound when thrown or set alight. The whole crate would explode in a 10ft radius dealing 2d6 damage of half on a save, but would also make tremendous noise calling for an encounter check. This large heavy crate is worth 100gp or 5gp for each small bag taken from it. The whole crate would require a person to carry it slowly with both hands

7: The Demon

The floor here is black and white tile. The curtains along the edges are moth-eaten red velvet. There are several chairs and couches here of ruined purple leather. 

There is a statue here of the Twin Crains of Fate and Folly worth 100gp. And an Icon of Saint Armasius gilted with gold and silver worth 50gp or it can be used against any of the Relics of Saint Armasius. Any Relic must make a Mnd Save to attack a welder of the Icon.

If they haven't encountered him already, the demon, Count Vikaris, is here. 

Count Vikaris is a lesser emanation of King Paidon, one of the most powerful demons bound in the Myriad Ring. He is a servant of warmth against the winter chill, the winter chill itself, the pleasure, and madness of alcohol. He will find any remotely competent sorcerer who will seek out the Myriad Ring to bind himself to.

Count Vikaris manifests as a horse's skull with red glowing eyes, topped with three lit candles, trailing a long mane of gray hair, with two chicken feet protruding from it. 

He will offer a standard binding contract so long as the binder is working towards the goal of attaining the Myriad Ring.

Count Vikaris is mostly an incorporeal spirit that must make an effort to materially manifest. As per his standard binding contract, these are the services he will provide. The Greater Services will only be performed if offerings are given to the demon on a 1 to 1 basis.

At Will Services:

• Will grab an object up to 5lbs within 50ft like Mage Hand.
• Create a light like a candle flame within 50ft.
• Create a chilly wind or an aura of warmth.

Greater Services:

• Induce drunkenness in all creatures in a 10ft radius within a range of 30ft. Save to resist.
• Create a gale force wind, targets in a 20ft line must Save or be knocked prone.
• Invisibly and incorporeally scout out an area within 200ft of the binder.

Offerings:

• Alcohol worth at least 15gp
• A spell slot

8: The Resting Place of Princess Mera

The body of Princess Mera lies on the altar of this chapel, a grand if somewhat small room with a high arched ceiling, crossed with buttresses, whose heights cannot even be seen in dim light. Icons of saints cover the walls and a glorious icon of the Living One stands beyond the altar. It is the Reunion of all Flesh depicted there as all those who have believed in the Body Imperishable join together with the Living One in perfect horrific unity.

The body of the princess has been here for ages and yet it has not been marked by corruption. She lies pristine, having been chosen for sainthood, and her body will see no decay. If the body can be brought back to her family or to the church of the Living One, it is worth 5000gp. Protecting this body from the darkness of the ceiling is the Hand of Saint Armasius, an enormous, pale, strangely-feminine hand, plated with gold and platinum and embedded with white diamonds.

The Hand will do anything to prevent her body from being touched at all. The Hand cannot be reasoned with even by clerics and knights of the Living Temple. It is single-mindedly devoted to protecting her body. However, if the proper rites are given to the body, the Hand will immediately know and be mollified. At which point, a knight or cleric of the Living Temple can beseech it and it will transform back into a precious relic worth 1000gp. The Hand will also transform this way if it is brought to 0HP. There is another Hand on this level yet, however. 

The Hand of Saint Armasius: +4 Flick (1d6+2, 2 Attacks), 40HP, 12AC, Saves: +6 Mgt, +4 Agl, +3 Mnd. Immune to Holy Magic, Poison, and Acid. SP: Each round, in addition to its Flick, the Hand may choose one of actions, below. At 20HP or less, it may choose two.

Hand of Blessing: All creatures that can see the Hand must make a Mnd Save or their flesh begins to crawl as their own limbs squirm in rebellion, gaining Disadvantage on all rolls requiring control over your own body. If a target fails this Save three times in one day, one of their limbs gains a life of it's own and detaches from their body.

Smack Down: At the end of its combat turn, the Hand takes the form of an upright fist. At the beginning of it's next combat turn, the fist crashes down on everything 10ft in front of it. Everything in the area takes 4d6 damage, Save for half.

Holy Rays: The gems embedded in the Hand fire out 3 Beams. Each target must Save or take 2d6. This power must recharge. Each round the Hand rolls 1d6 and on a 5+, the power recharges.

Dazzling Radiance: All creatures that can see the Hand must Save or be Blinded for one round and be unable to move on their next combat turn.