S13 - The Plateau Ruin Session 3

## Story Notes - Where the Story Needs to Go

* So far, the story has been a series of smaller adventures, first the journey to Al-Anwahr, followed by an adventure in the city of Sokkar, the city of glass. Following a chance meeting with a thief named Aesir and his treasure map, the adventure took them to Qadib, where they did an odd job, investigating a haunted house. The party have since traveled to the ruin to the east of Qadib.

### What do I want the story to be?

* This story is ultimately an Arabian nights adventure, so exoticism, wonder, and mysticism are where it's at. In terms of tone I would like to preserve a lighter adventure tone, though ultimately the nature of the campaign's backstory is grim, and there should be room for that also. Perhaps if the primary mechanics in the story are more serious or dramatic, but are not concentrated into all minute-to-minute gameplay, similar to something like Pirates of the Carribean.
* What I had in mind was to focus the story around the fallen empire of the Kusan, and to reveal them as the originators of mankind and other races, as well as their fall being caused by the baks they created for slave labor, and that the baks are returning.

### So how do we Make that Happen?

* So far, the players are in a Kusan magic facility that was one of many containing the pods that the first humans were grown in. This facility was a secret one, and while it was overrun in the early days by baks, it was never found by the Awakener, and thus the pods were never opened. The magi who ran this facility was a recluse Master, whose corpse is at the bottom of the dungeon.
* If the party activates the dungeon using the tablet (Sirenna will tell Artamir that it's acting up if she has it and he goes near the terminal), Sirenna will be able to interface with the terminal. Here she will effectively download information from the old Empire, learning the Kusan language and its recorded history. She will also learn of how the Kusan fell, the uprising of the bak and a horde of giant insects.
* Soon, a djinn named Udasfef will appear before the party. He will congratulate them on their actions, and give some explanation to what just happened, that this facility was immune to Amenuahsu's attempt to destroy the Shabakat, the archives of the magi (when he mentions Amenuahsu by name, Sirenna will have a flashback to a masked Kusan man, softly apologizing to her, the last thing she saw before losing her memory. She will have a tear rolling down her face as she recalls this.). He will explain the baks in this facility as being safely contained since their uprising (he is telling a half-truth, they are trapped, but he will try and trick the players into releasing them). He will reveal that the Shabakat is the network that links all major Kusan holdings, and could be the key to bringing back their civilization at its height.
* Udasfef is the only Djinn who has retained his memories since the Awakener's work, has been corrupted in the last few thousand years, due to close proximity to the baks, who he came to sympathize with, due to his similar status as a slave to the Kusan. His current goal is to trick the players into reconnecting the Shabakat, which will reactivate the network of Kusan ruins, and reawaken the bak. This will allow him to have the bak consume his master's corpse, and he intends to be given a body through bak reproduction, a powerful magi body he can control, thus winning his freedom.

### What Actually ARE the Bak?

* The bak, in their **original** state, were amorphous flesh creatures, that were created and used by the Kusan for a variety of slave labor purposes, given both their resilience and their versatility. They were controlled using orbs (or "cores") inside them that they are bound to, in the same way Djinn are bound to a vessel. Over time, the bak developed sentience, and learned how to reproduce, creating insectoid creatures (which will henceforth be referred to as drones for the sake of convenience). The bak slowly grew in power, killing and assimilating the strengths of their victims, and turned against their Kusan masters. Their revolution took years, but was made more certain when the bak assimilated magi.
* The bak completely **destroyed the Kusan** race and civilization. While there may have been other survivors, there is only one who lives on in memory, a magi named Amenuahsu, known to history and myth as "Almustayqiz", "the Awakener". He spent years secretly journeying to fix the problem, eventually finding the wish-granting djinn, and wished for the destruction of the Shabakat (the magical connections and records of the Kusan, basically their network and internet). This shut down the bak completely, rendering them mindless and mostly inert. The drones simply became mindless insects, either dying off or devolving into modern giant insects. He also journeyed throughout the land activating the dormant humans and other races who were manufactured in pods by the Kusan. This is why he is referred to by so many cultures as the Awakener.
* There are bak **mothers** or queens, who are amorphous flesh creatures. Individually, they are the most dangerous. They are capable of changing their form to reflect their current needs, and possess a low level of sentience. Even with a human-level of sapience, they are insane. They possess great intelligence, and can telepathically influence any drones within a certain distance (about a city's distance). She can also feed on any organism to learn desirable traits from it, and reproduce it in her offspring.
* The offspring of the mothers, the drones, have a wide variety of insectoid forms; some like giant ants, or spiders or centipedes, etc, and others still like humanoids, like tri-kreen, or just strange insectoid abominations in general. They only possess an animal level of sentience, but are highly intelligent (think xenomorphs). They can't self-actualize of philosophize or ponder morality, but they can very easily copy or develop tactics or solutions to problems in front of them, learning how to make formations, use weapons, avoid strategic traps, trick enemies, etc. Where they encounter a new type of creature, they will attempt to kill it, and take its corpse to the mother for her to feed and assimilate, enabling further evolution of the bak.

### What's the Deal with the Humans in Pods?

* The Kusan were in the process of manufacturing humanoid creatures to provide slave labor, much cheaper than the bak. They were later hoped to serve as a means of replenishing the population due to the infestation of the bak. This would ultimately not come to pass, as even the humans created this way died with the rest of the Kusan. The Awakener, following his destruction of the bak and the Kusan's history, journeyed throughout the land, seeking out hidden temples containing yet unused pods, and proceeded to awaken the humans and other races.

## Kusan Ruin - Interior

I will be using the Erdea Manor (Erdea Manor | Dyson's Dodecahedron (dysonlogos.blog)) as a basis, though I will remove the extra levels. The building once belonged to a Kusan Master, who lived as a recluse and performed experiments here.

I will also be replacing the enemies that are normally here with gnolls instead of ogres, and changing the treasures around. This ruin should provide a horde's worth of wealth.

### Dungeon Condition - Inactive

* The ruin will be filled with golems that are inactive at this time.
* The entire building will be dark, though there are ever-burning lamps that are inactive.
* Despite being cut off from ventilation, the dungeon has no odor of death trapped inside.
* The players will notice that sounds echo very strongly in this dungeon, for the walls, ceiling and floors are made from copper.
* All doors are locked, requiring force, a key, or some other means of getting through. There are sigils on the doors, indicating a badge that is necessary to open the door.
* There are several chambers in which there are rows of many, many people in glass coffins. They are seemingly asleep.
* There is a final chamber containing a robed figure sitting on a throne, an orichalcum helmet concealing his face. His body, mostly exposed, seems to be made from some kind of chiton (MAYBE). In front of the figure, there is a sphere about the size of a baseball sitting on a pedestal. If the slate comes within 10 ft of it, the slate will give a signal, unknown to the players, that it is connecting to the sphere. If the players mess around with the slate, the sphere will activate, and so will the dungeon.

### Dungeon Activation

* If the dungeon activates, the rooms will become brightly lit by ever-burning lamps.
* The doors will be able to be opened using the badge-keys, as will lockers within. This will make loot more accessible.

## Rooms

#### 8. Entrance

The room is cold, dark and empty, like pretty much every room in this dungeon. The room is spacious, and contains some benches along the copper walls. There are faded murals along the walls. Kusan text can be barely made out, as well as images, potentially of magi in golden masks, and strange buildings, as well as stars.

#### 6. Worship Room

There is an alter in here. The room is completely abandoned, save for a corpse of a man in rags, prostrate at the feet of a statue of a man whose head has been removed (it was made of gold and the gnolls took it)

#### 9. Storage

This room was used for storage ages ago. A few shattered barrels are all that remain of the stores kept here for sieges and disasters. There is also a makeshift bridge for getting over the spikes between rooms 8 and 9.

#### 10. Wolf Pen

Vera’s pet wolves are being kept in this room. Seven wolves (the eighth is with Vera) are chained to the wall, but the stakes holding the chains are purposefully weakly mounted so the wolves can break free if very excited or in combat. The corridor to the south slopes downward at a 20 degree angle. There are corpses and skeletons of humans scattered among them.

There is a sigil carved into the wall. If a special ring is touched to it, a bridge will cover the water between rooms 10, 11, and 12.

#### 11. Garden

Between rooms 10 and 11, there is a pool of frigid water. The gnolls have been using it as drinking water.

The garden at the end of the pool is dead, containing a dead tree and some reclining benches. There are remains of artworks along the walls, of stars and auroras, as well as glades and flowers.

There is a

#### 12. Chambers

There is a sigil carved into the wall. If a special ring is touched to it, a bridge will cover the water between rooms 10, 11, and 12.

This room was a bedroom, and contains ancient clothes (all rotten save for a perfectly preserved skirt (enchanted to grant he wearer adv. on dex saves). There are statues along the walls, and a marble floor. There is a bookshelf with scrolls inside, all written in Kusan. There are scrolls of *levitation, pass without trace,* and *fireball* among the scrolls.

#### 14. Trapped Entry

The obvious descent from the entry area, room 14 was trapped by some previous tenants and the Ogres have avoided it. A pressure plate covers a ten-foot length of the room extending from one alcove to the other. Anyone weighing over 30 pounds stepping on this 40 x 10 area will likely trigger the trap (1-4 on 1d6). When triggered, a cold sleeping mist blasts into the room from both walls, accompanied by a loud whistling sound. Living beings within the room must save versus poison or be knocked unconscious for 1d4+1 turns. The whistling sound will also attract the attention of anyone alive in rooms 10, 17, and 19 (change rooms).

The room looks to be a large meeting cabinet, with tables and chairs, and statues along the walls. The statues are fixed in position and will not trigger the trap if the players were to mount them.

#### 15. Secure Entry

In an effort to control the flow of ogres into the dangerous lower areas of the manor, Vera and Jubal have tried securing this room, at least making it very noisy for anyone to proceed. A collection of furniture has been piled up against the western door which opens into this room. Anyone pushing through from the west side will need to push the pile of furniture out of the way using the door, while those wanting to open it from inside the room will have to move the furniture first. If the players are not careful, there is a heavy piece of debris that will fall on a player here, requiring a dex save.

In the middle of the room there is a small pile of burned debris from a fairly recent camp fire. The small room to the south was being used by the dwarves to store supplies and has been thoroughly ransacked, with wrecked barrels and crates littering the floor and only a couple of pickaxes left.

#### 16. Descent

A small alcove is at the top of a set of very well made copper steps twisting down into the depths. Jubal’s second quasit (known as Lilis) is stationed here (invisible), waiting for Vera to return whereupon he will alert Jubal and assist in killing her. However, if the quasit sees adventurers descending these stairs, he will follow them instead of maintaining his vigil, assuming that the adventurers have already ruined Jubal’s plans. He will follow them until they encounter Vera and will then attempt to assist them in fighting her. He will then return to his invisible state and wait for opportunities to make the adventurer’s lives miserable – setting off traps, interrupting sleep (and spellcasting), and attracting the attention of monsters.

#### 17. Great Hall

These rooms served as a great hall in the original manor and are currently home to Jubal, a particularly nasty piece of work for a gnoll. A year ago he split his dark and twisted soul into three pieces – one that he keeps himself, and two that have split off into smaller little “essences of Jubal” that he calles Lilis and Oaso (and that are, for all intents and purposes, Quasits). The room is divided into three segments – a slightly secluded cabinet, a grander hall, and the kitchen. On the table in the great hall currently, there an open book and a massive and ornate iron lantern. Oaso is in this room, standing (invisibly) on the pulpit trying to make sense of the book. If the characters are stealthy enough he will flip the page and give away his presence (or at least make it look like the book is reading itself). He’ll scream to alert Jubal before trying to mess with the adventurers. Unlike Lilis, Oaso is very vicious in his tactics, attacking directly and going for the throat. The book is the Tome of Cruel Lies, which details many curses and also empowers any spellcaster that has studied it for a month, making their Bestow Curse spell more potent. Resisting the curses bestowed by someone who has mastered this material is more difficult (-2 on saves) and if using the random curse tables, the caster rolls twice and picks the best result. (I'll work out the details later).

#### 18. Office

Jubal has converted this office of the Master who lived here into his headquarters. The room is lit by a dozen candles and is decorated with the intestines of several slain humans. Jubal is a dark and twisted gnoll, oversized with some spellcasting ability. He can cast Bane (the opposite of Bless), Protection from Good, and Fear, each once per day as a level 4 cleric. His massive staff with dangling skulls and feathers makes the targets of his fear spell save at a -2 penalty. The magical charms on the staff can be transferred to a smaller staff or similar weapon, allowing the magical benefit to be passed on to smaller spellcasters. Jubal also has a trunk under his makeshift bed containing 1,000 gp and a wand of magic detection with 14 charges.

#### 19. Gnoll Quarters

Orthur, Jubal and Vera’s lieutenant, is based out of these rooms along with whatever ogres he has in his company at the time. Currently the main room has one gnoll in it attaching new spiky things to his rock on a rope, while Orthur is in the back room wishing that Jubal and Vera would get along. Both will react to any loud noise coming from areas 14, 15 or 20.

This room connects to another part of the chamber and a storage room full of human corpses.

##### 20. Tavern

This area was once used as emergency living quarters for the original family, but was more recently converted into a small tavern by the recent gnoll inhabitants. A prolonged search of the area, digging through the ruined furnishings and casks will find a Kusan weapon – a *quarterstaff of repelling* (on a hit, the creature must succeed on a Strength saving throw (DC 13), or be pushed 5 ft away from you. If it rolls below 10, it is pushed 10 ft away from you and falls prone. The creature has advantage on the save it the staff is not wielded in two hands). This room connects to a kitchen and a lavatory.

##### 24. Great Hall

Containing access to both level 3 and level 1, the great hall is currently home to a very angry troll in broken manacles who is waiting for the return of Vera who he assumes must return via this route. The hall exiting on the northwest end of the hall has a noticeably foul scent emanating from it.

##### 25. Guard Room

Now abandoned, this room contains the wreckage indicating that it once housed at least a half dozen people with beds, a table, and other furniture.

##### 26. Mossy Chamber

This chamber (and the one beyond it) is quite damp from water leakage from the nearby well shaft. The walls and floor of this chamber are covered in “leafy” fungal growths, despite the metal walls. None are harmful, and they show signs of being harvested by other creatures living in the area. There are 3 barely dressed humans who are attempting to hide in here, who will run if spotted.

##### 27. Screaming Fungi

This chamber once contained stored food supplies in piled wooden crates. Now these crates are nearly completely overwhelmed with fungi. Amongst the fungi is a colony of 6 shriekers.

##### 28. Smashed Room

The door to this room has been quite recently smashed open and blood spatters commence in the room proper and trail off towards area 24. The room reeks of offal and rotten meat – the remnants of meals eaten by the troll who waits for Vera’s return in area 24. An open chest indicates that there was once treasure here too. There are difficult to find remains of humans and a gnoll that were not eaten by the troll.

##### 29. Pungent Gnoll Turf

This section of the level is occupied by a group of gnolls who have taken shelter here from the underground river below. They have cloths plugging their noses and are covered in a pungent slop that repels the troll outside (If within 30 feet of one of these gnolls, must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution save or be Poisoned (affects saves as well) for 10 rounds. Creatures that successfully save cannot be affected by the same troglodyte’s stench for 24 hours. A delay poison or neutralize poison spell removes the effect from the sickened creature. Creatures with immunity to poison are unaffected, and creatures resistant to poison receive their normal bonus on their saving throws). The burned stump of a troll’s arm is nailed to the door as a warning. The room itself is empty and stripped of all furnishings.

There are jars of pungent slop around the room, should players wish to make use of them.

##### 30. Alcoves

The hall here has several shallow alcoves along it. A single gnoll is on guard at each of the three alcoves as well as in front of the doorway to area 31. Their foul stench should give them away, but it is so overwhelming in this hall that their camouflage (painted) still gives them a good chance at a surprise round. When starting combat, they will call out to their kin.

##### 31. Den of Stink

A dozen gnolls live in this room, along with their food, a store of drinking water, and immeasurable stench. The leader of this clan wears a pair of platinum bracers worth 1,200 gp each, and two of his warriors are wearing a necklace and a ring respectively worth 800 and 600 gp. The troglodytes are unaware of the secret door between this room and area 36. However, Vera has discovered it and will rush through it as soon as a fight with some runaway humans is over, attempting to catch the survivors weakened and confused (unless she has already been taken care of in area 36).

##### 32. Family Quarters

These three rooms were once the apartment of a part of the family unwilling to live in the manor above due to rampant paranoia and a propensity towards dark magics. This room was used to house servants of those living in areas 33 and 34. The furniture is long destroyed, but a 1 foot diameter crystaline hemisphere juts out of the northeast corner of the room at waist height. Rubbing the hemisphere creates an unseen servant that follows the orders of the person rubbing the hemisphere for 1 hour. It doesn’t, however, indicate this to the person rubbing the object, so most never notice that they have a magical butler to help them. The hemisphere cannot be removed from the wall without destroying the enchantment (maybe reconsider). The door to area 34 is locked.

##### 33. Dark Chamber

The walls of this room are covered in a masonry completely unlike that throughout the rest of the building. The walls are a rough dark stone tiles held together with nearly black jointing. Four shadows still lurk here, but will not pursue out of the room. The door to area 34 is locked.

##### 34. Humans in Bedchamber

This sealed chamber contains a massive bed, a table, a desk, a variety of chairs and bookshelves. Sleeping on the bed, under the covers are a pair of humans, as well as one sleeping under the desk and a third walking along a bookshelf. When the door is opened, the one at the bookshelf will alert the others, and all will attempt to flee, attacking the players if it seems necessary.

##### 35. Carrion

The door to this room has been smashed from the frame, and the remains of a pair of very recently slain humans are slowly oozing their blood across the floor. Any loud noise in this room will alert Vera in area 36.

##### 36. Vera

Vera, a gnoll leader, has just finished looting this room, having found and looted a secret storage box hidden in the north wall. Vera also has the abilities of a level 5 thief. If she is alerted to activity in areas 35 or 31, she will attempt to move silently to attack her foes from behind, trying for a backstab on her first attack. Her favourite wolf, “Fang”, is also with her. Vera wears a ring of protection +1 and a carries a sack containing 1,000 gp and 4,000 sp.

##### 37. Red Alcove

The masonry in this alcove is of a reddish rock, although of immediate importance to anyone entering the room is the Rust Monster trying to remain unnoticed.

There is a hole in the wall, leading into a tunnel network used by the rust monster. This series of tunnels is extremely difficult to navigate, but ultimately leads to a generic cavern where the creature lives, as well as to the gnoll caves.

##### 38. Store Room

This locked room was used for storage by a resident assassin. Undisturbed these long years, it still contains crates of extremely rotted food (players exposed to it must succeed a 13 constitution save or gain Sewer Plague), a barrel of old ale, and a collection of daggers, short swords and arrows. A wooden shelf on the far wall from the entrance holds a set of bottles. Most are useless, though they can give diseases. Of the usable ones, two are generic poison, one is a blinding poison. There is a knife enchanted to deal 1d4 poison damage.

##### 39. Cellar

Once filled with rows of bottles of wine, everything here is ruined and the place has been turned into a nest for 3 Giant Weasels.

##### 40. Armory

This room's door has not been opened and is locked, requiring a difficult check to open. It contains weapons and armor of immense value as well as magic items, including:

* Various +1 weapons and armor
* Immovable Rod
* Power Pole but a Spear
* Sword of Gales (can propel the user 10 feet in any direction when used in an attack. Can be used to remove 10 ft of falling)
* Shield of Gliding (can be used to glide distances (descending 5 ft for every 30 ft horizontal traveled)
* Helmet of the Possum (once per day, on command at any time, causes the user to become invisible for 1 minute, and creates an illusion of your dead body where you were when you activated the helmet)
* Helm of Telepathy
* Spear of Wounding (damage can only be healed by a rest)
* Sword of Life-Drain (when dealing damage with this sword, gain that damage in temporary hit points, or 1d6 temporary hit points, whichever number is lower. You can gain 2d6 temporary hit points on a crit.)
* Censor of Lightning
* Amulet of

## On the Road

Potential Random Encounters:

* Overnight, a fellow traveler sneaks away to seek ingredients for paint. He wants to paint the landscape with the landscape, and surprise his wife with it. A player may be able to help him look, perhaps finding something in the process.
* There will be a river that has overflowed, and is flooding a small town.
* Hippos lying in wait near water.
* A man can be spotted drowning.
* There is a dwarf traveling alone. He was exiled and his face scarred by the Sky Scorpion Tribe, after he killed the tribe headman to avenge his sister. The dwarf accepts his banishment, and intends to live out his days in solitude. He will be found building a shelter, but requires more supplies. If the players help, he will reward them by showing them how to make the shelter, provided you have the materials (this makes the required survival check 10, and failure causes a success with problems, barring crit fails).