Dais of Binding
RoomDCC DAYA2 · p.9
Open source p.9Area 1-10 – Dais of Binding
A short series of stone steps rise to a wide stone platform. The dais is scored by deep, intersecting lines chiseled into the stone. A handful of half-melted and toppled candles are set about the platform.
In the very center of the dais is a towering pair of great brass doors, supported between two black marble pillars. Cast in the likeness of howling devils pressing mortals on to their doom, each ominous portal rises nearly 20’ in height.
Characters pausing to count the steps to the dais are not surprised that they are seven in number.
If seen from above, or mapped by the PCs, the lines form the seven-pointed star of Sezrekan. The floor outside the carved sigil is dusty and tracked with dirt; inside the sigil, the stone has been blasted by heat and reduced to black glass. Candles are found at every tip of the seven-pointed star.
Until all seven candles are lit, PCs (and anything else) can enter and exit the magic sigil. Once all the candles are lit, it becomes impossible for any creature, object, or effect to enter or escape the sigil. The sigil remains in effect until the candles burn down (roughly an hour), are toppled, or otherwise extinguished.
Lighting the candles activates the massive brass portals, setting the doors aflame. Heat washes off the doors, and a crimson light blazes from the seams.
The doors remain locked even once the portal is activated. However, a brilliant brass key appears in the lock securing the twin doors. In order to open the portals, the key must be turned seven times, with dire consequences for those failing to heed the clues.
Each time the key is turned in the lock, shades of dead slaves appear outside the magic sigil. Easily mistaken for shadows in the sooty darkness, the shades immediately attack anyone outside the star of Sezrekan. Then the shades hover at the edge of the sigil, howling in hunger for the souls of the living, enraged that the PCs are re-enacting the rites of the wicked Theophages.
The number of shades increases with each turn of the key:
1 turn of the key: 2 shades
2 turns: 4 additional shades (totaling 6)
3 turns: 8 additional shades (totaling 14)
4 turns: 16 additional shades (totaling 30)
5 turns: 32 additional shades (totaling 62)
6 turns: 64 additional shades (totaling 126)
7 turns: 128 additional shades (totaling 254, which are dismissed when the door is opened)
8 turns: 256 additional shades (totaling 510), and so on ...
Attempting to open the doors on any selection other than seven instantly douses the candles, permitting the shades to enter the circle. The howling shades swarm the PCs from all sides, violently dragging their souls from their bodies.
Swift-acting characters can turn back the key from a count higher than seven. Upon reaching the count of seven, the candles reignite, permitting passage through the doorway if the PCs are brave enough to try it. This does not expel the shades from inside the sigil, though the horrors will not follow the PCs through the doorway. Upon the PCs’ return, the party finds that the shades – both inside and outside the sigil – have dispersed.
If the party succeeds in opening the lock, the brass doors swing wide to reveal area 1-11: an open-air throne room high atop a tower in the smoking City of Brass, on the Elemental Plane of Fire.
Battle with the shades: The mindless, howling shades are inefficient in their attacks. Only are able to attack a PC in a given round, and even fewer if the party closes ranks to ward off the horde. However, if the PCs panic, the hungry shades fall on them like spectral wolves.
The icy claws of the shades pass through armor, flesh, and bone to rend and pierce the soul. An attack deals temporary Stamina damage (regained at the rate of 1 point per hour). Any PC reduced to 1 or 2 Stamina collapses unconscious. Characters brought to 0 Stamina are irrevocably slain.
Judge’s note: Even if the PCs (or their players) rightly assume the correct number of turns of the key, judges are encouraged to draw out the counting – calling out the swarming shades and confirming players’ approval before they attempt to open the portal.
The ever-increasing number of shades gathered outside the magic sigil may give even the most confident reaver reason to pause, affording impulsive characters the opportunity to doom the entire party.
Finally, players acquainted with Middle Eastern folktales can be forgiven for assuming that the correct number of turns is 12. Gently remind the players that their PCs have not read One Thousand and One Nights, nor would they be expected to. If their characters still insist on turning the key twelve times and trying the door, the judge should have no qualms slaughtering the party with no less than 8,190 shades.
Shades (var.): Init ; Atk shadow claw melee ( Stamina); AC 10; HD ; hp 1; MV 30’; Act ; SV Fort , Ref , Will ; AL C.