Slough and Grate
RoomDCC 74 · p.14
Open source p.14Area 2-2 – Slough and Grate
A trough of dark sewage runs down the center of the alley. The sewage runs beneath a stone arch, threading an enormous grate that spans the width of the entire alley. A single door reinforced with iron bands exits the alley to your right.
Show the players handout A. The door to area 2-3 is locked but readily picked (DC 13). The door bursts open from within, accompanied by a thundering shout: “Be gone!” PCs standing before the door must succeed on a DC 15 Reflex save or take damage and be knocked back into the slough.
The slough of sewage runs beneath the grate to area 2-4. PCs willing to brave the filth can slip beneath the gate, but see below for complications to those disturbing the trough. Exceptionally strong PCs can bend apart the iron bars with a DC 20 Strength check, permitting passage.
PCs disturbing the slough awaken the tormented spirits that saturate the charnel pits. Phantom blue skeletal hands erupt from the slough, seizing characters and hauling them beneath the fetid waters. Characters seized by the skeletal hands can catch hold of the iron grates with a DC 15 Strength check, but a second DC 17 Strength check, made either by the PC or his allies, is necessary to break free of the phantom hands.
Those failing to escape by the end of the second round vanish over the lip of the charnel pits (area 2-4), only to reappear as courtiers in Ratvik’s Court of the Damned. See area 2-5 for details on the fate awaiting those unfortunate souls borne away by the phantom hands.
Phantom Skeletal Hands (10): Init ; Atk grapple melee (); AC 12; HD ; hp 7 each; MV 30’; Act ; SP undead traits, condemnation (on second round of grapple, DC 17 Str check or transported to cloth doll confinement in area 2-5); SV Fort , Ref , Will ; AL C.