Beyond the Veil
RoomDCC 74 · p.15
Open source p.15Area 2-3a – Beyond the Veil
Faint mists drift about the floor of the small chamber, condensing on the moldy walls and pooling on the flagstones. Moldering cotton sheets hang from rotten wooden shelves set along the walls. In the rear of the chamber a set of worn stone steps rises into the gloom.
The chamber was used to store bodies prior to cremation. The bodies were wrapped in cotton shrouds and doused in thick oil to stave off flies and vermin before being carried to the cremation ovens (areas 2-7a through d).
This terrible place is awash with tormented souls trapped by Moira’s vengeful watch. Clerics innately sense that the souls are unable to pass into the afterlife, but are unable to divine the reason, save that something refuses to allow the souls to pass.
Anyone disturbing the cremation shrouds on the shelves unleashes a seething tide of black beetles. The size of coins, the beetles scurry for cover and darkness, their carapaces cracking underfoot. The beetles are the physical embodiments of trapped souls; close inspection of the ridged carapaces shows that each is uniquely fashioned in the shape of a screaming face. If a PC has died in the course of the adventure, he also has a beetle here, marked with ridges in the likeness of his screaming face.
The cotton shrouds, wooden shelves, and floor are saturated with oil and easily set aflame. Characters caught within the burning chamber suffer damage per round and must make a DC 5 Fortitude save each round or succumb to the smoke. When the check fails, the target is unconscious and suffocating, losing hit points per round. The chamber burns for rounds; the flames do not spread through the charnel house.
PCs ascending the stairs are assaulted from above. Seething purple-black mists issue from within the moldy plaster lining the walls, coalescing into a dense cloud of rolling darkness.
On a successful attack the cloud envelops a target, hoisting him into the air.
Moira, fishwife. Finally, whether or not the
Characters caught up in the cloud can escape with a DC 15 Strength check. On the following round the cloud automatically tears and rends the target for damage. On the third round the PC vanishes, reappearing as a courtier in Ratvik’s Court of the Damned. See area 2-5 for details on the fate awaiting the unfortunate soul.
Subsequent PCs caught up in the cloud are merely cast down to the base of the stairs for damage. Note that PCs carrying torches or lanterns when they are cast back into the chamber accidentally set the chamber aflame.
The cloud dissipates once dealt 45 points of damage. Alternately, the cloud can be dismissed by a cleric succeeding on a DC 30 turn check.
Ossuary Cloud: Init ; Atk grapple melee (condemnation, DC 15 STR to escape); AC 15; HD ; hp 45; MV fly 45’; Act ; SP un-dead traits, immune to non-magical weapons; condemnation (first grappled target: dmg on second round, transported to area 2-5 on third round; subsequent grappled targets: damage as dropped down stairs); SV Fort , Ref , Will ; AL C.