Deep Well Garden
RoomDCC 103 · p.5
Open source p.5Area 1-4 – Deep Well Garden
This garden slopes precipitously down, dropping into a wide shaft overgrown with ferns and other shade-loving plants. At the bottom is a small open area with a humanoid statue, ivy twined about its feet.
Searching reveals an overgrown and very narrow staircase winding around the inner wall to the bottom of this garden.
The statue depicts the wizard Zatharides in a heroic pose, its inscription reading, “By blood and sweat life finds a way.” A stone table graven with deep channels lies at the statue’s feet. The garden itself is lush and plants cover the ground below. A search of the area reveals the bones of several humanoid corpses under the plants near the statue and dried blood (brownish stains) in the channels of the table.
Just behind the statue is a locked iron gate overgrown with ivy, with a narrow, arched passage beyond (leads to a door to area 3-2). PCs searching the ground through the bars of the gate find a canvas purse containing a set of thieves’ tools (as described in area 3-2). PCs also may attempt to force the gate with DC 18 Strength check.
PCs examining the statue may find a hidden compartment with a DC 12 Intelligence check. It contains an obsidian blade and a shallow, silver bowl. A piece of parchment describes a peculiar ritual: “Place a pearl of blackest lustre within a circle of salt in a darkened place. Anoint it with the sweat of your brow and the blood of your veins. Under the fullness of the moons, bleed the sacrifice into a bowl containing a ruby, an emerald, and a blue sapphire. Invoke “Beyond the vertical” three times. Sprinkle a pinch of a charlatan’s bone. Invoke “Beyond the horizontal” twice. Add three teeth from a liar. Invoke “Come the Nameless.” Cut the left palm and add three drops of your blood. Invoke “Let the show begin.”