The Ziggurat of the Stairs

Giant ziggurat (750’ tall). Ziggurat ledges (glittering cyclopean stones, harder than steel). Staircase (carved into ledges). Low doorways (carved into ziggurat). Cavern ceiling (cut away, fresh dripstone formations).

• Study ziggurat: Crystallized struts pierce the stone ceiling. Dislodged stones reveal dessicated biology. The ziggurat is an improbably vast creature’s exoskeleton.
• Doorways: Lead to a baroque array of fossilized chambers and organs. Path to Bored tunnels, rubble-choked chambers. Worn ramps, abandoned machines, huddled corpses.

Initial Exploration

(inside Ziggurat)

Void Heart

Offices (near-vacuum, biting cold). Gate chamber (vacuum, ransacked). Star gate (diaphanous membrane).

• Offices: Behind pressure doors. 1 turn to enter each office. Roll d6: (1) 1d4 dehydrated corpses, (2) arcane paperwork, (3) crumbling artefacts, (4) 2 small treasures (page 7), (5) 100gp in obsidian beads, (6) 1d4 dehydrated zombies.
• Examine star gate: Sealed by epic magics. Mind echoes of harsh stars and void whales.

Further Exploration

(inside Ziggurat)

Holy Laboratories

Exhibition wards (echoing, long). Preserved void creatures (behind waning force-walls, memories of torment). Operating theatres (chains, gurneys). Cellars (funereal).

• Access void creatures: Dispel magic nullifies force-walls. Collect specimens: 1 watch, 1d6 x 1,000gp, summon 1d4+1 shadows. 10% chance specimen is undead (as warp beast).
• Cellars: Disturbing sculptures, strange glyphs, 64 corroded doors (warning glyphs).
• Open corroded door: 10% chance of a grey ooze. Vats, boxes, jars holding (roll d6): (1-3) acid (1,000gp, 50 flasks worth), (4) transmuted gold (5,000gp, poison to the touch), (5) lead (100gp), (6) inert grey ooze (1,000gp, 5 pressurized canisters).

Regional Challenges

6. Packaged mummy: Quake smashes open a sarcophagus. A mummy falls out. 7. Grey ooze patch: Furnishings, 1d4 small treasures (page 7), and ceiling coated in the stuff (2d4 grey oozes 8. Ziggurat doctors: Time flickers, and 1d4 ape-folk in white lab coats (as white ape) appear, determined to preserve the ziggurat. 9. Settling layers: Ziggurat shifts. Stairs become cliffs, floors become ramps. The region is treated as unexplored again.

Collapse

1. Ziggurat shudders. Crystalline eyes open in walls. It lives! +d6 to collapse checks. 2. Parts of the ziggurat lift into the void through a 4th dimension. Save vs spells or fall 1d6 x 10’. +d6 to collapse checks. 3. The remaining ziggurat disappears into itself, leaving a 1000’ cavity. ).