Inside the Pharaoh Fish

The Mouth

Sucking maw (100’ wide, 2’ deep water). Six barbels (waving welcomingly). Oral cavity (echoing, bony lucent plates). Thorn-studded tongue (placid). Throat (dark).

• Boating in the mouth: STR check to row out against the sloshing waters or make no progress on a given turn.
• Smoke or fire: Irritates the fish. Twitch. DEX check or fall (PCs in a boat fall into the water).
• PCs in the water: Smell of flesh attracts symbiotic arachnids (as rhagodessa) from the recesses after 3 rounds. 1d3-1 arrive per round (15 total). Lurk out of melee reach until at least 8 are ready to assault the party. The arachnids follow PCs into the throat.
• Examine walls or tongue: Ageless, studded with old scars. 1 turn searching reveals an old, ornate weapon (100gp) stuck in the tissue. Not the irritation.
• From the throat: A deep smell, like a swamp in full bloom. Water rushes down in a strong current.

The Throat

Sucking gullet (30’ wide, 5’ deep current, water rushing into gills). Gill rakers (toothlike spines to prevent prey’s escape). Gill arches (ten 100’-long boomerang-shaped structures, feathery filaments). Gill slits (opening and closing, 10’ wide, 80’ tall).

• Fight the current: STR check or anchor to avoid being swept into the Stomach. Need ropes to pull boat back into Mouth.
• Exit through gill slits: Exit the God Carp. DEX check to get a boat through without it being damaged by the massive bone plate of the operculum.
• Examine rakers: A fresh scar where an anchor was dislodged.
• Examine gill arches: Two arches stand uncomfortably apart, as though spread by an invisible screw jack 20’ above the gullet floor. Attached to gills: 5 giant leeches feeding comfortably. The fish talks, “Right there. I can feel the foul thing.”
• Remove the leeches: Something is still irritating the Fish.
• Investigate the invisible screw jack: A foul smell of rotting flesh. An invisible thing of leather and sticks is lodged in the gill filaments. Careful removal takes 1 turn.
• Remove the thing: Triggers a collapse check as the God Carp jerks in pain. The God Carp’s telepathic voice then booms, “Ah. That was it! Good! Come out now, for your rewards—and quickly.” The water level inside the God Carp’s mouth and throat begins quickly rising (1’ per round) as it prepares to swim back to the dreaming heart of the world.
• Examine the thing: It’s Vic Torbin, halfing adventurer’s decomposed corpse dressed in the leathern Suit of the Lungfish and wearing the Disvisual Ring. Removing the ring ends the invisibility effect. Vic Torbin probably wanted to prove they were a great burglar like an illustrious relative. Two interlocked sliding bands of titanium engraved with strange numbers, inlaid with red gold. It can be set to three different positions.
• Rotated and locked in one position, it casts invisibility on the wearer at a cost of 1hp damage per watch.
• In the second position, it conjures light on the wearer, as continual light, also causing 1hp damage per watch.
• In the third position, it hums gently, but doesn’t seem to do anything. Dogs and other creatures with very good hearing find the hum annoying. Leathern Suit of the Lungfish Glabrous leathery suit, similar to a janitor’s one piece, with a disconcerting face mask. Provides protection as leather armour +2. The lungfish leather draws oxygen from water, letting its wearer breathe water for up to 1 hour before they have to surface for air.

The Stomach

Ribbed vault (300’ long, 60’ wide, 30’ tall, beating flesh walls). Acidic pool (30’ wide, 10’ deep down the middle of the vault). Glittering treasure beaches (ceramic and gemstone, embedded in scabbed walls).

• In the pool: Three glistening cnidarian symbiotes (as ochre jelly) help the God Carp’s digestion.
• The beaches: A fossilized history of sacrifices to the God Fish stuck in the scabrous stomach lining. Every turn spent searching roll d6: (1) 1d4 iridescent parasitic arachnids (as rhagodessa with 100 gp shell), (2–3) ceramic idol worth 1d6 x 20gp, (4–5) precious metal sacrifice worth 1d8 x 50gp, (6) alien skull with 1d4 gems in its eye sockets (1d6 x 50gp each).

The Intestines

Convoluted tunnels (1,200’ long, 20’ across). Flowing slurry (putrid, 2’ deep). Pulsating walls (contract and relax).

• Navigating the tunnels: Whether walking or using a boat, ½ movement speed in the thick, bacteria-rich slurry.

The Platinum Gate

3.14’ wide orifice (embedded in appendix, a portal from beyond time and space). Platinum controls (levers, knobs, antennae).

• Activating a magic item: (Even a scroll will do.) Jump starts the gate’s alien magic. With a rattling cough, a shimmery gateway opens. It terminates (roll d4): (1) about 100’ below the lake’s surface, (2) about 30’ above the God Carp’s back, (3) 3’ above the lake, about 300’ from the shore, (4) on the opposite shore from where the PCs entered the Great Lake region.
• Using the controls: INT check to figure out how to set the terminus using the gate’s janky control panel.
• Stealing the controls: The PCs can instead steal the platinum controls (400pp), breaking the gate.

The Cloaca

10’ high orifice (sphincter). Tightly sealed (shuddering).

• Opening the cloaca: Requires 1 turn and a successful open doors check. A narrative veil descends to obscure the details of the PCs’ strenuous efforts. They emerge beneath the God Carp, halfway down the length of its body, about 50’ below the lake’s surface.