H4 The Throne of Bloodstone.pdf - Free

14. Fly the Fiendly Skies
Once again, here is a room with
nothing to offer but a pair of doors.
And one of those doors—the one that
appears to lead into room 15—is in
reality a false door. The facade of a
regular door has been mounted on a
smooth stone wall in an effort to
entice intruders into the room.
The reason: a teleport trap that
affects everyone in the room is activated
when the fake door is pushed or
pulled. The trap teleports the characters
to the upper parapet (area 2) and
also notifies Arctigis of the potential
victims awaiting him. The white
dragon will prepare as if the All-
Seeing Eye had spied victims (see the
Arctigis NPC capsule on page 15).
15. Ladder
Standing against the curved outer
wall of this room is a sturdy wooden
ladder. It will radiate magic if a detect
magic spell is used. However, this is
only caused by the effects of Nystul’s
magic aura— it has no effect on characters
(other than, perhaps, to make
them a little worried.) The ladder
climbs 10 feet into the ceiling of the
room, and then another 10 feet
through a narrow shaft in the stone,
before it ends in the floor of the room
above.
16. The Round Room
This huge room fills the entire
diameter of the castle: It is empty.
A round wall seems to mark a
smaller circular room in the center
of this one. Several doors are visible
in the outer wall of the room,
and also in the wall of the round
room in the center of this one.
There are four doors around the
outer wall of the room. Each of these
doors lines up with a door in the cen-
ter of the room. There are strange
runes carved into the surface of each
of the doors.
The runes are intricate, but study
will reveal that the runes on a given
one of the outer doors will match the
runes on one of the. inner doors,
although the match is always with one
of the three doors that does not line
up directly with the outer door. The
outer doors are locked with typical
iron locks, and can probably be
picked by a high-level thief. These
doors will radiate powerful magic if a
detect magic spell is used. There is no
magical effect to the doors if and
when they are opened from inside
this room. They will swing shut, however,
if a character does not hold or
otherwise prop them open.
The magic affects attempts to open
these doors from the outside. In
short, it can’t be done—there are no
doors leading from the outside into
this room. There are false doors at the
top of the stairways leading from the
towers. However, pulling or pushing
on these does nothing but activate a
slide trap on the stairs—and if the
door is pulled, it comes off in the
character’s hand!
The trap, when activated, causes
the stairs to flatten into a long slide.
Characters sliding down end up in the
tower, unless they can make a Dexterity
Check with a -10 modifier. Success
means that they have hurled
themselves off of the slide and will
fall 100 feet to the ground below.
Failure, or no attempt, will slam the
characters into the door to the tower
(for 2d20 points of damage) and will
then deposit them inside the room.
(See the encounters for areas 17-22.)
The inner doors are also locked,
but here the lock is magically
reinforced—it can never be picked. In
addition, the inner doors have a magic
resistance of 100%. The only way
these doors can be opened is with the
27
appropriate keys.
The keys to these doors are kept in
the towers (areas 17-20) outside of the
main keep. The runes on the door
leading out of this room indicate
which key is kept in the tower out that
door.
The keys in towers 17, 18, and 19
open doors that. reveal blank stone
walls—there are no rooms beyond
them. They key in tower area 20
opens the door that actually leads to a
spiral stairway going up.
17. Waiting Pool
This room contains a 12-foot-deep
pool of water than fills the room from
wall to wall. The key to one of the
doors lies at the bottom of the pool: a
gleaming golden device that can be
easily seen if any light is allowed into
the room.
The pool also contains an unnatural
monster, enchanted with the combined
power of Zhengyi and Orcus: a
water weird. This monster is far more
powerful than normal example of its
type.
Water Weird:, AC -4; MV 12”;
HD 18+18; hp 104; #AT 3; Dmg
drowning; SD sharp weapons cause
only 1 point dmg, cold spells slow it,
immune to fire-based attacks, purify
water does 3d20 points dmg; AL CE;
Size L (20’); XP Value 13,840
If the water weird takes damage
equal to its total number of hit
points, it is disrupted for two rounds.
It will form again at full strength on
the third round and be able to attack
that round.
This water weird forms three
heads, instead of the usual one. Characters
struck by the monster must save
vs. paralyzation With a -10 penalty
to their saving throws or be dragged
under water and held there until the
monster is killed or the character dies.