Tirana's Lair, Part 4 (Gozran (IV) 30th-Desnus 1st (V), 4709 AR)

In addition to the trap, a will-o’-wisp floated invisibly in the the room when the heroes arrived. It was quick to add its malicious shock attacks to the mix, particularly when the party seemed to be overcoming the trap with ease.

Alchemy Lab. The amount of liquid bubbling up through the blue skull is enough to fill up the cauldron at least twice.

The red powdered reagent can only be used once. The paintings on the north wall are a cryptic primer on how the cauldron can be used, although not all the inferred results were desirable.

Alchemical Mixtures. When mixed, the powders and liquids created at least one powerful and dangerous concoction.

Blue Liquid/Red Powder: Alkahest. This fluid was a clear acid incapable of dissolving the cauldron. When the heroes placed the amber-encrusted key in the liquid, the alkahest dissolved the amber, leaving the unharmed key at the bottom of the empty cauldron. The alkahest evaporated as it dissolved the amber. This key activates the Scrying Pool.

Landing. The stairs here lead down through a steep, straight shaft eight feet high and barely wide enough to contain the stairway. The sides and ceiling of the tunnel are bricked with white masonry that matches the steps, giving the overall impression of walking through the inside of an enormous bone. At the bottom, the passage opens up and freestanding stairs descend the final ten feet from the ceiling to the floor. To the south and west run straight passages of the same gleaming stone. The architectural style of this part of the floor is bare and utilitarian.

Steel Apparatus. A large, gleaming steel apparatus takes up the southern half of this room. All over its surface, tubes and cords emerge from sections of the machine’s chassis, only to plunge back into valves elsewhere, and a pair of levers and numberless gauges festoon its metallic bulk. To the west, a spigot protrudes over a rack of empty glass beakers and flasks. In the center of the machine is a large recessed door several feet off the ground, above which glows a small amber light.

Clean Room. The portals on either side of this room are filled with a roaring wind that seems to come from the stones themselves, blowing from north to south through small antechambers. Inside the room itself, two large cylindrical glass tanks stand with conduits running into the ceiling, one filled with swirling orange liquid, the other empty and shattered partway up its face. Several tables and bookshelves stand along the walls. The magical effect placed on both doorways generates a severe wind that ensures incredibly small, flying constructs cannot escape on their own.

Several days ago, the brash leader of the Splitstreet gang thought to explore the dungeon himself and see what choice morsels he could relieve Tirana of without her noticing. Upon arriving in this chamber, he capriciously shattered the empty-looking northern tube, only to be immediately set upon and infected by one of the two imprisoned construct swarms. When the heroes arrived, he was hiding behind the bookshelf, able to pass through the windy portals but waiting for a second host, unwilling to leave behind the other swarm.

The granule construct swarm hid until the heroes completely entered the room. It then burst out and attacked them. The heroes killed it.

When the Splitstreet leader detected the heroes about to enter the lab, he prepared to surprise them. The Splitstreet leader fought savagely in conjunction with the granule construct swarm. The heroes removed the swarm from its host before killing it.

Scrying Pool. This chamber is dominated by a large pool of crystal-clear water in an ornate stone cistern.

The cistern in this chamber is actually a powerful magic item that allows anyone focusing on it to cast scrying at will. There was a locking mechanism constructed on it that required a certain key. The heroes noticed a keyhole wedged between carvings of voyeuristic cherubs on the pool’s southern rim. The key was the one the heroes found encased in amber in the Alchemy Lab.

Upon the key’s insertion, the water in the pool begun swirling rapidly and the surface shifted to matte gray, no longer reflecting the surrounding room. Once one of the heroes begun using it, the center of the pool rose up in a fat pseudopod of water that enveloped their head. From that moment on, the pool operated as a scrying spell, projecting the chosen scene directly into the user’s eyes. During this time, the user had to hold their breath or be able to breathe water in order to keep from drowning. Removing one’s head from the pseudopod in order to breathe caused the pool to reset.

The heroes managed to scry, among others, on Tirana. She was on a flat ledge, pocked in one place by a geyser hissing steam. She was absorbed in some kind of ceremony.

What Lies Beneath. The steady sound of gently flowing water fills this massive underground chamber. In the center of the cavern, a large pool of dark water separates dry shelves of rock to the east and west, with a rotting wooden bridge leading from the eastern shore to a small rocky outcropping jutting from the pool’s surface. To the north, a wooden rowboat bobs slowly within arm’s reach of the eastern shelf.

The ceiling here rises to a height of 20 feet in places, with stalagmites descending almost to the water’s surface in others. The pool itself is 30 feet deep, and the current is lazy.

A black dragon was in this chamber. The black dragon was completely submerged in the middle of the pool. When he detected intruders, he waited for them to enter the water, and then erupted from the deep in a spray of acid.

As soon as two heroes were beneath the surface, the black dragon unleashed his breath weapon. He fought to the death.

At the bottom of the pool rested the black dragon's meager stash of treasure, a +1 keen longsword, a necklace of fireballs type II, 150 pp, and 837 gp.

Temple of Blades. This large cavern is hewn directly from the natural brown rock, its stone floor rough but flat. Above, its ceiling climbs in steps like a ziggurat, angling up to a twenty-foot-high apex. Throughout the chamber, dozens of slender, age-blackened longswords fall from narrow slits in the ceiling, only to be reclaimed by a similar slot in the floor, immediately appearing again at the top. The sound of steel hissing against stone fills the room.

This is the temple of blades, a strange magical location far older than the rest of the complex, as is easily apparent from the weathered stone walls. The swords falling from the ceiling themselves possess no magical power, but rather the chamber is magic. The slots in the ceiling automatically produce the swords every few seconds, and any creature inhabiting this room may take damage. When Tulann examined the niches on the floor he found they are only a foot deep and have no effect on anything other than longswords. Any blade thrust into the hole, however, immediately teleports to the top of the room, where it falls toward the one who put it into the hole. This room is considered rough terrain, and ranged attacks suffered due to the rain of blades’ interference. Between the niches on the floor is scribed an incredibly complex pattern.

This room’s guardian was a vampire. Thanks to his damage reduction, the falling swords had no effect on the vampire.

When the heroes first arrived, the vampire stood serenely in the center of the room, dark cowl up and bearing a matte-black bastard sword covered in glowing runes. Once he spotted the heroes, he immediately dragged them into the room, hissed the word “Welcome,” and attacked.

The vampire had a shimmering, magical field around him that averted and deflected attacks. He made liberal use of his calling and increased gravity abilities, drawing his enemies to him. Prone creatures took double damage from falling swords. This increased gravity remained for a while, requiring everyone in the room to struggle to remain standing. The vampire was immune to this effect. Early on in the fight he tried to ascertain which opponent was the most competent melee combatant. All enemies were attacked without mercy, using his spells and attacks as needed. Unwilling to bargain, the vampire fought to the death. Once slain, he reverted to gaseous form and fled through a hole in the floor of the chamber.