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Tumíssan Underworld – Map 3
🕑 Added 2023-04-13 15:29:25 +0000 UTCI’m still trying to keep up with the two #Dungeon23 projects I started – here’s the third zone of the Tumíssan underworld (set directly beneath the second and extending far deeper under the city).
3-1 Landing
This small landing on the way down around the the Mouth of Vimúhla contains a small altar decorated with the conical flame image of the deity and a smaller pair of square braziers. The stone door is tightly jammed and requires significant strength to open (and will produce significant noise).
3-2 The Mouth of Vimúhla
The shaft in the middle of this chamber looks up to the level above and then widens into multiple levels extending below. The stonework on the walls and floor of this level show a thin layer of a fungal growth that seems to be coming up from below. Scraping it or trying to collect it will result in exposure to sagún spores with potentially lethal results – further, this mutation of the sagún fungus can trigger massive allergic reactions – anyone who fails a save against the spores is indeed allergic to the fungus and must make the same save every time they come in contact with the fungus, even without producing the spores. The mould does not spread to the secret door in the south wall – it doesn’t make the door too obvious, but opening the door will not scrape up any of the fungus.
3-3 The White Antechamber
The walls of this chamber are not stone, but an off-white ceramic with an orange stripe 2 hói (about ten inches) tall on each wall (and the back of the door) at a height of one dáiba (4.5 feet) off the floor. This pattern continues into room 4 and will be repeated in various formats in the lower chambers of the Mouth of Vimúhla. The door to the west is locked by three bolts on each side and can only be opened with magic or by destroying it.
3-4 Last Watch
A solitary Shédra (flesh-eating undead) of incredible age has stalked this space for untold years and is quick to fall upon any who breach this chamber. It wields an ancient steel sword of very strange make and shape – the weapon is a +1 sword, but the strange shape and balance also applies a -1 penalty to hit (resulting in a +0 to hit, +1 to damage). The Shédra’s strange almost skintight uniform (in the same white and orange as the walls) bears three small gems on the lapel – a minor hoard.
3-5 The Throat
The stairs end at a door that opens onto a ten foot wide flatform around the much wider shaft from here down. The walls are again off-white, stained by the fungal growths, and have diagonal stripes of orange similar to a barber pole. The fungal growth is streaky and alive on this level, extending along the ceiling to reach the shaft hole to the level above. If the first of the two doors to 3-6 is opened, a sound like a person hammering against the next door with their fists will be heard.
3-6 The Illusion Master
A hideous six-foot-long mass of black tentacles is within, but this Tsú’uru will use telepathy and hypnosis to maintain the illusion that it is a minor human priest of a temple the players are friendly with who got locked in here running from some fungal monstrosity. The room contains a massive deactivated Ru’ún with a heavy radiation- and blast-resistant carapace. It has been without power for untold centuries, but could be restarted with 3 charges from a Thoroughly Useful Eye.
3-7 Second Tier
This tier is even more infested with the fungal growth, especially around the four five-inch-wide ‘columns’ that extend from floor to ceiling that emit a wan yellow light. The mezzanine ends at a ladder leading down further…
3-8 Slime on the walls
The fungal growth is now heavy and conceals much of the off-white walls, having even discoloured the seemingly impenetrable ceramic if scraped off. The ladder from 3-7 goes past a narrow walkway of the same white material that has crumbled under some incalculable impact. With the slime on the walls and walkway, getting to the doorway here can be quite the challenge – doubly so for those allergic to the mould.
3-9 Fungal Controls
The slime trails around the door to this area and rapidly becomes a thick mat of almost plant-like substance. The chamber at the bottom of the stairs is completely overrun with the stuff and a pair of sagún (shambling mound-like creatures) will emerge from the mass when the chamber is disturbed. Should they be slain and the chamber cleared, the alcove in the west wall allows one to see through the ceramic of the mouth of Vimúhla’s walls into the shaft as if through thick glass. The east wall has three strange altar-like structures under the fungal mass – actually auxiliary readouts for the Mouth of Vimúhla, long ruined by the fungal infestation.
3-10 Meson Release System
The centre of this chamber (80 feet below the level above, a full 175 feet below the mouth in 2-3) is a 40-foot tall pillar that emits the same yellowish glow as the platform on 3-7. A further 30 feet below the floor of this chamber is a water-filled shaft – the water infiltrated by the fungal goo and thus glowing a deep green from the yellow light and the fungus. This shaft extends downwards another hundred feet. Embracing the pillar is another sagún embedded in the fungal mass.
3-11 Friendly Guards
Strangely deep beneath the city, a pair of Srámuthu (strange insect creatures that secrete a human-looking shell around themselves) watch for those entering from the shaft to the west. They venture into area 3-10 to harvest fungus to eat as they are immune to the sagún spores and are so far beneath the city that they don’t have easy access to nice, tender, edible humans. They will greet adventurers with joy and rapid chatter, explaining that they’ve been trapped down here for years living off of the fungus. They suggest that they have a cure for sagún infections back with their family in 3-12 and try to escort adventurers there.
3-12 The Jolly Strangers
Another 8 Srámuthu are here and will gladly greet adventurers, offering food, drink, and then murder. One bears an Amulet of Ebon, granting change-aligned wearers a +2 bonus on saving throws vs spells.
3-13 Access Tunnels
Both of these tunnels head east and upwards into the middle levels of the Tumíssan underworld. However, a hum can be felt through the stone and walls coming from the south, towards 16.
3-14 Slaughter
The door to 3-15 has “GO AWAY” painted on it in some black stain. The lower tier leading up to the door has multiple bloodstains and ichor trails with obvious shén (massive lizard-folk) footprints through them where some shén adventurers tore apart a number of Srámuthu. The bones of one shén are tucked into the northeast corner, completely stripped of flesh and blood.
3-15 More of the Same
The door is barred – when breached (or the inhabitants negotiated into opening the door), the five people within look hurt and distraught and will immediately warn the party of the Srámuthu to the north. The five are of course more Srámuthu and will fall upon the party at the first opportunity.
3-16 Maintenance & Power Run
The five half-columns along this hall are humming with power, capacitors for the meson cannon that is The Mouth of Vimúhla. The ceramic door to the south is definitely where the humming is coming from and leads to the power plant that still powers the cannon should someone figure out how to use it. (This leads to next month’s map)
3-17 Main Library
The lower level of this ancient library (sitting directly below 2-23) is scattered with bits of paper and parchment, stonework fallen from the mezzanine above, and is partially collapsed. The whole space feels “sketchy” and at risk of collapse. An encounter in 2-23 will likely extend into this area as well.
3-18 Explorers of the Arcane
Two fourth level sorcerers of Hrü’ü and their three third level warrior companions are here seeking secrets from the old library. They will remain quiet if there’s activity in 3-17, trying to avoid trouble. One has an Eye of Rising Above All with 17 charges, and one of the warriors has a Sling +1. There is a roaring sound like a distant demon or perhaps a great waterfall coming from the shattered holes in the east wall – area 3-22 is about six feet higher than this chamber and requires some climbing over loud rubble and masonry to get through the holes to that area.
3-19 Old Archives
The three stone book shelves here are empty, with bits of broken chlen hide chains showing where the codices were once locked up. Pulling down the most northern one of the three will uncover an ancient tome long lost behind it. It is water damaged and difficult to read – requiring a successful check against intelligence and several days to read through (although it is fortunately translated to a relatively modern Tsolyáni). It is a copy of the treatise of Korúnkoi hiSsánu hiMissúma – The Book of the Dance of Death (see Empire of the Petal Throne for more information). The book is also home to a number of incredibly small but hungry invisible bookworms. The reader must save vs spells or they will move from the book to them and will then consume any scrolls and other books they possess – the same occuring if the book is mixed with other documents before being read.
3-20 Antechamber
Bits of rotten furniture are scattered around the edges of this two-tiered chamber. The stairs to the east lead up to 2-27.
3-21 Eaters of the Dead
A dozen scuttling Kurgha are in this room and the passage to the east, searching for easy pickings from those who would venture into the underworld. The passage to the east goes to ruined temple basements and other old infrastructure of the underworld.
3-22 Lost Hall
This mostly collapsed hall has mosaics dedicated to the dark trinity of Hrü’ü, Ksárul and Sárku along the walls where they haven’t fallen to the floor. At the south end is a door held slightly ajar by rubble, and beyond that a fully collapsed passage. If the door is disturbed, a very small Aqáà (an accordion-shaped worm only 20 feet long – still easily big enough to swallow a person) will lunge out of the rubble to secure a free meal.
3-23 Empty Chamber
The massive 10′ square pillar in the centre of the room is painted bright orange and yellow. The door to the west is sealed with water that was transmuted to stone. The roaring to the north is louder here.
3-24 Pillars of Eyes
The doors to this chamber are both sealed with water that was transmuted to stone. The nine remaining pillars in this room each have a 3 inch gap at Tsolyani eye level – so they do not extend unbroken from floor to ceiling. In the gap of a few of them remains an old dried flesh-and-“blood” eyeball from various creatures. The eyes are slightly larger than a human eye, but bear the same general physiology. The two tables atop the elevated section at the back of the room have carvings of eyes in a variety of positions and styles cut into them, but no text. Three of the remaining eyeballs have no magical power remaining, but the two retain some power. The one in the pillar at the back left of the chamber can be crushed to grant the wielder the ability to see invisible and see other planes for one hour. The one in the central pillar can be eaten to render the consumer immune to petrification for 1d6+1 hours, or crushed into a foe of human size or smaller to petrify them as the spell. Handling any of these eyes has a 1 in 6 chance of bringing down the pillar that it was within, requiring a save vs paralysis to avoid taking 2d6 damage. There is a further 1 in 6 chance that this will bring down all the pillars in the chamber, crushing the remaining eyeballs and dealing 3d6 damage to everyone in the room (save vs paralysis to reduce the damage by half).
3-25 Peeking Chamber
This room contains various rotting junk and debris of old furniture and moldy piles of folded curtains. One curtain blocks the alcove to the south containing a tiny little dais barely big enough for a child and a peephole into chamber 24 (although that room is unlit as it stands). The roaring from 3-31 is evident from here.
3-26 Chamber of the Jade Demon
The floor of this large chamber has a mosaic of a demonic figure wreathed in green flames. The tiles are jade and are worth a moderate hoard if collected and sold, but three times that if properly collected and documented to their placement for another temple of Vimúhla to use them. Directly over the central (third) eye of the demon is a massive pile of fairly fresh Ahoggyá dung. The five tiles representing the “navel” of the demon conceal a small trap that sprays up a cloud of oil in the 10 x 10 space above it (which will ignite if there is open flame present).
3-27 Temple Understructure
Lots of ruined furnishings are scattered about this chamber, much of the smaller material kicked to the sides or pushed behind the larger pieces. The noise from the north is definitely more than water or even a spectral Hurú’u (a variety of howling undead), and can only be a howling wind or more likely the invisible Qumqúm.
3-28 Moving Mass
A mass of Dlaqó carrion beetles occupy this space, consuming the last of the Ahoggyá from above. The stairs lead up to 2-1 where their companions are consuming more Ahoggyá. A roar can be heard through the door…
3-29 Pillar of Flame
Like the “burial” chambers on the level above, this is designed to feel like the mouth of Vimúhla. The lower section is tiled in orange ceramic with a central raised platform surrounded by four stone slabs with carvings of aspects of the fire god upon them. Touching any of these stones triggers a pillar of magical flame to spout from the central platform to the scorched ceiling above. Anyone touching the pillar takes 1d6 damage, and those fully within the flames take 3d6 damage per round. The howling from 31 is terrifying, loud, and incessant.
3-30 Nine Pillars
The howling of the thunderer in 3-31 is nearly unbearable in this chamber. There are nine pillars of different sizes in the colours of Vimúhla (orange, yellow, and black) around the room. The back wall has a long ledge bench along it, slightly too high to make for a comfortable bench.
3-31 The Thunderer
This tomb chamber, modelled after the Mouth of Vimúhla, is isolated from the rest of the structure by a massive portcullis with no means to raise it. The edge of the circular chamber contains urns of incinerated remains of champions of Chiténg the Drinker of Blood. The floor is perpetually tacky with blood that doesn’t seem to completely congeal, and the air is ever disturbed by the thundering howls of the invisible Qumqúm within. Entering the chamber means having to deal with the beast. The funerary urns contain not just remains of the champions of change, but significant grave goods totalling at two large hoards of treasure, a helmet +1, a dagger +2, and a dozen red steel arrows +2.
The 1200 dpi version of the map was drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and is 10,800 pixels (36 squares) wide. To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for 10′ squares) – so resizing it to either 2,520 pixels wide or 5,040 pixels wide, respectively.
https://dysonlogos.blog/2023/04/13/dungeon23-tumissan-underworld-map-3-complete/
