tarchon
First Post
Room 15 - Atrium of the Royal Steed (Ben Buckner "tarchon")
Door: This gilded ebony door (value 300 GP) has no lock and is designed to slide upward into the ceiling. The door weighs approximately 200 pounds and is only 4 1/2 ft. (1.5 m) tall (designed to require M sized creatures bow when entering). A pair of shafts jut 1/2 ft. out from the door near its top, and two 5-ft.-high slots rise into the wall above the door over them. These function as tracks, with the intention that servants would lift the door from either side while more important personages would bow and enter. The awkward mechanism doesn't work very smoothly and requires a full DC 20 strength check to lift and a DC 15 check in every subsequent round to hold it up (unless propped). However, two individuals can cooperate on it easily by holding the shafts from the left and right while a third can help lift from the middle. (Hardness 6; hp 40)
The horse is located in the center of the room (where the number 15 is). It is in fact an animated skeletal horse, which has been coated in electrum by a process known only to the most advanced alchemists.
Behind each of the four columns around the horse an animated skeletal footman is standing at attention. Their bones have been subjected to a similar treatment. Their once costly garments have decayed to fragments, but each holds a roughly serviceable spear and a heavy steel shield.
On the far wall (N), inquisitive characters will find a faded mural which depicts a regal white stallion in the same tack which hangs on the columns. In the mural, the stallion is standing in front of an open sarcophagus, from which a tall man in expensive regalia (the king) has apparently just emerged. In the hieroglyphics of Toths's kingdom (DC 30 Decipher), the word "Incitatus," the horse's name, is painted under the stallion and "His Royal Majesty, Whose Footfalls Are Like Thunder" under the king.
Along the east wall an 8 ft.-tall granite statue of a horse-headed god stands, with arms outstretched, holding the hide of a white stallion, which can reasonably be surmised to be that of the royal steed. The statue is flanked by two extinguished braziers and numerous small offering plates and jars sit on the floor around it, though their contents are decayed and unidentifiable.
If someone approaches within 5 ft. of the statue, a bird call (that of an ibis - DC 15 to identify by an appropriate Knowledge) will issue from its mouth. A successful search of the statue (DC 15) will reveal that the lower jaw is hinged, though there will be no indication of a latch mechanism. The mandible may be disabled and opened on a DC 15 Disable Device check or simply broken (Hardness 8; 60 hitpoints to break off), but such desecration will bring down a divine curse (Bestow Curse, Caster level 20, no save) on the culprits, so that (living) horses will shun them and all Ride checks will be at a -5 penalty until they have atoned. The existence of a curse effect may be detected by the Search skill as a magic trap (DC 28) but not disabled due to its divine nature.
If an offering pleasing to the horse-god (particularly fruits or sweet treats) is placed before the statue, the mouth will open revealing a small copper statuette of an ibis on a circular 1-in. diameter base. The word “Tekhen” is etched on the base in Tothian-era Hieratic script (DC 20) and it appears that it was made to attach to something (a rod for the lock mechanism for room 21). The ibis is imbued with a Permanent Magic Mouth spell (10th level, Moderate aura, Universal) that causes it to emit an ibis call whenever a creature approaches within 5 ft, while the statue has a similar magical trigger spell, essentially a variant of Alarm (1st level, Faint aura, Abjuration).
The west wall is covered with a series of Hieroglyphic inscriptions (DC 30 Decipher) that contain numerous long-winded paeans to the greatness of King Toth Nekamek, "Trampler of Enemies", his devotion to the "Long-Headed Lord," and the certainty of the king's eventual resurrection.
In particularly large letters in the center of the wall, five parallel inscriptions in Tothian Hieratic script (DC 20), Tothian Hieroglyphics (DC 30), Infernal, Celestial, and oddly Dwarvish read "Thus sayeth the oracle - in death shalt thou rise up to pluck the fruits of thy deeds." A character who succeeds in reading or interpreting at least one of these and studies the inscriptions for a minute or two gains a +2 insight bonus in subsequent attempts to Decipher inscriptions in either Hieratic or Hieroglyphics.
Reliefs depicting running horses, mounted cavalry, and horse races are carved between these inscriptions and throughout the chamber.
Encounter (EL 2 or 3):
The horse will not normally react until its tack, saddle and bridle at a minimum, have been put on correctly (requires ranks in Ride skill, but no check), at which point it will walk to the location of the secret door and stand there. After one round, the door trigger plates (4, one under each hoof) will activate the mechanism and the door will swing outward to reveal a tall,wide doorway. A DC 20 Search check of the floor area in front of the secret door will reveal the plates, which can be actuated if the characters stand on all 4 simultaneously for one round. A DC 17 Search of the wall will reveal the existence of the stone secret door but not the mechanism (hardness 8; hp 50).
If the horse has opened the door, it will proceed down the corridor and halt in front of room 19 (to await the king, in the event of his resurrection). After that point, the skeletal horse will respond to direction as any other trained war steed would and could even be ridden out of the dungeon, if its passage could be engineered somehow. Note also that the horse moves over the stone with a rather loud clip-clop, fairly noticeable from the rooms it passes (DC 15 Listen).
The skeletal footmen were ordered to attack any humanoids who have not applied the tack by the 11th round after entering (after one minute), an order which they take to apply to any biped that isn't obviously undead or extraplanar. The footmen will appear increasingly fidgety and agitated as the time limit approaches.
The skeletal footmen will naturally attack any party who attacks them or the horse, which they will follow to 19, if they can. They will also attack any party who engages in vandalism or theft, such as smashing doors, breaking statues, or attempting to make off with the horse.
Each footman is coated with 10 GP worth of electrum and the horse is coated with 50 GP, though intact it could be worth considerably more to the right buyer.
Description/Combat:
Like all skeletons, once their attack conditions are met, the footmen will fight relentlessly though they will not pursue characters past the entrance to the chamber. The skeletons also have a command, that if they attack and successfully repel intruders, they will close the sliding door at the entrance and sabotage it (by wedging spears and othe items into the slide from the inner side) so that it will have to be broken down if the characters want to reenter later.
The mirror-like surface of the electrum treatment renders them immune to acid and light-based damage (like Searing Light), and it imparts a +1 natural armor AC bonus.
The skeletal horse will attack if attacked or if restrained before it reaches room 19.
Skeleton footmen (electrum plated)(4): CR 1/2; LA -; Medium undead; HD 1d12; hp 6; Init +5; Spd 30 ft.; AC 16 (+1 Dex, +3 natural, +2 heavy steel shield), touch 11, flat-footed 15; Base Atk +1; ; Grp +2; Atk Shortspear +1 melee (1d8+1/x3); Full Atk (same); Space/Reach 5 ft./5 ft.; SA —; SQ damage reduction 5/bludgeoning, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to cold, undead traits, immunity to acid, immunity to light; AL NE; SV Fort +0, Ref +1, Will +2; Str 13, Dex 13, Con -, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 1.
Languages: None
Skills and Feats: Improved Initiative.
Possessions: shortspear, heavy steel shield.
Description/Combat:
Skeletons are the animated bones of the dead, mindless automatons that obey the orders of their evil masters. (CR increased to 1/2 from 1/3 for electrum plating.)
Skeleton warhorse, heavy (electrum plated) (1): CR 2; LA -; Large undead; HD 4d12; hp 24; Init +6; Spd 50 ft.; AC 14 (+2 Dex, +3 natural, -1 size), touch 11, flat-footed 12; Base Atk +2; Grp +10; Atk Hoof +5 melee (1d6+4); Full Atk 2 hooves +5 melee (1d6+4) and bite +0 melee (1d4+2); Space/Reach 10 ft./5 ft; SA —; SQ damage reduction 5/bludgeoning, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to cold, undead traits, immunity to acid, immunity to light; AL NE; SV Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +4; Str 18, Dex 15, Con -, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 1.
Languages: None
Skills and Feats: Improved Initiative.
Possessions: None
Description/Combat:
Skeleton warhorses, heavy, are the animated bones of dead warhorses, heavy, mindless automatons that obey the orders of their evil masters and make really funky glue.
Notes:
The horse was the king's favorite in life and its bones were enchanted in this peculiar way in accord with the king's misguided belief that he would be resurrected one day, when he would obviously need a fine steed. The electrum plating process serves multiple purposes, firstly ornamental, secondly protective, and thirdly preservative, as the tomb was expected to have to last many thousands of years, over which unprotected skeletal remains would tend to disintegrate.
The area was also set up as a shrine to the horse-headed god, to which the stallion was sacrificed after Toth's death. The god was a fairly minor deity, now mostly forgotten, but a sentimental favorite of King Toth, who felt that a little extra good will from even a minor deity couldn't hurt. The Long-Headed Lord is also the god from whom the ambiguous oracle of Toth's "rise" after death was delivered. Toth's vanity prevented him from recognizing that the fruits of his deeds might be rather bitter.
With a DC 30 Knowledge (Religion or Bardic) check, a character will recall the obscure Long-Headed Lord to be a neutral and rather ambivalent deity with no substantial following in civilized lands, though it will also be recalled that the god is generally favorable to the animation of undead.
While the Hieroglyphics are a deceptively simple looking picture-writing similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics, the Hieratic inscriptions look more like conventional letters, though some of the shapes bear a resemblance to hieroglyphs.
Door: This gilded ebony door (value 300 GP) has no lock and is designed to slide upward into the ceiling. The door weighs approximately 200 pounds and is only 4 1/2 ft. (1.5 m) tall (designed to require M sized creatures bow when entering). A pair of shafts jut 1/2 ft. out from the door near its top, and two 5-ft.-high slots rise into the wall above the door over them. These function as tracks, with the intention that servants would lift the door from either side while more important personages would bow and enter. The awkward mechanism doesn't work very smoothly and requires a full DC 20 strength check to lift and a DC 15 check in every subsequent round to hold it up (unless propped). However, two individuals can cooperate on it easily by holding the shafts from the left and right while a third can help lift from the middle. (Hardness 6; hp 40)
Features:
The horse is located in the center of the room (where the number 15 is). It is in fact an animated skeletal horse, which has been coated in electrum by a process known only to the most advanced alchemists.
Behind each of the four columns around the horse an animated skeletal footman is standing at attention. Their bones have been subjected to a similar treatment. Their once costly garments have decayed to fragments, but each holds a roughly serviceable spear and a heavy steel shield.
On the far wall (N), inquisitive characters will find a faded mural which depicts a regal white stallion in the same tack which hangs on the columns. In the mural, the stallion is standing in front of an open sarcophagus, from which a tall man in expensive regalia (the king) has apparently just emerged. In the hieroglyphics of Toths's kingdom (DC 30 Decipher), the word "Incitatus," the horse's name, is painted under the stallion and "His Royal Majesty, Whose Footfalls Are Like Thunder" under the king.
Along the east wall an 8 ft.-tall granite statue of a horse-headed god stands, with arms outstretched, holding the hide of a white stallion, which can reasonably be surmised to be that of the royal steed. The statue is flanked by two extinguished braziers and numerous small offering plates and jars sit on the floor around it, though their contents are decayed and unidentifiable.
If someone approaches within 5 ft. of the statue, a bird call (that of an ibis - DC 15 to identify by an appropriate Knowledge) will issue from its mouth. A successful search of the statue (DC 15) will reveal that the lower jaw is hinged, though there will be no indication of a latch mechanism. The mandible may be disabled and opened on a DC 15 Disable Device check or simply broken (Hardness 8; 60 hitpoints to break off), but such desecration will bring down a divine curse (Bestow Curse, Caster level 20, no save) on the culprits, so that (living) horses will shun them and all Ride checks will be at a -5 penalty until they have atoned. The existence of a curse effect may be detected by the Search skill as a magic trap (DC 28) but not disabled due to its divine nature.
If an offering pleasing to the horse-god (particularly fruits or sweet treats) is placed before the statue, the mouth will open revealing a small copper statuette of an ibis on a circular 1-in. diameter base. The word “Tekhen” is etched on the base in Tothian-era Hieratic script (DC 20) and it appears that it was made to attach to something (a rod for the lock mechanism for room 21). The ibis is imbued with a Permanent Magic Mouth spell (10th level, Moderate aura, Universal) that causes it to emit an ibis call whenever a creature approaches within 5 ft, while the statue has a similar magical trigger spell, essentially a variant of Alarm (1st level, Faint aura, Abjuration).
The west wall is covered with a series of Hieroglyphic inscriptions (DC 30 Decipher) that contain numerous long-winded paeans to the greatness of King Toth Nekamek, "Trampler of Enemies", his devotion to the "Long-Headed Lord," and the certainty of the king's eventual resurrection.
In particularly large letters in the center of the wall, five parallel inscriptions in Tothian Hieratic script (DC 20), Tothian Hieroglyphics (DC 30), Infernal, Celestial, and oddly Dwarvish read "Thus sayeth the oracle - in death shalt thou rise up to pluck the fruits of thy deeds." A character who succeeds in reading or interpreting at least one of these and studies the inscriptions for a minute or two gains a +2 insight bonus in subsequent attempts to Decipher inscriptions in either Hieratic or Hieroglyphics.
Reliefs depicting running horses, mounted cavalry, and horse races are carved between these inscriptions and throughout the chamber.
Encounter (EL 2 or 3):
The horse will not normally react until its tack, saddle and bridle at a minimum, have been put on correctly (requires ranks in Ride skill, but no check), at which point it will walk to the location of the secret door and stand there. After one round, the door trigger plates (4, one under each hoof) will activate the mechanism and the door will swing outward to reveal a tall,wide doorway. A DC 20 Search check of the floor area in front of the secret door will reveal the plates, which can be actuated if the characters stand on all 4 simultaneously for one round. A DC 17 Search of the wall will reveal the existence of the stone secret door but not the mechanism (hardness 8; hp 50).
If the horse has opened the door, it will proceed down the corridor and halt in front of room 19 (to await the king, in the event of his resurrection). After that point, the skeletal horse will respond to direction as any other trained war steed would and could even be ridden out of the dungeon, if its passage could be engineered somehow. Note also that the horse moves over the stone with a rather loud clip-clop, fairly noticeable from the rooms it passes (DC 15 Listen).
The skeletal footmen were ordered to attack any humanoids who have not applied the tack by the 11th round after entering (after one minute), an order which they take to apply to any biped that isn't obviously undead or extraplanar. The footmen will appear increasingly fidgety and agitated as the time limit approaches.
The skeletal footmen will naturally attack any party who attacks them or the horse, which they will follow to 19, if they can. They will also attack any party who engages in vandalism or theft, such as smashing doors, breaking statues, or attempting to make off with the horse.
Each footman is coated with 10 GP worth of electrum and the horse is coated with 50 GP, though intact it could be worth considerably more to the right buyer.
Description/Combat:
Like all skeletons, once their attack conditions are met, the footmen will fight relentlessly though they will not pursue characters past the entrance to the chamber. The skeletons also have a command, that if they attack and successfully repel intruders, they will close the sliding door at the entrance and sabotage it (by wedging spears and othe items into the slide from the inner side) so that it will have to be broken down if the characters want to reenter later.
The mirror-like surface of the electrum treatment renders them immune to acid and light-based damage (like Searing Light), and it imparts a +1 natural armor AC bonus.
The skeletal horse will attack if attacked or if restrained before it reaches room 19.
Skeleton footmen (electrum plated)(4): CR 1/2; LA -; Medium undead; HD 1d12; hp 6; Init +5; Spd 30 ft.; AC 16 (+1 Dex, +3 natural, +2 heavy steel shield), touch 11, flat-footed 15; Base Atk +1; ; Grp +2; Atk Shortspear +1 melee (1d8+1/x3); Full Atk (same); Space/Reach 5 ft./5 ft.; SA —; SQ damage reduction 5/bludgeoning, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to cold, undead traits, immunity to acid, immunity to light; AL NE; SV Fort +0, Ref +1, Will +2; Str 13, Dex 13, Con -, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 1.
Languages: None
Skills and Feats: Improved Initiative.
Possessions: shortspear, heavy steel shield.
Description/Combat:
Skeletons are the animated bones of the dead, mindless automatons that obey the orders of their evil masters. (CR increased to 1/2 from 1/3 for electrum plating.)
Skeleton warhorse, heavy (electrum plated) (1): CR 2; LA -; Large undead; HD 4d12; hp 24; Init +6; Spd 50 ft.; AC 14 (+2 Dex, +3 natural, -1 size), touch 11, flat-footed 12; Base Atk +2; Grp +10; Atk Hoof +5 melee (1d6+4); Full Atk 2 hooves +5 melee (1d6+4) and bite +0 melee (1d4+2); Space/Reach 10 ft./5 ft; SA —; SQ damage reduction 5/bludgeoning, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to cold, undead traits, immunity to acid, immunity to light; AL NE; SV Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +4; Str 18, Dex 15, Con -, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 1.
Languages: None
Skills and Feats: Improved Initiative.
Possessions: None
Description/Combat:
Skeleton warhorses, heavy, are the animated bones of dead warhorses, heavy, mindless automatons that obey the orders of their evil masters and make really funky glue.
Notes:
The horse was the king's favorite in life and its bones were enchanted in this peculiar way in accord with the king's misguided belief that he would be resurrected one day, when he would obviously need a fine steed. The electrum plating process serves multiple purposes, firstly ornamental, secondly protective, and thirdly preservative, as the tomb was expected to have to last many thousands of years, over which unprotected skeletal remains would tend to disintegrate.
The area was also set up as a shrine to the horse-headed god, to which the stallion was sacrificed after Toth's death. The god was a fairly minor deity, now mostly forgotten, but a sentimental favorite of King Toth, who felt that a little extra good will from even a minor deity couldn't hurt. The Long-Headed Lord is also the god from whom the ambiguous oracle of Toth's "rise" after death was delivered. Toth's vanity prevented him from recognizing that the fruits of his deeds might be rather bitter.
With a DC 30 Knowledge (Religion or Bardic) check, a character will recall the obscure Long-Headed Lord to be a neutral and rather ambivalent deity with no substantial following in civilized lands, though it will also be recalled that the god is generally favorable to the animation of undead.
While the Hieroglyphics are a deceptively simple looking picture-writing similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics, the Hieratic inscriptions look more like conventional letters, though some of the shapes bear a resemblance to hieroglyphs.
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