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Under Gallax Hall - Level 1 - Basement
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7-8: Custodian 8-3: Gimpy McGee 3-7: Gimpy McGoo
An iron maiden sits against the wall, a desk in front of it. From within, two men man the front desk in shifts by carefully doing paperwork, setting up appointments, and giving directions, all while trying very hard not to move.
SECRET: The iron maiden, painful as it is (1d4 damage to first-timers), provides limited telepathy akin to a one-way phone line to anyone inside Level 1 - Basement.
From 8 o'clock to 3 o'clock Gimpy McGee (as students call him) mans the maiden and the desk. He's rather cheery, and quite an expert at using long thin sticks to poke out of the iron maiden to manipulate the paperwork. Has a bad memory, though, and frequently forgets his duties.
From 3 o'clock to 7 o'clock Gimpy McGoo (his real name) mans the station. He always forgets his long thin sticks, and so cannot manipulate any paperwork. Will ask assistance of anyone passing by the room to fill out paperwork for him. Has a good memory, though, and actually reminds the doctors within of their appointments.
TREASURE: A silver figurine of an adorable chubby child sailor on the front desk. Worth 10gp, probably. McGee loves it, McGoo hates it. Neither of them could stop you from taking it. McGee is liable to replace it every week if it's stolen.
36. Lounge, Mission Statement
7-8: Custodian 8-10: Empty 10-4: 1d3 Undergrads, Lounging 4-7: Empty
Two absolutely wonderful red couches.
Plaque facing them: "Torture changes both the victim and the torturer forever, so let's make it a positive one!"
You can hear screams of pain coming from the south door.
37. Laboratory B
8-9: Custodian 9-2: 1d4 Grad Students 2-5: 1d4 Grad Students + 2d4 Undergrads
5-6: Professor Kinsley + 2d4 Undergrads 6-8: 1d4 Undergrads
Devoted to all tortures beginning with B: boarding, branding, and boiling.
Hot and muggy, fireplace in the corner. Pokers in the fire. Faucets for cool and hot water. Four open vats of boiling liquid: water, oil, lava, and broth. Various chains and pulley systems hanging above them to give victims a dip. Supply cabinets in the corner.
30% chance per Day there will always be 1d4 students, homeless people, or other poor souls hanging from the chains or strapped to the waterboards - the subjects of seminars, academic probation, or experiments on torture. They will beg for help from newcomers 50% of the time.
TREASURE: Supply cabinets will contain 2d4x10gp, miscellaneous pocket items, and a Wand of Steam (as Burning Hands, but in addition obscures area).
38. Office of Dr. Klaus, MD, PhD - B31
8-9: Custodian 9-2: Dr. Klaus 2-6: Empty, Locked 6-8: Dr. Klaus
It is an office, very spartan.
There is a portrait.
You think, maybe, it is his mother.
She is not happy.
The papers are orderly.
Dr. Klaus does not sleep.
SEARCH: Four random premium medical textbooks, all in a row. Worth 1d4x15gp each.
SEARCH: Behind the portrait is a folded-up paper note: "If you've managed to steal this, then I have need of your services. Ask the bartender at The Wandering Monster for a feline on the rocks."
(Monica Doom, student-turned-fence, wants you to help her steal The Eleventh Hourglass from the ghostly Administrators on Level 3 - Old Gallax Building. The Hidden Catch: somebody's gotta die to make it work.)
39. Laboratory C
9-10: Custodian 10-3: Empty 3-8: 1d4 Undergrads 8-9: Dr. Klaus + 1d2 Grad Students
Devoted to all tortures beginning with C: crushing, cutting, crucifixion.
Crucifixes, chairs, rope, nails, stretcher beds. Tool bins line the walls, containing every combination of mundane and magic tools one can imagine.
Rusty bloody nails covering the floor, like peanut shells. Walking across them in bare feet demands a Save for Tetanus.
OSEH NIGHTMARE: interacting with basically anything has a 1 in 4 chance of something heavy or sharp falling, jabbing, or pricking someone. Save vs. Petrification to avoid 1d4 damage and Save vs. Poison to avoid lockjaw, bloodborn disease, or severe bleeding.
30% chance per Day of 1d4 students, homeless people, or other poor souls - the subjects of seminars, academic probation, or experiments on torture.
SEARCH: Two vials of Magical Disinfectant (cures all injury-related diseases) in a tool box. Two bottles of 200-proof alcohol.
TREASURE: Textbook, Fundamentals in Crucifixion - contains spells Hold Person (victim adopts crucifixion T-shape with body), and Magic Nails (as Magic Missile, but requires nails. If bloody/rusty, then victim must make above checks in addition to damage).
40. Laboratory D
9-10: Custodian 10-3: 1d4 Undergrads + 1 Grad Student
3-6: 1d4 Undergrads + Dr. Braum 6-9: Empty
Devoted to all tortures beginning with D: drowning, drugging, and degrading.
Lots of chairs and lots of rope: stacks and spools. Three vats for dipping. Ample supply of syringes, needles, and other hematology equipment in cupboards. Mirrors cover southern wall. Locked Chest in the corner.
30% chance per Day of 1d4 students, homeless people, or other poor souls - the subjects of seminars, academic probation, or experiments on torture.
TRAP: Locked Chest contains an Anti-Turn Rune on bottom-side of lid. Those who look at it cannot turn Left nor Right on their own accord. No Save. Lasts until dispelled. Chest itself is very heavy, requiring at least four people to carry it.
TREASURE: Chest contains a trove of controlled substances: 1d4 doses of each - Super Steroids (double strength for 1 Hour), SpellMeth (gain temporary highest level spell slot), and Familiar-Nip (Familiars are drawn to you and get high in your presence).
41. Laboratory F
10-1: Custodian 1-3: Empty 3-6: Dr. Klaus 6-10: 1d4 Undergrads + 1d2 Graduate Students
Devoted to all tortures beginning with F: flogging, flaying, and force-feeding.
Whips and knives on the walls. Fois Gras Funnels stacked like traffic cones. Smooth stone pillars with restraints and bloodied floors.
TREASURE: Two of the hundred-some whips are magical: 1) produces only subdermal wounds upon striking, 2) is made from flexible rose-thorn - its blood-red blooms (produced from every 14 whippings) give off a Charm effect (Save vs. Magic) scent towards the wielder for 3 Turns within 20ft.
30% chance per Day of 1d4 students, homeless people, or other poor souls - the subjects of seminars, academic probation, or experiments on torture.
42. Janitor's Closet - B34
10-1: Custodian 1-10: Empty
Shrine to the Clean God. A swirling vertical vortex of murky waters. Gazing within for more than a glance provokes Save vs. Magic, or slowly begin to step into the portal. Those that fully step in must pass a Strength check, or be washed away into the horrible entropic realm of the Clean God. Those who succeed manage to pull themselves up through the whirlpool of Level 2 - Steam Tunnels.
Blindly reach around inside, and you're liable to find something (1d6):
1. Jaws. 1d8 damage.
2. Acid. 1d4 damage.
3. A wetness.
4. Janitorial Instrument (broom, mop, bucket, etc.)
5. Human bones.
6. A textbook (worth 1d12x10gp)
43. Sealed-Off Animal Lab
Scratching and bumping in the adjacent walls. The old animal lab of the torture department. The persisting test animals' spirits and bodies want vengeance.
Sealed off by three inches of stone and two more of plaster, but the animals have made work - some places sound less dense by the tapping method. Could easily break with a sledgehammer and foreknowledge.
Inside the room are eight small cages, seven medium ones, and a big one. All the bars on them have been gnawed or broken off. Tons of old litter, food, and animal droppings.
SEARCH: At the back of an empty cage, past some stinky bedding, is a narrow hole and very tight squeeze zig-zagging down to Level 2 - Steam Tunnels.
CONTINGENCY: Within are the deranged and bloodthirsty zombified bodies of 40 rats, 6 dogs, and 1 goat. Upon making a breach, the rats will stream out first 10/Round (4R), then the dogs 2/Round (3R), then the goat 1/Round (1R). Like a tidal wave of horrific gnawing and sadism, they'll flood out into the halls and into very room and crevice, murdering as they go. Every Minute, they'll stream to the next closest 3 rooms. They can do this 10 times before they are exhausted by killing themselves on the dungeon inhabitants.
This will certainly attract The Dean and Campus Security. The Janitors are immune to this carnage, and still go according to schedule. Everyone else present is wiped out. Releasing the raging animals earns the favor of the Witches of the Old Way on Level 5 - Burial Mound.
TREASURE: Chewed wallet with chewed platinum coins worth 786gp, a Laser Pointer (4 hours charge left), 3 Doses of Zombie Juice - Injection, Save vs. Poison or become zombie over 1 Day.
SECRET: Lever on northwestern wall opens hidden entrance to Room 7.
44. Experimental Torture Lab - B36
1-2: Custodian 2-6: Empty 6-7: Dr. Braum 7-1: 1d4 Grad Students
Soundproofed, black-painted walls. Pool of dense clear liquid in a 20x20ft basin. The ceiling is painted in multi-colored swirls, and it mesmerizing to look at. One tends to psychologically project their worst fears onto this swirling optical illusion, paralyzing anyone inside the room while it's dark.
The water is thick and difficult to escape on one's own. Requires two successive Strength checks.
Gain one Madness for each Turn spent in the dark in this room, as the brain brings forth its worst fears into reality.
45. Academic Probation
2-3: Custodian 8-7: Empty, except for the prisoners.
Ten prison cells 10x10ft, completely bare, each with two sets of manacles chained to opposite walls.
Standing guard just before it (square "45" on the map) is Bones Maloy, the Boney Bail Bondsman, the lord and tyrant of this tiny fiefdom, the Academic Probation Jail. He is a chatty skeleton fond of dad jokes.
Once a Day he travels down the jail, asking each occupant one dad joke. If they answer correctly (or give him a good laugh), they've met their bail, and are free to leave. Fail, he gives a bone-rattling laugh, the punchline, and lets them rot another day. No food or water is given.
Some of these students have been here for quite a while, and they no longer have functional brains for which to answer. (The 6 skeletons occupying various cells, which now defend Bones Maloy at his behest.)
(6 Skeletons total, plus Bones Maloy)
Sample Jokes from Bones Maloy:
Q. Why are skeletons so un-irritable?
A. Because nothing gets under their skin!
Q. Why do skeletons hate cold weather?
A. Because the wind goes straight through 'em!
Q. How do skeletons deliver the mail?
A. By bony express!
Q. Why are skeletons sad at parties?
A. Because they have no-body to dance with!
Q. Whadda ya call a good time for a skeleton?
A. An osteoblast!
46. Office of Professor Kinsley, PhD - B37
2-3: Custodian 3-6: Empty 6-9: Professor Kinsley 9-2: Empty
Professor Kinsley has an inferiority complex, because he's the only professor in the Department of Torture without a Doctorate of Medicine. Hence, his office is plastered from floor to ceiling in awards: grant awards, diplomas, certifications. Some of them belong to his Grad Students but he crossed their names out.
The awards have achieved such critical mass as to gain a gestalt consciousness. They slowly pulsate in and out throughout the room, like a great breathing thing. The Thing considers Kinsley its father. It's weird.
Removing or altering any awards causes this gestalt consciousness to materialize as an crinkling blob perforated by starchy diplomas and excellent-mentor trophies. It will attack and chase down these intruders. Kinsley will be very upset is they leave the room. ("Kinsley! Your Awards are getting away again!")
TREASURE: 100gp, buried under a stack of grant applications in the desk.
TREASURE: 2 rough medical textbooks, worth 1d4x5gp each.
Award Consciousness
AC Unarmored HD 2 HP 14 INT 4
1 damage (x 6 attacks) Death By Million Papercuts
Mutterings: Constant, affects all in audible range. Reduces Morale of all Students by Half. (For Players, Save vs. Magic or suffer Fear.) Dark mirror of Kinsley's voice muttering about impressiveness of his awards: "The Drowner's Center Grant only went to top 0.01% of applicants... My twentieth Anti-Ergonomics Award, where is it??... Diplomas, diplomas, where is my high school valedictorian?..."
47. Laboratory S
3-4: Custodian 4-8: 1 Graduate Student 8-10: Empty 10-1: Dr. Braum
Devoted to all tortures beginning with S: Sleep, Starvation, and Sound.
Sound-proofed walls. 10 gibbet-cages, all in a row. Every minute a loud cracking sound emanates from a clear pane of glass against the wall: it continuously rebuilds itself and then shatters, producing gun-shot equivalent sounds indoors periodically (if door is open, wandering encounter check).
30% chance per Day of 1d4 students, homeless people, or other poor souls - the subjects of seminars, academic probation, or experiments on torture. They haven't slept or eaten in god-knows-when.
48. Office of Dr. Braum, MD
3-4: Custodian 4-1: Empty 1-3: Dr. Braum
Two very messy desks piled high with bureaucratic papers and data. Preserved brains-in-jars lining the back wall, eyes and ears on stalks attached, floating in greenish fluid.
TRAP: The brains-in-jars emit a psychic resonance that causes severe pain to anyone within the room (Dr. Braun, incapable of feeling physical pain, is immune). Every round Save vs. Petrification or 1 damage and your Round is wasted reeling in pain.
SECRET: Desk contains locked hidden back in drawer containing 2d12 servings of strong anti-psychotic drugs (as Calm Emotions spell, with disadvantage on Save attempts). These drugs are rare and frequently needed by Dr. Braum to resist going on a sadistic rampage throughout the floor.
TREASURE: 2 premium medical and 2 premium psychology textbooks, worth 1d6x10gp and 1d12x10gp each, respectively.
49. Quartering Pylons - B32
4-5: Custodian 5-9: Empty 9-10: Professor Kinsley 10-4: Empty
Pressure Plate in center of room, activates the four pylons in the corners. Each one draws one limb of the victim by severe gravity, together causing 1d4 damage per round until the pylons are dispelled, smashed, or the victim is torn apart by the force.
((Note: Pylons are firmly held to the floor with steel nails, but if unaligned, or removed and carried about, they snag random limbs, Save vs. Paralyzation.))
CONTINGENCY: If they are smashed, the sound will draw Dr. Braum and/or Dr. Klaus from their offices, should they happen to be present in them at the time. Also 1d4 Undergrads will show up.
Professor Kinsley calibrates the Pylons every Day, testing them for proper conductivity and voltage.
50. Alone, Alone - B40
It cannot die. It cannot escape. Once a student, maybe. It bashes his head against the walls, having forgotten hope that one day someone will answer. A Gollum-esque shriveled runt of a human being, tortured into oblivion by isolation. Killing it would be a mercy, and would gain you favor among the Witches of the Old Way on Level 5 - Burial Mound.
this is extremely good
ReplyDeleteThanks Matt!
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