Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Tomb of the Rocketmen - AREA 1 and AREA II




 AREA I - Primary Entrance Hatch
Lighting
Soft Yellow light fills the room from a chandelier of metal orbs, but leaves the chambers recesses in deep shadow.
Odors
Faintly musty, with a hint of a sweet perfume like odor.
Traps
None
Treasure
Chandelier Ancient metal globe chandelier, worth (300GP), will take 2D6 turns to remove safely. Weighs 200lbs and bulky.
Encounters
None


Several feet below the murky waters of the slough a mound of earth and rust colored alien fungus almost completely covers this ancient alloy tube, set with a round set of double doors.   The doors are two feet thick, a forged of ancient alloy stronger than steel, and cannot be opened easily by force, a difficulty that is increased because they are submerged.  The doors a sealed with a mechanical lock, which though made of ancient technology and so resistant to force (requires a roll under Strength at +15) to force with tools, can be picked by a competent thief or opened by magic (Knock).
Fungal Zombies Lurk in the Darkness

Beyond the doors is a 10’ diameter alloy tube that will rotate to act as an airlock, once the outer hatch is closed, revealing a domed chamber extending Westward in the form of an oval, 60’ long and 30’ wide.  Water from the airlock will quickly drain through grates around the edges of the room’s slightly concave floor and once drained (1 turn) reentering the tube will cause it to rotate, again facing the exit hatch.  The chamber is empty, except for a few encrustations of teal and cyan fungus on the ceiling and walls.  

The walls, floor and ceiling of the domed chamber are themselves made of a smooth white glazed ceramicrete.  The only sign of decoration in the entry chamber are a set of benches molded into the longer walls and a dangling chandelier of metal globes hanging in the center.  The chandelier is heavy and worth only a few hundred GP as a curiosity if a dedicated individual spends 2D6 turns carefully pulling, prying and cutting it from the ceiling.
An archway partially overhung with the thumb thick tendrils of cyan fungus provides the only interior exit to the entry chamber and leads down a twisting and uneven 180’ stair that descends at least 40’ into the darkness.  Along the stairway, molded into the cermicrete walls are the mottos “Through Adversity to the Stars”, “From the Stars Knowledge”, and “The Conqueror Returns”.

AREA II - Chamber of Arrival
Lighting
Dimly lit by the soft amber glow of the central crystal
Odors
Damp, rot and a sweet perfume odor that increases in the Western half of the room.
Traps
Teleportation Crystal Instantly transports to area IX if touched by hand.
Treasure
Panels (200 x 50 GP) panels require time and luck to remove, each ways 25lbs and is bulky.
Quartz Crystal (25 GP)
Encounters
None


The stairs from AREA I disgorge into a huge rounded vault, 80’ in diameter with a ceiling lost over 100’ above in the gloom.  Drips of rank water occasionally fall due to seepage from the slough, and light shined upward will reveal ropey, striped (yellow and brown) fungus snaking from above, though none reach more than 20’ from the floor.  The room itself has walls made of a greyish alloy, molded into bas reliefs of man’s conquest of space. Moving clockwise from the archway that leads to the long stair this sculpture show: Sputnik floating above the earth, The eagle lander, Astronauts on the moon, Scientists toiling in a laboratory, Rockets emerging from silos, Men in space suits battling four armed Tharks, Rocket ships battling above a canal covered world, Spaceman tortured on a giant wheel by bug eyed amazons,  Beasts surround a submarine in the frozen seas of Uranus, Robots marching on a crater rim fortress,  A supernova, Identical women stand in formation armed with sabers, Yuri Garagrin emerging from a sunburst and A giant rocket dreadnaught battling a swarm of saucers.  While fascinating, these panels conceal no secrets, though they can be pried from the walls with great care and considerable force, to reveal girders of black alloy beneath.  

Individual panels are worth 50 GP each to the wealthy of Denethix for decorative purposes, but while the alloy is sturdy it tenders to shatter if torqued and each panel will take 1D6+2 turns to remove, requiring a successful D20 roll under Int -2 to avoid destroying.  There a 50 panels in all, though many simply show geometric designs vaguely resembling starscapes. 

In the center of the room floats a strange crystal growth, at roughly chest height.  It is a cloudy white, but vague clouds of amber light move within the crystal’s depths.  The crystal is suspended by an amber beam of light three inches wide and cannot be knocked free by a blow doing less than 20 HP of damage (AC 2).  Nor can it be grabbed, as it is a terminal for a teleportation system, immediately whisking anyone who touches it to AREA IX.  Is somehow removed the crystal loses its magical appearance and proves to be a large lump of quartz worth 25 GP.  

A stairway with ornate alloy hand rails leads down to AREA VI. On the Eastern wall of the chamber is a hatch almost identical to the one leading to the surface.  It is sealed from this side, but will open if the same tonal key is used as in AREA I, leading to AREA III.

3 comments:

  1. At last! Very happy; thank you.

    Trying to find the map of the tomb. I recall it was the result of a contest ... having a senior moment.

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  2. http://bernietheflumph.blogspot.com/2013/03/tomb-of-rocket-men.html

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    Replies
    1. Ah yes, Bernie the Flumph had a nice map as well. I ultimately went with Logan's map, but that was a good one.

      I should finish writing it all up some day.

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