Sunday, September 8, 2013

Galleries of the Nyctites

These rooms were created collaboratively by a bunch of people on Google Plus. Credits, info and pdf version here.

You'll have to pick a start point, decide what a Nyctite is, and maybe do some stitch-up in one or two places, but I think it's mostly good to go. 
Map by Dave's Mapper using geomorphs by Brutus Motor

 1 Hall of Dust: This room is covered in a fine darkbrown dust. Several dilapidated wooden supports and dozens of wooden dowels litter the walls and floor.  (Once it was an armory but a rust monster or family of them feasted and have since wandered deeper into the complex.)


 2: Sunlight trickles in from a ragged hole in the tunnel ceiling, about 15 feet up.  Roots of large trees have pried the blocks apart and revealed an entrance to the dungeon complex.  The floor is covered in clods of dirt, small stones, and little mud puddles.

 3: The roots continue along the ceiling here and form a natural curtain across the top of the stairs leading down. Hiding within this curtain are foul little worms that crawl onto warm blooded creatures, into any visible wounds, and begin to painlessly consume their victims from within, leaving a trail of eggs in their wake.

 4: Larger eggs of the small worms in room 3 litter this area, most of them broken open, leaving only a foul smell and two larger worms with tentacles (Carrion Crawlers). Underneath the shells may be found 30 sp, and a gold ring set with a small turquoise gem worth 50 gp. Searchers have a 1 in 6 chance of contracting a foul disease.

 5: The egg trail (see 3) abruptly ends here, in saliva and worm blood.

 6. A crumpled figure in dirty rags shivers quietly here. It attempts to call out to anyone passing by, usually only managing a raspy but otherwise unintelligent cry.

If touched, or otherwise interacted with, the figure appears to have been dried out, and they crumble away while trying to utter a warning. Among their remains is a wilted (but strangely indestructible) rose, a golden dagger and an uncorked bottle with just a bit of green liquid at the bottom of it.

7. Tiny, black hens run from shadow to shadow. Red eyes, white web pattern on their backs. Their main food seems to be the worms.

 8. The sliding secret door in the stone here can be found with a standard check, however, once opened the stone door will immediate slide shut on anyone or anything attempting to cross the threshold, causing d100 damage or save for half and instantly crushing whatever is in the door.
There is a switch near the doorframe on the inside of room 13 that can be used to disable the mechanism if it can be reached.
(One way to get past is to use the indestructible rose--see 6--to wedge the door open while groping around for the switch.)

 9. 15 ghouls, one lives in each alcove (hp: 10 ea.)  The ghouls are coated in yellow mould, and hitting one has a 50% chance of releasing a puff of spores in a 10ft diameter cloud around the monster.  If turned, they flee towards room #10.  One of the ghouls has a clerical scroll of three spells: cure disease, cure blindness and neutralise poison.  Poking around in the ghouls' niches with bare hands has a 25% chance of disturbing a tiny but extremely poisonous spider (save or die); gauntlets, or poking with an object, is safe.

 10. Blood drips slowly from a red stain on the ceiling.  The dripping blood is always here, but there are never more than two or three drops on the floor the first time the party sees it.

11. Tears drip from a wet stain on the ceiling here. The dripping blood is always here, but there are never more than two or three drops on the floor the first time the party sees it. If any dead creature should touch the dripping tears here and the dripping blood at location 10, it will be transformed into a ghoul.

 12. This large area has the walls decorated with frescoes reminiscent of Goya's Black Paintings. Haunted figures populate strange landscapes, along with depictions of Witches' Sabbaths and the hypocrisy of human institutions. There is a 1 in 6 chance that a ghoul lurks in the shadows, surprising victims 50% of the time.

 13. The Corpulence sleeps here, on an altar, facing the paintings in 12. 4 powerful Nyctites in white robes drain his fat, blood, tears and sweat away for obscure purposes using globe-reservoired syringes of yellow glass. At any moment, d4 are present. Each resembles a figure in one of the paintings, as does the Corpulence. They cannot be harmed while their corresponding painting is intact.

 14. This corridor slopes ten feet up and has murder holes leading to 18. and 19. before sloping down into 15.
Party may roll stealth to avoid alerting whatever is below them to their presence.
Secret door to 16 is trapped with a poison needle.

 15. This room is a Nyctite Alchemist's experimentation chamber. The door is one-way and locks those inside 15. Once someone is inside, the alchemist (in the adjacent secret room) starts releasing various gasses into the room and observing the effects each have. On a failed save, roll below for effects (d6):
1. Each PC affected believes that their (or another affected PC's) finger can be used as a key to unlock the door somehow.
2. Each PC affected is wracked by terrible headaches (1 dmg). Additionally, any spellcasters loose one random spell.
3. Each PC affected starts emitting strong fragrances from their skin, and will do so for another 1d3 hours. This will make it difficult to surprise anyone during this time.
4. Each PC affected will shrink 10-60% (d6), but will gain d6 of a random stat and d6 hp for 1d2 hours.
5. Each PC affected is overwhelmingly adored by cats (any cats) for the next 5 years.
6. Nothing happens, however, the PCs 'feel weird' (play on this to build tension).

16. A heavy armoire inlaid with gold and lapis lazuli (poorly) conceals the "secret" door to the east. There are dried bloodstains around it. It is a mimic (though it cannot assume any other form; HD 6; AC 6; 2 attacks, can swallow if both hit), and a pet/creation of the alchemist in rooms 14 & 15. Table and chairs sit in the center of the room. A tripwire stretched across the north entrance will alert the alchemist to intruders (it rings a cheery bell if not avoided). Shelves on the west wall contain countless jars, vials, and pots (all empty, but hermetically sealable). The secret door to the south is covered by a tapestry depicting dragons fighting (500 GP), and the secret door behind is obvious to magic-users and elves, and cannot be found or operated by anyone else, even if searching.

 17: This large chamber is used as the Nycite Alchemist's storage room. There are stacks of barrels and crates. Several of them are stenciled on the outside with the warnings "Caution! Contents may be of extra-planar provenance!" in various languages.
The crates contain:
1 - One large piece of cloudy yellow crystal - if touched with bare hands, the crystal will melt into a syrupy brown liquid.
2 - Mummified body of a Manes demon. Not dead, but in a state of suspended animation.
3 - 333 kobold skulls, painted yellow with blue sigils.
4 - A petrified saber-toothed monkey bat.
5 - 20 jars of apple cinnamon stun-jelly.
6 - The preserved heart and kidneys of a Remorhaz floating in a large jar of green liquid.
The barrels contain:
1 - assorted goblin, hobgoblin and hobgoblin teeth.
2 - ossified maggots.
3 - rusty iron nails.
4 - tiny slugs preserved in a strange oil.
5 - coconut crabs packed in sweet brandy.
Against the west wall of the room is a large Storm Giant's skull. Hidden behind the skull is a secret door. The switch to open the door is hidden within the skull's nostrils. 

 18:  A prison/torture chamber.  The murder holes in 15 above allow the prisoners to be stabbed from above.

Gnarx, a troll is imprisoned here, chained.  The cultists torture him on a frequent basis.  If attacked, he will be enraged.  If let loose, he will help the party.  If killed, he inflicts a dying curse on his killer.

 19 A large, sentient Catalytic Plasm that coats the floor to a depth of 3 feet. The alchemist  in 15 occasionally drops flasks through the murder holes in the floor of 14 and observes the effects. If the alchemist becomes aware her area of the dungeon has being invaded she will drop down a mixture that causes the plasm to boil and send hot gobs of flesh-eating bacteria flying up through the murder holes for 2 hours.

 20. Behind elaborately carved double doors of bone lairs the Master of the Nyctites. This august personage is clothed in straps and sutures, which interpenetrate his flesh. He despises interruptions. He is immune to effects involving pain, due to the residues of The Corpulence he imbibes. He never sleeps.

The door in the north wall is concealed with plaster, and if one listens at the wall, one can hear the paramour of the Master moaning in pain, entombed in the cell on the other side.

1d3 odd and disturbing artworks rest in this room, which are both bulky and delicate. They could be sold in a large city for 1d12 x 100 gp each.

 21. Appears to be a magical laboratory. Counters line the southern and eastern walls, with drawers underneath, upon which sits 1 extremely convoluted set of interconnected vials, tubes, flasks, etc (tubes and lines arch over the southern doorway). The rest of the room is clear except for 3 distinctly magic circles. 22-26 appear to be holding cells with transparent, magical barriers (the key to unlock them is missing). Each cell holds one creature of bizarre and terrible form.

 22: the creature behind the magical barrier is a small conical blue creature, that looks a little like a mushroom. When you speak in its presence, your words appear above your head in runic script; but often slightly altered...

 23: A gibbering mouther fills the chamber and is pressed up against the barrier like a face against a glass door

 24. A horrific six foot tall toddler, with a soiled diaper and an oversized rag doll, wails in this chamber...

 25. Ever see that part in Alien: Resurrection where there's all these failed attempts to clone Ripley? Well there are 4 failed attempts to clone a random member of the party in here.

 26. There's a shoggoth in here.  It's one of the kind where the faces of the creatures it's eaten bubble to the surface every so often and mewl and growl and moan.

For the first few days after they're eaten, they may even talk, or babble, or shriek curses, assuming they were capable of talking before.  But for all that, this shoggoth is very kind and loving.  It's not its fault that its keeper just fed it whomever was available.  It's been in the cell a very long time, and it's extremely lonely.

It bonds with the first party member that opens the door and lets it out, and just wants to flow around him and lean up against his legs and generally be underfoot.  It is, however, very jealous, and will attack any other being that tries to get within five feet.

 27. Steeply angled corridor. Door facing into 27 has angry fuckoff spikes on it and seals itself behind crawlers after first time the pass through. Floor and walls covered with thick slime, the kind you used to dump on Beast-Man and Fisto. NOT actual dreaded green slime, has a bit of glitter to it. PCs covered in it will find it repels insects and permanently stains the skin with little oil-puddle rainbows. Door leading to/from 27 usually locked but can be opened by usual methods, as well as by praising (worst evil god in your campaign) loudly enough for any party cleric's own gods to hear ("Praise Orcus!" or whatever is written in big iron letters everywhere there isn't spikes in the door.). Your cleric spells/spells your cleric tries on you may fail. Towel station at end of corridor, facing 28.
 One of towels a golden fleece.

28. This is the antechamber of the Paramour's Eunuch. The Master has tasked this Nyctite with tending to the needs of his mistress, and this room is where he creates the protein infusions which sustain her. There is an impressive collection of Nyctian labware here which would garner both a high price and a lot of undue attention if sold.

The Eunuch's rubbery capirote allows him to passwall at will, which he uses to enter the Paramour's chamber, a tank of cloudy yellow fluid between rooms 20 and 27 (both doors open onto the glass walls of the tank).

29. The double doors are golden on this side but stone on the other. It would take a tremendous feat of strength or magic to open them. The altar opposite the doors is dedicated to The Great Martyr. In the center of the room is a well. Anyone making an appropriate sacrifice (their own blood, pain, or tears) is rewarded in accordance with their sacrifice. While sacrificing other's possessions results in the loss of their own equivalents.

Sacrificing the indestructible rose (6) causes the strange green liquid (6) to be replenished.

30. One Hildegard Flensingripe, celebrated painter of the Ducal Court long-disappeared, works upon an altarpiece. Assisting her are; a ghoul from whose body varicoloured abscesses and fissures and seeping orifices provide foetid pigments, and the animated skeleton of a child with guttering candles of tallow mounted in its skull. A raspy little whisper comes from the empty air. Hildegard seems scarcely aware of intrusion so intent is she on the painting and the whisper. The work itself is of sumptuous mutilation and roses and is exquisite beyond imaging

 31. A clockwork man is painting the walls with the iridescent green slime while another incinerates worms streaming from the nest in 33. They completely ignore humanoids and only attack vermin. You could probably just walk off with these if they didn't weigh 400 lbs each.

32. The chamber is magically kept in complete darkness, blocking out all sight, including magical forms. The statue is of a mind flayer cursing the sun above it, depicted in an agate and crystal ceiling mosaic (Intact: 2,000 gp, as stones: 250gp). Within the room resides the Nyctite Prophetess, now a wight. She carves her prophecies into the walls, and will ignore others so long as they leave her and the room alone. She will prophesy in exchange for blood. Her eyelids are sewn shut, and within her eye sockets are two pieces of amber, containing spiders, which grant her ability to prophesy.

She "sees" with the aid of the Gold Spider Necklace of the Old Lord of Sipan (google). When worn by a mortal, each of the dozen spiders in the necklace sink their fangs into the wearer and drain his blood (1hp/turn net) and spin several web filaments. They are so thin as to be invisible to the naked eye, but glow in the ethereal plane. The filaments are repelled by each other and thus form a cloud around the wearer. They interact physically with the environment, and this causes the spiders of the necklace to twitch their legs and fangs. A practiced wearer can interpret these motions to "feel" in a 30' cloud about herself. (The prophetess powers the necklace with drained life energy and protein from room 28.)

 33. Square Area: The empty spot in the middle is a long stone "chimney" that leads to the basement of an inn. They throw garbage down the smooth, slippery, magically Silenced chute, unaware of the dungeon or the weird nest of worms spawning below - the worms are Rust Monster grubs and will become fully grown if fed steadily for 1d4+1 years. See ROOM 31. This area is turnable by a (locked) crank which allows only one horizontal exit to be open at a time (currently to the East/ROOM 31). The crank can be unlocked by 3 keys in ROOMS 1d6+20 (roll 3 times). Turning the crank is very noisy.

SOUTH AREA (where red "33" is): Each groove in the wall appears to be a long black alcove with something glittering at the end. A human, crouching, will just fit. Going into an alcove traps the creature in one of the paintings in ROOM 12, freeing the last creature thus trapped. Trapped creatures are depicted as being tortured in the paintings by The Corpulence or a Nyctite. If all paintings are destroyed when a creature enters an alcove, a new painting appears in 12 and a new Nyctite (1-4) or Corpulence (5-6) is summoned into this plane. (alternative: the creature is compelled or Gaes'd to paint a new painting, which summons one of the above.)

 34. Easewild Gaunt a Nyctite musician and Proserpine, her small, malformed servant file musical scores in this antechamber. The scores are written in Ninth Era Nyctite and require 2 rounds to sing. 5 of the 100 songs are magical and have the following effect: google the first line of the song, in quotes. Whatever effect is described in the d4th link with a  coherent line takes place. They work once. The lines in the enchanted scores are:
"The blue flames burned..."
"Water level rose until..."
"Summoned a"
"Then came a pack of"
"A skeleton began to"
-
(Like f'rexample you'd google "Then came a pack of" then roll d3, get a 3, go to the 3rd link, see it says "Then came a pack of wolves to gnaw the bones of the dead men" and that happens)

 35. Old Jonas, the Canvas Stretcher, works here. Though not a Nyctite, he is tolerated for his skills and work ethic. He stretches canvases, usually created using ghoul hair and other unwholesome materials, as well as framing completed works.

If not attacked, he willingly converses with the party, though by normal standards is quite mad, having worked among the Nyctites for so long. He will proudly show off new works by his masters, some of which are cursed. After he shows off a painting, he will ask the party if they wish to see another. Roll 1d6:

-1. This work shows a scene from a random PC's past career, but twisted, so that the PC can be seen as malignant and vile in some manner. From that point on, all who meet the PC will curse and revile him for his deed, effectively giving him a negative reaction roll result. The PC will never be charged or imprisoned by the authorities for this past 'crime', but will be watched carefully by the authorities for future crimes. Remove Curse and the like will work to relieve the curse, but only if the PC commissions a master to create a work of art that shows the same scene with the facts of the matter restored, which will cost 1d6 x 1000 gp. 

-2. This painting appears to be an abstract work, but is in fact a depiction of the howling chaos at the center of existence. Each PC who views it must roll 1d20. If the roll is under their Intelligence, they understand it, and are subject to a confusion spell with no save allowed.

-3. This painting depicts an unfortunate individual being tortured by  a group of enthusiastic Nyctites. Those with knowledge of art, the court or other, similar social scenes will recognize the victim as a noted art critic and raconteur. 

-4. This is a mountainous landscape, under stars. Seemingly beautiful, those with knowledge of theology will recognize it as a scene from an eschatology which predicts the extinction of the Sun by the Mind Flayers.

-5. A portrait of a random PC, which is beautifully executed, and which both diminishes the flaws of the individual and exaggerates their better qualities. The PC so depicted gains 1d3 Charisma, permanently. 

_6. A depiction of a succubus, who seems to plead with the viewer for mercy. One random PC who views the portrait will be approached by the demon depicted, 1d4 weeks after the scenario is over, and offered the succubus' services for life. Alternately, the PC may release the succubus, in exchange for an unspecified rare and valuable item. If the PC accepts the life service, the creature will obey the PC, but will seek to subvert every order to engineer the PC's death. If the item is accepted, then the player will be rewarded with a random cursed magic item. 

Jonas is the equivalent of a 0-level human, with 4 hp.

 36 - Jin Jubboflex, a mouse-man the size of a human child, keeps a flock of 22 shadow-spider hens (see room 7) in barbed wire cages.

Jin is in the employ of the Alchemists, for whom he collects the chickens' eggs and buries them underground to incubate for several weeks before delivering them personally to the Master to use as supernaturally powerful aphrodisiacs.

Fresh eggs are immaculately smooth and utterly black in color. When broken, fire will cast no light in a 40 ft area around where the egg was broken for a duration of 1 hour, though fire itself can still be seen. The yokes are delicious.

Eggs that have been incubated for 3 weeks appear as semi-gellatinous spiders. They twitch, but do not yet move. (They must be exposed to the hatred of both its parents in order to develop into spider-chicks). These are less delicious but are known to be an incredibly powerful aphrodisiac when ingested.

Jin is distressed about the loose hens in room 7, and will offer a dozen eggs of either type if you can return the birds to the roost. While one could possibly harvest their own fresh eggs from the hens already in their cages, only Jin knows where to find the fermented eggs.

The hens act as standard with the following exceptions: When grabbing a hen, PCs must roll under DEX.  If they fail, they have only grabbed 1 wing or leg, and the hen will partially escape - the portion grabbed will remain in the captors hands, but the rest of the hen with will continue running away, unraveling as a strand of spider silk, gossamer thin. Unless the rest of the hen can be captured in 2 rounds and crammed back together, the hen will run itself to its end and may never be reconstituted.

The silk created by this method can be used to make a terribly efficient garrote that causes instant death to any mortal, as long as the assailant and the weapon haven't been seen by any mortal eyes for 20 days. The method to create this weapon is written down in a book near Jin's pile of bedding.

There is a 75% chance that Jin has the key or can otherwise access via mouse man-tunnel any other room in the dungeon. If he does have access, he will allow PCs entry if he believes there are loose hens to be collected. He doesn't know how many hens he should have in total and his mouse-man brain is easily confused.

He also fears, and refuses to talk about, the Rooster.

 37. Blocking the closed doors to 38 and 40 and along the back wall are 1d20+6 "Petitioners" - quiet, bald, emaciated, scarred, clad in dirty robes. They are docile and friendly with visitors until they discover they will not be fed to or by "The Weeping Lord"; then roll on a reaction table at -3. They are unarmed, deceptively robust, coordinated, and vicious when provoked (10 HP each, wounds they inflict bleed next round on hit roll of 16 or more.)

Rushing in from ROOM 50 are a party of NPC adventurers who are missing most of their equipment, and describe a scene totally different from whatever is actually happening in 50. They carry a poor map of the area.

 38 This spherical glass room was built as an immense retort for distilling sentient creatures, their essences rising up through a large pipe on the west wall into chamber 39.

The doors to the room will close and lock shut 10 rounds after a humanoid steps inside, and the room will begin to heat up. After 5 minutes everything inside begins to take damage from the heat and flammable items start to ignite. Damage doubles every 5 minutes for the next hour. The room then cools down for another hour before it is cleaned by unseen servants. The white slurry left over from the distillation process is pushed into room 40 where it is left to harden.

 39 The large pipe from chamber 38 splits off into hundreds of smaller metal pipes that curl and wind about the room. Each pipe leads into it's own sealed copper urn.
There are 20 shelves circling the room, with at least 20 copper urns on each.
A large bald man in a leather smock and gloves wanders the room with a large book and quill. He is Cull Frulien, and he keeps an inventory of every urn and the strange contents within. He does not speak for his tongue has long been cut out of his mouth.
Cull also keeps a fire lit in the center of the room. The smoke rising up to an opening at the center of the ceiling. There are a series of dials and gauges that Cull tends to frequently, regulating the temperature in the room.
If anyone should enter the room, Cull will ring a bell and 3-8 fire mephits will rise from the flames and attack any intruders. Cull can ring the bell and summon more mephits every 6 turns.

 40. Room lined with a strange white, styrofoam-like rock. Stepping on it produces a loud cracking noise. Wandering monsters should be rolled at a rate of one per turn while exploring this room. Any character with a combined weight of more than 250 lbs will fall through the floor down to the next level.

 41. A version of this dungeon exists in three alternate dimensions, linked by room 41. Each time you enter room 41, you enter a different one of the alternate dimensions in sequence, and are there until you enter room 41 again by a different door to go to the next one in sequence. Actions in one dimension, such as gathering the keys to the crank in the turning room just to the south, do not affect the others and must be performed again (or the equivalent puzzled out.) PCs will not see the room "change", and will probably not know they are in a new "version" until something that should be familiar is not.
Spending 12 hours in any one dimension but the PC's original will lock them there, but there are warnings in each.
Prime - the dungeon is as described in the entries here. Room 41 has torches burning in sconces, and an obscure figure is leaving by a different door than the PCs entered.
Dim - the dungeon in this version has a magical dimness reducing all light sources by 1/3, and the dungeon has almost no natural lighting. Creatures that are alive in the other dimensions are undead in this one, and vice versa. The room is not lit.
Bright - all areas are lit with a harsh, even light. Creatures wear strange armor, and the dungeon is a military center of some kind. There is an earthquake currently burying the structure, sirens, emergency, panic, soldiers rushing.

...or make up your own alternates. (Damn these never seem so friggin long til I write em out. I need to check my Greenwood factor.)

 42. There are three pedestals with golden statues of Nyctite figures worth 750 gp each. When one is removed, the room starts shaking, a false wall begins crumbling, and sounds of stone on stone come from the walls. If there is no weight on the three pedestals, another part of the room is revealed with three more statues and a door elsewhere in the dungeon opens.

 43. In this area are stacked boxes, barrels and crates. Hidden behind them is a 14 year old boy, a refugee from 'Bright' (see 41). Dressed in military styled clothing, he speaks no known language, and if discovered will try to communicate with the players. If treated well, he will follow the party, hoping to return to the world he knows.

If he cannot return, he will attach himself to one of the players as a follower, serving loyally and bravely.

The containers in this area serve as supplies for the Nyctites that cannot be made on site. There are 3d12 containers, ranging from the bulky to the ridiculously heavy, each worth 1d20 x 10 gp. The materials vary quite a bit, from raw lumber and leather to brushes and other art supplies.

 44. Empty. The door to 57 is not locked, but the door (which opens into room 44) does not want to open and will offer distinct resistance.

 45. The decor is alien in design and angle, but lush and expensive; the room shows signs of long neglect. It is dominated by two metal-cored extremely lifelike statues of monsters, a heating device that is currently off but can be puzzled out, and a large out of tune Clavicytherium. In the shadowy corners are crumpled papers with Nyctite writings and other trash piled high.

 46. As 44, the door to the center in 57 does not want to open.

47. A psychic Aether Slime that feeds on distinguishing features coats the walls and floor, having consumed the room's contents. Only a few pieces of forgettable furniture and 1d3 featureless creatures remain. A Spider-Hen (7, 36) has partially unravelled itself in one corner to keep the slime at bay, but is running out if body.

48. This room is brightly lit and constantly guarded in shifts by Nyctites in uniform. They are there to guard and keep an eye on Jin (36) as much as the heavily locked crate occupying much of the room. In the crate is an Arachnorooster, fed through slots. The guards don't trust anyone not in a Nyctite uniform, and the crate prevents either door from opening completely.

 49. In this small room are stored spools of Spider-hen thread, which are later woven into brushes by the Nyctites. There are 3d6 spools of thread here, each worth 200 gp to artisans who create artist brushes. Those who create magical works involving painting or illustration to create also greatly desire such tools, which seem to intuit an artist's intent during painting.

50. This is the studio of Pickman, a ghoul. (AC 6 HP 24 HD 4). Dressed in a painter's smock, he willingly puts down his brush and palette, and speaks with the PCs, if addressed in a civil manner.

Though not a Nyctite, Pickman tolerates the sect because the superior brushes, paints and facilities they offer him. While still a ghoul, he is able to control his appetites (for the most part). The charnel scent of the ghoul is somewhat masked by the fumes of the pigments present in the room, which has a number of half-completed canvases, as well as easel, trowels, etc. If queried, he attempts to offer answers to the PC's questions he believes they can comprehend.

Some possible questions and answers are detailed below, which are offered as examples to aid in improvising your own responses.

Who are the Nyctites?

An artist's commune.

Why are they so icky?

They have gone mad, after visiting Room 52.

What's in room 52?

A god. Holy and terrible.

Which god?

I cannot say for certain, as I would burn if I entered. Long ago I decided that my talent, though mediocre, would be sufficient; I did not seek to augment it by exposure to the holy ones. The Nyctites sought otherwise; now you may judge their works.

Are your paintings natural, or are they cursed?

Worse than either of those. For the most part, they are simply bad.

In fact, most of his paintings are beautiful, disquieting, and even haunting. Most of them are nightscapes and portraits of people he has eaten.

Generally speaking, most of the information he imparts to the PCs is probably false.

51. Deep archives of Easewild Gaunt (ROOM 34) and servant. Dusty furniture of maroon wood and yellow bone, with Nyctite scores on thick aging parchement that feels like skin (see ROOM 34 for effects). Scattered about the room are skeletons in the party's clothing. Towards the middle are copies of the party's clothing, torn, ripped, stripped in a hurry. In the center are clones of the party, naked, wide-eyed, afraid.

"noticed my body becoming"
"stuck in time loops"
"touched by unseen"
"sensitive to touch"
"felt a presence"

52. Only Nyctites or creatures related to The Corpulence may enter this room without suffering the below effects.
For all others, they will wake up 1d6 turns later in a room determined by rolling 2d20. They will only remember a void that spoke of the meaninglessness of all things, the heartlessness of Gods, a blue flame that burned away all that they were, an endless ocean rippling with mad knowledge.
Roll 3d6 on the following chart to determine physical state of anyone who has entered this chamber and awoken in another.
3 - dead, 30% chance their ghost haunts one of their items
4 - flesh is a quivering mass of jelly that screams horribly and discorporates in 1d4 rounds unless Remove Curse or Dispel Magic are immediately cast on it
5 - an animate skeleton of the opposite alignment they were in life
6 - an animate skeleton that will serve the will of the first person to speak to it
7 - a Zombie with the intelligence and motivations of the original character but a thirst for living flesh of the same race
8 - a Nyctite of the same general appearance but no new knowledge
9-11 - healed 1d4 HP or harmed 1d4 HP if at full health when entered 52/57
12 - mutated http://www.random-generator.com/index.php?title=Mutation
13 - a Nyctite that can access memories as if raised a Nyctite by rolling under WIS -3 each attempt
14 - knows the quickest way to that which was most desired when entered 52/57
15 - can now speak to and understand a randomly determined insect or monster
16 - clockwork version of self
17 - roll on Resurrection Table (1-2 Priest 3-4 Magic User)
18 - Add one to Ability of Player's choice; wears off in 1d4 weeks

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6 comments:

Artifice said...

Brilliant. It's varied, interesting, and fun. I'll definitely be shoehorning this into my weekly campaign with a few setting alterations. Great job, G+.

Izar Talon said...

Holy Nyarlathotep, a Shoggoth!

This is one friggin' tough dungeon. I like it.

Nate L. said...

Thanks for this.I ran this in a pinch one night after my computer died. It's deceptively big and also deceptively difficult to run due to lack of detail in many places. So I wrote some deets to help out, here's the link, new ideas about halfway down:

http://swampofmonsters.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-galleries-of-nyctites-played.html?m=1

Zak Sabbath said...

@anon

Sorry--no anonymous comments allowed

Unknown said...

Weird, I selected the google account option, not sure why it defaulted to Anonymous. Strange. If it shows up as that again let me know, because blogger might be having errors.

Zak Sabbath said...

@unknown

Yeah blogger might be having errors

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