Wedged into a wide precipice along the far slopes of Pale Mountain sits the crumbling ruins of a once massive temple. Passing centuries have weathered its stones, and while some of the outer walls remain standing, they have collapsed in several places, leaving the temple grounds open to any who would approach. The House of the Beast’s fearsome reputation as being a place haunted by the ghosts of genies has been its traditional defense against explorers—that, and its remote location and the angry tribes of Rovagug-worshiping humanoids who still dwell within.
Like a child’s sandcastle carelessly placed before hungry waves that lap against shore, the forgotten temple rests, nestled in the crags of the Pale Mountain. Its crumbling spires and domes bask in the pale grayish glow of the alien twilight of the mountain skies. The scope of such a creation seems implausible in such a remote location, yet it isn’t hard to question why one might choose such a spectacular setting. Indeed, it seems unlikely that there exists another so close to the realm of the gods.
Among the broken stones and empty fountains, dry thorny shrubs poke through packed clay soil sprinkled with shards of bone. The temple would almost appear deserted if not for the ominous feeling of dread and the few dozen gory warnings hung upon the outer walls; headless bodies thick with swarms of black flies.
Most of the aged flagstones in the courtyard lie loose, cracked, and dusted with pebbles and other debris. In several areas indicated on the map of the Outer Temple, the terrain is littered with large chunks of broken walls, while in other areas the ground is completely torn up. Treat these sections as difficult terrain, and a disadvantage to all Balance and Tumble checks to creatures within their premises. The remaining soil consists of hard and dusty clay that greedily devours water. Few plants bear the fortitude to survive among the ruins, but a few short trees, shrubs, and plenty of lichen grow on toppled stones or ruined works. The air is remarkably dry and crisp, but the generally comfortable temperatures during the day can drop close to freezing at night.
Despite the extensive structural damage dealt by harsh winters and blazing summer suns, the temple still provides enough shelter to attract all sorts of creatures to lair within. In addition to the Tribe of the Carrion King, the temple hosts a clan of troglodytes, a gang of escaped slaves, a clutch of gargoyles, and all manner of monstrous vermin and beasts. The ruins are presented here as they exist in a neutral state—once the PCs begin their forays into the ruins, the inhabitants may begin changing their routines as indicated in the text. As the PCs explore, they’ll begin to the intricacies of its current bickering inhabitants—let the PCs explore the place as they will, but remember the House of the Beast is an organic, living dungeon. If the PCs make multiple attacks against the gnolls, they should find the gnolls adapting their defenses as best they can to work against the particular methods the PCs favor. There are quite a few entrances into the temple as well, and no one assumed route to the deepest point below—the adventure concludes when the PCs recover the Scroll of Kakishon, but the House of the Beast is vast. Just because the adventure concludes doesn’t mean the PCs can’t continue to explore the ruins to their hearts’ content.
Two small minarets guard the entrance of a low stone structure topped with the ruins of a small dome. Centuries of mountain winds have sand-blasted the western faces of the minarets to a smooth, polished finish, while the eastern sides facing the temple walls still bear illegible traces of ancient icons and calligraphy.
A Level 4 (12) Search check of the tower’s ground floor reveals a set of partially buried stairs leading down. The lower portion of the staircase has been shored up with timbers and rocks. Trailing down the stairwell hangs a worn, knotted rope neatly tied around a nearby chunk of broken column. The stairwell leads to subterranean chambers that connect to the Warrens, a series of rough-hewn passages that provide covert access to the Great Dome.
Creatures: During a recent troglodyte attack, five human slaves escaped from their gnoll keepers into this section of the temple. The escaped slaves managed to seize and fortify the western gatehouse, but they lack the resources necessary to escape the temple grounds and survive the long trek through the mountains to civilization, especially with the force of mounted Carrion Guards searching for them. They desperately seek alternate methods of escape. Hiding within the ruins near the stairwell, two slaves watch for signs of intruders. If they notice the PCs, they watch them quietly for a few minutes before deciding to make contact.
Most of the slaves wish to leave immediately, and they beg the PCs to lead them back to safety. The slaves know a fair amount about the temple grounds, and can warn the PCs of the denizens of the outbuildings. Their knowledge of the main temple is somewhat limited; they can describe to the PCs the general layout of areas G1–G3, H1, H9–H14, I1–I2, I6, and I13, and tell them that there are more slaves still held below.
The slaves’ initial attitude toward the PCs is indifferent, but if they’re armed, armored, and made helpful, they agree to aid the PCs in their efforts against the gnolls. Otherwise, they cower here until they are led to safety.
Level 2 (6): Health 6; Damage 4 (Club); Climbing, Jumping and Perception as Level 4; Languages Common, Osiriani
TACTICS
Before Combat The slaves try to remain concealed and split as soon as they sense trouble coming.
During Combat The slaves fight defensively, seeking the opportunity to escape and usher a warning to their brethren below; though not if doing so would jeopardize the secrecy of their lair.
Morale These ex-slaves value freedom above all else; if given the opportunity to take it, they do so. If badly injured, they flee, unless it means leaving one of their own behind to be enslaved. Tough as nails, they remain determined never to be broken or captured again, and when escape isn’t an option, they always fight to the death. If subdued or captured, they become belligerent, even suicidal, and if possible fling themselves off the ruins to their deaths, along with their captors.
Ad Hoc Experience Award: Each slave that the PCs successfully escort back to Kelmarane earns the party experience as if he had been defeated in combat.
A lopsided minaret, its stacked layers sloppy and precarious, casts a long shadow across the courtyard. A weatherworn coil of stairs scrambles about its perimeter, ascending a hundred feet or so. The stairs slope slightly toward the outer edge and no rails exist to prevent an unsteady climber from tumbling off onto the shards of rubble below.
A Level 7 Search check made in the northwestern corner of this ruined building reveals a rubble-filled depression near a wall that looks like a clogged stairwell. These rubble-choked stairs lead down to area H12 after 30 feet of densely packed debris. If the PCs clear the rubble, they’ll have a relatively secure way to enter the House of the Beast itself without being seen by the gnolls who guard and patrol the rest of the complex.
Creatures: This ruined tower has become a favored perch for a family of gargoyles who have laired here for several generations. The gargoyles generally don’t bother with the gnolls or troglodytes, but if they spy PCs wandering nearby, a group of two swoops down to attack.
In all, there are currently eight gargoyles living here, but at any one time only half that number are found in this ruin, with the others out scouring the surrounding mountains for food. The gargoyles generally break into pairs when confronting enemies, but all four remaining in the north gate band together to defend their lair if anyone attempts to pass through it. The gargoyles have little interest in speaking with anyone in any case, and little reason to listen to offers of alliance.
Treasure: A Level 7 Search of the rubble inside the north gate made over the course of 10 minutes uncovers a small cache of treasure kept by the gargoyles—keepsakes from past victims that caught their eyes. This stash consists of 820 sp, 450 gp, an amethyst worth 90 gp, a cracked turquoise worth 11 gp, a scroll of obscuring mist in a silver scroll tube worth 40 gp, and a wand of bear’s endurance (5 temp pool points to might; depletion 1 on a 1d4)
Protruding from beyond the safety of the western temple wall stands a fortified gatehouse built around a forty-foot-diameter dome covered in pale blue, flaking mosaic tile. Behind the dome stand a pair of slender spires. The top of the northernmost spire sheers off at a jagged angle about three-quarters of the way up, while the other bears extensive cracks circling its foundation.
A tribe of troglodytes occupies this section of the ruins. For complete descriptions of these ruins, refer to Part Three.
A trio of towering minarets stands tall at the center of the temple courtyard.
No ground-level entrances exist to the interiors of these minarets. Forty feet above the courtyard floor, a set of open window arches permits access to those able to reach them with flight or a Level 4 Climb check. Within the minarets, spiral stairs offer access to upper and lower levels. Stairs connect to landings set at 50-foot increments correlating with the location of the open arches. They continue upward until they reach the final landing at a dizzying height of 120 feet above the courtyard. The view from any of the top floors provides a full aerial panorama of the temple and its grounds.
The windows in the western minaret are caked with webs. Inside, the stairs leading down are also shrouded with webs—this stairwell is the entrance to a giant spider lair. The sticky floor leading down is treated as difficult terrain and descends to area H19. Those who watch the minaret long enough are treated to the nightmare sight every dusk of the enormous black funnel-web spider squeezing out of one of the larger windows and clambering down the side to silently stalk off into the surrounding hills to hunt. Then, near dawn, the spider returns, clambering back into its den.
The central minaret’s stairs lead down to area I4, but halfway down an old door sits in the southern wall on a narrow landing. This door opens into area H6, a collapsed tunnel—opening it from the stairwell side reveals nothing but densly packed rubble.
The eastern minaret’s stairs lead down to the Carrion King’s court in area I2, although the door there is locked with arcane lock (Level 4).
Along the east wall stands a thick gatehouse of ancient stone flanked by pale, crumbling minarets. On either side, worn steps burrow into the structure and twist inward, leading up to an open patio of cracked-tile mosaic. Holes in the surrounding brick indicate where wooden beams once spanned the patio, perhaps supporting rows of grape vines. Elsewhere, dry fountains, broken shards of pottery, and a worn stone trough indicate traces of what was once a lush and well-tended garden.
Currently, the gatehouse’s sole decoration consists of swarms of black flies buzzing above scattered piles of fetid dung. One of the fountains is filled with cracked bones of various humanoids. A Level 4 Knowledge (local) check identifies them as troglodyte bones—all are marred with numerous teeth marks.
Creatures: A pair of hyaenodon-mounted Carrion Guards patrols this gate, keeping constant watch for trespassers. If they spot intruders approaching they hunker down behind statues or rubble, waiting for them to come within 40 feet before lunging out of hiding to attack.
In addition to their scimitars and longbows, each carrion warrior carries a devious and hideous ranged weapon they call a “stingchuck.”
Health: 10
Armor: 2
Damage: Scimitar 4 damage; Longbow 4 damage + poison; stingchuck 4 damage + Level 3 nausea (1 damage vermin (no armor defense) and no action for 2 rounds)
Movement: Short
Modification: Darkvision
Languages: Gnoll
Combat: A Carrion Guard always opens combat by hurling his stingchuck if he can, then follows up with shots from his longbow, moving between shots as necessary to maintain ranged advantage. When mounted on a hyaenodon, a Carrion Guard usually takes 1 or 2 rounds to attack at range before riding into melee to continue the fight with scimitar and to allow his mount a chance to bite at foes.
Equipment: leather armor, heavy wooden shield, mwk scimitar, mwk composite longbow with 20 arrows (poisoned with Huge scorpion venom; Level 4 Might Defense Check, 4/4 Might damage), stingchuck; cypher potion of healing (restore 1d6 pool points)
Morale: Carrion Guards are fiercely loyal to their king and fight to the death.
Health: 14
Damage: 5; Free Trip check if they hit with bite attack
Armor: 2
Movement: Long
Modification: Perception and Tracking checks at Level 5; Trip at Level 6
Combat: During Combat As mounts, hyaenodons follow the lead of their riders; otherwise they charge single opponents and gnash them with their powerful jaws.
Morale Fearless almost to the point of stupidity, a hyaenodon fights to the death.
A stingchuck is a foul bag made of a human’s head with the brain removed and the skull heavily scored so that, when the stingchuck is thrown, the whole thing breaks and splits like a ripe melon upon striking a target. The gnolls fill stingchucks with dozens of stinging insects patiently (and often painfully) harvested from nests on the lower slopes of Pale Mountain.
A stingchuck is a grenade-like weapon. When it strikes a target, it douses that target with dozens of ravenous biting and stinging vermin, inflicting 1d6 points of damage and forcing a Level 3 Might Defense save to avoid being nauseated for 2 rounds. Each round a victim remains nauseated by a stingchuck, he takes an additional 1 point of damage from the biting vermin (bypasses armor). All creatures within 5 feet of a bursting stingchuck take 1 point of damage from the biting insects that pepper them, but need not make Might Defense check to avoid being nauseated.
In the southwest section of the temple rises a large, bronzeplated dome set atop a raised stone foundation. The dome is badly cracked and a gaping hole mars the southwest wall. Several human-sized, brownish-black, egg-shaped objects lie about the yard surrounding the dome.
Creature: A massive serpent resides in the dome—an ancient rock python that is preparing to shed its skin. The snake is particularly ill-tempered as a result. His brown-flecked patterning and bumpy scales allow him to blend in perfectly with his surroundings, despite his immense form. The strange egg-shaped objects are serpent droppings.
Giant constrictor snake
Treasure: One of the larger serpent droppings contains the mostly digested remains of a human. A Level 6 Search of this foul mass turns up a bony finger still adorned with a blue crystal minor ring of fire resistance.
Rising from the center of the temple grounds is a tremendous dome of stone, brass, and crumbling plaster. The great dome sits on a octagonal base, inlaid in intricate geometric patterns with thousands of colored glass tiles. Time and the elements have reduced their once bright colors to faded pastel hues of blue, green, and yellow. In several places, the tiles have been completely worn away, exposing plaster and brickwork beneath.
The Great Dome is occupied by the Carrion King and his tribe—for a complete description of these ruins, consult Part Four: The Great Dome.