The Carrion Tribe occupies the top three levels of the House of the Beast, yet there exist two additional levels even deeper than the site’s Lower Temple, the presence of which is unguessed at by any in the upper works save for Zayifid himself. And while Zayifid suspects these levels exist, the PCs might not. In fact, it’s somewhat possible that PCs who aren’t curious or attentive might even miss out on these last two levels entirely—especially if they focus on killing the Carrion King as their primary or only goal in the House of the Beast. Since what comes next in the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path depends on the PCs exploring the Stone Speakers and the Pit of Screaming Ghosts, it’s important that they do find their way down there eventually.
Both of these lower levels, the Stone Speakers and the Pit of Screaming Ghosts, are still warded by several ancient forbiddance spells placed there by Jhavhul’s followers.
Unlike standard forbiddance spells, which hedge out specific alignments, these variants hedged out only genies (and, of course, all forms of teleportation and similar magic travel). The efreeti knew that this made it difficult for him to escape the chambers should he ever be cornered there, but felt that was a small price to pay for the added security—especially since his genie enemies would be equally prevented from using methods like teleport, ethereal jaunt, and the like to invade his sanctum. This effect is both what prevented Zayifid from using such methods to seek out the lower levels and what convinced him that such levels must exist—why else would someone go though the trouble to block ethereal travel to such a large area?
In addition, the contents of these chambers are under the effects of a permanent screen effect as well; anyone who attempts to scry within these chambers sees only solid stone. Both of these effects served to create a potent blind to hide the location of the Scroll of Kakishon from its enemies. When the gnoll priestess Shirak retreated here (and soon thereafter died) with the scroll, she inadvertently and unknowingly doomed her lord Jhavhul to centuries of obscurity, hidden in a tomb of his own making. Both of these effects function at CL 16th, but can only be dispelled by a caster of equal or greater level.
This section summarizes the methods you can use to reveal to the PCs the existence of these lower levels and how to encourage them to continue the adventure.
Chance: The only conventional entrance to these lower levels is via the hidden passageway under the Maggot Throne in area I2. While this entrance is hidden, it’s not an insanely difficult task to discover the mechanism for anyone more attentive than the Carrion King (who doesn’t suspect that his favorite haunt is in fact a doorway). If the PCs discover this entrance on their own, curiosity may well simply do the trick and encourage them to continue down into area J1; in this case, if Zayifid still lives, he soon learns of the discovery. Still disguised as a gnoll, he follows along behind the PCs, hoping to let them take all the risks and then ambush them when they discover the Scroll of Kakishon in an attempt to win the priceless artifact for himself.
Clues: Area H7 is itself relatively well hidden, but if the PCs find their way in there, Zayifid’s notes should be enough to tell them that something more exists below, and that the Maggot Throne is likely a point of interest.
Deception: If the PCs defeat the Carrion King but haven’t yet encountered Zayifid in his disguised form as Rokova, the false gnoll quickly seeks them out if he wasn’t at the scene of the fight with the Carrion King. He may try to hire the PCs to investigate the lower levels, and is even willing to promise them he’ll disband the Carrion Tribe entirely if they go along with his desire to explore the lower levels. He says only that rumors held that a powerful gnoll priest was buried in the House of the Beast’s vaults, and that he believes those vaults are below.
The forbiddance prevents Zayifid from accompanying the PCs, but he agrees to send along several Carrion Guards as “help.” He also agrees to split any treasures found there with the PCs, but of course once the group emerges with the scroll, Zayifid quickly turns on the PCs and attempts to claim the Scroll of Kakishon as his own.
Servitude: If the PCs are captured, Zayifid uses the disruptions they’ve created to stage a coup and assassinates the Carrion King. Still disguised as a gnoll, he then informs the PCs that he’s decided to give them a chance at freedom. They are to accompany several Carrion Guards down into the chambers below and to locate what he seeks—a scroll buried with a gnoll named Shirak. If the PCs do this, he promises to let them go. He’ll grant the PCs some of their equipment to increase their chances, but holds back on fully returning confiscated gear (to a point you feel comfortable with the PCs’ chances). Of course, when the PCs recover the scroll, Zayifid plans on killing them anyway, but there are plenty of opportunities and treasures along the way for the PCs to claim to bolster their chances against Zayifid when they return.
Windspeaker: Finally, if all else fails to prod the PCs onward, you can use the spirit of the janni templar Vardishal to urge the PCs via the windspeaker if one of the characters gained this title in the previous adventure. In this case, Vardishal can sense the close proximity of the Scroll of Kakishon and Zayifid, and knows that allowing Zayifid to claim control of the Scroll of Kakishon would be a bad move. Unfortunately, in its current state, Vardishal can’t convey this information directly to the PCs. What he can do, though, is fill the windspeaker with suspicion whenever Zayifid is around (granting 2 assets on all Sense Motive checks made against Zayifid’s Bluffs) and an urge to examine the Maggot Throne for secret doors once the windspeaker first sets eyes on it. In his strange new form as part of the windspeaker, Vardishal is no longer considered a genie and can come and go into the area’s forbiddance with ease.
Under the temple itself lie two additional sub-levels; the chambers of the Stone Speakers and the Pit of Screaming Ghosts. These were once the hidden homes of Jhavhul’s agents and the efreeti himself when he visited the temple, and used to serve as the entrance to the chambers much deeper under Pale Mountain where Xotani’s corpse lies. This route is closed now, but in the last adventure in Legacy of Fire the route is reopened.
A set of granite-hewn stairs spirals down into the darkness. When the secret lever on the Maggot Throne in area I2 is triggered, this spiral staircase is revealed. Halfway down, the stairs veer off to the east and the air grows both humid and strangely full of the smells of decaying vegetation.
This chamber is an unexpected sight—an elaborate underground garden lit by softly glowing crystals in the ceiling twenty feet above. Gravel walkways wind between verdant trees and shrubs that rustle softly in a gentle breeze that seems to come from nowhere. As the garden’s centerpiece, cracked granite benches surround a cobblestone fountain filled with crystal-clear water. To the south, a gently flowing creek runs across a pebbly streambed that passes through a rock garden and into an iron grill drain along a passageway to the south. To the north, a lone almond tree stands in alcove, while to the west, a double arch leads to a small circular room. Four sandstone sculptures chiseled into the forms of huge angry faces stand throguhout the room.
Sustained still by powerful magic, the contents of this garden are quite real. The water is pure and drinkable, the almonds from the trees are delicious and always ripe, and the stone benches are unusually comfortable.
Anyone who rests in this chamber finds that the period of relaxation is quite invigorating—a rest of 1 hour provides the same rejuvenation as a full night’s sleep (10 hour rest), and the almonds from the tree function as if a full meal was consumed and restores 1 pool point when picked (the tree produces 30 almonds a day—an almond lasts for 24 hours after being picked before rotting away).
A creature may benefit from these qualities no more than once per day.
Creatures: Elemental forces lie in wait within the four monolithic heads that guard the chamber. One round after the first PC enters the room, the mouths of these four heads yawn open to belch gouts of fire and smoke, summoning four rasts from the Elemental Plane of Fire to confront the intruders. These rasts pursue intruders and fight to the death, vanishing after 10 rounds have passed. The monolithic heads can summon rasts only once per day.
This bulbous creature consists of many tangled legs, a bulging body of puffed flesh, and a mouth filled with sharp fangs.
Health: 13
Armor: 3
Immune to fire
Vulnerable to cold
Damage: 4 claw attacks 4 dmg and bite attack 4 damage + grab
Movement: Long (Fly)
Size: Medium
Skills: Level 6 on fly, initiative checks
Language: Ignan (understand only)
Combat: Once battle begins rast swarm through the skies like schools of fish, their movements precise and coordinated despite their thrashing limbs. When they come across a likely target, they descend en masse, paralyzing those foes susceptible to their gaze and then abandoning them temporarily to focus on any opponents that remain mobile and dangerous, slashing with their claws and latching on with thick-lipped mouths to suck their victims’ blood and viscera.
Paralytic Gaze: Paralyze target within short range for 3 rounds. Target can make a check each round.
Blood drain: Grabbed foe suffers from 3 blood drain damage each round.
Morale: Rast fight to the death.
This empty room has a tall ceiling, rising up thirty feet to a dome thick with cobwebs.
This chamber once served as a portal to even deeper chambers far below Pale Mountain—it was these chambers that Jhavhul kept as his own lair, and which leads eventually to the Firebleeder’s Grave deep underground.
This portal has long since fallen dormant, and currently no clues exist to indicate what purpose the room once served. The PCs will be returning to this chamber later, in the last installment of Legacy of Fire, when they will confront Jhavhul in his hidden chambers below—for now, this room should be played off as simply an empty, uninteresting chamber.
In the center of the room stands a complex metal-and-stone frame that forms a strange bell-shaped cage over the central section of the ground. Eight stone bars arch down to encircle a fifteen-foot-wide section of the room—these bars are five feet apart where they connect to the floor, and around each bar’s foot rise strange rune-like projections and what seem to be screaming faces trying to emerge from the stone.
The “cage” is in fact the upper section of a magical stairwell powered by elemental forces; the bars themselves are bound earth elementals that serve as the way to the crypts below known as the Pit of Screaming Ghosts. The elementals remain dormant until any part of the cage or the nearby pillar is touched, at which point the entire device grinds and begins to shift and move, almost as if it were waking up and animating, but the structure doesn’t actually do much more until someone steps through the bars into the circular area underneath. At this point, the stone floor begins to gently ripple and swell, almost like the surface of a wind-tossed lake, yet creatures can walk on the surface as if it were difficult terrain. Runes written in Terran rise up from the floor, only to sink back down and rise again elsewhere. Anyone who can read Terran can understand these runes, which read: “By your command shall the Pit of Screaming Ghosts be opened.”
The magical stairwell can be triggered in two ways.
By speaking aloud, in Terran, a character can command the elementals to “open the way” or otherwise open the doorway to the Pit of Screaming Ghosts. The elementals aren’t completely stupid, and as long as what the speaker asks seems to indicate their desire to travel to the Pit of Screaming Ghosts, the elementals comply, even if the request is spoken by someone not inside the room.
Alternatively, any spell with the earth descriptor that is cast in this room triggers the opening of the way, as does casting any spell with the air descriptor.
If the PCs command the elementals in Terran or cast an earth spell, the bound elementals reshape the stone between this room and area K1 below, transforming it into a spiral staircase that winds down for 100 feet. If the PCs trigger this transformation with an air spell, the transformation is much more abrupt and instantaneous—in this case, any creature standing inside the cage must make a Level 5 Speed check to avoid falling into the sudden opening, tumbling down the stairs to area K1 and taking 10 points of damage along the way.
This vast, natural cavern glitters and shines from what appears to be a king’s ransom. Well over a hundred feet across and fifty feet high, the floor of the cavern is a sea of gold coins, lush carpets and tapestries, statues, weapons, armor, immense gemstones, and glittering artifacts. At the center of the cavern, a stone pillar rises forty feet from the treasure strewn floor, and a stone spiral stairway rises up from the top of this pillar to the roof twenty feet above. A curving flight of stairs winds down from the top of this pillar into the sea of treasure below.
Of course, this chamber is not actually the vast hoard of treasure it seems to be, but rather a dangerous deathtrap.
The only clue to the trap lies on the bottom-most step leading down from the stairs. Carved onto this step in Ignan is a short phrase: “So Shall You Be Devoured.”
The treasure pile is in fact several permanent images (Level 4 Intellect Check) placed here long ago by Jhavhul (CL 12th) to mask the floor of the cavern as well as an open archway along the southern wall. The floor beneath the glittering illusion is covered by 6 inches of water beneath a layer of green slime.
Anyone who interacts with the “treasure” without standing on it has a 50% chance of brushing against a patch of green slime, and anyone who moves through the treasure automatically contacts the stuff. Interacting with the treasure allows a Level 4 Intellect Check each round to disbelieve the illusion. The illusion is powerful enough to mask the sensation and sound of sloshing through the water, but once someone falls victim to green slime, the additional clue grants an asset on the intellect check to disbelieve the illusion. The slime itself subsists on the vast host of bugs and subterranean wall-crawlers that live their entire lives on the walls and ceiling of this cavern, but offers no danger to characters who don’t attempt to walk through the stuff.
In all, there are dozens of patches of green slime here—a single remove disease effect removes only one 5-foot square, while cold, fire, and sunlight destroy any slime in its area (but not beyond its reach).
A single 5-foot square of green slime deals 4 points of ambient Might damage per round while it devours flesh. On the first round of contact, the slime can be scraped off a creature (destroying the scraping device), but after that it must be frozen, burned, or cut away (dealing damage to the victim as well). Anything that deals cold or fire damage, sunlight, or a remove disease spell destroys a patch of green slime. Against wood or metal, green slime deals 6 points of damage per round, ignoring metal’s hardness but not that of wood. It does not harm stone.
A dozen or so flat-topped, cylindrical stone posts rise from the caustic sludge, each spaced 5 feet apart and presenting a dangerous hopping route that provides a clue to the position of the hidden archway to the south. Hopping from one post to the next takes a Level 3 Jump check since there’s not really enough room to get a running start.
Failure indicates the jumper lands in the green slime.
Embedded into the top of each post is a mosaic-covered stone lid etched with complex runes. A Level 5 Knowledge (arcana or religion) check is enough to recognize these runes as symbols meant to imprison undead spirits.
Creatures: Each of the stone posts is in fact hollow, containing a 10-foot-deep cylindrical chamber in which lie the desiccated bones of a long-dead genie who in some way wronged Jhavhul. These oubliettes were designed not only to imprison live victims, but to trap their animating spirits as well in a state of eternal awareness and helpless imprisonment. These spirits are evil ghost-like undead genies called edimmus, and in most of the cases, they are safely locked away in their graves. Yet four of the posts have cracked over the ages, allowing the angry spirits within to escape. These four edimmus now haunt the cavern—unable to travel far from their physical remains, they have long since succumbed to madness and rage. The undead genies don’t notice intruders into their cavern immediately, but as soon as someone flies, sets foot on a stone plug, or stumbles into a patch of green slime, the undead genies do so and, shrieking in rage, rise up from their plug graves to attack.
A flickering ghostly form soaring upon a front of roiling storm clouds, its skeletal torso lies cloaked in tattered wrappings. Powerful winds seem to lash about the spectre, and malevolent embers flare within its eye sockets as its claw-like fingerbones reach forth.
Health: 12
Damage: 5 Intellect damage
Movement: Short
Modification: Stealth as level 7; tasks related to frightening creatures as level 6; Speed Defense Level 5
Language: Auran, Qadiran
Combat: A Edimmu doesn’t take damage from mundane physical sources, but it takes half damage from spells and attacks that direct energy, and full damage from weapons designed to affect spirits, psychic attacks, and similar attacks.
As soon as it detects a living creature, an edimmu uses its moan special ability to sow discord before attacking with its frigid touch. If foes prove they are able to harm the edimmu, it lies out of reach.
A Edimmu's touch inflicts freezing damage.
Moan: An edimmu’s sorrowful moans force every living creature within short range to make an Intellect Defense save to avoid becoming shaken (disadvantage to all checks for a minute).
Life Implosion: Once an edimmu reaches 0 health it collapses upon itself, imploding with a final shriek that rips the life force from nearby creatures. Any living being within short range of the edimmu at the time of its destruction must succeed a Might Defense save or drop one step down the damage track.
Rejuvenation: Upon an edimmu’s destruction, the magics that bind it to the mortal world linger on. Thus, 1d4+1 days after an edimmu’s destruction, the creature reforms with full health. The only way to destroy an edimmu is with an atonement spell. The atonement absolves the creature of its sins and sorrows, allowing it to finally return to its native plane.
Illusion: Can weave elaborate illusions that cover a short range.
A edimmu can move through solid objects of up to level 7 at will, although it can choose to pick up and manipulate objects if it focuses on them.
Ecology: Edimmus rise from the corpses of slain genies unable to return to their elemental homelands. Whether through powerful magics or as part of bargains made with mortal spellcasters, genies occasionally find themselves tied to the Material Plane for a specific term or until they complete a set task. As the conditions of some such magics remain binding even in death, genies that perish before the terms of their service are fulfilled sometimes manifest as creatures of uncontrolled fury. Even in their undead state, these genies still possess a measure of their mastery over the elements, using their powers to seek revenge upon those who led them to be trapped to their horrifying forms.
Edimmus are ghostly, with ancient-looking, hunched skeletal frames that make them appear shorter than their average 6-foot heights.
Any character who succeeds on a Level 5 Knowledge (local) check can recall these wards, which have the following effects:
• Edimmus cannot pass over a circle of ox blood.
• Edimmus will not harm a genie or other elemental creature.
• Edimmus will not harm anyone who covers his or her body with funerary runes.
• Edimmus will not harm anyone wearing a burial shroud or similar funerary garb.
• Edimmus cannot stand the sound of a dirge and will flee anyone playing such somber music.
Treasure: 1 - 2 random cyphers, 20% artifact.
Morale Edimmu are fearless and fight until destroyed or dismissed.
This chamber seems to be a temple with a sand-covered floor.
The room shows signs of damage, with cracks running across the floors, walls, and ceiling. In the center looms a huge and horrific many-tentacled creature apparently frozen in a shell of translucent minerals. A single line of runes is carved into the northern face of a low stone pedastal on which this immense monster seems to have been frozen.
The words carved on the pillar are in Terran, and read as follows: “And lo, those who speak not the truths of Rovagug shall be the first to be consumed by the Waiting Beast,” a warning to those who would seek to travel farther into the room.
Creature: The creature atop the pedastal is a mighty sand kraken, one of many horrific predators held in high regard by the cult of Rovagug. Normally immobile, this sand kraken is a more active hunter that can crawl and burrow to seek out prey. It appears as a 10-tentacled squidlike monstrosity with huge eyes and a fang-filled mouth.
This particular sand kraken is the guardian of the vaults to the south, a creature known during the cult’s height under Jhavhul’s rule as the Waiting Beast. Preserved in stasis (with an effect similar to a long-lasting statue spell), the Waiting Beast is patient and potent here, fully aware of its surroundings. The creature remains motionless as long as no one travels more than 5 feet into the room. The command to “speak the truths of Rovagug” is a warning to address the Waiting Beast, in Terran, by reciting any prayer to Rovagug as proof that the visitor is a true follower.
It’s a Level 4 Knowledge (religion) check for a non-worshiper of Rovagug to recall a prayer or invocation to the Rough Beast. If such a prayer is offered, the Waiting Beast allows the speaker only to pass unmolested through the room.
A huge, bloated, eyeless, formless octopus rises from the sand. From its pale, yellow shapeless body sprouts ten long tentacles tipped with cruel barbed pads.
Health: 30
Armor: 4
Speed Defense Level 4(12)
Damage: 10 tentacle attacks 5 damage + grab (Constrict or Bite for 5 damage)
Movement: Short (burrow)
Size: Large aberration
Modifications: Level 6 grab checks, Tremorsense within short range.
Language: Terran
Combat: Anyone who does not offer a prayer to the Waiting Beast and moves farther than 5 feet into this room immediately wakens the sand kraken. With the sound of hundreds of shattering crystals, the creature shakes off its calcite coating and comes to life, immediately attacking the transgressor. It does not attack anyone who offered a proper prayer unless that creature attacks first. If possible, it splits its tentacle attacks among as many different targets as it can.
Camouflage: Because it remains buried until it attacks, it takes a successful Level 5 Perception check to detect the presence of a sand kraken before it attacks. Anyone with ranks in Survival or Knowledge (nature) can use one of those skills instead of Perception to notice the sand kraken.
Constrict: A sand kraken deals 5 points of damage with a successful grab check.
Tentacles: The only part of a sand kraken that is normally exposed is its tentacles. For combat purposes, the creature’s tentacles are treated as separate weapons. A single tentacle has an Armor 4 and 10 health. Once a tentacle takes more than 10 damage, it is destroyed. A sand kraken can no longer use the destroyed tentacle to make attacks, however the loss of a tentacle cause the creature no other penalties. Furthermore, damage dealt to a tentacle does not count against the creature’s total hit points. Lost tentacles regrow in 3 days.
Morale: The Waiting Beast fights to the death, but does not pursue foes out of this room. If attacked from beyond at range, it simply closes the doors or slides to the north or south of the door to get out of line of sight. If this tactic doesn’t protect it, the monster begrudgingly thunders forth from the room to attack foes beyond.
This large crypt contains three vaulted alcoves that form a clover-shaped room centered upon a dais. Atop the dais rests a single massive block of deep black stone. Carvings in each alcove and on the sarcophagus itself depict the terrifying image of a nine-legged spider with a gaping maw.
The block of stone is Shirak’s sarcophagus, and can be opened with a Level 5 Might check. Of course, the ancient gnoll priestess was much favored by Rovagug, and anyone who tampers with her burial site runs the risk of being struck with Shirak’s Curse. The person most directly responsible for opening the sarcophagus must make a Level 5 Intellect Defense check to resist the curse—failure indicates that the victim feels a cold chill as his body temperature drops.
From this point on, until the curse is lifted, all spells of the subschool of healing cannot aid the PC. Instead of providing healing, such effects force the cursed character into a fit of sickness, nauseating him for 4 rounds. This Level 5 Curse lasts until removed or until the contents of Shirak’s crypt are restored to their rightful place and his sarcophagus is closed.
If the windspeaker is among the party, he feels a sudden upswelling of excitement and dread at what could be in the sarcophagus. If he opens the crypt, he feels the curse attempt to settle on him but Vardishal’s influence blocks the effect, rendering the curse useless.
Treasure: Within the sarcophagus lie the bones of an ancient gnoll priestess—Shirak. Beyond the effects of her curse, she is herself harmless. She wears a glistening suit of mithral chainmail and grasps in her bony hands the shaft of an immense greataxe (does 8 damage but wielder has a disadvantage when using it), its wide and serrated blades covering her skeletal feet. Yet should the windspeaker peer into the sarcophagus, he knows instinctively that only one item within is of any real value—the Scroll of Kakishon. This ancient relic is rolled up and tucked into a plain-looking bone scroll tube hidden under the wide blade of the greataxe between Shirak’s ankles.
Beyond Shirak’s crypt lies a tangled network of twisting tunnels. Many of these tunnels are lined with burial niches, some of which contain strange bodies that seem something more than human. Some bodies are twice as large as a man, some have additional arms and bestial features, or are strangely undecayed and remain beautiful or handsome even in death. These bodies are the remains of Jhavhul’s cult, and those bearing unusual transformations are those who wished for things like great strength, eternal youth, or other physical transformations.
The bodies themselves were not buried with anything of value, and there are no monstrous guardians waiting here to ambush the PCs. You can use these tunnels to foreshadow the strange wish-powered minions the PCs are destined to face in the final adventure in this campaign: “The Final Wish.”