About a mile from the Sultan’s Claw stands the abandoned Monastery of St. Vardishal, a forlorn edifice once holy to the faith of Sarenrae, goddess of redemption and the sun. In the 2 decades since a mad cult from Kelmarane invaded and put its monks to death, the place has stood as an empty ruin, a reminder of a brief era in which civilization tamed the Uwaga Highlands.
Today, the monastery is home to a tribe of pugwampis, gremlins who worship the village gnolls of Kelmarane as gods. Because the pugwampis bring terrible luck wherever they roam, the gnolls hate them and try to drive them out of the village each time the little creatures attempt to deliver tribute or pay homage, so the gremlins instead infest the monastery and honor their deities from afar.
In order for Almah and her party to claim the old monastery as a home base from which to launch attacks on the gnolls of Kelmarane, the PCs must explore every room of the place and rid it of the fell creatures that currently call it home. In addition to the pugwampis, these include a tribe of baboons loyal to the gremlins, a giant bird living in the monastery’s overgrown cloister courtyard, a clutch of thirsty stirges, and worse.
The most powerful threat in the monastery is in fact its greatest defender, the essence of Vardishal himself, a Templar of the Five Winds slain in antiquity in the original battle against the efreeti Jhavhul and his terrible forces. Today Vardishal exists only as the merest imprint of his original spirit, a dull sentience inhabiting a patch of mold in the monastery’s abandoned alchemical laboratory. Kept alive, after a fashion, by Nefeshti’s immortality-granting wish, the loyal servant hopes to find a new vessel for its soul, that its eternal vigil over the evils of Pale Mountain might begin again.
Most of the monastery’s walls remain intact, though a few of its towers have collapsed and gaping holes mar most of the structure’s ceilings. Most wooden structures have rotted away and nature has begun to intrude upon the monastery’s interior. Some of the old red and orange tile work remains intact, but where walls and ceilings have fallen the decoration has cracked and faded. Since most creatures ignore the pugwampis, the gremlins seldom post effective guards and almost never patrol their headquarters. Most dwell within a nest in the rafters of the monastery’s chapel merrily giggling their gremlin giggles and singing their gremlin songs.
Scrub brush and a light, patchy carpet of weeds invade the monastery through two huge fallen sections of the western wall. The exposed nave beyond is a huge hallway littered with bits of debris ranging from tiny rocks to enormous sections of collapsed masonry. Most of the roof above the long promenade is gone, but several jagged pillars remain.
The pugwampis do a particularly poor job of guarding the nave, although its role as a thoroughfare from the chapel to the rooms of the southern wing means that small groups of pugwampis and baboons traff ic the area several times a day. After the PCs have set up shop in the monastery, the ruined nave is the most likely spot from which the building will be attacked by wandering monsters.
A1a. This debris-laden chamber once held a shrine and wooden altar, but all of that was smashed decades ago by vandals. The ceiling here has remained intact over the years, helping to preserve a huge bas-relief statue of a muscular humanoid man with a pointy beard gesturing toward a huge mountain in the background, his face a picture of mortal concern. A DC 10 Knowledge (local) check reveals that the mountain in the background is Pale Mountain, largest of the Brazen Peaks and the site of many fell legends. A DC 15 Knowledge (religion) check reveals that the bearded figure is depicted in a manner similar to the way in which the faith of Sarenrae depict their saints, but this is not one of the more frequently honored saints of that faith. A DC 25 Knowledge (religion) check is sufficient to identify the image as of very obscure regional saint named Vardishal.
A1b. A similar statue adorns the eastern wall of this chamber, in this case with the bearded figure appearing on a hilltop to a group of robed pilgrims. The being holds up his hands, palms out, in a sign of peace. Though many of the faces and limbs on the bas-relief have been worn down or cut away, the expressions of those range from beatific to horrified. A secret door between the figure’s legs leads to the monks’ contemplative garden in area 11. Discovering the secret door requires a DC 14 Search check. A crude stone stele that seems to have been erected more recently than the abandonment of the monastery stands here as well. Its graven inscription reads: “A ghost of unholy mien was purged from this place by Theodephus Estrovan, servant of Aroden, 4691 ar.”
A short set of wide ceremonial steps leads down to a cavernous chapel in which the congregants would gather for sermons in happier times. The vibrant orange and red starburst of Sarenrae still stands behind a film of rusted rainwater and dirt along the north wall overlooking the collapsed altar. Between the stairs and the altar stand dozens of old marble benches, many overturned and even more broken into two or more pieces. A wide walkway bisects the pews, leading directly to the raised altar. Here and there a few clumps of the original red carpet along this thoroughfare hang on against rot and neglect.
Above the center of the chapel, dangling about ten feet from the floor, hangs a cluster of gnoll skulls in various stages of decay. Strung together like a ghoulish candelabra of twine and bone, the boulder-sized ornament hangs from the wooden rafters about twenty feet above the ground.
The rafters and upper works of the monastery’s chapel are detailed in the key for area A3, and this complex encounter will run much more smoothly if you familiarize yourself with both locations prior to play. The rafters themselves can be reached via a rickety (but safe) wood and iron ladder at area A2a.
Any PC who takes more than a single round to examine the room notices that the ceiling rafters in the southeast portion of the chapel upper works have been papered over like a wasp’s nest in an interwoven mish-mash of soiled tapestries, tablecloths, altar runners, and other bits of salvaged cloth, creating a sort of hanging “tent” in the rafters above. A DC 12 Spot check allows a PC to note movement on the fabric, as if by the passage of tiny feet over the hanging cloth from above.
The rope that suspends the gnoll-skull chandelier winds up to the rafters above, then across to the southwest to area A3a above. The rope is AC 11 and has 3 hit points—if destroyed, the gnoll-skull chandelier and its tiny occupant falls 10 feet to crash on the floor below. A creature underneath can make a DC 10 Reflex save to avoid being struck by the falling object for 1d4 points of damage.
Creatures: Unless the PCs are taking pains to be stealthy, they’ll be noticed immediately by the pugwampis infesting this room and the rafters above. When the little gremlins do notice them, the knotted rope suspending the gnoll-skull candelabra jerks and jumps as a runty little creature dressed in crude furs scrambles from far above to gain a foothold on the swaying skulls. This is one of several pugwampis that lie in wait in the room. With a squeaky laugh, this gremlin casts a rude gesture in the PCs’ direction, signaling the attack to the other pugwampis in the rafters above.
Although individual pugwampis aren’t very dangerous, in large numbers like those found here, they can be quite frustrating and even deadly. In all, there are nearly two dozen pugwampis living in the old monastery (including the chieftain), but at any one time, many of them are out scrounging for food or cavorting in other parts of the monastery. The first time the PCs enter the chapel, they should face six pugwampis; although technically this is an EL 2 encounter, the pugwampis are relatively weak creatures who should be more interested in tormenting the PCs than actually killing them—play them as pests, not menaces. Parties ill-equipped with ranged attacks would be well advised to retreat and rethink their plans. This initial encounter is designed to make a lasting impression of how annoying pugwampis are and to get the PCs thinking early on in the campaign that not every fight should be a straight-up melee affair.
Note that the rafters above are 20 feet high; rather than go through complex math to determine which of the pugwampi unluck auras extend to the floor below, it’s easiest to simply assume that the overlapping unluck auras affect all creatures in the room. They do not pursue the PCs out of this room, and as long as there are enough pugwampis remaining in the “pool” they can replenish the four stationed here with ease.
Pugwampis (6) CR 1/2
hp 3 each (see page 83)
Tactics
During Combat These pugwampis lurk in the rafters above, one on the gnoll-skull chandelier, three at area A3a and two at A3b. They fire their arrows down at targets below, using their tiny daggers only if cornered.
Morale These pugwampis flee if confronted in melee, or if they take any damage, seeking shelter in area A3e.
Treasure: At the center of the grisly jumble of gnoll skulls, nestled within a mostly dried excised gnoll lung, is an uncut garnet worth 150 gp. An examination of area A2b reveals the torn-out pages of a copy of The Birth of Light and Truth (Sarenrae’s holy book) strewn about the altar, which has been smeared with excrement. Any character who attempts to clean up the mess or reconsecrate the altar attracts the notice of Sarenrae. This manifests in the form of a personal bless effect that lasts 6 hours each time the character spends more than 10 minutes praying at the altar. This notice of Sarenrae comes into play later, in the graveyard of Sarenrae’s church in Kelmarane, so be sure to keep a note of which characters helped to restore the altar to honor. A total salvage of the chapel turns up 47 gp worth of assorted religious objects, loose coins, and random trinkets.
A thin balcony overlooks the chapel floor some twenty feet below. Two rows of tall-backed wooden choir chairs dominate the southern reach of the balcony, which hugs the chapel’s concave walls. The balcony falls away—collapsed for a span of perhaps fifteen feet—just on the other side of the choir area. To the east, rickety time-worn wooden rafters stretch across the whole chapel. Two huge sections of these rafters have been engulfed in a sort of nest comprised of a patchwork of random bits of cloth.
The tactical complexity of the chapel rafters takes some effort to pull off effectively, but with the unluck aura of the pugwampis, the necessary preparation time will pay off enormously. Before the campaign begins, take some time to draw out the balconies and rafters on a battle grid such as Paizo’s GameMastery Flip-Mats. This will facilitate play once the fighting begins, and since the unlucky PCs are going to be falling through broken rafters, drawing things out beforehand gives the players the chance to move their characters into danger without you lifting so much as a finger to get them to do it. Step on a weak spot in the rafters? Oooh, bad luck for you! Even if you do not usually run combats on the grid, at least take some time to draw out the rafter and balcony network so that the players understand exactly what they are dealing with. Note that a fall from up here—and there will likely be plenty—causes 2d6 points of damage on impact.
A3a. The ladder from area A2c leads up to the choir balcony. The rotting wooden “booths” are inscribed with religious symbols, but the whole apparatus is in terrible shape and literally crumbles to the touch. It is from here that the gremlins fire their arrows into intruders on the ground floor. Should intruders reach the balcony, the pugwampis panic and scream in order to alert their brethren throughout the monastery to the dangers imposed by the player characters. The rope that supports the gnoll-skull chandelier at A2a is tied off to the southwestern rafter near the edge of the balcony; it can be untied with a DC 14 Use Rope check.
A3b. Exposure to the elements and the passage of years have rendered the once sturdy wooden rafters crisscrossing the chapel upper works treacherous. Weighing less than a dog, the pugwampis have nothing to fear from a collapse, but the player characters are a different story.
Small creatures have a 25% chance per round of breaking a beam, while Medium creatures have a 75% chance per round of doing so; larger creatures automatically break beams they walk on. A broken beam results in a 20-foot fall; if a creature is adjacent to another beam or balcony, it can attempt to leap onto it with a DC 15 Reflex save to avoid the fall (but note that this might simply put the target at risk for breaking a new beam).
A3c. The floorboards at this location are rotten; chances for breaking them are equal to those for the beams in area A3b.
A3d. An ornate window (no glass) opens in the northern wall here. From this point, the ruined village of Kelmarane is visible a mile and a half to the north over the rugged hilltops.
A3e. This is the pugwampis’ main lair, knit together like a nest composed of interwoven tapestries, sackcloths, sheets, blankets, and other bits of loose cloth. Similar material has been used to create “walls” along the north and west sides of this habitat, as well as along the rafters between areas A3e and A3f. The “chamber” within is redolent of body sweat and liquid waste. Any pugwampis that fled from a battle in the chapel cower here; although they walk freely on the cloth floor, any Small or larger creature that tries the same rips through and falls.
A3f. The gremlin chieftain, a pudgy creature named Mokknokk, lives in this “chamber,” spending most of his time seated upon a crude throne fashioned from the ruined choir seats near the east wall. Hideously lazy, Mokknokk prefers to let his minions do his work, including defending the lair if needed. He’s attended at all times by a pair of pugwampis, and only if they’re defeated in combat does the king heft his magic warhammer (a weapon he took from a gnome and that he wields clumsily in both hands) and charge his foes.
If the PCs manage to kill at least 8 pugwampis, King Mokknokk gathers a pair of pugwampis to his side and bravely clambers down from his perch here and begins scouring the monastery for the PCs. If they don’t defeat the pugwampi king here, feel free to have them ambushed by him at any other location in the monastery.
King Mokknokk CR 3
TACTICS
During Combat King Mokknokk targets a foe’s shield with his shatter ability, then runs in and attempts to break shins and bash kneecaps with his magic hammer. He resorts to attacks with his longbow only as a last resort when he can’t engage a foe in melee—this somewhat foolhardy tactic has been misinterpreted by the other pugwampis as bravery, thus ensuring Mokknokk’s claim to the throne until he attacks a foe he can’t defeat.
Morale Of the pugwampis, only King Mokknokk lacks an inborn sense of cowardice. He fights to the death.
Pugwampis
Tactics
During Combat These pugwampis fear King Mokknokk more than most other deaths, and do their best to prevent any creature from approaching their master. Morale As long as Mokknokk is alive and in sight, these pugwampis fight to the death. As soon as their king is dead or elsewhere, though, they flee as soon as they take any damage at all.
Treasure: Secreted under the chieftain’s makeshift throne is a small padded chest containing a phylactery of faithfulness and a ring of feather fall.
A sweeping bas-relief sculpture along the north wall depicts five bearded, larger-than-life humans riding the wind with triumph carved upon their faces. Though some of their arms and hands are missing, each is clearly meant to wield a distinctive weapon. One of the five warriors holds a large axe, while another holds a fragment of what must once have been a regal staff. In the distance, an ominous mountain looms over the quintet. East of the wall decoration, two open arches lead into small rooms off the north wall. The south wall is little more than a series of open arches that look out into an open-air courtyard.
A DC 15 Knowledge (religion) check identifies the five figures as legendary genies known as the Templars of the Five Winds. The stone carving bears a name for each genie, engraved near their feet. They are, from left to right, Kardswann, Pazhvann, Vardishal, Zayifid, and Davashuum. The latter wields the broken staff, while Kardswann wields the strange axe (with which the PCs will become very familiar in time). No other weapons can be seen on the other damaged statues. Any PC who viewed the bas-reliefs in areas A1a or A1b recognizes Vardishal as the same figure depicted there.
The eastern cloister walk abuts what must be the outer wall of the monastery itself. The lengthy wall bears a marred sculpture depicting the five figures from the north cloister mural in battle against numerous creatures of evil demeanor. Several of the creatures appear to be composed at least partly of fire, while others are much more difficult to define, being outright monsters of unknown origin or unusual warriors with weapons bonded into their flesh like organic tools. In the background Pale Mountain looms large, and over it two titanic figures lock in a deadly wrestler’s embrace. One has the demoniac visage of a noble efreeti, while the other is a gorgeous woman who could only be a djinni princess. Opposite the sculpted wall, a series of open arches leads out into an open-air courtyard.
A DC 17 Knowledge (history) check reveals that this sculpture depicts the great wars of genie vs. genie that cast the Pale Mountain region into chaos hundreds of years ago.
An open arch along the southern wall at the eastern end of the corridor leads off into darkness, while a series of archways lines the north wall, looking in on the monastery’s massively overgrown courtyard. The southern wall bears a bas-relief sculpture in the form of a triptych. In the first scene, a heroiclooking bearded figure takes leave of four similarly attired companions, who rise off into the heavens, leaving him to stand vigil over the large mountain in the background. The next scene depicts the bearded figure in battle with a flaming half man, half snake creature wielding a spear. The fire spirit transfixes the bearded hero with the spear, seemingly striking a killing blow. In the final scene, the hero appears twice—once on the ground with a wound in his back and once standing over this form, looking down upon it sadly.
Comparison of the bas-relief with others in the sequence clearly shows that the bearded figure here is the central figure in all of the carvings, including those found in areas A1a and A1b, and that the entity’s name is Vardishal.
The outer wall of the west cloister passage bears a massive carving. The central figure—the heroic man with the pointed beard—preaches to a variety of human clerics from throughout the long history of the monastery. The first image depicts the figure manifesting in a spiritual manner to a small group of pilgrims of Sarenrae. Another shows the figure conversing with a man in religious finery while the monastery itself is being constructed in the background. Thereafter follows a procession of similar poses, each depicting a visit by the bearded man and the leader of each era of the temple. The depictions of these clerics often also bear an identifying inscription, complete with dates that span the last several hundred years. The most recent carving is from thirty years ago, and while ample room remains for additional carvings on the west wall, the last thirty feet or so are completely blank.
Two open arches on opposite ends of the west wall lead out into the ruined nave.
The bas-relief here has suffered the most damage of any along the cloister walk. In particular the clerics of Sarenrae have been particularly ill-treated, with some of their names and the dates of their reign completely pried away or scratched into oblivion. Their physical forms bear other obvious sings of abuse, with a few gouges in faces and chests that clearly seem to have been created with strong intent to vandalize. These defacements are tangible reminders of the battle with Kelmarane’s twisted cult of Sarenrae that finally brought the monastery to ruin 2 decades ago.
Huge branches and overgrown weeds clog the central openair courtyard of the monastery’s cloister walk. In better times, the monastic priests would have contemplated the open space while circling the cloister, but today it is barely possible to see a few feet into the tangled mess, let alone all the way to the opposite cloister walk. Here and there the brush thins out enough that a dedicated explorer might be able to create a sort of passage, but mostly it is an impassable mess.
Movement through the courtyard counts as difficult terrain due to the undergrowth.
Creature: The sticks and branches comprise the nest of a huge vulture-like bird called a geier (pronounced GYRE, rhymes with tire), a Katapeshi carrion bird well known for both its size and aggressive nature. The creature has many nests in the region, so the bird often goes days or even weeks without returning to the monastery. The pugwampis have learned how to tunnel into the nest in order to steal the giant bird’s eggs when it is away, a recurring annoyance that sets the enormous bird on edge every time she returns. She is away when the PCs first visit the monastery, and returns the fourth day after Almah’s party inhabits the ruin (see page 31).
TACTICS
During Combat The geier focuses its attacks on anyone that it catches in its nest or it sees handling its eggs; otherwise it attacks the closest target.
Morale The geier fights to the death.
Treasure: At the center of the nest is a small clutch of three geier eggs, each large as a watermelon and white with irregular bright red speckles. A geier egg can fetch up to 50 gp, or the hatchling can be raised as an animal companion or cohort, with the egg hatching within a month and the bird growing to full maturity in just 3 years.
The courtyard also holds a far more important treasure buried 3 feet down in a location near the center of the open space. It remains today exactly where it fell from the hands of a seemingly slain Vardishal hundreds of years ago. The best (and probably only) way to discover Vardishal’s fallen weapon is to learn of it via possession by the moldspeaker (see area A19). The weapon—called Blizzard in some of the wall frescoes—is left intentionally untyped, to best match the interests and strategies of the player infested with the moldspeaker. If that character is built to use swords, Blizzard is a sword of the type already favored by the PC. If the character wields a staff, it’s a staff. If the character prefers unarmed strikes, Blizzard is a magic-infused scarf that can be wrapped around the fist to gain the benefit of weapon qualities and enhancement bonuses. The point is that this magic weapon should be one that the moldspeaker already favors.
In the hands of a character of 1st to 4th level, Blizzard operates as a +1 weapon of the appropriate type. From 5th to 7th level, it becomes a +1 frost weapon. The weapon becomes a +2 frost weapon when wielded by a character of 8th to 9th level, a +2 fire outsider bane frost weapon at 10th to 11th level, and a +2 fire outsider bane icy burst weapon at 12th level and higher. Blizzard has additional qualities when used directly against Jhavhul and his favored minions, as detailed in the last adventure in the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path, and is a minor artifact. Genies and similar creatures immediately recognize Blizzard as having been forged in the Elemental Planes of the raw stuff of creation. Characters who wield the weapon may garner unique responses from Templars of the Five Winds to be encountered later in the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path. These characters recognize the weapon as having once belonged to a lost comrade, and may treat the wielder differently than just any mortal.
This small antechamber was a place for reflection before the monks gathered in the chapter house at area A10. Carvings of religious significance to the cult of Sarenrae line the walls, but none seem to involve Vardishal or help in any way to lessen the mystery of the abandoned monastery.
This austere octagonal chamber has a tall roof and an aerie of leering gargoyles perched atop each point where a wall meets another wall. An unholy stench of rotting meat, dried blood, and animal excrement hangs heavy in the air, no doubt from the fine crust of gore, animal carcasses, matted leaves, and guano covering the floor.
A secret door in the southwest wall leads to the secret garden in area A11; it can be discovered with a DC 18 Search check.
Creatures: This octagonal chamber was once used as the gathering place of the monastery’s monks, who discussed the affairs of the day here before continuing their contemplative studies elsewhere. Today, it is a nest for a clutch of blood-sucking stirges. The ravenous little creatures dwell in the tall, pointed roof 20 feet above the f loor, preferring to roost in darkened corners where the shadows are at their thickest. Occasionally, the jackal-rats bring the stirges captured animals on which to feed, a steady source of blood that keeps them hanging around and friendly enough. This was to be the destiny of poor Rombard, whom the PCs hopefully rescued from a most dreadful fate—if they did not, they f ind his body here.
Stirges (3) CR 1/2
hp 5 each (MM 236)
Treasure: Strewn about the floor are 43 gp worth of loose coins, a chime of opening with four charges remaining, and a fine silver bowl worth 75 gp.
Development: After the monastery has been cleared, Almah’s mercenaries claim the chapter house as their personal domain, grumbling that Father Zastoran and the guards have already taken all of the good rooms with reliable roofs.
Looming walls with no apparent doors enclose this small roofless garden. Monks must once have come here to relax and contemplate the ways of nature, but any order they might have brought to the place all those years ago is almost impossible to notice now, as a wild cacophony of multicolored scrub plants and desert weeds have almost completely overgrown the space.
A secret door built into the west wall leads to a wellhidden section of the wall fresco in area A1b, while another on the opposite wall leads to the chapter house at area A10. From this side, discovering the doors requires a DC 10 Search check. Both doors are so overgrown with vines and creeping weeds on the garden side that opening them requires a DC 14 Strength check. Clearing this foliage takes about 5 minutes per door, after which the doors can be opened with no penalty.
The brightly painted walls of this small chapel, probably meant for personal prayer and reflection, stand out as unusually garish for the otherwise reserved architecture notable elsewhere in the monastery. On the walls, numerous rectangular wooden plates traced in gold filigree depict a strapping warrior battling creatures of fire, riding a chariot on the wind, and engaging in other acts of noble heroism. It is the same figure depicted elsewhere in the monastery, but the sheer number of images here suggest that this shrine was especially important to the clerics who honored him as a saint of Sarenrae. Perhaps a quarter of the gold plates have been pried away or hacked apart by long-absent vandals.
Opposite the door, dominating a section of the north wall, stands a man-sized statue of the warrior, its face marred by what look like numerous blows from an axe. The statue holds both hands in front of him, bent at the elbow, palms up, as if expecting an offering. Several deep rents from similar axe blows make it clear that someone tried to hack the arms from the statue decades ago, but was unable to do so.
This small, contemplative chapel is dedicated to Vardishal, a once-immortal warrior slain hundreds of years ago in a great battle near this spot. Pilgrims of Sarenrae who settled in the region about 200 years ago were drawn here by a goodly spirit, the ghost of a noble warrior who manifested here occasionally to make pronouncements and speak omens. Most of these involved the evil cult of Rovagug and the threat posed by Pale Mountain’s denizens. Some aspect of the traumatic death that turned Vardishal into a ghost in the first place kept him from clearly communicating his warnings, but the flock of Sarenrae took the inchoate pronouncements of the benevolent spirit as a reminder to dedicate themselves to vigilance of their land, and especially to close monitoring of the ominous white mountain on the horizon.
The pilgrims erected their monastery to honor their own god, of course, but they maintained this chapel, built on the spot of the ghost’s most frequent manifestations, to honor him as a symbol of their mutual struggle against evil. The walls of the shrine make out in filigreed religious iconography the bare bones of what the Sarenraen clerics were able to determine about the past of their ghostly benefactor. Careful study of these runes and graven images over the course of 12 hours clearly reveals that the central devotional figure of the shrine was a tall, apparently human warrior named Vardishal, and that this figure served in ancient times with a quintet of genies known as the Templars of the Five Winds.
The unusual statue of Vardishal masks the hidden door to the monastery’s undercrypt. With a DC 20 Search check, grooves in the floor at the statue’s base indicate that it can be pivoted to the side—doing so (requiring a DC 14 Strength check) causes a hidden door in the north wall to open, revealing a flight of stairs that leads down to the undercrypt.
Treasure: The gold plating on the walls here can be scraped off with a lot of work over several days, resulting in 148 gp worth of gold dust and fragments.
Development: After Almah’s party inhabits the monastery, Dashki immediately claims this room as his private domain. He doesn’t care about the mystery of Vardishal (and only grudgingly allows curious PCs a chance to enter and study), and he knows absolutely nothing about the secret door. All he cares about is the glow of the gold in the walls and the fact that the shrine is one of the few rooms in the monastery with an intact roof. PCs who quietly enter the shrine from the other side of the secret door likely catch Dashki in the act of defacing the wall plates by scraping the filigree off with a knife. Within a week, the gnoll expert has harvested all the gold from the room.
This large but plain interior hallway leads to the various chambers of the monastery’s southern wing. A weatherworn statue of a winged woman stands in the middle of the hall.
Enormous holes in the ceiling make it an unpleasant place in the rare instances of desert rainstorms, and a few are large enough to allow access to the geier that lairs in area A8. The statue itself is of Sarenrae. The door to area A15 hangs open, and if the PCs are noisy or bring light into this room, the denizens of A15 hear and come rushing out to investigate the intrusion.
A sagging wooden balcony overlooks this large room, which must once have been the monastery’s library. An overpowering odor of musty, rotting paper and old leather fills the air here, and hundreds of books—most too damaged even to open without destroying them—litter the floors. Empty bookshelves line the walls of both levels.
Treasure: Although most of the books here crumble at a touch, one book (Search DC 16 to locate) is very well preserved. This unusual book is called Courts of Stone and Flame, and is a treatise on genies of the elemental planes. When consulted before making a Knowledge check related to geniekind, the book grants a +4 bonus to the check. The nonmagical tome is worth 300 gp to a collector. Any character who spends more than a day studying the book learns the names of all five of the Templars of the Five Winds, their associated weapons, and the aspect of wind with which they are associated. The book also contains a brief entry on Jhavhul, who is listed as a shamed member of the efreet nobility of the City of Brass, a famed location on the Plane of Fire. The entry suggests that he ventured to the Material Plane in search of an army and a legacy to raise his standing, during which time he and his armies warred against the Templars of the Five Winds, but that he was never seen in the City of Brass again.
Development: Despite the smell, the library is the largest intact room in the monastery, a fact that does not escape Almah’s attention. When her party moves into the ruin, the merchant princess immediately claims the library as her own and moves in with Garavel and her guards. One guard stands outside her door at all times, while another patrols the balcony, bow in hand, keeping a watch over the room.
The door to this room hangs open, allowing the denizens easy access into the hallway beyond if they hear intruders.
Five austere beds line the north wall of this humble office and living quarters. A dented metal chest rests at the foot of each bed, and a simple mosaic pattern of red and orange glass chips brings some color to the wall. A layer of grime and filth coats many of the surfaces in this small room, and the redolent stench of dirty fur hangs heavy in the air.
Long ago, this chamber was the sleeping quarters and office of the monastery’s senior priests. All of the dented chests are empty.
Creatures: Today, this room is home to the remainder of the small tribe of baboons kept as guardian beasts by the pugwampis. The baboons appreciate the hunks of meat and fruits the jackal rats toss them, and treat the gremlins as members of their own tribe. They ferociously attack any non-gremlins who pass by the open door of their lair, potentially drawing the attention of the pugwampis in the kitchen next door.
Baboons (4) CR 1/2
hp 5 each (MM 268)
Development: After the caravan party moves into the monastery, Almah’s guards claim this chamber with a great deal of authority, trying to position themselves as closely to their charge as possible. With her own safety at stake, Almah orders PCs interested in staying in this room to find somewhere else.
Beyond a doorless arch appears to be a large kitchen complete with walls lined in shelves and cupboards, a huge central table, and an enormous oven against the north wall. Several drawers and cupboard doors stand askew, and the floor here is a jagged field of broken glass, smashed pottery, bits of sharp stone, jagged bones, and discarded cutlery.
Creatures: Three pugwampis—the nominal chefs of their tribe—lair in this room, making havoc of the place and doing their best to cook tasty treats for their brethren. At the first sign of intrusion by the PCs, they retreat farther into the room and take cover behind the shelves, peppering their enemies with as many arrows as possible. The littered floor here counts as difficult terrain, and each round a PC stands upon it he must make a DC 12 Reflex save or take 1d3 points of damage from some uncomfortable jagged bit biting through a boot or scratching an ankle. The unluck aura of the pugwampis make this even more treacherous. PCs wishing to avoid the dangerous floor might hop up on the table or shelves, but the unluck aura strikes here as well, and PCs who fail a DC 15 Balance check take a rough tumble onto the very floor they were hoping to avoid, suffering 1d6 points of damage in the process.
Pugwampis (3) CR 1/2
hp 3 each (see page 83)
Development: After Almah’s party moves into the monastery, the camel driver and his wife take up residence in the kitchen, doing their best to provide tasty provender to the merchant princess and the other members of the group.
Three long wooden tables and dozens of chairs that once lined this mess hall are in shambles, mostly rotted away with the passage of years. Light shines through several large holes in the ceiling, illuminating a closed door on the east wall.
Development: If the PCs do not wrangle for a specific room in the monastery once Almah’s party moves in, this is one likely area for them to camp. The partially collapsed ceiling means more exposure than they might prefer, but no one else claims the chamber, leaving it to the PCs if they want it.
Ten bunk beds in various stages of disrepair fill this chamber, which must once have been a dormitory for students. The roof is mostly intact, and an open arch in the north wall leads to a large hallway. The east and west walls both bear sturdy wooden doors leading to other rooms, and an open arch in the southeast corner of the room leads into a darkened antechamber, perhaps a large closet.
The door in the eastern wall is unlocked, but a profuse growth of fungus from the laboratory on the other side effectively bars all but the most determined openers. Shoving the door open despite the years-deep fungal bed on the other side requires a DC 20 Strength check. The door has a hardness of 5 and 50 hit points. It leads directly to a mold-encrusted stairway that opens into the underground laboratory at area A19.
Despite appearances, the mold crowding the door is not harmful. A successful DC 14 Knowledge (dungeoneering) or Knowledge (nature) check reveals that the distribution of the mold is extremely curious and far less random than what might appear unadulterated in the wild. The strange distribution is due to the fact that the mold in this area is suffused with the last remnants of Vardishal’s life essence, kept active through death, undeath, and exorcism by the reality-warping powers of Nefeshti’s bygone wish of immortality for her loyal templars. The mold is indeed trying to escape, and the intrusion of the PCs represents the best chance at freedom the genie-lord’s mold-essence has received in decades.
The small room off the southeastern wall is the lowest (and now only) chamber in what was once a 40-foot-tall tower. All of the wooden floors and the old ladder that used to comprise the tower jumble the floor here in a collapsed mess. The roof of the tower fell years ago, leaving it open to the sky.
Creature: The ruined tower is now the lair of a giant wolf spider—the arachnid is nocturnal and spends its days hidden high up on the wall in a nook, coming out at night to hunt. If the PCs don’t notice on their first pass through the monastery, it could well become a surprising pest or menace to whomever chooses this room as their quarters.
Giant Wolf Spider CR 1
Medium monstrous hunting spider (MM 288)
hp 11
Development: With a sturdy roof and a central location, the dormitory makes an ideal temporary home for the PCs. Garavel even goes so far as to recommend that they take this room, partly because he wants to keep them close for protection and partly because he doesn’t yet fully trust them and wants them within eyesight of Almah’s guards.
This chamber seems to be an enormous laboratory. Against the north and south walls are two identical daises raised about five feet from the laboratory floor, each accessed by a wide set of curved stairs. Atop each dais is a wide workbench covered in a bewildering series of glass beakers, tubes, alembics, athanors, and other alchemical tools. Some of these containers are filled with a murky green substance.
A massive mold-encrusted basalt table dominates the entrance of the room, flanked by two small tables to the east and west containing surgical tools and sheaves of old parchment. The walls of the subterranean lab were clearly fashioned from the living rock under the monastery, but carefully cut mold-encrusted tiles line the floor, interrupted occasionally by metal drains the size of dinner plates.
Creatures: Characters who approach the glass apparatus on the north or south walls receive a DC 20 Spot check to notice the liquid within quivers ever so slightly. Characters with the appropriate skill may substitute Knowledge (nature) for Spot if they wish. Both series of tubes and beakers contain an ooze—a slime mold, the most significant manifestation of Vardishal’s indomitable will. Once the PCs are spread out throughout the lab, the slime molds splash out of their tubing and jars to attack the nearest PC. The slime molds look like sloppy, nearliquified plant matter festooned with tiny mushrooms and patches of sickly green and mustard-hued mold.
During the battle, they take every attempt to use the laboratory’s drainage system to reposition themselves for effective fighting. Slime molds can move from drain to drain by counting the squares between them as regular movement. As this movement takes place below the floor, it does not provoke attacks of opportunity. A broken pipe jutting from the wall near the door to area 20 makes an excellent locale for a surprise slime-gusher that coats a PC in disgusting ooze.
Meduim Slime Molds (2) CR 1
Variant slime mold (Tome of Horrors II 149)
N Medium ooze
Init +0; Senses blindsight 60 ft.; Listen –5, Spot –5
DEFENSE
AC 10, touch 10, flat-footed 10
hp 8 each (1d10+3)
Fort +3, Ref +0, Will –5
Immune critical hits, fire, flanking, mind affecting effects, paralysis, poison, polymorph, sleep, stunning, visual effects
OFFENSE
Spd 20 ft.
Melee slam –3 (1d6–3 plus fungal rot)
Special Attacks engulf
TACTICS
During Combat The slime molds ooze up PCs’ legs, attempting to force their way into a character’s mouth or nose. Any character affected by the slime mold’s fungal rot disease or engulf attack must make a successful DC 18 Fortitude save. The first character to fail such a check becomes the moldspeaker (see sidebar), and is infused with the life-essence of Vardishal. If this occurs, the now-mindless slime molds continue to attack until slain.
Morale The slime molds fight until destroyed.
STATISTICS
Str 5, Dex 10, Con 16, Int —, Wis 1, Cha 1
Base Atk +0; Grp –3
SQ camouflage
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Camouflage (Ex) A slime mold at rest looks like a normal patch of fungus. It’s a DC 20 Spot check to notice it before it attacks. A character with ranks in Knowledge (nature) or Survival can use one of those skills instead of Spot to notice the ooze.
Engulf (Ex) A slime mold can wrap a creature of up to one size smaller in its body as a standard action. The slime mold attempts a grapple that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. If it wins the check, it establishes a hold and deals slam damage each round the hold is maintained. Attacks that hit an engulfing slime mold deal half their damage to the monster and half to the engulfed victim.
Fungal Rot (Ex) Fungal rot causes a darkening of the skin and small patches of fungus and mold to sprout at random locations on the victim’s body. A slime mold inflicts this disease on any creature it damages. A creature can attempt a DC 11 Fortitude save to resist the disease. The incubation period is 1 day, and when it inflicts damage, fungal rot causes 1d3 Constitution and 1d3 Strength damage. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Treasure: A sheaf of paperwork on the eastern table flanking the basalt block contains several alchemical formulae of great value to an alchemist. These include instructions covering the construction of restorative ointment and marvelous pigments, making the papers worth up to 300 gp to the right buyer.
Development: After the slime molds have been defeated and Almah’s group moves into the monastery, Father Zastoran transplants his impressive potion collection to the laboratory, intrigued by the glass apparatus and alchemical implements discovered there. If the slime molds were defeated before a moldspeaker was chosen, some element of Vardishal’s essence remains even in the light dusting of mold that remains after Zastoran’s cleaning efforts. The cleric does his best to scour the room of remaining mold, but enough remains on the central slab to pose a risk to anyone who lies upon it (such as PCs injured below 0 hit points). Such characters must make a DC 18 Fortitude save to resist becoming infected by the moldspeaker, as detailed above. Only one PC can be infected in this way, so if the battle with the slime molds already infused a player character with the essence of Vardishal, lying upon the slab poses no additional risk.
The monastery’s undercrypt is a series of ten-foot-wide rough-hewn passages dug in a double-cross formation. The main thoroughfare runs north to south, with two similar eastwest passages crossing the main hall about fifty feet apart.
An eerie silence pervades the cool subterranean funerary network, which must contain the bodies of scores—if not hundreds—of honored worshipers of Sarenrae in shallow niches carved into the walls of the east-west passages. Many of these skeletal remains have been roughly tossed from their niches, and countless bones and skulls line the floor. Not all of the bones here were looted in the attack by the Kelmarane cultists 20 years ago. In fact, some of the bones belong to those cultists, as the crypt was the site of the final battle between the uncorrupted monastery clerics and the enraged followers of the village flock. Even a casual look at the remains littering the floor shows signs of the struggle.
Some skeletons lie jumbled up against a wall where they fell, their skulls crushed by the blow of a weapon. Many wear the faded orange robes of monastery clerics, often with signs of crippling injuries suffered at the hands of their betrayers. Yet a few valuable still remain.
A20a. A pile of skeletons bearing terrible broken bones lies at the terminus of this passage. A +1 mace is still clutched in the bony grip of a skeleton here.
A20b. A corpse of a man in yellowing leather armor—clearly not a member of the monastic community—lies at the end of this passage. He wears a suit of masterwork leather armor and bears a +1 dagger.
A20c. Buried under a jumble of bones at the end of this passage is a small teak box emblazoned with the holy symbol of Sarenrae. The box contains a wooden holy symbol of Sarenrae suspended from a silver chain and a fully charged brooch of shielding.
When the PCs have cleared out the monastery and are confident its dangers are handled, proceed with Part Three. Award the PCs XP as if they had defeated a CR 3 creature in combat for this achievement.