An extensive span of caverns, hitherto unknown to the surface dwellers, exists under the island of Stone Point. The caverns hold several ruins and places of interest. Skeletal remains in the ruins indicate the inhabitants were arachnid centauroids with four arms, a larger pair with manipulative "fingers" and a secondary pair with sharp striking points. The vast amounts of Created dust suggest the city fell to an eruption from the nearby Pit, likely the same one that destroyed the town above.
Source
The surface entrance to the cavern is mostly blocked by a cave in for the first 30', with only a small passage opening to the surface. (Size 40 or smaller can fit with a Normal DEX check, Size 50-60 with a Hard DEX Check, Size 70-80 with an Extreme DEX check.) The tunnel proper was obviously carved with great skill out of the rock. It is between 8 to 10 feet high and approximately 10 feet wide. It twists down into the earth like a corkscrew, with the occasional graphitti like markings on the walls. (Language is XXXXX, and likely unknown to PCs except on a Crit Success.) Between 75 and 100 feet down the tunnel slightly salty water starts seeping through the stone, and the ceiling takes on a slight arch. Grooves have been cut along the sides of the tunnel floor to channel the water coming in on the walls. After descending approximately 200' the tunnel abruptly ends at the water's edge of a dark lake.
The lake water is pitch black, even when cupped in a hand. Within it float small glowing specks, giving the appearance of a night sky whose stars are in constant flowing motion. Anything dipped in the water, or any light source held close, brings swarms of forearm sized ivory white salmon looking fish to the surface, which nibble on anything in the water (no damage) or just school at the surface close to a light source.The water is cold, and only slightly salty. The cavern ceiling is approximately 10', with constant drips of water dropping into the lake. The sout of the droplets echoes through the cavern, and causes the water surface to constantly churn with ripples. The water tempurature is slightly chilly, but not dangerously so. The large column in the center of the southern chamber has D rings hammered into the rock so the fisherthings could tie off their boats while working. The island in the center of the connecting passage between the chambers has old signs of life: a firepit and a stack of flat rocks, largest on the bottom getting smaller the higher they are in the pile. The island is approximately 40' across.
The island holding the tower is ~ .25 mile across, the building about 60' square. The door leading inside is ~ 8' square. A 4' vertical tunnel leads from the building to a horizontal tunnel about 50' down. There is a glint of water at the bottom. The vertical tunnel has broken cobwebs sporadically on the way down. Both the floor of the room and the cobwebs are heavily coated in Created dust. Climbing to the top of the tower could (33% chance) trigger another Vokuts attack.
The underpassage has a 4" puddle of water at the base of the vertical tunnel, which quickly peters out as the passage slopes upward. There is a heavy concentration of Created dust and cobwebs at the beginning of the tunnel, which decreases as the first corpses appear. The inverse correlation between the increase in corpses and decrease in dust eloquently tell the story of a failed escape. The last corpse is found .75 of the way down the passage. After that, there is no more dust.
All of the bodies are missing their heads.
The corpses are quadripedal, but the feet end in hard points. The body has four arms, two large with two "fingers" and a "thumb," the others smaller and designed to impale. Chitinous plates seem to be part of a exo/endoskeleton. tufts of dark hair, very fine, are visible.
ArachnataurThe passage opens into the bottom of a basin with an upward sloped side. At the bottom of the slope is Eimhir's scalp, similarly torn and ripped. Blood droplets lead up the slope. The slope continues up at a sharp pitch for 80'.
At the top off the slope is a small cavern with two passages. Both twist but shining a light reveals a bloody circular footprint down the passage to the right. A fish skeleton lays by the passage to the left, missing its skull.
The roof remains at 10' throughout the caverns unless otherwise noted.
The cavern at the end of the short passage has what appears to be a square column to the NW and a large lake to the SW. As the party is investigating the cavern suddenly reverberates to the sound of slapping feet and turkey calls. The sudden sounds are accompanied by the appearance of 12 glowing apparitions which come charging from the passage to the NE. The attackers are Snallygasters with glowing patches on their skin. The 'Gasters immediately run to the attack. In the NE part of the chamber are several Snallygaster skeletons, missing their skulls.
This cavern decends in a series of broad "steps," before disappearing deeper into the Underdark through a broad tunnel. The cavern remains level, giving each lower plateau more vertical space. The small cavern to the north of the topmost plateau has an old, hatched nest of snallygaster eggs mucused to the western wall.
The light from this cavern is visible from cavern 9 as a sickly purplish glow. Th walls and ceiling here appear less stable than others in the cave system, with several rockfalls piled in the middle of the cavern and along the wall. These rockpiles are the breeding grounds for the purple fungus (no attacks or damage), reaching deep into the protective space between the rocks. This cavern is also a favored feeding ground for the snallygasters and several will always be found gnawing on the rocks the eat the fungus. The snallygasters will quickly desert the fungus to pursue more hearty fare.
The fungus will poorly illuminate approximately 10' of area, creating just enough light to read by. If placed in a jar and given occasional water the fungus will live indefinately.
This cave is plastered with snallgaster eggs, egg shells, and droppings. The stench is attrocious, but the snallygasters themselves are earily quiet in their lair. The appearance of adventurers (aka food) will cause the snallygasters to silently rush to the attack.
A dim yellow light is visible from the straighter sections of tunnel to the north and south of this cave. The light comes from a fading "Light" spell cast on a colored rock sitting next to a dessicated corpse impaled on a spear. The walls of the cavern are covered with Arachnataur graffiti. The passages to the cavern are also lined with graffiti, and each holds a 3' high pyramidal stone with a recharging "Glyph of Warding" which inflicts 4d4 points of electrical damage to any non Arachnataur trying to approach the chamber. The graffiti and glyphs were placed as signs of respect by the Arachnataurs, who viewed the corpse as a fellow warrior who chose suicide over surrender. No negative effects (other than the electrical shock from the glyph) will befall adventurers who loot the corpse.
The corpse has its head.
The "forest" cavern is broken into two sections, each level falling about 20' lower than the passage or cavern south of it. The caverns themselves are moist, the quiet interrupted with regular drops of water falling from stalagtites and hitting the stalagmites below. Where the stalagtites and stalagmites have joined columns of various thicknesses rise in majestic glory.
Snallygasters frequent this cavern to lick the moisture off the rock. The snallygasters cannot climb the wall between the southern cavern and the main passage, having to make the trek via the tunnel from the north passage through the 'Side Door' (area 12) to return to the Snallygaster Grounds or area 6.
The Stalagmite Forest is currently the campsite of a band of dwarven mining scouts. Taciturn and untrusting, they will not allow the party to approach and have warded the approaches to their camp with magical and physical traps. If warned of the potential head stealing monster they will quickly pack up and leave. They will not assist the party or give/loan supplies.
The only thing of interest in this small cavern is an Arachnataur guard post. The post is deserted, with broached water barrels and ransacked food stores showing the building has been the habitat of snallygasters over the years. Hatched and failed egg clusters are mucused to the walls and floors in various places, and the building smells slightly of snallygaster droppings.
This large, (~1 mile wide) cavern reeks slightly of decay, as if the miasma had worked itself into the very stone. Two Arachnataur corpses, both missing their heads, lay along the corridor leading from area 6. One disturbed pile of Created dust lies between them. The vaguely circular footprints the party has been tracking can be seen in the dust on a successful Tracking roll.
The city itself sits on a massive pillar of natural stone, rising out of the dark recesses of the cavern. Access to the pillar is across a 20' wide bridge with no guardrails. A gatehouse guards the western end of the bridge, but the thick wood doors (apparently made from hardened mushroom stalks) lay on the ground, obviously torn off the large metal hinges. The tunnel through the gatehouse holds piles of Created dust and multiple Arachnataurs corpses (all headless).
Once past the gatehouse, the scale of the massacre becomes readily apparent. Most of Toth's buildings run from the floor to the 10' ceiling, with no gap in between. In several places the ceiling was carved out to allow buildings with multiple stories. These buildings are more ornate and feature domes covered with web patterns. the city appears to be segmented between living and work areas. Teh work areas are clustered together toward the west end of the city, and are open and accessible to all. The living areas have surroundings floor to ceiling walls, forming compounds which house several buildings. Each living quarter has buildings for sleeping, eating, and food preperation and storage. The snallygasters have ransacked the city over the years, and many old egg clusters are visible. No snallygasters currently occupy the city. All of the buildings are abandoned, populated only by the headless corpses of their dead.
Two things stand out as odd: first, small twin contrails hang in the air, especially between the royal palace on the southwest column and the series of ledges along the southern wall.
Second, there is an impressive pile of skulls just south of center on the main column. (On the map it is the small square building just north of the walled compounds.) The skulls are mostly Arachnataur, but there are a smattering of human and demi-human skulls as well. Many of the skulls show the yellowing of age, but atop the pile are fish, snallygaster, and several pixling skulls. As the party approaches the Memoric oozes out of the skulls, assumes a humanoid appearance, and flows several skulls to a usuable position. The main skull turns to face the party, and speaks to them in a foriegn language they are unlikely to understand (extreme on languages skill.)
Memoric