Epic Prequel 1
Vault of Vile Darkness
Ex Libris - Dungeon Magazine #29 pg 26
Tresendar Manor Map
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Dramatic Personae
Agatha Tresendar - .
The Tresendars support Atropol Vecna while the Cassalanters support True Vecna. The Cassalanters want to steal the book to present to Vecna as proof of their devotion. The Tresendars want to keep the book to further empower the Atropol.
The Vault was originally an emergency haven created by The Sage's greatest clerics to preserve as much knowledge as possible after the Feyral Surge. .
Room 1 - Laboratory Storage
Trap monster is an ettin.
Open Lock is at Disadvantage.
Creature -
Ettin
AC 18 (Natural + leather armor)
BAB +7 Fort+9 Ref+2 Will+5
Dmg 2d+6 (2 attacks - Flails)
Treasure -
Everyday Experimental Equipment (E control page)
See Description
Room 2 - Meeting Room
As is.
Room 3 - Music Hall
Trap monster is a Mindflayer. It will not attack, instead being surprised at being summoned. It will converse with the PCs and ask will where they are. If denied "It matters not. Information is power, and Power is my Lord's Domain."
If given a honest answer the illithid will remain with the party and will perform one service for the summoner.
Creature -
Mindflayer
AC 15 (Natural + Dex)
BAB +6 Fort+3 Ref+4 Will+9
Dmg 1d4+1 (4 attacks - Tentacles)
Treasure -
Musical Merfolk Melodies (M control page)
See Description
Room 4 - Metallurgy Laboratory
Trap monster is an ankheg.
Creature -
Ankheg
AC 16 (Natural + Dex)
BAB +5 Fort+6 Ref+3 Will+2
Dmg 2d6+4 (1 attack - Bite) + 1d4 acid and grab
Because fight is in pocket dimension ankheg cannot burrow. It will try for 2 rounds before fighting to the death.
Treasure -
Animals and Abominations (A control page) This beastiary contains descriptions of all the monsters protecting the control pages.
Magic ignots
Magic silver bars
See Description
Room 5 - Reading Room
The control book is not trapped.
Treasure -
Vital Venturing Victuals (V control page)
Room 6 - Hydroponic Garden
Book is not trapped.
Beholder Moss is one of the plants.
Plants are trimmed and cared for, cultist gardener is in room in reclining lawn chair. Live Laugh Love is supporting one of the chair legs. The cultist's eyes are gouged out. Will break glass around Mantrap with chair and throw himself into the Yellow Creeper to become a zombie.
Treasure -
Live, Laugh, Love (L control page)
Corpse Flower Zombie
AC 14
Init +2
Speed 40
BAB +6 Fort+1 Ref+3 Will+4
Dmg 1d6+3 (disease and grab)
Creature is a plant, not undead, turning and Positive Energy do not harm it.
Room 7 - Librarian's Quarters
Book is not trapped.
No body at the table.
Beds are made, room is obviously recently used.
Diary discusses being approached in Ilchi by attractive woman who awoke in him a desire for power and a plot to achieve it. All woman asked was for his help to find an old ruined mine around Phandelver. Gave her name as Lexi.
Treasure -
Daid's Diary (D control page)
Room 8 - Altar / Meditation Room
Three cultists are in room praying toward altar, kowtow style. Their eyes have been gouged out and while blind, they have been granted Blindsight while within the Vault to act as its keepers and protectors. They will attack the PCs immediately, using their guide sticks as clubs. Toggle will surrender if given the chance.
The altar has the Green Demon Face carved into it, over the image of a scroll so it appears the Face is the Knowledge.
Creature -
Warrior 2 x 3
AC 14 (leather) / 15 (leather + shield) / 13 (leather w/low Dex)
BAB +2 Fort+3 Ref+0 Will+0
Dmg 1d8 / 1d4 (2 attacks - Masterwork Clubs) / 1d6+1 (handaxe)
Room 9 - Alchemical Laboratory
PCs find four Stoneborn (or other demi-humans if need to intro new PCs) working in this room, washing bottles, grinding reagents, doing general scutwork. They each wear metal neck shackles but are not chained to anything. Their heads have black crystals imbedded in their temples. The first Stoneborn to see the PCs yells "Help us!" before the crystals flare with a negative light and purple lightning streaks around and THROUGH the slaves' skulls (the PCs can SEE the slaves' eyes light up FROM BEHIND as the lighting crosses their cranium). The Stoneborn then proceed to attack the PCs unarmed and unarmored heedless of their danger.
If a Stoneborn is killed the black crystals liquify and flow out of their head to congeal in a puddle on the floor. (DC 20 Perception to notice black goo also leaks out of the dead Stoneborn's ears.) If the PCs can subdue a Stoneborn and pry the crystals out of their skull (DC 20 Athletics, DC 25 Medical. Athletics inflicts 2d10 damage, Medical 1d20. PCs also notice a heavy scar running from the crown of their heads to the base of the neck) the Stoneborn is freed from the coercion and will assist in subduing or killing the others. They will start to describe how the group was captured exploring rumblings on Icefire Mountain which indicated it may be becoming active when the puddle of black goo, now solidified in a roughly pyramidal shape, will launch purple lightning into the heads of surviving Stoneborn, causing their skulls to explode. Additional black goo, surgically implanted in their brain, then flows to join the budding obelisk.
The flumph is a pacifict and will not fight. It will willingly throw itself into mortal danger to save a PC (try REALLY hard to have it die breaking a PC's fall). The flumph will recognise the structure of the Vault and give PCs clues as to navigate and escape.
Creature -
Stoneborn x 4.
Flumph
Treasure -
Pharmaceutical Folio
Room 10 - Scribe Room
Draconic Dieties, a history of Bahamut and Tiamat, their respective faiths and church structure, and Tiamat's banishment. Mention the rumor of a ceremony to return Tiamat to Theriac which involves masks.
One of the scrolls is a Qualith (illithid script) to Trade dictionary. It is being used to translate a list of known (to the illithid writer) obelisks (Qualith looks like I Ching hexagrams). Because two thirds of Qualith requires the ability to read the mental imprints of the writer the translation is very basic and incomplete.
Treasure -
Symbols, Sigils, and Signs (S control page)
Runes of Ruin (R control page) Lists different book traps found in the Vault.
Using the dictionaries allows PCs to take 20 or eventually translate works found in other languages at DM decided slow rate.
Room 11 - Theatre
As is.
Treasure -
Order of the Open Eyed Owl (O control page)
Room 12 - Private Lounge
Book changes:
Rise and Fall of the Orcish Empires describes Theriac's heydays under Orcish rule.
The Elements of Reality Discusses the five elements of Reality: the physical, that which we can sense; the meta-physical, such as magic and the soul; the cycle of life and death which balances them; time, which infuses them all; and belief, which takes the other elements and creates the reality we experience.
The Tactical Studies Rules scroll is on a table with the obligatory ttrpg with minis and dice. The scroll appears to have undergone multiple revisions.
Treasure -
Fey, Feryl, Feyns, and Feyts (F control page)
Room 13 - Magic Practice Room
As is.
Room 14 - Reading Room
Book changes:
Vault Of Sages, The describes the history of the extra-planar space as a place of safety created by clerics of The Sage shortly after the Feyral Surge in an attempt to save as much knowledge as possible. The back cover of the book has been torn off and a bundle of pages has been roughly sewn onto the original folios. This addendum gloats on how the space was perverted into a shrine to the Cryptic Keeper to hold the Tome of Vile Darkness.
Treasure -
Elementary Engineering (E control page) posits the Feyral Surge could have been caused by the destruction or disruption of the Feyspring and that balance could be restored if the disruption was removed or the Feyspring replaced.
Known Networks of the North (N control page) Lists the different Giant Clans in the Northern Hemisphere with their cultures and customs. Appears to be book 2 in a multi volume set.
Room 15 - Library Storage
As is. The ink is stored as pellets designed to be mixed with water or other liquid.
Treasure -
Invoices and Inventory (I control page)