Days of High Adventure

Dungeon World: Mines of the Mad Magus

Lower Mines

1 - The Singing Chamber

Wind rushing through cracks and shafts in the spurs of this chamber create a noise that sounds like many voices singing loudly in a strange tongue. The central portion of the chamber is littered with stalagmites - and the refuse from the humanoids above. Any character surviving a fall into the chamber from above and taking damage must make a successful save vs. poison roll or suffer a -3 penalty to his or her CON score for 2d8 days as the wounds become infected. At the end of that period of time, he or she must make another save - failure indicates that the character has succumbed to infection and died.

Buried in the debris are 13 skeletons that will rise and attack starting the round after the first character sets foot in the chamber.

Under a pile of rubble in an eastern spur (area 'a') is a long-forgotten bandits' stash: a crushed wooden chest from which is spilling: 970 sp and 420 gp.

Lurking in one of the southern spurs (area 'b') is an ochre jelly. Normally content to feed on rats and other vermin that rummage for food in the chamber's refuse pile, it will not attack the party unless a character enters its spur.

The Forgotten Vault

This forgotten tomb of an ancient warrior king has been undisturbed for hundreds of years. It was constructed long before the mines were dug, and has remained untouched since.

1 - Antechamber

This chamber holds many crumbled clay jars and urns - the remnants of the tribute of grain and herbs the dead king was buried with, which was intended to travel with him to the afterlife. Also meant to travel with him to the afterlife were eight of his most trusted bodyguards, who now serve him in undeath as mummies. They stand motionless in their ancient leather armor, spears held at their sides. They appear simply as well-preserved corpses, oblivious to all intruders until a character tries to open the eastern gate or attempts to harm one of their number in any way. At that point they will attempt to eliminate all intruders, not stopping until they've done so or until the intruders leave the chambers of the Vault.

The eastern gate is not locked but it is sunken into the floor. It will require three successful open doors rolls to open it wide enough to allow entry. (One successful roll is enough to allow a slim halfling or similarly sized character to enter.)

The floor of this chamber has been eroded by the stream, which flows 6' below the floor level of the chamber. The stream flows out of the chamber to the south through a passageway that is too choked with rubble to move through.

2 - Main Vault

The gate to this chamber is not locked, but it is so old that it must be forced open. At the center of the chamber lies a 10'-long, 4'-high sarcophagus. The relief of a warrior in ancient armor adorns the lid.

This chamber is guarded by the essence of its late occupant - in the form of a spectre. The spectre lurks unseen in the shadows and will attack any group that disturbs (read as: touches) the sarcophagus. It will not pursue characters who leave the chamber, however.

The sarcophagus is protected by magical wards. Any character removing the lid (which requires a successful open doors roll) will trigger a fireball trap (for 6d6 damage). This trap may be deactivated before it is triggered if dispel magic is cast on the sarcophagus.

Within the sarcophagus lie the skeletal remains of the aforementioned warrior king. He wears a bejeweled silver crown worth 4,200 gp, silver chain mail armor (treat as -1 to the normal chain mail AC due to the armor's excessive weight and the metal's softness; it's worth 1,300 sp), a girdle of giant strength, and gauntlets of ogre power. His arms are crossed, and his bony fingers are wrapped around the hilt of a two-handed sword +1 (+2 v. spell users). In an ivory scroll case on the dead king's belt is a tattered map. The location does not look familiar to the characters; there is faded writing on the map written in Low Eggian. If one of the characters reads this language, or if the characters have the writing translated, it purports to be written by "Grundel the Grim, King of Grundaria, and former sword-friend of Rolgar, Lord of War, High King of the Northlands." The author claims to have been given that legendary figure's Adventurer's Codex for safe-keeping (as a reward for his trustworthiness). The map, the author states, points the way to the tome's secret hiding place. (Stay tuned for a future dungeon, located deep in the Frostwolds, to which this map leads.)

The map of the dungeon can be found here, and this dungeon can be downloaded in .PDF form here.

Chris Brackett is a web monkey by trade, but in real life he's a veteran gamer and author of several tabletop miniatures games. He spends far too much of his time working on his RPG-focused game blog, A Rust Monster Ate My Sword.

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