Saturday, April 25, 2009

Map of the Southern Ruins



This is a map of the southern edge of the ruined city that lies between Ipolis and Pyros Mountain in Hex 0705 of the Map of Erimia. Here is a brief write up of each of the features labeled on the map:

Tombs
These ancient tombs have long since been robbed of their original contents, but now serve as a lair for a Xeraphi war party. Above each tomb entrance is an obelisk. Once covered in runes of a long dead language, erosion has rendered them nearly smooth. The largest tomb contains an entrance into the dungeon below.

Living Statues
Sitting on a ledge just north of the tombs are what appear to be three giant, rough-hewn, humanoid statues. In reality, these are three earth elemental beings that live here. This is not a combat encounter, rather it is an atmospheric encounter. The statues cannot be harmed and they move incrementally slow — a few inches an hour when they are in a hurry. If adventurers are disrespectful, the statues can move to block their passage out of the ruins. If respectful, the statues might even try to give the adventurers clues. Otherwise, these beings demonstrate the otherworldliness of the wilderness.

Tower
This tower was carved straight from rock and stands seven stories high. Ornate glyphs cover every inch, though erosion has made it almost impossible to decipher them. The only entrance to the tower is four stories up. Within the tower is an entrance into the dungeon below.

Eastern Caves
This is the lair of a vicious Chaos Beast and a tribe of Ranine that are the beast's care-takers/worshippers. Though there is no entrance to the dungeon below from these caves, there is room for expansion into a sub-level, or lower levels of the dungeon beneath.

Western Caves
This series of caves in the home of Chaos-tainted vermin.

Gatehouse
This once belonged to the defenses of the ancient city and is one of the few surviving structures that isn't entirely carved out of the stone of the ancient river bed. It has also seen recent construction. A war party of Chaotic humanoids have turned the gatehouse into a lair, and have rebuilt its defenses. The gatehouse also has an entrance into the dungeon below.

3 comments:

PENGYCHAN said...
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Kevin Mac said...

Nice, atmospheric area. Kind of reminds me of some of the things that might be in a layer of the abyss.

The slow-ass elementals are a great idea. Not a combat danger, but blocking your way out (or maybe slowly crushing your tied-up mounts while you are in a cave) is a great nasty way to keep players on their toes and acting respectful.

Matthew Slepin said...

I agree with loving the three elementals: kind of redolent of the atmospheric, non-combatant CAS.