At The Tower of Zordaz the Merciless!

Tonight we had our second session, and it was a blast! We played 6 and 1/2 hours, from 10 pm till 4 am, and this is in brief what happened:

• The party explored Castle Bélial (pretty different from the one found in the free download bar);
• They fought a Grey Ooze;
• They saved the kidnapped girl;
• Then fought some Zombies right out of the mansion;
• They came back to the village and had a feast in their honour;
• They so decided they wanted to see some of Ibkah, and were sent by the Lord of Tadék to the city to ask the sorcerer ruler for some more men-at-arms to defend the village against the rising darkness;
• They arrived in the city and talked with The Hand of the sorcerer;
• The Hand agreed to provide more soldiers in exchange for more taxes;
• The players agreed;
• Before leaving the city, they went all around asking questions;
• They came back to the village with 20 soldiers on light horses;
• They went back to the mansion, trying to find the reason for so many zombies;
• After an incredible uber-lucky combination of random encounters (all failings), they managed to find the Minor Vampire responsible and to kill him during the day, never having had to face him in combat;
• Then they decided to follow the rumors about the orc tribes meeting in the mountains;
• They arrived at the Tower of Zordaz;
• They found the entry and descended to Level 1;
• They explored the laboratories, fighting some Crawling Claws;
• Cagliostro (Chaotic Neutral Gnome Thief of the new player) almost died due to a room's collapsing ceiling;
• They ended up fighting 2 Giant Leeches, defeating them and going back to the village.

I don't have pics of the session to share, but we were all full-of-beer and the middle of the session (from midnight till 2 am) is still a bit foggy. I'm glad I made some notes during the game! It looks like the characters gained about 1000 xp each (some more, some less, due to 10% bonuses and such stuff), only because of the monsters they killed (yeah, the Minor Vampire sped up the count, with 3,000 xp – lucky bastards!)

For the near future, I need to improve some of the tables and note sheets I made (the session log, xp chart and combat tracker, in particular), and write a whole lot about the surrounding wilderness, since the party clearly showed interest in exploring it. I think I should also make some "Fast Monster Lairs" tables, including fast dungeons. All in all, it was GREAT.

Zordaz Binder's Stuff Preview

Yay, pretty useless since it's all in italian (gh!), but just to give you a rough idea:

Level 1, page 1

Level 1, page 2

Monstrous Compendium Appendix, Shoggoth

Can't wait to print the whole thing out! Unfortunately, I still have to work a lot with levels 1A (Torture Garden) and 2 (Halls of the Goblin King.) The Shoggoth image is from the awesome guy at Yog-Blogsoth, check it out!

Tower of Zordaz: Shoggoth [AD&D 2E]

As the game gets closer (saturday, finally!!!) I'm working like a fool to get everything set down. Has been a hell of a month, and I'm surprised how much free time I wasted – Zardoz's lair could have been much larger! By the way, there's no time to complain. Here is a sketch I've just done for the Shoggoth:

"I'm a first level fighter DM SON OF A BITCH!!!"

And here is the same drawing after some Photoshop cosmetic surgery:

Groovy

It's not that awesome but it's cool anyway (yes, I love the sound of my own voice.) The following stats are totally stolen from the D&DG, and adapted to my second edition game.

CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Any (Underworld)
FREQUENCY: Very Rare
ORGANIZATION: Solitary
ACTIVITY CYCLE: Any (never has to rest)
DIET: Supposedly Carnivorous
INTELLIGENCE: Low (5-7)
TREASURE: Nil (C)
ALIGNMENT: CE
_____________________________

NO. APPEARING: 1-4
ARMOR CLASS: 1
MOVEMENT: 9
HIT DICE: 20
THAC0: 5*
NO. OF ATTACKS: 2
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 3d10/3d10
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Absorbing
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Immune to weakness, paralysis and Charm, only hit by +1 weapons or better
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 30%
SIZE: L
MORALE: Fearless (20)
XP VALUE: 12,000

Appearance: "They were normally shapeless entities composed of a viscous jelly which looked like an agglutination of bubbles, and each averaged about fifteen feet in diameter when a sphere. They had, however, a constantly shifting shape and volume - throwing out temporary developments or forming apparent organs of sight, hearing, and speech in imitation of their masters, either spontaneously or according to suggestion." [...] "Formless protoplasm able to mock and reflect all forms and organs and processes - viscous agglutinations of bubbling cells - rubbery fifteen-foot spheroids infinitely plastic and ductile - slaves of suggestion, builders of cities - more and more sullen, more and more intelligent, more and more amphibious, more and more imitative! Great God! What madness made even those blasphemous Old Ones willing to use and carve such things?" – H.P. Lovecraft, At The Mountains of Madness

Combat: There are very few fools who would like to face such a creature of nightmare. Normal weapons don't affect its protoplasmatic body, and they are immune to most mind control spells. When attacking, Shoggoths use one of these long established tactics: smashing and absorbing. Smashing with tentacles causing 3d10 damage (and the Shoggoth may hit twice); Absorbing works exactly as the Gelatinous Cube's special ability.

Habitat/Society: Shoggoths were created by the Old Ones to serve as slaves. When they rebelled, they killed all their masters and destroyed their cities. Shoggoths have no organization of any kind, apparently, although is has been proven that they can team up, at least for a short time.

Ecology: Having no natural predators, Shoggoths are devastating to any ecosystem. Their only pleasure is destruction, either for fun or hunger.

COMING SOON: Conjure/Bind/Banish Shoggoth rituals.

Tower of Zordaz Sketch and Level 1

Rough sketch

Yesterday I made this rough sketch of how the awful Tower of Zordaz should look, and although it's not exactly what the tower itself actually looks like, I think it gives the idea. In particular, the tower is not set in the center of a lake, but only near one (and yes, that means there's a Watcher In The Water, of course!) Under the tower I drew the upper side of the stone door that leads down to Room 1 in Level 1. You may be right in thinking I was under some kind of weird Zak S. influence when I made this one, just don't say it loudly! All in all, my actual paramecium map style has been directly derived from the maps of Khunmar made by Stefan Poag, so I can honestly admit that I'm done with shame!

Level 1: The Ravaged Laboratories

And this morning I finally came up with the first map of the awful Tower of Zordaz! Some notes:

• This level has been inhabited by the most promising apprentices of Zordaz.
• This level has been ravaged by a Shoggoth, conjured by the apprentices who lived here (possibly a mistake.) The Shoggoth moved away, but there should be a very low probability of encountering it there (that means, RUN YOU FOOLS!)
• Room 2 contains a manhole, hidden under much rubbish. It leads down to a corridor, a room (3) and then to a slope down to Level 2.
• Rooms 4 to 11 are the proper laboratories. I figure most of these rooms to be empty, and only two or three filled with some weird encounter.
• Room 14 contains many broken vats. There should be amorphous monsters in there (simil-lemures, living molds, maybe mongrelmen.)
• Room 15 are some prisons for human guinea pigs.
• Room 17 contains stairs leading down to levels 2 and 3.
• Room 18 contains a huge mark on the floor. I plan on using similar signs to mark teleporting spots around the dungeon. The mark is actually The Eye of Zordaz, as players may discover during the game.

Zordaz, the Surrounding Wilderlands

It's a shame to waste a good wilderness map, so I converted one of the many maps I have for use as "standard" surrounding wilderness for the Tower of Zordaz megadungeon. You already saw this one, so nothing really new.

I'm going to rewrite everything, but this map really is a beautiful piece. The Temple of the Toad Demon, the Black Ziggurat, Smorgh's Lair, the Den of the Bandits, the Ettin's Cave, the Forgotten City, Tomochan, the Mi-Go's Outpost and, possibly, the Monastery, will turn into adventures if and when the party decides to have a closer look at them. Castle Bélial is the adventure they're actually playing, and is very likely to end during the next session (which is damn close!)

Monsters Under The Tower

When I started this Megadungeon project back at the end of April, one of the things I really wanted to do was to take advantage of the opportunity of using many iconic monsters I've never used. The list includes, oddly, even Beholders, Dragons and Trolls, so this is something I should really do! I tried to turn the list into something more usable, dividing them between Bosses and Una Tantum monsters, trying to think also about minions, champions and things like these. This list is nothing but a guideline to use during the Ecology fleshing part of the work.

Dragon

• Minions: Stirges, Vermin, Morlocks.
• Champions: Gelatinous Cubes, other various molds, Basilisks.

Giant

• Minions: Kobolds, Goblins, Orcs, Hobgoblins, Bugbears, Worgs.
• Champions: Ettins, Hydras, Trolls, Ogres, Ogre Magi.

Vampire/Crypt Thing/Lich/Mummy/Necromancer

• Minions: Skeletons, Zombies, Giant Scorpions, various Beetles, Wraiths, Ghouls, Carrion Crawlers.
• Champions: Death Knights, Giant Skeletons, Skeleton Champions, Flesh Golems, Living Walls, Wights, Wraiths, Spectres, Ghosts, Ghasts, Nagas, Invisible Stalkers, Shadows.

Medusa

• Minions: Snakes, Vermin, Harpies.
• Champions: Minotaurs, Cyclops.

Mind Flyer

• Minions: Drow, Derros, Duergars, Giant Insects.
• Champions: Aboleths, Basilisks, Shelob-like Spiders (ach).

Balrog/Pit Fiend

• Minions: Lemures, Imps, Bone Devils, Gargoyles.
• Champions: Demon Types I-V, Lamia, various other demons and devils.

Other Monsters

• Shoggoth
• Remorhaz
• Flail Snail
• Purple Worm
• Hook Horror
• Umber Hulk
• Beholder
• Bulette
• Lizard Men (this could be a category apart)
• Wererats
• Otyugh
• Roc
• Rust Monster

A Dungeon Needs Levels

And a Megadungeon needs plenty of them! Here are some thoughts I had tonight while driving back home from the girlfriend's house:

• From Beyond: This is very likely to be the first level. Once upon a time it hosted some of the most gifted apprentices of Zordaz, but they eventually had a misadventure with some weird experiments they were working on. The majority of this level has been destroyed or otherwise ravaged, and the creature responsible is very likely to be still dwelling in the darkness.
• Torture Garden: The classic magician's garden. As the name implies, by the way, the groovy feature of this level are Killer Vineyards, as well as the obvious collection of psychedelic fungi and creepy vermin.
• In Their Darkened Shrines: This is not properly part of the Megadungeon, but rather a tomb situated in another dimension/time Zardoz somehow linked to his lair. It's the sepulcher of a Mythos worshipping pharaoh, who was mummified at the end of twisting corridors and mad traps. Undead will abound there, as well as The Mummy style beetles.

You may have noted that the first level takes its name from the title of a famous (and great) horror movie, while second and third from two (amazing) albums, by Naked City and Nile respectively.

The Contemptible Zordaz

There are uncountable different legends about Zordaz, sometimes called The Merciless, other times The Great, according to the narrator. But all the legends agree on one point: Zordaz was the mightiest magician that ever lived. He mastered thousands of spells, many of which he had created himself, and the forces of the universe bowed before him. His powers could affect any living creature, as well as restore life in dead bodies, and bind the creatures of the Underworld to his own will. Not only he was immortal, but also invincible, or so the stories tell. At the peak of his reign, Zardoz conjured a horde of lesser demons from the Abyss, and impelled them to build him a tower of supreme magnitude. From his new den upon The Dale, the sorcerer inaugurated a new era of terror in the history of the Known World. His armies of dead reached even the most distant villages, forcing all men to submit to his will, or face a painful death. For hundreds of years Zordaz ruled the The Kingdom, expanding the dungeons under his tower until they reached cyclopean proportions. If you wonder what has become of Zordaz, the legends just don't tell. As time passed, he started to become less and less concerned about his reign on earth, retiring more and more to the dungeons beneath his tower, until he was never heard of again.