Taboo Temple Main Chamber, balconies, secret doors and passages


Savage Tide Adventure Path


In Dungeon Magazine #145, the main chamber at location 3 and surrounding environs are a bit confusing in matching up the text with the map.

Location 1 is at water level and the water level roughly corresponds to Level 2. Location 2 has the stairs which ascend and thus we get into the complex and enter the main chamber at location 3 which has the stairs and balconies to either side and an exit passage to the east along with two secret doors.

One secret door leads to location 6, which is the lookout position keeping an eye on the lake and location 2. The other secret door leads to location 8. My confusion is the following sentence in Location 3...

"The two secret doors on the balconies..."

I don't think the secret doors are actually at the balcony level. Location 8 is a room with a steep stairs in the nw corner which lead up to what I presume is the cubby hole where someone can sit and overlook Location 3 from the hollow face in the wall above the eastern passage. Putting the secret door at the balcony level means you wouldn't need a steep staircase presumably. Unless the eastern passage way opens at the balcony level of Location 3 instead of ground level at Location 3. But that doesn't seem right as the balconies seem to end rather than connect to the east passage.

Location 6 could be up higher at the balcony level, but seems to make sense to open at the ground floor of location 3.

Location 9 also implies that Location 10 is further below Location 8. "A flight of steps descends to...a makeshift wall."

That means that you walk out of location 3 and descend stairs...and Location 10 is 20 feet above Location 31 which is partially flooded, while Location 8 is 20 feet above Location 33 and room 33 is dry.

Am I correct?


I found the problem originated with X1 The Isle of Dread, which didn’t specify the elevation levels between dungeon levels except to state that the drop from location 8 to location 33 in the Savage Tide Taboo Temple(corresponding to locations 34 and 40 in X1) was 1d6hp of falling damage, thus implying a ten foot drop. But it had the same error, as the staircase on dungeon Level 1 is present while the two locations on dungeon Level 2 are at the same elevation. In fact, the error is even worse in X1, as the staircase itself would be enough to go from dungeon Level 1 to dungeon Level 2 if there is only a ten foot elevation between those two levels.

So to fix this, here are my recommended elevation levels for each level of the dungeon, where a 0 ft elevation level corresponds to the water level on the surrounding lake.

65 foot elevation level : Locations 4-7, as well as the hiding place in the wall behind the carved face above the eastern passage at location 3.

50 foot elevation level : Locations 3 and 8, as well as the highest shelf on the eastern edge of location 2. This means the drop from location 8 to location 33 is about 46 feet.

30 foot elevation level : Locations 9 through 24. This means the drop from location 10 to location 31 is about 34 feet.

10 foot elevation level : Locations 26 and 27 and the raised platform in the passage of Location 34. These are the highest elevation points for Dungeon Level 2.

4 foot elevation level : Locations 33 and 37 as well as the passage north of location 33 which gradually slopes down to a level of -2 foot elevation at the north end by the door, which is why the rat holes in the passage don’t flood these areas.

-2 foot elevation level : Locations 28 and 34.

-4 foot elevation level : Location 29, 31, 32, 35, 38, 39 and the passage section south of the platform near Location 34.

-8 foot elevation level : Location 30.

The well opening on Dungeon Level 2 at location 36 drops 65 feet to a pool of boiling water, which connects to dungeon Level 3 by a fifteen foot long U shape tunnel that extends down, across and up. This pool on Level 3 is on a terrace, and we can assume that terrace is roughly five feet high. So the base elevation for the lowest level of stable ground in location 40 of Level 3 would be about -69 feet or approximately 70 feet below the lake level.

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