This is a solo campaign.
Yes. Yes it is.
Oh cool! Can I play, too?
What? No, it's solo, you can't just--
Hey, if Ben is in, then so am I. Quit picking on my little brother.
Can I play a werewolf or something? Or a bard? Ooh, or maybe like some kind of undead monster! That'd be sweet! :D:D:D
. . .
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As T.A.O.R.U. moves stealthily up the stairs, he mentally reviews his mission briefing.
T.A.O.R.U. continues up the stairs.
You enter the door you know leads to the prison level at the top of the tower.
Ahead of you a 15 ft. wide hall runs for 60 ft., it's drab gray walls bleaching color out of the world. At the end of the hall is the top of a staircase, descending back towards you. A railing wraps around the edge, preventing you from falling over the ledge of the staircase.
On your left are five cell-doors made of heavy steal, and sized for humanoids. The second door appears to have been blown off, and leans against the railing of the stairs 5 ft. away, bent over it. The fifth door has been slid back, and lies open.
On the right are thick steel bars, separating the last five feet of width in this hall from the rest, and running the length of the hall. Three exits lie beyond the bars...a doorway directly to your right with a flickering torch in the room beyond, showing the bottom of a stairwell. Another 30 ft. down, leading into a 'control' room with widows that looks out on the walkway, a lit lamp over a table revealing the silhouette of a large blood splatter on the window. And a hallway that leads around the control room to the right, into darkness.
Three skylights lie in the ceiling, which is 40 ft. Above you. Ropes dangle from three bleak chandeliers beneath them, connecting all three. Dull gray light attempts to illuminate the hall.
Water can be heard dripping in e distance.
T.A.O.R.U. moves forward cautiously, listening carefully for clues as to what might lie ahead. He approaches the wreckage of the shattered cell door and peers inside.
The dirty cell is completely barren, except for a stone slab used for a cot extending out of the wall, six inches off the ground. The slab is not quite wide enough to fit a man confortably, and the floor is covered in generations of vile. You are thankful you lack an olfactory sense.
T.O.A.R.U. moves on, slipping down the hallway to the other open cell door.
This rooom is like the other, nine feet deep, six feet wide, but has a latrine receptacle, which is broken off the wall.
You hear something growl deeply from behind you, it's purring throat reverberating like a sonic blast after the silence of this hall.
T.A.O.R.U. whirls, snatching a tanglefoot bag from his bandolier and bracing himself for an attack.
Behind you, through the bars, in the window of the 'control room', a shadow moves out of your view in front of the flickering light. Silence, except for the pounding of the drops of water, follows.
Taoru slowly replaces the tanglefoot bag, scanning the area for other possible threats. If nothing is immediately apparent, he turns back to the closed doors and attempts to open each one.
You hear something moving, but can't quite tell what, or how, or from where, although you assume it is related to the shadow. You can't tell what caused the shadow, or even what size it was.
The doors are in a locked state, solid metal locked in their tracks.
Taoru eyes the shadowy doorway of the control room warily, but continues moving, heading to the end of the hall and down the stairwell there.
The stairway is 15 ft. long and drops a level. There is a 5 ft. wide, 35 ft. long opening in the ceiling, so those on the level above could see down to this level. You can see all the way to the sky-lights.
There are more cell doors on this level, five to each side. One door on each side is behind the decent of the stairs, one is even, and the other three continue down the length of the hall. A bent iron bars door lies in the middle of the floor, likely from the room above that had it's metal door blown off as well.
On your right, the second and third cell doors are open. The others all have their steel doors back, but their iron bars shut. On your left, only the second door is open. The rest have their bars closed. A light burns in the second room on your left, and is the only light on this level.
Taoru begins checking the rooms, beginning with the second door on the left side.
You see another stone slab cot on the right side of the wall in this room, an eight inch corner of it broken off and lying on the floor. It is the same size as the cells in the floor above, and the setup is identical. Roots and weeds claw through a few cracks in the floor where it has bubbled up as if something tunneled under it, and moss is growing in the far corner. A mounted bracket in the wall holds a small flame in a cage, lighting the room.
A circular tunnel has been bored into the back wall, about 3 ft. in diameter, and 3 ft. off the ground. The tunnel runs through rock about ten feet, twisting to the left and then straightening out again. There is light coming from the room beyond, where you can see a desk sitting in front of a bank of windows, looking out into another hall.
Water trickles from the hole to the moss on the ground. It has stained the stone wall grayish green from the minerals in the water, and the mildew and tiny toadstools growing in it.
You believe you see a shadow in the far hall shift. You can't tell if something there moved, or if it was a trick of the flickering light.
Taoru reaches into his chest compartment and draws out one of his sunrods and strikes it on his leg, igniting it. He moves cautiously to the edge of the hole, tossing the sunrod through it towards the shadow in the hall.
Edit: Taoru checks the other two open cells.
Each cell has the same basic layout as the ones previous. Only the detritus and wreckage changes.
Into the creepy little hole it is, then. Taoru returns to the cell with the tunnel, puts his bandolier back in its compartment to avoid accidentally crushing any of the reagents, and begins crawling through the hole.
You crawl through the tunnel, the rock wet and soft beneath you with moss and mold several inches deep. Suddenly, you hear a deep growl by your feet.
As you start to react, the tunnel suddely comes alive, moving up around you. The moss, lichen, and mold seems to expand, filling the tunnel, engulfing you in it. You struggle, pushing against it, and bucking through the tunnel the rest of the way, spilling out onto the ground of the far room in a heap, but keeping yourself from being engulfed.
At the same moment, the shadow you thought you saw earlier rears up. It is definitely real. It moves quickly down the hall to the right, away from you.
Taoru scrambles to his feet, whirling to face the mouth of the "tunnel".
As you stand, the slimy, mossy mass lashes out at you, but you duck under it. Gray slime covers your body, but does not seem to have an adverse effect.
"Organics. Disgusting."
Taoru launches himself at the abomination, throwing his weight behind a vicious right hook.
Your punch disappears into the mass of smile and mold as it writhes. It attempts to yank you forward, engulfing your arm, but you pull it free.
Taoru stomps down on the squelching mess and reaches for his chest compartment, drawing out his bandolier again.
You stomp on the mass, and slime shoots out from under your foot. The thing slams into your thigh hard, but it doesn't seem to do much to your plating.
From the bandolier in his hand, Taoru draws a vial of acid and, clutching it in his clenched fist, slams his hand down through the creature and against the floor, crushing the vial as he does.
The creature shrinks back from the attack, as the acid burns both you and it. You can tell that you are punishing this creature with your strong blows. It rushes and slams into your chest plate, but does nothing more than push you back a few inches and cover you in guck.
If Taoru could grin, he would. Still holding the bandolier, he begins stomping on the disgusting blob with abandon.
The creature lurches hard as you stomp, and withdraws into it's hole for a moment. Suddenly it lurches out again, it's movements more desperate, as it attempts to engulf you.
Taoru attempts to slip to one side as the thing launches itself at him.
The mass swarms around you, pinning your limbs and squeezing you tightly. You feel your joints and plates pop and bend painfully, but you struggle heroically and clatter to the ground, barely evading it's grasp.
"Not this time, muck-bucket." Taoru scrambles to his feet before viciously stomping down on the sludge pile again.
It stretches forth to slam you again, but you backhand it as you stand from kneeling, knocking a clump of it away. A deeply threatening growl emanates from behind you in the hall.