I have a bunch of new players joining for chapter five, and I want to give them a good workup beneath Sandpoint before sending them off to Runeforge. Has anyone done any work figuring out what else Xaliasa had down those caved-in tunnels?
North of A3 seems obvious. Mothers sometimes survived giving birth to monsters, but they'd be in pretty rough shape and would need a chamber where they could recuperate. There would probably also be a separate room for the newborn, and possibly a place to take mothers or children who didn't survive the process. (I'm not a parent. Anyone want to speculate on the makeup of the chambers beyond A3?) I'm assuming that there's no possible chance of any aberration still surviving in any of those places, though some sort of undead Lamashtu-spawn could be fun.
South of A4 and A5 is probably fairly straightforward. I don't know how many other people Xaliasa had manning the shrine, but if we assume that there were always two people on duty and that people were occasionally sick or took personal days then there should be six or seven people other than him at the very minimum. If they each had their own meditation chamber then they'd be further south. We can see the remains of three in A8, so it seems obvious there'd be at least one south of A5. For my purposes, I think I'll say that there were four on each side plus a larger meditation chamber at the south end of the hall (used by Xaliasa). This gives us three rooms for undead Lamashtans, plus whatever might have been in Xaliasa's room (and there must be something, given that he's not willing to use the room currently). Any undead are clearly not incorporeal, or they'd be long gone.
North of A6 is a mystery to me. Maybe it stored critters/prisoners for sacrifice? I'd think that they'd be in one of the two prisons in the level above though (ie B6 or B9). Those cells are only Medium-sized, but given that anyone entering the lower level did so via a five-foot-wide spiral staircase it seems unlikely that many Large (or bigger) sacrifices were made there.
Presumably the passage north of A10 connected to the passage north of A6, since there doesn't seem any other way to get there. A9 was once a robing chamber for priests preparing for rituals, and A10 was once a guard chamber. This seems like an odd layout given how difficult it would be to walk from A9 all the way north off the map, then east, then south to get to the sanctuary. This implies to me that there was a purpose in the journey. Maybe there were monsters kept along the way that the priests would interact with in some sort of ritualistic basis?
That's what I've got so far. Any thoughts on this? Any chance I'll luck out and someone has already mapped out the original complex?
Thanks so much for the feedback!
Well, I have nothing additional mapped out, but a few suggestions.
First you need to remember that many passages are crumbled and now look like solid stone. For example the area A8 was probably a mirror image of A4 and A5 when the complex was constructed. So it is entirely possible there was a direct connection between A6 and the corridor between A9 and A10.
True enough. Looking at the layout, though, it just strikes me as unlikely. I don't think that they would have entered from behind the altar; it seems to me to be more likely that they would process in from the door leading north from A6. I'm just wondering why A9 and A10 aren't closer to that door, and what they might have been processing past in order to get there.
Also remember, that if more space is available, the new inhabitants will spread out differently. They make the best of the space they have; so if you add more space, feel free to move everything around.
My goal isn't to change the map. In fact, months ago some players explored what's already there so I want to keep it consistent. I'm just wondering what's beyond the rubble.
The easiest way to expand the number of critters is to use more hounds of Lamashtu and a few demons. It's unlikely you'll need to fit in a backstory for those.
True enough, and I'll probably do that. I just have some understrength PCs and I want to buff them up a little before they move on to Runeforge so I'm hoping to expand the shrine by more than just extra numbers of the monsters already there.
Actual priests present some problems. If you make them high enough level to be a challenge and equip them appropriately, the party will get a lot of additional treasure. You can make everything unholy and vile, true, but I doubt you players would like that very much.
I actually want extra treasure for the PCs to get them to the wealth levels they ought to have. I apologize for not specifying that earlier.
Not to mention that you'd have to deal with many spellcasters during the combat (pre-combat buffs, combat buffs that affect only some enemies, dispel magic leaving every enemy with different buffs, ...), so that's something I'd avoid. You'll have enough of that later. One or two priests with some minions would be easier to handle and won't blow the treasure budget.
It's true that this will complicate the combats quite a bit. I like the numbers you suggest, though. I think there's probably something horrible in the room at the south end of the passage leading to A4 and A5, and maybe it's terrifying the two priests and their minions. I'll have to think about what it is, is all. :)
Any suggestions for what's to the north of the complex?