Adventure Sites 3: Ithog the Twisted

​For ASSH, Level 7+
By Joseph Griesel 
In the author’s campaign this small site sits in the middle of a hostile wasteland in a god-forsaken plain. The primary reason to go here is the destruction of an evil relic, or due to a treasure map/sage/etc leading to a sword of wounding. Decide what campaign appropriate dead language all writing in the dungeon is written in.
   Nothing about this site screams "Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea", but apparently that's what it is. Two-column text, classic blue-background map, breezy informal style, you know the deal, let's press.
   So this little tomb is suggested to be located either as a treasure map leading to the sword of wounding, or as a bit of paladin-bait for the usual "please go destroy the evil relic" reasons. It's a lich-hangout, where this Ithog character apparently just chills without much purpose, just being evil and lichy and occasionally experimenting with Evil Experiments of Evil. Nothing wrong with that, let's go.
   I like how the map looks like a little guy. Remove room 9 and it's a decent robot drawing.
   What it isn't, however, is a very interesting exploration.Linear hub-and-spoke dungeons are still linear even if you start them in the center. Meaningful choices are few and far between here, just poke and figure out traps. While a secret door can give a further avenue of exploration, if it's just "find doors check to finish dungeon" that's bad design. With nine rooms linearity can be reasonable, but it's definitely not a plus.
   Those traps are telegraphed, with 1a already activated by an unlucky thief; it's a classic walls-mush-together trap, which means the activated version also acts like a mild puzzle, "how do we pry these walls apart?" The other side has the exact same trap, untriggered. This is good use of symmetry. Likewise, the two traps to the south are spike pits so triggering one will warn about triggering another. Within one of those pits lies a bugbear with a valuable bit of loot, so of course you know it's going to animate as an undead (wight this time). In the "things to mess with" category there is a tub you can fill with meat to make an empty husk-clone that gets possessed very quickly by a demon (rules for this unclear, sorry). 
   As is often the problem with houses of the lich and famous, a single good cleric with some powerful turn rolls will obviate a lot of the threats. The initial fight (or a fight in the end if avoided upon entry) is with a massive swarm of flameskulls, who are turned as demon-special, and there's a desperate trapped nalfeshnee in one room, but otherwise it's a very dead space. The sword of wounding fight is a wraith trio plus a wight wielding said sword, so turn undead is huge against that. Mummy trio, likewise. The final boss fight against the lich involves him hiding behind a pair of bone golems and spellcasting, designed to be a nice cinematic fight. I'm always a little skeptical that these will play out as outlined, but it's an appreciated effort.
   Loot beyond the aforementioned sword is cash-light, with the biggest pile in the form of platinum filigree embedded in the floor, making up the demon’s prison. That’s good stuff. Lot of alchemical and tech loot, with vials containing potions (and poison, of course), techno-magical implants, etc. The squished thief was wearing a cloak of elvenkind, which is nice for the henchmen at this level. Our main draw, more as a quest item than as a useful artifact, is the wand of depopulation…it’s about as evil an artifact as it sounds, a wand that can only be used on a new moon that deals one hit point of damage to every single living thing in a ten-mile radius. As the text notes, given how most commoners are a single hit die…yeah, that’s a vast number of dead peasants and chipmunks. Very evil, very nice, I approve.
   Placement of the site can theoretically be anywhere, but ideally is within a nice blighted land surrounded by ashes and death. I will note the tech stuff in here…there’s a lot of mad science stuff including bionic eyes and an adrenal spine implant, that’s going to be a little clashy for some campaigns. It can be excluded, of course, but only at the price of removing one of the few discriminators on this little lich lair. 

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