The Obelisk, The Masoleum (Front Rooms)

I was aiming to have this in PDF form by the end of the month, though I guess yesterday would have been more appropriate with that 'Free RPG day" and whatnot.  What's holding it up is actually finishing the art (such as it is) and fleshing out my notes for areas that the party moved through quickly or avoided.  Still a PDF first week of July seems doable.

THE OBELISK OF FORGOTTEN MEMORIES, AREA 7 a-c.

7. The Mausoleum – The memorial ground's main building rises 30' at it's highest peak and is made of pale green marble with darker green, black and gold streaks. It's a square building covered in mournful caryatids, and carved with skull motifs. From the roof rise carved minarets and peaked vaults of slick marble, difficult to traverse. An overhang around the whole building makes climbing onto the roof much harder than normal. (Climbing to the roof requires A D20 +25 roll under STR + DEX + Skill/class bonuses)  The only entrance to the building is up several wide steps and onto a colonnaded porch. The front doors are flanked by statutes of Delphina and Jackal-Mask, while the frieze over the heavy bronze entrance doors depicts Bezonaught surrounded by placid undead.

The cult of Furter controls most of the building, and will have undead guardians stationed in front. If they are not aware that they face anything more than corpse-fleas and ghoul attacks the cult will have six skeletons and four zombies on guard in front of the doors and whatever acolytes are in Area 7b ready to rush in and assist. If the cult knows adventurers or other powerful forces are running amok they will quickly increase the guard force to the majority of their remaining zombies and skeletons. A total of 24 undead can be crammed onto the steps and porch, and will be should the cult expect serious attack. The cultists will battle to protect this building and there are a total of  2D12+4 cult acolytes, 3D10 + 6 zombies and 4D10+8 skeletons available to the Cult of Furter, defend the building, or however many seems most reasonable to the GM. The cult will begin by trying to defend the front steps but will intelligently retreat towards the Shrine of Furter (area 8c) spiking doors and setting ambushes along the way. If left alone for long enough they may even set simple traps to protect themselves from renewed attack (where possible these traps have been noted). If the Players break down doors or otherwise destroy cult defenses the ghouls and corpse fleas will take advantage and may expand into previously held cult area.

Zombie of Furter

'Frankenstein' Zombie AC 8, HD 2, #AT 1, D 1D8, MV ('30), Save F1, ML 12. 
These are standard Zombies, but vary slightly in appearance from most having been raised by super-science, rather than necromancy.  Carefully built out of relatively fresh corpses a shambling ablife forced back into Furter's zombies with chemical injections and galvanism.  Such zombies vary wildly, from carefully stitched servitors that can pass for living under poor lighting to amalgamations of various dead, monstrous and held together by clumsy lashings and rivets. It should be noted the Furter's zombies do not smell strongly of rot and decay, but rather have an antiseptic smell due to the fluids used to preserve them and give them unlife.


Clockwork Skeleton AC 7, HD 1, #AT 1, D 1D6, MV ('40), Save F1, ML 12. 
Skeletons in the service of Furter are animated by the use of soul clockworks and strange machinery within their chest cavity that slowly clicks and whirls as the skeleton moves.  At the center of this soul-clockwork is a platinum gear worth 5GP, but otherwise the clockworks are useless and lack value.  Furter's cult will usually dress these skeletons in long black hooded robes, sometimes with masks, to conceal the identity of these minions.  Like all Skeletons these monsters have no real intelligence, but if directed by an Acolyte they can use simple weapons such as throwing spears and engage in rudimentary tactics.

Cult Acolyte AC 6, HD 1 (hp 5,6,3) #AT 1, D 1D6, MV ('40) Save CL1, ML 8. Mace, Copper Scale-mail. Spells: Cure Light Wounds or other 1st level cleric spell, 1D6 GP.
Newer devotes to Furter these men and women are fanatic in service of their god.  generally they are outfitted with a drab green hooded robe, a copper scale vest and bone maces. Even though they are fanatics in service of a strange god, Acolytes are not suicidal and will use their spells and minions to the best effect they can and retreat or negotiate in the face of overwhelming odds.  Acolytes may remove the effects of turning from their minions by making a comparable turning roll themselves - though the undead may be turned again if the Acolyte responsible for encouraging the dead is incapacitated.


 7a.    Entry Hall
 The massive bronze doors swing open to reveal a marbled hall lit by black marble skulls embedded in the 40' tall ceiling that emit a soft whitish blue light.  These are simply marble features of the ceiling enchanted with permanent light spells, and if removed (after a dangerous climb and noisy chiseling session) they will lose that enchantment,  being only heavy worthless pieces of broken marble. The walls of this room have been carved with reliefs that show a wide variety of mourners, including Men, Elves, Goblins, Sasquatch, Moktar and Werebeasts.  All face the doors to the Altar room, Area 7d. The doors to the altar are massive bronze copies of the entry doors, both showing a single image of the funeral gods leading a bearded, befanged giant (Torpo) up a steep mountain path towards some sort of temple.

The two doors on either side of the hall are simpler, though also heavy bronze.  They have only geometric patterns on them.

There will often be a zombie in this room scrubbing the floors or dusting the relief on the walls, but if driven from the porch this room will quickly be barricaded and turned into a second redoubt by the cultists with braced doors and the benches in 7b used as barricades. The cult would not be above covering the floor near the door in slippery flammable oil if besieged and given enough time.


 7b.    Coat Room

The Mausoleum's former coat room, now used as a guard post by the cultists. There will always be 2 acolytes on duty here, though there will be more if the cult is on alert and has not yet lost many members. Efforts have been made to make the room cozy, with a brazer for warmth and a pair of oil lanterns for light. A sheet of heavy canvas has been spread on the floor, both to cut the chill and conceal the trapdoor to Area 8b below.

Two ornate large marble benches line the wall opposite the door to Area 7a and can be lifted by up two two individuals with a combined strength of 20 or greater. 

If driven from the upper temple the Acolytes in the Coat Room by dousing it is oil, spreading flammable rags and wiring a coal filled tripod to the door.  Triggering such a blast will do 1D8 to anyone in the doorway and burn for two rounds like a flask of oil.

7c.    Records' Office
The door to this chamber is locked from Area 7a and the door painted with a few protective gris-gris to keep the corpses fleas or any undead entity from breaking through.

A neat marble room now smashed to shambles by the final melee between the priestess of Bezonaught a few guardsmen and Furter cultists.  The walls are splashed with blood and carved wooden office furniture is scattered about, dented and smashed.  This room was used as the office for tracking burials within the Mausoleum and the paperwork recording the last hundred years of internments, including special notes about magical or cursed bodies and the length of time each corpse was to be placed in the crypts, before the bones are moved to the ossuary.   It's possible a careful examination of these notes will reveal some useful facts, such as that the mummified grunkie trap in Area 7e is labelled "out of order" or the location of the old witch woman's body in Area 7f.  They are equally likely to be written in some impenetrable priestly argot.  There is also a silver letter opener worth 5GP kicked under a filing cabinet for the player that must search every nook and cranny.

The door to Area 7e is locked, spiked shut, and sealed with white lead, painted protective runes and emblazoned with sigils.  The office and Area 7e  were abandoned by the cult when corpse fleas attacked from the ossuary below.