Floor 8: August

The August floor of the mega-dungeon is a series of tombs and catacombs.

This floor is often totally pitch black, for a -10 Darkness penalty. Locked doors on this floor have a -5 Lockpicking modifier and every door is typically heavy ironbound (DR 15 and HP 39) if not otherwise specified. The walls of this floor are two-feet-thick (DR 312, HP 118). Metalwork on this floor is typically heavy (DR 12, HP 23, weighs 1000 lbs, ST 25 needed).

Mana is Normal on this floor, as is Sanctity. Nature’s Strength is -3 on this floor. The walls, floors and ceilings of the August floor’s areas and corridors are usually brown cobblestone. The ceiling in the areas of the floor is about 6 yards high unless specified. There’s a 9 or less on 3d chance of a random encounter on this floor.

August Floor Random Encounter Table

Roll 2d.

2-4: N+3 Skeletons

5-6: N Gargoyles

7-8: Horde of Nx3 Dinomen

9: N/2 Corpse Golems OR N+3 Zombies

10: N/2 Bugbears (possibly having set up a simple trap nearby)

11: N/2 as-Sharak (of any element/s)

12: 1 Specter OR 1 Flaming Skull

Monster Notes: N denotes a number equal to however many 250-point adventurers are effectively in the party, with every +100 points total increasing N by 1 (so a party of two 125-point delvers, one 250-point adventurer and one 350-point delver is N=1+1+2=4).

AUG 1: Through the Portal

The portal from the JULY 34 area comes out to this area, at the north wall. The area is 10 by 10 yards big. It does not seem to have outstanding features at first, being a dark dry brown-bricked place. There are two potions of Giant Strength (see Dungeon Fantasy Treasures 3: Artefacts of Felltower page 12) left on the ground in the north-west corner of the room.

There is an innocuous silver basin, decorated with jewels and filled with sweet-smelling water at the area’s east wall half-way to the south end. Anyone spotting it is mesmerised and drawn to touch it (Will at -4 to resist being drawn in or straight Will if the trap was detected and you’re prepared for it), at which point the water animates and drains the victim’s vital fluids (3d-3 HP of injury)! Removing the water (a roll of Thaumatology-4) disarms the trap temporarily, but Remove Curse (resisted by effective skill-20) is needed to neutralise it permanently. Per-based Thaumatology at -4 (or no penalty if you’ve seen this type of trap before) to detect the trap, you can rearm the trap by just adding water, the basin is worth $15,000 and weighs 10 lbs on its own (a shady buyer might pay $2dx500 more if aware of the trap’s abilities).

At the south end of the area, there’s three passages out – all three have no doors.

There’s a 2-yard-wide corridor going 20 yards straight south. The walls and floor of the passage appear to be obsidian, reflecting oddly. Written in the Reptilian language, over and over on the glassy floor, are the words, “The claw that stands out gets ripped off.” Setting even one foot in the hallway results in spikes, carved to look like dragon’s teeth, extending from the ceiling, which then drops to 5 feet from the ground (detecting the trap is a roll of Per-based Traps -4, avoiding the trap can be done with Light Walk, detection or a Hearing-2 roll allows a Dodge roll, the Dodge roll is at -1 per foot of height below 5 feet the ceiling is at). This impales the unwary at about shoulder level – though dwarves, halflings, and the like are safe (3d+2 impaling if hit). This three-yard stretch of spikes can be easily ducked under, but the next three yards feature spikes that drop to 4 feet, then 3 feet, and so on. By the time the gap is 2 feet, belly-crawling (Move 1) is necessary. At 1 foot, each yard of movement requires a roll against DX at -5 or Escape, with each failure inflicting 1d+2 cutting damage and preventing forward movement. At the very end of the run of spikes (after 15 yards), a stylized dragon’s head hangs low; the switch to disarm the trap is within its mouth (a roll of DX-based Traps -4 is required, failing the roll by 3+ causes the ceiling to drop completely, inflicting large-area injury (Exploits, p. 53) to all below with no save). Hitting the switch also opens the way further down the corridor (another 5 yards after the switch) into another area.

Next, there’s a 2-yard-wide corridor going 25 yards south-west. Third and finally, there’s a 2-yard-wide corridor going 25 yards south-east.