Minidungeon - The Sinking Tower

Hu Guangzhou

With the help of a djinn, the wizard Ingmaind has built his retirement home in the Bloody Glades. 

Unfortunately, the tower's foundations are in a swamp and he's lost four levels to sinking. It doesn't bother him, he just adds a new floor each time. His genie, tired of constant construction delays, hires adventurers to shore up the building's foundations.

THE JOB

Chalcolith the Djinn has procured a Cement Elemental from a nearby branch of the Druid Mafia, which should stop Ingmaind's home from sinking. The genie is looking for someone to descend into the tower's sub-sub-sub-substructure and unleash the sentient mortar.

The job's worth 5,000 GP on completion, and you can keep anything valuable you find in Ingmaind's basement. If the wizard was attached to something, he wouldn't have let it sink into a swamp. As far as Chalcolith's concerned, he's just saving his client from needing to pay a removalist. 

The Cement Elemental is a nightmare to transport. It seems to randomly gain or lose weight at the worst possible times, requiring two people to move it anywhere fast. Thankfully the sack is made from (incredibly illegal) lycanthrope leather and secured with Wizard Lock, so it's unlikely to rupture.

Dianne Parks

THE TOWER

Arrival

Located in one of the Bloody Glades' many wetlands, the tower is arguably accessible by riverboat. A jetty of solid stone provides mooring, a dozen Floating Discs barely keeping the ridiculous thing afloat. 

Chalcolith the Djinn manifests from thin air to greet visitors and chase off any pursuers. The tower is a teetering mess of polymorphed stone, imported wood and gravity-defying enchantments. Of its nine total floors, only the top five are fully above the water. The first, second and third have been taken by the swamp, and the fourth only has a few feet of clearance left. 

Layout

Level 9 is under construction (in anticipation of more sinking).

Levels 8 and 7 is where Ingmaind lives. Chalcolith advises against disturbing his client, on account of him being a senile drug addict whose brain is stuffed to bursting with reality warping magic. 

Level 6 has been generously donated to the PCs while they work to fix the sinking foundations. No beds, but you get ample room for sleeping bags, a couch, a lamp of Continual Light (that you can't turn off), a fireplace of Continual Flame (that you also can't turn off) and an Unseen Servant who can cook passably well.

Level 5 is the current "ground floor" and entry parlor. 

Levels 4, 3, 2 and 1 is where the PCs are expected to descend. Thankfully, in a rare moment of lucidity, Ingmaind covered Level 5's stairwell with seven different holy symbols and laid a quadruple-thick layer of salt. Needless to say, dungeon residents won’t go above Level 4. 

LEVEL 4 - SPECIMEN COLLECTION

Mostly above water. Filled with unnatural curiosities, animated objects and a giant mummified lizard.

4A: Cabinet of Curiosities 

Teetering shelves filled with preserved specimens. Among the usual jars of bloodshot eyeballs, pickled newts and disfigured stillborns are:

• A clutch of Carrion Crawler larvae. Can be used as an improvised hand grenade, forcing a Save vs Paralysis or paralysed as per Carrion Crawler (OSE). 
• Fourteen Rot Grubs (OSE Adv). Can also be used as a (highly unethical) grenade.
• Four Hyrcinian Birds (CC1). The poor critters are dying from dehydration, their inner light starting to flicker. Prized among longhunters for their ability to shine UV light if fed the right diet, letting them track the glowing hides of Giant Platypuses.
• A skull filled with Spawn of the Worm (OSE Adv). Strong acid keeps it from regenerating. If the jar is broken, it regrows in 2D6 rounds.

If the Saurian is locked in this room, it smashes all the jars and frees the Spawn of the Worm. The two undead start working together to hunt fresh prey.

4B: Trophy Room 
Dusty relics from Ingmaid's adventuring days. The taxidermied Saurian hanging from the ceiling has been reanimated by residual magic, stats as Mummified Crocodile (CC1). It violently swings back and forth once someone enters the room. The frayed cords keeping it aloft snap after 1D4 rounds. Its gold teeth are worth 500 GP and its hide is studded with 1,210 GP in gemstones. 

Also among the exhibits is a 3,500 GP idol of Phantom-Limb in his aspect as the Roadwarden. The ivory and gold statuette is enchanted with Levitation, letting it stand upright despite having no limbs.

4C: Smoking Parlor
Moth eaten armchairs and overflowing ashtrays. Sifting through all the cigarette butts finds the stub of a Godsbeard Cigar. Light up and get a free casting of Cure Light Wounds.

4D: Supply Closet

Mops, buckets, dustpans, brooms and scrubbing brushes animate when the door is opened. Four Poltergeists (OSE Adv) aggressively follow their orders to "clean" anything dirty. This causes a recursive loop of germophobic violence once someone starts bleeding.

"Hypoxia", a Chaotic-aligned Broom of Flying, is locked in a glass display case. It begs to be used, but will force its rider to perform mind-bogglingly dangerous stunts once airborne.

LEVEL 3 - REAGENT PRODUCTION

Below the water, but still dry. Mad science lab. Slimes, oozes and moulds being processed into alchemical reagents. Occupied by a resentful Homunculus abandoned by his creator.

The ceiling on this level is 20ft. high, but walls are only 15ft. Perry flies around with impunity.

3A: Decontamination Chamber

The spiral staircase technically descends lower. But you smell it before you see it. A Black Pudding (OSE) has taken up residency just above the Level 4 entrance. Thankfully, it's the ooze equivalent of being asleep. There's no door to Level 3, it's been melted down.

The door to 3B has also been melted down. The WIZMAT suits have been torn to shreds. There's a box containing four Potions of Acid Resistance, but they don't look right. Someone unsealed and recorked them. Drinking one gives you a mouthful of Green Slime (OSE).

3B: Monster Cultivation

Steel vats inscribed with glyphs of Acid Resistance. All filled with protoplasmic creatures. North is Green Slime. East is Yellow Mould (OSE). South is Pink Slime (CC1) with a metal gibbet dunked into it. Pulling it out finds the half-digested bodies of two Blue-Tongues inside. The corpses carry 140 GP in pilfered knickknacks, but they're both infected with Pink Slime.

Against the North wall is a destroyed isolation chamber. The inside is coated with black gunk. Someone recently made a Black Pudding here. The chamber's Weretoad hide gloves are intact and worth 500 GP. 

The East wall has two modified Walls of Force for windows. They stop the marsh water getting in, but you can walk/swim through them with a bit of effort. Like pushing through a membrane of sticky air.

3C: Test Subjects

Walls covered in filthy steel cages containing twenty five Cave Locusts (OSE). Searching all of the cages finds 150 GP in forgotten semi-precious stones and silver coins.

Perry knows the command word for opening every cage at once. He waits until the worst possible moment, then turns the room in a shitshow of stinking spittle and jumping bugs. If he bombards the PCs here, he uses Yellow Mould to avoid killing the locusts.

3D: Potion Laboratory

The door from 3B has been kicked inwards, breaking the lock. It's slightly ajar, but there's a hidden bucket of Pink Slime balanced on top. Save vs Breath Weapon as it topples onto your head.

The lab has 2,000 GP worth of pickled monster organs in four oversized glass jars (500 GP each, very fragile). Ingmaid's homebrewing operation can be looted for a Potion of Fire, Acid, and Lightning Resistance.

A large dumbwaiter on the Western wall. For sending interesting samples downstairs to the library. It can fit two people and their equipment.

LEVEL 2 - FLOODED LIBRARY

Sunken into mud. Walls of Force are compromised, flooding it with murky water. The four survivors of the Blue-Tongue raiding party cower on top of shelves, hiding from a trio Electric Eels.

This level is flooded with waist-deep water, knocking down all the doors. Movement speed is halved. Anyone falling over in plate or chain risks drowning. 

2A: Arcane Library

Four Blue-Tongues, stats as Kobold (OSE), stand on waterlogged shelves of imported mahogany.  Three of their number already float in the water, electrocuted to death.

D3 Giant Electric Eels (OSE) are here at any given time, waiting to electrocute anyone wading through the water. The remainder are in 2C.

Sifting through the library's soaked contents finds scrolls of: Detect Magic x2, Infravision, Magic Jar, Magic Missile, Phantasmal Force, Water Breathing and Web. There's also an old war wizard spellbook in a Wizard Locked lead box. It contains Fireball, Haste, Hold Person and Lightning Bolt.

2B: Reading Room

Small study for analysing samples from Level 3. There's a dead Blue-Tongue below the water, weighed down by an illegible tome made from electrum plates worth 500 GP.

2C: Entry Parlour

Originally intended as the entrance to the tower. Then it sunk. Then the Walls of Force failed. Thankfully, Level 2 is currently embedded in a layer of thick mud, so flooding has been limited.

Any Electric Eels not in 2A will be here, wriggling through the filthy water and muck.

LEVEL 1 - ORB STORAGE

Sunken into mud. Basement room for storing crystal balls. Wards had the unintended side effect of pushing water onto the ceiling. Swim through the 10ft. layer flooding the stairwell and you're in a bone dry basement.

A terrible presence has projected itself into Ingmaind's collection. The orb anomaly must be dealt with before the foundation can be laid.

1A: Orb Pondering Chamber

Lead-lined inner sanctum for scrying. Thick walls plated with metal and arcane glyphs. A loadstone, dragging the tower into the bowels of the earth.

Nine silver frames, worth 4,000 SP each (total value of 3,600 GP). Every plinth holds a Crystal Ball. Central dais of gold-flecked quartz holds a Crystal Ball of ESP. All of the orbs are cursed. Something awful slumbers beneath the Bloody Glades. Part of it is here. The lead walls barely slowed it down.

A baleful eye appears in the central orb and emits a cone of Anti-Magic. Every round, roll a 1D3 for what area of the room it's covering. On a 1, it covers Orbs 1 - 3. On a 2, it covers Orbs 4 - 6. On a 3, it covers Orbs 7 - 9.

The Cement Elemental can't lay the foundation while the Anti-Magic field is active. Once that's dealt with, you could call it a day. For the best result, smash the other orbs too. Cholcolith would be livid if his money sink got disintegrated. And god forbid it got hit with Charm Monster. That'd bring the whole tower down.

DUNGEON RESIDENTS

Cement Elemental 
Stats as 12HD Sand Elemental (CC1).

Architects need not apply, this sentient sack of building materials was programmed to automatically lay a concrete foundation when released. 

Unsurprisingly, it's dumb as a box of bricks. If the PCs release it early, for whatever reason, it freaks out and begins attacking anything nearby. If they're dumb enough to tell him about their screw-up, Chacolith kicks them out of the tower and wrecks their boat.

If released in the basement during the fight with the Orb Anomaly, it won't leave its bag until the Anti-Magic field is gone. Then it starts flowing across the ground, seeping into the floors and walls to magically reinforce them. If the PCs are lucky, it might smash a couple of the orbs in the process.

Creature Compendium

Ingmaind The Ascending

Stats as 11th level Magic User.

By the time Ingmaind was a high enough level to become a Tower Wizard, he was incontinent, senile, thrice-divorced and had a serious drug problem. Still, he's trying to make the most out of his belated retirement.

The geriatric wizard is generally too fucked up on manaweed to be useful. If the PCs do bother him (e.g. begging for Cure Disease / Remove Curse after catching something nasty in his basement), roll a Reaction Roll to see if he's cognisant enough to help.

• On a good roll, he actually does it.
• On a mediocre roll, he does it but tells Chalcolith to halve their pay.
• On a bad roll he polymorphs someone into something embarrassing.

By Alex Negrea

Chacolith The Djinn

Stats as Lesser Djinn (OSE).

Chacolith wasn't an idiot who got stuck in a lamp. He's professional architect, hired by Ingmaind to manage the tower's construction. Unfortunately, his contract only expires when the project is complete. And it's never complete because it keeps fucking sinking. 

If asked, the genie has no idea what might be downstairs. He just built the structure, the wizard furnished the place. He also won't accompany the PCs. The same contract that binds him to the tower's construction has a caveat excusing him from any adventuring shenanigans. 

He's a respected engineer, not some braindead sellsword.

OSE

Perry The Homunculus

Stats as Homunculus (OSE Adv).

Created from a platypus egg (and wizard jizz), Perry was on Level 3 when the sinking began. Paranoid about psychic backlash if it drowned, Ingmaind severed his connection with the beast. With the wards in place, the mutant lab assistant is stuck downstairs, abandoned by his master, creator and father.

He hasn't taken it well. 

Perry viciously attacks anyone trespassing into his domain. He fights dirty, flying above his opponents and dumping buckets filled with protoplasmic monsters on their heads. Roll a 1D3 for what vat he pulls from. His favourite tactic is sedating someone with his vestigial leg spurs and locking them in a gibbet. He waits for them to wake up before slowly lowering them into the Pink Slime vat. 

Though he spends most of his time torturing them for fun, Perry prefers to keep the Cave Locusts alive. If the PCs are in 3C, he'll bombard them with Yellow Mould to avoid killing the bugs.

The Blue-Tongues
Stats as Kobolds (OSE).

This ten-strong raiding party of skinkmen snuck through the Windows of Force in 3B. They intended to rob the wizard's basement and add to their master's treasure hoard. Instead, two of them got captured by a crazy platypus and another four got electrocuted to death.

The surviving four are hiding in 2A. They're led by a 1HD Kobold called Yabbie. He's corralled his men onto anything elevated and nonconductive. They're trying to spear the electric eels, but the predatory fish are quick enough to avoid their frantic stabs.

The Orb Anomaly

After determining the Anti-Magic field's orientation, roll a 1D6 to select one of the unaffected six orbs. 

That orb then declares a spellcasting effect, triggering on its turn. Thankfully the anomaly always loses initiative, giving a chance to smash the conspicuously glowing orb. The orbs can't blast anyone currently in the Anti-Magic field. Destroying an orb stops any ongoing effect it caused.

1. Charm Person. Save vs Spells or be charmed into killing everyone else in the room.
2. Charm Monster. As above, but used on a nearby monster like the Black Pudding. 
3. Sleep. 2D8 Hit Dice of 4HD or less fall asleep.
4. Telekinesis. Snatches weapons, spellbooks, potions etc. Throws them across the room. Save versus Paralysis to resist.
5. Petrify. Save vs Paralysis or turn to stone. Unlike the other effects, this one is permanent.
6. Disintegrate. Save vs Death or get vaporised.
7. Cause Fear. Save vs Spells or flee in terror.
8. Slow. Save vs Spells or act every second turn.
9. Cause Serious Wounds. Take 2D6 + 2 DMG. No Save.

The central orb has AC 2 [17] and 20 HP. It is immune to all spells. 

The others each have AC 7 [12] and 12 HP. They can be affected by spells that can target non-living creatures.

By Robert Polley

THE MAKING OF

The dungeon uses a mixture of creatures taken from OSE Advanced and the Creature Compendium 1. 

The map layout is heavily inspired (read: stolen wholesale) from Dyson Logo's "The Hex Tower". 

The concept of exploring a sinking wizard tower was a suggestion by Primeumaton. He had several other ideas for more wizardly swamp shenanigans. They'll feature in future posts.

To be frank, the "boss fight" on Level 1 feels poorly executed. But I liked the idea enough to include it anyway. It also ties into the metaplot of my "Pelts for XP" Hexcrawl, so there's that.