NOTES Astrologer's Tower

THE ASTROLOGER'S TOWER

And it's something quite peculiar%R%TSomething shimmering and white%R%TLeads you here despite your destination%R%TUnder the Milky Way tonight%R%R%TUnder the Milky Way - The Church

1. The Tower

The tower is situated in the middle of a hilly region approximately 15 miles from the nearest settlement.

The tower itself is 80' tall. The tower is made of solid stone blocks, with no visible windows. There is a set of stairs leading from the ground level up to the double entry doors of the tower.

The top section of the tower resembles a globe, with the top half of the globe made of layered metal plates. Around the rim, where the metal top half meets the stone bottom half, is a ring of steel spikes sticking up from the stone lip.

There are four 40’ tall solid steel spikes jutting from the ground around the tower, based equidistantly about 50’ from the base of the tower. They all lean inward toward a point about forty feet directly over the center of
the top of the tower.

From the base of the spikes to the tower itself, the land is a blasted miniature wasteland. Outside the area of the spikes, the ground is rocky and normal for a hilly region, while inside the terrain more closely resembles the surface of the moon, as the ground is colorless, loose and ashy.

The entire area behaves as a lightning rod, drawing electricity from the atmosphere even in perfect, cloudless weather. Every few seconds, the sky is alive as lightning strikes the spikes, both those coming from the ground and the top of the tower. It does not touch the dome itself, but every few minutes lightning strikes the ground around the tower.

2. The Corpse
Here is an animal-eaten corpse with a host of broken bones. A rope and grapple rest next to it, the hooks of the grapple twisted and bent. The body has a backpack and a few sacks which have been torn open and are now empty. The corpse has a sword at its belt, but it is broken in its scabbard. A wallet that has seen better days sticks out of a hole in the frayed backpack.

3. Front Doors
The front entrance of the tower is a set of double large iron doors. On each door are a serpent-shaped handle and a large knocker.

EFFECT: Anyone using a handle to try to open a door will find themselves bitten as the handle comes alive, and must make a poison save or die.

EFFECT: Using a knocker will cause a gigantic metallic BONG to ring out, echoing through the neighboring hills. The doors will then open by themselves.

4. Foyer
There are two short (coffee) tables, one each against the east and west walls, each flanked by two chairs. When nobody is in this room, all doors will shut by themselves, and the room will clean itself. All dust, dirt, etc., will disappear, as will any items left in here.

5. Walk-In Closet
Several old moth-eaten cloaks, hats and coats are here. These are badly out of fashion, maybe being something that well-to-do people in their grandparents’ time would wear.

6. Sitting Room
In the center of this room is a sizeable table, ringed by six chairs. Against the east wall is a glass cabinet stocked with serving china and four bottles.

In the southwest corner, under the stairway, is a statue of a medusa embracing a king (taken from a popular folk tale). Behind the statue is a stack of boxes. The statue is on rollers.

7. Servant Area
In the center of this room are a table and four chairs. In the southern area of this room is a stone oven, with a ventilation shaft running to the outside. Various empty cookpots are in a cabinet next to the oven. There is a tiny trickle of blood oozing down the southwest stairs that lead upwards.

8. Head Servant’s Quarters
This room is bare aside from a ruined bed and a nightstand. There are empty shelves against the east wall.

9. Servant’s Quarters
This narrow sleeping cubicle has a bed at the far end and a small clothes drawer near the door. The bed is long broken down and useless, and the clothes drawer is empty.

10. Servant’s Quarters
This narrow sleeping cubicle has a bed at the far end and a small clothes drawer near the door. The bed is long broken down and useless, and the clothes drawer is empty.

11. Door to Wizard’s Quarters
This is firmly locked. The doorknob is in the center of the door, with a keyhole just below. A trail of blood dribbles out of the keyhole on the west side, trickling down the stairs.

EFFECT: If the door is bashed in from the west side, an explosion of blood will gush out onto the stairs. Everyone on the stairs must make a paralysis save or fall down the stairs.


12. Wizard’s Quarters
This is the astrologer's personal chamber. And he’s still here.

Pai Mei made quite the error in preparing one of his spells: He trapped himself within a magical containment circle.

And there he is, near the middle of the room. An old wizard, decked out in the old-school wizard’s type robe and pointy hat, with a long flowing beard. He is standing in the middle of a circle of salt. He can’t get out, and he’s been here in the dark for quite some time.

Pai Mei cannot disturb the salt, cannot cross the salt, and no spell that he casts can pass the salt. If an outside force breaks the circle, then of course all bets are off. Spells will not penetrate into the circle, and if anyone attacks him physically while he’s in there, then that physical momentum will push him out of the circle (or the rushing air around the
strikes will disturb the salt, etc.). Better make that first round of attacks count.

When anyone first comes into the room (he will not call out to anyone making noise in the levitation shaft or the stairwell outside), Pai Mei will greet them. “Oh, yes, thank you for coming!” That sort of thing. He will explain that he was experimenting with demon control techniques, and was distracted by his apprentice about to make a grave error, and in the confusion, he got stuck in the containment circle. He guesses he’s been in that circle for the better part of a century (this is all basically true, although he’s been in there for exactly 59 years). At this point he will have a rather bumbling manner about him, and will act half-senile. He will offer the characters a reward for just brushing a bit of the salt away so he can escape.

If he is released, he will thank the characters, and insist that they leave immediately as he has much to do to set his tower right. If they agree to leave he will go to the treasure room (Dungeon Level 2) and grant the reward as promised. He will retain his good nature as long as the PCs are cooperative.

If the PCs try to haggle for more money, or refuse to release him or even question him further before releasing him, the wizard will drop the facade and reveal his true personality: An unpleasant, sadistic human being who has long been corrupted by his studies and put in a thoroughly bad mood by his imprisonment. His voice will become deep and confident, and he will calmly threaten them. “Free me now or I will scatter your souls across the cosmos.” If he is freed at this point, he will order them to leave immediately (even suggesting a reward or even a moment’s delay now will cause him to murder them all).

If he is still not freed, he will lose his temper. He will begin to rant and rave and curse and threaten all sorts of detailed unpleasantness that he will visit upon the PCs’ persons. He will even go so far as to attempt to use one of his Magic Missiles (which will merely explode harmlessly at the circle’s edge). He will turn beet red and perspire and jump and swing his arms (which will bounce off the edge of the circle as if hitting a wall) and bellow and scream about how he is going to kill the PCs, their families, their friends, and anyone they’ve ever talked to.

If he could only get out of that circle, which he can’t without outside help.

If the PCs release Pai Mei and then refuse to immediately leave, then he will kill them all without delay.

Next to the salt circle is a stand, upon which rests a large flawless egg-shaped crystal about as large as a man’s head. This is a Star Crystal. Next to that is another stand, empty.

The wizard’s bed is along the northeast section of the wall, but the formerly fine silks have deteriorated to the point of being useless. Next to the bed is a nightstand with a long-spent candle on it.

Along the north wall is a desk with an open book on it. The book, bound in human skin, is titled Communications and Signaling the Beyond. It is a theoretical text about communicating with the Yomi Realms.

13. Levitation Shaft
This is the levitation shaft that serves as an elevator for the entire tower.

The shaft runs all the way from the Workshop and Telescope on the 5th floor down to Dungeon Level 2.

On the north wall within the shaft is a dial with 5 numbers, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (the dial currently points to none of them). Turning this dial summons a