Attic
There’s not much of value in these old storerooms, but they do provide a stealthy means of navigating the third level of the asylum.
34 – Storeroom
Dusty old crates and trunks swathed in cobwebs fill this mouldering attic storeroom.
If the characters decide to investigate the crates and trunks, roll on the following table to determine their contents:
| Roll 1d20 | Crate Contents |
| 1 | Yellow mould |
| 2 | Muzzles |
| 3 | Fetters and shackles |
| 4 | Bedclothes |
| 5 | Parchment, somewhat mouldy |
| 6 | Orderlies’ uniforms |
| 7 | Spare rug |
| 8 | Bandages |
| 9 | Straitjackets, musty but useable |
| 10 | Spare parts for the rotary chair |
| 11 | Rusty carpentry tools and nails |
| 12 | Rusty surgical tools |
| 13 | Rusty kitchen implements |
| 14 | Lamp oil (6 jars) and a hooded lantern |
| 15 | Healer’s kit |
| 16 | 30 candles |
| 17 | 50 ft. of coiled hemp rope |
| 18 | Rolled painting worth 25 gp |
| 19 | 12 silver candlesticks worth 10 gp each |
| 20 | Floor plans of the asylum (basement only) |
35 – Study Storeroom
This dim attic storeroom has a large trapdoor in one corner. The storeroom is mostly empty save for an old chest gathering dust.
The chest is locked (Disable Device DC 30 or use the Heart key). Inside are a number of phials containing drugs of various sorts: 6 doses of Æther, 6 doses of Opium, and 6 phials of Oil of Restfulness.
36 – Hole in the Roof
A hole in the roof lets water into this old storeroom. Years of rot have caused a partial collapse of the ceiling below – it’s a short drop down into what looks like the mould-infested remnants of the asylum’s library.
1d6 non-lethal damage unless a DC 15 Acrobatics check is made to jump down.
37 – Tower Garret
Three small dormer windows look out over the asylum grounds in this cramped garret.
The Basement
38 – Cellar
Large barrels and kegs fill this cellar, and there’s a small wine-rack with some dusty bottles in it as well.
There are 20 bottles of fine wine here (10 gp each), and a lot of lower-quality wine.
39 – Storage
This large chamber holds supplies for the asylum above: linens, bedclothes, tools, machine parts, curtains, cutlery, spare pots and pans, and other miscellaneous objects.
There’s little of actual value here, though if the players need improvised weapons for whatever reason, some spare kitchen knives could be used as daggers.
40 – Wardrobe
This extensive storage chamber contains hundreds of suits of clothes, ranging from the white straitjackets of inmates to the plain uniforms of the orderlies to the fine coats, vests, wigs, and other garments of the alienists. All are neatly folded on shelves or hung on pegs or hooks.
This room is perfect for characters to turn the tables on those above and disguise themselves. In addition to 50 straitjackets and 25 orderly uniforms there are 20 doctor’s outfits and 12 courtier’s outfits here.
41 – Makeup
This small room includes a table set before a large mirror, with several smaller mirrors on its surface. An array of cosmetics are arrayed on the desk, along with brushes and tools for applying them. A small cabinet along one wall is filled with a variety of perfumes and colognes.
The makeup is the equivalent of a masterwork disguise kit. The perfumes are worth 50 gp apiece (there are 30 bottles in total). They are very delicate and bulky, however. The Intellect Devourers use this room to disguise their rotting flesh when required.
42 – Larder
This room is locked (Disable Device DC 30, Strength DC 25 to force, or used the Hand Key).
This refrigerated room is obviously a larder. Several shelves are devoted to mundane foodstuffs, but other shelves contain more gruesome victuals: severed limbs, human organs, and dozens of brains. All are well-preserved; some are picked in jars, and large haunches of meat of uncertain origin dangle from meathooks on the ceiling.
Sanity check (0/1d3) for the mangled body-parts and brains. The brains are an “emergency store” for the Intellect Devourer – they prefer to consume the brains of still-living or recently deceased hosts, but will feed on refrigerated brains if necessary. The body parts are, of course, for the Grimlocks.
43 – The “Marionette” Room
This room is very cold – it must be refrigerated somehow, rime coating every visible surface. Meathooks line the ceiling, dozens and dozens of them, every one of them holding up a naked human corpse. A wide variety of ages and body types are evident, and there are slightly more male corpses than female ones. Some of the bodies have been severely mutilated: some are missing fingers, limbs, eyes, or other features, while others sport grotesque grafts and augmentations harvested from other human corpses or from animals. One corpse dangling near the entrance sports two heads – one male, one female – and a stitched body exhibiting characteristics of both. Another has had its mouth replaced with the beak of a large bird and its arms replaced with massive wings.
Sanity check (1/1d4+1). This is the “marionette” room: a chamber used by the Intellect Devourers to store hosts when not in use.
44 – Alchemical Laboratory
Counters covered in alchemical apparatus dominate this laboratory, whose walls are lined with shelves stocked a variety of reagents – herbs, preserved organs, bottled chemicals, tinctures, oils, and essences, live insects, dried body parts, and similar components. Beakers, crucibles, burners, boilers, mortars and pestles, and other equipment cover the counter-tops, and gaps between shelves are papered with alchemical charts.
Alchemist’s laboratory; no finished potions here. If the alarm hasn’t been sounded there is a high probability of encountering an Alienist here.
45 – Potion Storage
This room is locked (Disable Device DC 30 or open using the Brain Key). Anyone attempting to open the door who isn’t an Intellect Devourer activates a Symbol of Insanity placed upon it (Perception DC 33 to notice, Disable Device DC 33 to disable, Dispel DC 19). In addition to a Confusion effect such a Symbol drains 2d6 Sanity points.
Racks of glass syringes line the walls of this chamber – they’re labelled using alchemical symbols. Some of the syringes are empty, but many contain coloured liquids.
There are a lot of potions here: 30 Potions of Disguise Self (Human), 5 Potions of Cure Moderate Wounds, 5 Potions of Delay Poison, 5 Potions of Lesser Restoration, 5 Flasks of Oil of Restfulness, 3 Potions of Neutralize Poison, 3 Potions of Remove Paralysis. 3 Potions of Remove Diseases, 3 Syringes of Mindfire Serum
46 – Embalming Chamber
This chamber smells of formaldehyde and other preservatives. Jars of embalming oil sit on shelves around the periphery, while at the center lies a partially embalmed body sprawled on a steel table, its organs carefully piled on a tray nearby, its torso split open. Various tools, pumps, blades, and other instruments are arrayed on a worktable along one side of the chamber.
There are 10 large jars of (flammable) embalming fluid here.
47 – Delacroix’s Study
This room is locked (Disable Device DC 30, Strength DC 25 to force, or used the Hand Key).
This old storage room has been converted into a small study, with an antique wooden desk strewn with papers, some of them scrawled with occult symbols and formulae, others with anatomical illustrations, and others still with notes. In one corner stands a naked human corpse, stuffed and mounted on a wooden base, its face frozen in an expression of terror.
Pages of Delacroix’s journal can be found here:
In addition to Delacroix’s journal the following scrolls can be found in this room: 1 Scroll of Insanity, 1 Scroll of Phantasmal Killer, 1 Scroll of Feeblemind, 2 Scrolls of Confusion, 2 Scrolls of Touch of Idiocy, 3 Scrolls of Fear, 3 Scrolls of Touch of Madness, 4 Scrolls of Lesser Confusion, 6 Scrolls of Cause Fear
There is a good chance Delacroix is here, or else in the Grafting Laboratory.
48 – Grafting Laboratory
Three long, steel slabs dominate this room. Lain upon them are inmates that have been hideously mutilated, surgically altered in uncanny and disturbing ways. One has been given a dog’s snout, grafted incongruously to the lower half of his face, and his hands and feet have been replaced with hairy, canine paws; a second bears suckered tentacles in place of forearms and a gaping lamprey maw on his stomach. The third victim has had her lower body replaced with some kind of overgrown grub-like creature. At first you take them for dead, but then you see that they are breathing, barely – they’re likely sedated somehow. Cabinets with an array of bottled chemicals line the walls, and trays of surgical instruments – scalpels, bonesaws, needles, lancets, calipers, hand drills, and more – are affixed to the slabs.
The sight of the grafted bodies requires a Sanity check (1/1d4+1).
The chemicals are mostly sedatives similar to Oil of Restfulness. There are 12 jars of the stuff, along with 4 Potions of Cure Serious Wounds (each restores 3d8+5 hp).
If awakened, the inmates become very distressed and probably violent, refusing to believe that the characters aren’t Intellect Devourers in disguise. The Alienists have grafted them for two reasons: firstly for their own depraved amusement, and secondly to further traumatize the minds of their victims, cultivating the delicious madness they long for.
A thorough search of the tools turns up a Wand of Sculpt Corpse with 13 charges remaining, made from a human ulna.
Delacroix/Quasiriant is often in this room with another Alienist or two, working on the inmates.
49 – Examination Room A
This room is locked (Disable Device DC 30 or open using the Eye Key).
A large cage occupies the recessed centre of this round room. Within, gibbering and raving in the throes of lunacy, are two inmates who have been surgically grafted together, their legs removed and their torsos fused with stitches and eldritch puissance. The miserable pair are forced to walk on their hands, crab-like, their heads forever facing upwards, gibbering incoherently. Curved benches are arrayed around the room.
The Dyad, as the pair are called, provoke a Sanity check (1/1d4+1). The door to the cage is locked (Disable Device DC 30 – can be opened with the Hand Key). The Dyad is/are basically incapable of fighting in any meaningful way. However, if the alarm hasn’t been sounded there is a high likelihood that two of the Alienists are here, observing their creation.
50 – Examination Room B
This room is locked (Disable Device DC 30 or open using the Eye Key).
A brass cage sits in the middle of this round viewing chamber. A solitary figure writhes in the cage; at first you take him for an inmate struggling in a straitjacket, but then you realize the straitjacket is made from flesh stretched over the man’s limbs. He’s been muzzled, again with grafted flesh.
The figure provokes a Sanity check (0/1d3). The door to the cage is locked (Disable Device DC 30 – can be opened with the Hand Key).
51 – Examination Room C
This room is locked (Disable Device DC 30 or open using the Eye Key).
In the middle of a brass cage at the recessed center of this round viewing chamber stalks a figure that has been afflicted by twisted magic. Though obviously originally human, the creature is metamorphosing into something else, tentacles sprouting from its limbs, flesh mottling and turning a sickly greenish-purple. The inmate’s mouth has been replaced by a fanged lamprey maw that mewls and salivates, dribbling bilious spittle.
The figure provokes a Sanity check (0/1d3).
This inmate is becoming a Fleshwarped creature. If released from its cage (Disable Device DC 30 – can be opened with the Hand Key) it goes berserk and attacks the nearest Intellect Devourer or orderly; otherwise it simply attacks the characters. Its base statistics are those of a regular inmate but it has a Strength of 16, Intelligence 9, Charisma 6, and a Tentacle attack (+6, 1d6+3).
52 – Examination Room D
This room is locked (Disable Device DC 30 or open using the Eye Key).
A large glass box dominates this room. Within writhes a disgusting conglomeration of tentacles, eyes, hooves, talons, and gnashing teeth – an amorphous abomination that hurls itself repeatedly against the inside of the glass, tendrils flickering, claws scratching. Benches are arrayed around the room where observers could sit and examine the thing.
The figure provokes a Sanity check (1/1d4+1).
The creature is a Chaos Beast, a former inmate exposed to too many mutagenic compounds. If released from its cage (Disable Device DC 30 – can be opened with the Hand Key) it attacks the nearest creature.
53 – Implantation Chamber
This dingy, stone chamber is dominated by a single chair, a leathery monstrosity with straps and other restraints that sits in the middle of the room in the glare of a lamp dangling from the ceiling on a chain. A selection of bloody tools are evident on a nearby trolley – forceps, hammers, clamps, hand vises, retractors, and the like. Strapped into the chair is a man wearing inmates’ garb, obviously sedated. The man’s jaw has been dislocated and his lips and cheeks forcibly pulled back with metal instruments. Nearby stands a large, glass tank on rollers, containing a sallow alchemical solution. Swimming within the tank are four strange creatures resembling undersized human brains equipped with writhing tendrils and small, squirming limbs.
The sight of the inmate requires a Sanity check (0/1d3). If awakened he reacts with panic and struggles, trying to flee from the room as swiftly as possible.
Four Intellect Devourer larvae swim in the tank. This chair is used when one of the Alienists needs to switch bodies, or when a young Intellect Devourer is to be implanted for the first time.
54 – Tunnels Entrance
This square storage room reeks of rotten meat and animalistic musk. A hole in the wall gapes like an open wound, leading into a roughly-dug tunnel winding down into darkness. You can hear dripping from within, and the vague splash of something moving in water.
55 – Symbiont Chamber
Half a dozen glass jars are arrayed on counters along the edges of this room, canisters brimming with bilious liquid. Suspended the jars are various creatures, each seemingly more alien and disturbing than the last.
There is a high chance of finding an Intellect Devourer in an Alienist host in this room if the alarm hasn’t been raised, carefully injecting one of the Symbionts with a syringe containing an alchemical mutagen.
A description of each Symbiont and its abilities follows:
Jar 1: Suspended in this jar is a grotesque, fleshy thing that looks like a pair of sallow-skinned, bony hands joined at the wrists, long digits spread as if ready to clamp down upon something. Two small, fanged maws are visible on the palms of the creature.
When placed around someone’s neck, the Necklace clamps down around them, fingers interlacing tightly – it will not choke the person to death, but it does constrict their neck somewhat, making their face slightly paler than normal. Meanwhile, the small mouths feed on the host’s blood, tongue-like tendrils flickering from the mouths into the host’s neck. The Necklace can be used to cast the spell Spectral Hand at will. The Necklace occupies a magic item slot normally used for an amulet or broach. It has an Ego of 6 and is Chaotic Evil in Alignment. It has a speed of 1 ft.
Jar 2: Floating in this jar is a segmented, worm-like thing that somewhat resembles a disembodied human tongue, pinkish-yellow in hue. At its base are a number of cruel organic barbs, while at its tip there’s a small, worm-like mouth. As you watch the tongue-thing spasms and twitches, elongating itself considerably.
The Tongue is placed in someone’s mouth, it uses its barbed hooks to sever the host’s tongue (1d4 Con damage) and implant itself in its place. The Tongue endows its host with a Bite attack with a reach of 10 ft (1d6 damage plus 1d4 acid). It gives its user the ability to speak and understand Aklo. It has an Ego of 4 and is Chaotic Evil in Alignment. It has a speed of 1 ft.
Jar 3: A vaguely insectoid creature somewhat resembling a scarab beetle or cockroach swims about in the fluid of this jar, chelicerae wriggling. The creature has a skull-shaped design on its carapace.
The Roach attaches to its host by burrowing beneath their flesh, dealing 1d6 damage upon attachment. It feeds on the host’s blood. The Roach functions similarly to a Scarab of Protection, endowing its host with Spell Resistance 20 and absorbing up to 12 energy-draining attacks, death effects, or negative energy effects before dying (upon perishing it erupts out of its host’s flesh, dealing another 1d6 damage). The Roach has an Ego of 6 and is Chaotic Evil in Alignment. It has a speed of 20 ft.
Jar 4: Bobbing in this jar is another hand-like organism, this one with seven extremely long, many-jointed fingers with membranous webbing between them and some kind of suckered tendril at its wrist. The fingertips of the hand-thing are likewise equipped with suckers.
The Caul adheres itself to the back of a person’s head using its suckers, which is uses to feed. It gives its user +2 Intelligence and Telepathy 100 ft. (though it does not grant the ability to Detect Thoughts). The Caul occupies a magic item slot normally used for a cap or helm. It has an Ego of 10 and is Chaotic Evil in Alignment. It has a speed of 1 ft.
Jar 5: A leech-like creatures crawls along the inside of its jar, bloated and sickly-looking. The disgusting creature has a hideous triangular mouth.
The Leech attaches itself to a host simply by adhering to a patch of bare skin. It secretes healing enzymes that facilitate healing. It functions exactly like Bandages of Healing but cannot be destroyed. However, it drains 1d3 points of Con per day, not just 1. The Leech has an Ego of 2 and is True Neutral in Alignment. It has a speed of 10 ft.
Jar 6: The thing in this jar looks like nothing more than a fleshy corset, but then the thing twitches, and you realize it is some kind of ray-like creature with two enveloping fins or wings that can join together, interlocking. Bony joints like struts or ribs give the thing a rigid shape. The inside surface of the creature is lined with tiny hooked barbs like hairs.
The Bodice attaches to its host by closing itself around their torso and then digging in with its barbs. When worn, the Bodice enhances the Charisma of its host by +4 but fills its host with lust. If its host refuses to seek out amorous partners, the Bodice attempts to assert control of its host to fulfill its agenda, as it feeds off emotions as well as blood. The Bodice occupies a magic item slot normally used for a wrap, robe, or vestment. It has an Ego of 10 and is Chaotic Evil in Alignment. It cannot move without a host.
Symbionts feed on their hosts’ blood, draining 1 point of Constitution per day – though since characters generally heal 1 Con per day, this is not severely debilitating; if a symbiont is displeased with its host, or if the host attempts to remove it, it can overfeed (1d4 Con damage once per day). The Symbionts detailed above cannot attack on their own. They can be attacked independently of their hosts, and have AC 20 and 10 hp, but gain the Dexterity bonuses of their hosts; attacking a symbiont provokes an attack of opportunity from the host. Damage to a host never harms a symbiont. In the event a symbiont is in conflict with its host it may attempt to exert control – a Will save with a DC equal to the Ego of the symbiont is required for the host to remain in control, otherwise the symbiont gains control of its host for 1 day. While a symbiont can choose to voluntarily detach itself, removing it requires a Will save of the type described above.
…
Last but not least comes the tunnels.
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