Last October, I sent the players in my Planescape campaign to Ravenloft. This year I’m doing it again, and I’ll be sharing the adventure I’m running here as well.
Synopsis
The adventure centers around an asylum, L’Hôpital de Corbin, located in a mountain range (for the curative properties of alpine air). Ten years ago, the asylum was infiltrated by a brood of Intellect Devourers fleeing persecution from their former masters (in Ravenloft these would be from the Lovecraftian Domain of Bluetspur; in other settings they could hail from the Underdark, another planet, or an alternate dimension, such as the Far Realm). The Intellect Devourers, forming an alliance with a tribe of Grimlocks dwelling under the mountains, seize control of the asylum after discovering that the brains of the inmates are especially delectable. Embalming the bodies of the asylum staff and replaced the orderlies with disguised Grimlocks, the Intellect Devourers continue to pose as alienists, accepting patients for treatment. However, instead of attempting to cure the insane, the Intellect Devourers seek instead to worsen the madness of those in their care, to “season the meat,” so to speak. Having become addicted to lunacy, the Intellect Devourers seek ever more creative (and depraved) means of worsening the insanity of their prisoners.
The characters may enter the adventure for any number of reasons, although the version given below assumes they are working for the Vistani, Ravenloft’s version of the Romani people, in exchange for passage out of the Domain of Dread. Charged with investigating L’Hôpital de Corbin, they slowly uncover its twisted secrets and must confront the Intellect Devourers and their minions without succumbing to madness themselves.
Influences
This adventure was heavily influenced by two AD&D Ravenloft adventures – Sea of Madness in the Bleak House boxed set, and RQ2: Thoughts of Darkness. There are several problems with these adventures – Sea of Madness railroads players far, far too much and depends on their extended capture and torture in a way that I don’t especially approve of, and Thoughts of Darkness is just too consistently strange to feel like classic Ravenloft, at least for me (there’s not enough quotidian, mundane material for the weird and horrific to stand out; the adventure might work in an extended Ravenloft campaign, but not for a jaunt to Ravenloft). Still, these adventures have superb ideas and imagery which I’ve drawn on. David Noonan’s adventure Spiral of Manzessine in Dungeon 94, Iain Banks’ novel The Wasp Factory, the works of the Marquis de Sade, and H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Whisperer in Darkness” were also sources of inspiration to varying extents. I wrote this adventure for my Pathfinder group (playing in the Planescape universe), but it could easily be adapted to other systems, especially horror-based systems.
Notes on Running the Adventure
- Ravenloft sessions are ideally played in the evening, preferably by candlelight. If you’re playing a regular campaign in which your players are whisked off to Ravenloft, I suggest making a “transition” from the regular game: at first, make them think an ordinary session is occurring, and then, as the Mists roll in, turn out the lights and light candles.
- I use music extensively in all of my games, and I think music is especially useful for horror games. For additional atmosphere, I suggest utilizing some storm sounds. Play the storm sounds fairly low so that they don’t drown out the music (finding these is very easy; some samples are included below).
Exterior storm soundtrack Interior storm soundtrack
- When players discover documents, make sure you have handouts prepared (preferably aged and crinkled). Hand them the documents and have them read them aloud, squinting in the candlelight to discern the writing.
- If characters are making Perception rolls and only one or two characters passed the roll, you may wish to scribble down what they saw on a piece of paper and then pass it to them rather than telling the whole group.
- Don’t railroad the characters. If they improvise, subvert the plans of the Alienists, refuse to drink the drugged wine, evade capture, burn the place down, set all the inmates free, or anything else, just go with it. However, it’s alright to play Delacroix and the other Intellect Devourers forcefully – overly polite passive aggression is particularly suitable – as they try to trick and then eventually kidnap and torture the characters.
Sanity
Sanity rules of your choice are highly encouraged. For a basic d20 Sanity system the rules found here work adequately, and are assumed throughout the adventure.
Alternate Settings and Systems
This adventure could very easily be adapted to other settings. While the assumed setting is Ravenloft – specifically in the Domains of Dementlieu or Richemulot – the adventure could easily be adapted to a different setting, and is particularly well suited to steampunk, Victorian, or urban fantasy settings. If a historical setting were desired, the adventure could easily be transplanted to eighteenth- or nineteenth-century France or similar settings.
Likewise, while the system used is Pathfinder, alternate systems could easily be utilized (in particular Call of Cthulhu would work well – with Call of Cthulhu d20 most of the statistics and DCs would even remain the same).
Alternate Hooks
Here are some alternative means of getting characters into the adventure:
- The characters have been contracted by a local government to investigate unsettling rumours concerning the asylum and its staff.
- The characters are simply passing through the mountains and are caught in the storm, and must seek shelter or else risk exposure. Wolves or other beasts may also harry them till they reach the asylum.
- The characters are escorting a relative, friend, or adventuring companion suffering from a mental illness to the asylum in hopes of getting treatment for them.
- The characters have all been having nightmares in which images of the asylum recur, a side-effect of the psychic ripples the Intellect Devourers’ activities create. They have traveled to L’Hôpital de Corbin to discover the significance of these dreams.
Into the Mists
A thick, dark Mist surrounds you, tenebrous tendrils of the stuff swirling round you, coiling round your limbs, caressing your skin. Echoes of maniacal laughter resound through the eerie brume as the Mist continues to congeal, enveloping you utterly, and an uncanny sensation fills you, a feeling of deep unease. Your skin horripilates, hair bristling, and for a moment you can no longer see your companions. Then, gradually, the Mist begins to thin and clear. Bone-coloured moonlight shimmers down from a sky black as a skull’s empty socket. Rain trickles down around you, and you can hear a distant rumble of thunder.
While in Ravenloft, non-Evil characters suffer a -2 penalty to all Charisma checks. Evil spells are empowered. Divination spells are impeded (Spellcraft DC 15+level to cast). Detect Good/Evil spells simply don’t function, nor do regular planeshift spells or other spells that interact with other planes (though extradimensional spaces still function normally).
Vistani Camp
As the Mist continues to clear, you find yourself in a dark mountain valley, lightly wooded. The Mist is clearing but the rain is worsening, soaking you in a matters of moments. You seem to be on a rough road winding up into the mountains ahead.
Perception DC 10 to note the camp:
You glimpse flickering, yellow lights off to one side of the road, nestled against the hills.
Nearer…
There’s a small camp up ahead, consisting of several colourful caravans clustered together, gaudily painted and lit by lanterns. Several men and women move about the camp, stowing things in their waggons.
The Fortune-teller
A young woman with piercing eyes and dark hair partially covered by a red shawl approaches you, a quizzical look on her face.
“You are strangers in this land,” she says, stating a fact rather than asking a question. “I can sense it. Have you come here of your own will, or did the Mists take you?”
If they answer (truthfully) that the Mists took them:
The woman nods. “Come; we have much to discuss.” She gestures to one of the waggons, indicating that you enter.
The Waggon
Inside the waggon some of the night chill leaves you. The warmly lit space is decorated with colourful cushions, curtains, and other decorations. There’s a small table in the middle with a candle and a deck of cards. In the back, an old woman lies on a cot, stirring fitfully in her sleep, murmuring unintelligibly. She seems pale – perhaps she is sickly.
The young woman follows you in. “Take a seat,” she says, indicating the stools and divans spread about the table.
After the characters are settled, the fortune-teller explains:
“My name is Tasaria,” she says. “A seer in training, of the Vistani, of the Boem Tasque. Long ago, we Vistani adopted the Land of the Mists as our own, and only we know the secret of travelling through the Mists. If you aid us, it is possible we could return you to your home. Is this something that you desire?”
If they say yes:
“My teacher, Madame Sorina, is the raunie of our tribe – the most powerful Seer we have. She is capable of navigating the Mists, and of many other things besides, but she has taken ill, fallen into a dread sleep from which she has not awakened for days. Before she succumbed, she spoke to me of visions in her dreams, images of a place called l’Hôpital de Corbin – an asylum established by the people of this land for the treatment of the insane. She told me that she sensed a great evil emanating from that place, an unclean presence that clouded her Sight. Then she lapsed into this torpor.” She shakes her head. “We Vistani must always move: we are a wandering people. If we linger for too long in any one place, we begin to sicken, eventually becoming mortu, losing all of our powers. Little time remains before this fate befalls us.”
She looks out of one of the small windows. “If you were to seek out this asylum and rid the place of the evil that Madame Sorina saw there, it could revive her. In exchange, we could return you to your home – or anywhere else you desire, for the Mists can touch all places. Is this acceptable?”
If they accept:
She nods. “I suggest you pose as travellers, seeking shelter from the storm. This will give you pretense to enter the asylum and seek out the source of Madame Sorina’s visions.”
The Mountain Road
The storm imposes a -4 penalty to Perception checks
The road winds up into the mountains, becoming progressively steeper. The storm continues to intensify, lightning crackling across the black sky, dark clouds now obscuring the moon completely. The path is slippery with mud. You can see waggon-ruts in the road – carts have driven through here repeatedly, wearing tracks in the path.
The Goat
Perception DC 20:
High up on a crag above the path, you glimpse a black goat watching you intently with yellow eyes. When it realizes it’s been seen the creature shakes its horned head and trots off into the storm, disappearing from sight.
The goat is actually the host for an Intellect Devourer, one of the brood in the asylum.
L’Hôpital de Corbin
The road terminates at the wrought iron gates of L’Hôpital de Corbin, an imposing building of three stories built of weathered, grey-brown stone. Though quite ornate, the building itself is unremarkable, though its windows have all been barred. Ivy and lichens have infested the asylum’s walls and roof, and the building looks generally run-down, but smoke issues from the chimneys and some of the windows show lights. The structure itself has two principal wings extending from the main building. Apart from the sanitarium itself the grounds – enclosed by a high, spiked fence – include a small chapel, a cemetery, a coach house, and what looks like the groundskeeper’s cottage. Rain continues to pour down, and thunder echoes off the surrounding mountains.
The Intellect Devourers
The Intellect Devourers who now run L’Hôpital de Corbin – the Alienists, as they call themselves – will put on a show for the characters, pretending to be a “normal” asylum. When required, the Grimlock orderlies and other servitors utilize potions of Disguise Self brewed in the alchemical laboratory in the basement in order to masquerade as human.
The adventure assumes the non-Psionic version of the Intellect Devourer, but it would be very easy to adjust it to use the Psionic variant instead.
There are 13 Intellect Devourers total (though, of course, this number can be adjusted as desired). At the beginning of the scenario, they are assumed to be in the following bodies:
1) Ulthoon is in the body of a goat patrolling the area around the asylum.
2) Ilsenzor is in the body of an inmate, posing as the groundskeeper.
3) Quasiriant, the “leader” of the brood, is in the body of Dr Delacroix (Alienist stats for host, full stats below). If not escorting the characters, he’ll usually be in his study.
4) Yrgell is in the body of Nurse Genevieve in the Infirmary.
5) 4 more Intellect Devourers are in Alienist bodies, generally in their quarters (16), or in the basement (in Examination Rooms, Laboratories, the Marionette Room, etc).
6) 5 are in the bodies of inmates either posing as staff or in the basement chambers.
Statistics for additional hosts and for particular NPCs are provided in the Appendix.
The Orderlies
At any given time, they are around 20-30 Orderlies in the asylum proper itself. The rest of the tribe (another 40 or so Grimlocks) lurk in the Tunnels below.
Orderlies are betrayed by their tendency to sniff and their failure to meet the eyes of anyone they come across. They also cannot speak the Common tongue well, doing so brokenly if at all. Repeated attempts at communication are met with blank looks, hisses, and bared teeth.
When an Orderly is killed the Disguise Self spell dissipates and they revert to their ordinary form, which provokes a Sanity check (0/1d4):
The Orderly falls dead, and his visage seethes and bubbles, an illusion dissipating and skin sloughing away to reveal a different face beneath – grey-skinned, hairless, and with white, blind eyes and a mouthful of fangs.
Seeing a Grimlock alive without the illusion provokes a Sanity check as well (0/1d6). The maximum sanity loss Grimlocks can provoke is 6.
The Grounds
The grounds are ill-tended and overgrown, the grass tall and unweeded. Gravel paths wind throughout the sanitarium’s estate, and the now-barren remains of flowerbeds or vegetable gardens can be seen here and there. Copses of sickly-looking trees loom over the grounds, casting spidery shadows on the pale grass. The rain has churned the ground to mud.
The Groundskeeper
The “groundskeeper” is nothing more than a gate-guard at this point – he does nothing to actually maintain the grounds. He’s actually a former inmate that’s been taken over by an Intellect Devourer, Ilsenzor. The inmate/host has stats similar to these, but wields a dagger (+8 to hit, 1d4+4 damage) and a stout cudgel (+8 to hit, 1d6+4 damage); he may also be equipped with a pistol or musket. The groundskeeper patrols the estate periodically and will approach characters if they attempt to investigate the chapel, coach house, cottage, or cemetery:
A scowling, red-haired man with a pockmarked face approaches you. He carries a cudgel in one meaty hand and a lantern in the other, and wears a somewhat shabby uniform of some kind. He raises the lantern and squints at you with black, beady eyes, rain pattering off his leather hat. His complexion is waxen and pale; he looks unwell.
“Trespassers, is it?” he asks, baring yellowed teeth.
As with the other Intellect Devourers’ hosts, the groundskeeper is slowly rotting. Perception DC 20 to notice the man smells awful, somewhat like rotting meat. A Perception check of 30 or higher reveals a small patch of rotting flesh on his wrist, partially concealed by his fraying sleeve. The groundskeeper – who calls himself Gerard after the previous, actual groundskeeper – will attempt to escort the characters to the asylum proper. He has a ring of wrought-iron keys with ornate bows forged in the shapes of body part – the Eye, Hand, and Heart keys.
Coach House
The coach house is built of the same stone as the asylum itself and has an attached stables; several horses can be seen within. The doors to the coach house are open, revealing a large carriage and a smaller waggon within. Hitching posts surround the carriage yard.
There are six heavy horses here. They are well fed and cared for, though there likely won’t be any stablehands around. The players may need to avail themselves of the horses to escape the asylum at some point; in this event, throw a pair of Grimlocks in to complicate things.
Groundskeeper’s Cottage
The groundskeeper’s cottage is a small, single-story building built next to a stagnant pond. Like the chapel and the coach house it’s made of stone, though its roof is of wooden slates and looks to be slowly rotting, ridden with moss and fungi. The windows are dim and shrouded with curtains.
The cottage is locked (Disable Device DC 20 or use the Eye Key).
The groundskeeper’s cottage is a slovenly mess; the furniture (a bed, table, a few chairs, and a chest of drawers) is beginning to rot, the deer-hide rug is tattered and stained, and the place has not been cleaned or swept in quite some time. There are several paintings of pastoral scenes hanging askew on the walls, but they have been defaced, the figures in them now bear extra heads, limbs, or body parts belonging to animals, scribbled additions in charcoal or what might be blood. A rusty, double-barrelled musket (leans against one wall, next to an open chest with a small supply of gunpowder and round bullets.
There’s a double-barreled musket here, obviously, along with 30 bullets and 30 doses of gunpowder.
Chapel
The asylum’s chapel is in a state of disrepair: the door has been boarded up, chained, and padlocked, and some the stained glass windows have been cracked or broken. A pair of moss-ridden gargoyles leer at you from the thoroughly rotten roof. A cemetery adjoins the disused chapel.
It requires a Strength check (DC 20) to remove the boards by hand, and the door is locked (Disable Device DC 20 or use the Eye Key). Inside:
The chapel is small and shadowy, with rows of stone pews set before a modest altar and a wooden pulpit, now beginning to rot. A rat scurries across the floor. The stained glass window at the far end of the church depicts a shield with a sword pointing downwards, adorned with a sprig of belladonna. Despite the dereliction of the chapel, a sense of calm fills you here. The sound of the rain pattering against the stained glass windows is curiously soothing.
Any non-Evil character taking refuse of the chapel heals 1d4 Sanity points immediately (this only occurs once).
Knowledge (religion) DC 25 to recognize the symbol of Ezra, Lady of the Mists. On the pulpit there is a book of prayers, including this common prayer:
“Blessed Ezra, Our Guardian in the Mists,
She who sacrificed Herself to fill the Hollow,
Healer of the sick, protector of the weak, guide to the lost,
To You we pray. Watch over us, Your people.
Take us under Your protection,
Show us the light when we are lost in darkness,
Defend us when the Legions of the Night draw close,
Lead us to our place in the Grand Scheme,
And bring us through the night to the shelter of peace.”
In the pulpit there’s a compartment (Disable Device DC 25 to pick) containing 4 Scrolls of Protection from Evil and a +1 Holy Silver Dagger with the word “Grace” engraved on the blade.
Cemetery
The cemetery is of considerable size, filled with dozens of headstones marked only with numbers and dates. Many of the graves are chipped or weather-worn, spattered with bird droppings or overgrown with weeds and lichens.
An examination of the headstones turns up something unusual: the last person buried in the graveyard died over ten years ago (year 735). Before that point, bodies had been interred fairly regularly. This is because it was ten years ago when the Intellect Devourers and their servants moved in; the Orderlies have been eating bodies ever since, rather than burying them.
The Asylum
Greeting
The doors to the asylum open, and a smiling figure minces across the foyer towards you. Dressed in a dark coat, vest, and stockings and wearing a powdered wig, the man is pale and exceedingly gaunt. Dark eyes glimmer from his sunken sockets, and his yellow grin reminds you of a skull; in one hand he holds a lamp. He extends his other hand, pallid and long-fingered, offering it to shake. Thunder crackles distantly.
“Ah, welcome to L’Hôpital de Corbin!” he says. “We so rarely receive sane visitors. I am Dr Delacroix, the Aliéniste Principal.”
Dr Delacroix – actually the Intellect Devourer Quasiriant – will warmly greet characters, offering them food, rooms for the night, and the promise of a tour in the morning (this assumes, of course, the characters have arrived at night; if they’ve arrived in daylight, adjust accordingly). Perception DC 20 to the person shaking his hand:
Dr Delacroix’s hand is cold and clammy, his handshake is very firm. As you come close to the thin, elegant figure you catch a whiff of some strong cologne masking a sour smell reminiscent of spoiled meat and acrid chemicals.
Delacroix will invite the characters to sup and will attempt to lead them up to the Dining Room on the second level of the asylum before escorting them to the guest chambers on the third. Then the real fun begins…
First Floor
1 – Foyer
The foyer is an expansive tiled chamber with a reception desk and a crystal chandelier. A somewhat rickety but richly carpeted stair winds up to the second and third floors of the sanitarium, while ornate wooden doors to the right and left lead to other parts of the asylum. Hanging on the walls are several paintings: one is a portrait of a distinguished looking man in a powdered wig with a prominent nose and steely eyes with a plaque reading “Dr Valentin Morel” beneath it, another depicts a local mountain scene, sunny and pastoral, with frolicking goats and locals, and a third is actually a framed anatomical drawing of a giant squid. A few lit candles provide meagre illumination; outside you can hear the rain and storm.
Perception DC 15:
You can hear noises elsewhere in the asylum – a distant scream, a cackle of laughter, and someone sobbing desperately.
Perception DC 25 (same roll – if they got a 25, just keep reading):
In addition to the sobbing sounds, you can hear someone pleading desperately for mercy, begging someone else to stop hurting them. You think, also, that you can hear the sound of some machinery, somewhere – the creak of gears, the tautening of a rope.
2 – Mess Hall
This long chamber must be the mess hall – there are a series of long wooden tables with benches arrayed in two columns. A set of double doors leads to what is probably the kitchen.
3 – Kitchen
The kitchen is unremarkable, with several large tables, a stove, pots and pans hanging from pegs, and a dumbwaiter with a small lever beside it. A stone stair leads down into the cellar, and an adjoining pantry contains spices, foodstuffs, baking supplies, and other ingredients.
The kitchen staff consist of three disguised Grimlocks. If the characters barge in during working hours (the day, basically) they will be preparing meals here for the inmates:
Three female servants work to prepare a meal, clad in dingy aprons and uniforms – one is skinning a rabbit while a second chops vegetables and a third kneads dough. They scowl at you as you enter, saying nothing. One sniffs loudly and murmurs something unintelligible.
If combat breaks out they use kitchen knives and cleavers as weapons.
4 – Infirmary
The door to the infirmary is locked (Disable Device DC 30, Strength DC 25 to force, or use the Heart key).
This room must be the asylum’s infirmary, judging from the rolling steel trays with scalpels, bandages, and other medical supplies and the beds that line the walls. Many of the beds are swathed in curtains, obscuring any occupants. You can hear moaning sounds and the rattle of restraints coming from one of the obscured beds near the back of the hall. An open door to one side leads to a stairwell winding down into the earth.
Pulling aside the curtains reveals the patient:
Pulling back the curtains, you discover a patient strapped to one of the infirmary beds. Obviously an inmate, the man’s head has been shaved, and his body is covered in a hundreds and hundreds of zigzagging stitches. For a moment you think the man must be covered in boils, but then you realize the round protrusions that mottle his limbs and torso are not pustules but eyes – a multitude of them in a variety of colours, some obviously culled from animals, others from humans. The eyes rove and blink, some weeping profusely, some closed, some twitching and rolling wildly.
Sight of the “Peacock” provokes a Sanity check (1/1d4). As the characters examine the grafted inmate Nurse Genevieve approaches them stealthily, creeping out from behind another set of curtains (Stealth +9). If she is undetected she will plunge a syringe of tranquilizer (Fortitude DC 20 or become paralyzed for 1d3 minutes) into the neck of the nearest character. If she is seen beforehand:
A tall, gaunt woman in a nurse’s uniform creeps towards you, a syringe in one hand, a bloodstained scalpel in the other. She exudes a graveolent stench poorly masked by perfume.
Statistics for Nurse Genevieve are provided in the Appendix.
5 – Games Room
The stuffed heads of local wildlife – wolves, bears, stags, and boars – stare down at you from the walls of this musty games room, which looks thoroughly disused. There are a number of dusty tables set with checkered boards or strewn with cards, some cobwebbed, rat-eaten leather chairs, and a scuffed billiards table.
6 – Guard Room
This square guard room contains a round table and chairs. A pair of burly, pallid guards lurk here, speaking to one another in low, guttural voices.
7 – Arsenal
This room is locked (Disable Device DC 40, Strength DC 25 to force, or used the Hand Key)
This looks to be a small arsenal for the orderlies, containing dozens of straitjackets, padded armour, protective masks, orderlies’ uniforms, and batons. There are also many fetters, shackles, manacles, and other restraints, as well as muzzles and gags.
There are 10 suits of padded armour and 20 saps in each armoury. There is a 10% chance of finding a 6 wheelock pistols, a musket, 100 bullets, and a barrel of gunpowder as well – the Grimlocks don’t like firearms, and the Alienists discourage the use of lethal force in any event (preferring to consume still-living brains that haven’t been dashed to pieces by bullets, thank you very much).
Male Ward
This ward is fairly quiet, punctuated by occasional moans, murmurs, or the sound of rattling chains. An orderly patrols the corridor, occasionally growling at inmates behind the bars of the ten cells that line the walls of the passage.
All doors in this area are locked (Disable Device DC 30, Strength DC 25 to force, or used the Brain Key).
In total there are 97 male inmates here.
8 – Male Cell
You peer through the bars to look into a fairly large cell which has been filled with inmates. The men here jostle for room, clad in dirty rags or the mouldering remnants of uniforms. As you approach they shy away, drawing back as far from the bars as they can. Wild-eyed, thin, and filthy, the inmates look more scared and brutalized than mad, though some of them do mutter and mumble to themselves.
Some of the inmates here are quite disturbed, but a number are clinging to the shreds of sanity and can be reasoned with using a Diplomacy check (DC 25). They naturally assume the characters are Intellect Devourers in disguise. If released, they violently attack Orderlies and Alienists alike, but may also attack the characters.
9 – The Satyr
Unlike the other cells, only a single inmate occupies this small chamber. He grins at you from behind the bars, leering lasciviously, and steps into the lamplight, revealing a twisted body that has been modified through surgery or magic or both: in place of feet he has large hooves, a pair of horns have been sutured to his scalp, and his eyes have been replaced with the yellow, horizontal-pupiled eyes of a goat. He bleats horribly.
Sight of the Satyr provokes a Sanity check (0/1d4). This poor inmate has been driven quite mad, having convinced himself he’s a faun as a coping mechanism. He has a gore attack (+2 to attack, 1d6 damage), and will be more inclined to attack female party members. With proper treatment he can regain his humanity.
10 – The Werewolf
Shackled to the far wall of this room is a malformed figure; at first you take him for a lycanthrope or similar creature, but then you realize the lupine body parts he possesses – the snout, tail, and paws of a wolf – have been grafted on, roughly stitched to his body. The wretched inmate howls and barks, straining against his chains.
Sight of the Werewolf provokes a Sanity check (0/1d4). This deranged inmate will attack any who releases him with his bite attack (+2, 1d6, plus Filth Fever). He can be calmed with a Wild Empathy check (DC 25), and with treatment can regain his humanity.
11 – The Mob
Whatever diseased mind created this hideous agglomeration of human flesh, it could not have been human. The bodies of a dozen inmates have been fused together, resulting in a twitching, writhing mass of limbs, heads, and torsos, moaning and skittering in the gloom.
The Mob provokes a Sanity check (1/1d6+1). The “creature” is in no condition to fight (indeed, the Mob would have trouble even getting out of the cell), but can attack (10 attacks, +2 each, 1d4 non-lethal) if characters get too close.
Female Ward
This ward is lined with barred cells full from which you can hear the occasional whimper, groan, or shriek.
The rooms in this ward are locked (Disable Device DC 30, Strength DC 25 to force, or used the Brain Key).
In total there are 124 female inmates here.
12 – Female Cell
This cell is full of women in straitjackets or ragged uniforms, some of them obviously mentally disturbed, others clinging to what shreds of sanity they have left. They shy away from you as you near the bars.
Some of the inmates (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/npc-s/npc-2/prisoner-human-expert-4) here are quite disturbed, but a number are clinging to the shreds of sanity and can be reasoned with using a Diplomacy check (DC 25). They naturally assume the characters are Intellect Devourers in disguise. If released, they violently attack Orderlies and Alienists alike, but may also attack the characters.
13 – The Spider
At first you think this cell must be empty, but then you spot the woman clinging to the ceiling with six arms, four of them grafted to her torso through some abominable mixture of sorcery and surgery, all six equipped with some means of gripping the bare brick. Additional eyes have been grafted to her forehead, as well, giving her the appearance of some monstrous spider. Clearly deranged, the woman hisses and climbs into a corner of the room.
Sight of the Spider provokes a Sanity check (0/1d4). She has the same statistics as other inmates but has six attacks and the multiattack feat.
14 – Pregnant Inmate
The woman in this cell is dressed in inmates’ garb. Her swollen belly indicates she is in the later stages of pregnancy.
Giselle was interred some time ago for “hysteria,” before her pregnancy was known, and the Alienists have kept her pregnancy secret from her well-off merchant family, who will pay handsomely (10,000 gp) for her safe return.
…
The next two floors of the asylum, the attic, the basement, and the tunnels beneath will be up soon, plus player handouts and stats for important NPCs.
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