Category: Roleplaying Page 11 of 12

This small but well-appointed reception room might once have been quite comfortable, but now the hearth is cold, the chairs and divans are rotting, the thick rugs mouldy, the wall hangings in tatters.

CH7 – Vestry

This cloakroom is filled with the rotting remnants of robes and other holy vestments, held on pegs lining one wall. Spiders have infested the robes, and their webs shroud the ceiling.

A spider swarm lurks in the robes. There is little of value here save for a pair of Healer’s Gloves tucked in the pockets of one robe. There are lots of ecclesiastical outfits, but they’re in very poor condition.

CH8 – Chapel Library

This door is swollen shut – DC 20 Strength to force.

This large, square chamber is lined with shelves containing a variety of mouldering texts. Many of them look like nothing more than chapel archives, but others are books of scripture and Apocrypha. Some portions of the shelves contain stacks of old vellum scrolls instead of bound books. There’s a small work-table here with an unlit candle. A high window admits light, and a ladder allows access to the higher tomes.

Make Perception checks (stirges have +16) to notice the colony of 4 stirges roosting on the ceiling. Otherwise the creatures will attack if the books are disturbed:

There is a fluttering, squeaking sound as four grotesque bat-like creatures with insectoid heads and juddering proboscises swoop towards you!

There are a lot of valuable objects here. First, the following scrolls can be found:

4 Scrolls of Hide from Undead (1^st level)

6 Scrolls of Protection from Evil (10^th level)

3 Scrolls of Consecrate (3^rd level)

3 Scrolls of Dispel Magic (5^th level)

2 Scrolls of Speak with Dead (5^th level)

2 Scrolls of Remove Disease (5^th level)

2 Scrolls of Remove Curse (5^th level)

2 Scrolls of Dismissal (10^th level)

1 Scroll of Dispel Evil (10^th level)

1 Scroll of Hallow (10^th level)

1 Scroll of Raise Dead (10^th level)

1 Scrolls of Cure Moderate Wounds, Mass (11^th level)

The library also contains several books that may be of interest. The first is a book on demonology, the Daemonomicon, which grants characters referring to it a +4 bonus to Knowledge (planes) check to identify evil outsiders (it also allows them to make such checks untrained). Another is the Book of Martyrs, a text describing the lives and martyrdoms of many Saints, including Saint Severine. If a character spends 8 hours studying this text, they acquire all of the knowledge normally gleaned from a Knowledge (religion) check concerning the Saint, as outlined at the start of the adventure (this includes the fact that her heart reputedly still lives!).

There are also about a dozen holy texts here that are still mostly intact, each worth about 10 gp.

CH9 – Priest’s Chamber

The iron-bound door to this room is locked (DC 25 to pick, DC 25 to force, or use the silver key).

This small but well-appointed room includes a four-poster bed, and a tall, oak wardrobe. Unlike most of the furnishings in the chapel and rectory, those here are still fairly intact. In one corner, someone has built a small, macabre shrine with an improvised altar-stone upon which is lain the corpse of a rat, set before a kind of fetish or totem, a crude figrue made from fur and bones.

Perception DC 10 to notice the still-wet blood seeping from the wardrobe. Within is the corpse of the real Father Umberto, and half a dozen ecclesiastical outfits.

The shrine is dedicated to a dark power of vermin and pestilence, the Prince of Decay, Crom Mogg.

CH10 – Priest’s Study

The iron-bound door to this room is locked (DC 25 to pick, DC 25 to force, or use the silver key).

This room appears to be a study, with a bookshelf and a writing desk. On one wall is a portrait of a stern man in priestly robes, with piercing black eyes. An inscription on the frame reads “Father Leopold.” There are a few scattered papers strewn across the desk; most are badly decomposed, but some might be legible…

There’s a page here from Father Leopold’s Diary:

St. Severine’s Skull: Hexenburg Castle – Outer Bailey

On February 20, 2014

Outer Bailey

The outer bailey of Hexenburg was devastated by the invaders: most of its outbuildings and workshops were burnt to the ground, leaving only ashes and charred beams. Near the center of the courtyard a great pile of corpses must long ago have been heaped and then burnt, leaving a tangle of blackened skeletons. Several structures, however, managed to survive the depredations of the marauders: the chapel, a round building of obviously ancient design, a squat armoury, and two towers, one tall, shadowy, and stark, likely of Imperial design, and the other slightly shorter but more ornate. At the far end of the courtyard a gate leads into the inner bailey, where the keep is visible. Snow continues to fall, though the walls provide some shelter from the chill wind.

Knowledge (religion) or (history) DC 15 to recognize the chapel as a formerly pagan temple that must have been converted into a church.

Random Encounters

The Outer Bailey is the perfect place for random encounters. Camping here is foolish, and will inevitably draw the attention of the Castle’s denizens. Roll on the following table (1d12) for random encounters:

Roll d10	Result
1	A Goblin patrol consisting of 5 Goblin warriors (3 archers, 2 melee), who retreat if they take any casualties.
2	3+1d4 Bandits sheltering here temporarily.
3	A Barghest and 3 Goblin warriors (principally melee).
4	An Ettercap from the Library Tower and 3 small monstrous spiders.
5	2 Bugbears.
6	A rogue Grick from the catacombs.
7	Hunting Tentamort.
8	Slime crawler from the crypts.
9	Dire Bat.
10	1d10 Giant Cockroaches.

Mixing and matching from appropriate results can work as well – like throwing a Barghest, a Bugbear, and a handful of Goblins at the players, for example.

Well

This crumbling stone well has rotten ropes and rusted mechanisms.

The water in the well is stagnant and fouled, unfit for drinking.

The Cult of the Withered Hand

The Cult of the Withered Hand is a group of depraved fanatics who arrive at Hexenburg, servants of the Misshapen God and Lord of the Withered Hand, known also as the Aberrant One, Scorrathoth the Twisted. Their leader is the demented former priest known as Father Melchior; his right hand is the maniacal Sister Gabriella, and together they lead a band of deranged rabble consisting of three dark disciples and seven rank-and-file cultists. They have journeyed to the ruins in search of a book known as the Book of Bile, a grimoire which can be found in the Library Tower, as well as any other infernal artifacts they might discover. They will probably not cooperate with the party, but evil characters, good liars, or characters who know how to strike a deal might be able to reason with them.

Statistics for Melchior and Gabriella are included in the Appendix.

The best way to introduce the cult is to have the adventurers witness they arrival from the gatehouse, the walls, or from a watchtower. Alternatively they could glimpse their arrival from a window in the Black Tower or Library Tower. In any case, wait until the characters have explored a little before introducing the cultists.

Arrival

There is a sound of clopping hooves on the path as a carriage drawn by a pair of pale, bony horses rattles over the drawbridge and into Hexenburg’s outer bailey. A group of men and women in ragged, greenish-brown robes accompanies the carriage, either riding haggard-looking mounts of their own or trudging through the wet snow on foot. They’re a miserable, bedraggled looking lot, with sallow features; some look to be afflicted with some kind of pox or rash, and several have unwholesome-looking tattoos. One carries a gnarled wooden standard mounted with what looks like a bony human hand at its tip. They carry flails, daggers, handaxes, or slings. Many of them seem slightly deformed, or to be missing limbs or other body parts.

As the carriage rumbles to a halt the driver opens the door, and two people get out: one a robed, stunted-looking man with an extremely long, matted beard, yellowed teeth, and a shambling gait, the other a tall, gauntly elegant woman who would be cadaverously beautiful were it not for the tumourous growths mottling half of her face. The two seem to be conversing, speaking to their clustered followers. There are about a dozen of them in total.

Perception DC 20 to listen in:

“…must find the Book of Bile as soon as quickly as we can,” the bearded man is saying. Despite his small stature he seems to command a great deal of authority. “The Withered Hand will guide us, if we trust in our Lord, but there are things here which will not welcome our presence.”

“Of course, Father Melchior,” the woman says. She turns to the gathered rabble. “You heard the Father. Form groups of three and begin searching the grounds. The tome may not be in the library tower; we know that Count Manfred von Wulfheim kept a number of valuable texts in his laboratory.”

The cultists do as she says, with the groups looking like this:

Group 1: 1 Disciple, 2 Cultists

Group 2: 1 Disciple, 2 Cultists

Group 3: Gabriella, 1 Disciple, 1 Cultist

Group 4: Father Melchior, 2 Cultists

A Note on Spells

The Disciples have the following spells prepared:

1^st: Doom, Inflict Light Wounds, Ray of Sickening (DC 12)

Sigil’s Most Wanted

On February 13, 2014

I recently made a bunch of wanted posters for my players as handouts – the law has finally caught up with them after a year and a half of hijinx in the City of Doors.

The original party met in the Howling Land of Pandemonium; due to their exploits the Sigilian authorities have dubbed them the “Pandemonium Six.”

Alfgrimr was a character made by a Planescape veteran who, unfortunately, has now left the campaign (due to graduating from library school). Alfgrimr was a very, very odd character – a water genasi Cipher of the Transcendent Order (which meant that if his player said he took an action, even in jest, he had to take that action), he was obsessed with achieving immortality and thus was always collecting odd bits and pieces along his journeys in the hope that they would extend his lifespan. He was also crazily ruthless and disturbingly creative. For a period another character possessed a Helm of Telepathy – which, at our table, is now represented by a paper crown worn by the player whose character is wearing the helm – and Alfgrimr’s player would periodically pass the telepath unsettling notes, the “ambient thoughts” rolling around in Alfgrmir’s twisted consciousness. He also died a lot, and eventually became a proxy of the Norse god Baldr.

A catfolk Rogue and former street urchin, Pockets has a history that feels a bit like something out of a Dickens novel crossed with Selina Kyle and Garrett from the Thief series. The abandoned daughter of the former Cat Lord of the Beastlands, “Kets” is a hardened, embittered seventeen-year old pickpocket turned upscale burglar who usually is about as jaded as they come. She fights with a rapier and a winxy pistol, an ensorceled firearm she picked up in a Demiplane modeled on Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland. She’s defiantly True Neutral.

Gwendolyn is the animal-lover of the group and one of the two Good characters. Along with Belric, below, she helped create a giant, green super-intelligent hog monster that grows bigger the more it eats and is now housed in an extradimensional warehouse in the Sigil’s slums, hence her moniker “Swine-Mother,” bestowed on her by a group of Xoasitects. She’s a half-elf Ranger/Druid and so serves as the party’s main healer. She often tends to spend a healthy portion of a given sessional wild-shaped into some sort of bird. She’s also slightly deranged from wearing a Helm of Telepathy for a bit too long. Oh yeah, and she’s wearing a symbiotic Corset now…

Klaira is the party’s Bard/Gunslinger and the only other Good character, so she’s forced into the role of “group conscience” pretty frequently. She’s also on the run from Unseelie bounty hunters who want to return her to a twisted fey aristocrat who previously kept her around as an enslaved storyteller, Scheherazade-style. During the Savour of Madness adventure in Ravenloft she got grafted with a reptillian tail remeniscent of a chameleon’s.

Belric is a Halfling… and also the child of an Olympian demigod from Arborea. He’s a Sorcerer who specializes in lightning spells, a former Athar turned Sensate, and easily the whackiest character in the party – he’s got all the appetite of a Hobbit and a taste in mind-altering (and body-altering) substances that would match William Borroughs. He eats and drinks everything: mysterious chaos-cheese from Limbo, age-reversing potion, Alignment-altering liquor, animal petitioners on the Beastlands, and dozens of other morsels and tinctures. Chaotic Neutral to the core. He was reincarnated as a Kobold for awhile. He’s also bedded fallen celestials, fairies, and probably a few things I’ve forgotten about…

Achaia is a Fetchling Rogue/Shadowdancer with a Stealth bonus so high I often don’t even call for Stealth checks anymore. She can shapeshift and hide in plain sight, and steals pretty much anything that isn’t nailed down, which all goes into a capacious bag of holding. She’s usually pretty self-serving but seems to have a soft spot for children and simialrly vulnerable types, going out of her way to aid the downtrodden and neglected. The hat was filched from the Mad Hatter’s felinoid house. She’s also got a nice little time-manipulating stopwatch a Paladin polymorphed into Goblin form gave her after an escapade on Acheron.

Rulga was a character made by a player who unfortunately had to leave the campaign, but she was great while we had her. A Dwarf Monk and member of the exacted Fated – who are something like Planescape’s Objectivists and Nietzscheans – she served as a major voice of reason (she was also the only Lawful character in a party full of Chaotic types). She eventually met Arthur Pendragon in Avalon on Elysium – he was waiting to be recalled to Albion on the Prime Material Plane, but the party somehow convinced him to join them, and over time the two had an extremely strange off-kilter romance that survived several reincarnations.

Planescape Soundtracks

On February 13, 2014

The main game I’m running these days is a Planescape campaign (for those that know the setting well, I’ve set it before the Faction War, using all the AD&D boxed sets and a lot of my own notes; for those that don’t know the setting well, you can find out more here). I run the setting very much as a sandbox: we’ve got a big, sprawling map of Sigil in the middle of the table that the players can interact with, and at any given time there’s about half a dozen plot-threads they can engage with and intertwine. Planescape is a challenging setting to run for a lot of reasons, but one of the biggest is tone.

As I interpret the setting, there are two major stylistic/generic elements at play in Planescape: noir and myth. On the one hand you’ve got a sort of gloomy urban fantasy vibe. Planars (especially Sigilians) cultivate a kind of hardened, jaded cynicism – they’re hardboiled. The world of noir is, in the words of famous noir critics Borde and Chaumeton, “oneiric, strange, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel.” The noir element is dark, surreal, world-weary; it’s about conspiracies, mysteries, dubious motives, and off-kilter misadventures. On the other hand there’s the myth element, which is kind of the opposite of noir – it’s about big, larger than life heroism and archetypes, spiritual forces, allegory, and ritual. These things are, in some sense, ultimately and inescapably opposed. Noir is a nihilistic genre about existential crisis, about grappling with the dark sides of the psyche in a universe without the comforts of some greater meaning or telos; there’s horror and terror and awe, but people in a noir universe are detached from these emotions, perhaps almost in contempt of them. Myth, on the other hand, is all about greater meaning, all about sublimity and intensity. Myth has Heroes in the Cambellian vein; noir has anti-heroes.

This noir-mythic tension – which, to me, is endlessly fascinating and rewarding to play with and mash up – brings me to the actual purpose of this post, which is music. I use music in all of my games these days. The right music can set the tone perfectly, while the wrong music can wreck the tone completely. A Planescape soundtrack requires eclecticism: you’re in Acheron one minute and Elysium the next, and walking down a street in Sigil, Devils rub shoulders with Elementals and lycanthropes and sentient robots. I also want the music to reflect both elements of Planescape’s ethos, the interplay between dark noir fantasy and myth. I favour video game soundtracks for my games, because by their nature they’re designed to be ambient and repetitive, but I also use soundtracks from movies and other sources. So, without further preamble, here’s my Planescape soundtrack:

Planescape: Torment Soundtrack – a good all-purpose score specifically designed for the Planescape setting.

Grim Fandango Soundtrack – excellent for taverns and clubs, and a nice alternative to the stereotypical quasi-medieval harp music you often here in taverns in rpgs.

The Void Soundtrack – one of the most hallucinatory soundtracks I’ve ever heard,with a mystic, dream-like tone shot through with a lot of unease. The Turgor Theme
is especially brilliant.

Sherlock Holmes Soundtrack – especially good for frenetic chases, back-alley fights, and street scenes. I have mixed feelings about the films (in essence: superb popcorn cinema, god-awful as Holmes adaptations) but the soundtrack is quite marvelous.

Alice: Madness Returns Soundtrack – brilliant for dark doings, twisted realities, Kafkaesque trials, gigantic machines, Wonderland-inspired vistas and the like. I use this one a lot. Dollhouse is probably my favorite track.

Zeno Clash Soundtrack – for suspenseful moments, fights, and exploration of alien wildernesses. Another one I use very frequently. Danger in the Mist is a particularly useful track in crazed alley-labyrinths haunted by Chaosmen who’ve decided to adopt the personae of ravenous hyenas, or fungal forests in the Plane of Ooze infested by savage vegepygmies, etc.

Riven Soundtrack – for conspiracies, forgotten temples, and moments when the players glimpse the wheels-within-wheels play of power and pain that keeps Sigil from flying apart at the seams. I’m especially partial to the Moiety Theme which has a wonderful aura of sinister mystery and immense age to it.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines Soundtrack – a nice, dark fantasy urban soundtrack, especially good for demonic dance clubs.

Thief Soundtrack – for sneaking around, naturally. A rich mix of ambient sounds, ominous trills, and vague discord.

Dishonored Soundtrack – more good city music. A very melancholic sort of soundtrack, to be used in quieter moments.

Amnesia Soundtrack – for my annual month-long Ravenloft segments and occasionally in other especially horrific situations. I use this one sparingly.

Beetlejuice Soundtrack – for encounters with Xaositects (who I interpret as Dadaists and Absurdists) and Limbo. The main theme is brilliant in chaotic, madcap situations that call for a comedic touch.

Rune Soundtrack – for moments of mythic horror, cold planes, Ysgard, and anything involving Dwarves. Also some good pitched battle music.

Sin City Soundtrack – I actually use this one fairly rarely as it’s a bit too recognizable in places, but I would like to make greater use of Old Town in the future.

Note: obviously the big sonic/thematic influence I’m neglecting here is punk, which is also important for the setting.

St. Severine’s Skull: Hexenburg Castle – Gatehouse

On February 3, 2014

Grugnar, the Gatekeeper

The Gatehouse is the lair of a badly deformed Ogre, Grugnar Skintaker, Gatekeeper of the Castle – a twisted wretch, shunned even by fellow Ogre-kind, who tries to hide his hideous deformities with garments made from humanoid skin. Grugnar will probably become aware of the characters before they become aware of him, and will begin stalking them through the ruin. He particularly prizes those with nice skin (Elves, Half-Elves, and those with high Charisma scores) and ignores anyone with bad or discoloured skin (Half-Orcs are probably safe). He will try to pick off characters one by one rather than attacking them en masse, but if they stick together he will eventually simply attack them. If wounded at all severely, he immediately retreats.

Note that Grugnar has a tenuous alliance with the Gorefeaster Goblins who inhabit the keep – though not a member of the tribe, he will open and close the gates, portcullis, and drawbridge as the Goblins require, and pays occasional tribute to the Goblins (mostly in the form of gold taken from his victims). In exchange, the Goblins let him keep to himself and stay out of the Gatehouse.

Grugnar’s statistics appear in the Appendix. Grugnar has a copper key that opens any door in the Gatehouse.

Within the Gatehouse, emphasize an atmosphere predominantly of emptiness. Throw in strange sounds – doors opening, footsteps, a claw scraping against stone, a low moan. Some of these “scripted” sounds can be found below as examples. Call for random Perception checks, with the following results:

DC 10:

You could swear you heard something moving outside the room, and briefly glimpse a shadow flicker past the doorway. You catch a whiff of some rank, animal fetor.

DC 15:

You hear a shuffling footstep somewhere behind you, as well as a ragged, indrawn breath. Someone, or something, is nearby, but out of sight.

DC 20:

Out of the corner of your eye, you catch a brief glimpse of something – a hulking, vaguely humanoid shape, hunched over and grotesquely proportioned – shambling through a doorway. The second you look towards the door the shape is gone, so quickly and quietly you wonder if you imagined it.

Grugnar himself:

A huge, hunched monstrosity, at least nine feet tall and muscled like an ox, lurches out of the shadows. The creature is misshapen and twisted, its body contorted strangely, its back bent, its arms long and gangly. It smells abominable, like a slaughterhouse, an open grave, and a wild animal, a vile fetor mixed into one noisome stench. The thing is garbed in a monstrous patchwork garment stitched together from the tanned flesh of many humanoids. This abhorrent outfit includes a hideous fleshy mask. Beneath the thing’s skin-suit you glimpse a mottled, hairy hide covered in disfiguring warts, boils, and growths – it’s as if the brutish thing were trying to cover up its own ugliness with stolen flesh. The bestial monstrosity brandishes a flaying knife in one clawed hand and a spiked chain in the other. It gnashes yellowed fangs and shambles towards you!

G0 – Drawbridge

As you approach the drawbridge and the gatehouse you notice tracks in the snow, leading towards the Castle. They must be fairly recent as the snow is still very fresh; the footprints are unusually large and strangely shaped.

The drawbridge groans as you step onto it. The portcullis is up, and the huge, wooden doors are splintered and broken open. Above you, several murder holes are evident, where defenders would have thrown down stones, quicklime, or boiling water down on foes. Past the double doors lies the Castle’s first bailey, an open courtyard with several outbuildings, while to either side, there are two more wooden doors leading into the gatehouse itself.

The doors into the gatehouse are shut, requiring a DC 20 Strength check to open or a DC 20 Disable Device check.

Knowledge (engineering) DC 10:

Judging from the dressed stonework here, the gatehouse was probably built well after the days of the Empire.

G1 – West Guard Room

Badly rotten tables and chairs litter the floor here, and putrescent tapestries depicting a heraldic wolf’s head with red eyes and a lolling tongue adorn the stone walls. Some of the furnishings seem to have been actively smashed to splinters. A door has been torn from its hinges by some terrible force. It lies on the ground; curiously, it is marked by what look like claws rather than axe-blades or swords. Beyond the gaping doorway is a spiralling stone stair.

There are a few badly rusted shields lying about here, having fallen from their brackets on the wall. There’s also an old lantern on one of the tables here, though it doesn’t look like it has any oil left.

Perception DC 15 to hear what sound like footsteps creaking on the floorboards above. The lantern is of the hooded variety.

G2 – East Guard Room

This spare, rectangular chamber might once have been a guard room, but it’s become the lair of some beast. Gnawed animal bones in the hundreds are strewn across the floor, culled from birds, weasels, elk, and even what look like bears – whatever ate these creatures, it was capable of taking down large predators. There also seem to be a few human bones mixed into the macabre heap, and some torn scraps of clothing. An animal musk mingles with the scent of decay here. There’s one door, ajar, leading into a spiralling stairway.

A search of the bone-pile turns up 14 silver pieces and a battleaxe.

G3 – West Barracks

Sagging bunk-beds with tattered linens line the walls of this long chamber. Each has a chest at its foot; many stand open. Dark, crusted stains mar the woodwork, and it looks like someone has scrawled a message in blood on one of the walls, though it’s written in jagged, uncouth runes. A handful of cracked, scattered bones litters the floor.

Anyone who can read Aklo (or make a DC 20 Linguistics check) can read the message:

“All Hail the Mistress of Slaughter.”

Anyone who reads this out loud accidentally invokes a spell similar to Rage upon themselves (Will DC 17 to resist) and attacks the nearest ally for 1d4 rounds.

There is little of value here, but a thorough search of the chests turns up a spare suit of chain mail, a light flail, and 26 silver pieces. Locked in one chest (DC 20 to open) is a masterwork silver dagger.

G4 – East Barracks

If the players have a light source when they enter this chamber, note that cockroaches scuttle away from the light.

Vermin have taken up residence in this former barracks, infesting the mouldy remains of the furniture. Cockroaches in particular seem grotesquely abundant here, chittering and rustling as you enter. A skeletal corpse lies slumped against one wall, its mail hauberk heavily rusted. In its bony hands, the corpse clutches what looks like a sacred talisman. There are several unlit torches in brackets along the walls.

The talisman is of Saint Bastiana and functions as an Amulet of Natural Armour +1 to any of the faith, or alternatively of a Lawful alignment. However, disturbing the corpse in any way provokes a cockroach swarm:

As you touch the talisman, the skeleton’s bones rattle, and suddenly, a swarm of cockroaches seethes forth from beneath the corpse’s armour, coursing over your limbs, creeping beneath your clothes, their mandibles worrying at your flesh!

Note that as per 3.5 I’m using rules for torches and lanterns here – a swung torch deals 1d3 and a lantern, if broken, 1d4. The cockroaches don’t like light, so a strong light source like a lantern or Light spell, appropriately brandished, makes them flee into the room’s corners. Flasks of acid and alchemist’s fire also work, as do spells like Burning Hands and the like. The characters’ best strategy may be to just retreat; the cockroach swarm won’t follow them down the stairs or through a door.

It’s possible to get the talisman out without provoking the swarm, but it takes a Sleight of Hand check (DC 15).

G5 – Winch Controls

A large, badly rusted winch stands at the center of this chamber; at the far end of the room is a windlass. Cut in the floor are several circular murder holes. Some old bloodstains crust the floor. Several buckets full of stones are tucked into a corner.

The bloodstains lead into G7. The winch is used to operate the portcullis, the windlass for the drawbridge. Currently the drawbridge is down and the portcullis is up.

G6 – Trapped Archer’s Gallery

You enter a long gallery with a series of arrow slits along one wall, allowing archers to target anyone on the drawbridge. Two mouldering skeletons are slumped against the far wall, clutching bows. Arrows are strewn about the floor, and an old smear of blood leads to a door.

There are 6 cold iron arrows and 34 arrows here for those that want them.

A gut tripwire here activates a crude crossbow trap.

G7 – Arsenal

This room looks to have once been an arsenal, but it’s been thoroughly looted. Empty weapon racks and brackets are evident, but little of use remains: half a dozen rusted spears and a few halberds, and a handful of brittle-looking bows.

All of these weapons have the “broken” condition.

G8 – Armoury

The door to this room is unlocked, but trapped – upon opening it, several large, badly rusted blades swing down from the ceiling to strike any stepping through, similar to a scythe trap.

Old suits of armour, badly rusted, can be found in this chamber: chain shirts, breastplates, helmets, greaves, gauntlets, and other bits and pieces, some of them still on their racks, others scattered about. Dozens of shields and bucklers are scattered around as well.

4 chain shirts, 3 suits of chain mail, 3 suits of scale mail, 2 breastplates, 1 suit of splint mail, 1 pair of spiked gauntlets, 6 large steel shields, 4 small steel shields, and 8 bucklers can be found here.

G9 – Storage

The heavy wooden door to this room will not open easily, as it’s been barricaded. It takes a DC 22 Strength check to force it open. The blood trail leads here.

You finally force the door open. Inside, you realize the door had been barricaded – there were shelves, crates, and other objects heaped up against it. The chamber here looks to be a storage room. There are several jars of lantern oil, a number tools and nails, torches, linen, spare parts for the winch, and a significant quantity of spare timber. There are also some bandages and other healing supplies. The blood-stain stops at a mouldering old skeleton in a badly rusted hauberk, an arrow protruding from its bony ribs.

There are 6 jars of lamp oil here (1 pint each), 20 torches, and a healer’s kit. The skeleton has a chain shirt and a masterwork arrow sticking out of it.

G10 – Archer’s Gallery

Judging from the arrow slits along one wall, this is an archer’s gallery, used to pepper foes on the drawbridge with arrows.

A patch of the floor in this gallery is weakened. Unless a character has Trapspotter or Stonecunning, they don’t get a Perception check automatically; it’s DC 20 to detect otherwise. The hazard requires a Reflex DC 20 to avoid and deals 2d6 falling damage, depositing characters in G6.

G11 – Mangonel Storage

Spare parts for mangonels are stored in this chamber – beams, axles, counterweights, and other components. Now these parts are beginning to succumb to rot, exuding a pungent odour.

G12 – Spiked Room

The door to this room is locked; Grugnar has the copper key which unlocks it.

Someone has fixed long, wooden spikes to the floor of this room. The spikes appear to have been smeared with a dark substance.

Anyone straying to the chest in G16 may end up here. The spikes are smeared with small centipede poison (Fort DC 11, 1 Dex damage, 1/round for 4 rounds, 1 save cures).

G13 – Crossbow Armoury

This door is locked (DC 20). The copper key opens it.

During the attack on Hexenburg, this room must have been neglected. Its walls are hung with crossbows, most of which are in remarkably good condition, ranging in size from heavy crossbows to small hand crossbows. Barrels of bolts are arrayed about the walls.

There are about 1000 bolts, 20 heavy crossbows, 20 light crossbows, and 10 hand crossbows here.

G14 – Heap

This room might once have been an armoury of storage chamber, but its previous contents have been cleared out. A makeshift bed has been made from heaped grass, straw, and other material. Some cracked bones are scattered about as well, along with a half-eaten human corpse. Hideously, it looks as if the corpse was flayed before being partially eaten – the man has no skin. Piled in a corner of the chamber is a mound of clothing scraps, leather tatters, and other bric-a-brac, including a number of old weapons and bits of jewellery.

Two gold rings (25 gp each), a silver ring (5 gp), and four copper rings (1 gp each), plus a silver broach set with a bloodstone (75 gp), can be found here, along with a dagger, a shortsword, and a masterwork longsword.

G15 – Centipede Room

In this chamber, a pair of overgrown centipedes the size of cats scuttle over the corpse of a small, ponty-eared, sharp-toothed humanoid – a Goblin. The creature’s flesh is discoloured and blotchy from hundreds of tiny bites. It clutches a morningstar in one hand and a ring of keys in another. The centipedes seem to have made this room their nest – amidst a heap of rotten timber they’ve laid dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of glossy white eggs.

The centipedes are aggressive and will attack anyone entering. The Goblin has 8 silver pieces and a ring of keys (copper, silver, black iron, bronze). It is from the Barghest-led tribe that dwells in the Dungeons.

G16 – Trapped Room

The wooden floorboards of this room are scuffed and bloodstained. Near the far end of the room is a large, wooden chest, open. Inside you can glimpse a glimmer of silver.

Grugnar has set a trap in this room. The chest contains 142 silver pieces and 42 gold pieces, However, the floorboards near the trap have been weakened (Perception DC 20 on a trap search, Disable Device DC 20). Anyone stepping on them must make a DC 20 Reflex save or suffer 1d6 falling damage, plus 1d4 spikes (+10 attack, 1d4+2 each) as they fall into G12. These spikes are smeared with small centipede poison (Fort DC 11, 1 Dex damage, 1/round for 4 rounds, 1 save cures).

G17 – The Chair Room

Several old halberds and spears are hung on the wall. The gatehouse here has crumbled partially, leaving a hole in the wall; snow has blown inside, and the wind moans dully through the gap. Set before the hole is a rocking chair made from human and animal bones, lashed together with sinews, as if made for someone to look out into the bailey beyond.

3 halberds, 4 longspears, 1 very creepy chair.

G18 – Officer’s Quarters

This square chamber, with its larger bed, writing desk, and small shelf, could have been the quarters of the gatehouse’s commander. This furniture is badly rotten, infested with a thick, brown mould. It looks like there might be a few papers mixed in with the detritus.

The furniture has been infested with brown mould.

There is little to be found here, except that a loose stone in the wall can be removed (Perception DC 22 to find). Inside is a small belt-pouch with 54 gp.

The papers are mostly logs for the gatehouse’s inventory of weapons, ammunition, rations, and the like. There is also, however, a map of the gatehouse and 1d3 other random maps.

G19 – Scorched Archer’s Gallery

This archer’s gallery looks down on the drawbridge and forest below. There are scorch marks about some of the arrow-slits. A shrunken, bug-eyed thing resembling a malignant, deformed child lies in the middle of the gallery, a quarrel protruding from its throat from a crude crossbow trap near the ceiling.

This Goblin met its end from one of Grugnar’s traps. It has 3 silver pieces and a crude dagger.

The Savour of Madness: Tunnels

On January 25, 2014

The Tunnels

The tunnels are completely dark. Anyone with anything less than Darkvision will require a light. Fortunately, lights don’t alert the Grimlocks that lurk in the tunnels to the characters’ presence, but any Intellect Devourers in the tunnels will see an approaching torch or lantern. The Alienists flee to the tunnels if all else fails – if the inmates are set free, for example, or the asylum set on fire, or if they are simply driven back through the basement.

56 – Entrance Cavern

An incessant dropping sound fills the air here, along with the rancid stench of carrion. Three passages lead from this round cave.

Perception DC 15:

One tunnel reeks especially strongly of rotten flesh, and another smells of mould. What sounds like the bleating of a goat echoes down the tunnel in the middle.

58 – Heap

A vile stink fills your nostrils in this cavern, the reek of rotting flesh making your stomach roil. A huge heap of half-eaten corpses is pied at the center of the cave, filling the air with the sound of buzzing flies and rustling maggots. All of the corpses have had their skulls shattered. The floor is slick with half-coagulated blood.

This is where the Alienists dump bodies they’re no longer using (those they don’t keep in the larder, anyway), keeping their servants well-fed. The gruesome sight provokes a Sanity check (0/1d4+1). Perception DC 20 to hear chewing sounds from behind the corpse-pile, where two Grimlocks eat.

59 – Drinking Water

A pool of murky water fills most of this large cavern; within you can glimpse blind cave fish and other creatures, stunted albino things. A hunched, eyeless humanoid, its skin a mottled grey, its hands clawed, stoops and drinks from the pool. Fungi riddle the cave walls, filling the air with their pungent smell.

A single Grimlock can be found here.

60 – Larval Pool

A huge pool of greenish, slimy liquid dominates this cavern; within the murky depths you can glimpse small, brain-like creatures swimming, propelling themselves with their tentacles in a way that reminds you of jellyfish. Adhered to the banks of the pool are vast quantities of small, round eggs in mucilaginous sacs, reminiscent of frogspawn.

Dozens of Intellect Devourer larvae – Ustilagors – lurk in the pool. Falling in is probably a bad idea…

61 – Chasm

A seemingly bottomless chasm interrupts the tunnel here.

Acrobatics DC 20 to leap across here; fall damage is 10d6. Climbing down requires a DC 20 Climb check. Grimlocks will chase characters fleeing here to try and trap them.

62 – Feasting Chamber

Hundreds – perhaps thousands – of gnawed bones, both human and animal, carpet the floor of this chamber. Crude images of beasts, intellect devourers, and humanoids are painted on the walls.

If the characters have been stealthy they may witness a particularly gruesome feast-in-progress:

A trio of twisted, eyeless humanoids tear apart a mountain goat here; the creature’s piteous bleats echo through the caves as they tear it open, blood gushing everywhere as they begin to gorge themselves on its entrails, stuffing dripping gobs of viscera into their fanged mouths.

63 – Mountain Tunnel

A faint whiff of fresh air and the sound of wind relieves the musty staleness of the caverns here.

This passage climbs upwards (Climb DC 15) out into the mountains. If truly outmatched the Alienists will flee here, though this could also make a convenient escape route for the characters. The Grimlocks use this entrance to go and hunt.

64 – Grimlock Warren

Something stirs in the darkness of this large, dripping cavern – you are not alone down here. Stalactites loom out of the darkness, and shallow pools of water have collected on the floor.

At any given time there are at least a 15-25 Grimlocks in this large cavern, sleeping, creeping about, mating, or eating. Here’s a glimpse of some of them:

Half a dozen loping figures emerge from the darkness – pale, malformed humanoids with pronounced nostrils and ears, no eyes, and mottled greyish-white skins. Sniffing the air, they hiss and move towards you, and more shapes stir behind them!

65 – The Pit

A gaping pit yawns at the center of this chamber, its walls slimy, plummeting down into darkness.

This pit leads down into an intricate cavern system that riddles the mountains; it’s here that the Grimlocks entered these caverns. Clambering down is tricky, however, requiring a DC 25 Climb check (fall damage is 20d6).

Appendix: Statistics

QUASIRIANT/DELACROIX – INTELLECT DEVOURER SORCERER 8

CR 11

XP 12, 800

Intellect devourer sorcerer 8

CE Small aberration

Init +11; Senses blindsight 60 ft., detect magic; Perception +21

DEFENSE

AC 23, touch 18, flat-footed 16 (+7 Dex, +5 natural, +1 size)

hp 164 (16 HD; 8d8+8d6+96)

Fort +11, Ref +12, Will +16

Defensive Abilities: invisibility, mirror image; DR 10/adamantine and magic; Immune fire; Resist cold 20, electricity 20, sonic 20; SR 23

Weaknesses: vulnerability to protection from evil

OFFENSE

Speed: 30 ft.

Melee: 4 claws +18 (1d4+1)

Special Attacks: acidic ray (1d6+6 acid, 12/day), body thief, sneak attack +3d6

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 8th; concentration +17)

Constant—detect magic

At will—confusion (DC 22, single target only), daze monster (DC 19, no HD limit), inflict serious wounds (DC 20), invisibility, reduce size (as reduce person but self only)

3/day—cure moderate wounds, globe of invulnerability

Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 8th; concentration +17)

4th (4/day)— phantasmal killer (DC 20)

3rd (7/day)— gentle repose, suggestion (DC 21)

2nd (8/day)— touch of idiocy (DC 18), hideous laughter (DC 20), mad hallucination (DC 18)

1st (8/day)—charm person (DC 20), disguise self (DC 18), hypnotism (DC 20), memory lapse (DC 20), sleep (DC 20)

0 (at will)—arcane mark, dancing lights, detect poison, ghost sound (DC 17), mage hand, mending, open/close, prestidigitation

Bloodline: Aberrant

STATISTICS

Str 12, Dex 25, Con 19, Int 18, Wis 14, Cha 24

Base Atk +10; CMB +10; CMD 27

Feats: Combat Casting, Eschew Materials, Extend Spell, Greater Spell Focus (enchantment), Improved Initiative, Quicken Spell, Silent Spell, Spell Focus (enchantment), Still Spell, Weapon Finesse

Skills: Bluff +34, Craft (alchemy) +13, Diplomacy +16, Disguise +23, Knowledge (arcana) +11, Knowledge (psionics) +11, Knowledge (local) +14, Perception +17, Sense Motive +16, Spellcraft +18, Stealth +19, Use Magic Device +19

Languages: Common, Aklo, Grimlock, Undercommon (cannot speak); telepathy 100 ft.

SQ: bloodline arcana, long limbs (+10 ft.), unusual anatomy (25%)

Gear (only if encountered in a host body): doctor’s outfit, masterwork dagger, keys (Eye, Hand, Heart, Brain)

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Body Thief (Su): As a full-round action that provokes an attack of opportunity, an intellect devourer can reduce its size, crawl into the mouth of a helpless or dead creature, and burrow into the victim’s skull to devour its brain. This is a coup de grace attempt that inflicts 8d4+3d6+8 points of damage. If the victim is slain (or already dead), the intellect devourer usurps control of the body and may use it as its own, as if it controlled the target via a dominate monster spell. The intellect devourer has full access to all of the host’s defensive and offensive abilities save for spellcasting and spell-like abilities (although the intellect devourer can still use its own spell-like abilities). A host body may not have been dead for longer than 1 day for this ability to function, and even successfully inhabited bodies decay to uselessness in 7 days (unless this time is extended via gentle repose). As long as the intellect devourer occupies the body, it knows (and can speak) the languages known by the victim and basic information about the victim’s identity and personality, yet has none of the victim’s specific memories or knowledge. Damage done to a host body does not harm the intellect devourer, and if the host body is slain, the intellect devourer emerges and is dazed for 1 round. Raise dead cannot restore a victim of body theft, but resurrection or more powerful magic can.

Vulnerable to Protection from Evil (Ex): An intellect devourer is treated as a summoned creature for the purpose of determining how it is affected by a protection from evil spell.

ALIENIST (HOST BODY)

CR 5

XP 1,600

Human expert 7

CE Medium humanoid

Init +2; Senses Perception +12

DEFENSE

AC 12, touch 12, flat-footed 10 (+1 armor, +2 Dex)

hp 31 (7d8)

Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +5

OFFENSE

Speed: 30 ft.

Melee: masterwork dagger +5 (1d4–1/19–20)

STATISTICS

Str 8, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 16, Wis 11, Cha 17

Base Atk +5; CMB +4; CMD 13

Feats Alertness, Combat Expertise, Deceitful, Persuasive, Skill Focus (Profession [alienist])

Skills Appraise +13, Bluff +19, Diplomacy +13, Disguise +11, Heal +12, Intimidate +11, Knowledge (arcana) +11, Knowledge (local) +14, Knowledge (psionics) +11, Perception +19, Profession (alienist) +13, Ride +6, Sense Motive +12, Stealth +9, Use Magic Device +11

Languages: Common, Aklo, Grimlock, Undercommon

Gear: doctor’s outfit, keys (Eye, Hand, Heart, Brain), masterwork dagger

These stats were modified slightly in light of the Body Thief ability; it doesn’t make sense to me to use the host body’s Bluff bonus, for example, given that the host’s brain has been eaten.

Of course, it’s quite possible that the Intellect Devourers will switch bodies at various points. When one of the Alienists’ hosts die, the Intellect Devourer shows itself:

The body falls to the floor, eyes staring lifelessly ahead. Then, suddenly, the corpse twitches, limbs flailing. There is a sickening cracking sound as the corpse’s skull breaks open like an egg, a black talon emerging from the wound, followed by a whipping tentacle. The tendril pushes aside the fragmented wreckage of the man’s head and something climbs out. It looks exactly like a brain, save for the greyish fungus covering it, its lashing tentacles, and the many-jointed limbs unfolding from beneath it. The thing seems temporarily dazed.

The sight of an Intellect Devourer provokes a Sanity check (1/1d4). Intellect Devourers can also exit the way they came in, through the mouths of their hosts, but this process is more cumbersome (they use this process when they want to leave a host undamaged).

After losing a host an Intellect Devourer will usually scuttle away, becoming Invisible (or Clouding Minds if you’re using the Psionic variant). If the characters are injured, however, or if there are other Alienists or Orderlies around, it may attack, using Confusion, Inflict Serious Wounds, and claws. If a corpse is around, it’ll use Body Thief on it.

ORDERLY

CR 3

XP 800

Grimlock rogue 1/warrior 3

CE Medium humanoid (human)

Init +2; Senses: Perception +12

DEFENSE

AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (+1 armor, +2 Dex, +4 natural)

hp 42 (6 HD; 1d8+5d10+9)

Fort +5, Ref +9, Will +3

OFFENSE

Speed: 30 ft.

Melee: sap +7 (1d6+2 nonlethal)

Special Attacks: sneak attack +1d6

STATISTICS

Str 15, Dex 15, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 6

Base Atk +5; CMB +7 (+9 grapple); CMD 19 (21 grapple)

Feats: Alertness, Skill Focus (Perception), Improved Grapple

Skills: Climb + 7, Stealth +11 (+21 in caves or mountains), Swim +8, Perception +12

Languages: Grimlock, Undercommon

SQ: trapfinding +1

Gear: padded armour, sap, key (roll 1d4: 1-Eye, 2-Hand, 3-Heart, 4-Brain), 1 Potion of Disguise Self (Human)

Handouts

Here is the text of the handouts:

Valentin’s Journal

Year 735, 7^th of Vendémiaire

The groundskeeper Gerard, a man from the village of Saint-Sæthryth, was found dead this morning not far from his cottage, a dog worrying at his body. The condition of his corpse was most alarming. The top of the man’s skull had been completely shattered and his brain was missing; what’s more the inside of his head showed a number of gashes and other marks disturbingly suggestive of bite-marks, though I am unsure what beast could have made them. As chief physician and aliéniste here at L’Hôpital de Corbin I believe it must fall to me to conduct the autopsy; I shall have Dr Delacroix assist me. With luck our examination will reveal some clue as to who perpetrated this awful crime. I wish to believe it to be the work of some animal, or else nothing more than a tragic accident, and yet I fear the worst. Many of the patients here at the asylum have violent pasts. One woman, a hysteric, murdered her husband in cold blood when he attempted to initiate marital relations between them, mutilating the man till there was naught left to identify him as such. Another patient, gripped by powerful delusions, was found to have cannibalized several street urchins before being sent here. We keep the inmates under close watch, of course, but if one were to have somehow slipped away, even for a brief spell, there’s no telling what horrors they could inflict. They are not all imbeciles, either: there is a certain deranged cunning to some of them, and they can be artful dissemblers at times. Of course, after the body was discovered I had the entire facility carefully locked down, and all patients have been thoroughly accounted for; if one of them is responsible for this hideous crime, they are now safely locked in their cell.

There are other theories circulating amongst the staff, some of whom come from local villages – wild talk of hill-men and goblins and ghouls living under the mountains. I almost wish it were some bogeyman responsible. After the autopsy I may have to interview the patients individually.

Year 735, 8^th of Vendémiaire

The autopsy of the groundskeeper’s body has been completed, but I admit to being even more perplexed than before. I have carefully reconstructed the skull and examined the wounds thoroughly, and I have come to one inescapable but bizarre conclusion: the man’s skull was not caved in from the outside – as from a blow to the head – but broke open from the inside out. A powerful gunshot might have caused such explosive fragmentation, yet there is no gunshot wound visible on the man’s face or elsewhere on the corpse. Stranger still, I discovered subtle but unmistakable trauma to the jaw, as if it had been recently dislocated and then jarred back into place. I also discovered lacerations, faint but still distinct, around his lips and in the inside of his mouth.

Continuing my examination, I found that the back of the man’s throat had been gashed open, as if something had been forcibly thrust through his mouth and up into his brain. To make matters even more bewildering, the wound had been sealed with a membranous growth of some kind, and traces of other foreign material – webbing, a greyish substance resembling fungi, and some sort of congealed mucus or slime – was discovered in his emptied cranium. All traces of the brain itself were completely gone save for some portions of the brain stem, including the bulb, pons, and a portion of the midbrain.

As I continued the autopsy my findings grew yet more bizarre – and disturbing. The groundskeeper was seen alive the previous night, so we can assume he was killed at some point during the night or in the early morning. However, the corpse shows signs suggesting advanced decomposition. The body was bloated, and I discovered maggots in the corpse’s orifices and the beginnings of putrefaction setting in. All indications suggest that the man has been dead for several days at least. Is it possible that somehow the rate of decay was accelerated? The mystery is maddening.

Year 735, 11^th of Vendémiaire

Interviews with the patients have been concluded, but have revealed nothing new. One of the patients, however – a certain Madame Angélique, a hebephreniac afflicted with la folie circulaire – seems to have made surprising progress. Perhaps the rotary chair has done its work; or perhaps the leechings, or simply the fresh air, have relieved her lunacy. Whatever the case she seems much recovered, cheerful almost to the point of euphoria and yet displaying none of the frenzied agitation typical of a manic episode. We will continue treatment as usual, of course, but I am optimistic. With any luck, in a few months the girl can be sent back to her husband.

The groundskeeper has been interred in the asylum cemetery; we must send for a new one, as already the lawn is going to seed.

Year 735, 16^th of Vendémiaire

Another shocking episode has occurred – Patient 616, Madame Angélique, was found dead in her room by one of the orderlies, Monsieur Falret. What’s more, the manner of her death was exactly the same as that of the groundskeeper, her skull shattered and her brain missing, her brainpan infested with greyish fungus and covered in slime. I did not have to perform a thorough autopsy to note the signs of premature or accelerated decay on her body. It is now almost certain that the person responsible is either an inmate or a member of the staff – how else could the killer have gained access to her room? What is going on?

If these incidents continue, I fear for the future of this institution. L’Hôpital de Corbin must be a safe place, a place of respite, a haven for lost and troubled souls. It cannot be a place of fear. I have devoted my life to this place and am loathe to lose it, but if I cannot guarantee the safety of the staff and patients here I am afraid the asylum will have to close.

Year 735, 23^rd of Vendémiaire

M Falret, the orderly who discovered Patient 616’s body, has gone missing. He appears to have left in the middle of the night, without warning, and left no note. Some part of me fears the man must have been abducted, perhaps by the same person responsible for the deaths of the groundskeeper and Mme Angélique, but everyone else in the asylum is fully accounted for: if the perpetrator is indeed an inmate or a staff member, abduction would seem unlikely… perhaps M Falret, traumatized by the incident with Mme Angélique, found himself unable to cope with the stress of working in L’Hôpital de Corbin and, accordingly, fled?

I have spoken to other members of the staff, who report that M Falret’s behaviour has been unusual ever since he discovered Patient 616. Colleagues describe him as detached and somewhat depressed, and report that they often caught him watching them strangely, with a curious unblinking gaze. Such a personality shift may have been a response to trauma, and yet the orderlies at this institution are used to dealing with pain, and even with corpses – try as we might to prevent them from harming themselves, some inmates do manage to commit suicide, and the discovery of a body in its cell is not, tragically, as rare a circumstance as we would wish it.

There is another possibility, of course – M Falret may have been responsible for both murders and, fearing discovery, he has fled. I have written to the gendarmerie alerting them to the man’s sudden disappearance. Some part of me hopes he was responsible. If Falret was the murderer, at least now L’Hôpital de Corbin will be left in peace.

Year 735, 13^th of Brumaire

Weeks have passed since the incidents visited upon us, and I had hoped the horrors had come to an end, but I fear my hopes were naïve. I was examining one of the inmates today – Patient 874, Monsieur Augustin – when I noticed signs of what looked to be advanced necrosis or gangrene, as from leprosy or any number of other ailments. Further inspection revealed the rot was widespread, and that the man was host to a number of eggs already hatching into maggots. When he saw that I had discovered his affliction Patient 874 flew into a psychotic rage, baring his teeth and uttering a sound that I shall never forget so long as I live. I am a practiced aliéniste with a long career: I have heard men and women screaming in the night, spouting glossolalia, imitating the sounds of animals, raving in singsong or shrieking with rage or terror or both. The sound that issue from M Augustin’s mouth was unlike anything I have heard before – a chittering, clicking ejaculation of indescribable strangeness. It sounded like nothing human. Were I a superstitious man I might believe him to be the victim of some demoniac possession!

He came at me with hands clawed, tearing at my throat. I managed to wrestle the man off me, and with the aid of two orderlies he was secured. We attempted to sedate the patient, but the normal dose had no effect, and he continued to make the same chittering, hissing expostulations. Eventually one of the orderlies simply bashed the man on the head, sending him into unconsciousness – normally I would disapprove of such violent methods, but given the circumstances I gave my permission. We are treating the man’s affliction as best we can, but I am flummoxed as to the cause of his illness. There is no fever whatsoever: the man is cold as a corpse! He has been quarantined for the time being. I will consult every medical text I can. Could this strange sickness somehow be related to the recent deaths? Mysteries piled on mysteries.

Year 735, 31^st of Brumaire

They are everywhere. I do not know who to trust, who has been turned. Delacroix has been compromised, I think – I could smell the stench of the grave upon him. They can smell me, too.

I have barricaded myself in the office. I can hear them outside, giggling obscenely, stalking the halls. They speak in their abominable tongue, if speech it is. More like the drone of insects than speech.

I have seen what they are. These Things that now walk among us, that wear our stolen flesh. Such Things were not meant to be seen by human eyes.

Perhaps I am mad myself. I can no longer tell truth from reality, fact from fiction, science from fantasy.

They will come for me soon. I will not let them take my mind, will not let them use my body like a marionette. There is a wheellock in my drawer. I will blow by brains from my skull before I let them feed on my mind.

To any who reads this: L’Hôpital de Corbin is no longer an asylum, no longer a hospital for the treatment of illness. They have taken over the Intensive Treatment Ward, use the machines not to ameliorate but to exacerbate. They torment the inmates to worsen their lunacy.

They feed on insanity. It is like a drug to them. As the dipsomaniac craves alcohol so do they require brains, brains addled by madness.

Someone knocks at the door. The handle turns. They say they are Delacroix but I know the Truth!

The gun is loaded, primed. I go now to whatever fate awaits me.

Cordialement,

Dr Valentin Morel

Aliéniste Principal de l’Hôpital de Corbin

Quasiriant’s Journal

Entry 1:

I feel compelled to transcribe my thoughts, to put them to paper – a strange urge, and unfamiliar. The human whose body I now control, whose mind I devoured, was much given to this habit. We all take on aspects of our prey after feeding. I crouch now in the damp, hunched over a sheaf of parchment, my brothers and sisters around me, and write this chronicle with borrowed hands that even now begin to decay.

We have escaped the mountains of our homeland and arrived at last in the man-realm. The God-Brain and Its Inquisitors cannot follow us here: our thralldom is at an end. No longer can Its servants feed upon our young. No longer will we be used as the humans use guard-dogs, somewhere between pets and slaves. We are free.

Soon we must feed. We can sense the minds of humans nearby, their consciousnesses succulent, nourishing. Our bodies are rotting; I can feel maggots squirming in my breast, eating at my host’s innards. If we do not find sustenance soon we will be forced to abandon our hosts and travel naked beneath the sun and moon, vulnerable and exposed. The others look to me for guidance, for leadership. It was I who led them from servitude, who found a way to this place.

Entry 2:

I have found us a place, nestled in mountains that remind me of the homeland. There are many minds here, consciousnesses which exude a subtle aroma unlike any I have tasted before. The humans who dwell here are broken things, wretched, consumed with fear and despair and confusion of unspeakable succulence. Other humans watch over them, tending to them, trying to mend their shattered minds. Fools! We will be Masters here soon. I have taken the body of one of them, a man I found tending to the grounds. The other humans suspect nothing. I will continue the man’s duties, biding my time, watching. Soon I will bring the others here, and we will feast.

Entry 3:

I could resist temptation no longer. I have glutted myself, eaten my fill, devouring the mind of one of the inmates, a woman I found wandering in the gardens. The alienists here – so the Masters of this place call themselves – allow their patients to walk the grounds if supervised. This one must have strayed from the group, unnoticed. I found her gibbering, raving to herself and scratching at her flesh, and when, unable to contain myself any longer, smelling the irresistible enticement of her delirium, I burst from the skull of my former host and leaped towards her, she seemed unafraid, as if welcoming me, as if eager. The taste of her mind was ambrosial – the savour of her madness! The richness, the subtlety of her derangement, the obscene deliciousness of her lunacy! It is like nothing I have tasted before. I must have more. I will hide this chronicle in the groundskeeper’s cottage for the time being and return to the asylum wearing my new guise.

Entry 4:

I was nearly discovered. For the past few days I have been observing operations in this place, noting routines, evaluating strengths and weaknesses. The brood could find a home here… so many nourishing minds to feed upon! Yet as I languished in their cell, I found myself reminded powerfully of the homeland and our mistreatment by the Masters. A rage grew within me, seething, boiling up and overflowing, and when one of the humans entered my cell to feed my host body I flew at him, bursting from my host’s skull and leaping for his throat, forcing his jaw open and burrowing my way up, up into his skull. I ate my fill and fled, leaving the body where it fell. The other humans are most agitated, believing that one of their own is the killer. Soon I will take this body and leave, and rejoin my kindred.

After the rapturous richness of the last brain I devoured this one seemed bland, tasteless. Now that I have tasted the nectar of madness, a sane mind is flavourless. I must return with the rest of the brood soon, to satiate myself once again.

Entry 5:

The others have made contact with a group of beings that dwell under the mountains. The humans drove them down into the darkness long ago, and they have lingered there since, in the bowels of the earth. Their hatred for the top-worlders is matched only by their hunger for flesh. They will make worth allies, for though my ilk and I must feed, we desire only brains, not meat. We will require a few bodies to use as hosts, of course, but the rest can go to sate the appetites of these blind ones, these deep-dwellers. They can help us to keep the humans in order, once we seize control of the asylum and make the place our larder, our abattoir – for though my brood and I are powerful, we are few in number, and the humans are many.

I have told the brood of the savour of madness, the lush ripeness of an unhinged mind. Soon we shall return and eat our fill.

Entry 6:

I have assumed control of the body of Dr Delacroix, one of the alienists here at L’Hôpital de Corbin. I shall continue to use this body as required, when other humans bring more inmates for us from their cities: it will be necessary to maintain the appearance that the facility is still under human administration. Once my kindred and I had infiltrated their ranks the rest became easy. The humans’ leader, Dr Valentin Morel, discovered our presence, but by the time he realized what we were it was too late; we had already seized control. The Grimlocks now serve as our orderlies, and the inmates are safely tucked in their cells, like livestock awaiting the slaughter in their pens. The cravings grow stronger and stronger. With each brain I consume, each maddened consciousness I devour, the hunger grows more intense, the sensations dulled. I must find a way to relive that first ecstatic devouring.

When I consumed the consciousness of Delacroix I absorbed some of his knowledge, his expertise. There are degrees of madness, I have learned, and methods of ameliorating lunacy. Might the same techniques, the same scientific approach, be used to cultivate rather than expunge madness? And then there are the arts of our Masters, methods for sculpting flesh and dominating the mind… perhaps, if the two were combined, I might contrive a means of seasoning our meat, of sweetening the brains of our prey. With time and patience, I will sow the seeds of delirium in the minds of the inmates here, tend to a garden of the deranged and the demented – and, when the time comes, harvest my crop.

Experimentation must begin at once.

The Savour of Madness: Attic and Basement

On October 9, 2013

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.

The Savour of Madness: Disused Ward and Guest Ward

On October 3, 2013

Floor 3

29 – Alienists’ Quarters

These tidy quarters are well-furnished, with a large bed, a writing desk by a window, a deer-skin rug, and a handsome chest of drawers. Paintings, mostly depicting rustic tableaux or hunting scenes, provide decoration. There’s also a large chest at the foot of the bed. Outside, rain patters against the windows.

Apart from a spare doctor’s and courtier’s outfit (in the chest of drawers), the Alienists keep a few personal effects in their chests, which are locked (Disable Device DC 25 to open or use the Brain Key). Roll 1d3 times to see what each contains:

Roll 1d20	Result
1	2d100 gold pieces.
2	A fine gold pocket watch (250 gp)
3	Book on human anatomy (10 gp)
4	Scroll of Feeblemind
5	Book on mental illness (10 gp)
6	Spare Hand Key
7	Scroll of Lesser Confusion
8	Masterwork dagger
9	Scroll of Rage
10	1d3 putrescent human brains
11	Putrescent human brain, partially eaten
12	Spare Brain Key
13	Scroll of Touch of Madness
14	Daguerreotype camera and 1d100 photographs of inmates in various states of distress, some of them hideously mutilated or grafted
15	Masterwork wheellock pistol and 10 bullets with gunpowder
16	Spare Eye Key
17	Scroll of Confusion
18	Wand of Fear (25 charges remaining) made from a human radius
19	Spare Heart Key
20	Floor plan of the asylum (above-ground only)

The Guest’s Ward

The corridor has a trapdoor leading to the attic near the end of the hall. The trapdoor locked (Disable Device DC 25 to pick, DC 20 to, noisily, force, or open with the Eye Key).

30 – Guest Room

This small room was obviously once a cell, judging from the bars on the windows and the bare brick walls. A small bed, a chest of drawers, a chamber pot, and a stool are the only furnishings.

If the characters go to sleep after being escorted by Dr Delacroix, they’ll find themselves locked in. As Delacroix explains:

“I’m afraid these rooms are all we have. We used to have rather more patients, but in recent years we’ve had this ward converted into additional chambers for staff and visitors. Unfortunately the doors can only be opened from the outside; a safety precaution. I’ll be sure to have someone come by and let you out early tomorrow.”

Though the doors do indeed lock automatically, they can technically be picked (Disable Device DC 40) or forced (DC 25). If the characters were guileless enough to drink the wine provided them by Delacroix in the dining room, the delayed-onset poison they ingested kicks in around now (about 1 hour after ingestion) – Fortitude DC 15 to resist. If they fail they fall into a stupor for 1d3 hours and will wake up in one of the chambers in the Intensive Treatment Wing, or even strapped down to a slab in one of the Laboratories in the basement if they annoyed Delacroix somehow. Of course, with any luck the characters either pass their saves or avoided ingesting the poison in the first place. If they did pass their saves, they’ll be treated to a visit by a pair of Orderlies later in the night (they come in through the door) – make Stealth checks for the Orderlies (+11) as they approach (if the character perceives them, they hear approaching footsteps).

Disused Ward

The door to the disused ward has been locked (Disable Device DC 25, force DC 20, or use the Eye Key) and boarded shut (Strength DC 20 to quickly pull off the boards). The Intellect Devourers and their minions shun the ward because of the spirit of Valentin Morel, who has become an allip and haunts the ward. If dispersed Morel’s spirit re-forms the next night. It will only depart if the Intellect Devourers are slain or their experiments otherwise ended.

Dust and cobwebs shroud this hall, which has obviously not been in use for quite some time. An door with the words “Dr Valentin Morel” on it is evident to the left.

31 – Dr Valentin’s Study

The door to the study is locked (Disable Device DC 30 to pick, Strength DC 25 to force, or open with the Brain Key). However, there is a trapdoor from the attic (Disable Device DC 25 to pick, DC 20 to force, or open with the Eye Key).

You enter a spacious, well-appointed study with fine wooden furniture. The walls are lined with handsome shelves containing numerous medical texts, most of them pertaining to mental illness – its causes, effects, and methods of treatment. A large writing desk and a leather chair are placed near the curtained window; there are some papers on the desk, but in general the place looks disused, with a thick layer of dust lying over everything. There are some old stains on one wall and on part of the floor; they have been partially scrubbed off but are still visible, though faded, under the dust. There are also some heavy scuff-marks on the floor around the door.

The papers are diary entries. It would probably have occurred to humanoids to burn these papers and so dispose of them, but this has not occurred to the Intellect Devourers (their Grimlock orderlies do think like other humanoids, broadly speaking, but lacking sight they have never developed a written language and so have not noticed the diaries).

Handout 10001

After reading these documents, the characters will be confronted by the spirit of Dr Valentin Morel – having been driven mad himself by the sight of the Intellect Devourers and their handiwork, and having committed suicide, he has returned as an (advanced) Allip:

There is a flash of lightning and suddenly you become aware of a figure standing in the corner, watching you intently. Dressed in a tattered doctor’s coat, the spirit bears the stern visage of Dr Valentin Morel, recognizable from the portrait in the foyer, albeit contorted into an expression of madness and despair. As he moves towards you, you see that the back of his head has been blown out, as if he put a pistol in his mouth and pulled the trigger. Gliding forwards, flickering through furniture, the spirit begins babbling incoherently, reciting random passages from medical textbooks in a hideous, inhuman voice.

Sanity check on seeing the Allip (1/1d6). If you’re using the d20 Sanity rules, note that the Allip’s Touch of Madness ability deals 2d6 Sanity damage rather than Wisdom drain. If a character is reduced to 0 Sanity by the Allip, they die immediately and become an Allip as described under the “Create Spawn” ability of the advanced Allip.

The wheellock pistol is nowhere to be found.

32 – Archive and Map Room

This must be the sanitarium’s archive – there are shelves full of rolled up scrolls and record books here. Most appear to simply be inventories of supplies, payment records, and rosters of inmates or staff. On one wall are framed floor plans of l’Hôpital de Corbin and its basement.

The characters can liberate these maps, greatly assisting exploration of the asylum.

33 – Library

A hole in the roof has let water into this library room, and the books lining its shelves – mostly medical texts, by the look of things – have become thoroughly infested with mildew and yellowish mould.

The stacks are infested with yellow mould. There’s really not much to salvage here.

…

Next up: the attic and the basement.

The Savour of Madness: Intensive Treatment Ward and Children’s Ward

On October 3, 2013

Floor 2

15 – Dining Room

You enter a large dining room with an antique wooden table, ornately carved. Cabinets of silverware are evident to one side, adjacent to a small dumbwaiter. A wrought-iron chandelier, currently unlit, dangles from the ceiling like some monstrous black spider. The table itself is set with a somewhat shabby grey tablecloth. One wall is given over to a very large painting depicting a fleet of warships sailing on a stormy sea.

The silverware is quite valuable (about 500 gp worth of silver here), but very heavy (about 100 lbs total). If the characters have been escorted here by Delacroix, the table is already set for dinner:

The table is lain for dinner, one place set for each of you, with several bottles of wine on the table as well. The meal consists of a pork roast, cooked rather rarely, with a variety of seasonal vegetables on the side, along with a loaf of bread. Steam wafts from the meal; the smell is extremely appetizing.

“I’m afraid this is the best we could provide on such short notice,” Dr Delacroix says. “You’ll excuse me if I don’t eat myself. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a few matters to attend to. I’ll return shortly to show you to your chambers.”

The suspicions of the characters aside, the meal is actually pork. The wine, however, is poisoned with Oil of Restfulness that has been modified to kick in after about an hour (Fortitude DC 15 or fall unconscious for 1d3 horus).

The characters now have a chance to discuss their plan of action or even to try and slip away and explore the asylum more thoroughly. Outside the dining room doors, however, Delacroix has positioned a pair of Orderlies. However, the characters could attempt to use the dumbwaiter to move down to the kitchen below. The dumbwaiter can carry Small characters easily, but if a Medium character uses it (or any character whose weight plus the weight of their gear exceeds 150 lbs) there is a 10% chance that the dumbwaiter ropes will snap, sending the character hurtling downwards for 3d6 damage (a DC 15 Acrobatics check reduces this to 2d6 damage and 1d6 non-lethal damage). Other characters will have to Climb down (DC 20) or jump down (Acrobatics DC 15 for 1d6 damage and 1d6 non-lethal damage). The noise of the dumbwaiter breaking will instantly attract an Orderly; merely using the dumbwaiter gives the Orderly a Perception check (DC 20) to hear the commotion.

16 – Orderlies’ Quarters

This small chamber has a neatly made bed, a desk, and a chest of drawers. The room is very tidy, but a thick layer of dust lies over everything, and there are cobwebs in the corners.

The Grimlocks don’t like these rooms, preferring to lair underground. As a result the chambers have become disused. While some outfits can be found in the chest of drawers, some of them are moth-eaten or otherwise decayed.

Intensive Treatment Ward

The doors in this ward are locked (Disable Device DC 30, Strength DC 25 to force, or used the Brain Key).

This long, winding hall is lined with reinforced doors, each of which bears a small viewing hatch that can be opened or closed. You can hear noises emanating from behind some of the doors – screams of terror, mad laughter, and the sound of someone praying loudly. As you watch, a door opens and two orderlies drag an inmate in a straitjacket out of one of the chambers and down the hall.

“It wasn’t me!” the man babbles. “It moved on its own! It wasn’t me! It wasn’t me!”

If the players aren’t being stealthy, the orderlies will be alarmed by their appearance; if the alarm has been raised they’ll abandon their victim and attack the players, otherwise, one will approach the players and simply say “Go. Not allowed here.”

The chamber the inmate was being removed from is the Mirror Chamber.

At any given time, it’s likely 1-2 Alienists are here, supervising the treatments.

17 – The Rotary Chair

A strange mechanism dominates this room: a set of wheels and pulleys that turn a large, spinning centrifuge with a niche where someone could sit or lie, complete with restraints.

This rotary chair was actually used by the original alienists in their treatment of patients to try and increase blood-flow to the brain. The Intellect Devourers still use the device sometimes, Grimlocks turning the centrifuge so it rotates at high speeds.

18 – Hydrotherapy Chamber

This spare, ill-lit chamber has a single bathtub, currently brimming with water. Submerged within it and imprisoned in a series of leather restraints is an inmate, muzzled and struggling weakly. Only their head remains above water.

Again, this technique was originally used as a therapy. Now inmates are left in the tub for days or weeks at a time, given enough food and water to survive.

19 – Leeching Chamber

This square chamber has a small bed with metal restraints where someone could be pinioned down. In a large aquarium to one side dozens of fat, black leeches can be seen, a mass of glistening, writhing bodies. The aquarium looks to hold more leeches than it was originally intended to, as they’re packed in tightly. The water they’re sitting in looks filthy.

Again, this was an actual treatment room, but now the Intellect Devourers abuse the treatment thoroughly, putting dozens of leeches on inmates. If the tank is shattered the leeches can form a leech swarm, although with a speed of 5 ft. on land it is easily outrun. These particular leeches can also pass on Mindfire to their victims.

20 – Hallucination Chamber

This seems to be nothing more than a spare, padded cell.

Perception DC 20 to notice the small gas-jets hidden in the corners, and to hear the hiss of gas if the door is closed. The gas is similar to Insanity Mist, but instead of damaging Wisdom, deals 1d3 Sanity damage on a failed Fortitude save (DC 15, 1/round for 6 rounds, 1 save cures). In addition to losing Sanity, characters begin hallucinating for 1d4 minutes after coming under the effects of the gas. Pass around slips of paper describing their individual hallucinations. You can make up as many as you like (personal hallucinations are sometimes the most powerful), but here are a few to get you started:

Roll 1d20	Hallucination
1	Your flesh is rotting, putrefying, sloughing off your bones as you watch.
2	You hear the sound of someone screaming outside the room and down the corridor.
3	The walls are bleeding, streams of blood trickling down and pooling on the floor. If it continues at this rate it’s going to flood the room quickly.
4	Something outside the room is breathing loudly. Something big.
5	Your skin breaks out with pestilential growths, tumours and buboes that make it bubble and suppurate, leprous sores coursing across your body.
6	There is someone in the room with you. Every time you move to look at them they seems to disappear, hovering in your periphery, only visible obliquely, out of the corner of your eye.
7	Swarms of vermin are coursing out from holes in the walls, a seething tide of insects writhing towards you.
8	Heavy, hoofed footsteps are audible outside the room. A hideous bleating echoes through the asylum, such as might be made by some abominable goat.
9	You can smell smoke, and feel the walls begin to warm. The asylum must be on fire!
10	Mocking laughter resounds from every corner of the room. It echoes through your skull, in the depths of your mind. It makes you want to laugh too… to laugh long and loud.
11	A rumbling overhead is audible, and fragments of the ceiling are dislodged as the whole room begins to collapse.
12	Your clothing has somehow become animated and is trying to kill you, constricting your limbs and neck, trying to strangle you.
13	Your fingers are becoming webbed, your flesh mottling and secreting slime. You can feel gills opening at your neck. You can no longer breathe air – you need to find water and immerse yourself immediately.
14	The floor is covered in venomous snakes!
15	You’re being petrified! As you watch your skin begins to turn to stone before your eyes, starting at your fingertips and moving up along your arms, towards your torso.
16	Fur bristles from your limbs and your nails elongate, becoming claws. A lupine tail bursts from your back, twitching back and forth. A bestial rage and animalistic hunger fills you. You must have meat!
17	Your shadow just moved in a way that it shouldn’t have – like it’s become detached form you somehow, moving of its own accord. What is happening to you?
18	The walls of the room are closing in. If you don’t move quickly you’ll all be crushed – but the door to the room has disappeared.
19	Something is squirming beneath your skin – you can feel it writhing, trying to burrow its way deeper into your body. You’ve got to get it out!
20	Your friends are trying to kill you! They are advancing upon you with evil in their eyes and weapons drawn. Have they been psychically dominated, or replaced with evil duplicates?! Whatever the case, you must defend yourself!

21 – Mirror Chamber

Three walls of this chamber are padded, but the fourth wall consists entirely of a single, enormous mirror reflecting you and your companions. The room is otherwise completely empty. A hanging lamp provides illumination.

If the characters linger here, the mirror begins to change (Perception DC 15 to notice these changes begin if the characters want to leave immediately):

As you watch, you realize that your reflections are imperfect – they seem to be smirking back at you, smiling slyly. Slowly their smiles widen into unnerving grins. They stare at you, teeth bared.

If they still linger…

The reflections are now moving of their own accord. One begins beating at the silvered glass as if trying to get out. The others draw their weapons and begin carving at one another, hacking off limbs and carving hideous wounds into each other’s flesh, still smiling all the while; in fact, they seem to be thoroughly enjoying the massacre. The carnage is completely silent. As blood spurts, spattering the reflections’ side of the mirror with crimson, you find yourself wondering whether the mirror is actually just a pane of glass, with another room on the other side inhabited by your murderous doppelgangers. Then another thought creeps in: what if the images are in your mind, and you’re imagining the atrocities being acted out in the mirror?

Sanity check (0/1d6).

If the ensorceled mirror is broken, the reflections begin screaming silently as their bodies begin coming apart, skin shattering like glass, bones broken and fragmented. Shards of glass still reflect a twisted version of reality, even if taken from the room.

22 – Personality Transposition Chamber

The walls and floor of this chamber have been tiled in red and black. Two leather chairs – one red, one black – stand in the middle of the room, each equipped with leather restraints and each hooked up to a complicated apparatus that includes a vise-like device that would be clamped around a person’s head. The chairs are positioned back to back and are connected by a series of wires, with a switch set off to one side. A low hum resonates through the room, an ominous drone that makes the walls and floor vibrate very slightly.

This chamber allows for body-switching. Two characters who seat themselves in the chair, hook themselves up to the apparatus, and hit the switch will swap consciousnesses. Class levels and mental stats are transferred while physical stats and racial bonuses and penalties remain the same. This process is mentally taxing, requiring a Sanity check (1/1d6).

23 – Book Chamber

At the centre of this square chamber, illuminated by a single lamp, is a lectern upon which rests a thick tome bound in pale leather.

The book is called the Tome of Nightmares. Anyone who begins reading it must make a Sanity check or compulsively read on (interrupting them forcefully grants a second check). The book is telepathic, capable of discerning the worst fears and phobias of the reader; the text which appears on its pages consists of stories directly featuring such objects of terror. If a character finishes the book, they will be unable to sleep restfully, leaving them fatigued and unable to regain arcane spells for 24 hours. They also lose 1d6 Sanity.

24 – Chamber of the Flickering Shadow

An inmate, Bertrand (Patient 513), is pounding on the door of the room, trying desperately to escape. If the characters open the door he rushes out:

A terrified-looking man rushes out of the room, nearly tripping in his straitjacket. He is blubbering madly, his whole body shaking.

“Don’t go in there!” he shrieks, stumbling down the corridor as best he can.

Inside the room:

This room seems to be nothing more than a padded cell lit by a single lamp. The lamp flickers continuously, plunging the chamber into momentary gloom.

Perception DC 10 to notice:

As the lamp flickers, you realize that in the darkness you can catch a brief glimpse of a tall, faceless figure, a gaunt, spidery thing with a hole where its face should be. With each flicker of the lamp the figure takes a step closer towards you.

If the figure is allowed to reach the characters they must make a Sanity check or take 2d6 Sanity damage and attempt to flee the room at all costs, as if they were suffering from a Fear spell. If their Sanity reaches 0 due to this effect, they die of fright.

The source of the figure is actually the lamp, which can be detatched. A Lamp of Fear, the object can be lit in order to produce an effect similar to the Fear spell (Will DC 18 to resist, or a Sanity check) to all within 10 ft., but the item only functions in conditions of dim light and consumes oil like a normal lamp. If someone is holding the lamp and aware of its abilities they are nonetheless not immune to this effect. The Lamp is worth 12000 gp.

25 – Susurrus Room

The walls of this chamber have been covered in what looks like scraps of human skin, stitched together into macabre wallpaper. On each patch of sallow, leathery flesh is a human mouth. Some of the mouths are old, others young; some bear carious teeth or teeth filed into points. All of them are whispering suggestions – vile obscenities lovingly described, each mouth urging a different act of unspeakable violence and depravity. Crouched in a corner with her hands over her ears trying to block out the susurrus of evil is an inmate, shaking back and forth and praying loudly.

Simply listening to the constant murmuring requires a Sanity check (1/1d6).

Pious Mary is a religious maniac (Patient 766) who was condemned to the asylum after murdering several “sinners” who had “passed beyond redemption.” The susurrus has exacerbated her paranoia so that she believes anyone approaching her is a demon trying to tempt her, whom she will violently attack. She is unarmed but will use her Rage power to make a bite attack.

26 – The Art Gallery

This chamber has one wall dominated by a large painting, with many smaller paintings occupying the other walls. The big painting depicts an enormous, dead oak tree with gnarled boughs. The tree has been used as a gallows: several corpses dangle from its branches. The other paintings all depict individuals being tortured or executed by robed, faceless figures – being broken on a wheel, stretched on a rack, decapitated by axe or guillotine, pulled apart by horses, impaled, crushed, burnt, and otherwise mangled.

Upon closer inspection (or a DC 15 Perception check) the characters will recognize themselves as the victims in the paintings. This realization provokes a Sanity check (0/1d4). Once the paintings have been seen by someone they become “fixed” in that form for them, even if later moved.

The Children’s Ward

The doors in this ward are locked (Disable Device DC 30, Strength DC 25 to force, or used the Brain Key).

The sound of miserable children sniffling, crying, and mumbling in troubled sleep fills this long corridor, which is lined with barred cells.

In total there are 118 children stuffed into the cells in this ward.

27 – Children’s Cell

At least a dozen dirty children, ranging in age from about fix or six to mid adolescence, are packed into the dirty cell visible behind the bars. As you approach they back away hastily.

Most of the children will not believe the characters aren’t Intellect Devourers and will think they’re being tricked. It takes a DC 25 Diplomacy check to convince them of good intent, and even then they don’t fully trust the characters. If released they scatter unless instructed very carefully to remain calm.

28 – The Kid

The child in this cell has been warped through some twisted magic, his body radically altered, grafted with alien flesh: from the waist down the boy’s body has been replaced with that of a goat, giving him the appearance of some miniature hircine centaur. His eyes, likewise, have been replaced with the eerie horizontal-slitted eyes of a goat.

Sanity check (0/1d4) on seeing the Kid.

The Kid’s real name is Abélard, and has lived at the asylum as long as he can remember. He is beginning to lose his humanity, occasional interspersing his words with bleating sounds.

The Savour of Madness

On October 3, 2013

Exterior storm soundtrack Interior storm soundtrack

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).

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.

tumblr_lh6b4eQoC61qh8l8yo1_500

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