d8: Dungeon! - Vulture Spire

 

Selime Monastry

A small vertical dungeon.

1st Floor

A - Entrance
A small opening leads into these dark and cool corridors cut into solid rock. The northern one ends in a shaft going all the way upwards for 100ft; in sunny days it's possible to spot some light shining in at the top of it. The eastern passage has a shaft too, but, from below, it looks like it leads nowhere.

B - Gnome Camp
A band of 8 Gnomes and their weird, long-necked Wood Golem beast of burden are camped in this small room. They are treasure hunters and well equipped with grappling hooks, drills, shovels, and other tools of the trade.
Their current hoard, 250gp, half a dozen silver ingots each worth 200sp, as well as 3 gems worth 50gp each, is stored behind a secret door in front of which they stacked their luggage.

2nd Floor

C - Maw Passage
The walls and ceiling of this tunnel are decorated with gaping, fanged maws carved into the rock. Everyone dwelling here more than 3 rounds must save vs Spell, or start to notice that the maws are twitching when not observed directly. This is however only a magical suggestion, the maws are actually immobile. The door to D is stuck.

Codex Tudela

D - Chapel of the Hunger
The walls of this chamber are painted with unsettling scenes of cannibalism. Two monstrous stone statues stand close to the walls, and opposite to the door there is a grim, skull shaped altar. The statues are actually 2 Gargoyles, patiently waiting for victims. There's a shaft going up between the statues, while the floor in front of the altar is trapped in such a way that for every person on the platform, there is a cumulative 1-in-6 chance that a trap door will activate, with anyone standing on it falling 20ft down into A and suffering 2d6 points of damage. The altar has a hidden hollow section inside holding a fanged Crystal Skull worth 500gp, a Ring of Floating Disc with 4 charges, a Crystal +1 Dagger and a Bag of Devouring.

E - Traitor Cell
The western end of this small filthy cave opens to the outside and drops downward for some 30ft, but it was closed by a crude palisade, while on the east, a shaft goes up.
A single miserable, crippled Harpy dwells here, barely kept alive from the scraps dropped from above. She can't fly anymore, has only 3HP left, and if forced to fight, does so at a -2 penality.

3rd Floor

F - Cell Complex
This hallway is dirty, dark and smells terrible. On the west, a shaft goes 20ft down to E, while the south-east one goes down 20ft to D. The door to G is stuck.
Two of the cells, F2 and F3, are empty save for piles of rotting garbage, while F1 holds a single half-starved prisoner, a blinded human. He has completely lost his sanity and babbles deliriously.

Dale DeArmond

G - Eagle Nest
The western side of this bone-littered cave is open and drops down 60ft.
A Giant Eagle has built its nest here, and is brooding its 3 eggs. It will attack if disturbed, but will not pursue intruders.
Among the bones there is a Ring of Spell Turning, and there is a fist-sized ruby with a value of 2000gp in the nest. The large, ostrich-sized eggs can be used as food, each one feeding 6 people for a day, or sold to an animal tamer.

4th Floor

H - Windy Tunnel
This carved tunnel is slippery with bird droppings and reeks terribly. Cold wind flows through it constantly. The doors to J are unlocked.

I - Hatchling Crib
One side of this room is open and drops down 90ft into the void. 8 Infant Harpies (stats as harpy, but have only 1HD and can't sing yet) are kept in this room, and make an awful lot of noise playing and fighting each other among their own wastes for food and entertainment. 7 chewed ingots, each worth 50gp, are half-buried in the filth.

J - Larder
15 Giant Locusts are held captive in this small room and fed scraps. Should both doors be open at the same time, the insects will attempt to flee and scatter around.

K - Court of the Vulture Queen

Harpies by Donna Barr - Source

Multiple crude nests are in this wide room. The biggest nest is occupied by the Harpy Queen (stats as harpy, but has HP and fights as a 4HD monster), and she is "attended" by 5 Harpies. They all "wear" tattered shreds of fine garments and pieces of jewellery they stole from their victims. Most of it is utterly ruined, but there's a total of 300gp worth of gold thread woven into the cloth, and each harpy has 100gp of golden rings, trinkets and chewed coins woven into their feathers. They don't care about noise from other rooms, but will attempt to charm intruders they spotted by singing and lure them off the open side of the room, letting them fall down 90ft for 6d6 points of damage. Should anyone resist their song, then they will attack and pursue.

Random encounter table:

1. 1d4 Giant Locusts (2d4 if the ones in J escaped) jumping around
   
2. A Harpy soiling her surroundings
   
3. 1d3+1 Giant Geckos out for a hunt
   
4. A Green Slime dripping down from the ceiling
5. 3 Gnomes inspecting some rock samples
   

Factions, Interests, Conflicts:

• The Gnomes are a greedy bunch, and will try to scam others if they believe they can get away with it. However, they could be convinced to part with some of their equipment, or even to collaborate for a while, if paid in pure gold or gems.
• The Harpies are an airheaded, chaotic anarchy barely kept together by their queen, who has no problem chomping off fingers or whole wings to hold the others in check. They are pretty much incapable of long term planning, and are only concerned with finding new prey or temporary lovers (there's no real distinction for them). They are easily distracted by shiny objects like coins and mirrors, or colorful fabrics, and there's a 2-in-6 chance they will interrupt whatever they were engaged with and fight among themselves over it.
• The crippled Harpy was mangled and imprisoned by the others for not wanting to share her latest toy, and hates them for it. She has, somehow, gained awareness that she would not stand a chance against anything bigger than a rat, and could, maybe, be willing to share information about the others in the hope of getting them killed.
• The blind prisoner had his eyes ripped out by a harpy, and was at some point thrown into the cell, more by mistake than on purpose. He babbles deliriously, his mind long gone, calling for his beautiful darling who stole his eyes and heart.