A quick dungeon Idea "Haver's Harrowing Cube"
What is this?
A story of evil ..yes.. and..
Another adventure seed with an ugly map this time.
As usual I'm not going to stat out anything for any system, that's up to you depending on what you play. Particularly when it comes to "the evil entity" below, I lave that basically undefined so that any one using this document can fill in that blank in a way that suits their game.
Haver's Cube:
Deep under the town of Worndelve there lies a most astounding construction.
It is said the mines were started by dwarves many years before man arrived to roost at the feet of the Squat mountains. These rolling soft peaks being just tall enough to hold snow for a few moons longer than the valley below are known to be a range ancient beyond knowing.
When the engineer known as Haver arrived at Worndelve he was a young man with big ideas. He looked at the old dwarf mines which were long thought to be exhausted as an opportunity. So he put together a party of surveyors, entered the old mines and began planing. Haver was never seen again.
When the engineer known as Haver arrived at Worndelve he was a young man with big ideas. He looked at the old dwarf mines which were long thought to be exhausted as an opportunity. So he put together a party of surveyors, entered the old mines and began planing. Haver was never seen again.
Stories have come to the valley to Worndelve of a strange construction perched precariously at the edge of a deep precipice. It is said at this location deep in the mines a waterfall flows like a shimmering ribbon into the depths. In its endless flow it spills over a huge dark cube of stone. The stone is mounted on a massive axles which hold two water wheels designed to slowly turn the cube. One side at a time, every hour.
Each side of the cube is 100 foot crossed, and made of a polished black stone. Near the center of each face that does not hold an axle a small hatch can be seen, for gaining access to the interior of the cube.
The sides that have axles are crossed by precarious looking wooden stairwells that teeter and shift as the cube turns.
What the hell is it?
After entering the mines and traveling the ancient dwarven corridors for a year, Haver and his Party were at their end. His group had been slowly whittled down by the creatures of the caves, starvation, and the hazards of exploring. The remaining four party members were worn, slowly starving, and going insane.
It was in this state that Haver and his men stumbled into the vast cavern that holds the waterfall.
Not only did this vast chasm contain an underground river with enough pale blind fish to keep Haver and his remaining men alive. It also contained an ancient and dark sepulcher from the time of the dwarves that the local under dark goblins had come to worship as the home of a god.
To stay alive and maintain even a slight glimmer of hope for escape, Haver agreed to help design a more suiting tribute to teh dark god of the sepulcher for the goblins , if they woudl help construct it.
And so The cube was born, a design so insane that it woudl take years to complete, buying Haver and his men time to plan an escape.
The cube was built, the sepulcher's contents moved.
Haver never escaped.
But one of his men did, returning to the surface as an old man to tell the tale, a tale no one believed.
The Map:
This map is no beauty queen, admittedly embarrassing. It would have looked better except I can't find my damn tech pens. I "put them away" somewhere in the house and now I can't find them. (shrugf) I drew the whole thing with 2 sharpies one fine one fat. I'll do better next time. I think it gets the point crossed.
This is a smaller version for Google.
If you want the full sized version go here.
The full sides version allows you to clip it out and fold it into a neat 2 inch cube. that the gm could actually turn to be to show the players whats going on.
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| ugly ass cube map. |
After the completion of the cube the Goblins moved their gods tomb and a jar containing its remains into the amphitheater section on the current top side of the cube.
As it turns out the tomb was an ancient dwarven ward tomb dedicated to containing the evil of an ancient foe. The evils no longer has a name on this plane, but it has reclaimed a body, the body of Haver. Once the cube was completed and the tomb destroyed the evil was free to openly command the goblins. When it did it had them claim the body of Haver as it's new vessel. Haver is now a litch husk containing a dark force of unknown origin or power.
The cube and it s water wheels the domain of the litch, using it's energy to fuel dark magical experiments. It's only a mater of time before it decides to start spreading it's influence.
Random Encounters and such:
- Goblin priests (group of 1-6): These goblins worship the darkness and because of this they have gouged out their own eyes.
- Tether goblins (group of 1-6): The surfaces in most areas of the cube have metal hooks every 5 feet or so , these goblins carry length of chains that they hook to these spikes as them move along cleaning and securing items. when the cube turns they end up swinging by the chains which they do with a high degree of skill. In combat they will attempt to entangle opponents in was that will hang, hinder or hurt them when the cube turns.
- Silver Ball (unique). This reflective silver ball is an invention of the Haver-Litch. About the size of a basket ball it rolls along the floors as the cube turns.If any one peers into it's reflective surface they will see an endless depth of ghostly blinking twitching eyes (sanity check if you dig that kind of roll). This is the watchful orb of the litch. If you see it it sees you. If attacked it will discharged medium strength lightning bolts (1 per turn) at random targets and attempt to roll away. If you roll it twice roll again.
- worker Goblins (1 to 8) These are normal goblins who keep up repairs on the place.
- Feeder. (four times) This horribly mutated creature was once an ogre. Chained to the wall its whole chest is now a huger gibbering mouth that the goblins feed refuse and occasionally each other. If it manages to grapple someone it can deliver a deadly bite with this chest maw. There are four of these unfortunate creatures one on each occupied side of the cube.
- Bats (swarm) Normal swarm of bats mostly harmless but very distracting, usually (1- 4 on D6) disturbing a swarm will draw guard goblins within 1d4 rounds. (see next entry)
- Guard Goblins (1 to 8) These are the blessed shock goblins children of the dark, they can not speak as when they are chosen their tongues are removed. These goblins wear heavy armor carry spears and are equipped with boots that allow them to hook into the mettle spikes that are worked into most surfaces of the interior. These troops may make a save (or equivalent) when the cube turns if successful the goblin can stay stuck to the wall or ceiling and keep fighting. These goblins have twice the normal hit points of goblins.
- Dark cube (1 to 4) These Gelatinous cubes are smaller than normal only 5x5 feet, pitch black, and rubbery. On a successful attack the cube injects the target with spores that will, (Unless a cure disease spell is cast over the victim) turn slowly the victim into a dark cube within 2d4 weeks. Otherwise they attack and act exactly like normal Gelatinous Cubes.
- Ghoulish Guardian: (three times) These are very powerful human undead, which are the animated corpses of Havers three remaining traveling companions. Treat the each as unique corporal undead, using what ever stats you deem acceptable. (this encounter is only possible 3 times)
- Pudding. (1) There is a black pudding on the wall, it lives here and it hates you.
- Assistant Goblins (1d4) should be treated as low level spell casters. These goblins assist the dark one directly with magical experiments, because of this their ears have been sown the waxed shut so that the voice of their master will not drive them mad. The fight for one round then retreat to find help. (see entry 7)
- Harvester Gobins (1D6) Normal goblins carrying sickles and bags of mushrooms they go around the interior and exterior of the cube harvesting eatable mushrooms and fungus.
Random Sights, treasures, and Baubles:
- This wall is covered with strange runes and symbols each carved into the dark stone. A wizard can examine the symbols and recognize the wall as a plaque of dark blessings. If the runes are read any non good aligned creature in the room will be blessed (as per your game) any good aligned creature will suffer a penalty (as per your game) the effects last one day.
- Dome fountain: This fountain is contained by a glass dome, opening the doom provides a source of cool fresh water, or a wet mess depending on which direction the cube is facing.
- Maps: Havern's men mapped a great deal of the old dwarven mines before unfortunately finding the waterfall and it's dark secret. These maps are priceless records of their underworld travels.
- Dwarven weapons. The goblins hunt the mines for old dwarven weapons and have a accumulated several mundane examples of high quality dwarven axes and a short swords. There is a 5% chance that there will be a magical weapon in any given stash that the Goblins have not noticed yet.
- Remains; This is a gold banned ivory vase of dusty remains there are six of these spread around the cube, they contain the original remains of the dark entity that has taken over the cube.
- A Small leather bag of coins is tied to a spike on the wall.
- This fungus looks eatable! (use Narcosa PDF page 97 "drug effects" or whatever you like)
- This room has several gems (1d6) worked into the ceiling, each of moderate value.
- This room has several five foot long length of chains attached to harness hanging on the wall. These are the harness the goblins use to move around the cube as it's facing changes.
- A room full of round cages suspended from the ceiling by two foot chains, this is where the goblins sleep.
- This room contains several (1-4) bolted to the floor. The chests have a chance to be trapped (as per GM) They are padded on the inside and each contains 1-4 potions and several types of spell component.
- A narrow (gobin sized) shaft leads deep into the heart of the cube to the massive shaft that runs through its center. Goblins come here to pour oil over the shaft o lubricate it and maintain it. The vast Axle is fastened to the cube with gigantic dark iron rivets, which the goblins lovingly maintain.
The evil:
Finally we come to the big bad the evil force that forced the creation of this mad cube the claimed the spent body of Haver for it's own.
The Creature no longer looks altogether human, The husk of Haver is read bear twisted and contorted into only a vague crippled representation of a man. The evil within it used the body only as a way to interact and continue experimenting with magical forces in the center of his amphitheater.
What is this evil?
I'm leaving that up to you when you run this adventure.
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| This guy.. kinda... |
This is what I was thinking:
The evil entity can take on different shapes forms and powers depending on which face of the cube is facing up. I woudl stat him out four times making each one worse than the last using the AD&D second edition litch as a template.
Thank you for reading ,
I hope some one gets some use out of this idea.
I might redraw the map when I find my pens.
Please leave questions and comments in the slowly rotating cube below.
-Mark
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