For this session I wanted to try out the Pathfinder Flip Tiles I mentioned having bought recently. Prepping the map for this one involved playing with the tiles while nobody was around, and taking a photo of the layout I decided to go with. Then I opened the photo up in a paint program and added the moon-eye symbol and room notations.
Map of the Crypts:
Except where specified, the undead will generally stick to their numbered areas until triggered by the party entering that area.
The passageway to Lich Caustic’s area will appear as a dead end at first, with an eye-shaped hole carved in the wall. When the glowing eye-shaped gem from the Death Knight’s helmet is placed in the hole, the passageway will open up.
The key is literally “under the watchful eye” as the poem suggested – pounding on the eye drawn on the floor in the last room will crack the stone & reveal a hidden cache with the key and some treasure.
Areas marked with dotted green outlines on the picture need to be drawn on the map, which will be revealed gradually as characters explore. The outlined area is where green moonlight shines down from above and creates a field effect which:
- Protects characters inside it from wight/ghast drain attacks, as well as the Fleshrot from Caustic’s staff
- Does d4 entropy damage to any undead passing through per square, or d4 per round if they’re standing in it.
- Undead are naturally repulsed by these areas and won’t pass through them unless they have to, either to get around other obstacles or to reach a character to attack.
| Area # | Foes | Treasure |
| 1 | 8 skeletons waiting in niches in the wall will swarm the party on entering | |
| 2 | Niches with remains of priests line the walls here. One contains a necklace which gives the wearer +1 entropy defense; another a Ring of Flickering which makes their body position hard to ascertain, for +1 physical defense | |
| 3 | 4 ghouls will activate and attack party. Ghast from #4 will join. Cleric & paladin will recognize the ghast as the strongest of the group | |
| 4 | Ghast here will join ghouls in #3 | |
| 5 | A sarcophagus here when opened will trigger the arrival of a spectre who will latch onto the opener until he/she or it is defeated, then move on randomly to the next player | Sarcophagus contains a ceremonial golden mask (300gp) |
| 6 | Capri Scumpire is here! He rises from his coffin, trips stepping out of it, and punctures himself with his own fangs. He drains away through a small grate in the floor. | Capri’s foil bag is worth 20 gp. |
| 7 | A Death Knight and 4 more skeletons are here. DK has a glowing eye gem in its helmet, used to open the entrance into Caustic’s area. | Players can take DK’s unused fire arrows |
| 8 | 3 corpses are on the ground here and look more recent than the other local denizens. They are actually wights and will attack the party when bodies are inspected. | The wight in leather armor carries a +1 longbow. The others’ armor & gear are in good enough shape to sell for a total of 110 gp. |
| 9 | Lich Caustic is here. As team approaches, she will start blasting them with “fleshrot” from her staff and will scream, “When we last fought I was merely Caustic – Now I’m the queen lich of the universe!” |
The living can’t use the fleshrot power from Caustic’s
staff but in a mage’s hands it will be usable as a +1 staff of
striking (adds d6 energy damage on any hit)
A golden moon symbol is under the eye with the key; it’s worth 100 gp. |
How it played
Using the tiles was interesting because it gave me the ability to gradually reveal the layout of the area to the characters as they moved through it.
The skeletons were easy kills – most characters could take one out in one round with a successful double strike. Things got tougher for them from there.
The players never did figure out the protection-by-moonlight mechanism. They were afraid it would damage them instead, so only one of them tried standing in it, and that was between battles where they couldn’t really experience its effects.
They managed to get through anyway, though with a number of knock-outs and some paralysis along the way. It ended up being split across 2 session, which I pretty much expected given the number of areas to explore and my players’ insistence on being thorough in checking each room for hidden things.
Since most players were able to walk away with a magical melee weapon at the end of the Spire of Learning adventure, this wasn’t a treasure-heavy session; I specifically added a magical staff to Caustic’s gear so our Saurid wizard, who missed out on the previous magic-item-making mechanism, could loot it.