The Villa of the Fallen Star, Floor 2 (Not My Destination)

Floor 1: Mercury - Not My Destination Index - Floor 3: Mars 

Dungeon! Wow! I did all the prologue spiel on the post for the first floor so I'm out of things to say. Bye! 

Random Encounters

1. 1d6 Atomic Bees, HD 1, AC 2, unaffected by nonmagical damage. Harmless unless injured. Stings force a save vs. poison against instant death and becoming a Blast-Shadow.
2. 1d4 Star-Spirit Servants, HD 4, AC 2, unaffected by nonmagical missiles (as "hero", T3) (this is literally a dude and you can talk to him). honor focus, duelist.
3. Grazing Creature, HD 4+1, AC 5, 1d6+2 dmg/hit, fusion-reactor-stomach holds 1d6x100gp in semiprecious gemseeds. When it hits people it throws 'em.
4. 1d4 Blast-Shadows, 4 HD, 3 AC, 24 MV immune to nonmagical, non-silver weapons, drain 1 level per hit, humans fully drained become blast-shadows
5. Life Nexus, HD 6+3, AC 4, MV 12", regens 3 HP/round including after death unless burned, dissolved, etc. Made of magnesium, other alien-ecology metals in thin lines.
6. One of the Avant-Gardeners, plus their 6 Star-Spirit Servant bodyguards. (1: Fluoride Vega, 2: Antimony Rigel). Avant-Gardeners are both Star-Spirit Green M-U 11, HD 8+1, spells 4/4/4/3/3 Sleep, Entangle x2, Cure Light Wounds, Enfeebling Ray x2, Stoneskin, Invisibility, Haste x2, Invisibility (Extended) x2, Growth of Plants x3, Insect Plague, Cloudkill, Raise Dead 
1. (The Littlest Brown book recommends, as a "T6" random encounter that could be met on a six in a third-level dungeon, "Wizards (i.e. Magic-Users of the 11th level) w/ 1d4 Enchanters (7th-level M-Us) & 1d6 Bodyguards (those being Fighters of level 1d3+3). It's rough out there in OD&Dland. On the bright side "what do I do with an 11th-level wizard" became the driving goal of the whole dungeon floor.)

The Avant-Gardeners are artist-courtiers, hoping to improve their status in the court of the Fallen Star by presenting beautiful and complex works of art. They despise each other - perhaps these deniable earthlings could be a good weapon to ruin their rival once and for all...

1 - Water Source - Trap w/ Treasure
A hollow spear hangs from the ceiling, dripping iridescent star-water to send to the plants of this floor. It is a spear +1 whose strike causes hallucinations as the star-water enters the blood - however, its wielder is provided no immunity to this poison.

2 - Beryl Hedge - Monster w/ Treasure
This room is split east/west by a thorned selenium hedge. Four 500gp beryl "fruits" grow from it, and four Grazing Creatures gnaw on it on the west side.

3 - Listening Chamber - Empty
Sound from the Opera House is blurrily piped into this bench-filled room. The noise tube is barely large enough to fit a person, who will then pop out of the ceiling of the Opera House.

4 - Weeping Room - Monster
5 Blast-Shadows orbit the perimeter of this room, mumbling static.

5 - Lifegiving Room - Special
The ceiling of this room is a yellowish-green pane of glowing alien glass. Sleeping in this room restores 1 HP per hour (24 times the standard 1 HP per day available in the Littlest Brown Book). Its light also causes plants to grow at thousands of times the standard speed.

If the ceiling is broken, this effect ends immediately.

6 - Jumpscare Hedge - Monster w/ Treasure
This room is split north/south by a thorned selenium hedge. Two 500gp beryl "fruits" grow from it. It rustles slightly - if the fruit is picked or if the hedge is damaged, a Life Nexus leaps from it.

7 - Hostile Agents - Monster
Two groups of 3 Star-Spirit servants have collided in this room. One member of each holds a poisonous chalice - each group was sent by one Avant-Gardener in yet another plot to kill the other.

8 -The Conductor - Monster w/ Treasure
A Star-Spirit Servant works here, dressed in a 700sp feathered hat and 300gp in ruby-bead jewelry. They wield a staff of attached cubes (as Ophidian Staff - weapon +1 and can be sent as a snake to grapple and restrain people) as a conductor's baton.

They lead five uplifted Atomic Bees in opera practice, and will send them to attack those who threaten them.

The Conductor believes Antimony Rigel is an obstacle to their own ascent up the Stellar court - a gormless fool taking credit for the work of their apprentices. The first is true, the second is not.

9 - Seed Vault - Hidden Treasure
The floor of this room has three holes, each far too deep and small to reach into. 500gp aquamarines glitter in two of them, and a 1000gp spinel in the third. Each of these are seeds - planted and tended they would grow into trees of the same gem worth twice as much.

10 - The Extremely Loud Room - Special
It is extremely loud in this room.  

11 - The Opera House - Special
Antimony Rigel's masterpiece - 100 Atomic Bees uplifted to sapience and slowly taught how to play a famed (and extremely long) Stellar opera. The bees play without rest, their stage ten tiers of hexagonal cells on the northern wall. They are haughty - why do they play for such a small audience? There's a whole world outside, they've heard - they should go there, and become famous.

Above the bees is a sound-funnel that would, if one crawled up into it, lead to the Listening Chamber.

4-in-6 chance Antimony Rigel is applauding from one of the Opera House's balconies, unless they are known to be elsewhere.

(In my NMD campaign this is room 10 instead - that puts it way too close to Vega, though, so I moved it over for you. Aren't I just the sweetest?) 

12 - Vega's Guardian - Monster
A pareidolic Chimera (9 HD, 4 AC, MV 12"/18, one side/head/facet fires a 3d6 damage annihilation beam) waits in this room. It is composed of quartz beams and bristlecone pine wood, carefully arranged - from one side it displays a fleet of sailing ships, from a second an empty hall, and from the third a baleful sun. 

13 - Designer's Commentary - Empty
Holograms of Fluoride Vega play here, showing them tear their hair out (metaphorically) over minor difficulties in the production of the Pareidolia Tree. These are shockingly realistic illusions - things afraid of Vega (such as the Pareidolic Chimera) will not enter this room.

The two holograms (Vega and the tree) are produced by small triangular tiles on the ceiling, which can be removed, and continue producing their illusions. 

14 - Hive Pit - Trap
The floor of this room is a thin layer of art deco glass - hundreds of Atomic Bees crawl and work beneath it. This glass will shatter if weight is placed on it, releasing enraged bees. Standard paranoid thin-ice crawling will suffice to get you across.

15 - Decorated Bee - Monster w/ Treasure
An Atomic Bee is here, wrapped in a 300gp platinum disc. It loves its 300gp platinum disc and Will sting you if you try to separate the two.

16 - Tripvines - Trap
Silvery-blue vines sprawl across the floor of this room - when stepped on they wind around ankles and then drag their victim to hang upside-down from the ceiling. Cutting the vines is troublesome - they are as strong as iron.

17 - Beekeepers - Monster
Three Star-Spirit Servants poke around the edges of an art deco hive of atomic bees, wielding a tuning fork that forces a swarm of bees to Save versus Wands or fall asleep.

18 - Instrument Closet - Empty
This room is knee-deep in inscrutable Stellar musical instruments that make all manner of theremin noises, electronic beeps, piercing whistles, and dropping-cans-full-of-bolts-down-the-stairs clattering sounds.

19 - Pareidolia Tree - Empty
Fluoride Vega's masterpiece - a 10,000 year old bristlecone pine whose branches form a set of 3D images viewed by standing at certain points around the tree.

4-in-6 chance Fluoride Vega is here, unless they are known to be elsewhere.

20 - Understudy Room - Empty
Six uplifted Atomic Bees sit on the walls and ceiling of this room, buzzing out a few measures of the Stellar opera before making a mistake, emitting metal-on-metal screeches of frustration, and starting over.

Column of Electrum Thrice-Bound in Tin (Not My Destination)

Not My Destination Index 

Column of Electrum Thrice-Bound in Tin is an ancient funeral ship, built by the primordial revolt-empires of mankind. It still wanders the Sea of Lights, holding its crew and guests in the strange half-life the ancients preferred to death and the judgment of the Authority. It is found on a roll of 2 on the sea encounters table.

As with other NMD dungeon posts, the map is pure Donjon output - ignore which doors it says are secret, locked, et cetera.

Random Encounters

1. Tukulti-Authority, recordkeeper of ancient days. Stats as Zombie, but remains sentient and bored. Fond of overlong stories about nothing.
2. 2d10 armed and armored zombies.
3. The three Companions of the Monarchs.
4. A Giantish catamaran has come to challenge the Column.

0 - Outside
Column of Electrum Thrice-Bound in Tin hovers ten feet above the water - this is due to the Ghostparting Prow, a carved tin-and-lead ram built onto the front of the vessel. It can be attached to other ships - the lack of friction doubles their movement speed (though they have a tendency to slide around like air hockey pucks).

The deck of the ship holds 30 zombies in verdigrised armor (1 HD, 6 AC, 6 MV), who man six ballistae to fire on incoming vessels. The cabin on the rear of the deck has a staircase that leads down into Room 1. PCs may also sneak under the treasure vessel and enter through room 5.

1 - Deeds of the Queens of Mankind - Empty
The painted walls of this room show the destruction of a city of giants. Statues are torn down with ropes by angry mobs. Catamarans burn in the harbor. In the midst of it all stand two imperious figures, one with a sword marked out with mother-of-pearl.

It was only an outpost - the giants remain, and barely notice the absence.

2 - Chained Rowers - Monster
30 Zombies (1 HD, 8 AC, 6 MV) labor on great oars, dragging the Column across the Sea of Lights. The tops of their heads have been removed - their skulls are empty.

3 - Judge's Scales - Hidden Treasure
A bas-relief of a grinning man holding a set of scales - perfectly balanced with a bundle of flowers on one plate and a skull on the other. If the bas-relief is damaged or removed, a Potion of Healing waits behind the flowers, and a dose of save vs. death poison behind the skull.

4 - The Helm - Special
A pair of cloth-of-silver gloves and a blindfold of the same material hang from strings in the center of the room. Wearing the blindfold provides you a third-person view of the Column of Electrum Thrice-Bound in Tin, while the gloves permit you to puppet the 30 rowers and 30 ballista operators.

Column moves at 12 hexes per day over water. It is difficult to run aground due to the Ghostparting Prow, but I'm sure the players will manage anyway.

5 - Moon Pool - Empty
Two three-man boats, finely painted, hang from ancient ropes above a hole in the floor. It was expected that the ship's guests would leave one day.

6 - Extremely Cursed Evil Statue - Trap/Treasure
A statue of a cruel tyrant, cut in half at the waist. The break reveals carved stone viscera that would never be seen unless the statue was destroyed.

It is worth 5000gp - unfortunately it is both exceedingly heavy and extremely cursed. Any who die within eyesight of it rise up as the fitting undead for their HD (1 HD creatures have stats as zombies, 2 HD creatures as ghouls, et cetera).

7 - Companions of the Monarchs - Monster w/ Treasure
Three Wights (3 HD, 5 AC, 9 MV, drain 1 level/hit, unaffected by nonmagical missiles, double damage from magical missiles, killed humans become Wights) lie in repose in this room, each with a 100gp amethyst in the chest of their verdigrised armor.

8 - Shooting Gallery - Trap
Three niches in this room hold immobile statues of crossbowmen, who track and fire upon targets (as 3 HD monsters) that enter. They wait for targets to cross into the middle of the room to prevent their escape.

The other three niches hold glass cabinets of engraved tin tablets - annals of distant years in a long-forgotten language.

9 - Poison Chamber - Trap
The floor of this room has been built up into a sculpted map of the world. Its seas and rivers are made of flowing mercury - each dungeon turn in this room prompts a save versus poison to avoid taking 1d6 damage. The wall to the south is painted with a mural of the mountains that form the edge of the world - pressing on the sun that rises above those mountains opens the secret door to 10.

10 - Dead Throne - Monster w/ Treasure
Two mummies (5+1 HD, 3 AC, 6 MV, hits inflict necrotic disease, only vulnerable to magic and fire, damage and to-hit bonuses halved when attacking it), one wrapped in 1000gp of onyx-thread jewelry and the other wielding the neutral +1 sword ONE WILL LIE (12 INT, 3 EGO, speech, reads magic, targets struck by it decay, taking another 1d6 damage at the end of their next turn).

Both marched with the Unconquered in past ages.

The Sea of Lights (Not My Destination)

Not My Destination Index

This map was made with Modality's quite convenient Obsidian text mapper.

Sea encounters are recorded here - though note that the "dragon" result on 20 is now a 1d3 (1: Seafoam Green, 2: Robin's Egg Blue, 3: both). 

Land encounters are rolled on a 2d4 - on any island the first set of results is:

2. Apple Channel Katrina, a Green M-U, level 6 (HD: 3+1, AC: 9, MV: 12" M6; spells: 4/2/2/-/-), and her entourage of 2 Ents (HD: 8, AC: 2, MV: 6" Can command plants, causing up to 2 trees within 6" to move 3"/turn). Want to go to the Ashen Isle and reforest it. Do not know anything about the fact there are whole entire dragons there.
3. The Unicorn (HD 4, AC 2, MV 24, saves are all 8, can teleport.)
4. The weather takes a turn for the worse - wind, lightning, et cetera.
5. A pursuing encounter - if this is not possible, 2d8 dire wolves (HD 3+1, AC 6, MV 15).

Spacefaring Isle (Northwest) 

Encounters

6. 1d10 grazing thoats
7. 1d6 basilisks (40% in lair)
8. 16 Red Martians (1+1 HD, 7 AC, 3d6 damage radium guns they only use if needed, telepathic), led by "the Velitel Strelec" (2+1 HD, 5 AC).

 01.01 - Tower of the Martian

Upcoming - the home of the wizard Bronwyn Epistemological, used to ferry her to True Mars.  

Home Isle (Southwest)

Encounters

6. Idri Casseratkil, wandering merchant, and his goods. Sells standard equipment, but is also pretty desperate to get rid of his "exploserous carnelian" (explodes for 2d6kh). If the PCs take it, further rolls of 5 are encounters with 1d6 thieves (Fighter 2) sent by Emung Ostriesem, hoping to take back the carnelian.
7. Anthony Frame at the head of 3d10 soldiers of the War Monastery.
8. Manawydan, last survivor of the Hairy Men's expedition - now they creep across the Home Isle in a classically Bigfootlike way, jumping out to scrongle Hostages and so on. 4+1 HD, AC 7, 12 Movement, brachiates, grapples, flees.

 01.07 - Hairy Men's Cairn

Completely looted by the students of the War Monastery - remaining carvings show a great ship sailing down a narrow sea. The carved sun was obviously decorated with some kind of embedded stones, as were the eyes of the sarcophagi.

02.07 - War Monastery

A Hero, a White Conjurer (Cure Light Wounds, Purify Food & Water, Protection From Evil, Bless), and 80 students (half footmen, half archers) train in this hermitage. All are Lawful Hostages. They extract tithes from the town at 03.07 for their protection.

The classed characters wear talismans made from the bones from the cairn at 01.07 - these can be shattered to provide a +2 bonus to a save. After doing so, the ghost of Pebr appears to haunt the talisman’s user on an encounter roll of 5 while on land, or 11 when at sea.

The Monastery has extracted 3000cp and 2000gp in coinage from Silt. Their cultic idol (of the Authority - beaten with rods and covered in rotten food each day) has 16 100gp moonstones and 8 500gp bloodstones embedded in it as decoration. 

The 21 most skilled of the students (as Dervish medium lancers) wear 3000gp torcs. Any student would risk death to reclaim one of these if it were captured or lost - if one of these students died, others would halt combat to pull the torc from their body.

NPCs

1. Linen Burnt - Hero. Kindly, in a way - almost apologetic about the truth of the world.
2. Gate Ferocious - White Conjurer. Nice old lady/raving firebrand. Spit in the eye of Innumerable Demons! Die for a drop of the Authority's blood!
3. Person of Violence Pine - one of the 21 acolytes. Starting to doubt - the world is so beautiful, isn't it? How could it be built so cruelly?

03.07 - Silt

A trading town of 6000 on the edge of the world. Once, they were far smaller - now word of the fallen star has come, and its streets are lined with those hoping to strike gold and those hoping to fleece the seekers.

NPCs

1. Anthony Frame - one of the 21 skilled acolytes of the War Monastery and their designated tax collector. See him behind his pedestal - Innumerable Demons, he cries. O how does the earth crawl with monsters forevermore.
2. Emung Ostriesem - head of the Ring, the rapidly expanding thieves' society of Silt. Currently driven into a white-hot rage - the wandering merchant Idri Casseratkil stole his "exploserous carnelian".

Forested Isle (Central)

Encounters

6. 3d10 Hairy Men knights (4+1 HD, AC 7, 12 movement), out to seek whatever could be to blame for the ghost.
7. 1d8 of the Cursed (4+1 HD, AC 4, 12 movement, harmed only by silver) hunting for food.
8. The ghost appears on a hilltop with a flash of light and sobs.

03.04 - City of the Hairy Men

1,700 bigfoots lair here, behind a wall of woven living trees. Their king, the honorable Wallt Efryn, is sleepless and grim. A ghost haunts his manor of mortarless stone. He pleads for an exorcist - and the ghost howls that it is all that remains of Wallt Efryn’s father Pebr, killed for the crown.

Wallt Efryn denies this - his father sailed away to the south, and never returned. 

This is true - Pebr died on an expedition to the Home Isle. However, he blames Wallt Efryn for planning the expedition, and then for staying as Pebr left.

04.04 - Lair of the Cursed

18 wereboars, relatives of Wallt Efryn cursed by the ghost of his father, lair in this cave in misery. They were exiled due to their danger, with 2000sp (worn over their heads in veils in an attempt to hold back the curse) and one of the Hairy Men’s signet rings (to remember their home with - worth 2000gp).

Isle of the Fallen Star (Northeast)

Encounters

6. 2d8 gryphons (10% in lair)
7. 3d10 cultist-pirates.
8. A hydra, come down from the mountains. (25% in lair)    

07.02 - Villa of the Fallen Star

The campaign tentpole dungeon. See floor one here.

08.01 - Sword Saints' Keep

150 maddened cultist-pirates howl chants and hymns in this stronghold, armed with 3 light catapults and walled in wrought-iron spikes. 

They are led by a trio of impaled sword-saints (stats as Ogre - all adore and despise their lord equally, and hope alternately to escape or to claim his power) and their king, the ancient hero Senam the Unconquered, now possessed by an accursed sword. He is a Superhero with a Girdle of Giant Strength, a Concussive Coronet and a ring of Spell Turning, wielding and wielded by the evil 12 INT, 12 EGO sword NAMELESS SHAPELESS BLAMELESS (+3, aflame, paralyzing, teleporting).

If NAMELESS SHAPELESS BLAMELESS were separated from him, he would slowly return to his senses and his heroism - haunted forever by hazy memories of hundreds of years ago, and all-too-clear ones of his time under the blade’s thrall.

Ashen Isle (East)

There are no random encounters here.

Home of a pair of blue dragons, Seafoam Green (8 HD, 48 HP) and Robin’s Egg Blue (9 HD, 45 HP). Both of them are gossips - self-exiled from a distant land (that they will not even name, such is their hatred of it) due to its myriad petty failings. Seafoam Green (impetuous) thinks that, obviously, the solution to this is to return home and microwave it with lightning bolts. The elder Robin’s Egg Blue (conspiratorial) thinks that they should, instead, spread propaganda to prove to all others that this mysterious land should be a pariah to the world. 

Both of them have been here long enough to remember the impact of the fallen star - but their lives revolve entirely around their obsession with and hatred of a tiny mountain village. Robin’s Egg Blue wants a printing press, and contact with important political figures. Seafoam Green hopes to turn the Hairy Men into an army to crush his enemies with an iron fist.

Giant's Isle (Southeast)

Encounters

6. The volcano howls, audibly, and a shower of burning sparks rains down across the isle, setting fire to vulnerable gear and hapless PCs.
7. A drifting fire elemental, split from TEMER-EL-PANE. 8 HD, AC 2, 2d6 damage, made of. fire.
8. Axmat and Guldara, sparring in full combat gear to test it.

08.08 - Forge of the Giants

Staffed by 17 Fire Giants (11+3 HD, 4 AC, 2d6+2 damage per strike, count as light catapults, immune to fire).

In the depths of the volcano known as Mount Saint Awlistlenge, the forge runs, building weapons beyond imagining for the use of the Empire of the Giants - men say it is lost to time, but the Giants are confident that this is only a slight inconvenience, and the bright-sailed bronze ships will cross the horizon at any moment.

They cannot make nonmagical gear magical, but they can alter magical gear - you want this sword to be armor? Sure. We'll see what happens.

NPCs
Axmat - head smith of the Forge. Condescending - what do you mean your ships don't fly. Haven't you had long enough to figure that out? Why are you still leaning on us.

Gulnara - messenger and sailor, out each week to send signals to the Imperial vessels that are surely waiting. Curious - what does the world look like out there, now that grace and beauty are gone from it?

Xamza - keeper of the Elemental - as such, he is mostly deaf and has a tendency to flinch. Worried - the elemental will soon escape, he says, and the volcano will explode. Neither of the others believe him; nothing could stand against the might of the Giants.

TEMER-EL-PANE - the Elemental of the mountain, HD 16, AC 2, 12", hits do 2d6, only affected by magic. Screams and screams and screams and screams and screams. If it broke out, the isle would be destroyed - but perhaps it could be released safely?

Rumors

1. From a monk of the War Monastery - "Linen and Gate've been wearing new kit. Blessed bones from a cairn up north, proof against the curses of Innumerable Demons..."
2. From an archaeologist - "This was once the edge of the Empire of the Giants, you know. Dig a couple feet and you hit solid layers of their scrap - especially if you sail southeast, around Mount Saint Awlistlenge."
3. From a mercenary - "No, no, I'm headed back west. There's no point moving east, nobody's getting through the doors of the star now that those killer-kings have dug themselves in on top of it."
4. From an apprentice magician - "Fallen star? No, I had no idea, I was here to work with Bronwyn Epistemological, the Martian, up north - couldn't find her, so I'm just drinking my money away until she's back."
5. From a sailor - "I saw GIANT APE MEN on the forested isle. GIANT APE MEN! Unbelievable. What's the world coming to."
6. From a monk of the War Monastery - "Did you do it? Did you see who did it? Took Torture Edmonton and pulled his head off?"
7. From a second-story worker - "Hey, if you meet Idri Casseratkil remember that the Ring is looking for him, and we'll pay good money for what he took from us."
8. From a fellow dungeon delver - "I got a peek into the Villa before the pirates ran me off - it's snowing in there, somehow."
9. From a naval officer - "Not the worst post I've ever had! Sure, you keep one eye on the horizon for skull-clad pirates and the other on the sky for those paired dragons, but let me tell you about my tour around Coto Nera..."
10. From an astrologer - "Reading? No, no reading, nobody gets a reading. One star falls to the northeast, something else flies up and down to the north, omens are closed. I don't know what to tell you."
11. From a trading vessel's crewman - "Mount Saint Awlistlenge's gonna go off again any minute now - we sailed past and it showered sparks and smoke. Thing that messes with me is, I can swear I saw someone standing there, on the lip of the caldera. Smoke must've gotten to my head, I suppose."
12. From one of the townsfolk - "I saw a unicorn once, just standing on the still sea. Course I went and asked Idri what he'd pay for the horn, but I spose the answer doesn't matter now that we won't see him again."
13. From an Inquisitor - "This isn't the first time people've flocked to this wasteland. Centuries ago, Senam the Unconquered came here, shattered the giants, looted their hoards..."
14. From a fisherman - "I got sent off-course once, to the north where that witch lives. There're strange people on that island, real strange ones, who took shots at me with handheld cannons. I still have one of the bullets - it burns in the sun."
15. From an Inquisitor - "There's a ghost around here, somewhere. Northwest. I can feel it. A new one. Angry... not human, not quite."
16. From a raving captured pirate - "NAMELESS! SHAPELESS! BLAMELESS! NAMELESS! SHAPELESS! BLAMELESS!"
17. From a Good Man priest - "There's something to the northeast - something dead and walking. Angry, betrayed..." 
18. From someone flashing too much money around - "A treasure-vessel, older than dirt and covered in gold! Those dried-out bodies weren't using it, ha!" 
19. From an aged scholar - "The lightning strikes backwards over that spit of land to the east - it rises up into the sky on clear nights." 
20. From a whaler - "I had a catch stolen from me once - a catamaran like a palace sailed over it, and dragged it right from the ocean with a harpoon the size of a tower." 

Digression: Names

Human names are piles of fantasy syllables. It is common, especially among wizards, to wear a masking name for privacy and as a defense against curses - these masking names are gibberish.

The Villa of the Fallen Star, Floor 1 (Not My Destination)

[] - Not My Destination Index - Floor 2: Venus 

The tentpole dungeon of Not My Destination is the Villa of the Fallen Star - a celestial palace-dream crashed to earth, whose owner could, they say, grant a wish to those who find it. There will be five 20-room floors: Mercury (water, winter, movement), Venus (life, warmth, alien chemistries), Mars (gladiator pits, axe pendulums), Jupiter (wealth, banquets, power), and Saturn (lead, grief, the catacomb-dreams of the fallen star). 

I'm taking it easy with this one - stocking follows Phlox's 20-block dungeon stocking, with treasure generation (~roughly, I upped a few of the smallest hoards and handed out some more magic items) and random encounter stats from Idraluna's Littlest Brown Book. The maps themselves are pure Donjon output (I enjoy making hex maps! dungeon maps, eeeeeehhhhh) - ignore what it says about doors' locked or unlockedness, and suffer through the strange assignment of room numbers.

Similarly, this is basically unpolished notes. You'll live.

https://laweyd.itch.io/ - a spirit of the outer spheres, guard and attendant to the fallen star

Random Encounters

1. 3d6 Pirates, 1 HD, 7 AC, movement 12" ("T1" on the LBB encounter table. also whenever i say "pirate" in NMD it means "seafaring cultist sworn to Chaos and the evil sentient sword NAMELESS SHAPELESS BLAMELESS")
2. 1d6 frozen ghouls (made by Ismarc), HD 2, AC 6, movement 9", attack save vs. spells or paralysis. ("as ghoul", T2)
3. 1d4 Star-Spirit Servants, HD 4, AC 2, unaffected by nonmagical missiles (as "hero", T3) (this is literally a dude and you can talk to him). honor focus, duelist.
4. Star-Spirit Hunting Weasel (attempts to attack from surprise and grab single targets), 3 HD, AC 6, move 15"
5. Ice Elemental, 4 HD, 5 AC, movement 9"/15" (flying), immune to nonmagical damage except mundane fire, which deals 2x damage. (this is ~" as gargoyle". by LBB rendering that makes it a "T4" enemy, and i get one of those) (trying to "work", get outta the way)
6. Dusty Circle Ismarc the morally dubious necromancer (HD 4, AC 9, black school spells Disguise Self (pretends to be a ghoul), Charm Person, Cause Light Wounds, Cause Light Wounds, Enfeebling Ray, Enfeebling Ray, Invisibility, Slow, Wall of Fire, no allegiance to NAMELESS SHAPELESS BLAMELESS) along with 6 ghouls.

01: Snowstorm - Winter/Empty
Snowflakes constantly rain down in this room - if carefully observed, each is a perfectly regular hexagon. The floor is covered in drifts of this snow.

02: Ghoul-Killing Hero - Winter/Monster w/ Treasure
A Star-Spirit Servant waits here, wiping charred ghoul-blood from their flamberge. They wear a red-and-white silk belt with onyx and silver inlay worth 1100gp.

03: Ice Elemental Nursery - Winter/Monster
A single Ice Elemental lairs in this niched room, slowly patting together 9 more of itself.

If you somehow worked with the elemental to complete its work, the experience would teach you to build an ice elemental of your own for 300gp, enough ice and snow to work with (inaccessible anywhere but here or the ice caps of True Mars), and a week of labor.

04: Capture Site - Winter/Trap
The floor of this room is marked out with four teal square tiles. If a creature stands on one of these tiles, glass walls fall from the ceiling to trap them. This cage then fills with water, which magically freezes once the column is filled.

The first time this is triggered, two Star-Spirit Servants come to ensure the trap works successfully.

05: Sea Urchin - Water/Monster w/ Treasure
600sp and 30gp in Stellar coinage sits in a pool of cold and clear water, defended by a giant sea urchin (5 HD, 3 AC, 10", on-hit save vs. death or be paralyzed).

06: Placid Lake - Water/Empty
A thin, rattling metal bridge with no handrails leads across this perfectly round cistern. The fish inside are of a prismatic Stellar variety - they are simply a pair of cones matched like <> so.

They are still, somehow, edible, and taste like perfectly mundane salmon.

07: Stellar Cache - Winter/Hidden Treasure
The right wall of this room is clear ice. Inside hovers a small sculpted Stellar head (30gp), and a pair of flammable scrolls - one contains Polymorph Self, and the other summons a 9 HD, 4 AC, 3 attack + 3d6 damage heat ray Stellar warform which is immediately and omnidirectionally hostile.

08: Ice Rink - Winter/Empty
The floor of this room is smooth, clear, slippery ice - looking down, it pierces all the way to the Arena on Floor 3 - Mars.

09: Stoneskin Fountain - Water/Special
A star-faced spirit pours mercury-like fluid into a square basin on the floor. Applied to an object it turns the outermost layer of it into metal. On the skin, it provides -2 AC (though only for 1d6+6 turns before it flakes off). If consumed you must save vs. petrification or die.

10: Teleporter - Movement/Special
In the center of this room is a ritual circle inscribed in bronze. Anyone walking through this circle is teleported to hex 07.08, near the Forge of the Giants.

11: Pirate Hunting Party - Movement/Monster
Six Pirates plus one Pirate Warmage (Throne Manderley, 2+1 HD, Red M-U 4, spells Magic Missile, Hold Portal, Chill Touch, Magic Missile, Shocking Grasp, Levitate, potion of Gaseous Form) search for their missing member, Gusil.

12: Frozen Grave - Movement/Trap w/ Treasure
The floor of this room seesaws when weight is placed on it, dumping those who cross unwisely into a pit of instantly lethal liquid nitrogen. A perfectly-preserved body wearing a 4000gp armband lies abandoned in the pit.

13: Weasel Track - Movement/Monster w/ Treasure
Three Star-Spirit Hunting Weasels race in a round track following a spinning mechanical arm with a pirate (Gusil - stringy hair, overconfident, still, yknow, sworn to death and chaos) tied to it. A pair of Star-Spirit Servants absentmindedly bet on the victorious weasel - their pot of 400 nonagonal Stellar sp and a 60-gp ring lies on a table between them.

14: Frozen Captive - Winter/Special
A bizarre four-legged rotationally-symmetrical creature (2 HD, 7 AC) is trapped in ice in the middle of this room. If released from the ice, they return to life. Their language is incomprehensible. They desire to return to their homeworld (requiring, perhaps, extremely expensive modifications to the Tower of the Martian), and can reward those who aid it with the alien spells Flip Person, Cone of Dense Foam, and Cube of Spell Splitting.

15: Lost Ghouls - Water/Monster
4 of Ismarc's ghouls lie here, cut apart but still living (half movement speed). Their wounds burn with the bluish-white fire of Stellar weapons. In the center of the room is a smaller cistern otherwise identical to the one in Placid Lake.

Ismarc would like these ghouls returned to him.

16: Rolling Boulder Hallway - Movement/Trap
The floor of this sloped hallway is an abraded mosaic depicting rows of bowing stellar spirits. The door on the far end is false - it has no hinges, and if the handle is pulled it comes off the door. Above the false door is an obvious trapdoor - when the false handle is pulled, a polished round boulder falls from the trapdoor and rolls down the hall, forcing Saves vs. Breath against 2d6 damage.

17: Weasel Nests - Movement/Empty
This room is unusually warm, and the ground is lavender alien-soil instead of harsh marble. Burrows in the soil hold 7 juvenile Star-Spirit Hunting Weasels (harmless).

18: Animation Mural - Movement/Empty
The west wall of this room is a mosaic of color-shifting tiles that display a beautiful night sky. Tiles removed from the wall revert to a colorless grey.

19: Ismarc's Beachhead - Winter/Monster w/ Treasure
The doors to this room are newly locked and painted with white skulls-in-circles and running horses. Ismarc and Tomorbaatar both hold keys.

8 Ghouls are here, along with his general, the resurrected conqueror of the steppes Tomorbaatar (as Ghoul, but 4 HD and armed with a bow and 9 +1 arrows tipped with engraved diamond heads - Tomorbaatar will bleed on these arrows to make them cause Ghoul paralysis at range), who leads them in drills.

Tomorbaatar serves ably - his loyalty to Dusty Circle Ismarc comes from a feeling of indebtedness. How else would you feel about the man who returned you to life?

Tomorbaatar's armor is made of woven-together coins - 300sp and 60gp can be recovered.

4-in-6 chance Ismarc is here, unless he is known to be elsewhere.

20: Rapids - Water/Trap
This room is split north/south by 20 feet of rushing water.

Also one unrelated last bit - the Littlest Brown Book uses a reading of the OD&D combat rules where monsters make a single attack, then (if fighting only "normal humans", PCs of level 3 or less) a number of extra 1-HD-equivalent attacks until it has struck [HD] times. I plan to, instead, use the logarithmic damage alternative on page 96, where creatures of 4-7 HD strike twice and those with 8+ attack three times. This is because I'm a poser. 

Alignment Faiths in Not My Destination

Summer has come and (by the calendar of the local university) gone, and my hypothetically summer game Not My Destination has never arrived. So, now it's a fall game - something to run while I stare miserably at the land-islands. 

The hexcrawl is mostly finished, though the tentpole dungeon is completely blank - both will probably be posted along with play reports when the game begins. 

What I do have, however, is unhelpful lore - the three alignment/faiths of the setting, trapped in their miserable counter-reformation and, somewhere across the horizon from the Sea of Lights, their hideous wars of religion. 

Chaotic Sanctifiers believe that, as the Authority is all-good and all-powerful, They created nothing that was evil. Thus, all actions are ethical and all men are saints, no matter how opposed they seem to human morals.

Neutral Good Men are dualists, believing evil comes from the Adversary, an equal and opposite to the Authority, and that by right conduct one can war against the Adversary in defense of order and good. While popular and state-supported, this is actually a new development of the Neutral religion, and its opponents say the "Adversary" is being projected back into the various evil spirits and foreign gods of the Canon. Inquisitors and so on are assumed to be Good Men. 

Lawful Hostages believe in a bizarre, inhuman cosmology where the world was formed from specks of floating dust, and mankind rose from algae. They say the Authority is a disguise, worn by a horde of cruel demons that set upon man and fooled the pagans into worship and sacrifice. A change of mask and voila, now the Archpriest pays homage to Them as well. The only hope for humanity is enlightenment, and to achieve enlightenment requires the breaking of the chains the demons set upon man: fear, pain, sleep, et cetera. As such, a stringent regime of asceticism and mutilation is common. Hostagehood is common here in the isles of the Sea of Lights.

Littlest Brown Book - Encounters at Sea for Not My Destination

My upcoming Littlest Brown Book campaign, Not My Destination, has a decent naval component - much of the stereotypical wilderness between the players' starting town and the central dungeon will be open ocean. While the Littlest Brown Book comes with random encounter tables for rivers and swamps, it does not include one for the sea - so here is my own hacky attempt (I'm not kidding about hacky - this is basically just Rivers but without the things that need "land" to "live" and with some more human encounters, and on 2d10 for some good ol' probability).

This'll be my first campaign using lair chances - that'll be neat. Hopefully. 

2	The lost ancient treasure ship (i.e. dungeon) Column of Electrum Thrice-Bound in Tin.	12	2d8 Giant Fish
3	1d8 Giants (30% in lair - else on a single Giantish catamaran)	13	2d8 Giant Snakes
4	3d10x10 Pirates (15% in lair - else on 1d4 black iron vessels. The distinction between “pirate” and “buccaneer” is allegiance to seething Chaos - Buccaneer leaders are always Fighters and may be Neutral, but Pirate leaders are always Chaotic Magic-Users of the Black or Red Schools).	14	1d4 Manticores (25% in lair)
5	3d10x10 Mermen (15% in lair).	15	1d6 Wyverns (60% in lair)
6	3d10x10 Buccaneers (15% in lair - else on 1d4 wooden vessels)	16	1d20 Rocs (20% in lair)
7	A trading vessel, fat with [whatever the Type A (Water) treasure happens to generate] and guarded by 3d6x10 soldiers, half crossbowmen and half heavy footmen.	17	2d8 Giant Octopi
8	A rival adventuring party (1d4 levels of Fighter and 1d4 levels of Magic-User split between 2d4 people) sailing along. (I'm sure at some point I'll put some premade rival parties together, but just in case I need one quick...)	18	1 Sea Monster
9	A warship, hunting pirates and rescuing the stranded.	19	1 Dragon Turtle
10	1d4 small boats with 3 fishermen each.	20	1d4 Dragons (60% in lair)
11	A previously-met NPC or pursuing encounter. If neither is applicable, result 10.

Littlest Brown Book - Fighters & Auspices

At the end of the Libra campaign and the start of summer, I'm planning to run something Normal™. Wizards and suchlike. In the pursuit of Normal™, I'm going to run Idraluna's Littlest Brown Book, which I chose over other 0e retroclones (or the original white box) completely at random (and because I'm a fan of Idraluna's blog). 

The campaign structure should also be pretty Normal™: town, wilderness, dungeon (100 rooms, perhaps). I'm ripping off Sean F. Smith's Westen Isles for the wilderness - not the exact map, but the general shape of "big island 1 with town, big island 2 with main dungeon, scattered mini-islands". Get some use out of those naval encounters.

To be a little less Normal™, I'm also using Idraluna's Supplement א, which splits the Magic-User into 5 color-coded subclasses (and, in doing so, replaces the Cleric with the M-U's White School). 

Since this, along with showing the non-humans the door, means the class choices would be 1 fighting-type and 5 wizardoids, I'm also adding subclasses to the Fighter (since players avoid doubling up unless necessary, and I know otherwise they'd scatter to the various M-Us):

1. Corsair - you swim at 6" (twice as fast as normal), your drowning chances are halved, and you may carry any weapon while swimming. 
2. Thief - others must roll their listen at doors chance to notice you when you creep.
3. Knight - you begin play with a free, unclassed, perfectly loyal squire. They will enter combat if necessary. 
4. Inquisitor - you recognize demons, spirits, heretical wizards, et cetera on sight, and your attacks count as magical for the purposes of damaging them. If you attack them with a magical weapon, roll 2d6 for damage. 
5. Champion - your target numbers for attack rolls are 1 lower. 

Along with that, I've always had a fascination with Eldritch Wizardry-era psionics - in particular, the random chance of them... ever coming up or mattering at all. So, characters in this campaign will have a chance to be august. 

At the end of character creation, roll a d20. If you roll a 7, (or, if your INT, WIS, and CHA are all above 15, if you roll a 7 or 13) you were born under favorable stars and were taught by those distant intelligences. If you pass this roll, repeat it until you fail.

You have points of Favor with the stars equal to thrice your level, and regain one of those points each day of rest.

For each success on the auspice roll, choose a constellation and associated skill below:

1. Libra - the stars take the measure of the world. Your listen at doors chance increases to 4-in-6, your secret passages chance to 4-in-6, and with a point of Favor and a minute of unbroken focus you can read minds.
2. Sagittarius - the stars reach down to earth. You can lift objects weighing up to 50 coin-weights per level via telekinesis, costing one Favor per minute. 
3. Pisces - the stars swim through the upper air. With concerted effort you can slowly (6" per turn) levitate vertically for a point of Favor per minute.
4. Leo - the stars speak with the voices of kings. For a point of Favor, you may control the mind of a target with lower level than you for one minute. 
5. Scorpio - the stars shine with impossible colors. For a point of Favor, you become invisible for a minute. This ends early if you attack - even the tiny scorpion is noticed when it strikes.
6. Aquarius - the stars pour water from above. You can spend a point of Favor to ignore your need for water, sleep, and food for a day. You do not regain Favor during these days. 

There were more stars, once. Now they are gone, replaced by boiling black in the firmament.