* \[For careful 3rd to 5th level characters\]

***Now let us return to a time when three alignments were enough, when a handful of character classes ruled, and when magic swords had their own ideas about who's boss.***

**BACKGROUND**

Near the ruined Transference City-Station are a series of small plateaus, roughly 50 yards tall, each bearing the ruins of a strange tower that were said to be part of the City-Stations supernatural (technological) defences. With the recent discovery of  an underground entrance to the City-Station, adventurers are coming into the ruins to seek out whatever was left behind in the city by its technologically advanced inhabitants, but also to investigate it’s ancient defences. 

There were 12 of these plateaus forming a ring around the City-Station, each with a tower upon it. Various rumours still float about regarding the nature of these defensive installations, but all of them point to them being strange magical weapons. While the towers are long destroyed, there exists a large subsurface network built under the plateaus, connecting the ring of towers to each other with the City-Station forming as a central hub. 

While most of the towers are sealed, and surrounded by highly aggressive animals that seem to be attracted to the towers, one stands apart from them all- since whatever force was generating its seal has begun to malfunction or perhaps even been disengaged. “The Tower of **Corvel-3**” according to the old maps.

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**DUNGEON DESCRIPTION** 

**1. The Breach**

Once fully hidden on the inside face of the plateau, erosion and warfare have combined forces to break open this small chamber below the base of the tower. The chamber walls are made of stone, but worked in a way unusual to even the best engineers and greatest minds – they appear to have been melted and formed with mercurial/lead inlays into the clean smooth shapes of the chamber walls, floor and ceiling. All interior walls are of this incredibly strong igneous stone and metal except for those of **area 7**. The tower and breach itself are not easy to get to, the tower proper is over a hundred feet up the side of the plateau, while the breach is still thirty feet from the top.

There are two doors within the breach that lead further into the plateau. Both are identical lead panels devoid of markings, handles or other protrusions, inset into the walls and showing no means of opening. Both have remained sealed since the sorcerer-wars. Each has an effective AC of 0 \[19\] and 125 hit points (attacks failing to hit still strike the door, but deal no damage). The mechanisms to open the doors require a **special key** that is no longer available (unless the party has somehow come across one elsewhere, which has lead them here), but it can be opened by a knock spell or by being struck by any electrical spell such as lightning bolt. The doors slide into the floor, and will reseal after 1 turn.



**2. Guardians’ Antechamber**

Ceilings in **areas 2 through 6** are 15 feet tall, and the structures are as described in **area 1**. The doors to area 1 are just as inoperable from within **area 2** as on the other side, however they are transparent from this side, allowing those within area 2 to look out into area 1. 

A crackling sound can be heard from the open doorway to **area 3**.

The southeast wall (set at 45 degrees from the other walls in the room) is built around a single brass sphere that appears to be roughly 2 feet in diameter. The **defensive sphere** fires shimmering bubbles at anyone entering the room, projecting them in a cone 60 feet long (just far enough to reach either door to area 1) and 20 feet wide.

* **Defensive Sphere**  AC : 4(15), HD: 9, Attacks: Lightening (2d6), Special: Magical effects *(see below),* Move: 0

**Anyone within the cone of bubble****s** must make a saving throw or be struck by 1d3 (minimum of 1) bubbles which burst on contact producing the following magical effects (roll 1d6 for each bubble). 

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The south door to **area 5** appears identical to the metal doors to **area 1**, except it has a set of three two-inch triangular buttons set in a triangle shape in the centre of the door (on both this side and the other). If all three buttons are pressed at the same time, the door slides open for 1 turn. Pressing only the bottom button locks the door for 4 hours.



**3. Arc Chamber**

Lightning arcs to and from the walls, ceiling and floor of this room. Each round that a character is in the room, they must make a saving throw or suffer 2d6 lightning damage. In the midst of this savage lightning storm are four **Living Brass Automatons** that will attempt to interdict any movement through the room. Because of the electrical charge in the room, attacks from the Automatons deal an additional +1 electrical damage (included in the stats below).

* **Living Brass Automatons (4)**  AC: 5\[14\], HD: 4, Attacks: Fist or Slam (1d6+1), Special: immune to electrical damage, Move: 9



**4. Receptacle Systems**

Down the stairs from the arc chamber, this chamber hums with electricity, but is otherwise absent of life or movement. The back wall of this chamber is plated entirely in a strange brass-like metal, with a set of two dozen brass cubes (3 inches wide on each face – roughly 1.5 pounds each and 50gp value mounted into receptacles in the wall. 

On the floor of the chamber is a wooden crate containing another 48 brass cubes identical to the above cubes

Attempting to remove a cube from the wall immediately deals 2d6 electrical damage to the person trying to dislodge it, and they must succeed at an open doors check to successfully remove the cube with each attempt. Once half of the brass cubes have been removed from the wall, the lightning arcs in area 3 stop accompanied by the loud yet distant sound of metal grating on metal.



**5. Strange Chamber**

The layout of this chamber is unusual, with multiple columns of various sizes. Lurking in the back of the room, in the upper level, is a **greater crystalline earth elemental.** The elemental will attempt to prevent anyone from accessing the secret door at the back of the chamber, as well as the entrance to **area 6**. It will prioritise those close to the secret door above those accessing area 6 – perhaps giving characters a hint as to the presence of said secret door.

* **Greater Crystalline Earth Elemental** Armor Class: 2 \[17\] Hit Dice: 8, Attacks: Fist (2d6), Special: can move through earth or stone unimpeded; cannot cross water more than 12′, Move: 6



**6. Loot**

This chamber contains a pair of silvery metal chests mounted to the floor. Both chests are locked and trapped.

The east chest will magically deal 2d6 cold damage to anyone attempting to open it or pick the lock without first disarming the trap. Once the lock is picked, the chest can be opened but a second trap triggers a blast of cold that fills the room dealing 2d6 damage unless a save is made. The west chest is identical, but deals electrical damage & activates a **Med-bot** for 1d6 turns. The med-bot has a chest cavity that contains a first-aid kit with 1d6 syringes filled with a green liquid that heals 1d6hp if injected. The Med-bot can also run a scan on PC's diagnosing any medical concerns before deactivating once again.

The east chest contains a **scroll of protection** from undead and a potion of **Giants Heartblood** (the user of this potion gains a +2 bonus on attack and damage rolls, and is immune to fear. 

The west chest contains 5,000 gp. 



**7. The Secret**

This room ends shortly beyond the door with a drop into a natural cave. The cave is natural stone with an elongated underground lake at the west side. The lake reaches a maximum depth of 30 feet at the narrowest point and is home to the **spectres** of a pair of Sparnian engineers who helped build this place in the previous aeon.

* **Specters ,** Armor Class: 2 \[17\], Hit Dice: 6, Attacks: Touch (See below), Special: Drains 2 levels per hit, Move: 15/30 (when flying)

At the west end of the cave is the electrum statue of an ancient extra-dimensional entity, which appears almost as if the statue was partially melted. A close examination of the statue will always come up with a different number of tentacles on the creature, somewhere between 6 and 12. The statue is nine feet tall and six feet across. If pushed aside *(open doors check/ or roll under ability check)*, a hideous **extra-dimensional spectre** is released from the space beneath it 

* **Extra-Dimensional Spectre,** Armor Class: 2 \[17\], Hit Dice: 6, Attacks: Touch (See below), Special: Aura of fear and insanity – anyone within 20 feet must make a save or be unable to act each round; Touch drains 2 levels ) which will surprise opponents on a 1-4 in 6, Move: 15/30 (when flying)

Within the space where the spectre has been trapped is a single massive Crystal worth 8,000 gp to any of the corporations. Removing the crystal activates a hidden pressurised shaft that violently knocks each person within 10 feet off their feet (saving throw or 1d3 Dmg). The shaft has a metal rung ladder that leads down into the deep dark below........

**Note on Doors:**  OD&D. Book III: The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures states:  
  
"Doors must be forced open by strength, a roll of a 1 or 2 indicating the door opens, although smaller and lighter characters may be required to roll a 1 to open doors. There can be up to three characters attempting to force open a door, but this will disallow them rapid reaction to anything awaiting them on the other side. Most doors will automatically close, despite the difficulty in opening them.  
  
*To be continued......*

(Old-School at School) The Tower Of Corvel-3