188
HOBGOBLIN GUARDS
Guards. Two hobgoblins stand guard here, one in front
of each door. They attack intruders, ganging up on one
enemy at a time.
Arch. A stone arch embedded in the middle of the
east wall has an image of an open book carved into
its keystone.
Secret Door. A secret door in the nor th wall opens
into a dusty, web-choked passage between this room
and area 24.
ARCH GATE TO LEVEL^9
The arch is one of Halaster's magic gates (see "Gates,"
page 12). Its rules are as follows:- Holding an open book while standing within 5 feet
of the arch causes the gate to open for 1 minute. The
book turns to dust as the gate opens, even if it is a
spellbook. - Characters must be 10th level or higher to pass
through this gate (see "jhesiyra Kestellharp," page
10). The first creature to pass through the gate trig-
gers an elder rune (see "Elder Runes," page 12). - A creature that passes through the gate appears in
area 49 on level 9, in the closest unoccupied space
next to the identical gate located there.
26. APPRENTICE'S QUARTERS
Like her former master Halaster, Arcturia takes on
apprentices of her own from time to time, but they sel-
dom survive for long. This room contains a moldy quilt
draped over a stone bier against the north wall and a
wooden desk with a high-backed chair in the southeast
corner. On one corner of the desk rests a yellowed hu-
man skull topped with a half-melted wax candle.- DEAD APPRENTICE
Quilt. A moldy quilt is draped over a stone bier against
the south wall.
Desk. A wooden desk stands in the northeast corner.
S lumped in a high-backed chair behind the desk is a
human skeleton clad in perforated black robes.
The inanimate skeleton belongs to a human appren-
tice named Kazvark, whom Arcturia killed with a bar-
rage of magic missiles for failing to complete a simple
homework assignment. Arcturia destroyed Kazvark's
spellbook but didn't check his pockets for valuables.
MITHRALKEY
Characters who search the apprentice's robes find a
6-inch-long, fiat piece of mithral shaped like a U in one
pocket. This key is one of six required to activate the
weapon of mass disintegration in area 37.28. SPECIMENS
Characters who listen at either door to this room hear
strange clicking noises from beyond.
Hook Horror. A hook horror is trapped in the room,
but there's more to it than meets the eye.
Shelves. The curved walls are lined with stone shelves.LEVEL 14 I ARCTURIAOOOMSmashed Jars. Hundreds of jars of body parts lie
smashed on the floor.
A hobgoblin accidentally set off a polymorph trap and
was transformed into this hook horror. The other hob-
goblins decided to trap it in this room as a joke. Lacking
hands, the hook horror couldn't open the doors to es-
cape, and it swept the bottles off the shelves in a rage,
spilling their contents.
When the hook horror drops to 0 hit points, it turns
back into an unconscious hobgoblin named jarrk. De-
spite his recent misadventure, jarrk is fanatically loyal to
Doomcrown and would never willingly betray him.
Arcturia collected body parts from all sorts of Un-
derdark specimens. Characters who search through the
detritus find moth wings, beetle shells, darkmantle eyes,
stirge hooks, fiumph tendrils, troglodyte claws, demon
ichor, gelatinous residue, and other worthless creepy
bits. At your discretion, some useful spell components
might lie amid the refuse.29.LABORATORY
Vanar Freth. A drow mage named Vanar Freth and his
summoned shadow demon companion are quietly
searching the room when the characters arrive.
Statues. Standing in opposite corners are two 9-foot-
tall statues of ogres transforming into giant flies.
Table. A large stone table stands in the middle of the
room. Several curious items rest atop it, including a
black cube-shaped box on a folded gray blanket, and
the slimy, decapitated head of a mind flayer whose
headless body has bled out on the floor nearby. The
corpse is being feasted on by maggots.
Old Trap. The double door to the southwest and the
floor around it are scorched by fire- the result of a
trap set off long ago.
The drow mage has managed to get this far without
being detected. Left to his own devices, he eventually
finds the treasure hidden under the table (see "Trea-
sure" below). The shadow demon watches for trouble
while the drow busies himself with the search.
Vanar fights to keep any treasure he has found but
otherwise avoids hostilities. Once his search of Arctu-
riadoom is complete, he plans to return to the House
Freth fortress on level^12 and report to his master,
Drivvin Freth.TABLE
Until recently, Arcturia had a mind flayer assistant. She
tore off its head to study the psychic energy stored in its
brain. Next to the head is a long pair of steel tweezers
and a ladle.
The 1-foot black cube is an ebony-framed box fitted
with panes of black glass. The box has a hinged lid
and radiates an aura of transmutation magic under
the scrutiny of a detect magic spell. When a Tiny beast
small enough to fit in the box (such as a rat or a lizard)
is placed inside and the lid is closed tightly, the box
magically transforms it into some other Tiny beast (your
choice) unless it succeeds on a DC^15 Wisdom saving
throw. The box can do this eight more times before its
magic is fully spent, whereupon it crumbles to sand.