The folded gray blanket upon which the box rests is, in
fact, the carefully removed skin of a doppelganger. Other
items on the table include a jar of cockatrice tongues, a
block of soft clay (the material component for the stone
shape spell) wrapped in moist cloth, and a wooden cof-
fer labeled "Polymorph" containing a dozen caterpillar
cocoons (material components for the polymorph spell).
TREASURE
Hidden in the floor under the table is a small secret
compartment that can be discovered with a successful
DC 20 Wisdom (Perception) check. It contains a jade
circlet worth 1,500 gp (the material component for a
shapechange spell) and a spell scroll of polymorph.
- HIDEOUS TRANSMUTATION
Carrion Ogre. Lying on the floor in the middle of the
room, held down with chains, is a creature that has
the body of an ogre and the head of a carrion crawler.
Body Parts. The ogre's severed head and the carrion
crawler's decapitated body lie discarded in the north-
ern corner of the room, where they have begun to pu-
trefy and emit a dreadful stench.
Key Ring. Hanging from a stone peg on the northwest
wall is an iron ring with three keys.
The creature chained to the floor is alive, having sur-
vived a ghastly magical ritual that can't be reversed or
undone. It is malnourished and must feed on carrion to
survive. The chains around it are looped through iron
rings bolted to the floor and secured with three heavy
padlocks, which can be unlocked with the keys hanging
on the wall. If released, the creature rushes over to the
rotting remains of its former bodies and begins de-
vouring them.
The creature is an ogre, with these changes:
- While lashed to the floor, the creature is prone and re-
strained. It also suffers from two levels of exhaustion. - It has an Intelligence of 1, and it can't speak or under-
stand any language. - Replace the ogre's action options with the following
action options.
Multiattack. The creature makes two attacks: one with its ten-
tacles and one with its bite.
Tentacles. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one
creature. Hit: 4 (ld4 + 2) poison damage, and the target must
succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned
for l minute. Until this poison ends, the target is paralyzed.
The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its
turns, ending the poison on itself on a success.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach S ft., one target.
Hit: 7 (2d4 + 2) piercing damage.
- lLLITHID'S ASSISTANT
This room was reserved for Arcturia's mind flayer assis·
tant, which met a grisly end in area 29. It has the follow-
ing features:
Decor. The stone walls are sculpted to resemble tenta-
cles entwining around and through bleached human
skulls embedded in the stone.
Slime Pool. In the middle of the floor is a shallow oval
pool filled with dark, foul-smelling slime. (The slime
has a soothing effect on mind flayers but no magical
properties to speak of.)
Assistant. Standing in the eastern corner of the room,
facing the corner, is a male human wearing nothing
but a leather harness and a loincloth.
The harness-wearing human is Ellix Gaspar (NE
male Tethyrian human mage with no spells prepared).
He holds a half-eaten loaf of bread. Arcturia pulled him
out of Dweomercore (level 9) a few months ago to serve
as her assistant, only to find him too obnoxious to bear.
She cast a feeblemind spell on him and gave him to her
mind flayer assistant, who promptly forced him to don
new apparel befitting his station.
In his current state, Ellix is vacant-eyed and barely
responsive, with a tendency to trip over his own feet
and drool uncontrollably. He has a tenday left before he
can attempt another saving throw to end the feeblemind
effect. If he regains his senses, he smartly tries to fle.e
Undermountain with the last shreds of his sanity and
dignity. He doesn't know what happened to his spell-
book (Arcturia hid it in area 40b), but once his faculties
return, he recalls the layout of this level and how to re-
turn to the surface.- DEATH'S HEAD BARRACKS
Hobgoblin forces are quartered in these rooms, which
are engulfed in a permanent antimagic field similar to
that created by an antimagic field spell (the result of a
magical experiment gone awry).
32A. SOLDIERS' QUARTERS
Thirty hobgoblins rest in wooden bunk beds stacked
three tiers high. There are enough beds to accommo-
date sixty guards. The hobgoblins sleep in their armor;
their weapons and shields hang from hooks on the cor-
ners of their bunks.32B. GUARD POST
Four hobgoblins stand guard here-two flanking the
door to area 32a, and two flanking the door to area 32c.
Any battle here brings reinforcements from those areas,
as well as from area 20.32c. CAPTAINS' QUARTERS
Two hobgoblin captains converse quietly in this room,
which contains three beds. Other furnishings include
a stone table surrounded by six wooden stools, with an
unlit iron chandelier suspended above it.
The captains are worried about the recent abnormal
behavior of their warlord commander (see area 33) and
contemplating what to do about it. So far, the captains
have hidden Doomcrown's bizarre preoccupations from
the rest of the hobgoblin legion and remain, for the time
being, loyal subordinates.- DOOMCROWN'S QpARTERS
Monsters. If he hasn't been drawn elsewhere, Doom-
crown the hobgoblin warlord is here, attended by a
ftumph that speaks to him telepathically.
LEVEL 14 I ARCTURIADOOM