Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica

Golgari Swarm

A dominant force in the undercity, the Golgari Swarm

is ideally suited for dungeon-based adventures. The

Golgari represent corruption and decay, counting many

villains among their ranks even though most members

are mainly concerned with the balance of the natural

cycle of life and death.

UNDERCITY MANSION

The Golgari are a strange underground aristocracy

in a city that mostly lacks a noble class; they are like

throwbacks to an ancient time when one's birth deter-

mined one's station. The mansion depicted in map 4.4

is a stately relic of such a time- a grand hall that hap-

pens to be buried hundreds of feet beneath the streets

of Ravnica.

UNDERCITY MANSION ADVENTURES

The Undercity Mansion Adventures table provides some

possible challenges based in and around the Golgari

undercity mansion.

UNDERCITY MANSION ADVENTURES

dl 0 Adventure Goal

2 3 4 s 6 7 8 9

Find the source of a noxious fog rising from the un-

dercity and poisoning a surface neighborhood.

Rescue several citizens being held hostage by

Ochran agents.

Find the daytime lair of an elusive monster that

hunts on the surface at night.

Rescue a guild member petrified by an undercity

medusa (see chapter 6 for the stat block) that uses

the mansion as its lair.

Take shelter in the mansion to escape a horrible

monster prowling the undercity.

Win a bet by surviving a night inside.

Escape from captivity here.

Find a fugitive hiding here.

Find and claim a treasure hidden in the mansion.

(^10) Attend a masked ball held in the mansion in order
to get information from another guest.
UNDERCITY MANSION MAP
This structure is built in a large depression, perhaps
part ofDeadbridge Chasm. A bridge crosses just above
it, and a wide, curving stair leads down from the bridge
to the grand ballroom on the top level of the mansion.
The rest of the structure is built down from there, with
th e main, elegant halls and parlors on the second level.
Notably, a wide hallway on this level connects with a
passage leading to other areas of the undercity. A couple
of areas on this floor have crumbled with the weight of
the ages, but the place retains its stately grandeur.
1";!8 CJl\l'lf.Rf lkl'\TIS<,\l>VENTUIHS
The bottom level might be a basement excavated in
the floor of a chasm, or it could hang above still more
open space like a giant stalactite. It includes living quar-
ters for the owners, servants, and guests.

GOLGARI VILLAINS

Examples of Golgari villains appear in the Golgari

Villains table.

GOLGARI VILLAINS

d8

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Villain

Armed with a powerful magic item found among

the dead in the undercity, a Golgari shaman (see

chapter 6 for the stat block) enacts a plan of re-

venge against another guild.

A kraut death priest (see chapter 6 for the stat

block) is seeking a way to revive the ancient gods

of Ravnica and destroy the world.

A Devkarin lich (see chapter (^6) for the stat block) is
capturing living subjects and infecting them with
an insidious, mind-controlling fungus.
A trophy-hunting undercity medusa (see chapter 6
for the stat block) is on a killing spree, petrifying
victims in interesting poses.
A Golgari shaman (see chapter 6 for the stat block)
is spreading a fungal infection that transforms its
dead victims into zombies.
An elf child lures citizens into the sewers, where a
monstrous "pet" is waiting to kill and eat them.
Pursuing a personal vendetta, an Ochran assassin
is targeting members of a certain guild and trying
to ensure that their bodies are never found.
A kraut death priest (see chapter 6 for the stat
block), angry at the way the Golgari have treated
the kraul in the past, is killing the elves and medu-
sas of the guild, hoping to eventually take Jarad's
place as guildmaster.
GOLGARI AS CAMPAIGN VILLAINS
Given their affinity for death, necromancy, and decay,
the Golgari make excellent villains. Because they con-
sider life and death as equal parts of the natural cycle,
they have no qualms about subjecting entire neighbor-
hoods to poisonous gas or strangling vines to achieve
their various goals. When a Golgari assassin goes on
a killing spree, when a patch of their vegetative growth
begins "reclaiming" an area that isn't yet abandoned, or
when their fungus-bearing zombies emerge from the un-
dercity to haunt the city streets, heroes are duty bound
to act against the threat.
The Golgari possess a combination of ambition and
ruthlessness that makes them extremely dangerous
adversaries. The tension among the various factions of
the swarm (the elves, the medusas, the krauJ, and the
rising erstwhile) adds an element of instability to the