This week, I've finished up two more sections of the Ruined Monastery of St Amruss. I wrote the last descriptions of the kitchen area and wrote up the three rooms that make up the upper entrance to the great library beneath.
I also started writing Moments and Liminal Questions which I'll continue to work on for this site as well as the other sites I write for Dungeon23. These are a pair of ideas that come from Jason Cordova's Brindlewood Bay.
Moments are like mini-scenes that a GM can use to reinforce the atmosphere or engage the players between activities, encounters, or locations. Here are the first three for the ruins:
Scritching noises in the walls give away the presence of rats crawling around out of sight.
A hand-sized spider clings to the ceiling in a corner of the room, light glitters as it reflects in its eyes.
A gust of wind swirls through the room, whipping up paper, leaves, and other trash from the floor.
Liminal Questions are a form of Paint The Scene question used when the PCs are passing from one section of a dungeon to another. Here are the ones I've written so far. (I'm sure I'll be revisiting these to improve them, but I think they're a good start.)
Rooms 3 & 6 - MAGULIN are the embodiment of spirits of guile, deceit, and trickery. They appear as twisted humans with enlarged, toothy maws; pointy ears; and plain, white eyes. Short tufts of thick hair stand out in clumps from their warty, grey skin. You are entering an area inhabited by these creatures. What is different about this room that lets you know MAGULIN are nearby.
Room 11 - As you enter into an open hallway that surrounds an overgrown garden, what do you sense that reveals a deep corruption of the garden and the plants growing there?
Rooms 19-21 - The outer library was once a gateway to the collected rumors and knowledge of the Land of Ten-Thousand Thousand Shrines. Now, its looted entrance lies empty before you. What stories do you remember that make you believe there is a priceless store of knowledge still hidden in the vaults below?
And, here are the descriptions of these two areas. (Rooms 12, 14, 17, and 18 were posted last week.)
11 Garden Hall
A 10' wide covered walkway surrounds the monestary garden. A plinth stands in each corner of the hallway. Deep gouges along the floor show something heavy was dragged away from the plinths and into the garden itself.
12 Outer Kitchen
Large kitchen tables are overturned, thick wooden tops facing the north doorway. The wooden slabs are marred with deep gashes. Smashed crockery and simple tableware litter the floor.
A skeleton, missing the skull lies in front of one of the tables. A POLTERGEIST haunts the room hurling debris at anyone entering and muttering or wailing indecipherable words.
If the skull in the Dining Hall and the skeleton are appropriately laid to rest, the POLTERGEIST will be appeased and show their benefactor the hidden silver place setting in the Dry Pantry
13 Inner Kitchen
Sturdy tables are pushed up against each wall. A pair of dry sinks are set into the northern tables.
An empty key hook hangs on the wall next to the eastern door, a splintered bucket and pile of trash lie on the ground beneath it.
Hidden beneath the pile is a ring with 6 keys on it. (The keys open the doors to the Abbott's Sanctum and the Gardeners Shed)
14 Dry Pantry
Shelves line the walls of this room, broken pottery sits on the shelves. Some has fallen off onto the floor.
A musty, rotten smell fills the room. Mice and insects crawl over and through the detritus.
There is a secret panel behind a pile of broken pottery shards. It conceals a small compartment.
The nook contains a finely made, full place setting in silver, including a wine jug, goblet, charger, and plate.
15 Drying Room
Shelves sag from the walls and hooks hang from the ceiling.
Loud buzzing fills the room. Wasp nests cling to the underside of the rotting wooden shelving.
If disturbed a stinging cloud of WASPS will swarm the offenders.
16 Well Entry
A small room, coat hooks are on the wall. An overturned boot rack sits beneath them.
The outer door lies, splintered, on the floor, burst from its hinges when invaders struck.
A forgotten boot is tossed in the corner. Hidden inside is a carved-stone amulet, bearing the likeness of Saint Amruss.
17 Well
The well is solidly constructed and still has clean water at the bottom, though there is neither rope nor bucket with which to draw it.
Vines have overgrown the shaft, hanging down some 20' along the walls. A silver holy symbol can be seen glittering on a ledge about 15' down.
A VENOMOUS WATERSNAKE hides in a hole in the wall just above the ledge. It can easily climb the vines and hunts small animals in the area.
It will not attack, except to defend itself from anything drawing too close to its lair. The snake wants to be left alone.
The shaft of the well gives access to the crypt.
18 Dining Hall
A pair of large tables run nearly the length of this room. Broken pottery plates, bowls, and mugs are set out as though for a meal, but any food in them has long since rotted away. A human skull lies on a wooden carving plate at the head of one table. This belongs to the POLTERGEIST in the outer kitchen
19 Library Outer Entrance
The frescoed walls of this room show people in robes carrying books and scrolls up and down stairs and through torchlit hallways.
A sturdy standing desk stands a few feet in front of the north wall. Its front and sides are solid wood from the floor to the top. They form a 6" high rim around the desktop.
Looking behind the desk reveals four drawers on the right and left side. They are empty.
If the bottom-right drawer is removed, a small niche can be seen in the floor beneath it. The space contains an ornate brass key, the bow is in the shape of a book.
20 Library Outer Reading Room
A large table surrounded by eight broken chairs. Small, ink-stained depressions run down the center of each table.
Frescoes show people sitting at the table reading and writing. Candle holders line the walls.
Four SKELETONS in frayed robes stand, at the corners of the table.
They will animate, pick up chair legs (treat as clubs), and attack if anyone attempts to damage anything in the room, attack them, or go down the stairs into the library proper.
21 Outer Librarian's Office
A simple-looking desk sits against the wall, beneath a set of broken shelves.
The frames of bookcases stand against the wall behind it, their shelves ripped out and tossed to the floor.
In the center of the room a charred skeleton lies in the center of a pile of ash and the burnt spines of books. The ceiling above is stained with soot.
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