You are the angry mob and you have had enough of that wizard in his tower. No more shall the village of Vestok tolerate living in the shadow of that necromancer in the swamps. You’ve grabbed torches, sharpened the farming implements, and stocked up on bravado.
The Tower Entrance: The swamp around the tower is mundane. Creepy, but mundane. It has fetid water, slime, mud, deep mud, dark mud, more mud, trees in various states of alive, further mud, and a lingering mist that never really seems to go away. The tower is a stone and mortar structure with a round 10 metre diameter shape. There appears to be windows on each floor, pointing in the cardinal directions. The ground floor has partially sunk below water level and the wooden door has rotted apart. A pair of fist sized gargoyles sit atop the mantle over the open doorway. They challenged those who approach the door but in a long dead language. They quickly grow frustrated at any attempts at communication and, lacking any mobility, weapons, or magics, will resort to loudly insulting the physical appearance of all they can see. They have no armour and can be considered effectively physically defenseless.
A Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure for many level zero characters or a small party of experienced adventurers up to level 4.
Ground Floor: Inside, the ground floor is flooded with a metre of murky water. The walls are stained with water lines. Some bits of wood that were once furniture float and bob in the water and they could perhaps still float with an adult stood atop of them. A spiral staircase ascends along the northern wall. From the mouldy gunk under the stairs a march toad watches the party with bright purple eyes. If anyone makes the mistake of getting within 3 metres of it, it will lash out with its toxic tongue and then dive into the water.
Oversized March Toad: Init +0, Atk Tongue Lash +2 (1d2), AC 10, HP: 10, MV 4, Act 1d20, SV Fort +2, Ref -2 Will -2, AL Chaotic Special: On being hit a character must make a DC 15 fortitude saving test or be afflicted with March Toad Toxin, which does 1 damage to intelligence for each dose. March Toads are native throughout this land, but this one is abnormally large. This 5 kg amphibian has bright purple eyes and a dark green mottled skin that make it very difficult to spot amongst the gunk and in the water. It has no interest in a fair fight and strikes from ambush with a toxic tongue. It will attempt to poison all of the party and then retreat to lurk in the water, to wait for the toxin to do its work. If reduced to less than half health, it will attempt to flee out of the tower doorway.
First Floor: The air on this floor is damp and kept that way by a pair of misters that continually puff water into the air. 12 strips of copper have been mounted in a wide circle on the floor and they are hot to the touch, keeping the room at pleasant warmth. The stone pots and wall planters are filled to bursting with mushrooms and moulds. There are dozens of different mushrooms but only 4 different colours of mould. All of the fungi and moulds are toxic (DC 10 vs -1 Con for 3 days), but that bright glowing blue mushroom kills instantly (DC20 vs death) as soon as it is touched. A spiral staircase ascends along the southern wall.
Second Floor: The east and west walls of this floor are stacked to the ceiling with corpses on thin metal shelves. An aura of deep cold surrounds the shelves, keeping the corpses well below freezing. Half of them are humanoid, the rest are animals found in or nearby the swamp. One of the corpses is a relative of a party member, who went missing only last week. In the centre of the room is a surgical slab surrounded by drains that feed any liquid to the fungus below. Lying on the slab is a cut open body of an old male elf, but the head has been replaced with a dog’s. The lower legs are turning into wood, slowly enough that you have to stare closely to see the bark replaced skin. A jeweled scalpel made of a green metal juts upright from where it has been stuck into the exposed heart. It functions as a dagger with coagulation enchantment if wielded as a weapon. The set of glowing crystals set into the ceiling provide a cold blue light. A spiral staircase ascends along the northern wall.
Third Floor: Apart from a small gap connecting the staircases, this floor is filled with storage. Along the walls are cupboards and the floor has dozens of chests and crates. Amongst the stored items are – the bones of various creatures, mundane crystals, surgical supplies, dried foods, laboratory glassware, unused stationery, hunting equipment, blank runestones, disassembled furniture, crockery, a broken astrolabe, nautical navigation equipment, a drum kit, mundane magical supplies, and 117 jars of pickled butterflies. Two chests and one of the cupboards are locked. Chest A is precisely in the middle of the room and requires a DC 10 lockpicking test to open. The attached trap is a simple mister that sprays Marsh Toad Toxin into the air if not disarmed with a DC 10 skill check. The chest contains spider food. Chest B is stacked under several others in a pile and is secured with a high quality magical seal that must be dispelled DC 15 dispel magic spell. Attempts to otherwise open the chest, including spells, are met with a bolt of black light that reduces what it hits to 1:4 scale those that fail a DC20 stamina check. The spell lasts for 3 hours. Inside the chest are coins worth 200 GP and details of a bank account in a far distant city. Cupboard C is on the western wall and is made of a deep red wood with silver trim. It is not locked, but if it is opened by someone who is curious about its contents it contains only a mirror that shows the viewer what they hate most about their own appearance. Otherwise, it contains a dozen balls of crackling plasma. Four pale crystals provide a gentle light for the room. A spiral staircase ascends along the southern wall.
Fourth Floor: This floor has a rich forest green carpet that is warm to the touch. In the centre of the room is a writing desk, a drawing table, and a rune crafting workbench arranged in a C shape with a chair on wheels in the middle. On the writing desk is a notebook with only the first page partially filled with awful handwriting detailing the experiment on the slab downstairs. The drawing table has partially completed drawings of a magic circle. The workshop bench has a set of precision tools and an incomplete bronze bracer that has slots for three magic wands. Ceiling high bookshelves fill the rest of the space, creating two rings around the desks. A complex candelabra of crystals hangs from the ceiling and it seems to provide both diffuse light and spotlights for the working area. The bookshelves contain at least 548 books on a wide variety of subjects, but almost all of them are mundane. The indexing scheme is written in runica arachnia. The more recently disturbed book shelves have texts on surgery, bio-weaving, enervation, and necromancy. There are also 5 magic scrolls (determined by random roll) and map of the nearest city that shows a network of hidden tunnels. One of the bookshelves has a display cabinet section that contains three wands (determined at random) that each only have one charge left. A spiral staircase ascends along the northern wall. Once the party has spent five minutes in the study, a giant spider emerges from its lair in a hole in the ceiling. It politely asks them to leave in an educated voice with a thick arachnia accent. If the party responds with any other action than leaving the room (down, or up), it will politely attack them.
The Spider Librarian: Init +5, Atk Metal Tips +2 (1d4), AC 11, HP: 8, MV 10, Act 1d20, SV Fort +3, Ref +4 Will -4, AL Lawful. Its body is a metre long with legs extending a further 2 metres. It has a dark blue colouring and each of its eight eyes has been replaced with a different coloured gemstone (10gp). It is relentlessly aggressive in battle, focusing all its attacks on the smallest living opponent. It lacks any venom, but uses its speed to skirmish and strike with metal tipped fangs
Fifth Floor: The fifth floor is laid out as a studio apartment, dominated by a vast and luxurious bed at the centre. The four windows on this floor are larger than they appeared on the outside and offer views of a beach in fog, a city skyline, a smoking mountain, and an abyssal sea floor. Beside the bed is a night stand with reading glasses and a pale green light crystal. There’s a wardrobe filled with fashionable wizarding apparel and a small toilet behind an ornate wooden screen. The west side is a small kitchenette, underneath which is a metal box of permanent frost filled with craft beers and cheeses. Above the bed is a portrait of a very handsome wizard in a black magic hat. Anyone looking at the portrait must make a DC15 [[willpower]] check or find themselves lost in the portrait’s manly eyes. For each minute a person is enchanted by the portrait, it absorbs 1 HP. For each HP the portrait absorbs, its quality increases and the subject becomes more manly and more handsome. Sleeping quietly on a rug next to the bed, is the rest of the dog from the second floor. It now has a viper’s head and a long viper’s tail. The collar informs that its name is Flutter and it will awake at the smallest vibration within 4 metres. A spiral staircase ascends along the southern wall.
Flutter: Init +2, Atk Bite -1 (1d6), AC 5, HP: 10, MV 5, Act 1d10, SV Fort -2, Ref +2 Will -2, AL Good Dog. It goes hisswoof and is very friendly. It is a good dog-snake-thing. If attacked, it whines and runs away.
The Roof Garden
The roof of the tower has a set of wooden planters which are filled with fruit bushes and herbs. Wranock the Wizard is either gardening or stargazing with a telescope, depending on when the party reaches the roof. He’s also listening to loud music coming from an enchanted horn and has thus not heard or noticed anything that has gone on below. He cares not for the party’s petty concerns about morality or their tiresome complaints about his actions. He will insist that as the superior being he is above such concerns. Should the party press the issue, he will become increasingly insulted until provoked to offer 100 gold each to go away. Recalcitrant party members are teleported 500 miles to the west. GM Note – use the teleport if kicking off an adventure. A boss fight works better for one shot.
Wranock The Wizard: Init +4, Atk Punch +1 (1d4), AC 15, HP: 30, MV 5, Act 1d20, SV Fort -2, Ref +2 Will +10, AL Lawful. 1.8 metres tall with dark green eyes, he’s unsettling handsome with a roguish smile. He’s wearing what passes for modern robe fashion amongst magic users. He casts spells with a +7 bonus and has access to magic missile, choking cloud, read magic, comprehend languages, and his personal favourite – charm person.
Image Credits: The Battle Unfolds by Michael – CC-BY-2.0, Stone Staircase by Intricate Explorer on Unsplash