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Vampire Den - Room One, Antechamber.
🕑 Added 2023-10-25 02:59:29 +0000 UTCOnce, an ancient library of the arcane kept its most valuable tomes in its basement level, where they were guarded heavily and allowed only to be read within the confines of the dark halls, and then, only under the closer supervision of an arcane master.
But time crumbles all things. Now the place is home to a vampire, dedicated to cracking the entombed library's secrets and herself becoming a master of the arcane and to ascend to the ominous height of a Vampire Lord.
This first room was the antechamber, once, where hopeful students waited to be escorted by a willing teacher into the depths. A modest, less forbidden library was maintained here, where students could brush up on lower aspects of the arcane while they waited. A glistering fountain bubbled on one wall while the emerald pillars that held the space up reminded all who sat here of the immense wealth and power required to keep such a space.
The north entrance goes back up into the main library, which is a ruin. Or maybe it isn't, when you put it into your setting.
East and West are blocked by portcullises, each of which can be opened or shut via cranks that require the strength of two people, now that they've rusted away for centuries. The west exit can be freely opened. When the place was alive, armed guards kept people from going west. In ruin, the western exits only defense mechanism is the rasping noise the portcullis makes as it raises.
The Eastern exit's wench is held down firmly by the roots of a plant, which has become semi-sapient after decades of growing in the leeching radiance of the arcane power of this place. The vines that hold the wench in place can be defeated, and don't move, but killing them causes the wench to become stuck, and requires successful strength checks from two people to force free. Failing to force the door open results in exhaustion. Succeeding cranks it upward, where it becomes jammed. Naturally, it creates a massive, wrenching sound when it does so.
The plant isn't holding the wench on purpose, though. It doesn't really have a purpose beyond growing toward light, if it can, and stretching its roots further into the pumps that once fed the fountain, whose drain it grows from. A savvy adventurer with a good relationship with plants, or even just the ability to talk with them, can help the plant latch to the bricks behind it and leave the wench alone. If they're persuasive enough, or have gifts befitting a magical plant, the vines might even crank the portcullis open.
Even the least keen-eyed explorers will note that they're not the first adventurers here. The vampire residing here has, within recent memory, made short work of another band of explorers. These explorers had made this room their base of operations, keeping their equipment here, as well as crates for hauling out the books they planned to take with them. Their expedition ended in disaster, and a few basic adventuring supplies remain unrotted within their cache. Additionally, the body of a slain adventurer lays nearby, clearly slain by his own weapon. The weapon isn't silvered, and a good medicine check will reveal that someone broke the weapon from the adventurer's hand in their last moments, implying that it wasn't much good against whoever slew them.
The books strewn from the case near the eastern fireplace are all tomes of magical history and theory. They're in usable condition, though severely mildewed, and are worth a collective 150g, once damage has been taken account. They weigh 77lbs (35kg), not including the weight of a crate to store them in.
The Vampire knows it is being tracked, incidentally, and has left a letter to the adventurers on the front desk. The envelope, though aged, is free of the dust and cobwebs that coat everything else. An appropriately ominous message lies within, one that is no doubt tailored to the specific party hunting this vampire. Also abandoned here is a golden statue of the Goddess of Magic, shorn from its base. The statue weighs 5 lbs and is worth about 200g to the right buyer, but it can be melted down into 100g of raw materials for those with less patience.
The vampire causes the brazier at the center of the room to ignite the moment she feels the warmth of life desecrate her library. This is meant as a warning. "Look what I can do, and I'm not even there." It's also, of course, to ensure that her message on the front desk isn't overlooked.
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I'll be adding rooms to this dungeon until I finish it. This is room one, in the bottom center of the overview map. Thanks for reading!
