The Paradigm

Threshold Tomb

Tome Shield Potion, THRESHOLD TOMB, LORESHADE -- The massive door is carved into the gray granite base of a towering peak. The amoral wizard, executed for crimes committed but denied access to the Ever-after, reads the oneiriscrit signs etched into its face, of which there are three. The first is the sign for “portal”. The second is interpreted as “at” or “from”. And the third sign, in this context, is rendered as “death”. Ferah, the amoral, the revenant, opens the door....

An Auspicious Gambit

Moat Apparatus Potion, ARCHITRAVE--Einkil and Rhogar are invited by Horace and Mythrine, patrons of the Door, Monster..., to play cards at their table. Between rounds of Three-Dragon Ante, the pair of retired adventurers tells them of a legendary tome of mysterious provenance and cryptic contents known as The Deep Delver's Guide to the Undercity.

Angus the War Troll

Moat Apparatus Potion, ARCHITRAVE--To the amazement of the patrons of the Door, Monster..., the party goes seven rounds with Angus the war troll.

The Door, Monster...

Sword Helm Potion, ARCHITRAVE--Members of the Company of the Roaring Moon Crescent emerge from the Door, Monster... where they passed a restful night. On the Street of Tomb Robbers outside the inn, Einkil checks his pack for the letter the company is to deliver this morning and finds it missing. Just then, in an empty window frame of a weathered ruin across the street, Kirby appears. The imp had gone missing the previous evening and now it beckons to Ella of the Watchers. "Master Eregeth wants to see you," it announces through its tiny pointed teeth....

Later, the imprudent wizardess lays half-conscious in the bottom of a shallow craft that floats down a dark river. An oily rain of fire sizzles on the surface of the water, and the cowled boatman poles the skiff with skeletal hands.

Image (right): Kirby revels in the fruits of its machinations, while Ella confronts the spined devil Eregeth in the first hell of Avernus.

Fallen in the Tomb of ΖΑΚΡΟΣ

Dagger Helm Potion, ARCHITRAVE--Bodies of treasure seekers lay amid the fragments of grave goods left behind by long-dead plunderers and among certain treasures of a more recently deceased purple dragon. A heavily armored demon, severely wounded and exhausted, extends its improbably long tongue to pull another of their warm corpses to its toothy maw. A short, sudden series of dull thuds echo in the chamber, and several steel-headed quarrels protrude from the demon's flesh, exposed from earlier blows. Its legs crumple beneath it as it regurgitates its last morsel.

Ryth-caex, servant of Lunroarer and rightful heir to her treasure, steps quietly into the chamber. The purple winged drow examines the body of the demon and, in their turn, those of the adventurers who thought to steal his inheritance. Satisfied, he makes a hand motion in the direction of the door, and several other drow enter. Without a word or any other sound, they collect the treasure in swift expedience and depart, leaving only still darkness behind.

Chamber of Carnage

Dagger Helm Potion, ARCHITRAVE--Still between the steep canyon walls of the Narrows, the party comes upon a small swarm of large beetles clamoring to enter a stone-worked air duct from which wafts a charnel odor. Squeezing through the constricted tunnel, they arrive at the source of the stench.

Ettercap Cavern

Moat Helm Potion, ARCHITRAVE--Following the more difficult path through the Narrows, the party is set upon by a barlgura, favored demon of the Prince of Demons, himself. After defeating the menace, they continue on into a web-strewn lair of ettercaps.

Scions of Lunroarer

Apparatus Helm Potion, ARCHITRAVE--From the corpse of a slain elf, the party recovers an amulet that seems to indicate the direction of an object. Following it, they cross paths with a pair of purple wyrmlings, Hammerfell and Sicklemaul, who impede their progress.

Dungeons of Architrave

Lost burial chambers in the winding catacombs of the Narrows where the gold of a dead dragon's treasure reflects only darkness. A sunken palace deep below the tranquil surface of Lake Wandermere where a council of fishes presides over an aquatic realm. Cluttered cellar warrens beneath the Any Dragon Inn where a magic portal takes one to unknown lands. Cyclopean temples, their altars to long dead gods befouled and corrupted, await discovery in silent caverns hidden from light and from time.... These are Dungeons of Architrave.

"Dungeons of Architrave" is a heroic tier serial of the Delver Down! WIZARDscape venue.

To see all posts concerning this serial, go to the category Dungeons of Architrave.

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THE PARADIGM