The Infested Monastery 1.0
The Infested Monastery 1.0
The Infested
Monastery
“Insects, butterflies, moths - they are all living flowers. They are the most
subtle caresses, almost without touching.. They are all born of the sun and
the sun nourishes them.
This sunlike caress is the closest to me - take my 10th Sonata- it is an
entire sonata from insects.”
- Alexander Scriabin
he Talien Monastery was an ancient place that had Its long and storied history came to a brutal and abrupt
T existed for hundreds of years, once perched high in end when soldiers of House Ironpax marched in and put
the Talien mountain range. They worshiped the divine its inhabitants and contents to the sword and flame. The
sky whales, who are said to have once provided songs of monastery and all that it had housed were reduced to
enlightenment to mortals in the Archaic Age. northing more than rubble and memories.
The monks believed that the pursuit and care of Far from cold and empty, the Talien monastery now
knowledge was the noblest of goals for the noblest of swarms with new life and old secrets…
souls. Only the most dedicated and disciplined could find
initiation into the monastery; the isolation and cold
often proved too much for most to handle.
2
Hi! This is my very first submission to any sort of game jam, and my first real
attempt at making content that other people will see, aside from just my players
in my home game. Work got in the way, along with a very unhealthy amount of
scope-creep, so I didn’t exactly get to do everything I set out to do. But I did
have a lot of fun and I intend to continue to iterate on this initial rough
framework and make more in the future! Thank you, and I hope you enjoy! -
froggedmouth
3
Talien Monastery
The Gamemaster’s map is below. The players’ map is on page 19.
The hallways are dark and made of pale blue masonry. The scent of ash lingers. The sound of scurrying and
buzzing can be faintly made out.
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V. Torches Gutter.
VI. [Curiosity] A beetle warrior, lays dead, grasping a shortsword made out of chitin. He is bisected in two.
VIII. [Curiosity] Sound of hymns being read echo through the hall. No one seems to be here though.
XI. [Travel Event] A devious imp offers a choice: four rations, or he’ll visit the guild at camp.
XII. [Travel Event] Plant-life has exploded in growth here. Doorways and passages have been effectively blocked off.
XIII. [Travel Event] A web trap explodes with a bang, covering the first adventurer in marching order in web.
XIV. [Travel Event] Many giant wasp eggs are laid here. Disturbing them may cause them to hatch.
XV. [Travel Event] Webs cover this entire room, making it difficult to explore.
XVI. [Random Encounter] Raheal is here, spinning webs. He’ll run off when the party spots him.
XVIII. [Random Encounter] A giant centipede watches from up in the rafters. It will strike if it finds the guild
vulnerable.
XIX. [Random Encounter] A swarm of [discard pile] giant wasps hungrily patrol, looking for their next meal to be
taken to their nest.
XX. [Random Encounter] Larettaka is within this room, sharpening her claws.
XXI. [Quest Rumor] The guild finds a clue towards their current quest in the form of a scroll.
It’s here that the adventurers can find a map of the monastery, if they don’t
already have one.
202. Library
Many rows of scroll racks and bookshelves are displayed within the library.
Large, broken windows face out towards the east. Many of the scrolls and tomes
here have been damaged due to exposure to the elements. Some books have been
torn open, and the room has the slightest hint of the smell of smoke clinging to
the wood.
The guild can spend a watch here to search for undamaged books. Have an
adventurer draw a card:
• If the resulting card is a face card, the guild finds a book that has a hint
towards the secrets of the monastery.
• If the card is The Fool, the guild finds a book that provides some sort of hint
towards the guild’s current quest.
When stepped on with too much weight (a typical humanoid outfitted in metal
armor or anything troll-sized or bigger), the webbing will give way and the stairs
will collapse, causing a fall of 10’. This also activates a web rune hanging above,
releasing a Stinking Cloud over the stairs area.
205. Infirmary
The infirmary has three rather dilapidated beds and a cabinet of medical supplies.
These include four hermetic bottles, four poultices, and a single bundle of
Wolfsbane.
The cloister has been broken up into four “rooms” for ease of navigation. Each
of the corners features a statue of a hooded, beareded man, with his hand acting
as a candle sconce. The floor has intricate floral carvings.
207-A. features a small altar to an unknown god. Several unlit candles surround a
small carving of a mole (the animal). Around the altar, positioned like offerings,
are old dingy plates and rusted cutlery. If the party lights the candles, places a
ration on one of the plates, the ration will be mysteriously eaten by an invisible
entity. Whoever offered the ration will feel blessed (one resolve will be restored
for free and/or have good luck).
207-D.’s candle-man statue has his hand broken off, and a large crack through his
chest. He seems to be half-way turned around.
Closer examination reveals the ruins of stepping stones and raised gardens, now
fallen into disrepair.
Pouring different liquids into the tree’s basin causes different effects.
* Blood causes the tree to produce dark red fruits that are bitter to the taste and a
pale red mist covers the courtyard and the surrounding hallways.
* Water causes the tree to start growing leaves again. The roots shift slightly.
* Alcohol causes the tree to bear bright blue fruits that taste sweet and a light
blue mist envelops the courtyard and surrounding hallways. Anyone who breathes
in the mist is subject to the effects of the alcohol that was poured into the tree’s
basin.
*Purified or enchanted water causes the tree to blossom with yellow flowers. The
roots part, revealing a new passage deeper into the Underworld. Or treasure.
Whatever you want to put here.
A pair of giant centipedes have made their nest here. They’ve laid six eggs within
the central bathing basin. They’ll attack anyone who attempts to disturb them,
but they won’t pursue anyone, unless they abscond with one of their eggs.
Occasionally, one leaves through a tunnel to go hunting and bring back food. If
the top of the discard pile is a face card, there is only one centipede at first. If
combat happens, the second centipede will ambush from the rafters above in the
middle of the second round.
This room is infested with giant wasps. They use the opening in the southern part
of the room to fly out and terrorize the rest of the Underworld, carrying back
prey to their nest. The southern portion of the room is their nest, where they
store their eggs and whatever shiny bits that adventurers had on them before they
met their grisly fate.
211. Kitchen
The kitchen features several stoneware ovens, counters, and many hanging pots
and pans. A real loud ruckus can be made here if desired. The water storage and
food pantry have fallen into total disrepair, but this room is a good place to find
any cooking gear that the party may be missing. It’s infested with grubs, about the
size of human toddlers, who cannot speak but are non-hostile. They’re content
to eat the fungus and molds that grow in the cracks and crevices of the pantry.
Underneath the tapestry is a large ovular mirror, framed with polished obsidian.
A Path of Wands adventurer will be able to sense a presence within the mirror.
The mirror only reflects living beings; backgrounds appear as dark smoke.
The mirror is embedded into the wall. In order to reach the secret room, outlined
in red, one must break shatter the mirror. Upon shattering the mirror, the room
will flood with dark, swirling smoke. Take note of which adventurer broke the
mirror. A shadow copy of them forms and slinks off into the monastery. The
shadow has the same stats as the adventurer, along with their accumulated
knowledge at the time of the shattering. They appear as a mass of smoke, in the
shape of the adventurer, with two glowing, purple diamonds for eyes. Their goal
is to impede the progress towards the party’s current quest.
In the secret chamber, a golden devil idol (two slots, worth 100 gold) sits on a
pedestal, grinning at the party. The room is filled with shelves of decayed scrolls,
many of which appear to be older than the monastery itself. Those that have not
decayed to the point of being illegible contain secrets regarding demonic
summons and banishment. In order to preserve them, they’ll need to be handled
with care and transport will require the use of specialized scroll cases. Each scroll
would be very valuable to collectors or enterprising demonologists.
Many pews are sliced in two; cut-down webs litter the area and hang from the
rafters. Battle damage can be seen everywhere.
If the two amulets of the Abbot and the Prior are combined, they fit perfectly
into the high altar’s tree. With grease or a successful test of Swords, the two sky
whale carvings can be turned upside-down, opening a secret compartment in the
altar. This secret compartment holds a mummified right hand adorned with rings
and stitched with gold thread. This hand belongs to Saint Manus and was
considered a lost, sacred relic. It is worth a great deal of gold, as well as having
innate magical properties.
The Grand Hall serves as the lair of the dungeon lord Larettaka the Praying
Mantis. She nests at the high altar, where she awaits her next battle with the man-
spider in 218. She patrols around the monastery, but is always found here when
the top card of the discard pile is Cups.
Holding the hymn up to the mirror and reciting it backwards causes the eastern
wall of the room to open up, revealing a secret area. The smell of dried blood is
strong here. A row of five cells are lined up along the northern edge of the room.
Scratch marks are all over the brickwork. Manacles and chains are hung up along
the southern wall. Bones are strewn about the room. Rusted cell doors are torn
off their hinges.
A pair of horned, mutated skeletons rattle around in the room, happy to be free
and happy to attack the living.
An aged skeleton lay in the first cell, unmoving. Teeth marks cover their old
bones. A skeleton wearing robes is strangled by a chain, choked up against the
bars of the second cell. This is the corpse of the prior of the monastery and on
their body is a finely crafted brass key to 222.
Raheal seeks heretical power that he believes is hidden here. He is more than
willing to help a party of adventurers if they help him as well, either through
defeating the dungeon lord Larettaka the Praying Mantis or bringing him the
Scepter of Ruby Manus. See more on Raheal in the Bestiary.
Should the adventurers attempt to traverse through this room, they will be faced
with the guardian of the scriptorium: the inkwell ooze. Squelching between the
cracks in the stonework, the inkwell ooze looks like a mass of pitch black fluid.
The inkwell ooze uses the same statblock as a slime, as it is a slime that’s basically
been dyed black.
Defeating the inkwell ooze will cause it to dissolve, leaving behind 100 gold coins
and the tattered remnants of several manuscripts; while the actual pages have
been permanently ruined, the gold leaf remains and may be sold for 40-50 gold.
The tower’s interior looks relatively untouched, albeit with a heavy layer of dust
coating every surface. Everything is fairly well-organized, nearly everything is in
its own place. Here, one can find journals that detail the prior’s schemes against
the abbot of the monastery. The prior sought knowledge of everything,
including things considered to be too dangerous, such as demonology. In secret,
the prior conducted experiments with darker beings from the Far Realms. He
intended to kill the abbot and claim the Hand of Saint Manus for himself;
however, he was killed by his own prisoners before he could do so.
Here, three beetle knights sit in chittering discussion. They wield chitinous blades
and prod at the southern wall. When first encountered, they have a disposition of
“Surprise”, as they weren’t expecting to find “such soft beings in these depths”.
Only their leader, Sir Edamond the Relenting, speaks in Vulgaris, although he
does mix in some words of Chivalric. Depending on how the guild handles
themselves, Sir Edamond may be willing to make an alliance with the guild,
although he will only put his blade behind someone who can defeat him in an
“honorable duel”.
The southern wall, when whacked or poked, sounds hollow. Etched into the
stone wall is a carving of a hand in a 9 inch diameter circle. If Portable Hole is cast
here, it reveals a secret compartment in the wall with a lever. Pulling the lever will
reveal an entrance to the hidden room. Alternatively, brute force or careful,
timely deconstruction of the wall will do much the same, although the loud noise
is sure to attract something dangerous. Pull twice on the Meatgrinder; if a
random encounter is pulled, the guild must contend with them.
The hidden vault holds a number of treasures. A shelf holds hermetic bottles with
various demonic body parts (tongue of a gluttony devil, eye of an envy devil,
etc.). A display case has four gold rings carved with symbols of power, each of
which sells for 40 gold apiece. At the end of the room, a spear carved from the
ivory of a sky whale, adorned with its ancient feathers.
In the eastern prayer room, a meditation cushion sits at the center. Carved into
the eastern wall are prayer incantations written in Tylwyth. A translation into
Vetus is carved below. It is titled “Whale-song”. A wardrobe is filled with
religious vestments. A slight draft can be felt when reaching into the wardrobe. It
has a false back, which when pushed through, a secret passageway is found. The
first room has an extremely heavy and ornately carved iron hatch. Its opening
mechanism is exposed, and one of its gears is missing. The second room is an
armory and storehouse with steel weapons and armor. A tinker’s kit and other
camping supplies can be found here. Most items seem unused.
The western prayer room is very bare. The northern wall is carved with prayer
incantations in Vetus, titled “Ruminations on Wind-fins”. The bottom part of
the wall has several horizontal lines. A prayer rug is the only other thing in the
room, at first glance. Under the rug is a trapdoor. In the small compartment is a
jar of red ink and a brush. Translating and writing the “Ruminations on Wind-
fins” into Tylwyth will create a magical entrance into a secret room.
The secret room is illuminated by a red light. Candles eternally burn with a red
flame. At the end of the room is, imprisoned by silver chains and encircled by
sigils, is the Scepter of Ruby Manus. This magical item allows one to bind a
demonic spirit into service. It is flanked by two horned statues. If the scepter is
taken, the room is sealed shut and the two statues become Animate Statues and
will attack. Killing a statue summons two hostile imps. Defeating all enemies will
unseal the door.
When inside, much of the upper level of the tower has collapsed into itself.
Crushed under the rubble is the remains of Chamberlain Carriador. He is
nothing more than a desiccated torso and a head. Yet somehow, some semblance
of false life still exists within him. His empty eye sockets hold two glowing red
orbs and his mouth makes raspy, hoarse noises. Pouring water or wine into his
mouth will cause him to cough and sputter and eventually speak. Carriador will
give rumors and hints about the different secret rooms, in exchange for eccentric
tasks (“put on a play for me”, “deep clean the dining hall”, “teach me something
I don’t know”, etc.). Carriador must be carried with both hands.
Larettaka is a giant praying mantis paladin from the insect kingdom. Larettaka and a small contingent of
beetle knights traveled to the monastery to slay the wizard Raheal and claim the site for her liege. However,
in the first encounter with Raheal, she was cursed with a terrible madness that reverted her to a more primal
state: an apex predator. Now, she stalks the halls of the monastery, slaying former friend and current foe
alike.
CLAWS
Health/Defense: 4/6
Notes
* Reaching Strike. Larettaka, with her long claws, can strike her foes one zone away.
Lesser dooms
* Apex Predator. When making the Attack action, Larettaka can target two adventurers if they are in the
same zone.
Greater dooms
* Divine Smite. When Larettaka Attacks, discard a greater doom card to attempt to smite them. If successful,
deal two wounds and Blind them.
HEAD
Health/Defense: 4/2
Notes
*Weakpoint. If Larettaka’s head is destroyed, she dies. Larettaka’s head cannot be damaged unless her
Abdomen is destroyed.
ABDOMEN
Health/Defense: 5/9
Lesser Dooms
* Leap and Lunge. Play a lesser doom card and compare its value to the Initiative of each character engaged
with Larettaka. She leaps to an adjacent zone, without provoking any attacks. Characters she succeeds against
are inflicted with the Trip effect.
* Aura of Protection. If an adventurer fails to hit Larettaka’s Initiative, Larettaka may immediately play a
card to make any standard Challenge Action against that adventurer. This action does not count towards the
one card per turn limit.
Greater Dooms
* In Shining Armor. Larettaka’s armor is magically enchanted. Once per round, discard a greater doom card
Raheal is a master sorcerer and fearsome enemy of the insect kingdom. He has a hairy, bearded face and the body of a
large spider. He’s about three and a half feet tall. Despite being a master wizard, he prefers to avoid direct combat,
instead setting up traps and contingency plans. Raheal will flee if attacked, unless he has already prepared the
battlefield with tricks; in that case, Raheal will be very cocky.
Likes: The Sound of His Own Voice, Suspending Things in Webs, Subordination to Him
Lesser Dooms
* Wall Crawling. Raheal can effortlessly climb on walls. If Raheal Moves onto a wall, it can avoid the adventurers and
leave the area (unless the adventurers have some way to keep up).
Greater Dooms
* Web. When Raheal Attacks, discard a greater doom card to cast a web on a single target. If successful, the Attack
target is completely deals no damage but the wrapped in webs. They can free one limb at a time using the Recover
action and are Rooted until all limbs have been freed.
* Spider Wizard. If the zone Raheal is in is covered in webs, he can cast any spells from Appendix A’s Wastes and
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