Caves of the Slime Lord

The catacomb and passage system here is shown on Map 16 on Mapsheet 3. This is a dangerous and bleak place. It is the site of a long-abandoned temple to Zuggtmoy and is home to all manner of slimes, Oozes, puddings, and such horrors. A pair of desperate renegades is also hiding out here. A Rakshasa Ruhk has fled here to escape the rakshasa hunters pursuing it (see the description earlier in this chapter of the Hook Horror's leader for one such pursuer). Threatened and desperate, the Rakshasa Ruhk will see the PCs as a source of magical items it might be able to take and use to protect itself and make a final escape. It is a dangerous enemy indeed. The other occupant trapped in these caves is a human wizard, Kranin. He escaped from his Illithid guards along the long passageway to the City of the Glass Pool and botched a Teleport spell while frantically fleeing his pursuers. Kranin survives because he managed to recover his regenerating scroll (see below), enabling him to summon monsters and bring invisible stalkers to serve him; thus, he has managed to fend off the hazards of the caves to date. Unfortunately, Kranin is paranoid at the best of times, which these definitely aren't. When he discovers PCs in his area, he'll be desperate to take all the magic he can from them, hoping against hope that he might find a spellbook on a PC wizard with the longed-for teleport spell, or maybe wings of flying, or anything to get him out of here fast. He might end up negotiating, but he'll certainly try to bludgeon the PCs into submission as a first option.

The cave system here has both irregular (natural) and worked, smoothed areas. The latter are wholly different to those in the preceding section (that is, those shown on Map 15). The surfaces of these smoothed areas are rippled and fluted and seem always to be mildly slimy to the touch; The point marked X3 on Map 16 is a wall of stone that looks exactly like the surrounding rock but is not slimy to the touch; the wizard Kranin sealed the original 5ft. x 6ft. x 8ft. entrance between area 1 and area 5 to keep the Rakshasa Ruhk in area 7 at bay. Ceiling height varies from 10 to 30 feet unless otherwise noted, and (of course) the entire area is pitch dark.