16. Escape Route and Treasure Room

The secret door leading to this cham ber is concealed by the wine rack in Kaltek 's kitchen. When the neck of one of the cheaper bottles is pushed sharply up ward, the entire section of wall swings away. It can be opened only from the apartment, though a knock from the other side is audible to one within the apartment itself.

Kaltek keeps this chamber as a carefully guarded secret. though he will pass it along to his successor as warden if circumstances allow. It has been a part of the prison for more than a century, constructed after a warden perished during a prisoner riot. Now, if all else fails and the prisoners run amok throughout the building and enter his apartment, Kaltek and Kimi will escape via this tunnel.

The room is literally seething with gi ant rats, 250 or more of them. Kaltek gives them enough food to keep them alive, but just barely. Consequently, they are half starved and attack anyone enter ing the chamber with extra savagery.

Giant Rats: AC 7; MV 12, Sw 6; HD 1/2; hp 3; THACO 20; #AT l; Dmg 1d3

The warden has perfected a means of protecting himself from the rats, however. One of the bottles of cologne upon his vanity contains a rancid, foul-smelling oil. He has taught the rats, through painful example. that this smell is associated with fire and death. By smearing himself and Kimi with the stuff, they can enter the room without fear of the rats. In fact. the rodents will flee in a cowering mass before him.

The secret door leading into the actual tunnel beyond the prison is simply a loose pile of earth. It takes 1d6 + 10 rounds of digging with a knife or trowel to get through.