Apprentice Island
A low wooden bridge spans a watery gap between the larger island and a smaller one. A single-story building sits amid the thick reeds growing on the smaller island.The building on this islet originally served as the home of Dretha’s apprentice, a Drow named Vaidun Magmenor. Vaidun no longer lives here, but he still serves Dretha in the chambers deep below, having transcended from the limitations of his humanoid form to become a Worm That Walks.
Architecture
Muckytoes
This study features several bookshelves, a desk, and two chairs. The books and objects here lie in disarray with torn pages strewn haphazardly cross the room. Vaidun once pursued his studies and met with Dretha for lessons in this room. Today, a mischievous Brownie named Muckytoes —a puckish fey whose blonde hair stays in a constant state of frizzy disarray on his head—occupies this chamber. Despite his comical appearance, Muckytoes fancies himself something of a spooky sort of fey. He claims to be a dangerous “wispy-ghost” named “Spookywisp.” . Muckytoes arrived here only a few days ago, but he made short work ripping through the room’s contents before finding nothing of interest here. He moved on toward the Lens Workshop; there, the shiny spyglass entranced him before the Soulbound Doll that guarded it chased him off. Faced with an actually scary creature, Muckytoes retreated to this room to plot methods of securing the “shiny” for himself. The heroes gave him that method.Muckytoes arrived here only a few days ago, but he made short work ripping through the room’s contents before finding nothing of interest here. He moved on toward the Lens Workshop; there, the shiny spyglass entranced him before the Soulbound Doll that guarded it chased him off. Faced with an actually scary creature, Muckytoes retreated to this room to plot methods of securing the “shiny” for himself. The heroes gave him that method.
Repair Storage
Shelves laden with tools, lumber, and planks line the walls of this 10-foot-square room.These supplies were used for upkeep throughout the upper works of the Fen Watchtower. Vaidun formerly functioned as a groundskeeper and managed repairs, and he often called upon Dretha’s other servants as needed for these jobs. Stairwell Moss and fungus coats these stairs, which lead down to the next Level. From the state of the growth, clearly, no one has gone this way for a long time.
Hall of Portraits
A series of four tall paintings hang on the northwestern wall of this hallway, although layers of mold and decay have severely damaged them.The 5-foot-tall paintings along the wall have sustained irrevocable damage over time and due to moisture dripping down from leaks in the roof above. The first portrait depicts the city of Uzrush in flames with ghosts rising from its streets. It bears a bronze plaque that reads, “So Shall the Fools Suffer.”
The second portrait depicts the Fen Watchtower as it appeared before its upper floors collapsed, and its lighthouse emitting a pale blue light in which ghostly faces sneer and grimace. Its bronze plaque reads, “Let the Light Shine Forever.”
The third portrait, now shredded its plaque reads, “The Artist at Work.”
The fourth and final portrait depicts a smirking woman dressed in a long, green gown—an image of Dretha herself. Its plaque reads, “The Lady of the Light.” Long ago, Volluk scratched the following sentences, written in Aklo, into the stone next to this last painting: “I serve you still! You shall be avenged!”
Lens Workshop
This once elegant workshop has fallen into shambles. Soggy strings of dripping moss hang through cracks in the wooden domed roof above. Below it, a carpet of broken glass glitters dangerously. Workbenches and shelves, armatures and displays—all formerly used in crafting or repairing immense lenses for the Watchtower—lie in ruins. Only a bejeweled spyglass sitting on a display rack near the southern wall has survived the devastation.Vaidun caused most of this destruction. After Dretha’s death, he hid in the swamp while he waited for the Founder's to leave. When he returned, he was filled with such guilt over his cowardice that he destroyed this workshop in a fit of fury. The layer of broken glass and shattered materials covering the floor makes it uneven ground with an Acrobatics DC of 11. A creature who falls prone in this room takes 1 piercing damage. Vaidun created several constructs to aid him and his mistress in their day-to-day jobs, but the raven-headed, raven-winged Soulbound Doll he called Mister Beak was his favorite. Neither the most powerful nor the most helpful, Mister Beak held the soul of his devoted servant, a goblin named Borbo, a fact that ensured the construct’s place at Vaidun’s side. Mister Beak remained abandoned here, waiting forever for a creator who moved on to other tasks and an entirely new body. Mister Beak didn't lose hope, and when the Salty Crackers arrived, he stood up from the slumped mound in the room’s center and asked in a warbling voice, “Is Master Magmenor coming back?” Attacking the band until he was destroyed.
Old Pier
This old wooden pier has partially collapsed into the swamp, and the portion remaining above water looks ready to follow the rest at the slightest touch.The pier is just as dangerous as it looks; anyone stepping onto it causes the entire pier to give way and fall into the 3 feet of water beneath it. The sucking mud beneath it is greater difficult terrain.
Lower Level
The first underground level of the Undercitadel of Szitrag once served as the quarters for Dretha’s servants. Here, the workers lived and toiled out of sight from those in the Fen Watchtower above. When Dretha was killed, the servants here panicked. Some fled, others hid in their rooms, and still others became food for the cannibal librarians the next floor down. Today, the servants’ quarters are largely in ruins.Areas are unlit unless otherwise noted, and the ceiling heights are typically 8 feet in hallways and 10 feet in rooms. The doors are sturdy wood, swollen with moisture and stuck shut. A hero trained in Athletics can open doors on this level with a
Interact, as normal; characters who aren’t trained in Athletics must spend 2 Interact actions to open a door.
The largest faction presently active in the Servant’s Quarters is a group of Morlocks who call themselves Children of the Fanged Queen. These morlocks once dwelt deep below this level in caverns adjacent to the Undercitadel. When Dretha wakened, they clambered into the higher levels to prepare the way for her, enduring a devastating clash with the Cult of the Boil Ghouls and later driving out the Mudhunter Mitflits. Dretha always considered morlocks to be pests (and still does, even as a ghost), but the morlocks’ leader, Daarkh Ghust, hopes to change her mind by building her a temple. But, just as Dretha’s eldritch patron Empty Death cares little about how she is honored, the morlocks’ Ghost Queen doesn’t care whether these devout morlocks live or die.
Stairs Up
These tightly spiraling stairs lead up the stairwell on Apprentice Island .Vaidun’s workshop
The door to this room is locked. A hero without the key from repair storage can Force Open the door with a successful DC 20 Athletics check or Pick the Lock with three successful DC 20 Thievery checks.Seven square alcoves, each containing strange magical apparatuses or alchemical sets of tools, ring this damp stone chamber. The alcove to the north contains a large glass tank filled with liquid. A goblin’s corpse, clad in outdated servant’s clothing, floats inside it. A semicircular worktable covered with tools, moldy papers, and a large open book stands in front of the tank.Vaidun Magmenor once used this chamber as his personal workshop. The worktable in front of the tank holds the bulk of Vaidun’s notes. A hero Investigating these notes who succeeds at a successful DC 12 Arcana or Occultism check to Recall Knowledge learns that the workshop is devoted to both construct construction and necromancy. A critical success on this check also reveals the workshop’s emphasis is transferring mortal souls, including into a Construct or a swarm of vermin.
The goblin in the tank is the preserved corpse of Borbo, once Vaidun’s devoted servant. Borbo volunteered his body and soul for a technique that Vaidun promised would grant immortality, though being turned into the Soulbound Doll named Mister Beak was not exactly the immortality that Borbo had in mind. Still, Borbo, as Mister Beak, has thus far remained loyal to Vaidun. The corpse is well preserved in the tank; even if removed, it takes months to decay.
A search of the other alcoves reveals little of interest, with two exceptions: a secret door in the southwestern alcove and an incomplete soulbound doll in the northwestern alcove.
Secret Door
The southwestern alcove contains a secret door leading down to the Twin Stairwells and from there back up to the Secret Stairs. A hero who succeeds at a DC 20 Perception check while Searching this alcove identifies a toolbox bolted to the wall. When the toolbox is opened and the tools within it pulled, the attached secret door opens.Incomplete Doll
The northwest alcove contains a Soulbound Doll resembling an armless, legless goblin. It has an indentation in its back the same size as Mister Beak’s Soul Focus Gem. Inserting this gem activates the soulbound doll, allowing it to speak but not attack, move, or cast spells until its construction is complete. A hero might be able to complete it with enough work and expense, but Borbo remains erratic and violent.If Borbo is “returned” to this body, he wakens quickly and begins to sob, lamenting in Goblin Speak that his master betrayed him. He remains inconsolable until a hero can either calm him with a successful DC 16 Diplomacy check to Make an Impression or scare him with a DC 16 Intimidate check to Coerce him, or until someone places him in a position where he can see his former body in the north alcove. In any of these cases, Borbo finally goes silent and the heroes can speak to him in Common, Elvish, or Goblin Speak. Borbo has little useful to say and is prone to fits of self-pity and vitriol toward Vaidun, but if the heroes ask the right questions they can get four key pieces of information from him.
- The location of the secret door in this room.
- The existence of a secret treasure stash behind a loose brick in the wall in his old room.
- Master Vaidun was a “powerful mastermind Drow occultist artist-craftsman” who had a relationship with a “book lady down below” and who worked for “Mistress Dretha, who is very frightening and absolutely none of my business.”
- Master Vaidun is vain as well as cruel. If the heroes present a nice image of Vaidun (such as a painting) to him and then threaten to destroy it, Vaidun will lose his composure and likely make a tactical error the heroes can capitalize upon. Unfortunately, the only painting of Vaidun Borbo knows about is the one in Hall of Portraits, and it’s destroyed. In fact, only one image of Vaidun remains in the Inverted Tower today, in the scriptorum.
Vaidun's chambers
This room shares features of a bedroom and a study, although the decor is devoid of any touches of personality as if anything of sentimental value had been removed.Vaidun once dwelt here, but since his transformation into a Worm That Walks, the occultist has relocated downstairs to his lounge. A search of the room turns up a scrap of paper
What The Worm Knows, Grave Feasts, and Secrets of the Skull
Borbo's Room
This small room has a long‑abandoned straw bed, a dresser with open drawers revealing a jumble of out‑of‑date servant’s clothing, and a large barrel with a ladle atop it.This room once belonged to Vaidun’s goblin servant Borbo, but it’s been abandoned since the Goblin gave up his life to become Mister Beak. The clothing matches that worn by Borbo’s corpse in the workshop. The barrel once contained dozens of pickles, but today the brine inside has long since evaporated and the pickles have rotted away.
Treasure
A hero Searching this room who succeeds at a DC 18 Perception check finds a loose brick concealing a small stash of treasures Borbo collected: a shard of jade worth 15 gp, a silver statuette of two succubi worth 35 gp, and an oily-looking Slick Rune.Vaidun's Machine
Moderate
A large metal table fitted with leather straps and iron bands sits in the center of this room. A strange contraption that seems to be part spyglass and part mechanical drill sits near the head of the table. A sparkling black gemstone glitters in a metal framework built into this machine’s side. The machine in this room is a sadistic device Vaidun crafted ages ago. With a successful DC 20 Occultism or Religion check to Recall Knowledge, a hero determines that the device aids in casting the create undead ritual (this doesn’t provide knowledge of that ritual). The drilling device penetrates the skull of a restrained victim, while the scope focuses the ritual’s necromantic energies. Using this machine grants a +2 item bonus to skill checks to cast create undead. The stairs to the south lead down to Dretha's Library.
Creatures
One of Vaidun’s last creations remains here, a horrific undead guardian created from a giant leech. Vaidun called the creature the “Bloodsiphon” and was amused at how the thing shriveled up yet remained mobile and violent if denied the blood it craved but no longer required to sustain its life. The bloodsiphon appears to be a giant log of desiccated flesh until anyone disturbs it or approaches within 10 feet, at which point it lurches forth and attacks. It pursues foes throughout this level of Apprentice Island. Bloodsiphon
Bloodsiphon - Creature 4
UNIQUEBLACK, GREENMEDIUMUNDEAD
| One of Vaidun’s last creations remains here, a horrific undead guardian created from a giant leech. Vaidun called the creature the “Bloodsiphon” and was amused at how the thing shriveled up yet remained mobile and violent if denied the blood it craved but no longer required to sustain its life. The bloodsiphon appears to be a giant log of desiccated flesh until anyone disturbs it or approaches within 10 feet, at which point it lurches forth and attacks. It pursues foes throughout this level of Apprentice Island. Pathfinder #163: Ruins of Gauntlight pg. 23 | |
| Perception | +10 , tremorsense 30 feet |
| Languages | Aklo (cannot speak any language) |
| Skills | Athletics +12 |
STR +4 , DEX +1 , CON +3 , INT -2 , WIS +3 , CHA -2 | |
| AC | 19 |
| Saving Throws | Fort +11, Ref +7, Will +11 |
| HP | 80 - Immunities Immunities death effects, disease, paralyzed, poison, unconscious - Weaknesses slashing 5 |
| Speed | 10 feet, swim 20 feet |
| Melee | Mouth +14 +9 / +4 Damage Piercing plus grab |
| Ranged | Spittle +11 +6 / +1 (range increment 30 feet) Damage Negative |
| Special Abilities | negative healing Death Burst (aura, necromancy, occult) When the bloodsiphon dies, its body explodes in a cloudy red burst of necrotic dried blood in a 20‑foot area. Creatures in range must attempt a DC 21 Reflex save. Critical Success The creature is unaffected. Success The creature takes negative damage . Failure The creature takes negative damage . Critical Failure The creature takes negative damage and is enfeebled 2 for 1 hour. Blood Drain Requirements The bloodsiphon has a creature grabbed or restrained; Effect The bloodsiphon drains blood from the creature it has grabbed. This deals damage and the bloodsiphon grows temporarily moist and slimy as it regains 8 Hit Points, gaining any excess as temporary Hit Points that last for 1 minute. A creature that has its blood drained by the bloodsiphon is drained 1 until it receives any type of healing. |
Treasure
The black onyx gemstone in the machine can be pried out easily enough. Doing so renders the device useless, but the gem is worth 25 gp.
Type
Craftsman, Blacksmith / Smithy
Parent Location
Owner
Characters in Location
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