Weird Wastelands

Terrain The terrain of the Rust Wastes has the following qualities: ■ The Rust Wastes feature a base camp for each army, providing a safe place to rest for anyone who has not made an enemy of the robotic army in question. Each camp is approximately 5,000 square feet and has up to thirty structures. ■ Crisscrossing trenches throughout the area can provide quarter, half, or total cover. ■ Piles of destroyed AutoForged and MimiCons litter the battlefield and can be scavenged for scrap.95 ■ There is a no-man’s-land between the armies’ territories that is under constant fire from both sides with ranged attacks and heavy artillery. This area is approximately 1,000 feet long and 2 miles wide. ■ Pools of trolleum and other mechanical fluids that can be siphoned have formed across the barren landscape. ■ A fog of war hovers over the no-man’s-land and the trenches from constant barrages, creating light and heavy obscurement throughout the area. At the start of each day, roll 1d6 to determine obscurement in the area (a roll of 1–3 results in light obscurement, a roll of 4–5 results in heavy obscurement, and a roll of 6 results in no obscurement). special features The features detailed here distinguish the Rust Wastes as a weird location and are available to flesh out gameplay elements of the area. They are designed to complement 95. See the “Scrounging for Scrap” section on p. 128 of chapter 3. interactions with other creatures and create engaging encounters. The Rust Wastes is an ancient and well-regulated battlefield with a few locations to explore and many dangers to avoid. The battlefield is bookended by the two forces’ camps and separated by the trenches and a no-man’s-land at the center. Somewhere in no-man’s-land lie the partially buried remains of a war titan, an enormous mechanical construct once piloted by the living soldiers who waged war here. Both the AutoForged and the MimiCons seek to reclaim the wreckage in hopes that it will give them an edge in their eternal conflict. AUTOFORGED CAMP This run-down military camp looks like a standard operating base on the surface, but a deeper look reveals many mysteries and a few clues to greater adventure. The camp has a standard layout with a command tent and a large, soot-belching factory for the forging and repair of the AutoForged troops at the center surrounded by smaller living quarters. There are many AutoForged troops coming in and out of the factory, some carrying repair parts and some coming and going for repair themselves. AutoForged troops guard the empty tents that once bustled with living beings, lending an eeriness to the camp. Anyone who enters camp is brought to the command tent for the general to assess hostility and decide their fate. If the party garners the favor of the AutoForged, this can become a safe base of operations for them. The AutoForged are bipedal automatons with varying degrees of armor, depending on their degree of repairs. They have riveted steel bodies and carry dragon flame rifles to fight the good fight against their sworn enemies, the MimiCons. AutoForged soldiers follow the orders of their general without hesitation. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 247

This is intended to be a Predator situation. Much like the Predator ignores anyone who’s unarmed, the MimiCons don’t see anyone not wielding technology as a threat. Feel free to play this side however you see fit. Could the MimiCons have a deeper agenda and greater intelligence? Command Tent The AutoForged commander, General Mo-Torrs, is a pristine model with no repairs visible and a chest full of military commendations, although the medals have no meaning. A creature can garner favor with the general by succeeding on a DC 15 Charisma (Deception) or Charisma (Persuasion) check while interacting with the general. If successful, the general asks for help repairing the forge factory. scrap has been repurposed into the MimiCons themselves. The MimiCons are everywhere, lying in wait. They don’t speak and are hostile to living creatures that hold technology in servitude. For example, if the party is carrying arcanotech devices in the open, the MimiCons are hostile toward them. autoforged template AutoForged are armored constructs forged to fight the MimiCons in an ancient war that still rages today. They use the animated armor stat block with the following changes: Senses. The AutoForged passive Perception is 12. Challenge Rating. The AutoForged challenge rating increases by 1. Traits. The AutoForged does not have the Antimagic Susceptibility and False Appearance traits. Actions. The AutoForged has the Dragon Flame Rifle action. Dragon Flame Rifle. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 100/300 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d10 + 2) fire damage. This weapon scores a critical hit on a 19 or 20. On an attack roll of 1, roll a d20. On another 1, the weapon is permanently drained of power. Forge Factory The factory at the AutoForged camp has been functioning for centuries on many short-term repairs, but it is now nearing shutdown. A creature that has proficiency with a mechanic’s kit can attempt a DC 15 Dexterity (Mechanic’s Kit) check to stabilize the factory reanimator repair arms or the station’s finicky power grid. On a success, the creature earns the Cog of Freedom, allowing them and their allies free access to AutoForged-controlled territory and assistance from any AutoForged present. MIMICON HQ The skeletons of buildings and random debris are all that remain of the MimiCon HQ, as all useful mimicon template MimiCons are constructs created ages ago to fight the AutoForged. Although the humanoid troops who created them are long gone, they still wage war relentlessly. They use the mimic stat block with the following changes: Type. Construct Armor Class. The MimiCon has an AC of 16 (natural armor). Speed. The MimiCon has a base speed of 30 feet. Traits. The MimiCon does not have the Shapechanger trait. It has a modified False Appearance trait and a new trait, Technovirus. False Appearance. While the MimiCon remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a pile of scrap. Technovirus. When a MimiCon takes damage, it leaks a dangerous ichor. Any creature that touches or makes a melee attack against the MimiCon when it is leaking must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or contract technovirus.96 Actions. The MimiCon has the Drone Attack action. Drone Attack (Recharge 5–6). The MimiCon emits a small drone. The small drone uses the flying sword stat block without the Antimagic Susceptibility and False Appearance traits. The small drone is under the control of the MimiCon and takes its turn immediately after the MimiCon’s turn. The MimiCon can operate up to two small drones at a time. If the MimiCon emits another drone when there are already two drones active, the oldest drone falls inert and is no longer operational. 96. See the “New Disease: Technovirus” sidebar on p. 249 for more information. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations 248 weird waStelandS

a 1-mile radius, causing sections of the debris to shift and fall. Creatures in the affected area must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone. Quakes last for 1d6 minutes. Roll a d20 during every tremblequake. On an 18-20, a rich source of scrap has been revealed.97 NO MAN’S LAND Nestled between the two sides of trenches is an area of great peril, a no-man’s-land of barren expanses dotted with barriers and fencing to protect against mass assault from either side. The barriers may provide quarter-cover or half-cover at the GM’s discretion. A fog hangs over this place, and it is easy to get lost or fall into a crater, so watch out! 97. See chapter 3 p. 128 for more about searching for scrap. MimiCons are hunched bundles of wires and cables with armored plates that can move on two or four limbs, depending on the situation. They stand about 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide when in their humanoid form. MimiCons are sometimes referred to as the Mimic Horde by those involved in the automated struggle between them and the AutoForged. Certain models of MimiCons can launch smaller drones to attack at range. TRENCHES A myriad network of trenches weaves around large piles of refuse and robot parts spanning the battlefield between the two camps. Navigating these trenches is dangerous, but the riches buried in the refuse piles and muck may be worth the risk. The trenches differ depending on where they are located. The trenches on the AutoForged side are strictly regimented, cleaned, and controlled by the AutoForged. On the MimiCons’ side, the trenches are in constant flux, with piles of refuse constantly falling from minor earthquakes. It is impossible to map this side of the trenches. Artillery Barrage Anyone moving through the trenches on either side must maintain a low profile or be the target of an artillery barrage (unless they are allied with the side in question). When moving through a trench, creatures must succeed on a DC 12 Dexterity (Stealth) check to remain hidden from artillery spotters. On a failure, a barrage of artillery fire falls in a 50-foot radius centered on the creature that failed its saving throw and lasts for 1 minute. At the beginning of each round during the barrage, creatures in the affected area must succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw or take 3d10 piercing damage. Ambush When moving through the MimiCons’ trenches, a creature must succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) or Wisdom (Perception) check to distinguish hiding MimiCons from random piles of scrap in the area. If there is a hostile MimiCon in the area and it is not detected, it attacks from hiding. Trenchfoot As creatures move through the trenches on either side, they must succeed on a DC 12 Intelligence (Investigation) or Wisdom (Perception) check to discover severed MimiCon parts among the piles of scrap that are still active and grasping for a victim. These appendages can deal damage and possibly infect targets with technovirus. Tremblequakes Due to the nature of the war between the AutoForged and the MimiCons, massive piles of robotic parts overwhelm the trenches. Once per hour, quakes shake the ground in New Disease: Technovirus MimiCons have a unique ability to infect humanoids and beasts with a disease called technovirus. While infected, victims are slowly transformed into mindless automatons with no purpose other than the destruction of the AutoForged forces. The infection begins at the point of contact with the infected ichor. Symptoms begin to appear 2d4 hours after initial contact and include a tingling sensation in the affected area. Once symptoms begin, the virus rebuilds the infected area on a molecular level, slowly converting it from biological matter to mechanical parts. The area functions identically to its organic original, though it is now visibly mechanical. Every 1d4 days following the initial contact, the infection spreads to another random portion of the body. Each morning while infected, the creature must succeed on a DC 10 Charisma saving throw or make one melee attack against the nearest living creature. When more than half of the infected creature’s body has been converted, the infection advances to its final stage: total rebuild. The infection develops exponentially, transforming the whole creature into a machine over the next 24 hours. At the end of this period, the creature becomes a MimiCon and joins their fight to destroy the AutoForged and then rebuild all life. Spells like lesser restoration or the paladin’s Lay on Hands feature stop the disease from spreading and advancing. Spells like greater restoration or higher cure the disease completely, returning any mechanical portions of the creature’s body to normal. There is no known cure once a total rebuild has completed, though many still search for one. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 249

Fog of War The dense fog makes the entirety of the area in no-man’sland heavily obscured. One round after entering the area, creatures must succeed on a DC 12 Wisdom (Survival) check or become lost. The DC goes up by 2 on every subsequent failure as the fog becomes denser and harder to escape. The longer a creature is lost, the more artillery barrages and craters they have to deal with. Artillery Barrage Creatures moving through the fog of no-man’s-land may be targeted by a random artillery barrage. Once per round, the GM rolls a d6. On a 6, an artillery barrage is triggered. The barrage of artillery fire falls in a 50-foot radius centered on a random creature traveling through the fog and lasts for 1 minute. At the beginning of each round during the barrage, creatures in the affected area must succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw or take 3d10 piercing damage. Craters The constant artillery bombardment in no-man’s-land means craters, introducing new trials and potential rewards to creatures traveling through the area. Craters are 20 to 50 feet wide and can be 5 to 20 feet deep. The degree of the slope of the crater’s sides may require a Strength (Athletics) check to safely enter or exit the crater. Creatures must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom (Perception) check while traveling through the fog in no-man’s-land or fall into a crater, landing prone at the bottom of the crater. Roll on the Rust Wastes Craters table to determine what is in a given crater. RUST WASTES CRATERS d6 CRATER CONTENTS 1 Rusted Debris 2 Trolleum Pool 3 Undetonated Spell Bomb 4 MimiCon Ambush 5 Undead Soldiers 6 Rust Elemental Rusted Debris A creature that falls into this crater takes 1d10 piercing damage when it lands, and the creature must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or contract the disease lock jaw.98 98. More info can be found in the “New Disease: Lock Jaw” sidebar on p. 251. Trolleum Pool A creature that falls into this crater becomes covered in trolleum. Until the creature cleans off the trolleum, it is vulnerable to fire damage. Because trolleum is a fuel source for war wagons, many looters risk traveling through noman’s-land in order to fuel up. Roll a d6. On a 5 or 6, roll on the encounter table to see who else is there. Undetonated Spell Bomb Unexploded ordinance is a common problem on battlefields, and the arcane bombs used in the war between the AutoForged and the MimiCons are valuable to either side of the conflict as well as to looters and scrappers. The undetonated spell bomb in this crater is a 1-foot sphere made of nondescript black metal. Any direct attack on the bomb causes it to explode. When it does so, all creatures within a 10-foot radius of it must attempt a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 4d6 fire damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. A creature proficient with a mechanic’s kit or tinker’s tools can attempt a DC 16 Dexterity check with the associated tools to disarm the bomb. MimiCon Ambush A group of 2d4 MimiCons lie in wait at the bottom of this crater, waiting on enemies to ambush. Undead Soldiers Long ago, the humanoids who employed the use of automatons in the battles at the Rust Wastes fought alongside the constructs. Any remnants of those ancient humanoids have been reduced to dust, except for the occasional undead that haunt no-man’s-land. This crater is populated with 2d10 skeletons, 2d6 ghouls, or 2d4 specters (GM’s choice) seeking to slake their undead rage. Rust Elemental The arcane nature of this ancient conflict has wrought many bizarre magical creations, including the rare and dangerous rust elemental. One or two rust elementals (GM’s choice) occupy this crater and lash out at any creature in range. Rust elementals use the air elemental stat block with the following changes: remove flying speed, and replace the Whirlwind action with the Steel Wind action: Steel Wind (Recharge 5–6). As an action, the rust elemental can charge in a 90-foot line, slashing out with countless scraps of metal as it moves. Each creature in the line must attempt a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw, taking 11 (2d8 + 2) slashing damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. If a creature fails the saving throw by 5 or more, the creature is infected with lock jaw. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations 250 weird waStelandS

RUST COLOSSUS The remains of the only war titan from the earliest days of the war not reduced to dust still reside somewhere in no-man’s-land. Both sides in this never-ending battle seek to occupy and either revive it or harvest its material resources. Its head protrudes far above from the debris of a thousand individual battles, its cavernous eyes protruding like the top of a lighthouse, but neither side has been able to occupy it long enough to uncover and claim it. Colossus Head (Control Room) The cylindrical room inside the head of the colossus is 50 feet in diameter and 40 feet tall. Atop this room is a latticed crystal dome that serves as the top of the colossus’s head. There is a sealed port hatch on the side of the head that serves as the main entry point into the war titan. The room houses the controls for the colossus, an observation deck for its pilots, and an elevator leading down to other areas of the colossus. Port Hatch. The port hatch on the side of the head is sealed. A creature that has proficiency with thieves’ tools can open the hatch with a successful DC 15 Dexterity (Thieves’ Tools) check. Lattice Dome. The latticed dome atop the colossus’ head features many crystalline observation ports that can be shattered with a successful DC 18 Strength (Athletics) check. Alternatively, a creature proficient with tinker’s tools or jeweler’s tools can attempt a DC 16 Intelligence ability check with the associated tools, removing a section of the crystal on a success, granting entry. The cylindrical room itself is split into two levels by metal grating, with two staircases connecting the two levels, and has an elevator at the back of the room. Observation Deck. The upper level of this room serves as an observation and command deck. A few bolted-down tables strewn with aged maps adorn this level. The maps New Disease: Lock Jaw Contact with metal as ancient as the scrap strewn across the Rust Wastes can cause a disease called lock jaw. When a creature takes damage from such metal, it must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or contract lock jaw. The symptoms begin immediately as muscle spasms prevent the creature from opening its mouth to eat, drink, or talk (including casting spells requiring verbal components). After 1 hour, an infected creature can attempt another DC 14 Constitution saving throw, ending the infection on a success. The disease can also be removed with the lesser restoration spell or similar magic. Otherwise, the disease lasts 1d4 days. do not resemble the local area in the slightest. Around the edges of the upper level, call horns connect to pipes leading down through the floor. Each horn is labeled with the name of another area of the war titan and is used to communicate with its associated room. Control Room. The lower section of the colossus’ head has multiple control panels whose many switches and buttons are dusty and dormant. A couple panels closest to the titan’s face feature darkened screens adorning the wall. Elevator. An elevator door at the back of the control room is ajar, revealing the open shaft of the access corridor that runs at a sharp angle down the spine of the titan. The elevator itself is 50 feet down the shaft and blocks the view of the access corridor beyond. Neck (Elevator Access Corridor) This circular shaft is 20 feet in diameter and extends downward at a 60-degree angle 50 feet into the darkness from the elevator access in the colossus head. There are rails on either side of the corridor that hold an elevator in place. On the “roof” of the corridor there is a maintenance ladder that connects the head to the chest. The walls are smooth steel covered in a layer of dust. A creature that attempts to walk down the corridor must succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, the creature slides down the passage and lands on the roof of the elevator, taking 3d6 bludgeoning damage. If the creature uses the rails to aid their descent, they have advantage on this saving throw. If the creature attempts to use the ladder to descend, they must first succeed on a DC 14 Strength (Athletics) check to hang onto the ladder. If a creature fails this check, it falls off the ladder and must attempt the Dexterity saving throw to avoid losing their footing and sliding down the passage. At the bottom of the corridor is a broken and rusted elevator with an access hatch on its roof that can be opened with a successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check. Inside the elevator are two rust elementals99 that attack any creature that enters. If a creature used a call horn on the observation deck, the rust elementals are ready to ambush creatures as soon as they open the access hatch. The elevator door is jammed open and leads to a hallway that runs left and right, with a maintenance ladder on the wall directly across from the elevator door. This area is the upper chest of the titan. The maintenance ladder heads lower into the central chest of the colossus. Upper Chest, Left (Engineering Workshop) Heading left from the elevator door is an 80-foot-long, pipeladen corridor that leads to a closed door at its end. There is a sign on the wall with an arrow pointing toward the door that reads Engineering Workshop. A few random tools can be found in the hall, but there is nothing else of interest here. 99. See the “Rust Elemental” section on p. 250 for more info. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 251

The door is reinforced metal adorned with an etched icon of a hammer and cog. It is not locked but is stuck from disuse. A creature can force the door open by succeeding on a DC 14 Strength (Athletics) check. The door leads to the engineering workshop featuring tables strewn with tools, cables, and safety equipment. Everything in this room is pitted with rust. Upper Chest, Right (Engineering Fuel Supply) Heading right from the elevator door is a 20-foot-long hallway that ends abruptly in a floor-to-ceiling pile of twisted metal, suggesting that the right shoulder has been destroyed. A sign in the corridor reads Engineering Fuel Supply and features an arrow pointing in the direction of the destruction. Central Chest (Engine Room) The maintenance ladder across from the elevator leads down 30 feet to an octahedral engine room with driveshafts, hoses, and wiring along the walls connected to the engine and running out of the room through numerous ports. The engine itself is a massive mechanism that fills the center of the room, lying dormant and pitted with rust. A scrap golem (using the animated armor stat block) lurks on the far side of the engine room. It is hostile but smart enough to wait to try to surprise anyone who enters the area. The maintenance ladder leads farther down into darkness. Midsection (Armory) The maintenance ladder continues 30 feet from the engine room to a large warehouse-like space in the abdomen. Much of this spacious room is filled with earth from the surrounding ground in which the colossus is buried, blocking access into the legs of the colossus. The dirt, rock, and scrap make the ground here difficult terrain. A swarm of trembles100 lurks here amid the rubble and scrap, dormant unless disturbed. suggested encounters The Rust Wastes Encounters table lists creatures that lair in the Rust Wastes or creatures who have reason to visit. Each entry contains a brief description of the creatures and a prompt for an encounter scenario. The encounter descriptions detail any modifications to the base creature stat block and special considerations for running the encounter. The GM may use their preferred method for determining who or what the party encounters at the location. Estimated difficulty is based on a party of four adventurers of 6th level. RUST WASTES ENCOUNTERS d4 ENCOUNTER DIFFICULTY 1 Its HAL Is over 9,000! Very easy 2 #6 Rockem Socket Robot Wrench Easy 3 Butler Ian Medium 4 When Wall E Comes Tumbling Down Medium 100. The swarm of trembles stat block can be found on p. 311 in chapter 6. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations 252 weird waStelandS

BUTLER IAN A smaller version of the AutoForged than previously encountered approaches the party while nervously cleaning a monocle. He introduces himself, “I am the general’s butler, Ian, and I have a matter most important for the war effort, if I could only have a minute of your time.” Ian tells the party his request to help the general. The general is quite old and requires a special oil to maintain his fighting form and win the war! This oil is a hyperconcentrated pool of trolleum only found in one place: a flooded bunker in the northwest section of the trenches, near the border of the no-man’s-land. A raucous battle has been waging over that sector since the oil’s discovery. Ian urges the party to be careful, as the trenches are thick with MimiCons, and artillery barrages rain down no matter the season. He recommends staying low and moving quickly. At the bunker, there are 2d6 MimiCons engaged with 1d4 AutoForged when the party arrives. The MimiCons have deployed one drone each. After 5 rounds, reinforcements arrive: another 1d4 MimiCons and 1d6 AutoForged. Artillery barrages happen every 1d4 rounds in this area. If the party successfully retrieves at least 5 gallons of the concentrated trolleum and returns it to Ian, he rewards the party with a rich source of scrap, repairs their vehicle, or rewards them with one uncommon magic item each. The party may also harvest some of the trolleum for their own use. This special trolleum lasts four times longer than regular trolleum when used in arcanotech devices, burns eight times longer when used as a light source, and deals double fire damage when used as a weapon. #6 ROCKEM SOCKET ROBOT WRENCH A grease-smeared AutoForged is cussing in binary and kicking an inert mechanism at its feet. Upon noticing the party, the robot puts away a wrench and says with a wave, “I don’t suppose you fleshies have a #6 Rockem Socket Robot Wrench, do ya?” An AutoForged programmed to work at the forge factory is struggling with a repair job and asks the party if they’re heading into the trenches. If they are, he asks if they can keep an eye out for his one-of-a-kind wrench, one of the original master wrenches from Rockem Socket Robot Wrench Corp. It’s number 6 of a series of 12, and it’s important for adjusting factory settings for the quality of repair on the brave AutoForged who come through the factory day after day. It would be a great help for the war effort and would buy a bond of friendship between the party and the AutoForged. The wrench can be found anywhere in the war-torn area, whether in a random trench or in the inventory of a traveling arcanotech priest. If the party finds the wrench and returns it to the AutoForged mechanic, they gain trust with the AutoForged, and the mechanic will repair any gear or vehicles the party requests. WHEN WALL E COMES TUMBLING DOWN… An AutoForged sergeant is yelling for his squad to hurry and finish loading a shipment of steel girders. The squad is failing at this as their malfunctioning feet slip in the mud. Sergeant Clank yells to the passing party, “Ho there, can ye help out a mission that needs completion? Our brothers are out there holding WALL E but won’t for long if we don’t get there soon!” WALL E is a sentient trench wall on the northeastern end of the AutoForged side of the battlefield. It has been calling for reinforcement for weeks now, as the troops there are being assailed by undead (the animated remains of the AutoForged’s former comrades). Sergeant Clank asks the party to escort this shipment of steel girders to reinforce WALL E against the undead onslaught. In exchange, he promises to let them take any salvage they may find and will grant them access to their collection of magic items, spells, and other relics that were used by long-dead organics. The AutoForged squad consists of Sergeant Clank and ten AutoForged cogs moving twenty steel girders on a flatbed sled that floats along at a maximum speed of 30 feet per round. When the party arrives, WALL E is being defended by 3d8 AutoForged and is being assailed by waves of skeletons and zombies. Several sections of the wall are broken, and the entire thing is at risk of collapse. Upon their arrival, the reinforcement squads realizes they are almost too late and must attempt repairs immediately. The party has 1 minute to succeed on five repair checks. A creature with proficiency with a mechanic’s kit can attempt to repair the wall with a successful DC 14 Strength (Mechanic’s Kit) or Dexterity (Mechanic’s Kit) check (player’s choice). Each failure increases the DC by 1. Once per round as the party attempts repairs, one wave of undead enemies assaults and attempts to breach the wall. ■ Waves 1–3: 1d10 skeletons, 1d6 zombies ■ Waves 4–6: 2d4 ogre zombies ■ Waves 7–9: 1d4 ghosts ■ Wave 10: 1 vampire spawn If the party successfully repairs the wall and repels the undead within 1 minute, WALL E is reinforced, and the undead are repelled, and the party is free to collect their reward. If the party is unsuccessful, WALL E is overrun, and waves of undead will continue to attack the party until they fall or flee. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 253

rewards Presented here is a collection of treasures and rewards to be found within the area. EXPERIENCE In addition to standard experience awarded during combat, here are other experience awards that can be earned while exploring the Rust Wastes: ■ Crossing no-man’s-land – 250 XP ■ Assisting the AutoForged – 125 XP ■ Receiving the Cog of Freedom – 1,000 XP ■ Entering the remains of the Rust Colossus – 500 XP LOOT Detailed here is a collection of tangible loot that can be earned or discovered in this location. Cog of Freedom A Cog of Freedom is a medal awarded to those who assist the AutoForged in some significant way. This gear pendant grants free passage across all AutoForged territory, and any AutoForged soldier gives assistance when asked by a wearer of the pendant. These pendants are arcanotech devices. Creatures wearing a Cog of Freedom have advantage on any Charisma check made while interacting with an AutoForged. Dragon Flame Rifle A dragon flame rifle is a ranged arcanotech martial weapon with a range of 100/300 feet. On a hit, it deals fire damage equal to 1d10 + the wielder’s Dexterity modifier. On a 1 on the attack roll, roll a d20. On another 1, the weapon is permanently drained of power. Tremble101 A single tremble can be very useful in sharpening and improving certain weapons. In numbers, however, they can be incredibly dangerous and destructive. putting it all together The Rust Wastes area is an endless battlefield with two factions, though only the AutoForged can be reasoned with. You can draw the characters to the area with a related plot hook or entice them with the plentiful trolleum and supplies available throughout the battlefield. The trenches alone can provide an exciting encounter or travel experience, and the many colorful robotic characters are worth visiting as well. ADVENTURE HOOKS Presented here are four adventure hooks you can utilize to introduce your table to the Rust Wastes. 101. The tremble stat block can be found on p. 310 of chapter 6. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations 254 weird waStelandS

RUST WASTES ADVENTURE HOOKS d4 ADVENTURE HOOK 1 There’s tale of a whetstone in an ancient robot battlefield that can sharpen any blade to spectacular sharpness. These little stones rumble all by themselves. Just don’t use them after midnight. 2 The Arcanotech Cabal wants to broker peace between these two robot foes. It hires the party to recon the battlefield and determine the validity of the Cabal’s endeavor. 3 An old looter tells of a broken giant forged from iron amid a terrible battle of bots somewhere on the battlefield. The titan is beyond repair, but the engine in its heart is still functional and worth more than anything else in the wastelands. 4 A weapons dealer wants a sample of robot rifles. He’s willing to pay for any viable weapons returned to him. RUMORS Presented here are ten rumors about the Rust Wastes. These rumors can be used to draw your table to the location or to create additional drama while the characters are visiting. It’s up to the GM whether the rumors are true. RUST WASTES RUMORS d10 RUMOR 1 There’s an arcanotech priest wandering the battlefield who has a device that can control robots. 2 The robots on the battlefield have tools that can improve the works of even the greatest inventors and tinkers. 3 Treasure hunters have heard the wailing of the Rust Colossus from deep in no-man’s-land. It lives! 4 There used to be living soldiers in the Rust Wastes, but now all that walks there is metal. 5 Undead roam everywhere, still in uniform, still fighting. 6 There is a general somewhere on the battlefield still leading his robot troops. He may listen to reason, if you make a good argument. 7 An engine of inconceivable power resides at the heart the robot battlefield. 8 The robots fighting in the wastes are not sentient. They’re just doing what they’re programed to do. 9 There’s more trolleum in the rusted wastes than most places in the Weird Wastelands. 10 There are members of the robotic army that are more than meets the eye. Be wary. basalt palace “I heard it was supposed to be a funhouse of some kind, long ago. I would not—could not—call it fun, no. That is not the word I’d use. What word then? Loaded. Completely stacked. And heartbreaking. I went once, I got my ’canotech, now I’m rich, and I ain’t never going back. I stay outside now. No doors, y’see? I woke up the other night, and I thought I was still there. Maybe I am. Am I? Can you tell me? Can somebody please tell me?” – Durbust Sandheaver, retired adventurer Content Warning This location was in part inspired by fantasy depictions of nuclear disasters. It includes implied mass death. While these elements are a common trope of postapocalyptic media, we want to make sure you and your entire table know that this area could, depending on how you run it, get heavy. background The Basalt Palace was once a wonderland for the preapocalyptic elite, an illusory playground in which those with the means to afford it could experience any fantasy they wished. The palace itself was perhaps the most complex arcanotech wonder to be created by mortals. At the heart of it is a spell reactor, which generated near-limitless radiant magic keeping the palace operational. At some point, there was a fantastic catastrophe that partially destroyed the palace, broke the rules of time and space in the immediate area, and spread uncontained scintillating radiance into the world. The reactor continues to leak today. In the times that came after, many made forays into the Basalt Palace to assess its condition or repair the damage. All failed, except for one. The Seven-Fold Matron, a powerful archmage from the Last City of MAN102 (long before it was known by that name), was able to navigate to the epicenter of the explosion and slow the flood of leaking scintillating radiance down to a trickle, but neither she nor her familiar were ever seen again. In time, knowledge of what the palace used to be, what happened to it, or the potential for calamity it poses were forgotten. Now, all know it is dangerous, that time and space work differently inside it, that it is full to the gills with arcanotech, and that most who venture inside never return. 102. See the “Lost City of MAN” section earlier on p. 190 in the chapter for more info. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 255

At night, the light of the ruins of the Basalt Palace are clearly visible up to 5 miles away. A plume of eerie blue light projects straight up from the epicenter of the destroyed side of the structure. The ruins are a rich source of arcanotech devices,103 which brings the brave and the foolhardy to its steps from time to time. The path to the ruins of the Basalt Palace is 103. See the “Arcanotech Devices” section on p. 94 in chapter 2 for more info. known to contain unseen hazards that can be difficult to navigate, even though the path appears clear and unimpeded. Those brave enough to venture near report seeing blue phantasms of people dressed in finery, animals they have never seen before, sounds of a language they cannot understand, and feelings of joy, satisfaction, and wonder they have never experienced anywhere else. Those who long to experience these feelings often make pilgrimages to the Basalt Palace, but most never return. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations 256 weird waStelandS

Terrain The ruins of the Basalt Palace have existed as they are for as long as anyone can remember. Half the palace is shattered, as an ancient explosion threw chunks of jet-black rock a half-mile in all directions; the once-cultivated, stepped foothills are peppered with chunks of preternaturally dark basalt embedded in them. These chunks do not erode as the rest of the rock does here—white sandy dunes give way to white rock studded with black, like bits of chocolate in an unbaked cookie. The terrain around the ruins of the Basalt Palace has the following qualities: ■ Any spells or abilities that aid a creature in finding its way, such as find the path, do not work in the area. ■ Due to the blue glow coming from the ruins, there is bright light within 50 feet of the ruins and dim light within 300 feet of them. ■ The exterior of the ruins and the area within 1 mile of the ruin entrance are constantly under the effects of the scintillating radiance hazard.104 BLUE PHANTASMS MANIFESTATION d10 PHANTASM 1 Hundreds of rabbits hopping serenely across a nonexistent meadow 2 A dozen celestial badgers dancing in perfect unison, twirling and curtseying at party members 3 Fifty gladiators locked in a frantic death match attacking each other and anyone within 5 feet of them 4 The vague forms of adults and children in fitted suits and dresses shuffling through an exhibit of caged dragons, owlbears, and tarrasques; a child who is clearly scared of the party crying to their mother 5 A lizardfolk king and queen on a palanquin borne by gnomes and goblins waving at onlookers who aren’t there; the Palace exploding in a shower of illusory destruction 6 A half-dozen gnomes dressed in tattered finery scurrying around, picking up unseen objects, attempting to grab magic items from the party (their hands passing through them), then eventually lying on the ground and ceasing to move 7 A pegasus ensconced in barding bearing the crest of a forgotten dynasty flying around the ruins, in and out of the blue light, becoming blurrier with each pass until it disappears 8 An orc in remembrancer robes running out of the entrance to the palace, sitting on the ground, and crying 9 A circle of wizards and clerics chanting and swaying in unison, casting a ritual spell while facing the tower of blue light, then melting away as a brilliantly bright light shines on their faces105 10 A human woman in a stiff cloth suit walking around the grounds, inspecting the ruined walls of the palace and writing notes in a journal, with a large chameleon following her every step; the human woman hugging the chameleon close and walking into the palace, disappearing from view 104. See “Scintillating Radiance” in the “Encounter Hazards” section on p. 158 of chapter 4 for more information about scintillating radiance. 105. Characters who observe this manifestation of the blue phantasms can attempt a DC 10 Wisdom (Perception) check to spot a perfect circle of shadows permanently etched onto the ground where the phantasms appeared. special features The features detailed here distinguish the Ruins of the Basalt Palace as a weird location and are available to flesh out gameplay elements of the area. They are designed to complement interactions with other creatures and create engaging encounters. THE BIG BLUE There is a wide dirt path leading from the area around the ruins to the entrance itself, and the flat ground outside has ample room to set up camp. At night, illusory phantasms in the same shade of blue as the light emanating from the ruins wink in and out of existence within 300 feet of the ruins. They are harmless, can only be visually perceived, and cannot be interacted with, but they react to what the party does and exist 10 minutes before fading into nothingness. Whenever one of these phantasms appears, roll on the Blue Phantasms Manifestation table to see what form they take. RUIN FEATURES The Basalt Palace is a place where the relationship between light, time, space, and experience have been broken apart by uncontained magical energy. No two journeys through CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 257

Welcome to a depth crawl! This table format allows you to randomly generate a dungeon crawl with lots of interesting possibilities while still leading forward toward an end point. It also cuts way down on prep, though it helps to read over the options (especially the encounters) before you begin. Some combinations are really nasty; we like it that way, Fortunately, the characters can flee from most threats fairly easily, as most of them cannot exist outside the room they occur in. Furthermore, there is no dishonor in fudging on this table. It is perfectly acceptable to decide a room has no encounter or complicating detail if your group needs space to catch their breath, or to reroll if a given combination isn’t what you’d like to deal with at the moment.  You can change the speed of the party’s progress through the Basalt Palace by changing the die you use to roll on the tables. If you want the Basalt Palace to move much more quickly, use a d20. If you want to move more slowly, use a d6, but always keep adding to your rolls to ensure that the party keeps moving forward. As the party progresses, we recommend keeping a list of the rolls you made, in case they wish to move backwards in the palace. it are the same, though the areas creatures can venture through here are all based on what the place once was and the calamity that happened here. When a party journeys into the ruins, they create a stable instance that lasts until they leave. Much of what is seen and encountered inside the ruins of the Basalt Palace is extremely highlevel illusion magic in an area with uncontained and volatile arcane energies. Unless otherwise noted, creatures with truesight can see through the illusions; however, all other elements of the illusion remain, so even a creature that is aware of the illusion’s presence can still physically interact with it. Illusions can still damage creatures who know they are illusory, but the damage type changes to psychic damage in these cases. Sound does not carry between rooms, and all interior areas are filled with magical darkeness unless specified otherwise. Additionally, if a creature with the frightened condition leaves a room, the door they exit from leads into the Grand Foyer, and the creature moves towards the entrance to the Basalt Palace and exits. DELVING INTO THE RUINS Due to its magical nature, there is no fixed layout in the Basalt Palace. Each expedition’s delve through the ruins proceeds in a different sequence, with different encounters and details in different rooms. Each room has three unique elements. When the party enters a new room, the GM rolls on the following tables to determine the room, the detail, and the encounter. Creatures can backtrack to previous rooms, but moving into a new room always triggers a new set of rolls on the Ruins Rooms, Ruins Room Details, and Ruins Room Encounters tables. When a delve begins, the first room is always 1. Grand Foyer and has no details or encounters. Whenever a creature attempts to proceed beyond the foyer (or into any new room), follow these steps to determine the particulars of the next room: ■ Roll 1d10 on the Ruins Rooms, Ruins Room Details, and Ruins Room Encounters tables. Each time the party delves into a new room, repeat the process, adding 1 to your roll for each room they have already visited during this delve. For example, if the party exits 1. Grand Foyer and enters a new room, roll 1d10 + 1 on each table. When they enter the next room, roll 1d10 + 2 on each table, and so on. ■ Rooms do not exist in any set order or with any set detail or encounter until the party elects to enter them. There is no need to roll ahead of time to determine the layout of the ruins of the Basalt Palace, as they are meant to be procedurally created. ■ Players can move back and forth through rooms they have already been in through the doors they entered. When they go through a new door, a new room is rolled. ■ When the party exits the ruins, the current delve ends. If they reenter, the entire process starts over. ■ Any creature who backtracks from a room while under the effects of the frightened condition will immediately enter the Grand Foyer. ■ Exiting through the entrance of the Grand Foyer always leads to the outside and ends a delve. Ruins Rooms The following section provides the Ruins Rooms table as well as base descriptions for each room. 1. Grand Foyer Half of the ceiling of this massive hall is caved in. Enormous chunks of basalt masonry are scattered throughout the area, and great chunks of statues of heroic figures, their faces 10 feet tall, are embedded in the crimson-carpeted floor. Toppled chairs and tables line the sides of the huge hall, and shattered urns painted with dazzling flowers dot the path through the space. You hear an unseen symphony playing a grandiose tune that crackles and fades. The place smells like old blood and metal. This cavernous space was once an awe-inspiring feat of magical architecture. Immense columns 100 feet tall and a dizzying array of arches, some of them broken or cracked, support a roof made of starlight. There are piles of ash throughout the foyer, and a hundred trails of ashy footsteps snake across the uncarpeted portions of the floor. The sounds of a symphony playing an epic song fade in and out, but the sounds are sourceless. Illusions. All the furnishings and carpet in this room are illusory, but the walls, statues, doors, and ground are real. Exits. An unlocked pair of gilded stone double doors stand closed at the other end of the room. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 259

2. Lavatory The front half of this room was once the washroom of the gods, a feat of lavatorial opulence no wastelander could ever dream of. Sinks, mirrors, towels, soaps, and lotions line the jet-black countertops. Most of the bathroom stalls are demolished, but one remains intact. It is larger than most homes in the wasteland. A communal bath in the center of the room is bisected by the destruction. The functioning half seems to be a perfect (if ashy) bath to all senses, but the water simply stops where the dirt, ash, and ruination begin, as if it were clear jelly with a horrible bite taken out of it. The walls, floors, ceilings, and hardware in the front half of this room are all jet black. The door to the one intact stall opens and closes any time a creature approaches it RUINS ROOMS RESULT ROOM 1 Grand Foyer 2 Lavatory 3 Promenade 4 ??? 5 Lounge 6 Changing Room 7 Glamour Room 1 8 Glamour Room 2 9 Automaton Repair 10 Hallway 11 Glamour Room 3 12 Observation 13 Elevator 14 Glamour Room 4 15 Glamour Room 5 16 Hall of Public Illusion 17 Library 18 Glamour Room 6 19 Glamour Room 7 20 Reagent Storage 21 Glamour Room 8 22 Glamour Room 9 23 Shadow Chameleon Nest 24 Adamant Vault 25 Reactor Control and reaches for the handles, and plush, black towels appear any time a creature reaches for a towel rack. The back half of the room is full of rusted, broken, and jagged pipes, a puddle of sulfurous alchemical reagents that has dried and crystalized, and rubble, making the area difficult terrain. Within the rubble is a perfectly preserved, non-illusory rubber duckie that quacks just like a live duck.106 Illusions. The bathroom stalls, sinks, tiled walls, and all accessories are illusory. Exits. There is a door off the back of this room, partially covered in rubble. 3. Promenade You hear the gentle sound of running water, feel a cool breeze, and smell the pleasant scent of a clean river as you enter this once-grand promenade. Curiously, there is no water to be seen, despite the many pools dotting the area between the paths. The pools and their interiors are lined in a black substance. This open-air space, 50 feet by 300 feet, features walking paths that weave around 9 large, rectangular holes in the ground that look to have once brimmed with water. The holes are 10 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 10 feet deep, all empty and lined in a shiny, jet-black, jelly-like material. A successful DC 20 Intelligence (Arcana) check reveals that this black material is magical in nature, generating strong illusion magic. The walls along the outside of the promenade are made of shattered crystal, the breaks revealing more of this black substance. One 10-foot stretch of wall is still intact, showing a perfect sunset above a blue riverbank lined with verdant green plant life. The sounds and smells of a peaceful riverbank emanate from the image. It looks real, but reaching into it blurs the illusion, and the smooth crystal can be felt beneath it. Illusions. The sounds, smells, and sight of the riverbank are illusory. Exits. A simple door beside the illusion is marked with a placard containing writing in a pre-apocalyptic language. (Creatures able to read Pre-Apocalyptic Common can discern that it says Maintenance. 107) 4. ??? This door opens to a scene of total destruction. Whatever this room once was has been obliterated by an ancient explosion. An inch of black covers chunks of basalt scattered everywhere. Partially intact walls of the Basalt Palace surround the area. The ceiling is open to the sky. 106. There are no ducks in the Weird Wastelands. 107. Throughout the ruins of the Basalt Palace, characters may encounter writing in Pre-Apocalyptic Common or creatures that speak it. See the “New Language: Pre-Apocalyptic Common” sidebar on p. 63 in chapter 1 for a bit more information on this language. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations 260 weird waStelandS

There is no way to discern what this area used to be nor the nature of the catastrophe that destroyed it. Due to the debris, the entire area (20 feet by 20 feet) is difficult terrain. Illusions. There is nothing illusory in this room (though illusory details and encounters can occur here). Exits. A 5-foot-wide section of intact wall features a plain door (the door through which creatures enter 4. ???). Opposite the plain door stands an intact basalt door in its frame, detached from the crumbled walls and riddled with fine fractures, leading further into the ruins. 5. Lounge The sky peeks down through a cavernous dome made of lacy metal filigree, and light twinkles on the pebbles of colored glass that once filled the domed ceiling now strewn across the floor. Under the glass and over the scorched and pitted walls is a thick cake of gray and white ash. The ash covers everything except a large, brilliant bar made of some exotic striped wood and stocked with a thousand perfect bottles and glasses and a delectable array of snacks. Relaxed music plays from some unseen source behind it. The bar in this 5-by-10-foot lounge exists for only 4 seconds out of every 5, flashing in and out of existence. It is an illusion, though it appears real in every sense. The food and drink can be consumed. They are delicious but do not count toward daily meal or water intake and have no intoxicating effects. Illusions.The bar and all its trappings, the food and drink, the music, the furniture, and the carpet are all illusory. Exits. The door through which the party enters is made of a rich dark wood. The exit is a metal filigree door with shattered glass framed in black wood on the opposite end of the room. 6. Changing Room This small room smells of death and leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. A broken chair and table are piled in one corner next to some hooks on the wall. One wall is made of mirrored rollaway doors, all but one of which is shattered. It is 20 feet long and 10 feet wide. Opening the mirrored rolling door reveals a closet, which has 1d6 sets of pristine noble’s clothes still hanging in it. These clothes are worth 300 gp per set. Illusions. There is nothing illusory in this room (though illusory details and encounters can occur here). Exits. There is a door directly opposite the door through which the party entered featuring a placard in dramatic script. (Creatures able to read Pre-Apocalyptic Common can discern that it says Glamour Room 1.) 7. Glamour Room 1 You step into a cube-shaped room of pure white. Ashy shadows are imprinted on the wall as clearly as if they were standing with a spotlight right in front of them. Two of the shadows resemble elven children dancing arm in arm. The third is an adult, arms outstretched in a clap. This area is 30 feet wide, 30 feet tall, and 30 feet long. One minute after the party enters, a clap, peals of laughter, and a flourish of raucous music can be heard for 3 seconds, as the shadows dance and cajole about once more, after which they all freeze again until 1 hour has passed. Illusions. The shadows, sounds, and color of the walls are illusory. Exits. The door the players entered through is a smooth white doorway. There is a locked trap door in the middle of the floor. The door can be unlocked with a successful DC 10 Dexterity (Thieves’ Tools) check.108 8. Glamour Room 2 You enter this room through a simple black door in a wall covered by pure jet black nothingness. You feel the crunch of sand beneath your feet as ocean spray tickles your face. Half of this 20-by-20-foot room is destroyed. The other half is a perfectly white sandy beach against a cerulean blue ocean. Palm trees with coconuts sway gently in the breeze. The ocean laps gently at the shore. An island breaks the water in the horizon. The beachy part of this room appears to go on forever to all senses. Lounge chairs are set up on the beach, one for each creature that enters, and their favorite drinks await them on the side tables. Illusions. Everything in this room except the walls, floors, and doors is illusory. The drinks can be consumed, but they have no effect. Exits. The door the players enter through is a singed 5-foot hole in the wall. The exit is an unlocked trap door in this room partially buried in the sand. 9. Automaton Repair The door through which you enter is flimsy and does not shut all the way. It is completely dark here except for a few twinkling, colored lights. It smells like an electric fire and burning steel wool. This room is hall full of automata in various states of disrepair, along with tools and chassis with which to repair them. The space measures 10 feet wide by 50 feet long with 10-foot ceilings. A boulder rests among the wreckage as though it crashed in through the wall of this room some time ago, crushing many automatons with it. 108. If the players are moving out of this room into one where they would normally walk through a door, think through how you’d like them to experience that. Do they feel their sense of proprioception shift to a new “up” and “down”? Do they simply find themselves standing inside the room? CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 261

The room is cluttered and covered in debris, making it difficult terrain. The area serves as a plentiful source of scrap and arcanotech salvage. Illusions. There is nothing illusory in this room (though illusory details and encounters can occur here). Exits. The entrance to this room is a wooden door painted grey. There is a door on the opposite end of the room, blocked by the boulder. Climbing the boulder requires a successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check. 10. Hallway A long hallway with a door dotting each side every 15 feet stretches ahead. The black carpet feels spongy and soft. Each door is numbered and locked. This hallway is 120 feet long and features sixteen doors (in addition to the door through which a creature enters). The lock on any door can be picked with a successful DC 10 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check. Every door leads to the same place—whichever ruins room manifests next. Illusions. The color of the walls and ceiling and the carpet are all illusory. The doors and floor are real. Exits. Going through any door (except the door through which a creature first entered) leads to the next room. 11. Glamour Room 3 You enter a raucous, crowded tavern. Through the windows lining the walls you see a sprawling fantasy city in winter, snow and ice between the grooves of cobblestone streets, chimneys with sweet-smelling smoke, and the hustle and bustle of well-fed, healthy, and happy people in commoner’s outfits. No one is wearing weapons or carrying food. Inside the bar, a bugbear in a velvet waistcoat plays a jaunty tune on a piano as everyone in the place joins in song. Everyone has a drink in hand, arms thrown around their friends, cheeks rosy with cold and alcohol. There’s a dice table in the back, and a plump human man is slinging drinks across the bar. No one in the bar responds verbally to the party. They give gregarious looks but continue to laugh and sing. They are not creatures; they are illusions with a limited programmed response. This vision lasts for 3 rounds, after which there is a blinding and instantaneous flash of blue light, and the patrons all exclaim wildly. All creatures in the room that rely on standard visibility must succeed on a DC 20 Constitution saving throw or be blinded for 1d4 rounds. The next round, the windows break, and the bar, patrons, and everything except creatures that entered the room and everything and everyone with whom they entered are vaporized into ash. For the next minute, the room appears as a 30-foot-by30-foot white cube with swirling ash and complete silence (except for any encounters or details the GM rolls in this room), then the bar blinks back into existence, and the cycle begins again. Illusions. Everything in this room is illusory at all times, including the explosions, the white walls, and the ash. Exits. There is no visible door to exit through while the room appears as the white cube. When the tavern is visible, there is a swinging door that appears to lead to a kitchen. When a creature passes through that door, it enters the next ruins room. 12. Observation The door through which you walk is made of gray-blue metal. As soon as you pass through the threshold, it closes and locks with an audible click. The room before you contains a large dashboard and bank of arcanotech buttons flanked by a series of ten stacked monitors. The ceiling of this room is partially wrecked, and a giant pipe has crashed into and destroyed seven of the monitors. This observation room is 15 feet long by 30 feet wide. A chair, empty save for a small pile of ash, is positioned in front of the dashboard, facing the monitors. A charred pastry sits on the desk in front of the chair, along with the remnants of a crystal glass. On the three functioning monitors are somewhat blurry visions from a bird’s eye view of each room in the Basalt Palace (which show the rooms themselves and some of their possible encounters and details). Every 10 minutes, one monitor shifts its view to another room. Each room except 25. Reactor Control can appear on the monitor. The dashboard has labels written in Pre-Apocalyptic Common. A successful DC 25 Intelligence (Investigation) check reveals the ability to zoom in on the images shown on the monitors. The DC for this check is reduced to 20 if the check is made by a creature who can read PreApocalyptic Common. A successful DC 25 Intelligence (Investigation) check allows a creature to choose from the images it has seen on the monitors and queue it as the next room they’ll enter when they go through the new door leading out of the observation room. This door is on the far end of the wall with the dashboard and is locked (DC 15 to unlock). An unsuccessful ability check made to operate the dashboard in any way triggers the monitors to shut down, an alert buzzer to sound, and the ground to rumble. All the rooms in the Basalt Palace reset; any creatures that attempt to retrace their steps backward through the ruins instead enter a new room, and rooms that have been previously explored can be found again. Illusions. Nothing in this room is illusory, and the dashboard and monitors are all highly magical. Exits. In addition to the gray-blue door through which creatures enter the observation room, there is another door on the opposite wall adjacent to the dashboard. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations 262 weird waStelandS

13. Elevator This small square stall is lined with jet-black wooden wainscoting and ornate gold molding. Plush black carpet covers the floor, and the hum of something mechanical permeates the space. There are two sets of metal sliding doors on opposite sides of the elevator. There is a bank of one hundred buttons on the wall, with markings next to them in an unfamiliar alphabet. The elevator is 10 feet wide and 10 feet tall. The markings next to the buttons are numbers written in Pre-Apocalyptic Common. If a creature presses the 1 button, all creatures inside feel a gentle lurch as the elevator begins to move, and the elevator opens onto 1. Grand Foyer. If a creature presses any other button, the elevator opens onto the next ruins room determined by the GM’s random roll. The door opposite the one through which creatures entered is the one that opens when a button is pressed. If a creature attempts to force open the elevator doors, inky blackness spills into the elevator and fills it in 1 round. All creatures in the elevator are then teleported to the next ruins room determined by the GM’s random roll. Illusions. The color of the walls, the molding, the carpeting, the sound of mechanical whirring, and the sense of movement is all illusory. The buttons and doors are real. Exits. Creatures in the elevator cannot go back the way they came. The opposite door opens to reveal the next room (see the main room description for specifics). 14. Glamour Room 4 The door behind you closes as you enter. This room is thick with sweet incense and humid air. Burning wall torches emit dim light while soft, soothing horn music accompanies the crackle in the fireplace. This opulent bedroom has a mirrored ceiling, a large round bed, a table with enough seats for your group, a wardrobe, and a partially open door on the far wall. Everyone in this 20-foot-by-20-foot bedroom room appears as the most beautiful version of themselves, whatever that means to them. The door shuts itself when the last creature enters. The black velvet blankets on the bed turn themselves down. A pitcher fills a basin of water, which then floats over to the dirtiest creature along with a jet-black cloth and begins to wash them. One chair for each creature in the room moves away from the table and waits by each creature’s side. If a creature sits down, the chair moves them over to the table, where their favorite meal appears. Consuming the meal is enjoyable but provides no benefits. A creature that succeeds on a DC 10 Intelligence (Investigation) check to search the room finds a pair of platinum handcuffs and a suit of adamantine armor in the wardrobe. Illusions. Everything in this room except the walls, doors, platinum handcuffs, and suit of adamantine armor are illusory. Exits. There are two doors in this room: the door through which creatures enter, and the door on the far wall, which leads to the next room. 15. Glamour Room 5 The brisk, fresh wind of a boreal forest meets you as the door vanishes behind you. Massive evergreen trees stretch across a hilly landscape as far as the eye can see, and you hear a song in a strange language being sung nearby. In the distance, you can see a lazy pillar of smoke rising from a clearing between the trees. The ample wildlife—birds, squirrels, porcupines, badgers, insects—are all unfamiliar to you, and, somehow, they are all smiling. The trees surrounding the party are 100 feet tall. As the party makes their way through the forest, they hear happy singing. If any party members can understand Pre-Apocalyptic Common, they realize the lyrics are about how wonderful it is to learn and grow in the forest. The smoke is coming from a small house made of candy 250 feet from where the party enters the area. The front door of the house is closed and locked. Knocking on the door will cause it to open, or it can be unlocked with a successful DC 10 Dexterity (Thieves’ Tools) check. Illusions. Everything in this space except for the two doors is illusory. Exits. Passing through the door in the candy house leads to the next room. 16. Hall of Public Illusion This grand hall is so poised to dazzle the senses that its emptiness seems criminal. Enough seats for everyone alive in the Weird Wastelands line the several-storied amphitheater around a vast floor covered in a layer of black sand, footprints, and piles of ash. Music with a throbbing baseline along with the sounds of a thousand ecstatic cheers vibrate through the area, and the place smells of roasting meats, beer, and hot oil, though there is none to be found. The entire hall is an illusion. Creatures entering this room can attempt a DC 20 Wisdom saving throw. If they fail or choose not to attempt the saving throw, creatures see an additional illusory display complete with signs in their preferred language, bathrooms, concessions, and even the groups that were battling in the last fateful match held here: the Honeyfrost Hemorrhages versus the Bloodlust of Angelfall. Creatures who are not under the additional illusory effect can attempt a DC 20 Wisdom (Perception) check to identify the footsteps of at least 100 people, many of which lead to a small pile of ash and a pile of simple weapons and metal armor. The same type of equipment can be found in several of the amphitheater seats. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 263

There are a few luxury boxes on the ground floor under the seating area, bound by chest-high filigreed gates. The boxes contain a scroll of raise dead, a ring of the ram, a bag of beans, and 1d6 × 1,000 gp. Illusions. Everything in this space is illusory except the contents of the luxury boxes and the piles of ash. Exits. Going through any of the many doors around this hall leads to the next room. 17. Library This room contains a perfectly preserved black velvet couch, a lamp, and a side table surrounded by floor-to-ceiling shelves full of books with covers in every color of the rainbow. One round after a creature that breathes air enters the room, all the books disintegrate into swirls of dust and ash. A single page out of thousands of volumes remains intact. It has a few words of Pre-Apocalyptic Common written on it. It reads, “The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true.” A creature can locate the door to the next room, which is actually behind one of the shelves, with a successful DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check. The shelf can be moved away from the others to reveal the wall. Illusions. The furnishings are all illusory. The books were real, as is the remaining page. Exits. The door behind the moveable shelf leads to the next room. 18. Glamour Room 6 You find yourselves walking on a vast cloud suspended in a bright blue empyrean sky. Two harps float in midair before you, emanating a tune of ethereal music a half-second out of sync with the vibration of the harp strings. Gardens and lakes spread out before you, and crystal tables surrounded by golden chairs are bedecked with empty golden dishes, although you swear you can smell the tantalizing scent of gourmet food. In the distance, an enormous temple gleams in the sunlight. The cloud is soft, steady, and can easily support the weight of the party. Creatures are able to walk on the cloud as if it were solid ground. This expansive area is dotted with perfectly manicured parks and crystalline lakes as far as the eye can see. The cloud “floor” angles upward toward a massive, columned, golden temple, the benevolent sun’s rays arcing out gently behind it. There is a closed door in the center of the temple. When a creature gets within 10 feet of the door, it opens halfway. Any creature within 10 feet of the door when it opens hears the voice of a deceased loved one say in their preferred language from behind the door, “You’ve come for a visit! We have so much to catch up on.” Illusions. Every aspect of this room is illusory. Exits. Going through the temple door leads to the next room. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations 264 weird waStelandS

What can it do? That’s up to you. But something to do with illusion or conjuration would make sense. Perhaps it creates 2d6 meals per day that convey the effects of heroes’ feast to anyone who consumes them, or something like that! 19. Glamour Room 7 This room is utterly dark and empty, with walls, ceiling, and floor covered in bouncy black goo. Before your eyes, it begins to change. When a creature enters the area, the room is 20 feet wide, 20 feet long, and has 20-foot ceilings. It changes over the course of 3 rounds beginning when any creature enters the room. Creatures that enter the room must attempt a Charisma ability check immediately upon entering to determine the shape the room takes. If any creature rolls a 1, the room morphs into a place that reflects the lowest point in the life of the creature that rolled the 1. If no one rolls a 1, the room changes into a place that reflects the favorite place of the creature with the highest result (roll off for ties). When the room changes, it reflects a place, complete with sensory effects, but does not create creatures. A door thematically appropriate to the illusion is also created and can only be opened by the creature whose roll resulted in the room’s transformation. Anything created as a result of the Charisma check can be taken from the room and used as normal. When objects from this room are taken out of the Basalt Palace, they vanish instantly. Any food and drink created in this room offer no benefit. Illusions. The walls, floor, ceiling are real. The bouncy black goo is also real but radiates strong illusory magic. Everything else in the room is illusory. Exits. The door created as a result of the Charisma check leads to the next room. 20. Reagent Storage This small room reeks of caustic chemicals and is extremely cold. The walls are lined with shelves, and every shelf is packed full of jars. There is a great heap of metal, wire, crystals, and black goo in the center of the room. The reagent storage room is a 15-foot square room lined with shelves brimming with jars of various sizes. A creature proficient in the Arcana skill instantly knows that all the jars contain alchemical reagents and spell components. A successful DC 20 Intelligence (Arcana) check reveals that the heap of metal, crystals, and goo is a broken arcanotech wonder. The entire room is a rich source of arcanotech salvage.109 109. See the “Scrounging for Scrap” section on p. 128 of chapter 3. A successful DC 10 Intelligence (Investigation) or Wisdom (Perception) check reveals that one of the shelves is on a hinge and can be swung back to reveal a door. Illusions. Everything in this room is real, though the black oozy material in the broken arcanotech wonder contains powerful illusory magic. Exits. The hidden door behind the shelves leads to the next room. 21. Glamour Room 8 Footsteps echo on the stony floor of this cavern. Piles of gold, jewels, statues, and other objects lie heaped in disorganized piles. Atop the highest pile of treasure is a stark indentation from something large and heavy, though there appears to be nothing there. The place smells strongly of metal and is silent, save for the jingle of the occasional displaced riches. The treasure piles in this 30-foot-wide, 30-footlong, 200-foot-tall cavern are difficult terrain. Moving within 10 feet of the largest treasure pile without attempting to conceal sound or movement triggers the intense sounds of an ancient black dragon roaring and flapping its wings along with movement of the indentation on the treasure pile as though great feet are walking down the mountain of riches. Everyone within 10 feet of the treasure pile must succeed on a DC 20 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1d4 rounds. Atop the highest pile, there is a small pile of ash, a chainmail loincloth for a Medium-sized humanoid, and a sunblade. A creature can find the hidden door to the next room on the floor under one of the treasure piles by succeeding on a DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check. Illusions.Everything in this room is illusory except the ash pile, the loincloth, and the sunblade. Exits. The hidden door under the treasure pile leads to the next room. 22. Glamour Room 9 This small room is utterly dark and empty, its walls, ceiling, and floor covered in black goo. The opposite side of the room is full to the ceiling of basalt chunks and twisted metal. A gap in the rubble leads into a tunnel that disappears into darkness. This room is a 30-foot cube. Half of it is completely empty, making it a suitable resting place. There is a 5-foot-by-5-foot tunnel beside the CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 265

rubble that leads into darkness and then into the next room. Illusions. There is nothing illusory in this room (though illusory details and encounters can occur here). Exits. The tunnel in the rubble leads to the next room. 23. Shadow Chameleon Nest You find yourselves traveling through a cramped tunnel among twisted rubble. It smells acrid and organic. At the end of the tunnel you emerge into a cleared burrow, with a round pile of pristine clothes, shoes, and personal effects mixed with wet black sand at its center. The 5-foot-by-5-foot tunnel emerges into a 30-footby-30-foot room, where a shadow chameleon has made its nest of clothing, shoes, and other accessories. If the party enters this room via a roll on the Ruins Rooms table (result 23), the room is empty. If they enter via a roll on the Ruins Room Encounters table (result 24), its eggs are present.110 Hidden within the nest are 4d8 Tiny eggs which require a successful DC 20 Intelligence (Investigation) check to find. If a creature fails this ability check, 1d8 eggs are destroyed, and the shadow chameleon may be alerted. Roll a d6. On a 1–3, if the shadow chameleon is alive, it senses its eggs breaking and returns in 1d6 rounds. Anyone with proficiency in Animal Handling, Nature, or another relevant skill of the GM’s choice can easily recognize the eggs as reptile eggs. A successful DC 15 Wisdom (Animal Handling) or Intelligence (Nature) check reveals that the eggs are fertilized, healthy, and not long from hatching. If the party takes a rest in this room, roll a d6. On a 1–3, if it is alive, the shadow chameleon returns during their rest and attacks. If the party takes any eggs from the room and the shadow chameleon is alive, it appears in the next room and attacks. There is an obvious exit from this room on the opposite wall from which the party enters, a 5-foot-by-5-foot tunnel sealed with a vent cover. The cover can be pulled off the wall with a successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check. Other ruins room encounters besides 24. Shadow Chameleon in Its Nest cannot occur in this room. Illusions. There is nothing illusory in this rooms (though illusory details can occur here). Exits. When a creature passes through the opening into the tunnel behind the vent cover, it immediately appears in the next room. 110. For more information about the shadow chameleon eggs, see “Loot” in the “Rewards” section of the Basalt Palace on p. 274. 24. Adamant Vault The walls of this narrow corridor are dark metal, and the area is lit by an unseen source. On either end are two large metal doors with large combination wheels. The air is stale. The corridor is 5 feet wide, 15 feet long, and 10 feet tall. At each end of the corridor stands a locked door made of adamantine, with heavy wheels and locking mechanisms. Both doors are locked. The walls of the corridor are made of iron-encased lead, and both the doors and the walls are 5 feet thick. In order to open the doors, both of them must be activated at the same time with simultaneous successful DC 25 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) checks. If one ability check is a success and the other is a failure, one door successfully opens and leads to the next ruins room, but the shadow chameleon appears and attacks (if it’s alive). If both ability checks are successes, both doors open, and both lead to the Adamant Vault. Inside the vault are an arcanotech wonder of the GM’s choice, three objects of very rare or greater rarity, 10d6 × 1,000 gp, a Pre-Apocalyptic Common dictionary, a collection of love letters written by James Joyce to his wife, an animated painting of a noble bugbear with a cheeky smile, and a token of non-fungability, which grants immunity from attacks from fungal creatures and permanently grants the effects of gentle repose on the creature carrying it any time that creature dies. Illusions. The light in this room is illusory. Exits. If only one check to open the doors succeeds, that door opens and leads to the next room. If both checks succeed and the vault is revealed, there is an unlocked door to a closet in the back of the vault through which the next room is entered. 25. Reactor Control This room literally hums with power. Hair stands on end, colors seem brighter, and every sensation feels stronger as the remains of the massive reactor that once controlled the entire palace now wreak magical havoc on its every room. The low ceiling gives way on the opposite end of the room over the ruined reactor to a blurry, blinding pillar of blue light that extends and disappears into the sky above. Among the massive tangle of metal and crystal, several crystalline rods the size of pikes reach up menacingly into the intense blue light. A female humanoid is impaled, unmoving, on one of the rods. Reactor Control has none of the style and glamour that its power generates for the rest of the Basalt Palace. The room was once spartan, save for the reactor itself, which still glitters with blinking lights and glyphs. The dizzying array of knobs, gauges, and buttons on the adamantine panels that still stand are labeled in Pre-Apocalyptic Common. The half of the room where the party enters is intact, featuring a 10-foot-tall ceiling and three intact adamantine panels of the reactor, which beep and hum softly. The opposite CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations 266 weird waStelandS

half of the room is a scene of utter destruction. The ceiling appears to have exploded outward and is impassable due to the twisted mess of metal, coils, crystal, and a dozen control rods rising into the sky above. The blue light for which the Basalt Palace is infamous radiates up from the destruction. Separating the two sides of the room is an invisible, 5-foot-thick wall of force (cast at 6th level). This obstacle can be overcome through typical magical workarounds, but there is also a button on one of the intact panels that raises and lowers the wall. A creature can locate the button by succeeding on a DC 25 Intelligence (Investigation) check. Creatures that can read Pre-Apocalyptic Common have advantage on this check. The side of the room with the wreckage is filled with scintillating radiance. If the wall is lowered or otherwise removed, the scintillating radiance fills the entire room (rather than just the side with the wreckage). If the wall is raised or reinstated, the scintillating radiance on the intact side of the room fades in 1 minute. There is an unconscious woman in a light-colored jumpsuit impaled on one of the control rods, which vary in length from 10 to 20 feet long. The woman is the SevenFold Matron (archmage stat block), who was said to have entered the Basalt Palace ages ago when the Last City of MAN was a bright and vibrant city. She went to the palace to attempt to stabilize the reactor, to quell the illusory disorder of the palace and avert what many feared was an inevitable eventual meltdown. There are a number of ways to free the Seven-Fold Matron. Physically lifting her body off the control rod or pulling the rod out requires a DC 20 Strength (Athletics) check. Alternatively, a creature can attempt to free the Seven-Fold Matron by using the reactor control panels. A creature that succeeds on a DC 25 Intelligence (Arcana) or Intelligence (Investigation) check deciphers the mechanisms of the reactor and learns the following dangerous process required to free the Matron from the rods. The control rods, each resembling a crystalline wand wrapped in metallic coils, can be lowered via the control panel into the area concealing the wreckage of most of the reactor to reduce the energy being generated from it. If inspected, the rods are found to generate extremely strong necromantic and evocation magic. The rods are extremely cold and deal 2d6 cold damage plus 2d6 necrotic damage to any creature that touches them. A successful DC 25 Intelligence (Arcana) or Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check to manipulate the control panel results in the rods lowering, freeing the Seven-Fold Matron. GMs may grant advantage on this check to creatures who have experience with arcanotech creation and identification. If a creature fails the ability check, radiant energy bursts through the room. Every creature in the room must attempt a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw, taking 6d8 radiant damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. The reactor is failing. Three failed ability checks to manipulate the reactor control panels speeds the meltdown. Creatures can significantly delay the meltdown with a successful DC 25 Intelligence (Arcana) or Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check to manipulate the control panel, stabilizing the reactor for 2d4 months. To buy time, creatures can alternately delay the meltdown by casting spells that deal cold or necrotic damage on the reactor. The reactor has 1,000 hit points and an AC of 12. Each point of damage dealt in this way delays the meltdown by 1d4 minutes.111 If the reactor reaches 0 hit points, the entire palace explodes, dealing 1,000 points of radiant damage to all creatures and objects within a half mile of it. The entire Weird Wastelands are contaminated with scintillating radiance for the next 1,000 years. If the Seven-Fold Matron is healed, she regains consciousness. She has no memory of anything between when the reactor exploded and when she regains consciousness. Upon regaining consciousness, she is able to use the control panel to stabilize the reactor, at least temporarily. (See the “Putting It All Together” section for more information on when the meltdown is set to occur and what the party might do to stop it permanently.) If the shadow chameleon is alive, it appears in the area 5 rounds after the party enters the room. If the Seven-Fold Matron is still unconscious when the shadow chameleon appears, it attacks the party. It can be calmed by casting calm emotions on it or with a successful DC 25 Wisdom (Animal Handling) check. The DC of this check is reduced to 20 if the party has healed the shadow chameleon any time during their adventure in the Basalt Palace. If the Seven-Fold Matron is conscious when the shadow chameleon appears, she calms the chameleon and explains that it is her dear familiar, Shadow. The Seven-Fold Matron explains that the chameleon must have been affected by the palace’s disordered magic over the years she’s been trapped in Reactor Control. If the shadow chameleon was slain before the party healed her, she resummons it, and it reappears in its solid state. The Seven-Fold Matron thanks the party and pledges to help them. If there are any casters in the party with abilities that deal cold or necrotic damage, she enlists their aid immediately to temporarily stabilize the reactor (and stabilize the order of the rooms within the Basalt Palace, thus allowing for delves in the order in which the group traversed it).112 Ruins room encounters and ruins room details cannot occur in this room. Illusions. Nothing in this room is illusory. Exits. The only exit to this room is the way the creatures entered. 111. See the “Putting it All Together” section for more information on when the meltdown is set to occur. 112. See the “Putting It All Together” section for more information on how the Seven-Fold Matron can become a recurring NPC in your campaign. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 267

Ruins Room Details The following table and list contain details that can be found inside any room in the Basalt Palace (except 25. Reactor Control). Some are hazards, some are boons, and most are a result of the chaotic magic running rampant through the palace. RUINS ROOM DETAILS RESULT DETAIL 1 Nothing 2 Dead wastelander 3 Too bright 4 Physical relativity 5 Nothing 6 Dead silence 7 Olfactory overdrive 8 Scary aura 9 Nothing 10 Full up 11 Vestibular overstimulation 12 Oops, everything’s real 13 Nothing 14 Remember the dead 15 Dangerous plaything 16 Red light 17 Light trap 18 Nothing 19 Mirror 20 Are we still alive? 21 Yellow light 22 Perfect respite 23 Exit 24 Nothing 25 White light 1. Nothing There are no additional details in this room. 2. Dead Wastelander The body of a recently deceased wastelander lies eviscerated in this room. They are equipped with an explorer’s pack, one melee weapon, a set of medium armor, enough food and water for two days, a bag of holding, and a journal that reveals treacherous plans to screw M, T, and P out of their shares of scrap when they get out of the palace. The wastelander has one additional item on them: roll once on the I Search the Body table to determine what it is.113 3. Too Bright Harsh light is generated from some unknown source in this room. Creatures with sunlight sensitivity are blinded while in this room, and all others have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight while in this room. 4. Physical Relativity Space is bent in this room. Every creature is always within melee range of every other creature in the room. 5. Nothing There are no additional details in this room. 6. Dead Silence This room is ensconced in a silence spell that cannot be dispelled. 7. Olfactory Overdrive The scents in this room are overwhelming. Every creature in the room smells their favorite smell and must succeed on a DC 20 Wisdom saving throw upon entering the room or be stunned for 1d4 rounds, dazzled by the incredible scent. 8. Scary Aura There’s something terrifying about this room. Creatures that can see must succeed on a DC 20 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of the room for 1d6 rounds. 9. Nothing There are no additional details in this room. 10. Full Up This room is filled with stone rubble. The entire room is considered difficult terrain. 11. Vestibular Overstimulation This room instills illusory vertigo. Any time a creature that is not immune to the prone condition moves in this room, it must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone. 12. Oops, Everything’s Real Everything in this room that is normally illusory is real114 and can be taken out of the room. 13. Nothing There are no additional details in this room. 113. The I Search the Body table can be found near the end of chapter 4 on p. 171. 114. If this detail appears in conjunction with room 21. Glamour Room 8, the sounds and other stimuli seem to emanate from an adult black dragon under the effect of greater invisibility cast at 4th level. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations 268 weird waStelandS

14. Remember the Dead The party finds the picked-over and decaying corpse of an orc remembrancer. They carry standard adventuring gear, a silver dagger, a wand of fear, and a scroll of greater restoration. The remembrancer has two additional items on them: roll twice on the I Search the Body table to determine what they are.115 15. Dangerous Plaything In the corner of this room is a stuffed toy tarrasque with glowing red eyes. The eyes have been enchanted with a permanent antipathy spell effect, targeting any creature that makes eye contact with the doll. The effect persists until the spell is dispelled or the doll’s eyes are destroyed. 16. Red Light A 5 foot wide beam of crimson light arcs across this room. If a creature attempts to pass through the light, it must attempt a DC 20 Dexterity saving throw, taking 10d6 fire damage on a failure, or half as much damage on a success. Nonmagical ranged attacks cannot pass through the light. The light can be destroyed by dealing at least 25 cold damage to it. A mirror can be used to reflect this light. 17. Light Trap In the center of the room is a lamp atop a 10-foot-high, 5-foot-wide stone column. A dark-blue light shines down from the lamp in a 10-foot radius. A stone mouse is sitting within the light. Anyone who enters the light must 115. The I Search the Body table can be found near the end of chapter 4 on p. 171. attempt a DC 20 Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, the creature is restrained. It must then attempt a Constitution saving throw at the end of each of its turns. If it succeeds three times, the spell ends. If it fails three times, it permanently turns to stone and becomes petrified. The successes and failures don’t need to be consecutive. While the lamp is intact, spells cannot be cast and nothing can be targeted within its light. The lamp is destroyed when it takes 30 points of damage or if it is targeted with a dispel magic of 6th level or greater or a similar spell of equal or higher level that can end spells and magical effects. 18. Nothing There are no additional details in this room. 19. Mirror A Large, twelve-sided crystal mirror hangs on the wall. It is real, and its back is made of pure silver. It weighs 40 pounds. 20. Are We Still Alive? The party encounters their own real, ancient, mummified corpses with full gear, minus magic items or arcanotech devices.116 21. Yellow Light A 10 foot by 10 foot wide beam of warm yellow light permeates the room. Each creature that enters the light must attempt a DC 20 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the creature takes 6d8 radiant damage and is blinded until its next turn. On a success, the creature finds a mote of pure sunlight in their hand and can cast sunbeam at will for 1 minute. A mirror can be used to reflect this light. 22. Perfect Respite Each creature that enters this room finds a bed perfectly sized and decorated for it, with a tray of its favorite meal atop it. The beds appear real to every sense, but if detect magic or a similar spell is cast on them, a creature can detect that they are illusory. If any part of the beds or the meals cross the threshold of the room, they vanish. If a creature consumes its favorite meal, it regains 2d10 hit points. 23. Exit This room has a small, unlocked trap door in the floor. It leads to the space outside the ruins. A creature can look through the trap door and clearly see that it leads out of the ruins before choosing to go through it. 24. Nothing There are no additional details in this room. 116. Ask each player to describe how their characters died. This makes for a compelling narrative moment! CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 269

25. White Light This room is filled with pure white light. Each creature that enters the room must attempt a DC 30 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, the creature has a vision of the thing it wants most in the world and experiences the feelings of receiving that thing. Though the vision may last hours, it only takes a fraction of a second to experience. The creature is fully healed and gains the benefit of a long rest. On a success, nothing happens. Once this detail has appeared in the ruins, it cannot appear again in the same delve. A mirror can be used to reflect this light. Ruins Room Encounters Each entry contains a brief description of the creatures and a prompt for an encounter scenario. The encounter descriptions detail any modifications to the base creature stat block and special considerations for running the encounter. Unless otherwise noted, no encounters can leave the room they are encountered in, and illusory creatures are noted in the titles. Estimated difficulty is based on a party of four adventurers of 13th level. 1. Nothing There is no encounter in this room 2. Ropers (Illusory) Five objects in this room are ropers that attack any creature that gets within 5 feet of them. 3. Queen Bez (Illusory) A lizardwoman (use the commoner stat block) dressed in pristine, regal robes and a small crown of palm leaves made of gold cowers in a corner. When she sees the party, she cries out in Common. She begs them to take her out of this place and explains that the palace exploded, she cannot find her retinue, and there are horrible things lurking everywhere. Her name is Queen Bez of the Drulitarean Morass (no one in the Weird Wastelands knows the name or location), and she was here to watch a gladiator match and experience the glamour rooms. If the party agrees to help her, she follows them. If they do not, she attempts to leave through the entrance the group came in from. As her body passes any threshold out of the room, her body winks out of existence. She is an illusion. If a creature in this room succeeds on a DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check to search the room, the creature discovers a small pile of ash in the corner with a crown of golden palm leaves worth d6 × 1000 gp atop it. 4. The Artist (Illusory) A highly intelligent and adaptively programmed illusory bard is in this room. They cannot speak, but they can sing (at the GM’s discretion) and follow the party until they next leave the ruins. The bard generates music, poetry, or song lyrics describing what the party encounters as they follow their adventures. The bard is not limited to the instruments it can physically play at any one time. 5. Draco-Glitch (Illusory) An illusory ancient black dragon is in this room. It attacks for two rounds, then fades into a puddle of electric-blue light. It is unable to take lair actions. 6. Nothing There is no encounter in this room 7. Glimpse of the Shadow Chameleon A puddle of twinkling prismatic light pools on the floor of this room. When a creature gets within 5 feet of the light, it transforms into its solid form: the shadow chameleon. The shadow chameleon walks through the room and seamlessly passes through a wall. Its eyes follow the party as it leaves. In its wake are 1d100 iron caltrops. RUINS ROOM ENCOUNTERS RESULT ENCOUNTER 1 Nothing 2 Ropers 3 Queen Bez 4 The Artist 5 Draco-Glitch 6 Nothing 7 Glimpse of the Shadow Chameleon 8 Weapons and Armor 9 Spudnik 10 Light and Shadow 11 Anti-Elementals 12 Nothing 13 Fission Shadows 14 King Grushk 15 Muddle, Tuttle, and Prut 16 Nothing 17 Castor 18 Bleeding Shadow Chameleon 19 Oobod the Tremendous 20 Wandering Monster 21 Nothing 22 Rival Adventuring Party 23 Xorn 24 Shadow Chameleon in Its Nest 25 Iwyn CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations 270 weird waStelandS

8. Weapons and Armor (Illusory) One hundred pristine longswords and one hundred suits of plate armor are stacked in piles along one wall. Within these piles are five flying swords and five suits of animated armor, all of which attack any creature within 5 feet of them. 9. Spudnik In this room is Spudnik, a tiny, oblong robot. When any humanoid creature enters the room, it recognizes it as a visitor it must serve. It welcomes the creature to the Basalt Palace, asks if it can serve anyone food or drink, in which case it produces out of a door in its belly a bottle of sealed, fresh water and putrid, shriveled fruit that instantly turns to dust when touched. Spudnik is real and follows the party. It reveals the intended function of any room and knows the basic attributes of the shadow chameleon and three other potential enemy creatures in the palace (GM’s choice). Spudnik attempts to clean when not otherwise occupied. Spudnik functions as a homunculus servant and is Medium. It considers the first humanoid it sees as its master, unless ordered otherwise. If killed, Spudnik has jeweled clockwork mechanisms inside it worth 10d100 gp and alchemical reagents and solvents worth 300 gp. 10. Light and Shadow The shadow chameleon is in this room in its immaterial form. It stays in this form until it is attacked, attacks if it takes damage, and seamlessly floats through a wall and exits the room if it takes 70 or more damage. 11. Anti-Elementals Four tiny earth elementals are in the corner of this room. (They use the earth elemental stat block but they are Tiny, have a Strength score of 10, have an Intelligence score of 18, deal 1d6 damage, and have a 20-foot flying speed.) They explain in simple Common that they wish to be taken out of the palace. If anyone can communicate with them in Terran or psychically, the elementals can convey that they used to be dirt but came to consciousness during a large explosion, and they have been lost ever since. There are other earth elementals here, but the four of them became philosophically estranged from the rest of the elementals after resolving to reject the weighty oppression of gravity and self-actualize as beings that transcend elemental forces. If the party brings the anti-elementals outside the palace, they float away, their soil drifting away in the wind to reveal a single mote of crimson energy that zips off into space with a spiraling flourish. During their next short rest, all creatures who helped the anti-elementals are visited by them in a vision. The anti-elementals thank them for their help, restore all their hit points, and remove all their levels of exhaustion. 12. Nothing There is no encounter in this room. 13. Fission Shadows There are 2d6 fission shadows in this room. (The fission shadows use the shadow stat block, but they are immune to radiant damage, deal radiant damage instead of necrotic damage, deal 3d8 + 2 damage, and damage Constitution instead of Strength. Fission shadows appear on walls as though they were shadows of people etched for eternity as they were at the moment of some great detonation. They appear as charred shadows with holes through their heads where their eyes once were. Fission shadows are real (not illusory) and leave a charcoal smudge on everything they touch. There is also loot in this room in piles of ash. Roll on the “I Search the Body” table117 once for every two fission shadows in the room to determine the loot in the ash piles. Additionally, one uncommon or rare magic item for every four fission shadows can be found in the piles. 14. King Grushk A lizardperson in grand white robes and a crown on his head along with four gnomes are sitting on the floor idly waiting. When a humanoid enters the room, the lizardperson speaks in Pre-Apocalyptic Common in a berating tone to the humanoid. (The lizardperson uses the mummy lord stat block, and the gnomes use the mummy stat block.) A successful DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check allows a character to understand what the lizardperson is saying. The lizardperson inquires about the explosion (insisting it just happened a few minutes ago), asks where his wife is, and wonders why it took the service staff (the party) so long to help them. He is indolent and outraged, and he believes it is still preapocalyptic time. He insists upon being led to the hotelier at once. The lizardperson identifies himself as King Grushk of the Drulitarean Morass (an unknown place to all in the Weird Wastelands). The gnomes look on silently. Once per minute, a successful DC 20 Intelligence (Perception) check reveals that one of the gnomes or the lizardperson’s appearance shifts for a moment into a charred, desiccated corpse, although their behavior and demeanor remains the same. If a creature that succeeds on the check succeeds on a subsequent DC 25 Wisdom (Perception) check, it realizes Grushk and the gnomes are undead. Grushk is an unfriendly NPC. He is hard-pressed to believe that the Basalt Palace is in ruins, that much time has passed, that there is anything wrong with him, or that his wife is surely dead. He is willing to follow the party out of the palace. If he and his cohorts exit the palace, their illusory forms fall, and they realize they are undead. Grushk and the gnomes bewail their fate and the fate of their beloved Morass and walk out into their new reality as undead walkers of the wastes. 117. The I Search the Body table can be found near the end of chapter 4 on p. 171. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 271

15. Muddle, Tuttle, and Prut A dwarf, a halfling, and an orc are huddled together in the corner of this room, brandishing weapons amidst a pile of bags and sacks full of something heavy. They are dressed in tattered wastelander clothing and have a wild look in their eyes. They call out a half-hearted warning in Common not to come any closer, or they will attack. These are the lost adventurers Muddle, Tuttle, and Prut (they use the scout, spy, and veteran stat blocks respectively). Another member of their party, Percy, became frightened and exited the palace, and they have been waiting on them since. They have more salvage than they can carry, and they do not wish to leave any. If the party has proof of their lost party member’s demise and treachery, they accept the party’s help in leaving the palace and give them Percy’s share of their loot: arcanotech scrap worth 1d6 × 10,000 gp. 16. Nothing There is no encounter in this room 17. Castor (Illusory) A red-haired human gladiator donning brilliant, spiked plate armor, a sword, and a shield is sitting cross-legged in the middle of the room with a peaceful look on his face. He greets the party in Common, winks out of existence for a moment, reappears in melee range of the closest humanoid, makes one attack, and immediately reappears on the floor and apologizes. (He uses the gladiator stat block, and he is wielding the equipment found in the palace “Rewards” section.) This gladiator is named Castor, and he knows he is an illusion. He remembers his death by explosion, and over the decades he has realized he can communicate with everyone who comes through the palace, even though in life his language was rare in these parts. Any time he tries to leave, he ends up back in one of the rooms of the Basalt Palace. If asked about the wonders of the prior age, he has little to say but that the splendors of it were reserved for the kinds of people who watched him fight, and that from what he can gather, life isn’t so different now. He knows quite a bit about the shadow chameleon’s combat attributes and other characters inside the palace. Every few minutes, his illusory program reinitializes, and he attacks a random humanoid at melee range before reverting back to where he was. He has partial control of his actions, though he cannot leave the palace. He wishes to be released from this eternal burden. Killing him does not work, but an arcane solution may be able to break the magic holding him in place. If the party is able to release Castor from existence, he offers to give them his weapon (vorpal sword), shield (animated shield), and armor (armor of invulnerability). The objects cease to exist when taken out of the palace but function as intended when inside. Castor is able to accompany the party and may act as a translator when needed (he also speaks Pre-Apocalyptic Common), but he will not fight on the party’s behalf and has a detached attitude about them. He believes the party will likely die, as many have before, and that there is no way to fix this place. 18. Bleeding Shadow Chameleon The shadow chameleon is in this room in its solid form. It stays in this form and attacks if dealt damage. It has a wound on one of its toes that is bleeding out iron caltrops. If a party member attempts to tend to its wounds, they must succeed on a DC 25 Wisdom (Animal Handling) check or the shadow chameleon attacks. On a success, the shadow chameleon nuzzles the person who helped it. The nuzzled creature must succeed on a DC 25 Charisma saving throw or be overcome with feelings of grief and convinced for 1 minute that they are unable to help the person they love most. The shadow chameleon then reverts into light form and passes through the wall and out of the room. 19. Oobod the Tremendous (Illusory) An illusory djinni named Oobod the Tremendous is in this room. He has purple skin and purple hair, and his booming, friendly voice fills the room. Oobod is a relic of the arcane programming of the Basalt Palace whose job it was to guide new visitors through the glamour rooms and make changes to better suit their whims. Every time he encounters the party, he is able to alter the next room they encounter in one way: he can ensure the room is empty of other creatures, he can remove a hazardous detail, or he can move the party to any room they specify except 25. Reactor Control. He can only do one of these things on any given encounter with him. When he does, he vanishes in a puff of purple smoke. Once Oobod the Tremendous has been encountered three times, he never returns. When he disappears, reroll another encounter for this room. 20. Wandering Monster A monster from this region has managed to wander into the Basalt Palace. Roll on the terrain encounter table for the terrain in which you have set the Basalt Palace and add the spell-warped template to it.118 21. Nothing There is no encounter in this room 22. Rival Adventuring Party There is a rival adventuring party in this room: a human named Fabian (gladiator), a dwarf named Brondel (gladiator), a lizardperson named Jot (assassin), a halfling named 118. The terrain encounter tables can be found in the “Terrain-Based Encounter Tables” section on p. 159 in chapter 4. The spell-warped creature template can be found on p. 292 in chapter 6. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations 272 weird waStelandS

Treat this group as a murderhobo adventuring party. GMs who miss playing, now is your chance to jump in and play for keeps. Elry (assassin), and a gnome named Delilah (mage). Their goal is whatever the party’s goal is, and they do not want the other group to achieve their goal first. Notable gear they carry includes a mace of terror, a wand of magic detection, a +2 boomerang, a vicious longsword, and a +2 shield. 23. Xorn There are 1d6 xorn furiously digging into the ground in this room. They speak Terran and Common. They sniff at any party members with rare metals or gems and beg for them to be shared. The Basalt Palace is delicious, but they long for a little variety. They offer to dig a tunnel to the room beyond the next one (add an additional +1 to the roll) in exchange for metal or gems. The xorn know the anti-elementals119 and were once of the same species, but they have doubled down on their love of the earth over the centuries. If any of the characters have a particularly enticing item that they refuse to give up, the xorn try to take it from them and 119. See 11. Anti-Elementals in the “Ruins Room Encounters” section on p. 271 for more information about the anti-elementals. fight if they outnumber the party, or flee if they do not. 24. Shadow Chameleon in its Nest If you roll this encounter, disregard your room result and use room 23. Shadow Chameleon Nest for this encounter. The shadow chameleon defends its nest to the death unless successfully calmed with a successful DC 30 Wisdom (Animal Handling) check (or DC 25 if the party has healed the shadow chameleon during this delve) or with calm emotions or similar magic. If the shadow chameleon is successfully calmed, it leads the party to 25. Reactor Control. Lair Actions. The shadow chameleon chooses to lair in labyrinthine locations and takes the whole location as its lair. It is never lost while within its lair. It has chosen a location within the lair as its nest, but it roams the whole area looking for food. On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the shadow chameleon takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects (the shadow chameleon can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row): profile: Shadow Chameleon Personality: Protective, reactive, lonely Ideal: Protection. To save its master from the scintillating radiance that bleeds from the Basalt Palace. Bond: The shadow chameleon is a loyal familiar who will never abandon its master. Flaw: The shadow chameleon attempts to thwart would-be helpers from venturing too far into the ruins in a misguided attempt to protect its master and eggs. Legend: The shadow chameleon is the mutated and massive familiar of the Seven-Fold Matron, a wizard who hailed from the Last City of MAN and was lost within the ruins of the Basalt Palace. It was once small enough to fit on a shoulder; a chameleon was once a popular choice for wizards who wanted a familiar capable of exploration and subterfuge, though all since died out long ago. The chameleon’s inherently magical nature combined with centuries residing in the ruins of the Basalt Palace has stretched its body to the point of breaking into two forms: one of near-impenetrable metal, and one of pure energy, absorbing the ambient scintillating radiance, which has sustained it across centuries.  At some point, the shadow chameleon laid eggs in the Basalt Palace, though the breaking of reality here makes it impossible to know when. Now, the shadow chameleon spends its countless days roaming the palace as both loyal familiar and protective parent, often silently watching as an endless string of poor souls venture inside only to quickly meet their doom. It seems to have forgotten that other beings could help, as most regard it as an immediate threat, an experience that bewilders it. If anyone could gain its trust, there are none who know how to navigate the Basalt Palace better. Who can see past its monstrous and mutated defenses and recognize the loyal being within? CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 273

■ The shadow chameleon projects a field of shadow. Any rooms of the shadow chameleon’s choice are filled with magical darkness, as if it had cast the darkness spell. The shadow chameleon can see through this darkness. ■ The shadow chameleon emits a subsonic ping. It becomes aware of the location of all creatures in its lair that it could detect with its blindsight if it were in range. While in shadow form, the shadow chameleon eliminates waste in the form of a lump of jagged metallic shards. A 10-foot cube of its choice within 150 feet of it is filled with metallic shards that function like caltrops. 25. Iwyn Inside this room is a creature that looks like a cross between a human and a fox, with desperate and intelligent eyes. He is haggard and emaciated. The creature is actually an elf of the Fellowship named Iwyn (he uses the werebear stat block). When the party encounter him in his fox form, he is indifferent, but he can be coaxed back into humanoid form. He believes he is an illusion and that he has been inside the Basalt Palace for a thousand years. He came here many years ago seeking arcanotech that the Fellowship could use to increase food production, discovered what he was looking for, and became lost. He is not an illusion. If the party lead him out of the palace and reunite him with the Fellowship, it improves their standing with the faction greatly. rewards Presented here is a collection of treasures and rewards to be found within the area. EXPERIENCE In addition to standard experience awarded during combat, here are other experience awards that can be earned while exploring the ruins of the Basalt Palace: ■ Acquiring one or more shadow chameleon eggs – 1,000 XP ■ Escaping the Basalt Palace after delving – 500 XP ■ Freeing the Seven-Fold Matron – 2,000 XP ■ Reuniting Iwyn with the Fellowship – 500 XP ■ Acquiring the Pre-Apocalyptic Common dictionary – 500 XP LOOT Detailed here is a collection of tangible loot that can be earned or discovered in this location. Chameleon Eggs If the party successfully recovers the eggs of the shadow chameleon, the eggs hatch in 1d4 weeks with proper temperature control and care. These chameleons are the first to have walked in the Weird Wastelands since the age of the Last City of MAN. They are extremely resilient, able to resist the hot sun by adopting their shadow form, and they eat pests that attack what few crops wastelanders are able to cultivate. They also make excellent familiars. Rescuing Iwyn If the party rescues Iwyn and returns him to the Fellowship with the arcanotech wonder that he found, it dramatically improves the party’s standing with the faction. In 1d4 weeks, the arcanotech can be used to quadruple food and water production in the largest Fellowship settlement in the Weird Wastelands. Pre-Apocalyptic Common Dictionary If the party gives the Pre-Apocalyptic Common dictionary to the remembrancers, they regard it as the most significant historical find of the era. Remembrancers sing the praises of the party to all in the wasteland, and the party’s standing improves with all factions except the Undying Aristocracy. If the party gives the dictionary to the Undying Aristocracy, their standing improves with that faction and lowers with the others. putting it all together If the Seven-Fold Matron is freed, the reactor remains stable but leaks more scintillating radiance and will melt down in 2d6 months. The Seven-Fold Matron implores the party to help her stabilize it. The Seven-Fold Matron knows, and reluctantly admits, that the reactor is actually a supremely powerful being that exists in multiple planes throughout all times and is bound to the site. It is known as Uven, the Blue Star. She believes it consents to the binding, as its energy is being used, but she does not have any way to confirm that. She believes the energy generated could help the Weird Wastelands so immensely that unbinding Uven the Blue Star would be a great loss for the world. Permanently stabilizing the reactor requires the following to be combined to create a reinforcement at the arcanotech forge in the Last City of MAN: ■ 100 gallons of pure water from beyond the Arch of Deep Green ■ A soul gem from the guardian from the Gates of the Afterlife ■ A fragment of the skull of a feast beast ■ A component from Vectro-3000 CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations 274 weird waStelandS

If these elements are successfully combined, the reactor is stabilized permanently, all illusory encounters disappear, scintillating radiance ceases to bleed from Reactor Control (though levels that were already in the area take centuries to dissipate), and the site becomes a much safer place to plunder or control. If the party opts to do nothing, the reactor may eventually melt down and create a gate for a god-level being to manifest in the material plane, it may be partially functional, or perhaps Uven the Blue Star breaks free, leaving the Weird Wastelands without the potential for boundless power (taking scintillating radiance with it). Regardless of what the party chooses to do, over the next year, the Arcanotech Cabal attempts to secure the site for their faction to use the arcanotech there for their own purposes. The Fellowship opposes them, wishing to clean up lingering pollution and repurpose the arcanotech there to create more clean food and water. The Undying Aristocracy also lays claim to the site, surmising that it comes from their time and they have a right to restore the palace to its former glory and use it as they will. ADVENTURE HOOKS Presented here are four adventure hooks you can utilize to introduce your table to the Basalt Palace. BASALT PALACE ADVENTURE HOOKS d4 ADVENTURE HOOK 1 A friendly naturalist or member of the Arcanotech Cabal has detected a change in arcane energies emanating from the ruins of the Basalt Palace. They have employed the party to take readings using an arcanotech device from as close to the blue light as they can get or, better yet, identify and fix the problem. 2 A remembrancer seeks knowledge of the preapocalypse and is willing to pay a high price for any samples of pre-apocalyptic language. A member of the Undying Aristocracy is also interested in such finds. 3 A friendly contact with the Fellowship seeks aid in recovering the body of a member of their group named Iwyn. He is a druid whose favored form is a desert fox, and he has not returned from the Basalt Palace since venturing inside two months ago. 4 The techno-otters need more powerful magical tech to boost their clam farming operations. Picklepaws says the best place to get it is the ruins of the Basalt Palace, but going there gives the techno-otters the willies. She promises to share some techno-otter gear in exchange. RUMORS Presented here are ten rumors about the Basalt Palace. These rumors can be used to draw your table to the location or to create additional drama while the characters are visiting. It’s up to the GM whether the rumors are true. BASALT PALACE RUMORS d10 RUMOR 1 Visions of the forgotten past surround the ruins of the Basalt Palace at night. 2 Few who enter the Basalt Palace return to tell the tale, but those who do return with wonders beyond anything else ever found in the wastes. 3 The ruins of the Basalt Palace is the site of a magical disaster unmatched in the Weird Wastelands. 4 Perceptions of time and space are not to be trusted inside the Basalt Palace. 5 If you enter the Basalt Palace, you can meet your wildest dreams and worst nightmares. 6 Inside the Basalt Palace, every doorway leads to a new world. 7 There are tales of a people who entered the Basalt Palace and reemerged decades later, without aging a day. 8 A great reptile lurks inside the ruins of the Basalt Palace whose skin is made of light and shadow. 9 Thousands have met their doom inside the Basalt Palace. Some don’t know they are dead. 10 The Basalt Palace is full of creatures seen nowhere else in the Weird Wastelands. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 275

The wasteland is thick with ghosts of all kinds, their presence intruding on the mortal world as an unnatural stirring of the wind or barely audible whispers. The wayward souls of all the people who perished in the apocalypse and its aftermath wander the wastes with nowhere to go. Cut off from the cosmic soul cycle, these ghosts are easy pickings for unscrupulous necromancers. In their anguish, some dead souls manifest as murderous wraiths or possess living beings. Most souls eventually follow a pull that leads them to the base of the Holy Mountain and the Gates of the Afterlife. The souls of mortal creatures are born in a special region of our version of the astral plane, the soul-nursery nebula. gates of the afterlife In a rocky highland marked by hot spots of geothermal activity is a smoke-shrouded holy mountain that soars into the sky, rising like a roughhewn column. Hordes of restless souls crowd the base of the Holy Mountain, intermingling with the geothermal vapors to form towering, spectral thunderclouds that cast looming shadows across the craggy landscape. background The Holy Mountain is ringed by hot springs and boiling mud pools and sits at the center of an enormous planar nexus that exerts its influence over the region. The astral sea and the underworld, also called the shadow plane, press against the thin cosmic barriers separating those planes from the material world. The environment is suffused with these planar energies. A set of narrow stairs winds its way up the slope, guarded at its base by a rampart. At the top of the mountainous spire sits a pair of massive doors set into the summit and guarded by a temple-fortress built by the gods in the first days of the world. This is the entrance to the underworld, the Gates of the Afterlife, where the souls of the dead once passed through on their way to the afterlife and the gods’ divine realms. With the gods gone, an unwavering remnant of their most zealous servants carry out their last divine order: to defend the Gates of the last remaining portal to the afterlife and prevent anyone, living or dead, from passing through. Housed in hidden monastery-barracks, these servants guard the stairs and defend the ramparts that protect it along the way. Hordes of restless souls crowd the base of the Holy Mountain, trapped in the material world by the decree of gods who vanished during the apocalypse. So long as the Gates of the Afterlife stand, they cannot pass from the material world. Terrain The terrain of the Gates of the Afterlife has the following qualities: ■ All outdoor areas are lightly obscured by gases that pour from numerous geothermal vents. ■ A thick haze hangs in the air and limits standard visibility to 500 feet. ■ Living creatures have disadvantage on Constitution ability checks and saving throws while in areas obscured by geothermal gases. ■ Geothermal gases dispersed by magic effects return in 1d4 rounds. ■ The region is replete with hot springs, geysers, and mud pots. The water is boiling and tastes foul but is otherwise safe to drink. The influence of the neighboring planes of the underworld and astral sea affect magic here as well. ■ Spells that allow travel to the astral plane or the plane of shadow may be cast with 3rd level or higher spell slots and do not require material spell components. ■ Spells that bring the dead back to life do not require material components. ■ Speak with dead may be cast as a ritual with a casting time of 1d6 × 10 minutes. This ritual version of the spell does not require the body of the dead soul to function.120 special features The features detailed here distinguish the Gates of the Afterlife as a weird location and are available to flesh out gameplay elements of the area. They are designed to complement interactions with other creatures and create engaging encounters. PLANAR INFLUENCE Due to the region’s metaphysical proximity to the underworld and the soul-nursery nebulas of the astral sea, the geothermal activity here is suffused with extraplanar soul-stuff. Pockets of geothermal activity influenced by the nearby planes appear around the region and are densest at the base of the Holy Mountain. Soulfur Smog Great cracks in the ground dot the landscape and belch out the noxious soul waste of the underworld, filling the air with thick soulfur smog in columns that are 60 feet high and 5 feet wide. Creatures who need to breathe air who move within 5 feet of a soulfur smog vent must attempt a DC 20 Constitution saving throw, dropping to 0 hit points on a failure, or taking 120. See the “Soul Throng” special feature for more information. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations 276 weird waStelandS

35 (10d6) psychic damage on a success. A creature that succeeds on this saving throw is immune to the effects of the fumes for 24 hours. Creatures attempting death saving throws within 5 feet of a vent do so with disadvantage. Liquid Protosouls Dense, opalescent liquid seeps up out of the ground, forming large accretion mounds marred by deep channels of slow-flowing protosoul that coalesce into shimmering pools of mirror-like stillness. This is un-incarnated soul-stuff. Gazing into the mirrored surface of a pool allows a creature with an Intelligence of 5 or greater to see a reflection of their own soul.121 Soul Throng The souls of the dead mill about the base of the mountain, wandering in from the wasteland or coalescing out of the soulfurous gases venting out of the ground. Without 121. See the “Rewards” section on p. 287 later in the chapter for more details on liquid protosoul. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 277

access to the underworld, the great masses of the dead have nowhere to go, no means of continuing their cosmic journey. They are an ever-growing horde of restless souls, occasionally manifesting as barely perceptible shades to plead with the living for release from their torment. A shade uses the specter stat block with the following changes: ■ It has 5 hit points. ■ Its Life Drain action deals 3 (1d6) necrotic damage and does not reduce the target’s maximum hit points. Communing with the Dead Using the ritual version of speak with dead makes it possible to seek out specific souls and talk to them without needing a corpse. The spell summons the shade of the dead soul. The shade has a vague idea of events that transpire in the mortal world but can only express their understanding in terms of emotional impressions. Most dead souls want either a body to inhabit or annihilation in exchange for information. They tend to be obsessive, irrational, and prone to extreme responses unless placated with offerings and gentle words. Eternal Return When an incorporeal undead creature reaches 0 hit points, it vanishes and returns on the next sunset with its hit points restored and abilities refreshed. Ghost Storm When a group of shades becomes frustrated in their attempts to seek aid from the living or fall under fiendish influence, their collective psychic anguish builds into a fierce storm of howling ghosts in a 500 foot by 500 foot area.122 Every hour, roll 1d10, adding 1 to the result for every hour the party spends in this location. On a result of 10 or more, a ghost storm develops and lasts for 1 minute. Once a ghost storm occurs, the counter resets. 122. See the “Hex-Based Weather” section on p. 118 of chapter 3 for how to run weather hazards. ghost storm A riotous cyclone of angry shades fills the sky in a 500 foot by 500 foot area, buffeting the living with gales of soul-rending pain. A ghost storm imposes the following penalties: Cacophonous Howl. Living creatures in the area become deafened. Call of the Grave. Living creatures who enter or start their turn in the area must succeed on a DC 17 Charisma saving throw or be cursed. Creatures so cursed must roll a 15 or higher to succeed on death saving throws. This curse lasts until the creature finishes a long rest or has it removed by remove curse or similar magic. Possessing Spirits. At the start of every round, the corpses of dead humanoids in the area become possessed by the vengeful shades. Possessed corpses rise as wights. Psychic Anguish. At the start of every round, living creatures in the area take 28 (8d6) psychic damage. A creature dies if it drops to 0 hit points from this damage. Undead Nature. Any spell or magical effect that protects creatures from undead, such as protection from evil and good or magic circle, provides protection from the effects of a ghost storm. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 279

DEMON BATTLEFIELD It was here that the Holy Mountain’s celestial defenders defeated a horde of invading demons and their mortal followers, as was predicted by prophecy. The celestials bound the horde’s commander, the balor Gargarauros to guard the Gates it sought to tear down. Now the haunted battlefield is infested with looters and vengeful spirits. Battlefield Hazards The following hazards are found on the demonic battlefield. Demon Ichor. Bubbling puddles of quivering, oily, caustic liquid fills blast craters and trenches. A creature that touches the ichor suffers 14 (4d6) acid damage when it touches the liquid and at the top of each subsequent round while in contact with the liquid. Looters. Wastelanders infest the battlefield looking for useful items. At any given time, 1d4 + 1 gladiators, 2d6 veterans, and 1d20 + 10 bandits are looting the area. In addition to their regular equipment, all are equipped with filter face masks.123 Looters are not hostile, but they watch the party’s movements and defend themselves if attacked.124 Vengeful Spirits. The spirits of dead wastelanders that have wandered into the battlefield have become tormented and hostile to life. One minute after a living creature has been present on the battlefield, 2d6 specters and 2d6 wraiths appear. Ghost Storm. A buildup of psychic torment in the area triggers a ghost storm.125 Demonic Artillery Three immobile (but still functional), sentient, demonbound arcanotech bombards on the battlefield thirst for vengeance, calling out in hollow voices to creatures within 30 feet of them. They desire to destroy the Gates of the Afterlife, a task they are capable of when armed, and refuse to operate for any other purpose. The demonic bombards are 10 feet apart and are already aimed at the Gates of the Afterlife. They are clustered with a clear line of fire on the mountain, but from a distance that makes them difficult to see from the mountain itself. The bombards require ammunition, gatecrasher warheads, and an operator to function. Operating the demonic artillery requires attunement. There are three gatecrasher warheads buried in the battlefield more than 1,000 feet away from the artillery. A successful DC 25 Wisdom (Perception) or Wisdom (Survival) check reveals the location of the gatecrasher warheads. It takes 1d4 hours to locate the ammunition. 123. See p. 82 in the “Survival Gear” section of chapter 2 for information about the filter mask. 124. For more interactive information, see the “Doom Cult Revelry” encounter on p. 286 in the “Suggested Encounters” section. 125. See the “Ghost Storm” special feature on p. 279 for more information. interacting with the demonic artillery These sentient artillery cannons were created with the sole purpose of destroying the Gates of the Afterlife. Their goal is in sight, yet they have remained unfulfilled for an eternity. They are unable to reason beyond their primal desire for destruction, and their arguments attempt to arouse the same lust for carnage in those to whom they attempt to appeal. Once the Gates of the Afterlife are destroyed, if an attuned character of similar personality to the bombards (with a chaotic penchant for causing damage) is willing to regularly use the demonic artillery and can find a way of transporting it, a demonic artillery allows the attunement to continue. Otherwise, they end attunement once the Gates are destroyed. The demonic artillery are sentient, chaotic evil weapons with an Intelligence score of 11, a Wisdom score of 7, and a Charisma score of 16. They can see and hear out to 30 feet and have darkvision. They can communicate telepathically with any creature within 30 feet of them that speaks a language. Each demonic artillery cannon has an AC of 19, has 50 hit points, and is immune to fire, poison, and psychic damage. Each has a damage threshold of 25. When used to CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations 280 weird waStelandS

The recruitment teams are orderly, polite, and always want to talk. The souls have to be convinced and not tricked into joining. The recruiters are obsessed with efficiency and proper management, have an affable veneer of rationality, and always honor their contracts. This area can be a jumping-off point for some tier 4 extraplanar adventuring, as with other portals in other locations. fire a gatecrasher warhead, the demonic artillery deals 1,000 damage to constructs and structures within the 50-foot-sphere blast radius. Other creatures within the blast radius must attempt a DC 20 Dexterity saving throw, taking 20d6 fire damage plus 20d6 force damage on a failure, or half as much damage on a success. INFERNAL FORTRESS The Infernal Recruiters have taken over, defiled, and heavily fortified an abandoned fortress-monastery on the edge of the geothermal region. The faction has turned it into a base of operations for the mass enlisting of dead souls, their real reason for being here. The devils also find the local geothermal environment invigorating and have taken to using the fortress as a makeshift spa. Chain of Command The Infernal Fortress is ruled by Prince Feranulon, the pit fiend commander of the Infernal Recruiters. The prince keeps a kennel of hell hounds and is accompanied by an honor guard of barbed devils.126 Prince Feranulon is a charismatic, gregarious leader who enjoys personally greeting any living creatures who venture deep enough into this area to encounter the Recruiters. He inquires about the characters’ reasons for being here and attempts to recruit them in an effort to ensure the Gates of the Afterlife remain closed. He can offer all magic items the Infernal Recruiters possess as payment to ensure the Gates’ permanent closure. Recruitment Drive Recruitment teams persuade the souls of dead wastelanders to agree to be reincarnated as lemures with a guaranteed promotion track to increase Prince Feranulon’s standing in hell. This project is led by succubus Lady Carnrath, her eight incubus recruitment agents, and her nine bone devil guards. Their efforts have been a resounding success. Incubi are often surrounded by thousands of souls thronging to sign up, be anointed or baptized in liquid protosouls, and be escorted to hell as lemures. Several night hag soulbrokers work to reel in high-value souls: those of ancient monarchs, forgotten heroes, and particularly wicked (or good) people. For the most part, the soulbrokers are uninterested in living mortals, as their souls require separate contracts and, thus, additional paperwork. 126. See p. 150 in chapter 4 for more information about the Infernal Recruiters faction. Spa This area is a lot like hell. The devils are immune to the harmful effects of the geothermal terrain here, including limitations on their vision. Invigorated by the soulfur smog in the area, they have created a relaxing retreat for themselves within their fortress, where throngs of devils enjoy scale buffing, fumerole saunas, and, most importantly on the material plane, goodnessremoval treatments. Most patrons of the spa have forgotten whatever it was they were sent to the material plane to do in the first place. Portal The devils have a portal to hell within their fortress which they use to transport newly minted lemures to Prince Feranulon’s realm there. Orders Devils who are not involved in Lady Carnath’s recruitment effort are bureaucrats. Most of these bureaucrats are imps who scurry the floors by the dozens running errands and filing paperwork.127 Their pace is unmotivated but functional, as they’re stuck doing filing when living in paradise is hardly what most of them wish to be doing. A company of bearded devils provide security for the fortress entrances, led by a horned devil. Tiefling mercenaries who aren’t guarding the walls scour the wasteland collecting tribute and periodically returning to the fortress with loot. HOLY MOUNTAIN In the pre-apocalypse, servants of the gods retrieved souls and brought them to the Holy Mountain to continue their cosmic journey. Its slopes are dotted with ancient tombs, carefully maintained shrines, and the imposing monastery-barracks of the Holy Mountain’s defenders. All outdoor areas of the mountain are shrouded by a thick, billowing haze of geothermal vapor which obscures the view of the entire mountain. Soulfurous Belchers A large concentration of vent chasms and smoking belchers ring the base of the Holy Mountain, spewing their acrid soul-smog in rising columns of vapor that blanket the mountain. It screams out of the earth in cascades, faces of the anguished souls of the damned almost visible as the last motes of their existence pour out of the mountain. 127. See p. 150 in chapter 4 for more information about the Infernal Recruiters faction. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 281

On the exterior of the mountain, the area is heavily obscured from the ground to 40 feet up. The gases here are soulfur smog. 128 Protosoul Pool A pool of liquid protosoul the size of a small pond sits at the center of a circle of towering mineral columns on the southwestern slopes of the Holy Mountain.129 A pair of amiable guardian nagas, Gentle Indulgence and the Life Warden, dwell nearby and see themselves as the caretakers of the pool. Gentle Indulgence and the Life Warden know all about liquid protosoul and how to use it. They regard the pool as a precious resource that they actively defend against those who would use its power for their own nefarious goals. If the party is unable to cast spells that they wish to use with the protosoul pool, the nagas may be persuaded to cast them on the party’s behalf if they are suitably convinced that the party respects life and goodness. Ascending the Holy Mountain This section is about the various means to reach the summit, the stairway, shrines, and defenses of the Holy Mountain. Rampart and Barbican. This semicircular, 50-foot-tall, 20-foot-thick, white stone wall protects the bottom of the stairway. The rampart’s garrison stand watch along the wall, commanded by the indominable Kudram the Eternal Champion, a paladin from antiquity entombed within a stone. The garrison are the Defenders of the Holy Mountain, a battalion of deathless warriors who swore an oath and upon death were raised by celestials to defend the Gates of the Afterlife. Their battlements bristle with ballista, catapults, and war machines. These machines are ancient and rarely used but are pristinely maintained. Their barracks form the barbican, the great portcullis of which blocks access to the stairway. The walls are always manned, and any who approach are warned away under threat of death. Kudram spends his time either leading patrols around the base of the mountain, at his command post in the gatehouse, or in prayer at the Pinnacle Temple. The garrison does not let anyone through without Kudram present. Gaining Access. Kudram alone decides who gets access to the stairway. He allows those he trusts to pass. If given intelligence on the Infernal Recruiters or Segastreon,130 he grants access. Holy Mountain’s Defenders. This battalion of celestials, holy undead, and living creatures defend the mountain. Treat the defenders as knights and priests with the 128. See the “Soulfur Smog” special feature on p. 276 for more information. 129. See the “Liquid Protosoul” special feature on p. 277 for more information. 130. See the “Renegade Celestials” encounter on p. 286 for more information about Segastreon. kudram the eternal champion Kudram the Eternal Champion is the leader of the Defenders of the Holy Mountain. He wants someone to drive out the Infernal Recruiters. As a paladin, the Recruiters’ interaction with souls is an offense to him, though he doesn’t know specifically what they’re doing or that they are in agreement with him that the gates must remain closed. He’s personally pained by the presence of the hordes of restless shades. As someone who has lived in undeath for eons, he has compassion for the dead souls who can find no rest because of the closure of the gates, an order he is bound to uphold. He is predisposed to like devout characters.  Treat Kudram the Eternal Champion as a stone golem with the following changes to its stat block: ■ Neutral good alignment ■ Intelligence 10 (+0), Wisdom 16 (+3), Charisma 20 (+5) ■ Insight (+7) ■ Kudram has the following trait: Holy Aura. Kudram and creatures of his choosing within 30 feet of him gain a +5 bonus to saving throws and have resistance to damage from spells and magical effects. ■ Add 14 (4d6) radiant damage to Kudram’s Slam attack following changes to their stat blocks: their creature type is celestial, they are immune to the charmed and frightened conditions, and their weapon attacks are magical. Stairway. A narrow, steep stairway winds up the mountain slope to the summit. The stairs are well-worn, but maintained. Smaller footpaths branch off and lead to tombs and shrines hidden among crags or perched atop massive accretion columns. Living creatures who are permitted access by Kudron are protected from the harmful effects of the soulfurous vapors and treat the area as only lightly obscured. Characters may encounter pilgrims on their way up or down the mountain or monks of the Holy Mountain, silently sweeping or repairing the stairs as they journey. It takes 3 days to climb to the summit. Tombs and Catacombs. Countless dead rest peacefully in these burial halls and sepulchral galleries that form spiraling mazes through the mountain. Every possible space inside the catacombs is filled with shelves of those laid to CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations 282 weird waStelandS

We are leaving this vague because we don’t expect highlevel characters to be interested in looting graves, and the real conflict is at the top of the mountain anyway. It’s a great place for a metal AF megadungeon though. If a cleric chooses the Ascetic divine domain (chapter 1, p. 35), spending time with the monks of the Holy Mountain could be a way to travel that path. rest; the dead at the entrance are so old, they are scarcely more than dust. Venturing deeper into the miles of intricate tombs is akin to moving through history, as the bodies grow younger, their grave goods changing with the times, ever more ornate and intricate, until, suddenly, bodies are buried with almost nothing at all. Those that know this place and can survive the journey still bury their loved ones here. At the time of the apocalypse, the vanished gods took the souls laid within with them, but treasures stretching back to the dawn of civilization lay untouched within. The monks of the Holy Mountain maintain the tombs. Monument. A wartime monument fashioned out of a pile of exorcized demonic war machines commemorates the Holy Mountain’s defenders’ victory over the invading demons, as was foretold by prophecy. Sheets of adamantine encircle the war machines, depicting through picture and story (written in Celestial) how the haphazard and ill-disciplined retinues of hundreds of demon lords were crushed by the outnumbered but stalwart defenders of the Holy Mountain. The Monastery of the Holy Mountain. Here resides the original monastic order that served the faithful as they made pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain. Now, these monks tend the stairway and catacombs and assist those few devout who remain in the world. They silently and benevolently offer shelter and food to all who need it, though they are rarely seen eating, sleeping, or drinking themselves. They only speak to spirits that are unbound from physical form. Mausoleum Barracks. Carved into the side of the mountain, this collection of stacked, vaulted halls houses the dormant legions of deathless131 led by mummified paladin-saints.132 They lie in wait as a second line of defense should the rampart fall and defend the mountain against flying threats. In addition to the thousands of entombed deathless knights, Zuluth the Radiant Fire, an ancient gold dragon who took the celestial vows to fight beyond death, slumbers here, awakening only to dispatch flying threats who would seek to open the Gates of the Afterlife. A gate and drawbridge allow defenders to access to the stairway, but no one except defenders of the Holy Mountain are allowed inside the barracks. 131. See the “Holy Mountain’s Defenders” subsection in the “Ascending the Holy Mountain” section on p. 282 for information on the stats of these deathless warriors. 132. Treat these paladin-saints as mummy lords, but change their creature type to celestial and their alignment to lawful good. The structure guards the stairway leading to Pinnacle Temple. If Kudron has granted the party access, they may freely go beyond this point. If not, the slumbering defenders awaken and fight. Pinnacle Temple This section is about the divinely created temple-fortress that guards the Gates of the Afterlife. It includes the celestial guardians who defend the Gates: a solar, the bound balor, and the guardian gate itself. The Pinnacle Temple is an immense, vaulted shrine built around the Gates of the Afterlife. The Temple is made of the whitewashed rock of the mountain, with a gold-plated, domed roof. The stairway ends in a set of simple golden doors with no locks. Inside the temple is a 100-footsquare vaulted room with pillars holding up the golden dome. Intricately appointed alcoves and shrines to gods who have long since abandoned the world dot the sides of the main chamber. On the far end opposite the doors, set into the peak of the mountain, are the Gates of the Afterlife. Immediately inside the temple is the solar Caphriel, who spends most of their time in contemplation. Caphriel has remained at the gates since the gods left, is the commander of the defenders of the Holy Mountain, and is dedicated to their task—ensuring the Gates of the Afterlife stay closed—to the exclusion of anything else. Caphriel is unable to go against their orders, even as the effects of the Gates’ closure causes harm that goes against their very being. To this end, Caphriel has initiated contact with Prince Feranulon unbeknownst to any of the other defenders and has confirmed that the Infernal Recruiters have no interest in opening the Gates. Caphriel is not used to dealing with mortals, as it is exceedingly rare that they venture this far up the mountain, and is cold, distant, and impatient. Caphriel will not open the gates for any reason, and they can explain that even if they agreed to do so, they would be unable to. GUARDIAN GATE A pair of gem-studded basalt doors are hewn into the peak of the mountain to block the route that souls once took from the material world to the afterlife and divine realms of the gods. It was closed forever during the apocalypse. So long as they are shut, dead souls have no way to leave the mortal world. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 283

Why did the gods leave? The question may not be relevant to your game, but if it is, you may have reasons that fit your campaign better than any we can provide. When creating this setting, we imagined that there are no gods on the other side of the gate. Sometime around the great upending of their followers’ world, they up and left and locked the door behind them like a person would lock their front door when they went to work. They didn’t want their home getting messed up by the apocalypse, and the reasons are no deeper than apathy for what it would mean for the souls on this side of the gate. Garganturos The balor Gargarauros is bound to the gates, kept in a demiplane prison contained within a diamond set into the lintel worth 10,000 gp. Lair Actions On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the guardian gate takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects. ■ The gate returns one of the bodies it controls with its diamonds of subjugation to life with half its hit points, as long as its body is intact and within 60 feet of the gate. ■ The guardian gate casts heal on itself or one of the bodies it controls with its diamonds of subjugation. ■ The guardian gate casts the divine word spell. If the gates are destroyed, these lair actions cannot be used. profile: guardian gate Personality: Ponderous, implacable, uncompromising Ideal: Duty. It exists to serve its creators and the purpose for which it was crafted. Bond: The guardian gate is solely focused on upholding the oath it swore to its divine creators. Flaw: The guardian gate is unable to conceive of doing anything other than what it does. Legend: All know that the dead can roam the Weird Wastelands at night. Anyone with an inkling of holiness has noticed that the spirits of those they have lost don’t leave. Precious few know why. For as littered as the sands are with the objects of a lost civilization, the greatest pollution of the apocalypse is souls. Spirits of the dead are unable to leave the material plane because the Gates of the Afterlife are closed, as the gods commanded it before they left forever.  At the dawn of creation, the gods created this gate to guard the heavenly realms where they lived and where the souls of their followers would pass through when they died. While the gods were here, they used the gates to keep a soul out of the heavens from time to time, but they were never permanently shut. But for times unknown, they have been locked behind lines of defense so thick that mortals rarely glimpse them, and rarer still do they realize the grave significance of their closure.  What lies beyond the gates is unknown. Perhaps the gods are there, still reacting to whatever the people did that prompted their abandonment. Generations have passed since anyone on this side of the gates had any inkling why. The guardian gate cares not for reasons, but, surely, it must know. Regional Effects The region within 10 miles of the guardian gate’s lair hums with radiant power, which creates one or more of the following effects. Creatures that the guardian gate controls via its diamonds of subjugation are immune to these effects. ■ The mountain is under the protection of the forbiddance spell, harming undead and fiends and blocking all extradimensional travel. ■ The mountain is under the protection of the hallow spell, blocking all celestials, fey, fiends, and undead who are not sworn to defend the Holy Mountain from entering. Furthermore, bodies interred in the mountain cannot become undead. ■ The gates are the target of the antipathy spell. ■ Undead have their creature type changed to celestial if they swear an oath to defend the Holy Mountain and the Gates of the Afterlife. If the gates are destroyed, these effects end immediately. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations 284 weird waStelandS

suggested encounters The Gates of the Afterlife Encounters table lists both the creatures that lair in or near Holy Mountain and creatures who have some reason to visit. Each entry contains a brief description of the creatures and a prompt for an encounter scenario. The encounter descriptions detail any modifications to the base creature stat block and special considerations for running the encounter. The GM may use their preferred method for determining who or what the party encounters at the location. Estimated difficulty is based on a party of four adventurers of 18th level. GATES OF THE AFTERLIFE ENCOUNTERS d8 ENCOUNTER DIFFICULTY 1 A Medium Encounter Easy 2 Warlord Reborn Medium 3 Specters of the Past Hard 4 Doom Cult Revelry Deadly 5 Infernal Recruitment Team Deadly 6 On That Grindset Deadly 7 Renegade Celestials Deadly 8 Three Liches Deadly A Medium Encounter Through the swirling mists, you can see a winged humanoid figure hunched over a crack in the earth, huffing in the soulfur smog with a mighty wheeze. You hear the rattle of a tambourine, a squeaky flute, and few ecstatic cries of, “Praemortis! He breathes! Tell us what you see!” Praemortis is a chaotic neutral deva, a deranged psychopomp lost without the gods. He has become an oracle of sorts, breathing in the soulfur smog to receive visions of the realms beyond and commune with the dead, ever seeking the absent gods. A trio of cult fanatics serve Praemortis along with a throng of mediums, seers, and miserable pilgrims (5d4 cultists in the immediate vicinity). They claim to speak for the dead and insist that others join in their abject mourning rituals. The cult wants suitable hosts for ghosts of former cultists to possess. Praemortis is willing to commune in exchange for allowing a ghost to take over a character’s body for a short time. A crafter of suitable skill may be able to create weapons or armor that can house the ghost of a former cultist. Praemortis is facing increasing pressure from his followers to bring them news of the gods. He has come to understand that they are inaccessible but fears the fallout of telling his followers the gods are gone after having followed him so long on an empty promise. He may seek advice from those who have gained his trust. His polymorphed form of choice is that of a defender of the Holy Gates. Warlord Reborn A tattered warband of old, grim-faced reavers carries the mummified bodies of an orc and a horse on a sled they drag behind them while singing an old war song. The warband consists of two wereboar lieutenants, two trolls, and ten orcs. The mummified corpses are this warband’s leader, Krix, and his horse. The warband has traveled far and for many years to get here in hopes of returning Krix to life. If they are successful, Krix intends to bathe the wastelands in the blood of conquest and build a new civilization. The warband’s priest went missing, and they seek someone to carry out their resurrection rituals when they reach the protosoul pool. Anyone who offers to do this for the warband must give only a promise in return that the names of the warband’s members and story will be remembered in their new civilization. If the party agrees to perform the ritual, the ghosts of Krix’s enemies try to stop the procession.133 Specters of the Past A swirl of spirits reveals familiar faces. You are accosted by the agitated shades of a group of humanoids that blame you and your adventures together for their deaths. The mob of shades demands that the party bring them back from the dead and do not accept no for an answer, regardless of whether the party was actually responsible for their deaths or not. With sufficient time and the right spells, this can be accomplished using the pools of liquid protosoul.134 The shades do not know about the pools. They insist their deaths were unjustified—they were defending their homes, were unwitting pawns or useful idiots to some mastermind, or were simply misguided or misunderstood. If the characters attack or categorically and fully refuse to help resurrect them, the shades manifest as eight wraiths and attack. There is a 25 percent chance per round that this triggers a ghost storm.135 133. See the “Ghost Storm” special feature on p. 279 for more information. 134. See the Gates of the Afterlife “Rewards” section on p. 287 for more information. 135. See the “Ghost Storm” special feature on p. 279 for more information. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 285

Doom Cult Revelry A froglike creature sits atop a pile of bones as it throws a half-chewed goat corpse into a throng of bandits, who are fighting over a small pile of scrap. NOMOMUMOG, xenobatrachian136 mercenary and chaos warrior (nalfeshnee) leads a band of hedonists and murderhobos (one oni, eight veterans, and twenty bandits). NOMOMUMOG is here to feast, fight, and free the balor bound to the Gates of the Afterlife. Its followers love nothing more than getting their doomsday party on and starting up a round of ritual combat. They scour the demon battlefield, scavenging, eating carrion, and fighting anyone they can find. They absolutely try to use the demonic artillery battery if they find it. They attack the party if they cross paths, seeking glory and gear. Infernal Recruiters After following a long line of souls, you come upon an incubus reading a lengthy list of contractual provisions to the spirit of a goblin. The goblin spirit is jumping and trembling with anticipation as it enthusiastically affirms each item. A team of Infernal Recruiters (two incubi, four imps, one bone devil, and two bearded devils) are here signing on souls of dead wastelanders. A second team (one bone devil and eight bearded devils) corrals the growing horde of 5d10 × 10 newborn lemures. There’s a 50 percent chance Lady Carnath (erinyes with two horned devil guards) comes around for an inspection. The highest-ranking Infernal Recruiter present (Lady Carnath or an incubus) is gracious, charming, and slick. A consummate dealmaker, they attempt to convince the party to join their faction and explain their function: to recruit souls to join the ranks of Prince Feranulon. They explain that the prince likes to greet powerful mortals personally, and they direct the party to the Infernal Fortress. They do not attack the party unless attacked first. During this conversation, the newborn lemures attempt to attack the party as their first act of devilhood. The other recruiters attempt to corral those that remain should the party retaliate, treating them like an unruly flock of chickens. On That Grindset One of your party is nearly knocked prone by a joyfully panting hell hound. A pit fiend runs along with the hound and calls out, “Angerfangs, remember your manners!” Prince Feranulon is running his two hell hounds through the fortifying vapors, with an honor guard of six barbed devils accompanying him. Around his head fly a flock of 136. “Xenobatrachian” means “alien frog.” nine imps, to whom he and the barbed devils are barking orders. As soon as one imp flies off to fulfill its duty, another joins the swirl around him. He briefly greets the party but otherwise continues his jog, offering to receive the party at the Infernal Fortress. One of the barbed devils offers up a crisp recruitment brochure outlining the benefits of joining the faction.137 Renegade Celestials A crowd of people is smashing, burning, and trampling upon ancient relics as a blue, winged figure encourages them to “abandon the gods that abandoned you! Tear down their idols! Protect the souls here, they need our help!” Segastreon the Demon Hunter is a chaotic good planetar. She is a renegade who teaches that the old gods abandoned the world, so there is no longer a reason to obey them. Segastreon leads a growing retinue of fanatics (four gladiators and twelve berserkers) who wear war masks made of colorful demon hides. They engage in ecstatic rituals led by the celestial that culminate in furious displays of iconoclasm as the devotees display their passionate conviction and strength by smashing relics of the old gods. Segastreon does not conceal her convictions. She wants the defenders of the Holy Mountain to open the gates. She believes it is patently obvious that the gates being closed is a horrible mistake made by forgotten gods who do not care about the world. She also thinks the Infernal Recruiters are a menace and wants them driven out. She seeks the party’s help in achieving either goal and offers to help them if their goals align. Segastreon knows where the demonic artillery is, but not where the gatecrasher warheads are located.138 Three Liches Three liches, each in their own speedy cruiser, are thrumming through the battlefield. Each vehicle hosts a small retinue of mummies and ogre zombies hanging off the sides, clearly searching for something. This group of three lich frenemies—Steviex, Binzey, and Preen—have come here to feast on liquid protosoul. Steviex is extremely personable, friendly, and kind. Binzey is prone to grand proclamation and arrogance (even by lich standards). Preen is simultaneously long-winded and impatient toward others taking too long to speak. The liches are all riding their own speedy cruisers,139 and each one has a hidden agenda: Steviex has come to seek atonement 137. See p. 150 in chapter 4 for more information about the Infernal Recruiters faction. 138. See the “Demonic Artillery” special feature on p. 280 for more information. 139. The speedy cruiser vehicle can be found on p. 92 in chapter 2 in the “Sample Vehicles” section. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations 286 weird waStelandS

This encounter is wide open on purpose. Have fun with it, tier 4 GMs! Hey there tier 4 GM. You’ve made it this far; you can decide how many of these elements you’d like to allow your players to rework! by finding her original soul. Binzey seeks to funnel dead souls into the sun to achieve necrotic critical mass and become a dark star in a ritual to call the Corpse-Star Algol. Preen is here to gorge on hyperdense soul-stuff and transcend lichdom. They each seek to involve outsiders in their schemes or to secretly thwart the other two. In payment, Steviex offers to guide the party in a ritual to help them connect with their actualized selves (see “Liquid Protosoul” in the “Rewards” section). Binzey has a giant (Medium-sized) egg that can turn into a tarrasque for 1 minute once per year. Preen offers what little remains of his wizard’s tower in the Last City of MAN.140 rewards Presented here is a collection of treasures and rewards to be found within the area. Experience In addition to standard experience awarded during combat, here are other experience awards that can be earned while exploring the Gates of the Afterlife: ■ Scaling the Holy Mountain – 4,000 XP ■ Destroying the demonic artillery or using them to fire on the Gates of the Afterlife – 5,000 XP ■ Opening the Gates of the Afterlife – 6,000 XP ■ Using liquid protosoul – 3,000 XP Liquid Protosoul Liquid protosoul can be used in a number of ways to benefit the party beyond the use of resurrection magic: ■ It can be used to awaken any creature. ■ Characters who spend a long rest in a pool of liquid protosoul and succeed on a DC 20 Wisdom saving throw or have Steviex’s guidance can choose different feats and/or ability score improvements, subclasses, and spells. 140. See p. 190 earlier in this chapter for more information about the Last City of MAN. putting it all together As this is a tier 4 location, there are big risks and big rewards at the Gates of the Afterlife. By the time the party arrives here, your campaign is in full swing, and your party arrives here with specific goals and motives more than they would to a location keyed to lower levels. Therefore, the conditions at the Gates of the Afterlife are fairly stable, but, should powerful heroes choose to act, the Weird Wastelands can change immensely based on the characters’ actions at this location. Should the party open the Gates of the Afterlife, the ability of souls to move on from the world make the Weird Wastelands a safer place, and one in which comfort and rest are possible in death. Roving bands of undead cease to prey upon travelers and settlements, and travel becomes much safer. With safer travel comes more opportunities for migration and trade. The area around the Gates of the Afterlife are once again a safe place to visit, and the Holy Mountain becomes a place of pilgrimage for any who wish to bury a loved one or remember one whose soul passed through the gates to rest. Opening the Gates of the Afterlife can also have more immediate implications for the factions at work in this area. The environment becomes far more inhospitable to the devils in the Infernal Fortress. Infernal Recruiters have far fewer souls to recruit and a far less compelling argument for signing up. The defenders of the Holy Mountain, sworn to protect the Gates of the Afterlife, find themselves in the uneasy territory of being bound to orders they cannot fulfill. Perhaps the deathless, their oath now broken, finally die in their tomb barracks. Maybe they persist and venture out into the wasteland, some becoming a new and inexhaustible source of protection for vulnerable communities or joining factions for which they see unity (the Fellowship would be a natural choice). Or some may stay and fashion a barricade into the afterlife, though their ability to enforce it is greatly diminished. The Infernal Recruiters likely join them in their effort. Once news of the breaking of the gates reaches them, the Fellowship, Enduring Aristocracy, and the Arcanotech Cabal doubtlessly have a major interest in the area. If the party manages to open the gates, they are known to all in the Weird Wastelands, have access to followers and strongholds, and continue to shape this world as they see fit. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations weird waStelandS 287

ADVENTURE HOOKS Presented here are four adventure hooks you can utilize to introduce your table to the Gates of the Afterlife. GATES OF THE AFTERLIFE ADVENTURE HOOKS d4 ADVENTURE HOOK 1 An archdruid of the Fellowship has recovered a single grain of kaleidoscopic arcadian emmer, an abundant pre-apocalyptic wheat. It was the main objective of a covert mission into Enduring Aristocracy territory. They have tried to sow it, but it is too ancient. However, they believe there may be a way to revive it in the Gates of the Afterlife, and they pledge any requested rewards for doing so. 2 Baudry Sandyman, a halfling remembrancer, beseeches the party to locate the soul of the earliest remembrancer on record, Caxor Crane, and ask her about the founding of their order, if she knows it. He believes Crane’s soul lingers near the base of the Holy Mountain. 3 The Enduring Aristocracy has somehow managed to airdrop thousands of wanted posters for three liches—Steviex, Binzey, and Preen—who have abandoned its ranks and stolen three flagship vehicles. The posters state that the liches are headed to the Gates of the Afterlife, where they intend to feast on souls until their power will be unmatched, and the whole of the wasteland will be threatened. There is a reward posted for the recovery of the vehicles and the liches (notably, the reward for the vehicles is far larger than the one for the liches). 4 Galaxaura the Examiner, a powerful traveling oracle and bard, is dying. She wishes to hire the party to safely guide her soul through the Gates of the Afterlife with a payment of all her worldly possessions. She believes the necromancer Umbra Ghool will try to steal her soul after her death; there are many uses for a prophetic soul. RUMORS Presented here are ten rumors about the Gates of the Afterlife. These rumors can be used to draw your table to the location or to create additional drama while the characters are visiting. It’s up to the GM whether the rumors are true. GATES OF THE AFTERLIFE RUMORS d10 RUMOR 1 The Gates of the Afterlife are the entrance to the heavens. 2 The veil between worlds is thin in the areas around the Gates of the Afterlife. 3 Hideous vapors billow out of cracks in the ground to kill anyone who isn’t careful. 4 You can usually feel the spirits around you, but you can see them when you get close to the Gates of the Afterlife. 5 If you follow an Infernal Recruiter, they’ll go to the Gates of the Afterlife eventually. 6 A great war between demons and celestials was fought below the Holy Mountain that houses the Gates of the Afterlife. 7 The Gates of the Afterlife was once a peaceful temple to the dead. 8 It’s almost too easy to resurrect or talk to the dead at the Gates of the Afterlife. 9 The Gates of the Afterlife were created by the gods before the dawn of time. 10 The armies that once protected the Gates of the Afterlife from demons protect it still. CHAPTER FIVE • weird wasteland locations 288 weird waStelandS

chapter six This chapter provides templates and stat blocks for many of the creatures that can play a role in a Weird Wastelands campaign. wasteland monster templates The cataclysm that caused the apocalypse suffused the land with magical pollution that radically upset ecosystems across the world. Creatures not outright killed by the initial sweep of destruction later died by the thousands as they were poisoned by irradiated food and water. The only wild creatures left standing were those who were so mutated by the magical cataclysm that they are now able to survive and thrive in this newly devasted land. The arcanavore and spell-warped templates show the mechanical changes that occur when a creature is mutated by the poisonous magic of the wasteland. arcanavore In the wastelands, food and other resources may be scarce, but some areas are replete with ambient magic. A few creatures mutate to survive on magical energies, consuming it when they encounter it. Creatures mutated in this way are known as arcanavores. CHAPTER SIX • friends & foes weird waStelandS 289

arcanavore template You can create an arcanavore by making the following adjustments to the statistics of any creature. Hit Dice. The creature gains two additional Hit Dice and recalculates its hit point maximum using these Hit Dice. Ability Scores. The creature’s Charisma score increases by 4. An ability score cannot be increased above 30 using this feature. Challenge Rating. The creature’s challenge rating increases by 2. Traits. The creature gains the following traits. Devouring Attack. When the arcanavore hits another creature with a melee weapon attack, it chooses one spell of 3rd level or lower currently affecting the target and consumes it, ending the spell. If the chosen spell currently affecting the target is 4th level or higher, the arcanavore must attempt a Charisma ability check (DC equals 10 + the spell’s level). On a success, the spell ends as the arcanavore consumes it. Latent Spellcasting. The arcanavore’s latent spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 8 + its Charisma modifier + its proficiency bonus). If the arcanavore has consumed a spell in the last 24 hours, it can innately cast the following spells at their lowest level, requiring no material components:  1/day each: blur, expeditious retreat, false life,   jump, see invisibility, shield Magic Resistance. The arcanavore has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects. Magical Sight. The arcanavore can sense the presence of magical effects within 120 feet of it as a faint aura around any visible creature or object that is magical or is currently under a magical effect. Sustained by Magic. Whenever the arcanavore consumes a spell, it regains hit points equal to the spell’s level + its proficiency bonus. Proficiencies. The creature’s proficiency bonus increases to match its adjusted challenge rating. Actions. The creature gains the following action. Devour Spell. The arcanavore chooses one spell affecting itself and attempts to consume it. If the spell is 3rd level or lower, the arcanavore consumes it, and the spell ends. If the spell is 4th level or higher, the arcanavore must attempt a Charisma ability check (DC equals 10 + the spell’s level). On a success, the arcanavore consumes it, and the spell ends. Reactions. The creature gains the following reaction. Consume Spell. As a reaction when the arcanavore is the target of a spell and can see its source, the arcanavore attempts to consume the spell. If the spell is 3rd level or lower, the arcanavore consumes it, and the spell fails. If the spell is 4th level or higher, the arcanavore must attempt a Charisma ability check (DC equals 8 + the spell’s level). On a success, the arcanavore consumes it, and the spell fails. CHAPTER SIX • friends & foes 290 weird waStelandS

arcanavore stirge Tiny beast, unaligned Armor Class 14 (19 with shield) Hit Points 7 (3d4) Speed 10 ft., fly 40 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 4 (–3) 16 (+3) 11 (+0) 2 (–4) 9 (–1) 10 (+0) Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 9 Languages — Challenge 2 (450 XP) Proficiency Bonus +2 TRAITS Devouring Attack. When the arcanavore stirge hits another creature with a melee weapon attack, it chooses one spell of 3rd level or lower currently affecting the target and consumes it, ending the spell. If the chosen spell currently affecting the target is 4th level or higher, the arcanavore stirge must attempt a Charisma ability check (DC equals 10 + the spell’s level). On a success, the spell ends as the arcanavore stirge consumes it. Latent Spellcasting. The arcanavore stirge’s latent spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 10). If the arcanavore stirge has consumed a spell in the last 24 hours, it can innately cast the following spells at their lowest level, requiring no material components: 1/day each: blur, expeditious retreat, false life, jump, see invisibility, shield Magic Resistance. The arcanavore stirge has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects. Magical Sight. The arcanavore stirge can sense the presence of magical effects within 120 feet of it as a faint aura around any visible creature or object that is magical or is currently under a magical effect. Sustained by Magic. Whenever the arcanavore stirge consumes a spell, it regains hit points equal to the spell’s level + 2. ACTIONS Blood Drain. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage, and the arcanavore stirge attaches to the target. While attached, the arcanavore stirge doesn’t attack. Instead, at the start of each of the arcanavore stirge’s turns, the target loses 5 (1d4 + 3) hit points due to blood loss. The arcanavore stirge can detach itself by spending 5 feet of its movement. It does so after it drains 10 hit points of blood from the target or the target dies. A creature, including the target, can use its action to detach the arcanavore stirge. Devour Spell. The arcanavore stirge chooses one spell affecting itself and attempts to consume it. If the spell is 3rd level or lower, the arcanavore stirge consumes it, and the spell ends. If the spell is 4th level or higher, the arcanavore stirge must attempt a Charisma ability check (DC equals 10 + the spell’s level). On a success, the arcanavore stirge consumes it, and the spell ends. REACTIONS Consume Spell. As a reaction when the arcanavore stirge is the target of a spell and can see its source, the arcanavore stirge attempts to consume the spell. If the spell is 3rd level or lower, the arcanavore stirge consumes it, and the spell fails. If the spell is 4th level or higher, the arcanavore stirge must attempt a Charisma ability check (DC equals 8 + the spell’s level). On a success, the arcanavore stirge consumes it, and the spell fails. ARCANAVORE EXAMPLE STAT BLOCK The following is an example of the arcanavore template applied to a stirge. CHAPTER SIX • friends & foes weird waStelandS 291

spell-warped Residual magical energies ripple and eddy across the wasteland, sometimes tearing the fabric of reality. Occasionally, spell-warped template You can create a spell-warped version of a creature by making the following adjustments to the statistics of any creature. Hit Dice. The creature gains two additional Hit Dice and recalculates its hit point maximum using these Hit Dice and its new Constitution score. Ability Scores. The creature gains a +2 bonus to its Constitution score. An ability score cannot be increased above 30 using this feature. Challenge Rating. The creature increases its Challenge Rating by 1. STRANGE MUTATIONS d12 MUTATION 1 Additional Eyes. The spell-warped has multiple eyes due to its exposure to magic. It has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks. 2 Bioluminescent. The spell-warped is bioluminescent due to its exposure to magic. It sheds dim light in a 20-ft. radius. 3 Cartilaginous. The spell-warped has flexible bones due to its exposure to magic. It can move through and occupy a space as narrow as 4 inches wide without squeezing. 4 Cockroach Legs. The spell-warped has several insectile legs sprouting in odd places due to its exposure to magic. It has a climbing speed equal to its walking speed and can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check. 5 Deformed Wings. The spell-warped has twisted, quasi-insectile wings due to its exposure to magic. It has a flying speed equal to its walking speed. 6 Face Gills. The spell-warped has gills due to its exposure to magic. It can breathe both air and water. 7 Festering Orifices. The spell-warped has multiple diseased wounds due to its exposure to magic. When the spellwarped hits a creature with a melee attack, the target must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or become infected with a disease.1 Roll a 1d4. On a 1-2, the target is infected with Sewer Plague. On a 3, it is with Cackle Fever. On a 4, it is Sight Rot. 8 Fleshy Antennae. The spell-warped has multiple antennae due to its exposure to magic. It has blindsight out to a range of 30 ft. 9 Moist. The spell-warped is always wet due to its exposure to magic. It has advantage on checks made to resist or escape being grappled. 10 Sticky Skin. The spell-warped is sticky all over due to its exposure to magic. It has advantage on Strength (Athletics) ability checks made to grapple. 11 Toxic Spittle. The spell-warped drools and drips a toxic slime due to its exposure to magic. As a bonus action, it can spit at one creature within 30 ft. of it that it can see. The target must succeed on a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or be blinded until the end of its next turn. 12 Two-Headed. The spell-warped has an additional head due to its exposure to magic. It has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) ability checks as well as on saving throws against the blinded, deafened, stunned, and unconscious conditions. Traits. The creature gains the following traits. Damage Resistances. The spell-warped gains resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks. Magic Resistance. The spell-warped has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects. Strange Mutation. The spell-warped has one trait from the Strange Mutations table (GM’s choice). Advanced Mutation. The spell-warped has one trait from the Advanced Mutations table (GM’s choice). these energies warp and scar a creature, leaving behind strange mutations and other latent magical effects. Such creatures are called spell-warped. 1. Information about these diseases can be found in the DMG. CHAPTER SIX • friends & foes 292 weird waStelandS

spell-warped template CONTINUED ADVANCED MUTATIONS d6 ADVANCED MUTATION 1 Bulbous Pustules. The spell-warped has acid-filled pustules all over its body due to its exposure to magic. Creatures that hit the spell-warped with a melee attack suffer acid damage equal to the number of spell-warped’s Hit Dice. 2 Cancerous Regeneration. The spell-warped has regenerating tumors due to its exposure to magic. It regains 10 hit points at the start of each of its turns. If the spell-warped takes acid or fire damage, this trait doesn’t function at the start of its next turn. 3 Engorged Muscles. The spell-warped has grotesquely enlarged muscles due to its exposure to magic. When it hits a creature with a melee attack and rolls damage, it deals an additional damage die. 4 Irradiated. The spell-warped glows with radiant energy due to its exposure to magic. Each creature that is not a construct or undead that ends its turn within 10 ft. of the spell-warped creature takes radiant damage equal to the number of spell-warped’s Hit Dice. 5 Putrescent Effluvia. The spell-warped’s body is perpetually rotting due to its exposure to magic. Any creature within 15 ft. of it has disadvantage on ability checks and saving throws. 6 Scales and Scars. The spell-warped has scales and scarred flesh all over its body due to its exposure to magic. It has +3 to its AC and resistance to acid and poison damage. CHAPTER SIX • friends & foes weird waStelandS 293

spell-warped ettin Large giant, typically chaotic evil Hit Points 114 (12d10 + 48) Speed 40 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 21 (+5) 8 (–1) 19 (+4) 6 (–2) 10 (+0) 8 (–1) Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks Skills Perception +4 Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14 Languages Giant, Orc Challenge 5 (1,800 XP) Proficiency Bonus +3 TRAITS Bulbous Pustules. The spell-warped ettin has acidfilled pustules all over its body due to its exposure to magic. Creatures that hit the spell-warped ettin with a melee attack suffer 12 acid damage. Magic Resistance. The spell-warped ettin has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects. Toxic Spittle. The spell-warped ettin drools and drips a toxic slime due to its exposure to magic. As a bonus action, it can spit at one creature within 30 feet of it that it can see. The target must succeed on a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or be blinded until the end of its next turn. Two Heads. The spell-warped ettin has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks and on saving throws against being blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, stunned, and knocked unconscious. Wakeful. When one of the spell-warped ettin’s heads is asleep, its other head is awake. ACTIONS Multiattack. The spell-warped ettin makes two attacks: one with its battleaxe and one with its morningstar. Battleaxe. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) slashing damage. Morningstar. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) piercing damage. SPELL-WARPED EXAMPLE STAT BLOCK The following is an example of the spell-warped template applied to an ettin. CHAPTER SIX • friends & foes 294 weird waStelandS

wasteland bestiary The following pages include descriptions and stat blocks for various inhabitants of the Weird Wastelands. They are presented in alphabetical order. feast beast2 Shaped like a gigantic ox composed of vegetables, meats, and grains with a strangely human face, the feast beast exists to feed others. The lumbering giant doesn’t bat an eye when people cut, shoot, or otherwise carve off hunks of its body. In fact, the feast beast welcomes people doing so, as it feels like scratching an itch in a hard-to-reach place. Because the feast grows the lost flesh back at an astonishing pace, there is always more to spare. Ambling Buffet. The gargantuan feast beast never stops moving, plodding across the wastelands in lumbering strides. Merchants have tried to map its course, but its ever-changing path has thus far rendered that impossible. A slow moving, mobile caravan follows the beast, carving off chunks of flesh and arranging them for sale. The feast beast spends most of its time far away from any settlements, wandering the trackless wastes. Cornucopia. The feast beast’s body is an amalgamation of gourds, vegetables, fruits, meats, and grains, each with their own distinctive flavors, and all equally nutritious. Internal reservoirs of pure water are freely shared via a row of udder-like appendages along its underside. Indeed, its very step nourishes animals, for where it walks, grasses grow. Most of its bulk is protein-rich flesh, but its vital organs can also be removed and consumed for additional benefits. Harvesting Food. To take food from the feast beast, a creature must deal at least 10 points of damage to it, causing it to drop 1 pound of food to the ground. If the feast beast suffers more than 50 points of damage in a single round, it becomes restless and begins to stomp around. Harvesting Vital Organs. To harvest the brain or heart, a creature must deal at least 10 points of necrotic damage to the feast beast, opening a wound that does not heal, where creatures can tunnel into the beast. After the necrotic damage is dealt, creatures must enter the wound and continue dealing at least 10 points of necrotic damage from within the beast for 5 consecutive rounds. If a creature does not deal at least 10 points of necrotic damage on a round during this time, the tunnel heals closed, leaving any creatures inside blinded and restrained, unable to breathe, and with total cover against attacks and other effects outside the feast beast. A creature can attempt to cut its way out by dealing 10 points of necrotic damage for each round it had tunneled into the beast, falling to the ground outside the wound and landing prone. If a creature deals at least 10 points of necrotic damage for 5 consecutive rounds, the creature reaches the feast beast’s brain or heart (creature’s choice) and can harvest it by making a successful attack on it, killing the creature instantly. If the feast beast dies, its flesh and water reservoirs remain viable until they spoil naturally, but any unharvested organs lose their potency within 10 minutes of the creature’s death. The heart and brain of a feast beast can provide powerful magical benefits. Consuming at least 1 pound of the feast 2. More information about the feast beast can be found in the Tradetown location on p. 176 of chapter 5. CHAPTER SIX • friends & foes weird waStelandS 295

guardian gate3 The guardian gate is a set of massive basalt doors covered in gems and celestial runes. The doors are closed, barring access to a planar portal beyond. Divine Gatekeeper. The guardian gate is immensely powerful, capable of preventing even the most formidable mortal creatures from passing through the portal it guards. The power contained therein is such that only the gods themselves could craft such a thing, though why they might and what portal they might choose to seal with a guardian gate depends upon their inscrutable divine wills. Portal Sentinel. The guardian gate’s sole purpose is to prevent anyone but its creators and those they designate from passing through portals to other planes. Other creatures who wish to leave this plane of existence must contend with the guardian gate first. The gate knows who its creators are and who its creators have designated as allowed to pass through their threshold. Any others it acts to prevent, even to its own destruction. Possession Gems. The guardian gate can possess creatures by capturing their souls in embedded gems and taking over their bodies. The gate has two diamonds, each of which can store the soul of any creature that drops to 0 hit points within 60 feet of it. 3. More information about the guardian gate can be found in the Gates of the Afterlife location on p. 276 of chapter 5. beast’s 20-pound heart grants the effects of the regeneration spell. Consuming at least 1 pound of the beast’s 5-pound brain grants the effects of the holy aura spell. Gentle Giant. Despite its benevolent nature, the feast beast can be extremely dangerous. Though it does not respond with violence when people take sustenance from its body, it does fight to defend itself if its heart or brain are damaged. The beast’s sheer size makes it dangerous as well. More than once innocent wastelanders and menacing raiders alike have been smashed underfoot. feast beast Gargantuan monstrosity, neutral good Armor Class 12 Hit Points 148 (11d20 + 33) Speed 40 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 22 (+6) 3 (−4) 17 (+3) 3 (−4) 10 (+0) 5 (−3) Saving Throws Str +8, Con +5 Senses passive Perception 10 Languages — Challenge 4 (1,100 XP) Proficiency Bonus +2 TRAITS Regeneration. The feast beast regains 50 hit points at the start of its turn as long as its brain and heart are both intact. If the feast beast takes necrotic damage, this trait doesn’t function at the start of the feast beast’s next turn. The feast beast dies only if it starts its turn with 0 hit points and doesn’t regenerate. Vibrant Step. Where the feast beast steps, greenery springs up in the footprints it leaves behind. The vegetation can feed horses and livestock but is not suitable for humanoids. The vegetation withers within 1 hour. ACTIONS Stomp. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 25 (3d12 + 6) bludgeoning damage. Foodalanche (Recharge 5–6). The feast beast charges forward in a 20-foot straight line, forcing each creature in the line to attempt a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw, taking 25 (3d12 + 6) bludgeoning damage and being knocked prone on a failure. On a success, a creature takes half damage and is pushed into an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the space it occupied. Moving in this way does not provoke opportunity attacks from the feast beast. CHAPTER SIX • friends & foes 296 weird waStelandS