Page 53 - Tales from the Yawning Portal

MAP 2.5 : THE FouNORY
A character who makes a successful DC 10 Dexterity
check using thieves' tools can jam a statue's arm so that A small fire smolders on the floor before the dais,
the axe can't swing. Destroying a statue (AC 18, 60 hit where six sleeping pallets lie empty, surrounded by packs
points, immunity to necrotic, poison, and psychic dam- and supplies. The sound of hammers ringing on iron
age) also disables its attack. comes from beyond the doors to the south.
Once a statue has attacked, the trap must be reset
Suddenly a harsh voice calls from the shadows of the
manually. If any duergar survive and remain here, they
reset the trap within a day after it has been triggered. pillars, "Go back the way you came! This is the only warn-
Secret Stairwell. The secret door behind the east ing you'll get!"
statue is well hidden, requiring a successful DC 18
Wisdom (Perception) check to spot. If the characters
The cavern was formerly Durgeddin's throne room,
detected the faint trail that leads there, a successful DC
banquet hall, and center of authority. Its ceiling is 30
10 Wisdom (Perception) check locates the door. Beyond
feet high, and the sconces are 10 feet above the floor.
is a flight of stone stairs that leads upward.
The throne is unremarkable: a short bench of stone that
The stairs have been warded with a magical alarm. might have been decorated at some point in the past.
When a creature ascends past the halfway point of the
The graffiti consists of crude epithets in the Ore lan-
staircase, a magic mouth spell calls out in Dwarvish,
guage insulting dwarves and their ancestry.
"Alert! Alert! Intruders approach!" This sound warns the
Creatures. Two duergar guards and Ghared, a duer-
duergar guards in area 36.
gar spy (see appendix B), stand watch here. Unless the
party climbed the stairs from area 35 without triggering
36. THE GREAT HALL
the magic mouth, the duergar are invisible.
At the top of the stairs from area 35 is a stone door
Negotiation. The duergar start hostile but wait to see
carved with a glowering dwarf's face. It opens easily.
if the characters attack. Ghared shouts the initial warn-
ing and speaks for the group; she's suspicious, greedy,
This enormous hall is lined with ten great pillars, carved and arrogant, but not stupid. She is willing to give in-
into the forms of giants and dragons, that support the formation to the party if a character succeeds on a DC
20 Charisma (Persuasion) check. The characters can
vaulted ceiling high above. Guttering orange torches
change her attitude to indifferent, reducing the check
set in sconces along the walls illuminate the room, and
DC to 10, with a suitable bribe (at least 100 gp).
a mighty throne sits on a dais at the opposite end. The
Ghared can share any of the following information if
walls were once covered with tile mosaics, but they have the party succeeds in getting her to converse:
been smashed and defiled by graffiti. Tiny fragments of
• The doors to the north lead to halls infested with un-
tile litter the floor. You can see five other exits. dead and cursed magic.
CHAPTER 2 I THE FORGE OF FURY
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