Sangkon Bhet

create a 25-square-foot sheet that is 1 inch thick and weighs 50 pounds. It takes about 1 hour for the sheet to grow to full size. While it is growing, it can be pruned or shaped into specifi c forms with a little careful manipulation. Grell that work with crystal take ranks in Craft (crystalwork) to make items. When set, grell crystal has hardness 7, 20 hit points per inch of thickness, a break DC of 20, and a Climb DC of 25. Grell layer the crystal several inches thick when particularly strong structures are needed. Grell Alchemy and Craft (alchemy); Craft DC 20; Price 10 gp; Weight 1 lb (unset).

Lightning Lance

Grell living in colonies or nests defend their homes with lightning lances, silver tubelike devices about 3 feet in length. These weapons deal 3d6 points of electricity damage (no save) to a single enemy within 60 feet with a successful ranged touch attack. A lightning lance usually functions only in the grasp of a grell, although a DC 25 Use Magic

Device check allows a character of a different race to employ the weapon. A lightning lance has 5 charges. Spent charges are renewed each day, so a wielder can expend up to 5 charges in any 24-hour period. Faint evocation; CL 3rd;

Grell Alchemy, shocking grasp;

Price 3,800 gp.

Greater Lightning Lance

A larger and more powerful version of the lightning lance, a greater lightning lance is found in the tentacles of the philosophers and patriarchs. It resembles a slender silver tube 5 feet long. This weapon deals 5d6 points of electricity damage (no save) to a single enemy with a successful ranged touch attack (range 60 feet). If this touch attack hits, the electricity bolt then arcs to a second target of the user’s choice within 30 feet of the primary target, dealing 5d6 points of damage (no save) to the secondary target with a second successful ranged touch attack. A greater lightning lance usually functions only in the grasp of a grell, although a DC 25 Use Magic Device check allows a character of a different race to employ the weapon. A greater lightning lance has 7 charges. Spent charges are renewed each day, so a wielder can expend up to 7 charges in any 24-hour period. Faint evocation; CL 5th; Grell Alchemy, shocking grasp; Price 18,000 gp. Silverspear

This device is simply a +2 silvered shortspear designed to be worn over the end of one of a grell’s tentacles. The silverspear then replaces that tentacle’s attack. A normal adult grell’s tentacle attack improves as follows: +7 melee (1d6+2/×3). A grell wielding a silverspear gains an additional 5 feet of reach with that tentacle (15 feet for a typical adult grell). Tiny channels in the weapon’s interior convey the grell’s paralytic poison to the weapon’s head, so any creature struck by the silverspear is subject to paralysis just as if it had been struck by the grell’s tentacle. Any creature other than a grell can use the weapon as a +2 silvered shortspear, but cannot paralyze with it.

Moderate evocation; CL 6th; Grell Alchemy or Craft Magic Arms and Armor, greater magic weapon; Price 8,392 gp; Cost 4,392 gp + 320 XP.

Grell Alchemy at work

Beneath the jungle-covered ruins of an ancient human temple lies a small outpost of grell that have taken to hunting the nearby area by night. Sangkon Bhet is a fairly typical example of a small grell outpost; the monsters occupy convenient ruins or caverns for a time as they search out new places to move a colony that has overhunted its previous locale. The ruins of Sangkon Bhet lie in a sweltering jungle, a few miles from populous plains that surround a port in the

Illus. by J. Nelson

southern seas. The temple above consists of little more than jumbled piles of stone, overgrown with thick creepers and split by towering trees that have grown up through the old plazas and buildings above. Centuries ago, Sangkon Bhet was dedicated to the worship of a fearsome and evil deity of darkness, but it has been abandoned for many years now. The grell occupied the site because its caves and underground burrows served as suitable shelter from the hated sunlight. The caves and chambers within the grell outpost conform to the standard dungeon features described in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, with a few notable exceptions. Most of the cavern areas are wet and dank, covered with slippery moss and fungus. Add +5 to the DC of Balance, Climb, or Tumble checks made in the outpost. Streams and pools in the caverns are still and shallow (only about 1 to 2 feet deep). Characters must pay 2 squares of movement and make DC 5 Balance checks to enter a stream or pool square. A failure by 4 or less means that the character stops moving for the round; a failure by 5 or more means that the character falls prone in the square. Rough terrain in the cavern consists of jumbled rocks, boulders, and cave formations. Characters entering rough terrain must pay 2 squares of movement to move 1 square. Since grell fl y, they naturally take no penalties for moving over streams, pools, or rough areas.

Grell Crystal Doors: Doors made of grell crystal are located in several areas. These have hardness 7, 20 hit points, and a break DC of 20. They are simply shutters or panels that can be moved aside to pass through.

Grell Crystal Walls: Walls of grell crystal are 4 inches thick. They have hardness 7, 80 hit points, and a break DC of 29.

1. THE SINKHOLE (EL 3 TO 6)

Near the center of the jungle-covered ruins, a dank staircase winds down along the walls of a sinkhole 30 feet deep. The jungle canopy overhangs the sinkhole, leaving the fl oor of the place in deep shadow. Trickling streams shower down the sides, collecting in a pool at the north end. Most of the sinkhole fl oor is covered by moss and undergrowth. Several cave mouths or fi ssures lead off into darkness. These include an opening at the foot of the staircase, another to the east where a stream fl ows into a cave mouth, and one to the south that seems to have been improved with stonemasonry.

The evil priests of Sangkon Bhet cut the stairs from the limestone walls of the sinkhole to reach the sinkhole fl oor and the caverns below. The pool at the north end is about 10 feet deep near the wall, but only 5 feet deep in most spots. Characters who descend to the foot of the stairs (the spot marked X on the map) come within range of the sentry grell’s

blindsight. If the sentry notices intruders, it emerges from area 2 to attack.

Sentry Grell: hp 35, lightning lance; see page 115. Given the chance, the sentry looks for opportunities to carry paralyzed characters above the pool and drop them in the deeper part, placing them at serious risk of drowning. If hard-pressed by determined attackers, the sentry fl ees by fl ying straight up the sinkhole wall. It then escapes into the jungle above, unless it clearly has a safe line of retreat to area 3 or 6. A loud battle fought here can certainly be heard by the grell in areas 3, 4, or 6. The intervening distance provides a –10 penalty on their Listen checks, and the noise of the stream adds another –5, for a total penalty of –15. (Adult grell have Listen modifi ers of +4.) One grell from area 3 and another from area 6 arrive 3 rounds after the round in which they hear fi ghting in the sinkhole. The philosopher in area 4 does not investigate, trusting to its fellows to handle any kind of trouble.

2. SENTRY ’S CAVE (EL 4)

This dismal cave is choked with a tangled mass of thick roots descending from the ceiling 20 feet overhead and partially covering the walls. Ancient human skeletons stand tangled in the roots.

The skeletons are the remains of old Sangkon Bhet apostates, chained to the walls and forgotten here long ago. They are unsettling, but not dangerous. This cave serves as the post for the colony’s sentry, who lurks hidden among the roots and debris in the upper part of the chamber and watches the bottom of the stairs in area 1. If the sentry misses intruders coming down the stairs, it certainly attacks when they enter this room. The grell gains a +4 circumstance bonus on its Hide check because its dangling tentacles blend in very well with the roots in the ceiling (total Hide modifi er of +12). This chamber is also infested with several ferocious centipedes. The arthropods have learned to avoid the grell, but quickly attack any other creatures that enter the room.

Sentry Grell: hp 35, lightning lance; see page 115.

Medium Monstrous Centipede (4): hp 4 each; Monster Manual page 287. One of the skeletons wears the moldering remnants of bronze banded mail. In a pouch inside its armor (DC 10 Search check, unless the armor is removed, in which case the pouch is found automatically) are four fi ne violet garnets, each worth 300 gp. If the sentry is killed by intruders who later leave the complex, the two grell from area 3 are posted here in case the invaders decide to return.

A grell lurks in ambush, waiting for prey to happen by

3. GRELL L AIR (EL 5)

A rough, narrow, natural passage branches away from the stonework passage, climbing upward over a diffi cult slope of slick round boulders. Beyond lies a large cavern, its ceiling pierced by hanging tree-roots. Discarded bones lie scattered over the fl oor.

This chamber is home to two normal grell. They range far into the jungle above in search of prey. The bones are the remains of consumed animals—several deer and an assortment of smaller creatures. If the grell hear a fi ght in area 1, one grell goes to investigate, while the other remains here and hides. If the grell are warned by the loud approach of a party of intruders in the passage outside, they both hide here among the roots in the ceiling and prepare an ambush. The roots in this chamber are not as dense as those in area 2, and so the grell gain only a +2 circumstance bonus on Hide checks here (total Hide modifi er +10).

Grell (2): hp 33, 25; see page 108.

Illus. by S. Ellis

In an inconspicuous fi ssure in the southern part of the room (Search DC 15), one of the grell has stashed some loot it acquired when it attacked and killed a river trader a few weeks ago. Two large leather pouches hold 260 sp, 185 gp, and 18 pp, as well as fi ve small gemstones worth 20 gp each and a potion of cure light wounds.

4. HIDDEN TEMPLE (EL 8)

A landing of damp, uneven stone blocks overlooks a large, impressive chamber made of dressed stone. Four pillars carved like snakes support a ceiling 20 feet high, and a large alcove at the northern end of the chamber holds a great stone idol—a sixarmed snake-woman with various deadly weapons in her grasp. The paving blocks of the fl oor have cracked and settled badly enough for a stream to run through the middle of the chamber. The water fl ows from a passage in the north wall and vanishes into a narrow dark fi ssure in the south wall. A masonry passage in the east wall leads down into darkness. The fl oor of the room is littered with strange odds and ends— heaps of white sand, old bronze urns fi lled with dark oils, sacks of roots and tubers, and stone workbenches on which lie sharp, silver implements.

This room was formerly a hidden shrine of the Sangkon priests, used for the darkest and most secret of their foul rites. The passage leading from this room to area 6 is blocked by a grell crystal wall, but the wall features a small culvert (1 foot diameter) that permits the stream to pass through. A grell philosopher appropriated the shrine as its workspace and living quarters. This philosopher specializes in the study of necromantic magic, and it used its command undead spells to assume control over several gnoll skeletons left here long ago by the evil priests. The necrophilosopher is fully aware of the advantage its fl ight ability offers. It hovers near the ceiling, using its spells (summon monster III, summon swarm, ray of enfeeblement, and ray of exhaustion) to wear down a party of dangerous enemies while its skeleton minions attack. It joins the battle only when its enemies have been weakened. Several large stone urns in the northwest corner of the room hold 175 sp, 855 gp, a pouch containing fi ve small agates worth 25 gp each, and two scrolls: invisibility and fi re shield.

Grell Necrophilosopher: Grell necromancer 5; CR 7; Medium aberration; HD 5d8+20 plus 5d4+20; hp 76; Init +4; Spd 5 ft., fl y 30 ft. (perfect); AC 22, touch 14, fl at-footed 18; Base Atk +5; Grp +16; Atk +9 melee (1d4+1 plus paralyzation, tentacle); Full Atk +9 melee (1d4+1 plus paralyzation, 10 tentacles) and +4 melee (2d4, bite); SA constrict, expert grappler, improved grab, paralysis; SQ blindsight 60 ft., fl ight, immunity to electricity, immunity to paralyzation, sightless; AL NE; SV Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +9; Str 12, Dex 18, Con 19, Int 16, Wis 12, Cha 6.

Skills and Feats: Concentration +12 (+16 casting defensively), Hide +14, Knowledge (arcana) +6, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +6, Knowledge (nature) +6, Listen +5, Move Silently +14, Search +5, Sense Motive +3, Spellcraft +6, Spot +5; Combat Casting, Flyby Attack, Grell Alchemy†B, Scribe ScrollB, Spell Focus (necromancy), Weapon Finesse. † New feat described on page 114.

Languages: Grell, Undercommon, Common, Draconic.

Constrict (Ex): On a successful grapple check, the grell necrophilosopher deals 1d6+1 points of damage.

Expert Grappler (Ex): A grell that chooses to grapple with one tentacle and remain ungrappled itself takes a –10 penalty on its grapple checks instead of the normal –20 penalty (see Improved Grab, page 310 of the Monster Manual, for details). The grell necrophilosopher has a +10 racial bonus on grapple checks. (Paralyzed foes automatically lose grapple checks.)

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, the grell must hit an opponent of its size or smaller with a tentacle attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking attacks of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can constrict.

Paralysis (Ex): Any creature hit by the grell necrophilosopher’s tentacle must make a DC 12 Fortitude save or be paralyzed for 2d4 rounds. Each additional tentacle that hits the same creature that round increases the save DC by 1.

Sightless (Ex): The grell necrophilosopher has immunity to gaze attacks, visual effects, illusions, and other attack forms that rely on sight.

Wizard Spells Prepared (caster level 5th; prohibited schools evocation and illusion): 0 —acid splash (+9 ranged touch), detect magic, disrupt undead (+9 ranged touch), mage hand, read magic; 1st—cause fear (DC 15), mage armor*, obscuring mist, ray of enfeeblement (+9 ranged touch), true strike; 2nd—command undead (DC 16), detect thoughts (DC 15), resist energy, summon swarm; 3rd—blink, ray of exhaustion (+9 ranged touch; DC 17), summon monster III. *Already cast. Spellbook: as above plus 0 —all except evocation and illusion; 1st—chill touch, detect undead, protection from good, sleep; 2nd—daze monster, fog cloud, ghoul touch, scare; 3rd—dispel magic, hold person, lightning bolt, water breathing.

Possessions: amulet of health +2.

Gnoll Skeleton (3): CR 1; Medium undead; HD 2d12; hp 13 each; Init +5; Spd 30 ft.; AC 13, touch 11, fl at-footed 12; Base Atk +1; Grp +3; Atk or Full Atk +3 melee (1d10+3/×3, halberd); SQ damage reduction 5/bludgeoning, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to cold, undead traits; AL NE; SV Fort +0, Ref +1, Will +3; Str 15, Dex 12, Con —, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 1.

Skills and Feats: Improved Initiative.

Languages: N/A.

Undead Traits: A skeleton is immune to mind-affecting spells and abilities, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and any effect that requires a Fortitude save unless it also works on objects or is harmless. It is not subject to extra damage from critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage to its physical ability scores, ability drain, energy drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or death from massive damage. It cannot be raised, and resurrection only works if it is willing. Darkvision 60 ft.

5. THE WATERS OF DEATH (EL 6)

The doors leading into this chamber from area 4 are made of ancient bronze, cast into threatening shapes.

At the bottom of the stairs you fi nd a double door, green and corroded with age. You can barely discern disturbing skeletal fi gures cast in the ancient bronze. Grinning skulls and bony claws cover the door.

While the door is somewhat threatening, it is not dangerous. It is stuck, requiring a DC 21 Strength check to force open.

The chamber beyond the ancient door is some kind of dark shrine or crypt. Moldy bas-reliefs carved in the stone walls glorify images of gruesome death, showing skeletal fi gures sacrifi cing living humans on skull-covered altars. Several huge stone urns, easily 5 feet tall, stand along the walls. In the center of the room stands a pool or fountain about 10 feet across. The pool is enclosed in a knee-high masonry wall and is fi lled with black, still water. A small stone altar stands against the east wall, and on the north wall, a barrier of dull gray crystal seals off another exit from the room.

The evil priests of Sangkon Bhet sacrifi ced prisoners to their sinister deities in this room, drowning them in the ceremonial urns. Each urn contains a human skeleton immersed in dark, foul water, and the large pool in the center of the room holds a sinister guardian—a drowned mummy. The grell quickly learned that the undead in this room were content to leave them alone as long as they did not intrude, and so they sealed the northern entrance and closed the western doors.

Skeleton (7): hp 6 each; Monster Manual page 225.

Mummy: hp 60; Monster Manual page 190. Due to its long immersion, the mummy has no vulnerability to fi re. The undead animate and attack if any living creature handles one of the urns, touches the waters of the pool, or approaches within 5 feet of the altar without performing the proper obeisance. It takes the skeletons 1 round to clamber out of the urns, and the mummy begins the fi ght lying prone (and quite hidden) in the black water of the pool. The foul muck in the bottom of the pool is littered with ancient gold coins; throwing coins into the water was part of the rites held here. The pool contains 740 gp, 44 pp, and a gold circlet worth 240 gp.

6. STAL AGMI TE FOREST (EL 5)

This large cavern is fi lled with the sound of rushing water. A shallow, swift stream fl ows along the western wall of the chamber. Large numbers of stalagmites and stalactites dominate the room; some of them are quite striking.

7. CAPTIVES’ CAVE

The door leading into this chamber is secured from the outside.

A door of thick, gray crystal fi lls this branch of the passage. The middle panel looks like it could be folded or moved to allow entry, but several thick rods or bars of the same crystalline substance hold it in place from this side.

Removing the bars from the outside takes only a few moments.

A steep, slick slope of wet limestone leads down to the fl oor 15 feet below. A still pool of water fi lls the northern end of the room. The fl oor is littered with bones—mostly game animals, but some look like they might have belonged to humanoids.

The grell use this cave as a pen for captives or livestock they don’t intend to devour immediately. Typically, the monsters simply drop their victims down into the cavern with little concern about damaging them, then retrieve them when hungry. Anyone trying to climb up to the door from the cavern fl oor must succeed on a DC 15 Climb check. Forcing the door open once it’s barred from the outside requires a DC 25 Strength check. Currently, the room holds no prisoners. This is an excellent place to add an NPC to rescue, if the DM wants to customize the lair. Player characters defeated but not killed in other parts of the complex are likely to wake up in this chamber, disarmed but not yet devoured. Escaping from the room before the grell decide to have their next meal poses a formidable challenge for characters weakened by a losing battle and deprived of their equipment.

8. PHILOSOPHER’S CHASM (EL 6)

This cavern is more like a pit than a cave. The fl oor drops away sharply from the crystal door, and jagged stalagmites dot the bottom of the shaft almost 30 feet below. Odd spots in the chamber walls serve as ledges, on which small urns, sacks, and metal coffers perch precariously.

Large parts of the cavern fl oor are uneven, fi lled with stalagmites or the broken remnants of these formations. Two adult grell use this chamber as their lair. Sounds of fi ghting in area 1 might draw one of the grell to investigate (see area 1).

Grell (2): hp 38, 27; see page 108. The larger grell carries a silverspear (see page 115). If one of the grell in this room is killed, the other attempts to f lee and warn the patriarch in area 10 that the outpost is under attack. If only one grell is in this room (presumably because the other went to investigate trouble in area 1 and did not return), it f lees when reduced to half its hit points.

This chamber is the home of the outpost’s second philosopher. Negotiating the steep, sharp slopes of the chamber requires a DC 20 Climb check; any creature falling from the ledge by the door into the chasm takes 3d6 points of falling damage and takes 1d4 attacks (+8 melee, damage 1d6 points) from the jagged stalagmites below.

Illus. by D. Scott

The ledges are fi lled with various materials and reagents necessary for the philosopher’s studies—rare earths, sands, salts, powders, and interesting natural specimens.

Grell Philosopher: hp 56; see page 109. The philosopher in this room has no avenue of retreat. It conceals itself with obscuring mist (it sees through the mist just fi ne, due to its blindsight) and tries to paralyze characters in the doorway so that they fall onto the jagged rocks below. The philosopher has amassed a small hoard from its explorations of the surface r uins and neighboring lands. It keeps its treasure in the metal coffers on the ledges: 265 gp, 290 sp, three malachite gemstones wor t h 15 g p each, two peridots worth 60 gp each, an amethyst worth 300 gp, and a silver bracelet worth 110 gp. If the patriarch in area 10 is ki l led, this philosopher takes over the leadership of the outpost (none of the other grell trust the necrophilosopher in area 4). 9. WATERFALL CHAMBER (EL 5)

The roaring of water thunders in this large cavern. A swift stream runs along the far wall, disappearing over a small cascade into the lightless depths below. Strange fungi sprout among the stalagmites and slippery fl owstone of the cavern fl oor.

This cavern serves as a guard post for grell assigned to defend the patriarch’s lair. Two grell lurk here, keeping watch, although both spend a lot of time near the stream, hoping to spear a blind cave fi sh.

Grell (2): hp 34, 30; see page 108. Both are armed with lightning lances. The grell are loyal to the patriarch, but hesitate to sacrifi ce their lives for it. The waterfall in the eastern part of the room leads to a narrow, dank, subterranean river passage that winds for several hundred yards before emerging on the surface from the side of a hill. If one grell is killed, the other attempts to escape through this passage, which includes several tight squeezes that would be diffi cult for humans (Escape Artist

DC 15). One of the grell has collected a small handful of interesting gemstones from the nearby jungle, including a tourmaline

worth 60 gp, a small opal worth 150 gp, and four banded agates worth 8 gp apiece. 10. PATRIARCH’S L AIR (EL 10) A short but steep slope of damp boulders climbs up to a large cavern fi lled with striking phosphorescent fungi. The weird, eldritch light of the chamber illuminates a litter of animal bones on the fl oor and tangled heaps of humanoid gear— armor, weapons , and clothing. At the east end of the room, a narrow crevice vanishes into gloom. The patriarch of the outpost chose this chamber as its personal lair. It is currently evaluating the question of whether to move the rest of its colony to the caverns below Sangkon Bhet. While the upper caverns could not comfortably house many more grell, the lower caverns might The patriarch and its latest victim serve a colony well. The humanoid gear belongs to a small party of traders and explorers ambushed by the patriarch’s scouts a few days ago. The unfortunate explorers were devoured soon after being brought to the outpost. The narrow crevice at the east end of the room leads down to the river passage described in area 9. While it is a tight fi t for the patriarch, the grell hopes that it could escape that way if need be. Grell Patriarch: hp 147; see page 113. The patriarch is inclined to stand its ground against all but the most dangerous enemies. It uses greater invisibility early in the fi ght and attacks brazenly, seeking to overcome intruders with a sudden assault. If the heroes seem capable of defeating its invisibility, the monster uses web or slow to hinder the party while picking on lone characters who are far from help. The patriarch has naturally claimed the lion’s share of the treasure discovered in and around the ruins of Sangkon Bhet. Its loot consists of 3,700 sp, 2,900 gp, 55 pp, a fine jade statuette worth 650 gp, two rubies worth 300 gp each, and three small diamonds worth 230 gp each. The explorers’ belongings include a suit of +2 studded leather ar mor, a +1 f laming shor t sword, a cloak of elvenkind, and a scroll of neutralize poison.