The Drow War Book Two. The Dying Of - RoseRed

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power. There are five large baskets here, brimming with
chunks of ore.
The winch requires two creatures to operate. It can raise
weights of several tonnes, but moves very slowly (three
feet per round). Once the ore is brought to the surface,
it is dumped into the ore shuttle (see below).
23. Overseer’s Quarters
This room is a shrine to torture. Whoever lives here
has an unhealthy devotion to pain and its infliction
upon helpless creatures. The walls are hung with
thumbscrews, man-traps, whips and spiked chains.
Among these dangle grim little relics; severed ears,
fingertips and something in a jar that is fortunately too
badly decomposed to identify.
This is Braz Kapra’s room (see above). Hung over the
back of the door is a robe of vermin. Kapra knows the
nature of the item and uses it in his interrogations.
24. Ventilation System
A continuous groaning rhythm comes from this room,
as a great wheel turns and turns. A group of ten slaves
is wearily plodding inside a treadmill. From the soft
breeze in the room, you guess that this is how the mine
is kept ventilated. A gang of four guards is here. You
expect they are meant to be watching the slaves, but
they seem more interested in reading ribald poetry
aloud to each other and laughing. The poetry seems to
be a commemoration of the author’s experiences in the
sacred brothels back in the drow homeland.
Use the standard statistics block for the slaves (see Area
13). As the ventilation system is vital to the mine’s
operation, the guards stationed here are elite (see Area
6 for their statistics).
The ventilation system makes it possible for creatures in
the poison gas levels of the mine to survive. If it stops
working, the poison becomes more thickly concentrated
and a saving throw against its effects is needed every
hour instead of every eight hours.
25. Smelter Exterior
This sunken pit is open to the sky above. It looks as
though it has been gouged out of the hill. In the centre
is a brick edifice with a tall chimney pouring forth black
smoke. The rattling cable cars bring their loads of ore
across from the top of the cargo lift, dump them through
an opening in the roof of the brick cylinder and return
for more.
Characters can gain access to the smelter via the ore
shuttle, the corridor from Area 12 (see above) or the
outside door, which is not locked while the smelter is
running.
25a. Reduction Stage
You are in the upper levels of the smelter, where basket
after basket of iron ore comes spilling in through the
roof. Raging heat comes from the furnace beneath you.
Weary-looking dwarf slaves are breaking up chunks of
iron ore into tiny fragments and tipping them into the
smelter below. Drow guards pace up and down the
platform, checking that all is in order.
Depending on the party’s level and state of health, these
drow guards can either be warriors or elite guards.
The default is a group of four elite guards (see Area
6). There are eight slaves in this part of the smelter.
Any creature falling into the molten mass in the furnace
is dealt damage as if he had fallen into lava (see the
DMG).
25b. Smelting Stage
Soot-smeared dwarves, naked but for seamy loincloths,
are shovelling coal into the furnace. Other dwarves
rake out the slag and cart it off to be dumped on the heap
outside. To the south, a continual stream of molten iron,
bright as mercury, runs from the bottom of the smelter
and flows sizzling into moulds on the ground. Next to
this is a mounting pile of finished iron pigs waiting to be
taken to the store. Grim-faced drow guards, sweating
in the heat, watch the slaves toiling.
As above, the six drow guards here are either warriors
or elite guards, depending on how tough (or exhausted)
the party is. There are eight dwarf slaves in this part of
the smelter.
25c. Coal Storage
This is where the coal is stored in wooden bunkers,
which are loaded from above and empty through
hoppers in the base.
26. Ore Shuttle
At the top of the cargo lift is a cable car system, where
the baskets of ore can be hung on hooks and sent across
to the smelter to the east.
The hooks extend from strong chains, easily strong
enough to bear the weight of the Player Characters. The
ore shuttle has a winch that can be worked to rotate the
chain and move the baskets along.
Ibon Presno Gonzalez (order #73006) 8