Cliffhangers Adventures

Equinox
Episode 3: Mirror rorriM
by Daneen McDermott

Equinox is a short adventure for four 7th-level characters. The party may consist of any mix of classes. The adventure should prove a reasonable challenge for characters from 6th to 8th level and can be set in any campaign world.

Adventure Background

In the previous installments, the party entered a strange building with twin towers that appeared mysteriously overnight, during the equinox. Inside, they found traps that seemed geared to keep both good and evil people away, and contended with a chessboard populated by pawns that weren’t happy about being pushed around. They now face their own worst enemy.

Download towers map, in jpg and Campaign Cartographer 2 formats. (343K ZIP file)

The Mirrors (EL7*)

At each end of the east-west hallway, stands a 5-foot high, 3-foot wide mirrors of opposition (see the Dungeon Master’s Guide, page 222). The mirrors are active; if the command word is not spoken, characters looking into the mirror will face (and be pressed to fight) exact duplicates of themselves. Note that each mirror can produce up to four duplicates every day.

For the DM: The command word to deactivate the mirror on the east is "sun." The word for the mirror on the west wall is "moon." The circle-crescent medallions are the only clues for this.

*Note: The actual encounter level for each mirror should be the level of the character duplicated. If two or more mirror-duplicates are activated in the same combat, the encounter level should be the average level of the duplicated characters plus the number of duplicates faced.

The Pits (EL 4)

Around the next corner is a 10-foot wide, 50-foot long corridor, with 10-foot high ceilings but no floor. If any of the rows of tiles from the Grand Hall were left slid under the wall into this space, then you will have a patchwork floor over a long, deep pit. These stone tiles still react identically to the floor in the Grand Hall, sliding as characters step on them. The pit is 60 feet deep. The bottom stair at the far end of the corridor is 45 feet away. The circular stairs at the other end of the corridor start at ground level and go up, not down.

The west pit is composed entirely of black stone, and the walls and bottom are covered with oil, making them slippery (Climb check DC 35).

Electrified Floor Trap: (CR 3) The black stone floor is magically trapped to electrify evil characters (4d8 points of electrical damage); Reflex save (DC 19) for half. The floor shocks any evil character touching it once every round of contact. The east pit is white stone and also covered with oil. Likewise, the white stone floor is magically trapped to electrify good characters.

The Library (EL8)

The stairs climb 12 feet to reach another long, narrow hallway. The hallway is lined with bookcases. The titles of books in the east corridor are all about goodness, virtue, healing, light, and honor. The titles of books in the west corridor are about destruction, war, vivisection, hell, and devils. A Search check (DC 25) reveals a holy tome of Heironeous (east) or Hextor (west) as well as 1d4 books of note, worth 1,000 gp each.

If any character attempts to remove a book, or touches any object on the bookcase, a swarm of books (tiny and small animated objects) will leap from the bookshelves and attack the characters.

Tiny animated object, book (12): 3hp each; special movement: fly 40 ft. (clumsy), see Monster Manual, page 17.

Small animated object, book (1): 8hp; special movement: fly 50 ft. (clumsy), see Monster Manual, page 17.

The Cliffhanger

On the wall, by the far end of the bookcase is a lever, currently set in a middle position. Pushing the lever up or down will cause the nearby staircase to start to turn in a correspondingly clockwise or counter-clockwise direction -- a mechanical action looking not entirely unlike a overgrown meat-grinder.

About the Author

Daneen McDermott is a freelance puzzle and game designer who lives south of Seattle with her husband, an overgrown dog, and three little minions of her own. She has played D&D for almost 20 years and has a fanatical fascination with games and toys. She was until very recently the continuity manager for Magic: the Gathering.

Find out more about Campaign Cartographer 2 at ProFantasy Software’s website. (www.profantasy.com)