MarkOliva

07/27/2012

1350

With the 72nd Map of the Week we continue in the borderlands town of Óðinn's House in the Kingdom of Slovania. This week we take a look at the Dark Temple. To most residents of Óðinn's House, this address is known as Eliška's Boarding House. It is in fact a strange and evil temple that serves a non-deity. It is dedicated to the worship of and service to the dark draug Mýsing, the undead baron of Garndiskross in the ruins of the Æsir Empire to the north. Mýsing hopes to become a deity. His Dark Temples are intended to develop a base of believers and worshippers that will elevate him to godhood, although it's doubtful that a draug can become a deity. The Dark Temple in Óðinn's House is in its beginning stages, although you as the game master may choose to advance that stage by the time that your PCs reach the town. Current activities in the covert temple focus upon worship, training and research. For the latter purpose, the trainees have been snatching bodies of the newly dead. In Slovania, the old practice dating from Aleksandreska teachings is to bury the dead anonymously in the forests. This makes it relatively easy for the temple's trainees to dig up the dead and close the graves again without being caught. To achieve all the goals that Mýsing has set for it, the temple also will need to begin abducting live humans to perform anatomical research upon the victims. The temple already is fully set up to perform such work, but at this time, it has yet to begin. Eliška and her followers may of course begin at the time your PCs arrive in town.

Key to the Dark Temple

Cellar Level

This level is the true heart of the temple where most of its activities take place. Only theoretical training in black necromancy takes place on the ground floor. The cellar can be entered only from the ground floor. As servants of the Darkness, the temple members do not illuminate this level more than is necessary. When they work here, they carry torches to provide the needed light. Other than that, only the stairway and the corridor to the prisoners' cells have permanent torch mounts.

1. Stairs from the Ground Floor.

2. Corridor to Prisoner Cells.

3. Seven Prisoner Cells. When the temple members begin abducting living persons for necromantic experiments, the victims will be held in these cells. Each cell has a wooden bunk, a bed pan and a water jug.

4. Body Vault. Snatched dead bodies are kept here. As one might expect, this chamber has an overwhelming, foul stench.

5. Unholy Temple. Eliška and her followers perform their rites of worship to Mýsing here.

6. Laboratory. This is the area where the temple's followers perform their experiments upon the bodies that they snatch and where they will perform experiments upon the living.

Ground Floor

This level is divided into two sections. To the left or southwest is the kitchen and dining room area. These are the only areas where the house servant Valérie works or goes. She knows nothing of the temple's true nature. To the right or northeast are the quarters of Eliška and Záviš and the theoretical training area for black necromancy. Záviš is a black necromancer member of the temple who is Eliška's bed partner.

7. Main Entrance.

8. Stairway to Second Story.

9. Dining Room.

10. Kitchen.

11. Stairwell.

12. Door to Cellar Stairs.

13. Training Area. Theoretical training in black necromancy takes place here.

14. Chamber of Eliška and Záviš.

Second Story

This area is the dormitory of the temple's trainees.

15. Stairway to the Ground Floor.

16. Corridor.

17. Common Room.

18. Dormitory Rooms. Each trainee has a bed and a foot locker.

You can get the maps in two versions:

1. The Fractal Mapper (TM) 8 map in FMP format, fully editable, from our Jörðgarð web page (13 MB).

2. Three JPG flat maps of 1360 Pixels x 975 Pixels each (1.6 MB total), available with the hyperlink below.

Both versions are released for personal and commercial use under the Open Game License Version 1.0a, which you can read on the Jörðgarð web site.

The Jörðgarð web site:

www.vintyri.org/joerdhgardh/joerdhgardh.htm

Next: Óðinn's House - Šarlota's House of Healing

Mark Oliva
The Vintyri (TM) Project
www.vintyri.org
info@vintyri.org