The description below assumes that the characters entered the room by traveling through the chute and pushing aside the pewter cover. The tunnel comes out at the bottom of a stone ring that, from inside the room, resembles a well. (If they entered from the west, the pewter cover is still in place.)
This room is small and plainly decorated. On the north and south sides are fountains made of bronze-inlaid marble. The southern one is cracked, and only dry limy deposits remain in it. The northern one contains about two feet of dark water, fed by a trickle that falls from the top of the fountain. In the water, the white, gauzy form of a crayfish lies on a bed of lime encrustations.
To the west, stairs lead up out of the room, and to either side of the stairs along the west wall are narrow, dust covered ledges.
Creature
The fouled water in the fountain contains a neutral evil water weird. It rises up and attacks characters who disturb the water.
Treasure
The “crayfish” is nothing more than the shed shell of a long-expired resident of the fountain. Beneath it is a platinum key and chain (worth 20 gp). The key unlocks the portcullis that blocks the exit in area 53.
49. Sacred Chitza-Atlan
(SHEET-zah AY-tlan)
In the middle of this chamber is what appears to be the withered, preserved form of a centaur mounted on a slab of marble. Tinted green and decked out in lacquered leather, feathers, and copper wire jewelry, he faces the western entrance to this chamber. The centaur holds a bronze-hafted pike tipped with a broad, blue-gray, flame shaped spearhead.
Scattered around the room are jewelry and knickknacks, made of beaten copper, cut and polished obsidian, shells, quartz, and coral. Much of this treasure is at the feet of the centaur, symbolically being trod underfoot. Two tall urns shaped like wicker baskets stand along the north wall, each one filled with river stones.
Creature
The centaur figure is the mummified remains of a sacred offspring of Chitza-Atlan, the guardian of the gateway to the underworld. This guardian has two functions: to prevent any but the dead from entering these ruins, and to keep those creatures in the ruins confined there. Thus, if any character tries to exit this room by any door other than the one entered from, the centaur mummy animates and attacks the characters. The mummy will also defend itself if attacked. A word or a pass from Zotzilaha will gain free passage.
Treasure
If all the junk jewelry is taken (eight hundred pieces), the total value of the haul is 80 gp. The real treasure is concealed in the bottoms of the two urns. Buried beneath the stones are two crushed silver masks (worth 25 gp each), an electrum serpent bracelet (worth 50 gp), a broken marble statue of a monkey (50 gp), and four silver hairpins set with jade worth (5 gp each).
50. Jade Wall
Here a wall of green, polished stone blocks the way.
This wall, which is 7 feet wide and 7 feet tall, is a trap for those attempting to break into the ruins. If any tampering is done to the wall, it falls west out into the anteroom. If the wall falls on a creature, the creature must make a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 9 (2d8) bludgeoning damage and is knocked prone under the wall, restrained. A successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check is needed to lift the stone wall off any trapped beneath it.
51. Wind Tunnel
This five-foot-diameter passage is dry and dusty, and it shows no sign of having been used for ages. Near the top of the corridor walls, about three feet from the ceiling, stone lintels run the length of the passage. The corridor abruptly widens to a cube fifteen feet on a side with a corrugated floor. In the ceiling of this area, a bronze, circular trapdoor is set. The cover is latched shut.
In the four corners of this foyer are sets of metal rungs forming a ladder that leads up and across the arched ceiling to the trapdoor. The rungs are broken in several places, leaving rusty spikes. On the other side of this area, the corridor continues.
Hazardous Hatch
Opening the hatch releases a whirlwind. The character who climbed up to open the hatch is hurled to the floor and takes 3 (1d6) bludgeoning damage as the wind emerges and fills the 15-foot chamber. Thereafter, it costs 3 feet of speed to move 1 foot in the room. The hatch can’t be shut, and the wind doesn’t die down.
Each creature that starts its turn in this area must make a DC 13 Strength saving throw. (A character grasping the rungs of one of the ladders has advantage on the saving throw.) On a failed save, the wind throws the creature 10 feet in a random direction, the creature takes 3 (1d6) bludgeoning damage, and it is knocked prone. If the saving throw fails by 5 or more, the creature strikes one of the rusty spikes, taking an additional 3 (1d6) slashing damage.
If a target thrown by the wind strikes an object, such as a wall, the target takes another 3 (1d6) bludgeoning damage. If a target is thrown into another creature, that creature must succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or take 3 (1d6) bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone. On a successful save, the creature takes half the bludgeoning damage and isn’t knocked prone.
A creature that moves only by crawling on the floor, using the corrugated surface to maintain one’s grip, is safe from the wind.
52. The Hidden Room of Nahual
(NAH-wahl, alter ego)
A character can discover one of the secret doors to this room by succeeding on a DC 20 Wisdom (Perception) check. Each door can be opened by reaching up above it, grabbing the lintel or the molding on the wall about 8 feet above the floor, and pulling down. The secret door then swings inward, but it closes 30 seconds later. These doors are counterweighted and can’t be spiked open. From the inside, either of the doors can be opened by pressing down on a stone projection to the right of it.
When the characters exit one of the antechambers and pass into the room beyond, read:
The walls of this chamber are painted flat black, while the floor is inlaid with a colorful mosaic of strange gods cavorting and leaping around a sun. An alcove in the center of the eastern wall is masked by a curtain of shells and beads.
If the characters push aside the curtain, read:
Behind the curtain is the chalky form of a statue seated on a stone throne with its surface carved to depict feathers. The statue is wearing a feathered headdress and a feathered robe. Lying across its lap in its open palms is a scepter of gold and silver with an eagle’s head crafted on one end and the talons of a bird holding a blazing sun on the other. The most remarkable thing about the statue is its face.
The statue duplicates the face of the first person who enters this room. The scepter is worth 200 gp. It is stuck to the palms of the statue, and only the character with the same face as the statue can lift the scepter.
Once that character picks up the scepter, it provides its holder with visions of great battles of the past. The holder is transfixed by the visions; others see the character lose focus and begin to sweat. After 30 seconds, if still holding the scepter, the holder becomes petrified. At the same time, the statue becomes flesh and blood.
Creature
The figure on the throne is a nahual, or alter-ego. It is essentially a doppelganger of chaotic evil alignment that is also a fiend (demon). It possesses the memories of the petrified character and tries to convince the party that it has just merged with the spirit of one of the character’s earlier incarnations. Given a chance, the nahual leads the party to their deaths with false information gained from “memories” of its former life.
The nahual must be slain and the scepter touched to the nahual’s corpse to restore the petrified character. A
53. The Valve
Before you is a foyer, ten feet wide and twenty feet long. A narrow hall connects with this area on the south side, and on the north end a five-foot-wide staircase leads up.
A wheel is set horizontally half into the wall in the southwest corner. This wheel appears to be a crank. Above the wheel, a bronze lever is set in the wall, angled downward.
Open and Shut
The stairs lead up to a blank wall that is the location of a secret door. This door can be opened by turning the wheel in the foyer. The wheel turns only after the lever is pushed up, and then only in one direction. Rotating the wheel opens the secret door, but it also opens the floor in front of the wheel to reveal a 10-foot-square pit, at the bottom of which can be seen a pale shimmer of bones. There is a 1-foot-wide ledge along the west edge of the pit for someone to stand on while working the wheel, and a 6-inch-wide footbridge of polished marble spans the center of the pit from west to east.
Crossing this beam, which is difficult terrain, requires a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. On a failed check, the character can’t move farther during that turn. If the check fails by 5 or more, the character falls off the beam 30 feet to the bottom of the pit.
If the crank is released once the secret door is open, it unwinds quickly, pulling the door shut. To prevent this, the lever can be pulled down to lock the wheel in place-but doing so causes a portcullis to fall across the entrance to the stairs. The portcullis can be lifted by a character who succeeds on a DC 20 Strength (Athletics) check.
Easy Way Out
If the characters search the walls beside the portcullis, a keyhole can be discovered. The key from room 48 fits the lock, enabling the portcullis to be opened like a gate.
Hard Way Out
In the ceiling directly above the pit, a thin slab that looks like ordinary stonework conceals a sloping tunnel that leads upward. The slab can’t be detected or manipulated from this side.