I posted a political adventure awhile back, which demonstrated how to use factions to involve PCs in something of a political conundrum they would have to puzzle out.

This one focuses on exploring a location and solving puzzles as much as fighting. In a sense, I think it’s the empty rooms and space between combats that create the most interesting and memorable adventures. I’ve found two images and a map that weren’t meant to go together but which complement each other to create evocative set pieces.

It’s meant for characters of 4th or 5th level, but additional hazards are suggested at the end to make it more challenging for those of higher level.

A Strange Offer

Other adventurers report that they found a temple that appears to be intact at the bottom of Lake Fion. Old documents suggest it may have sunk to the bottom of what is now a lake as the result of an earthquake in a swamp called at the time Fion Lim.

The heroes are asked by an official of their faith to explore the temple with the loan of the Orb of Orvis, which creates a bubble of air. They wish to know if the temple is one of their own and return any items of value in it. This area was once the purview of some revered patriarchs of the faith: Imaza, Teis, and Santeru, and the clerics would love to have anything connected to them, for no relics remain.

The Orb of Orvis

The Orb of Orvis is a 6-inch solid (and strong) crystal sphere that allows those inside its air bubble to rise or descend thru liquid as they desire, altho not very fast. When submerged, the PCs walk on the muddy, slippery bottom with modest difficulty; it would be difficult to run. Creatures and objects pass thru the bubble with each, including smoke, if the heroes use torches (fresh air is magically replaced).

The orb’s effect lasts for five hours and can be activated once per day; the diameter of its bubble shrinks slowly in the 5th and final hour from 20-foot diameter to 5 feet and then quickly down to 1 foot. Keep track of time.

If the PCs don’t make an effort to figure out where the temple is under water (they can’t see it from the surface), it will take them 1d4 x 10 minutes to find it in the somewhat murky waters. They might need to find and explore the temple briefly, then return to the surface and camp overnight.

Wilderness Encounters

Traveling to the lake, the heroes leave the road and approach it thru a thick woodland with a lot of wet areas. There, they encounter a couple of different creatures, but they don’t need to be combats.

Lake Fion

Arriving at the small lake, the heroes find it dark and uninviting.

Using the orb, they may descend from a boat (if they have one) or walk in from the shore. The lake has freshwater river sharks, but they will merely be curious about the air bubble. They will follow the PCs into the temple ruins (there are a couple of holes big enough) and might attack if a PC left the air bubble for some reason. If provoked, they can go into the air bubble for a bite similar to breaching above the surface of water when attacking prey.

Describe various fish and other lake creatures swimming around the heroes, avoiding the bubble. Don’t go out of your way to have the sharks or other things attack them; it should mostly be a strange and fascinating experience. There are freshwater luminescent jellyfish, for example. These are harmless (they don’t have a toxic sting) and will merely light some rooms with a soft glow.

The Temple Exterior

The temple sits in a small compound with a great Y-shaped crack running thru it, resulting in a 5-foot deep crevice (10 feet in the largest area). The PCs have no map, so they approach it from a random direction. It does not appear to be a human or demi-human temple and has a strong serpent motif.

The map below shows a largely dry compound because is not meant to go with the Sunken Temple art. But for this adventure, all of this is under water. Instead of the staircase in 3 leading down into the dungeon at 6, it is accessed thru a staircase behind a concealed door in the worshiping chamber.

The only thing of interest in either of the other ruined buildings (areas 1-4) are the scattered bones of some lizardfolk (2-4) and (at 1) a lizardfolk statue on a pedestal. It was unbalanced by the earthquake and will fall forward if disturbed (2d6 hp damage). It originally turned to uncover a hiding place, which contains three arrows of netting (cast a 20-foot diameter net over the targeted spot; creatures in the area must check difficult 14 using dexterity or be trapped for 1d3 rounds).

The entrance to the temple is up a tall staircase (5). At the top is the opening to an antechamber where the walls are decorated with images of lizardfolk and serpents. A pair of large double doors in poor condition must be forced open to get thru.

The Temple Interior

Down the staircase from the antechamber is the large worshiping chamber, with its sacrificial altar and a large stone serpent head with a small niche accessible by mounting several steps and entering its open mouth. The bones of numerous lizardfolk litter the floor, as does sand that has seeped in and piled up in places. A few urns and fallen stone blocks lie scattered around; some urns contain harmless sea life.

There is a large air bubble that can be seen trapped at the top of the chamber. A PC without much armor could leave the protection of the Orb of Orvis and swim up to it and breathe while treading water. This risks shark attack.

There is a depression in the sand near a wall. If a PC gets too close to it (which is inevitable when conducting a search; roll randomly for which character), they could get sucked into the 3-foot diameter hole (to 8, below) it hides (dexterity check). This would seem like a sinkhole at first. The PC could be stuck or (if small enough) sucked down into the chamber below (which is completely flooded).

If the altar at the center is touched or if the stairs to the serpent niche are mounted, a stone golem in the form of a serpent slithers out of the hole to defend the place from the intruders. If a PC is stuck in the hole, it pushes them up and out before entering the chamber to attack.

Within the niche in the serpent god head is a secret door. The wall features raised stone figures of swamp creatures and includes a humanoid as well as a lizardfolk which can move (a rust stain below each betrays this). It can be opened by sliding the humanoid downward while simultaneously sliding the lizardfolk upward.

The Dungeon Beneath the Temple

A staircase beyond the secret door descends into tunnels and chambers. A couple of small rooms (6-7) once used as preparation rooms lead down a passage. The dungeon is completely flooded, with no air bubble at the ceiling.

This dungeon is the home and hunting ground of a giant freshwater octopus capable of changing color and texture to hide extremely well (effectively zero chance of detection). It will sense the heroes the minute they enter the dungeon and stealthily track them thru the hazy waters. At some moment of vulnerability, it will reveal itself and reach into the air bubble to attack and try to carry off one of the heroes. It can easily get thru the hole in the ceiling (8) into the worship room above or thru a small hole in the stones to the outside, but not while carrying a PC. It may also attack a wounded shark. It is intelligent enough to bargain with, if the heroes offer food.

However, the rounded niche (8) is the chamber below the hole in the floor above, where the stone serpent golem normally waits coiled. If it is somehow still here (perhaps the heroes escaped thru the secret door above and avoided fighting it, so it returned here), it appears to be a statue of a sleeping serpent but awakens if touched, such as if reaching for the small stone idol very close to it (dexterity check if actively trying to avoid).

The side rooms (9-12) are empty but for a few fallen stone blocks, scraps of items left behind during the earthquake, and (in 12) another small lizardfolk idol.

The hall is empty but for debris, a few fallen stone blocks, and the bones of several humanoids that were apparently (monster lore check using intelligence) ritually butchered on a stone butchering table. A few bits of cloth and rusted iron may be identified (tradition check using wisdom) as belonging to human monks of the PCs’ faith. There are also several skeletons of lizardfolk, some of which have the remnants of shaman garments, including a few gp’s worth of gold.

At the west end of the hall (13 A), there is a concealed pressure plate on the floor. When at least 100 pounds of weight is on the plate, the magic door to 14 slides swiftly open, only to close when the weight is removed (1d4 hp damage to anyone in the way). The closed door (and any other solid object) blocks the air bubble of the Orb of Orvis, so characters on the opposite side of the door from the orb would be submerged and floating.

The heroes could have a character stand on the plate while the character with the orb goes thru the doorway and others go further into the chamber (but very far). Or they could put heavy stones on the plate or block the door open with a stone. If a character is left alone on the plate (or anywhere else), he or she will likely be attacked by the giant octopus or sharks. A floating character cannot put pressure on the plate.

In 14, there are two large statues of the lizardfolk serpent god (which, at the DM’s discretion, could be stone golems). In the northwest corner is a ruined wooden table, a third small idol, and a few silver cult items worth 10 gp. There is also a gelatinous cube that may be given away by the fish bones that float in it.

At the east end of the hall (13 B), there is a fair amount of wood debris which may may be identified (intelligence check or something like carpentry craft) as a former wooden staircase. In the middle column at the east end (B) are four niches, one of which holds a fourth of the small idols. If all three remaining idols (from 8, 12, and 14) are found and placed in the niches, a secret door in the east wall opens–6 feet up the wall.

This door was formerly reached by a wooden staircase (now just debris). Now, the PCs could move some fallen stones and create a makeshift staircase or perhaps one could climb on another’s shoulders and just reach the bottom of the door frame. Several heavy (50 to 100-pound) blocks can be found.

The Treasure Vault

Thru the secret door on the east wall, the heroes may access the treasure vault (15). Here lies a modest cache of gold and silver items decorated with serpents and a locked wooden casket (ceremonial box) in surprisingly good condition, decorated with human symbols of the PCs’ faith.

The lock is a 3-digit combination. A character with lockpicking skill can pick it thus:

• Make a skill check and guess at the 3-digit code and get a feel for which digits are correct and which are right but in the wrong location.
• If you fail the check, you get only a feel for which are the right digits, without regard to whether or not they are in the right location.
• The correct code is 5-9-1. You can try as many times as necessary, each taking one minute with thieves’ tools instead of the key.

The Reliquary

The casket holds a skull decorated with gold and semi-precious stones and the sacred ornaments that were with it, all of which the church would very much like returned. Touching the relic causes it to reveal a divine vision:

Patriarch Santeru was a divinely holy man from a few hundred years ago, beheaded by an evil cult, but his head was recovered. A century ago, the relic was being transported past a swamp by some monks. They were ambushed by lizardfolk, who sacrificed them to their awful serpent god in the worship chamber, ceremonially butchered them in the dungeon hall, and kept the relic. The divine Santeru himself was angered by this and called upon the gods to cause an earthquake that sank the lizardfolk’s camp and temple into the swamp and flooded the swamp, turning it into a lake. The lizardfolk were trapped and died.

The vision concludes with the message that Santeru will grant them one wish for anything in his power, which is that of a most powerful cleric. But if they fail to return the relic to its rightful place with the priests, it will curse them powerfully. (If they take the casket back without opening it, the officials ask them to open it for them, and everyone present witnesses the vision, but the PCs get the wish.)

The Collapse of the Temple

Opening the secret door jostles some key stones, and after a short time (long enough to mess with the treasure and get the vision, if they don’t dawdle), the temple begins to tremble. Stones begin to shake loose from the ceiling. The heroes must flee for their lives.

They can escape by completing a skill challenge using various physical and mental skills, including spells that might be helpful, as the DM determines. They must make three successes before they have three failures (or get three in a row) or be trapped in the crumbling ruins with the Orb of Orvis bubble gradually shrinking. They would then likely need to use the wish to escape; (if they haven’t opened the reliquary, Santeru saves them and later grants some minor favor instead).

Optional Challenges

If you want to make the adventure more challenging, you could say two or three lizardfolk shaman who became wights are in 13. You might also put some aquatic menace in 4, such as sentient seaweed.

Or you could make the lake the home of a mated pair of catoblepuses (or some some other big lake monster), which rises to size up the heroes when they first arrive or when they leave and may or may not attack (depending on their actions). The heroes should be able to just flee it, if they want.

Or you could have a sea hag enter at some point in the form of a mermaid or sea elf and challenge the heroes’ intentions as “intruders” or “looters”. She would want to feel them out, figuring they are powerful if they can adventure underwater with magic. She might try to trick them out of some treasure by offering to help them find a greater treasure in exchange. Or, of course, it could be an actual mermaid or sea elf.

You might have some lizardfolk still living in the area, but the idea of the adventure is that the gods took vengeance on them and slew the whole tribe. Even a different tribe would still be unlikely to stand by while the PCs explore one of their kinds’ temples.

You could also devise an additional trap or puzzle in the dungeon in 9, 10, 11, or 12.