The Death Ziggurat — A Cosmic Necrocrawl

"Find the ziggurat and stop the demon from laying waste to our world before the true time!"

The Creton Order hires the PCs after cryptic scrolls report a demon escaping her ziggurat prison deep within Sarkash. The ziggurat is "hidden in another realm" and "the priests carry keys." Generous pay keeps the PCs from asking too many questions.

Deep in the woods of Sarkash, an unnaturally cold depression yawns — a sinkhole as if formed by the strike of an impossibly large fist. Around its edges, the death-obsessed cult camps. Inside it, rot-priests set up symbol-covered conical tents, Sarku hangs his dried-up victims upside-down from the trees, ivy-covered ruins rise between fir, the Frozen Lake of black water-lilies holds moaning undead frozen in mud, and a foul cave opens through a rotting mouth in the woods. Murky clouds whirl down into the depression like a tornado — Akünh's channeling.

Akünh is a spawn of SHE — conceived in the unholy bonding between the basilisk and a demonic being from a parallel world filled with undeath and torment. Centuries ago, unsung knights of the Cretun order subdued her and bound her into the Death Realm in a ziggurat deep within Sarkash. Now the bindings have lost their potency. Like one more Misery, Akünh has broken free.

Surroundings

• The Depression. Fog and clouds. Steep cliffs 150–300 feet high. The river flows in from the southwest as a frozen waterfall, forming a lake at the bottom under a thin sheet of ice. Clouds whirl tornado-like in the northern end down into a great fog cloud where the ziggurat hides.
• Death-Obsessed Cultist Camp. 25 cultists half an hour's walk from the depression. Strange headdresses signaling rank, tattooed faces, thick furs dangling with skeletal parts. They have felt the deathly vibrations and hope they are keys to the golden afterlife. They have found the rotting mouth but not dared to enter. Unaware of Akünh or her rot-priests. See Death-Obsessed Cultists.
• Foul-Smelling Cave Opening. Cold dark passages where undead lurk. After almost an hour, ends in a large rotting mouth in the woods, half an hour from the cultist camp. The mouth is closed; opens when blood is dripped on it.
• The Priest Camp. Heavy smell of dousing incense and herbs from symbol-covered conical tents. d4+2 rot priests sit around a fire, discussing the possibility of existing simultaneously in all realms — thereby escaping the end.
• The Frozen Lake. Covered in icy water lilies on a thin sheet of ice. Brittle black flowers have strange effects when crushed. Next to the lake, dozens of moaning undead are trapped in the half-frozen mud.

Black Water-Lily Effects (d6)

Duration: 1 hour / 1 week / permanent (W = wears off, P = permanent, H = HP-affecting)

Akünh's Channeling

The tornado-like cloud is a physical manifestation of channeling from the demonic world where Akünh's parent resides. This power helped her break free and is now needed to raise her undead army. If stopped, no more undead will rise. If reversed (with the Spiral Crown), her powers dwindle quickly. If unstopped, Akünh will conquer the closest castle and use the undead horde to ravage the lands.

Navigating the Ruins

Hex-by-hex exploration. One hex = 15 minutes = one random event.

D10 Ruin Types

D10 Searching the Ruins (15 minutes)

D12 Random Events (roll once per hex)

D10 Minor Treasures (worth 3d20 silver)

Two minor-treasure entries are truncated in the source layout; entries 9–10 are suggested fillers — flag as [CANON CHECK] if a full-art edition resolves them.

D6 Major Treasures (worth 30 + 2d20 silver)

The Spiral Chapel

Dedicated to the spiraling cosmic force of Heedless Creation. The ceiling inside is a painted night sky with a spiral galaxy in the center. In the floor below the galaxy is a circular depression — beneath it, a secret space hiding the golden, ruby-adorned Spiral Crown.

On a wall: a mural of a priest in a temple gazing out over the Cosmos. Pressing the priest's head reveals a small compartment behind the mural containing the spiral-patterned metal disc.

To find the Spiral Crown: Put the disc in the depression in the floor and press down. If pressing without the disc, a lightning bolt shoots from the galaxy in the ceiling for 2d4 damage.

Wearing the Spiral Crown

Lightning shoots into it. The wearer becomes a cosmic vessel, seeing strange and nightmarish visions of the infinite collapsing Cosmos. The wearer is allowed at most three DR12 Presence tests (one per round) to remove the crown. Should all tests fail, the wearer is irrevocably lost to the Cosmos. Wearing it also reverses Akünh's channeling and quickly drains her health by d4 HP per round. She will instantly teleport and try to stop it.

The Ziggurat in Death's Realm

The ziggurat is hidden in a parallel world. Requires a rot priest medallion to find. Without one, you find only a barren waste in the fog, swarming with undead. In the Death Realm, the ziggurat and the Necropolis are surrounded by a walled enclosure with an entrance opposite the ziggurat.

The Necropolis

On a square-shaped island in a square-shaped pond: hundreds of old mausolea, tombstones, and graves. Among them, a bottomless pit from which the horn beasts crawl when summoned by the rot priests, who have set up a tent next to the pit. No more beasts appear if the meditation of the two rot priests in the tent is stopped. Guarded by two horn beasts.

The Ziggurat

Colossal and ice-covered, rising into the air with a whirlwind of clouds at its top, ever pulling from a point in the sky. The top is broken and looks as if something has exploded on the inside.

Inside the ziggurat: An open space in the center, below the broken top. d4+1 rot priests and two horn beasts guard a rotten mouth-like opening in the floor that is sucking in the spiraling, thundering ice-clouds above. Warm air stinking of rot and decay emanates from the maw, thawing the ground around it.

Inside the maw: A quiet and warm space with walls of pulsating flesh. A tunnel descends into darkness from whence a rhythmic, beating sound is heard. 10 meters below, growing from the wall, is Akünh's heart, black and pulsating. Destroying it will banish Akünh into the void until the end of days but also instantly cause one Misery to take place.

Stat Blocks

Rot Priest

Black robes, wide-brimmed cylindrical hats with black veils. Rotting mouth on the upper body. Must eat human flesh regularly. Wear medallions allowing travel to the ziggurat in the Death Realm.

HP 10 Morale 8 No armor Attack: Claws d6

Devour. Strength DR12 or be grappled, and next turn devoured (d8 damage per round). Rotting touch. Those damaged by a rot priest will not heal when resting until healed magically, or resting one night at least a day's travel from the ziggurat.

Horn Beast

A chaotic mass of horns and bones with a circular mouth filled with teeth instead of a face. Rip enemies apart with sharp claws.

HP 8 Morale − Shifting bones −d4 Attack: Claws d6, attacks twice a round

Undead

The rotting dead, awakened to serve. Drooling tongues, red eyes.

HP 3 Morale − No armor Attack: Grapple — Strength DR12 or be grappled; subsequent attacks (by all present undead) are claw or bite (d4).

Will not die. Only stays dead for one round, will then rise again with 1 HP. Slow. Can always be outrun (unless you are grappled).

Sarku

The sharp-tongued Sarku was Akünh's closest advisor but left her when he realized her demonic origin. A gaunt, ghostly form with a long, sharp tongue that sucks the blood of his victims and stretches their tongues. The dried-up corpses hang upside-down from the trees. Wants to be set free from his earthly prison and move on to the afterlife. Knows where Akünh's heart is and that stabbing it kills her.

HP 15 Morale 8 No armor Attack: Blood-sucking tongue (d4)

Tongue grapple. A hit means you are grappled, automatic damage in future rounds until you break free with a DR14 Strength test. Ethereal. Immune to physical harm.

Dread Akünh, Demon Spawn

Clad in dazzling black robe, embroidered with gold and crimson. Five eyes symmetrically placed around the head, crowned with cylindrical antlers. A huge, rotting vertical mouth covers the chest and abdomen. Mostly found in the ziggurat.

HP 20 Morale 11 No armor

Death scream. Presence DR12 or be drawn to arm's-length distance of Akünh. Claws and devouring (d6). Attacks twice per round. If both hit, you are devoured; test Strength DR14 to escape or die. Dark rays (d4). Shoot out from the eyes; affects up to d6 nearby enemies. Separated heart. At 0 HP, will resurrect at her heart beneath the ziggurat. Teleport. Can teleport freely within the depression. A rotting mouth eats its way out of the ground and she climbs out.

Death-Obsessed Cultist

25 cultists from a plague-wracked Tveland hovel. Intrigued by the necromantic energies. Goal: use whatever can be found here as a ticket to the golden afterlife in the Shimmering Fields. Speak slowly with an unusual, almost inhuman dialect.

HP 16 Morale 6 Fur armor −d2 Attack: Axe / Spear / Scythe d6

Deathlike silence. The highest-rank cultists can use this Power. All within range test Presence DR14 or become deaf for d10 minutes. Every test requiring hearing or balance has its DR increased by 4.