The Abandoned Temple of Arazhuul is a large dungeon complex that was taken over by several forces. As the PCs delve deeper, they will find themselves in several very different environments.
Arazhuul is a goddess of order and civilized pleasure, and the symmetrical design of underground complex exemplified this aspect of the goddess.
A few years ago, a group of goblinoids discovered the upper entrance and established the upper level as their lair. Originally a set of waiting rooms for visitors to the temple, the goblinoids converted the rooms for their own purposes. The small room closest to the entrance contains supplies–crates and barrels from recent raids–while they use the large room as their sleeping quarters. They converted the rest of the floor into a maze into which they can lure intruders and attack them at range from around corners.
The stairs in the northwest corner lead down to what were once storage rooms, but are now the lair of a giant spider who crawls in and out through a crack in the ceiling. The goblinoids avoid this area.
The stairs in the southeast corner lead down to what was once a large, shared sleeping chamber for guests of the temple. The goblinoids keep any slaves and valuables (the latter locked securely in a large, trapped chest) here.
The middle level remains more or less as it was in the temple’s heyday, primarily because of the animated constructs that guard it. The stairwells leading down to this level used to contain wooden stairs, but these were destroyed at some point, so the goblinoids do not descend to this area. Any creature who enters the stairwells activate gargoyles (placed randomly to begin with), which move at a speed of 15 feet per round inexorably towards the party. If the party splits, the gargoyles split up, as well.
The rooms in this middle level used to be the temple’s storehouse. Now, its rooms contain a few basic traps–pits, poison needles, etc.–and a few old treasures in the form of statuettes and goblets. The danger in this level is getting trapped by the gargoyles, which can both take and dish out large amounts of punishment.
The lowest level, reached by the huge staircase in the center of the complex, was discovered by a group of mind flayers some time ago. The temple’s treasures are of no interest to them, but this level serves as a convenient outpost while traveling through their vast network of tunnels beneath the earth. They have rebuilt this level into a confusing maze of slick, wet passages leading to two rooms. The small room in the northwest (only accessible through a secret door) contains a small stash of half a dozen brains in a small vat, which are tended by several grimlocks. The large chamber in the northeast corner serves as the mind flayers’ outpost; when the PCs arrive, the only inhabitant is one mind flayer and its pet intellect devourer. If a mind flayer is too powerful for your party, have it be in the middle of extracting the brain of a victim when the PCs arrive, giving them a round or two while the mind flayer is catatonic in its euphoria.
