King's Cage


 * For the episode, see .

The King's Cage is a temple to the Crawling King, built around a primal fane of corrupting power. It is located five to six miles west of Bazzoxan. The entrance is hidden from view.

The Entrance
The entrance of the temple is hidden. 30 feet to the right of the entrance, hidden in shadow is a small palm size pocket. When a round stone crest is pressed into the small pocket the entrance is revealed as a small, six-foot tunnel on the side of the mountain. The seal is inscribed with a carving of a simple mouth with teeth, and there are runes above and below it, reading "Let lie the king's instrument, deathless and detained, until the world ends."

The Tunnel
From the entrance the tunnel is steadily descending pathway, seven-foot high, six feet wide. After two hundred feet the tunnel turns towards Bazzoxan after two miles the walls stop, and it opens up into some sort of chamber or variation beyond where the walls are on longer there. Tt opens up into a larger cylindrical tunnel, 40 feet in diameter, going to the left and right. The left passageway is fully caved in and collapsed. The right tunnel continues to drop down. Eventually on the right side of the tunnel, there is an four sided needle like obelisk that emerges from the ground, rising up about 15 feet. The tunnel continues before it slopes further down.

The Obelisk The obelisk is slate gray off color with vertical abyssal symbols on each side of it that has been defaced. The symbols read "Build every bridge, become every nightmare, feast on every heart"

On the right side of the Obelisk is another small ten-foot square tunnel. At the end of this tunnel there is a set of stone doors with two figures, one on each door, beautiful alabaster, humanoid features, smooth skin, no hair, folded wings on their back, robes, and they're both just blank expressions. There are trails of crimson down their faces. The door lead to a subterranean courtyard.

Subterranean Courtyard
The subterranean courtyard has a crescent form with a curved wall, floor-to-ceiling. The ground is uneven with rocks and scraps of metal. There are a 14 statues, all humanoid, sitting, all facing the far wall. They all are of white stone, smooth head, no hair, folded wings across the back, robes, bleeding from the eyes, and all sitting. The statues are lightly vibrating. Beside the statues there are celestial bodies buried with their armor and weapons.

The far wall is a deep, black stone, with grooves about every ten feet or so that just striate up the side. There is a single, 20 feet wide, 15 feet tall adamantine door with a yellow gem that is affixed and a dangling loose chain that dangling from it. The door sits in the center of the wall.

The Collapsed Room
Is an 80 by 60 feet interior room. There are three pillars, and a collapsed corner on the right side. There are two sets of doors, one large gate of intersecting lattice metal bars that are at angles in each side. An inch to an inch and a half between each portion of this lattice that's open and it's shattered beyond that. There is a central bar that ties the two doors together in the center there is a keyhole through which mist is emerging. The room is covered with spiderwebs and sacks stuffed in small alcoves. Beyond the gate is a 10 feet wide and seven feet tall tunnel leading to an descending spiral staircase.

The Radiant Stair
Emerging from the staircase is a foot thick mist that covers the floor. Five feet from the far wall there's a 10 feet hole in the floor. The spiral staircase is three feet wide and spirals down to the right. One of the steps is trapped, triggering a very subtle hum,, summoning an Invisible stalker, and an electrifying wave periodically goes through the staircase On the bottom of the stairs is a large gold, brass and silver tower with a blue crystal at the top There is a small oval-shaped alcove in the tower with a brass metal dangling in the center with the little blue sparks on each side. There is a door made with similar material as the tower without a handle there is a small slot where a crystal can be placed.



The Discard Pits
The Discard Pits is a ten-foot room with an archway that opens into an octagonally room with another door. The archways lead into an octagonally room with chains an manacles hanging from the wall on each side and a rack with implements and tools.

On each side of the room are two, 15-foot by 5 feet, 45 degree slopes that disappear out of view towards the walls. At the end of the slops are piles of undeadbodies. Some of the undead have glowing heart pearls.

In the center is a two-and-a-half feet high pedestal. it has a smooth top, with grooved designs in the sides that spiral from the ground to the top. It has three concave openings in a triangular formation on top. When three glowing pearls are placed in the holes the groove fills with light and the door open.

The Bridge
15 feet beyond the entrance the rock, dry, dirt, dust surface comes to an natural cavern. At the very edge, bolted into the cliff side, is a pair of heavy, metallic bolts, like poles, with giant, drilled screws and metal spikes set into the side. Massive chains reaching out into a ten-foot wide, elongated iron bridge that bows out into the darkness. When a noise is produced the chasm begins to whisper, almost maddening

History
The King's Cage was a trap: unbeknownst to the Torog, the Crawling King, the temple had been secretly constructed by the Allhammer and the Moonweaver. When the Crawling King was defeated by the holy light of the Dawnfather and the Everlight, the "King's Cage" was instrumental in imprisoning the Betrayer God. With the Crawling King bound to the fane, he was banished and sealed away at the fane's source of power: the Far Realm.

After the Divergence, the still-corrupted King's Cage fell under the control of the Crawling King's zealots, including the undying Champion of the Crawling King, known only as "The Laughing Hand". The followers of the Moonweaver fought the forces of the Crawling King on the very steps of the King's Cage. Upon realizing that the Laughing Hand could never truly be slain, the Moonweaver's celestials martyred themselves to seal away the temple. It was their hope that the King's Cage and the zealots within would remain forgotten, and thus could never be unsealed and unleashed on the world.

The Mighty Nein go into the King’s Cage in search of Obann, with Locate Object they find crest placed inside an palm side alcove, and read the inscription. It had already opened the door into the cliff side, they enter the tunnel and find the obelisk marking a side tunnel. Down that tunnel thee two doors are already opened and the statues are appearing to be weep blood. Nott goes Invisible and enters through the doors, finding a room filled with fourteen Aasimar statues, kneeling, all weeping blood, surrounded by what seems to be Aasimar skeletons and the remnants of a battle. They face a huge adamantine portcullis door. Thrumming through the statues, the party can hear faint oboe-like music. Caleb sends Frumpkin under the, already opened door into the dark room beyond, but he can see little without light. Fjord and Caduceus transform to look like Yasha. The still-invisible Nott creeps beneath the adamantine door and into the chamber within.

The party crawl under the door while Nott gets entangled in a web. Caleb is able to free Nott, but it disturbs the webs. There are multiple spiders coming, and one large mama spider who immediately webs and pulls Caleb to her. Caleb Polymorphs into an image of the mama. Nott, with a natural 20 and sneak attack, manages to kill the mama spider quickly and the swarm of lesser spiders is fairly quickly dispatched. They investigate the room, finding a key and a spell scroll of Protection from Energy. The key fits the gate and they go through into the hallway and creep downward stealthily, but Fjord, in the lead, steps on a trapped step, and a low humming sound begins. They move down as quickly as possible, being attacked by a shape emerging periodically from the mist. At set intervals and with increasing intensity, lightning from below shocks and damages all of them. Beau uses Slow Fall to reach the bottom. Jester and Caleb both Polymorph into giant eagles and fly the party to the bottom. Meanwhile, Beau finds a blue-sparking piece of brass and grabs it. She then inserts the piece of metal into the doorway and it gets pulled in and the door opens. The party goes through the door before Caduceus slams it shut behind them.

As Beau investigate the pedestal, it seems to shift down an inch and the masses of undead in the piles below begin to attack. They notice that some of them leave behind a faintly glowing golden heart when they die. After much experimentation they need three glowing hearts to put in the pedestal. As each one goes in, one of the grooves in the pedestal lights up. As the third glowing heart is dropped into the pedestal, all the remaining undead collapse and both doors to the chamber open. They move into the next room with the bridge. At Fjord's urging, Beau tosses a ball bearing into the chasm, awakening a chorus of hundreds of whispering, moaning, screaming voices which gradually subside as she resists their influence and backs away. Caleb casts the tiny hut, for a long rest. Jester Sends to Obann, saying, "This place is really scary. We have her. How far is it? What is this place? Did you know there were gold hearts? Okay, anyway, bye." He replies, "Oh, yes. I've made my way as well. I'm glad you've kept up. Hope to see you soon. Just be careful. Wouldn't want you spoiled." Nott raises her voice at one point and the whispers rise up again from the chasm, this time causing Nott, Yasha, and Beau to go catatonic for six seconds. Caleb wraps his silver thread around the party's little fingers so they'll know if anyone tries to wander off, putting Yasha at one end at her request. With Beau volunteering to take first watch, they begin what they hope will be a long rest.