Adapted From- The Star Tide
This temple served as a home to the order of an apocalyptic sky cult. These ancient diviners believed they could foretell the end of the world by carefully observing the motion of the stars and portents of the Astral plane. To expand their knowledge, members of the order traveled across the known world, plotting the stars in detail and obsessively collecting lore. Records from the waning days of the order document a belief that they had discovered “the edge of the world,” from which a “final judgment” would be made.
In order to protect their wealth and prevent the unworthy from gaining access to their secrets, they defended their many chambers with deadly traps. Several decades ago, Magnus Barrelblock - a halfling adventurer (or, as some would claim, amoral tomb raider) - discovered the temple and excavated it, hoping to plunder its lost loot. His party breached the tomb, and though most of the members of his party expedition succumbed to the temple’s traps, Magnus himself made it to the temple’s hidden Reliquary. But before he could claim the treasure of the temple, a final trap claimed his life.
Neskusic Temple Ruin 3
The temple on the Culendire Shore has mostly collapsed over the long ages, closing off chambers and creating new passageways where walls came down.
Design
Unless otherwise stated, the rooms in the temple have the following characteristics:
Light Dim light. Most rooms are magically lit by enchanted torches that flicker to life when the room is entered.
Doors The doors in the temple are made of stone and pivot on simple stone divots set in the floor.
Ceiling: The ceilings in the rooms are 15 ft. high, and 10 ft. high in the corridors.
Crypt of the Neskusa
This great chamber served as a crypt for the elders of the temple. The room has largely succumbed to the passage of time, but glimpses of its magnificence remain. Heaps of earth have pushed through the once strong sandstone walls, but those that stand are decorated by a relief of swirling clouds and shining stars that runs the entire perimeter of the room. The otherwise closely fitted flagstone floor is marred by deep cracks. Most marvelous, however, is the vaulted ceiling that rises to a height of 15 ft. overhead. The entire ceiling is painted a deep royal blue, flecked with countless flakes of mica and quartz. When a light source is brought within, the ceiling glints and flickers like stars in the night sky.
The room is lined by sarcophagi that hold the remains of important members of the order. The lids of the sarcophagi have all either been leveraged off or smashed open - the handiwork of Magnus’ men. Investigating the tombs reveals nothing but moldering scraps of cloth and dusty skeletons of the long-dead. The bones in each sarcophagus are jumbled and disturbed, long since looted by Magnus’ men. If there was anything of worth in them before, it’s now gone.
Priest’s Vault
This stone door, carved with an ornate pattern, seems to lead to a small room.
This side chamber was used to store holy vestments worn on important ceremonial occasions. Magnus’ men spotted the trapped door but were unable to figure out how to open it. Previous explorers have chosen to leave it alone, planning on returning to it once they explored deeper into the temple.
The chamber is sealed by a heavy stone door without visible hinges or handles. The surface of the door is carved with an abstract design of concentric circles, diagonal lines, and circular depressions - all marked with abstract runes.
Atrium of the Lower Sanctum
This room once served to divide the upper chambers of the temple from the lower chambers. A long-dead corpse, blackened by flame, lays near the center of the room in the middle of a sooty black scorch mark. A longsword rests in the body’s hand, but everything else is burned beyond recovery. A stone statue stands guard in the room, depicting the fierce visage of a celestial Guardian.
Natural Pool
This mostly collapsed chamber is dominated by a large pool of clear water.
The pool was formed by a sinkhole that opened under the floor of the temple long ago. The sinkhole connects to natural tunnels under the temple that are flooded by the surrounding water table, creating this large and surprisingly deep pool of salt water. The steep-sided pool is 20 ft. deep. At the bottom, it connects to a 5 ft. wide tunnel that then connects to other locations outside the temple. The pool is host to small glittering fish and crabs.
Forgotten Orrery
This magnificent room houses the remains of a strange orrery. This room sparks and flares with magic energy and once allowed the temple acolytes to study the precise movements of the planes and important celestial bodies.
A successful DC 14 Arcana check can determine the orrery's former purpose and identify the apparatus's key components - orbs and rigs representing the outer planes and elemental spheres that allowed the temple’s acolytes to trace the subtle influence of changes in the cosmos. This orrery was the heart of the temple and is still imbued with a variety of magical effects.
The flagstones in this room levitate a few inches off the ground - they are suspended above an unusual magical field created long ago by the temple priests that bathes the room in a warm pink and green glow. Stepping on the stones is safe but makes for a strange sensation as the stones waver slightly underfoot. Dispelling the effect causes the stones to fall to the floor, but has no other effect. As a result of these levitating flagstones, the magic circle on the floor is able to shift its pattern, creating arcane sigils that reflect the configuration of the orrery.
Room of Veneration
The stone lintel above the door leading into this room reads, “Enter here the path of stars. Let them guide us in the night.” Inside this simple room, the walls are painted with a multitude of stars, depicting the night sky as it appears across Gedan.
Hazard
The statues in the room are traps that fire a barrage of darts at creatures who step on the wrong tiles while crossing the room.
Overgrown Treasury
The door to this chamber stands Agape, pried open by treasure hunters that have emptied this room of it’s contents. This small side chamber was once a corridor leading to the rest of the temple.
An earthquake collapsed the hall long ago, and the rest of the temple is buried under tons of rubble. The tremor that brought down the temple also created a narrow crack, less than an inch wide, that extends to the surface. The crack allowed in natural light and a steady trickle of water - enough for a profusion of plant life to grow rampant. This growth has been burned away leaving nothing but ash and soot.
The Star Chamber
This chamber resembles the interior of a large geode. Natural crystal formations grow in clusters in the corners and along the ceiling and walls. A single large crystal, a blue quartz about 4 ft. tall, emerges from the ceiling of the room.
A successful DC 12 Arcana check recognizes that the crystals in this room represent a star map. The crystal in the center stands in for the world, while the smaller crystals on the walls and ceiling represent the positions of stars. The entire room has been structured with meticulous accuracy and the numerous crystals seem to glow from within, glinting and glittering brightly when exposed to any source of light.
The entire room serves as a stunning work of art of a carefully constructed map of the heavens and also as a dangerous trap. The trap is inert when the party enters the room.
Hazard
The central crystal glows bright with magical energy. When a creature sets foot within the room, bolts of energy lance from the crystal and into the “stars” on the walls, which refract and focus the energy in concentrated beams of light. These beams target all creatures in the room as they scythe across the floor and walls. The trap can be deactivated by shattering the central crystal. Destroying the crystal while the trap is active causes it to explode in a torrent of energy.
The acolytes of the temple did leave one safe path to cross the room. In order to avoid triggering the trap, a character must carefully step on the exact stones that line up with the stars that would normally be visible from the temple’s location at that exact time of year.
High Priest's Chamber
This room is sealed off by a large set of heavy stone doors. The doors are carved with an intricate sun and moon pattern, and are both partially ajar.
This chamber served as the study and gathering room of the elders of the order.
Reliquary of the Sky
This chamber is the temple Reliquary - the room where the order’s most valued treasures were kept.
Monastery Exit
This natural cavern connects to the natural pool by an underwater tunnel. A narrow passageway leads from this chamber back to the surface.
Denizens
Hunting spiders and a chilling fungus have occupied destitute sections of the Neskusic Temple.
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