OSR Classic Module Commentary - Deeper Integration of B1 In Search of The Unknown By Mike Carr Into the Hyperborea Rpg - The room-by-room layout and key traps for Level 2: The Forbidden Laboratories of Zelligar.

 

Just beyond the shattered ice-shoals of the Gulf of Jhrom, lies the mist-shrouded island known to local fishermen as  Skerry-of-the-Lost. And this blog post picks right up from 

OSR Classic Module Commentary - Deeper Integration of B1 In Search of The Unknown By Mike Carr Into the Hyperborea Rpg

Level 2 of the Quasqueton Complex—The Forbidden Laboratories of Zelligar—shifts the atmosphere from Rogahn’s subterranean military stronghold to an eerie, ozone-scented warren of alien alchemy, forbidden flesh-crafting, and cosmic horror. The air here is noticeably colder, tasting of copper and bitter ash, lit sporadically by decaying Vril-globes mounted in iron brackets.

Level 2 Overview & Dungeon Features

• Construction: Smoothly dressed dark basalt blocks with vaulted ceilings ($12\text{ ft.}$ high). Drainage channels carved into the floor run toward central collection pits.

• Ambient Conditions: Constant low humming from lingering brass machinery. Unattended alchemical fumes trigger periodic Constitution checks against nausea.

• Illumination: Dim, flickering violet and greenish luminescence from glass tubes and Vril lamps unless smashed.

Room-by-Room Layout

                        [206: Specimen Vault]
                                 |
 [201: The Iron Portal] --- [202: Antechamber] ---

 [203: Alchemical Prep]
                                 |                          |
                        [204: The Necro-Lab] ---

 [205: The Grand Crucible]
                                                            |
                                                

[207: Zelligar's Sanctum]

Area 201: The Iron Portal (Entry Stairs)

A steep, winding staircase carved directly into the island’s basalt bedrock descends from Level 1, terminating at a massive double door wrought of black iron and inlaid with silver Tsath-glyphs.

• Key Trap — The Glyph of Calcification: Inspecting or tampering with the door locks without speaking the password ("Xuthl") triggers an arc of pale violet lightning.

  • Trigger: Attempting to pick the lock or force the door.

  • Effect: Targets in a $10\text{-ft.}$ radius take $2\text{d}8$ shock damage and must pass a Saving Throw vs. Transformation or have their hands/arms petrified into stone ($-4$ Dexterity, unable to wield two-handed weapons or cast somatic spells until cured).

Area 202: Antechamber of the Unspoken

A square reception hall lined with four alcoves holding bronze statues of hooded sorcerers. The floor is paved with black and white slate tiles in a checkered spiral pattern.

• Features: A rotting velvet curtain covers the eastern archway. The air smells strongly of sulfur.

• Key Hazard — The Pressure-Plate Floor: Stealing or moving the copper bowls held by the bronze statues activates the tile sequence on the floor.

  • Trigger: Stepping on any black slate tile while the statue weights are altered.

  • Effect: Wall nozzles spray a cloud of Vraakian Sleep-Gas. All characters must make a Saving Throw vs. Poison or drop into a deep, dreamless coma for $1\text{d}6$ hours. While asleep, characters experience terrifying visions of the Black Mountains.

Area 203: Alchemical Preparation & Storage

A long workshop filled with shattered glassware, overturned oak workbenches, and rusted iron distillation retorts. Crates of dried herbs, pickled organs, and mineral salts line the stone shelves.

• Encounter: 2 Mi-Go Fungi Collectors or 3 Degenerate Kimmerian Thralls rummaging through the wreckage for metal containers.

• Key Trap — Acidic Vigor Vials: On a heavy stone desk sits a locked rosewood box containing 3 sealed crystal vials filled with a glowing amber liquid.

  • Trap: The lock is rigged with a spring-loaded glass needle containing concentrated aqua regia.

  • Effect: Disarming requires a successful Thief Pick Locks/Remove Traps roll. Failure snaps the needle, dealing $1\text{d}6$ acid damage to the opener and destroying one of the amber vials. (Intact vials function as Potion of Fire Resistance).

Area 204: The Necromantic Laboratory

A chilly, cavernous chamber dominated by three tilted zinc operating tables equipped with leather restraints and copper cranial caps. Glass tubes lead from the tables into iron drainage grates in the floor.

• Features: Shelves along the south wall hold glass jars containing preserved human and Sub-Man brains suspended in murky brine.

• Key Hazard — The Galvanic Arc: The copper caps are connected to lingering Vril accumulators along the ceiling.

  • Trigger: Disturbing the bodies on the zinc tables or touching the copper conduits without rubber or insulated gloves.

  • Effect: Discharges $3\text{d}6$ electrical damage (Saving Throw vs. Spells for half). If any dead bodies are on the tables when triggered, they reanimate as Ghoulish Undead on the following round.

Area 205: The Grand Crucible & Disposal Pit

A massive, two-tiered chamber featuring a central stone catwalk suspended over a $20\text{-ft.}$ wide circular pit filled with bubbling, iridescent black sludge (a dormant Formless Spawn).

• Features: Iron winches and chains hang over the pit, used by Zelligar to lower failed biological experiments into the sludge for dissolution.

• Key Trap — The Collapsing Catwalk: The iron pins holding the middle section of the stone catwalk have rusted through and are rigged to a tripwire.

  • Trigger: More than 200 lbs of weight placed on the center of the catwalk.

  • Effect: The catwalk tilts sharply, dropping anyone on it into the pit below unless they make a successful Saving Throw vs. Paralysis/Reflexes to catch the ledge. Falling into the sludge deals $2\text{d}6$ acid damage per round and awakens the Formless Spawn.

Area 206: The Museum of Aberrations

A vaulted gallery lined with glass display cases containing stuffed, embalmed, or skeletal specimens of Hyperborean monstrosities—a two-headed White Ape, a juvenile Wendigo skull, and strange starfish-shaped fossil fragments.

• Features: A sealed iron sarcophagus sits in the center of the room, carved with figures of writhing tentacles.

• Key Trap — The Stasis Glass Sarcophagus:

  • Trigger: Attempting to force open or smash the iron sarcophagus.

  • Effect: The casing shatters, releasing a cloud of Absolute Zero Cold. Everyone within a $15\text{-ft.}$ radius takes $3\text{d}6$ frost damage (Saving Throw vs. Breath Weapon for half). Inside is a Star-Spawn Fragment held in stasis, which immediately attacks the nearest living creature.

Area 207: Zelligar’s Inner Sanctum

Zelligar’s private study and retreat, locked behind a reinforced door of star-iron. The walls are covered in heavy tapestries depicting constellations unknown to earthly astronomers.

• Features: A grand mahogany desk, a lectern holding a heavy iron-bound ledger, and a private Pool of Transformation in a recessed alcove (refer to the Pools Table).

• Treasure: Zelligar’s personal journal detailing his research into Vril energy, $1,200\text{ gp}$ in ancient Hyperborean silver coins, and a scroll of Remove Curse.

• Key Trap — The Grimoire of Unraveling Mind: The grimoire resting on the lectern is protected by a psychic ward.

  • Trigger: Opening the grimoire without wearing Zelligar’s silver signet ring (found in Area 203 or on his shade).

  • Effect: The reader must pass a Test of Wisdom (Sanity Check) or suffer $1\text{d}4$ points of permanent Wisdom loss and gain a random Madness/Affliction as cosmic knowledge floods their consciousness.
    
    

Degenerate Kimmerian Thrall

Descendants of Rogahn’s former garrison and camp followers, these feral proto-humans have regressed into wretched, cave-dwelling scavengers after decades trapped in the dark halls of Quasqueton. Inbred, hairless, and stooped, they view all surface-dwellers as intruding meat.

Degenerate Kimmerian Thrall
Class: None (Humanoid Monster)
AL: Chaotic Evil
FA: 1 (as 1st-level Fighter)
HD: 1+1 (hp 6)
MV: 30 ft.
DX: 10
AC: 7 [12] (thick hides, rusted leather)
#A: 1 (weapon or bite)
D: 1d6 (rusted broadsword/cleaver) or 1d4 (bite)
SV: Death 13, Transformation 14, Device 15, Avoidance 16, Spells 17
Morale: 7 (9 when led by a chief or in darkness)
Special: Light Sensitivity, Infravision (60 ft.), Pack Tactics
XP: 20

Special Abilities

• Light Sensitivity: Suffer a $-1$ penalty to attack rolls when fighting in bright daylight or direct Light spell illumination.

• Pack Tactics: When attacking a target engaged by two or more other thralls, they gain a $+1$ bonus to melee attack rolls.

Combat Tactics

• Ambushes & Darkness: Thralls never fight fair. They extinguish torches with thrown debris or water from hidden ceiling ledges before dropping down on the rear guard.

• Cannibalistic Rush: They target unarmored spellcasters or lightly equipped thieves first, attempting to drag fallen victims into narrow crawlspaces ($3\text{-ft.}$ ceiling clearances) where larger weapons suffer a $-2$ penalty.

• Morale Failure: If their numbers are reduced to less than half, or if lit on fire, they scatter back into ventilation shafts, using their intimate knowledge of the dungeon to set up secondary ambushes further in.

Formless Spawn (Tsathogguan Slime)

An amorphous, jet-black mass of thick protoplasmic slime left behind in Zelligar’s lower disposal pits. Created from the black sap of Tsathoggua, it shifts constantly—extruding pseudopods, toothy maws, and grotesque compound eyes at will.

Formless Spawn
Class: None (Aberration)
AL: Chaotic Evil
FA: 6 (as 6th-level Monster)
HD: 6d8+6 (hp 33)
MV: 30 ft., Climb 30 ft., Swim 30 ft.
DX: 14
AC: 3 [16] (rubberous, flowing mass)
#A: 2 (pseudopods, whips, or jaws)
D: 1d8+2 (bludgeoning/acid) or Engulf
SV: Death 11, Transformation 12, Device 13, Avoidance 14, Spells 15
Morale: 11
Special: Amorphous, Immunities, Engulf, Vulnerability to Fire
XP: 650

Special Abilities

• Amorphous: Can squeeze through cracks as small as 1 inch wide without penalty. Cannot be knocked down, tripped, or flank-critically hit.

• Immunities: Immune to sleep, charm, hold, paralysis, poison, cold, and blunt/crushing bludgeoning attacks (blunt weapons deal zero damage). Piercing weapons deal only 1 point of damage per hit.

• Vulnerability: Takes double damage from fire-based attacks (torches deal $2$ damage, flaming oil deals $2\text{d}8$ per round).

• Engulf: If a pseudopod attack succeeds by 4 or more over the target's AC, the victim is pulled into the spawn’s viscous body. An engulfed creature takes $2\text{d}6$ acid damage per round, cannot cast spells with somatic/verbal components, and suffocates unless pulled free by a combined Strength check ($16+$ total STR required) or the creature takes 15+ points of fire damage in a single round.

Combat Tactics

• Ceiling & Pit Drop: The spawn anchors itself to vaulted ceilings or hides at the bottom of liquid pits (appearing as harmless dark water or oil). It drops directly onto the second or third rank of an adventuring party to divide their frontline.

• Flowing Shape: It continuously shifts its footprint, elongating itself into a thin, 15-foot line to strike across frontline fighters at spellcasters in the back row.

• Relentless Pursuit: The creature does not feel pain or fear. It pursues fleeing characters through doors by oozing underneath them or through wall seams, retreating only if subjected to sustained flame.

The Shade of Zelligar

When Zelligar the Unknown marched north with Rogahn to wage war against the Pikemen, he left behind a severed fragment of his own soul anchor bound to his inner sanctum. Decades of exposure to lingering Vril radiation, Tsathogguan slime, and alien energies have warped this remnant into a malicious, semi-corporeal phantom. It manifests as a tall, floating figure wrapped in shadowy, star-patterned robes, its face a dark void illuminated by two burning violet pinpricks of light.

Shade of Zelligar
Class: Magician (Spectre / Undead Boss)
AL: Chaotic Evil
FA: 5 (as 5th-level Undead Monster / 8th-level Magician)
HD: 7d8+7 (hp 38)
MV: 30 ft. (Fly/Hover)
DX: 15
AC: 2 [17] (incorporeal aura, spell wards)
#A: 1 (Spectral Touch) or 1 Spell
D: 1d8 (Cold/Energy Drain) or Spell Effect
SV: Death 10, Transformation 11, Device 12, Avoidance 13, Spells 14
Morale: 12 (Undead / Driven by Malice)
Special: Incorporeal, Undead Immunities, Cold/Energy Drain, Turn Resistance, 

Spellcasting
XP: 1,150

Special Abilities

• Incorporeal: Affected only by silver weapons, magic weapons, or spell damage. Non-magical weapons pass through its shadowy form without effect.

• Undead Immunities: Immune to sleep, charm, hold, paralysis, poison, disease, and cold damage. Cannot be suffocated or knocked prone.

• Spectral Touch (Cold/Drain): A successful melee attack passes through physical armor, dealing $1\text{d}8$ cold damage and requiring the victim to pass a Saving Throw vs. Death. On a failure, the target loses $1\text{d}4$ points of Strength for 24 hours (if Strength reaches 0, the target falls unconscious).

• Turn Resistance: Turns as an $8\text{-HD}$ undead creature due to the thick Vril saturation of his sanctum.

• Innate Spellcasting: Casts spells as an 8th-level Magician ($3 \times \text{1st-level}$, $3 \times \text{2nd-level}$, $2 \times \text{3rd-level}$, $1 \times \text{4th-level}$).

  • Prepared Spells:

    • 1st Level: Magic Missile ($3\text{d}4+3$), Shield, Sleep

    • 2nd Level: Mirror Image ($1\text{d}4+1$ images), Web, Invisibility

    • 3rd Level: Lightning Bolt ($7\text{d}6$ shock, Save vs. Spells for half), Dispel Magic

    • 4th Level: Evard’s Black Tentacles (summons writhing shadow-tentacles in a $20\text{-ft.}$ radius)

Boss Mechanics & Environmental Hazards

When encountered in Zelligar’s Inner Sanctum (Area 207), the Shade leverages the room's arcane infrastructure to overwhelm intruders:

1. Vril Accumulator Conduit: At the start of every odd-numbered round (Round 1, 3, 5...), the brass conduits overhead pulse with violet light. All living creatures in the room must pass a Saving Throw vs. Avoidance or take $1\text{d}6$ electrical damage.

2. Arcane Feedback: If a character casts a spell within 20 feet of the Shade, the Shade can expend a reaction to force the caster to make a Test of Wisdom (Sanity Check) or have their spell fizzle into a cloud of harmless ozone.

Combat Tactics

• Pre-Combat Preparation (Round 0 / Surprise): The moment intruders breach the star-iron door, the Shade activates Mirror Image and Shield from the shadows, making it near-impossible to hit (AC effectively increases, and initial attacks strike illusory duplicates).

• Opening Move (Round 1): It immediately opens with Evard’s Black Tentacles centered on the doorway or frontline martial characters, pinning them in place and restricting movement while forcing Dexterity/Strength checks to break free.

• Devastating AoE (Round 2): From a hovering position above the tentacles, the Shade unleashes Lightning Bolt targeting the party’s ranged attackers or spellcasters, utilizing the narrow stone corridors for maximum collateral damage.

• Mid-Fight Control (Rounds 3–4): If martial fighters manage to bypass the tentacles using magic or ranged weapons, the Shade casts Invisibility or Web to reposition itself near fragile targets (Clerics/Magicians) and delivers its Spectral Touch to drain their Strength.

• Desperation Phase (Below 10 HP): Driven mad by the thought of losing his sanctum, the Shade flies directly over the Pools of Transformation in Area 207 and uses Dispel Magic on the pool's binding wards, causing it to overflow and splashing all nearby characters with Primordial Dissolution acid ($2\text{d}6$ damage). It fights relentlessly until dissolved into nothingness.