Kitchens of the Forgotten Academy
The kitchens, pantries, larders, and other storage facilities of the Forgotten Academy were housed in a building of their own that backed onto the Main Hall. The main stone building is three stories tall, with a flat that was once supported by heavy beam trusses that occupied most of the upper half of the room.
The main kitchen of the Academy is a relatively large space where staff prepared meals for the entire academy community. Ovens and roasting hearths lined the walls, and work tables filled much of the central part of the room. There are cellars beneath the floor that were used to store foodstuffs. A number of smaller wooden structures were once attached to the building's sides for storage as well, but these have long since rotted away.
The presence of a great deal of food at the time when catastrophe befell the Academy attracted wildlife. Though that original food supply is long gone, the room continues to be the lairing area for a colony of Giant Badgers.
If the party circles around to the back of the kitchen building...
All four of the rooms will show signs of animal dens - and very little else. Any food stores that were here are long gone, and their containers reduced to compost and mingled with the much fresher animal detritus. Three of the rooms are currently unoccupied, but the far left room contains a Giant Badger that has recently produced a litter of four kits. She will be very protective of her brood and her den.
STR: 1
DEX: 1
CON: 1
INT: -2
WIS: 0
CHA: 0
SP: 12
IP: 0
DP: 1
XP: 40
Size: Medium
Movement: 30ft (Burrow 10ft)
Description
This is a really nasty critter!
A large stone building with walls reaching almost 30ft high stands behind the Main Hall. It shows the crumbling remains of a number of chimneys. On both sides of the building, the collapsed and rotted remains of wooden structures can be seen - with mortises in the cut stone revealing where roof timbers were once affixed. There are two open archways in the second story of the wall facing the Main Hall - opposite a matching pair of archways in the Main Hall's back wall. Some few remnants of rotting wood debris on the ground between where these passages ran suggest that long ago, bridges of some kind connected the two buildings above.
The main kitchen of the Academy is a relatively large space where staff prepared meals for the entire academy community. Ovens and roasting hearths lined the walls, and work tables filled much of the central part of the room. There are cellars beneath the floor that were used to store foodstuffs. A number of smaller wooden structures were once attached to the building's sides for storage as well, but these have long since rotted away.
The presence of a great deal of food at the time when catastrophe befell the Academy attracted wildlife. Though that original food supply is long gone, the room continues to be the lairing area for a colony of Giant Badgers.
Main Kitchen
If the party approaches the kitchen from the space between it and the Main Hall...
Even before opening the door to this room, the odor of wild animals can be detected. Judging from the strength of the odor, this building is now the home of either large or numerous creatures. Forcing the door open, the first thing you are aware of is the fact that the ceiling of the building has almost completely collapsed. Rotting sections of huge timbers and broken slabs of stone litter the floor of the room. A section of the wall opposite you, near one corner, has also collapsed. The intact portion of that wall has a number of large hearths and stone ovens along it, each with chimneys reaching skyward. Stone work tables lining the two side walls walls. Shattered and rotting debris of stairways along the wall you are entering through lead up to the open archways you saw from outside. Piles of debris made up of rotted wood remnants, compost, and animal dung litter the floor.
Your appearance has apparently disturbed the current inhabitants - two huge heads lift and snap toward you. These creatures with features that resemble common badgers - except that they are many times larger - glare at you and growl/hiss a stern warning.
Your appearance has apparently disturbed the current inhabitants - two huge heads lift and snap toward you. These creatures with features that resemble common badgers - except that they are many times larger - glare at you and growl/hiss a stern warning.
If the party circles around to the back of the kitchen building...
As you reach the back of the building, you see that near the far corner, a portion of the wall appears to have collapsed. As you get nearer to this breach, the odor of wild animals can be detected. Judging from the strength of the odor, this building is now the home to either large or numerous creatures. Reaching the breach in the wall and peering around and into the room, see a space littered with the stone debris of a ceiling that has almost completely collapsed. Some bits of massive rotted timbers are amid the stone fragments. Stone work tables lining the two side walls walls. On the wall opposite you, two open archways can be seen in the upper portion of the wall which faces the Main Hall building, with crumbling bits of wooden stair structures leading to them. In addition to the roof debris, larger piles of rotted wood remnants, compost, and animal dung litter the floor.
Your appearance has apparently disturbed the current inhabitants - two huge heads lift and snap toward you. These creatures with features that resemble common badgers - except that they are many times larger - glare at you and growl/hiss a stern warning.
Your appearance has apparently disturbed the current inhabitants - two huge heads lift and snap toward you. These creatures with features that resemble common badgers - except that they are many times larger - glare at you and growl/hiss a stern warning.
Kitchen Cellars
A rubble-strewn stone stairway spirals down, leading into a corridor of sorts. There are four openings in the walls, each with rotted debris that suggests doors once stood in each of the openings. An unpleasant smell in the air suggests that wildlife may be present. A high-pitched but faint mewling sound suggests that wildlife may involve newly born young. Those sounds seem to be coming from one of the two farther doorways.
All four of the rooms will show signs of animal dens - and very little else. Any food stores that were here are long gone, and their containers reduced to compost and mingled with the much fresher animal detritus. Three of the rooms are currently unoccupied, but the far left room contains a Giant Badger that has recently produced a litter of four kits. She will be very protective of her brood and her den.
Giant Badger
Animal 1
| Melee: | Claws 1d6+1 (slashing) Bite 1d6+1 (piercing) |
| Treasure: | 6gp (in lair) |
Cellars 1 and 2 (Near left and right)
The first room on either side of the passage is strewn with various organic debris on the floors. These show signs of having been inhabited by wildlife, but there are no fresh signs. Stone shelves along the back walls are bare except for a few broken shards of clay storage vessels. Perhaps one or two are more or less intact.
Cellar 3 (Far right)
The far right room looks just like the first two. Rotting straw and vegetation litter the floor, which is cracked and mossy. Stone shelves bear shattered remnants of pottery.
Cellar 4 (Far left)
The far left room would look like all the others, except for the Giant Badger and her four kits. She is most definitely not happy to be intruded upon, and immediately charged, hissing and growling.
Comments
Author's Notes
#Dungeon23 Progress:
Rooms in this article:Jan 7 - Cellar Passage
Jan 8 - 4 Cellar Rooms