01.11 maptember2025 - Archive
Crumbling Archives of Leh Soke, deep in the Amidaal desert.
Main feature
Creature feature: mummy-leach.
Rooms
Story hook
The Archives lie hidden deep in the desert, and are at least a day’s travel (by camel) from the nearest oasis. The exact location of The Archives must be divined or discovered somehow.
Example plot hook: one of the characters got a mysterious map shoved into his palm by a strange kid, who then instantly darted away - the map shows a location deep in the desert, marked in were-jerboa script as: “Leh Soke’s Archives! Treasure!”.
Alternatively, the party might find a different map while questing - a much older map that depicts the tower still standing and intact. It’s actually an ancient itinerary sheet for a supply caravan that once ran between the tower and the nearest city hundreds of years ago. The players could learn all that from the local archives or from the oldest caravan guides still alive. The supplies listed show books, metal tools, and gratuitous amounts of water, but the itinerary is written in the caravaneers’ code.
1. Entrance/Guardian/Why is the treasure still there?
The characters must traverse the treacherous desert, on a route the caravans rarely take because of the heat and the dangerous creatures that inhabit that area.
> Caravan guide: “We don’t normally go this way. They say the tower’s cursed, and not that I am superstitious or anything… There’re also the were-jerboas, of course. Dangerous little bastards.”
- Possible encounter: a group of were-jerboas attack from their burrows, shooting poison darts. If examined, the burrows lead deep into the bedrock - a hint of a larger subterranean network.
- Possible encounter: a withered caravan wagon, with skeletal crew, half-buried in the sand. The supply crates are still there, all full of desiccated meat and other foods, but perceptive players will notice that the water-skins are missing.
- Possible encounter: a mirage that shows the tower as it was centuries ago - big, looming, shining with magic over its granite battlements.
Eventually, late in the evening, the party arrives at the location.
2. Puzzle/RP Challenge
The crumbling tower is certainly the main attraction here - though “crumbling” might be generous. There’s barely anything left above the ground level. Around it lie the remains of smaller buildings, slowly submerging into the sand.
The challenge here is finding the way into the buried basement of the tower. The ruin now looks more like a natural mound than anything man-made.
Possible solution: Wait until midnight. A ghostly servant of Leh Soke appears and can be reasoned with. His motivation is to end his suffering - he must endlessly drop a ghostly bucket into a dried-up well to fetch non-existent water for his long-dead master. If persuaded or released (by charisma, magic, or a silvered blade), he reveals the secret entrance from the maids’ quarters into the basement proper.
Possible solution: Search for it. The secret entrance can be found with enough time and effort. It’s not a regular door; the characters must push stones in the right sequence around the alcove where the tattered remains of a painting still hang. Solving requires perception and intelligence. At night, the ghosts of the maids appear - sometimes hostile. They keep muttering about the Master’s thirst but aren’t really sentient. Their desiccated corpses lie nearby, twisted as if death came instantly.
Possible solution: Brute force. Breaking through the rubble is possible, but any excessive shaking might trigger Leh Soke’s awakening (see room 4).
3. Trick/Setback
The corridors beneath the tower are lined with traps - some rusted and broken, others still deadly. Through deep cracks in the floor, players may hear the faint sounds of an underground water stream far below.
Disassembling broken traps yields scrap or extra blades, if the party takes time.
The main setback: the ceiling has collapsed near the corridor that should, by all accounts, lead to the main chamber.
Possible solution: Clear the debris. Massive blocks of granite and sandstone the size of a human.
Possible solution: Find another route. A ventilation shaft can be discovered with sharp perception (or luck). It’s narrow, claustrophobic, clearly not meant for human passage. A human can squeeze through it, but only naked - the armor will not fit.
Halfway through, lies a dormant Cleaner Automaton - a bronze spider-shaped marked with Leh Soke’s sigil. When a character approaches, it suddenly awakens and attacks.
Cue: characters might smell the smell of bronze and mechanical oil from the shaft.
4. Climax/Big battle/Conflict
The Leh Soke awakens, sensing the warmth of living blood and moisture to consume. His immortality research did bear fruit long ago - just not the way he intended. He can enter a state of suspended animation, drying up like a tardigrade into a mummy, remaining that way indefinitely.
To ensure revival, he keeps a sealed glass jar of water suspended perilously over his body. When careless intruders disturb it, the jar shatters, and he rehydrates just enough to rise and feed. After devouring the interlopers, he resets the trap and resumes his torpor.
Leh Soke is something between a Mummy and an Ancient Lich (adapt as appropriate).
His powers include:
As he absorbs water, his strength and spellcasting increase. Eventually he notices that the corridor cracks now reach the underground stream, and he can tap into it for nearly unlimited power.
Weakness: fire. His wrappings are soaked in ancient oils; he ignites easily and must spend moisture to extinguish himself before burning to ash.
Perceptive PCs may notice a scroll strapped to his desiccated body, likely the source of his unnatural longevity.
Dialogue as he awakens: “Water… I smell the water on your skin…”
5. Reward/Revelation/Plot Twist
If Leh Soke is defeated with fire, the scroll of kinda-immortality burns with him. Otherwise, the scroll survives and contains a ritual for reviving a humanoid as a mummy.
The mummy’s ashes are quite valuable: prized by alchemists, healers, and artists alike.
Exploring further, the party may discover the remains of Leh Soke’s library (unless consumed by fire): shelves of withered books and half-intact spell scrolls. Among them lies the Necronomicon Ab Mortis. Its human leather cover has a mouth, but it is too dried up and cracked to bite. It whispers softly, asking for a drop of blood.
Just as the party reaches for the book, they are surrounded by a platoon of were-jerboa demon hunters, blowguns aimed at their throats.
Their leader steps out and says:
“Thanks for dealing with our troublesome neighbor. However, I’d advise against touching that book.
I’d rather you all come with me.
These darts? The poison works fast.
I wouldn’t try anything unless your cure poison spell is one syllable long.”
Then they march the adventurers off toward their king - but that’s another story…