TEXT: Frog God 
  Games
  By Steve Winter
  By Steve Winter
  Cave of Iron
  Cave of Iron
  
  Frog  
  God 
  Games
  CEO
  Bill Webb
  Creative Director:  
  Swords & Wizardry
  Matthew J. Finch
  Creative Director:  
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
  Greg A. Vaughan
  Frog V
  Patrick N. Pilgrim
  Art Director
  Charles A. Wright
  Developers
  John Ling and  
  Patrick N. Pilgrim
  Customer Service Manager
  Krista Webb
  Zach of All Trades
  Zach Glazar
  Final Boss
  Skeeter Green
  FROG GOD GAMES IS
  Author
  Steve Winter
  Developers
  Patrick N. Pilgrim
  Producer
  Bill Webb
  Editor
  Jeff Harkness
  Layout and Graphic Design
  Charles A. Wright
  Front Cover Art
  Artem Shukaev
  Interior Art
  Jeff Holz, Chris McFann,  
  Gary McKee, MKUltra Studios
  Cartography
  Alyssa Faden
  Adventures 
  Worth  
  Winning
  ©2017 Frog God Games. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the written 
  permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden. Frog God Games and the 
  Frog God Games logo is a trademark of Frog God Games. All characters, names, 
  places, items, art and text herein are copyrighted by Frog God Games, Inc. 
  The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a 
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  Product Identity: The following items are hereby identified as Frog God Games 
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  or registered trademark clearly identified as Product Identity. Previously released Open Game 
  Content is excluded from the above list.
  Quests of Doom 4
  Cave of Iron
  
  2
  Quests of Doom 4
  GENERAL RESOURCES 
  Swords & Wizardry Complete S&W 
  The Tome of Horrors Complete PF, S&W 
  Tome of Horrors 4 PF, S&W 
  Tome of Adventure Design
  Monstrosities S&W 
  Bill Webb’s Book of Dirty Tricks 
  Razor Coast: Fire as She Bears PF 
  Book of Lost Spells 5e, PF 
  Fifth Edition Foes 5e 
  The Tome of Blighted Horrors 5e, PF, S&W
  Book of Alchemy* 5e, PF, S&W 
  THE LOST LANDS 
  Rappan Athuk PF, S&W 
  Rappan Athuk Expansions Vol. I PF, S&W 
  The Slumbering Tsar Saga PF, S&W 
  The Black Monastery PF, S&W 
  Cyclopean Deeps Vol. I PF, S&W 
  Cyclopean Deeps Vol. II PF, S&W 
  Razor Coast PF, S&W 
  Razor Coast: Heart of the Razor PF, S&W 
  Razor Coast: Freebooter’s Guide to the Razor Coast PF, S&W 
  LL0: The Lost Lands Campaign Setting* 5e, PF, S&W
  LL1: Stoneheart Valley PF, S&W 
  LL2: The Lost City of Barakus PF, S&W 
  LL3: Sword of Air PF, S&W 
  LL4: Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms PF, S&W 
  LL5: Borderland Provinces 5e, PF, S&W
  LL6: The Northlands Saga Complete PF, S&W
  LL7: The Blight 5e, PF, S&W
  LL8: Bard’s Gate 5e, PF, S&W 
  LL9: Adventures in the Borderland Provinces 5e, PF, S&W
  QUESTS OF DOOM 
  Quests of Doom (Vol. 1) 5e 
  Quests of Doom (Vol. 2) 5e 
  Quests of Doom (includes the 5e Vol. 1 and 2, but for PF 
  and S&W only) PF, S&W 
  Quests of Doom 2 5e 
  Quests of Doom 3 5e, S&W
  Quests of Doom 4* 5e, PF, S&W
  PERILOUS VISTAS 
  Dead Man’s Chest (pdf only) PF 
  Dunes of Desolation PF 
  Fields of Blood PF 
  Mountains of Madness PF 
  Marshes of Malice PF
  Other Products from Frog God Games
  You can find these product lines and more at our website, froggodgames.com, and on the shelves of many retail game stores.  
  Superscripts indicate the available game systems: “PF” means the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, “5e” means Fifth Edition,  
  and “S&W” means Swords & Wizardry. If there is no superscript it means that it is not specific to a single rule system.
  * (forthcoming from Frog God Games)
  
  3
  Cave of Iron
  Table of Contents
  Credits ........................................................................ p. 2
  Cave of Iron .................................................................p. 4
  Map Appendix .............................................................. p. 17
  Legal Appendix .............................................................p. 19
  
  4
  Quests of Doom 4
  “And not only was the rich soil required to furnish corn and due 
  sustenance, but men even descended into the entrails of the earth, and 
  they dug up riches, those incentives to vice, which the earth had hidden 
  and had removed to the Stygian shades. Then destructive iron came forth, 
  and gold, more destructive than iron; then war came forth.”
  — Ovid, Metamorphosis
  Cave of Iron is a Swords & Wizardry Complete adventure intended for 
  characters of 1st to 3rd level. Characters at the upper limit of that range, or 
  parties with more than five characters, might find some of the challenges 
  on the easy side; the Referee should always feel free to add more foes to 
  any encounter to bring it in line with the group’s power level.
  Hillfort can be any remote town in your campaign, either a place the 
  characters are passing through or a regular base of operations for them. 
  In the Lost Lands campaign setting, Hillfort is located in the easternmost 
  reaches of Keston Province where the Wilderland Hills reach out to the 
  very edge of the Creeping Mire. Hillfort lies at the northern edge of those 
  hills and is largely isolated from the rest of the province. Most trade out 
  of Hillfort actually follows the Trader’s Way south to Albor Broce rather 
  back into Keston proper.
  Background
  The town of Hillfort started out exactly as one might expect: a fort on a 
  hill. The original site was a primitive wooden palisade built by the Ancient 
  Ones and abandoned before the rise of the Hyperborean Empire. Claimed 
  by the arriving Hyperboreans, the fort was refurbished and improved, and 
  a small town sprang up around it. For a while, its purpose was nothing 
  more than defending the area against the dangers of the surrounding 
  wilderness, but as centuries passed and the lands grew tamer through 
  the rise and fall of Hyperborea and then of the Foerdewaith the town’s 
  purpose gave way to trapping, lumbering, and agriculture.
  Twelve years ago, valuable metals were found in the surrounding hills. 
  Not gold or silver, but iron and copper. A mine was opened, dwarven 
  experts on the crafts of mining and smelting were brought in to manage 
  operations, and Hillfort and the new Hardshale Mine thrived on the trade.
  But now, something’s gone wrong. Every month, a wagon train from 
  Hillfort carries supplies to the mine and returns laden with wrought iron 
  and with miners taking time off from the arduous work. The round trip 
  to and from the mine seldom takes more than a week, but the last supply 
  train left three weeks ago and hasn’t returned yet. Riders were dispatched 
  to investigate when the wagons were four days overdue, and they haven’t 
  been heard from, either. Short-range patrols from the fort report more than 
  the average amount of goblin activity in the forested hills between Hillfort 
  and the mine, but the goblins don’t seem to be on a war footing.
  What’s Really Happening
  The problem at the mine was triggered when workers broke into 
  subterranean chambers where two threats lived: russet mold and a shroom. 
  The russet mold transformed most of the miners into vegepygmies, and 
  the shroom — an evil, ambitious, hyper-intelligent mushroom creature 
  named Pezzi Zakii — recognized a golden opportunity when fate dropped 
  one into its lap.
  The mine and smelting operation are now taken over by the vegepygmies, 
  their shroom overlord, and the shroom’s plant minions. Zakii knows that 
  the town will send more people to investigate, so it has baited a careful 
  trap around the mine. Only when it’s strong enough will the shroom’s 
  army march. First, Zakii wants a few adventurers to fall into its clutches. 
  Adventure Summary
  Although the adventure can take many paths depending on the 
  characters’ strategy, the most likely course is outlined here.
  Events kick off when characters are approached by the mayor of 
  Hillfort, who hopes to hire them to investigate what has happened at 
  the mine. On their trek to the mine, characters encounter goblins driven 
  from their villages by the encroaching plant creatures. These goblins are 
  highly distrustful, but they can provide useful information to characters 
  who negotiate with them. Farther along, characters encounter some of 
  Zakii’s malevolent plants and awakened plant creatures firsthand. Before 
  reaching the mine, they encounter Zakii itself, in the guise of a hermitlike 
  but friendly plant-creature claiming that it also wants to investigate 
  the strange occurrences at the mine. Zakii tries to win the characters’ 
  confidence by offering useful information and by helping them survive a 
  potentially lethal encounter with hostile plants (prearranged by Zakii, of 
  course). It wants to accompany the characters, if they allow it. If not, it 
  shadows them; Zakii has no trouble tracking the characters’ whereabouts, 
  thanks to its many plant allies.
  At the Hardshale Mine, characters should explore the mysteriously 
  abandoned camp, smelting operation, and mine head. They find scattered 
  evidence of a battle, but the vegepygmies captured most of the miners 
  and fed them to the russet mold, which transformed them into more 
  vegepygmies. Many dangerous plants haunt the mine area, but characters 
  find many more questions than answers there.
  Eventually, they’ll need to explore the mine itself. This is where 
  they discover the breach into the larger Under Realms and encounter 
  vegepygmies, russet mold, and ultimately, the treachery of Pezzi Zakii.
  Adventure Hooks
  Hillfort can be any remote town in your campaign, either a place the 
  characters are passing through or a regular base of operations for them. 
  The town is abuzz over “the disaster at the mine.” The wagons have been 
  overdue long enough that news has filtered out to surrounding towns, too, 
  along with rumors that the mayor of Hillfort is offering a reward to anyone 
  who brings back word from the mine. 
  If characters are in a nearby town and show no inclination to investigate 
  rumors from Hillfort, a local mage with an interest in plants could hire them 
  to investigate (creating the possibility of collecting a double payment, one 
  from the mage and one from the mayor). Skedrak the Rhymer is another 
  possible patron; he wants to see the “scene of calamity” badly enough that 
  he’ll seek out the characters as escorts, if they don’t accept the mission 
  from someone else first.
  Finally, characters traveling through the area could be chased into town 
  by a large band of goblins, or they could encounter hostile plants and 
  Pezzi Zakii while traveling, with no foreknowledge of any disturbance at 
  the mine. 
  Hillfort
  Although the fort is still prominent in Hillfort, it’s no longer the town’s 
  reason for existing. This once-sleepy military outpost has transformed 
  into a bustling boomtown filled with miners and smelters taking time 
  off from their hard work, traders who buy and sell the wrought iron that 
  comes down from Hardshale, and all the craftsmen, tradesmen, and clerks 
  who keep the town and businesses going. Soldiers from the fort are in the 
  minority, and they now have their hands full maintaining order in the town 
  Cave of Iron
  
  5
  Cave of Iron
  (workers from the mine are a rowdy bunch). Patrolling the surrounding 
  hills is considered a secondary duty for the soldiers, especially since the 
  remaining local goblin tribes have been largely peaceful since the end of 
  the Wilderlands Clan War 11 years ago. 
  Meet the Mayor
  To kick things off, Jellam MacLeish, the mayor’s personal secretary, 
  approaches the characters. He brings them an invitation to meet with the 
  mayor and discuss a special proposal that could be “highly rewarding for 
  everyone involved, financially speaking.”
  Mayor Graham served for many years as the commander of the garrison 
  at the fort, then “retired” and went into politics. She’s an older woman 
  with a prominent scar across her scalp (from a too-close encounter with 
  a goblin spear) and an old soldier’s habit of sprinkling her speech with 
  colorful profanity. 
  “I’m glad you came, by Bowbe! Did MacLeish fill you in on 
  any details? He didn’t? That pus-worm! Well, park your arses 
  and let me do his job, too, by Bowbe’s hairy armpits.
  “Something’s gone in the crapper up at the mine, no one 
  knows what, and no one has the stones to find out. A town 
  full of rough, tough, hairy-chested miners, and none of ’em 
  willing to take a risk. By the fires of the Nine Hells, they’d 
  rather die from crotch rot than from a sword through the 
  guts. 
  “Anyway, that’s my problem. You look like adventuresome 
  types. Not afraid to splash some blood on those tabards, 
  eh, as long as there’s more of the other jacker’s than yours. 
  MacLeish will give you details. MacLeish, you pus-worm!”
  That ends their audience with the mayor. MacLeish explains the details 
  (the mine’s location, what’s happened) and offers them 20 pounds of gold 
  (1000 gp) or a cartload of wrought iron ingots (2000 gp, but much less 
  convenient) as payment. Feel free to adjust the payment amounts to suit 
  the economy of your campaign. 
  Other Locals
  There are other people in Hillfort the characters might want to talk to. 
   Jake Mottlow, miner
  Jake is a hard-drinking miner who should have returned to the mine 
  with the missing wagons, but when it was time for the convoy to depart, he 
  was sleeping off a bender in an alley and no one could find him. Now he’s 
  broke and worried about his friends back at Hardshale. He can provide 
  a general description of the camp and the mine as they were before this 
  trouble started. He’s willing to come along with characters as a guide 
  for a cut of the pay, but the closer they get to the mine, the more Jake 
  drinks. By the time they reach Hardshale, he’s completely useless unless 
  someone has taken his liquor away. He’ll recover with a long rest. Jake 
  knows the mine well and can answer most questions about it, the camp, 
  and operations in both. He’s a skilled laborer, not a warrior, and he tries to 
  avoid combat. Jake’s stats are those of a commoner.
  Jake Mottlow (Commoner): HD 1; HP 4; AC 9[10]; Atk dagger 
  (1d4); Move 12; Save 17; AL N; CL/XP 1/15; Special: none.
  Equipment: dagger.
  Cobir Inawar, iron dealer
  Inawar is a hill dwarf who buys wrought iron from the mine and ships 
  it to Albor Broce for resale to point abroad. He worked at Hardshale in the 
  early years as a smelter and a hammerer, but the mine and the camp are 
  considerably larger now than they were when he was there. If characters 
  press him for more than basic information, Inawar mentions offhandedly 
  that he’s noticed a subtle decline in quality in the wrought iron from 
  the last few shipments. He has some samples in his office. One of them 
  shows indications of contamination by some pollen or dust, but it’s barely 
  noticeable (20% chance). He has no interest in returning to the mine.
  Skedrak the Rhymer
  Ever since the riders failed to return, Skedrak has been working on an 
  epic poem about the “Tragedy of Hardshale Mine.” It’s a lurid piece about 
  murder, calamity, monsters, an ancient curse, and doomed love. Skedrak 
  has no better idea about what happened at the mine than anyone else has; 
  his version is entirely made up. But it’s become an obsession with him, so 
  that now he wants more than anything to see Hardshale firsthand. Skedrak 
  approaches the characters before they leave town and volunteers to come 
  with them. He’s not much of a woodsman and he prefers fighting with his 
  bow rather than his sword, but he’s always cheerful, he’s brave when he 
  needs to be, and he’s a hard worker.
  Skedrak the Rhymer (Thf2): HP 5; AC 7[12]; Atk short sword 
  (1d6), dagger (1d4) or shortbow x2 (1d6); Move 12; Save 14; 
  AL N; CL/XP 2/30; Special: backstab (x2), +2 save bonus vs. 
  traps and magical devices, read languages, thieving skills.
  Thieving Skills: Climb 86%, Tasks/Traps 20%, Hear 3 in 6, 
  Hide 15%, Silent 25%, Locks 15%.
  Equipment: leather armor, short sword, dagger, 
  shortbow, 10 arrows.
  The Trail to Hardshale
  Hardshale mine lies in the Wilderland Hills south of Hillfort. The 
  wagons typically take eight days for the round trip to Hardshale and back: 
  three days to reach the camp, two days to rest the mules and swap wagons, 
  and three days to return. The distance from Hillfort to Hardshale is 18 
  miles as the crow flies but 24 miles along the wagon trail. Despite the 
  longer distance, the wagon trail is quicker; off the trail, the lightly wooded 
  hills are difficult terrain. Characters on foot can make the trip along the 
  trail in one long day if they get an early start.
  The encounters along the trail to Hardshale are all planned, not random, 
  but the players don’t need to know that. Feel free to roll dice as if you’re 
  checking for a random encounter, then chuckle or shake your head sadly 
  as you look up the result. . 
  The Hardshale Road
  The road is nothing more than wagon ruts through the hills. It’s clear of 
  trees and brush, and has no steep inclines. All of the water crossings are at 
  spots where the streams are hard-bottomed and shallow except just after 
  heavy rain. In open terrain, visibility varies from excellent (a mile or more 
  from the tops of rises) to poor (25 to 50 yards in low spots between hills). 
  Where the trail runs through forest, the trees crowd right up to the trail, so 
  visibility can be very short.
  1. Goblin Sighting
  From the top of a low rise, you spot a group of a half-dozen 
  small, gray-skinned humanoids watching you. They’re about 
  500 yards from the road, atop another hill, and appear to 
  be riding wolves or large dogs. They don’t seem to care that 
  you’ve spotted them.
  Characters might suspect (rightly) that these are goblins, but they can’t 
  be sure at this distance. Skedrak or Jake can confirm that goblin tribes live 
  in the hills but are seldom seen this close to town as they were largely 
  decimated in the war of a decade ago. The surviving remnant chose peace 
  
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  Quests of Doom 4
  rather than continued conflict with the soldiers of the province. 
  If any hostile move is made toward the goblins, such as drawing a bow, 
  they instantly scatter and don’t reappear. Characters won’t be able to 
  capture or kill one at this stage. Friendly overtures — hallooing, waving 
  — are met with complete indifference.
  Similar groups of goblins will be spotted from several points along the 
  trail. Characters won’t be able to tell whether it’s different goblins each 
  time or the same group shadowing them. 
  2. Hostile Fauna
  The road ahead is somewhat overgrown with plants. The 
  growth isn’t so thick that it impedes your travel. You can 
  easily walk through the low growth on the ground and dodge 
  or brush aside any hanging vines. It’s just odd, because it’s 
  only been a few weeks since the last wagons should have 
  come through here.
  The plants are 2 Jupiter bloodsuckers growing in from opposite sides 
  of the road. They’re entirely on the ground; vines hanging from the trees 
  are a different species, completely harmless. Getting within 5 feet puts the 
  character within the vines’ reach, which confirms that they’re dangerous.
  The patch is easy enough to avoid by detouring off the road and through 
  the woods until characters are past the vines. Such a detour takes only a 
  minute or two. 
  Pezzi Zakii cultivated these plants here to help bait his trap for any 
  adventurers who come up the road to investigate the mine. See Encounter 
  4, Pezzi Zakii, for full details.
  Jupiter Bloodsucker (2): HD 3; HP 22, 19; AC 4[15]; Atk 6 vine 
  leaves (1d6 plus blood drain); Move 3; Save 14; AL N; CL/XP 
  4/120; Special: blood drain (1 point Constitution damage/
  round per vine attached), smother (if multiple vines attach, 
  save with –1 per vine past first to avoid), vulnerable to fire 
  (double damage). (The Tome of Horrors Complete 344)
  3. Goblin Patrol
  Four goblins mounted on wolves are standing astride the 
  road, about 200 feet ahead. One of them is distinctly bigger 
  and uglier than the others. All four have bows in hand with 
  arrows nocked, but they aren’t actually aiming at you and 
  drawing — yet. One of them scowls viciously and begins to 
  raise its bow, but a snarl from the big one stops it. For the 
  moment, that one seems to be holding them in check, waiting 
  to see what you do.
  The number of goblins and wolves described here is appropriate for a 
  party of four 1st-level adventurers. For 2nd- and 3rd-level characters, or 
  for a bigger group, double or triple the number. 
  Although they look as if they’re spoiling for a fight, the goblins’ leader 
  (Crova Toothkicker) is more interested in talking. He mistrusts anyone 
  coming from Hillfort on general principle, so characters need to make the 
  first friendly move before any talking can happen. 
  If characters attack or act in an obviously hostile manner, the goblins 
  fight by using their wolves’ superior speed to keep the characters at long 
  range while peppering them with arrows. If two goblins or two wolves are 
  killed, the rest scatter. 
  Negotiating with Crova Toothkicker
  If characters make it clear that they aren’t out for blood (approaching 
  without weapons or under a white flag, for example), the biggest goblin 
  rides forward to meet them. He speaks common poorly (about as well as 
  a two-year-old). Communication will be easier if someone else speaks 
  goblin. 
  The goblin boss has valuable information for the characters, but he 
  doesn’t just give it away. What he really wants is a potion of healing as 
  the plants have hurt many of his people. He’ll settle for a good weapon or 
  something similar. 
  Crova knows that dangerous plants suddenly infested the surrounding 
  area five or six weeks ago, and that “plants that walk” (vegepygmies) have 
  been seen in the forest and have fought with his tribe. He can describe 
  them well enough and even show off what he claims is a severed hand; it 
  looks like a vaguely hand-shaped piece of brushwood, but it’s the withered 
  hand of a vegepygmy. A week ago, he rode close enough to the mine to see 
  that the big fires weren’t burning (no smoke) and to hear that no hammers 
  were ringing. He looked, but saw no one. Crova didn’t ride into the camp 
  or investigate any further. He wanted nothing to do with whatever evil 
  spirits carried away all those humans and dwarves.
  Crova Toothkicker (Goblin Boss): HD 5; HP 21; AC 6[13]; Atk 
  scimitar (1d6) or shortbow x2 (1d6); Move 9; Save 12; AL C; 
  CL/XP 5/240; Special: –1 to hit in sunlight, darkvision 60 ft.
  Equipment: scimitar, shortbow, 10 arrows.
  Goblin (3): HD 1d6 hp; HP 5, 4x2; AC 6[13]; Atk scimitar (1d6) 
  or shortbow x2 (1d6); Move 9; Save 18; AL C; CL/XP B/10; 
  Special: –1 to hit in sunlight, darkvision 60 ft.
  Equipment: scimitar, shortbow, 10 arrows.
  Wolf (4): HD 2+2; HP 17, 15, 13, 12; AC 7[12]; Atk bite (1d4+1); 
  Move 18; Save 16; AL N; CL/XP 2/30; Special: none.
  4. Pezzi Zakii
  Although you noticed no one near the trail, you hear a 
  high-pitched voice, speaking slowly: “Greetings, travelers. To 
  startle, please do not. I have only friendly.” 
  Just a few yards to your right, among some fallen timber, 
  you now notice a creature that resembles a halfling-sized
  
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  Cave of Iron
  mushroom sitting with its short legs crossed in a meditative 
  position atop a crumbling log. It’s wearing no clothing, but it 
  lifts a small satchel from behind the log, removes a colorful 
  robe, and puts that on. “Humans like to wearing the clothes,” 
  it says. “I know this from humans friended to me in gone-by 
  time.” Dressed, it stands up and shoulders the satchel. “I am 
  ready. Not for me delay. Walk and talk, talk and walk”
  This is Pezzi Zakii, the evil shroom responsible for most of the trouble 
  at Hardshale mine. Its fractured speech is an affectation to make itself 
  seem slightly foolish and harmless; Zakii probably is more intelligent than 
  any of the characters and speaks common perfectly, along with Sylvan, 
  Undercommon, and Deep Speech. 
  Zakii does everything in its power to win the characters’ confidence 
  and to be treated as their friend. Characters tend to distrust everyone they 
  meet on the road (often for good reason, sadly). Each Referee needs to 
  gauge how his or her players might react to this strange creature and adjust 
  Zakii’s personality accordingly. Some groups will react more positively to 
  a clownish figure or to one that exudes mystery, or to one that is a potent 
  magic-user. Zakii can play any of those roles convincingly. This creature 
  is an evil, manipulative super-genius. It is always thinking two or three 
  steps ahead of the characters, so they should never be able to surprise it 
  or catch it unawares without taking extreme precautions — and if they 
  have secretive, private conversations to plan an attack against the shroom, 
  that alone makes Zakii suspicious and puts it on its guard. Ultimately, 
  the adventure doesn’t hinge on the characters falling for Zakii’s trick, but 
  the Referee’s job becomes easier and a lot more fun if they do. It is vital, 
  however, that characters don’t kill Zakii on the road. The shroom needs to 
  be alive to confront them at the mine. 
  If Skedrak is with the group, Zakii’s uniqueness fascinates him and he 
  strongly favors inviting the creature along. Don’t push this angle too hard, 
  though; players become suspicious when one NPC lobbies for another. 
  Use Skedrak to point out that Zakii seems harmless and its ability to 
  communicate with plants could be useful, if characters don’t reach those 
  conclusions on their own. 
  Conversing with Pezzi Zakii
  The characters are bound to have questions for this strange creature. 
  Here are some convenient answers to likely questions. All of Zakii’s 
  answers should be geared toward making characters believe that the 
  creature is harmless and potentially valuable as an ally.
  What are you? “No human-speak sounds for me. Call me Pezzi. Far 
  away is home, in big, big, big forest. Big.
  Why are you here? “Plants to study. Plants growing badness closely 
  to here. Crazy plants. Pezzi do plant chatter, much to learn. Fix some 
  maybe.”
  How do you know about the plants going bad here? “Plants talk, 
  talk, talk. Gossip always like old blimmicks. Humans don’t hear, but Pezzi 
  is hearing. Chatter, chatter, chatter.” (This isn’t true; Zakii can animate 
  and control plants, but it can talk to them only by casting the spell speak 
  with plants.)
  What are the plants saying right now? (Pointing at the feet of a 
  character who’s standing on a fern) “Ouch.” (Unless Zakii suspects one of 
  the characters has cast speak with plants, it can make up as much crazy, 
  fractured plant talk as it wants.)
  Why should we trust you? “Why not? Trusting you am I. ‘The liar 
  scrapes the pockets of weak trousers.’ Elf philosophy. Elfs have tall 
  wiseness.”
  Did you know we were coming? “Yes oh my. Crazy vines on trail, you 
  fight, plants chatter.” (Zakii knows all about the Jupiter bloodsuckers on the 
  road since it put them there, and it assumes the characters encountered them.)
  Pezzi Zakii (Shroom): HD 6+1; HP 43; AC 6[13]; Atk weapon 
  (1d8); Move 9; Save 11; AL C; CL/XP 8/800; Special: control 
  plants, plant growth, spells (4/2/2). (Monstrosities 424)
  Spells: 1st—charm person, detect magic, magic 
  missile, sleep; 2nd—invisibility, phantasmal force; 3rd—
  hold person, lightning bolt.
  5. Animated Plants
  Without warning, plants on both sides of the road spring to 
  the attack. Thorns lash at you, vines grab for your ankles and 
  twine around your weapons. It’s as if all of nature suddenly 
  turned hostile.
  Pezzi Zakii sprung this attack using its daily ability to control plants. 
  They are completely under Zakii’s control. If characters refused to let the 
  odd creature travel with them, then it’s trailing them through the woods 
  and rushes to the characters’ rescue partway through the battle.
  The plants attack viciously and effectively for 2 or 3 rounds. Zakii 
  doesn’t let them hold back at all; it wants the characters to believe 
  they’re in real danger, and anything the plants do to weaken the 
  characters is fine with the shroom. During the early rounds, Zakii fights 
  enthusiastically with its staff. On the third or fourth round, depending 
  on how the fight is going (ideally, the plants are getting the upper 
  hand), Zakii adopts a pose as if doing mental battle with something, 
  and silently commands the plants to retreat as if in fear (or as fearfully 
  as a plant can manage to look). Zakii makes a substantial show of 
  psychically forcing the plants back until they collapse in defeat, then 
  droops in apparent exhaustion itself.
  Play this for all the drama it’s worth. If the characters had doubts about 
  Zakii’s usefulness before, this encounter is meant to dispel them. 
  Animated Plant (10): HD 3; HP 22, 21, 20x3, 19x2, 17, 16, 15; 
  AC 7[12]; Atk slam (1d6); Move 0 (immobile); Save 14; AL N; 
  CL/XP 3/60; Special: none.
  
  8
  Quests of Doom 4
  Hardshale Camp
  Read the following description when characters get their first sight of 
  Hardshale Mine.
  If you had any doubts that something was wrong at 
  Hardshale, they’re gone now. The camp is still; the forges 
  are cold, the anvils are silent, nothing moves. What’s even 
  stranger is that it looks as if it was abandoned years ago, not 
  just a month ago, judging by the brush growing between the 
  buildings, and the vines and ivy creeping up the walls and 
  stretching through open windows and doors. 
  The plant growth is substantial but not so thick that characters can’t 
  move along the lanes. Most of the plants hug the buildings’ walls. The 
  buildings are in fine repair, not dilapidated, which makes the post-
  apocalyptic greenery look even more out of place.
  Feebleminded Miners
  When vegepygmies overran the mine and the camp, they captured 
  as many miners as they could and brought them to Pezzi Zakii. The 
  shroom fed bits of itself to many of them to turn them into utterly loyal, 
  feebleminded servants. Any who resisted the effect were thrown into 
  russet mold and converted into vegepygmies. 
  A few of those feebleminded humans are positioned around the camp to 
  misdirect the characters’ theories about what could account for the camp’s 
  collapse. Their only reaction to the characters’ presence is watching; they 
  follow the characters intently with their eyes. They no longer understand 
  language and can’t speak at all; the very idea of communication is beyond 
  their comprehension. 
  The shroom offers no opinion about what happened to these 
  individuals. Zakii claims to know nothing about human biology or what 
  makes them sick. 
  Shrooms are so rare and so little is written about them in scholarly 
  books that unless the characters have encountered one before (unlikely at 
  their level), they have no chance to figure out on their own what’s really 
  afflicting these unfortunate miners (they might stumble onto the truth later 
  when Zakii reveals its true intentions). 
  Witch Grass
  Patches of witch grass have sprung up among the other plants in the 
  camp, as noted on the map. A character who tries to cast a magic-user spell 
  within 20 feet of witch grass has a 10% chance of the spell failing. 
  Once characters become aware that something odd is going on with 
  their magic, witch grass can be identified as the problem. 
  A character who brushes up against witch grass picks up its seeds in his 
  or her clothing, and these are as bad as the parent plants. They have the 
  same magic-damping effect. The seeds are tiny. Noticing them hitchhiking 
  in the characters’ clothing takes a deliberate examination. Once seeds are 
  spotted, they can be eliminated from clothing and gear with an hour of 
  painstaking cleaning. Otherwise, seeds lose their potency 12 hours after 
  being picked up. Pezzi Zakii is immune to their effect, but it hides that fact 
  from the characters. It might even point out the problem if it still needs to 
  cement their confidence.
  Witch Grass: HD 2; AC 9[10]; Atk none; Move 0 (immobile); 
  Save 16; AL N; CL/XP 2/30; Special: seed spray (cling to 
  anyone within 10 ft.), spell failure (20 ft. radius, magic-user 
  spells have 10% chance of failure). (The Tome of Horrors 
  Complete 600)
  1. Barn and Stables
  This building looks like a barn. The wide doors are closed, 
  and a lattice of vines growing across them keeps them that 
  way. The lower portion of one door is partly smashed outward 
  and it looks as though something might have tried digging 
  its way under the door, but nothing bigger than a house cat 
  could get through the gap.
  The vines on the doors aren’t dangerous. Characters can cut them away 
  easily. Read the following description when they get a look inside.
  The interior of the barn stinks abominably of death and 
  horse manure. As your eyes adjust to the dim light, you make 
  out eleven stalls; five contain mules standing amid heaps of 
  manure and munching spilled oats from the floor so slowly 
  you can barely tell they’re moving. They look deathly ill and 
  barely able to stand. The six remaining stalls contain dead 
  mules in varying stages of decomposition, some dead for 
  more than a month to others dead for just a few days. 
  Slowly, another shape separates itself from the “freshest” 
  of the dead mules and rises to a standing posture. It appears 
  human — barely — but there’s no doubt that before you 
  entered, it was face-down on the dead mule, eating.
  Neither the mules nor the ghoul-like human present any danger. They are 
  all dominated thralls of the 2 bloodsuckle plants hidden in shadowy recesses 
  of the barn beneath piles of hay. The human is Tomward Ippson, formerly 
  the mine’s stablemaster. In his current state, he’s little more than a zombie, 
  capable of responding only to the psychic commands of his bloodsuckle 
  masters. He doesn’t even fight back if attacked. The bloodsuckles keep 
  him alive to toss out oats for the mules, which they’ve been feasting on for 
  a month. The domination is broken if the bloodsuckles are killed. At that 
  point, Tomward collapses into a sobbing heap, his sanity broken. 
  Unless characters search the barn thoroughly before anything else, 
  the bloodsuckles attack with surprise while characters are examining 
  the mules or tending to Tomward. The mules join in the fight under the 
  bloodsuckles’ command, but each is already down 1d8 hp from the plants 
  draining their blood. Four of the mules recover their health within a few 
  days if the bloodsuckles are killed, but they will always be “strange” and 
  disturbed. The fifth one is carrying one of the bloodsuckles’ seeds; it dies 
  within 24 hours and sprouts a new bloodsuckle.
  A search of the barn turns up barrels of oats for the mules, 400 feet of 
  rope, eight 10 foot lengths of chain, and a variety of tools used in caring 
  for mules: currycombs, nail picks and trimmers, horseshoes in various 
  sizes, a hammer and nails. 
  Bloodsuckle (2): HD 6; AC 7[12]; Atk 2 tendrils (1d4), limb 
  rake (1d6); Move 0 (immobile); Save 11; AL N; CL/XP 8/800; 
  Special: blood drain (2 tentacles hit, then automatic 1d4 
  damage/round), create host (inject sap to charm victim, 
  save resists), grab, seed (1/month, implant in host and sprout 
  in 1d4 days), summon host (if threatened, whine attracts 
  dominated creatures). (The Tome of Horrors Complete 62)
  Mule (4): HD 2; HP 7, 6, 5, 4; AC 7[12]; Atk bite (1d4); Move 9; 
  Save 16; AL N; CL/XP 2/30; Special: none.
  2. Bunkhouse
  Vines grow across the single door and through the open 
  windows of this long, low building. 
  
  9
  Cave of Iron
  The inside of the bunkhouse is one large room. Bunks line both long 
  walls. Storage chests stand at the feet of the bunks and along the walls 
  between bunks, below the windows. 
  At first glance, the place looks abandoned, but characters quickly spot 
  what appear to be two corpses lying on bunks. Only one of them is actually 
  a corpse; the other is alive but not moving. The living man opens his eyes 
  when characters approach, and his eyes follow the characters’ movements, 
  but he doesn’t respond in any other way. He acts as if paralyzed.
  In fact, this miner is affected by Pezzi Zakii’s feeblemind effect from 
  having been fed a bite of the shroom’s flesh. 
  The corpse is the body of a middle-aged human man. The man’s right 
  leg is splinted, his right foot is heavily bandaged, and he’s been speared 
  through the chest. This unfortunate fellow had his leg broken and his foot 
  crushed in a mining accident so he couldn’t work. Vegepygmies found 
  him sleeping here and killed him. There are no other signs of a fight or of 
  any calamity. 
  If characters search the storage trunks, they come up with a total of 
  286 gp, 1380 sp, and 5475 cp, plus more rough clothing, blankets, and 
  miscellaneous personal items of little value than they can carry.
  The only other interesting details are the weapon racks along the two 
  short walls; both could hold dozens of weapons and shields, and both are 
  completely empty. 
  3. Tavern
  This building looks more decorative than all the other drab, 
  utilitarian structures in the camp. Shutters, windowsills, the front 
  door, and other accents were painted bright green once upon a time. 
  A wooden sign depicting a sledgehammer and a pick swings above 
  the door: “the hammer and pick” would be a good guess. Clearly, 
  this was the camp’s saloon. The front door stands open and is free 
  of encroaching plants, unlike the windows.
  This wasn’t just the camp’s tavern: It served as the social hub for the 
  workers, as their gathering place for meetings, their guildhall, and their 
  temple on holy days and holidays. 
  Other than the plants creeping through the windows and an occasional 
  rat or beetle scuttling across the floor, the place looks ready for business. 
  The building consists of: 
  • the large public room containing a bar stocked with kegs of ale and 
  wine, a massive fireplace, three long plank tables with benches, and four 
  semiprivate booths with tables;
  • a small kitchen for preparing pub-type food (most of the workers ate full 
  meals in the camp’s dining hall);
  • a cool, dry cellar (accessible through a hatch in the kitchen) stocked 
  with potatoes, onions, radishes, carrots, and salted meat;
  • an upper floor (accessible from stairs in the public room) with living 
  quarters and a second kitchen for the proprietor’s family, plus three small 
  but nicely-furnished rooms that were available for rent (these were used 
  mostly by prospective ore buyers or investors who came to inspect the 
  operation).
  Ground Floor: Flowershrouds
  There is danger on the ground floor if characters get too close to the 
  windows. Plants of various kinds have grown through all eight of the 
  ground-floor windows; most of the plants are harmless flowering ivies, 
  but 4 flowershrouds are lurking in four of the windows. The deadly 
  flowershrouds are indistinguishable from the innocent plants they’re 
  hiding in. As characters move in to investigate the public room, ask 
  whether they’re moving toward the center of the room or staying near 
  the walls. Roll a die for each character who stays near the walls; on an 
  odd result, that character is ambushed by a flowershroud. All three of the 
  plant’s first-round attacks are made with surprise. Also, unless all four 
  flowershrouds are attacking, one of them moves to block the door; it 
  reaches the opening with its second move.
  Flowershroud (4): HD 3; HP 21, 20, 17; AC 6[13]; Atk thorn-strand 
  (1d4 plus poison); Move 3; Save 14; AL N; CL/XP 4/120; Special: 
  immune to bludgeoning weapons, poison (convulse for 1d6+3 
  rounds, lose 1hp/round, save resists). (Monstrosities 173)
  Upper Floor: Mandragoras
  Some of Pezzi Zakii’s plant servants are scavenging for rotting meat in 
  the upstairs kitchen.
  This small kitchen undoubtedly served the needs of the 
  proprietor’s family. The smell tells you just as undoubtedly 
  that meat and vegetables were left rotting here for weeks. 
  As foul as the smell is to you, it seems to be enticing to four 
  creatures unlike anything you’ve seen before. They stand 
  about 4 feet high and resemble nothing so much as blight-
  stricken bushes. Their arms and legs are gnarled and twisted 
  like tree roots, and the knotty mass that comprises both their 
  body and head has no apparent eyes or other organs — yet 
  they pause from their tussling over of a slab of putrid mutton 
  and turn to “face” you as you enter. 
  There are 6 mandragoras in all: four that the characters can see from 
  the doorway and two more lurking beneath a counter. The four visible 
  rush straight into combat, but the other two try working stealthily around 
  behind characters.
  If asked about them, Pezzi explains that the creatures are mandragoras: 
  fungus creatures that scavenge for dead food and hunt for living food with 
  equal enthusiasm. They are moderately intelligent but can’t be reasoned 
  with — at least not in any known language. (Or so the shroom claims. In 
  
  10
  Quests of Doom 4
  fact, it can communicate with them easily, and they’re here in the camp 
  under Zakii’s orders.) 
  Mandragora (6): HD 1; HP 6, 5x2, 4x3; AC 3[16]; Atk 2 
  tentacle slaps (1d4); Move 12 (burrow 9); Save 17; AL C; 
  CL/XP 3/60; Special: constrict (if 2 tentacles hit, hold for 
  automatic 1d4 damage/round), light blindness, magic 
  resistance (10%), resist fire (50%). (Monstrosities 173)
  4. Kitchen and Dining Hall
  Read the first paragraph of this description when characters approach the 
  dining hall and the second paragraph when they enter. The hole in the roof 
  is the only way in. Just finding a door or window requires 10 minutes of 
  cutting away greenery, and every portal is barred stoutly from the inside.
  This building looks different from others in camp — as if a battle 
  was fought here. The building is draped in vines and ivy so thick 
  that it’s hard to see the structure underneath. About half of the roof 
  has burned away, leaving blackened shingles and sagging timbers. 
  Plants grow right up to the scorched edges but don’t appear to 
  extend into the building. You can hear a faint thunk … thunk … 
  thunk sound coming from somewhere inside the structure.
  None of the plants growing on the dining hall is dangerous. Characters 
  can climb the vines onto the roof with ease and can even lower vines into 
  the interior like a makeshift rope ladder. 
  Inside, it’s clear this was the camp’s dining hall. Two rows of 
  tables with benches fill most of the open area. A fire pit in the 
  middle of the room would have vented through a hole in the roof. 
  Someone must have built a roaring fire; shattered portions of 
  benches, barrels, and table planks stick out of the now-cold fire 
  pit, and the rafters above the pit are heavily scorched as if flames 
  reached all the way to the ceiling. 
  The doors and shutters are all closed and barred from the inside. 
  The sounds you heard from outside are coming through a wide 
  doorway at the end of the room.
  Once the miners realized the danger they were in, a group tried to make a 
  last stand here, where they had a stockpile of food and water. Unfortunately, 
  in trying to use fire as a weapon against the vegepygmies and encroaching 
  plants, they accidentally set the roof alight. The plants allowed the flames to 
  create a sizable breach, then beat out the flames, lifted out the miners (most 
  of whom were overcome by smoke), and carried them away to the mine.
  A wide doorway connects the dining area to the kitchen, which is well-
  stocked with preserved food, vegetables that are about a month past their 
  prime, and barrels of water and wine. In the kitchen, the camp’s cook — 
  now feebleminded — is standing at a chopping block with a cleaver in his 
  hand, mindlessly chopping the cleaver into the wood every five seconds 
  or so. It appears he’s been doing this for a long time; the chopping block is 
  deeply gouged, and wood chips litter the floor around his feet. He looks at 
  the characters but doesn’t respond to their presence. He will walk where 
  they lead him, sit down or stand up if physically guided to do so, but he 
  doesn’t speak or respond to language at all. 
  5. Ore Shed
  Ingots of smelted iron are stacked in this shed, apparently 
  awaiting shipment back to Hillfort. Ingots near the bottom of 
  the stacks have a patina of rust, indicating they’ve been here 
  for a while. 
  These ingots are the product of the smelter. They are very low-grade 
  iron. A typical ingot is roughly 3in by 3 in by 16 in and weighs about 40 
  pounds (each worth roughly 4 gp), but since they’re beaten into shape 
  rather than cast, their shapes, sizes, and weights vary a lot. A quick 
  estimate yields a count of about 250 ingots — roughly 5 tons of wrought 
  iron, or a little more than three wagon loads. 
  6. Smelter
  This structure isn’t a walled building but is just a roof 
  supported by sturdy timbers. Three enormous furnaces with 
  bellows sit cold and idle, the charcoal in them long since 
  burned out. Many anvils are arranged in rows, with heavy 
  hammers and leather aprons hanging nearby. The floor is 
  clay, hard-packed and baked by the heat from the furnaces to 
  a dull finish. A heap of slag towers at one end of the assembly, 
  with a half-dozen shovels stacked nearby. 
  These furnaces heated ore from the mine until it was soft enough 
  to hammer to force out molten slag: copper, oxides, and many other 
  impurities with a lower melting point than iron. Characters with 
  backgrounds in smithing, mining, and similar trades understand this 
  process. The resulting wrought iron was beaten into ingots and stored in 
  building 5 while awaiting shipment to Hillfort.
  Pezzi Zakii is intensely curious about what went on here. It is acquainted 
  with smelting copper and bronze, but iron is new to the shroom. The 
  smelting and refining process for iron is completely different from 
  what Zakii knows. It asks characters many questions, professing that its 
  curiosity is entirely academic — which it is, to a degree. At the same time, 
  Zakii has seen the power of iron weapons over the simple wood and stone 
  tools manufactured by the vegepygmies. If it hopes to equip an army, it 
  would like to know the secret of manufacturing such marvelous things.
  If characters seem at all willing, Pezzi presses them to demonstrate the 
  process. Everything needed is on hand in the smelter. Characters would 
  need about 30 minutes to get a fire burning and to heat some ore to the 
  point where they could show their new friend how to hammer out the 
  impurities. If they do this, and Zakii escapes at the end of the adventure, 
  the shroom is certain to reappear sometime in the future with an iron-
  equipped army. 
  7. Storage Sheds
  All sorts of supplies for the camp are stored in these sheds — rope, 
  chain, lumber, canvas, spare tools and tool handles, nails, candles, lamps, 
  lamp oil, etc. — but the chief commodity is heaps of ore from the mine. 
  High-grade ore usually is taken straight to the smelter. Lower-grade 
  stuff is stored here for those times when the mining slows down and the 
  smelters get ahead on their work.
  If characters search these sheds with any thoroughness (more than just a 
  glance through the door or a single step inside), they notice crates, barrels, 
  and bags that have been carefully opened. This is the work of Pezzi Zakii’s 
  minions. If they keep looking, eventually they run across 6 mandragoras 
  and 1 green brain in a shed of the Referee’s choosing. These creatures are 
  carefully inspecting everything in the shed, searching for anything that 
  could prove useful. (Although the mandragoras are at least as intelligent 
  as the green brain, they have short attention spans and are easily distracted 
  by anything edible. Zakii has found that putting a green brain in charge 
  is crucial for any task that takes more than a few minutes.) Characters 
  have no chance to surprise these creatures unless they’re taking extreme 
  precautions to be stealthy. The plants are almost certain to detect the 
  approaching characters and to set up an ambush.
  Mandragora (6): HD 1; HP 6x2, 5x3, 4; AC 3[16]; Atk 2 
  tentacle slaps (1d4); Move 12 (burrow 9); Save 17; AL C; 
  CL/XP 3/60; Special: constrict (if 2 tentacles hit, hold for 
  automatic 1d4 damage/round), light blindness, magic 
  resistance (10%), resist fire (50%). (Monstrosities 173)
  
  11
  Cave of Iron
  Green Brain: HD 5; HP 34; AC 3[16]; Atk none; Move 0 flying 
  15); Save 12; AL C; CL/XP 6/400; Special: mental abilities. 
  (Monstrosities 227)
  Mental abilities: telepathy, wide mental force cone (50 
  ft. long cone, 30 ft. wide at end, spells disrupted, save 
  or become disoriented [–2 to hit for 1d3 rounds, 1-in-
  6 chance to drop held items]), narrow mental force 
  cone (2d6 damage, save resists). 
  8. Maintenance Shed
  This must have been the camp’s workshop. It’s dominated 
  by a blacksmith’s forge and anvil, but there’s also a carpenter’s 
  bench, sawhorses, and a wide assortment of tools. A man 
  stands near the forge, lifelessly pumping the bellows. He pays 
  no attention to you.
  The man at the bellows is another feebleminded miner. His eyes follow 
  the characters’ movements and he allows himself to be repositioned and led 
  around, but he doesn’t respond to language and utters no words himself. 
  9. Mine Entrance
  Tower mounds of tailings flank the mine entrance on both 
  sides. Narrow-gauge Iron cart rails run into the mine and connect 
  it to the storage sheds and smelters. A heavy wooden cart sits 
  empty on the rails, and two others are tipped on their sides off the 
  rails. A large capstan sits outside the entrance, and chains extend 
  from it into the mine. Harnesses on the poles and tracks on the 
  ground make it clear mules or horses turned the capstan. 
  Plants and vines grow all around the entrance. The greenery 
  extending from the cave-like entrance is vaguely reminiscent 
  of tentacles reaching from the Under Realms …
  An open shed to the right of the tunnel contains picks, 
  shovels, hammers, drills, and assorted other mining tools in 
  a jumble.
  Runes and symbols representing wealth and long life are 
  carved into the rock face above and on both sides of the 
  entrance; the miners probably put them there to bring them 
  good luck.
  Any druid or elf recognizes that plants should have a very difficult time 
  growing on the barren, stony tailings and hard-packed earth around the 
  mine entrance. Something unnatural forced them to grow here.
  Most of the plants are mundane vines, ivies, and thorn bushes, including 
  many wild roses, which are tough and thorny. Cutting a path through 
  these plants isn’t especially difficult, but it’s slow. Trying to push through 
  the thorn-covered vines without clearing a trail is almost impossible; 
  characters can move only 5 feet per turn this way. 
  Mixed in among the wild roses are 6 vampire roses. If possible, the 
  roses hold their attack until intruders have hacked their way well into 
  the growth so that their movement is restricted to a narrow path before 
  attacking from all sides. 
  Just inside the mouth of the mine entrance is a cobra flower. It strikes 
  as characters enter the mine, preferably while some characters are still 
  fighting the vampire roses.
  Vampire Rose (6): HD 4; HP 30, 27, 26, 24; AC 4[15]; Atk 
  stalk (1d4); Move 3; Save 13; AL N; CL/XP 4/120; Special: 
  
  12
  Quests of Doom 4
  camouflage (surprise on 1–3 on 1d6; 1–3 on 1d8 vs. rangers 
  and druids). (The Tome of Horrors Complete 581)
  Cobra Flower: HD 6; HP 44; AC 5[14]; Atk bite (1d8 plus 1d6 
  acid); Move 3; Save 11; AL N; CL/XP 7/600; Special: squeeze 
  (after bite, 1d8 damage per round, +2 to hit with bite). (The 
  Tome of Horrors Complete 103)
  Hardshale Mine
  The mine cuts into the base of a large hill. It consists of three levels, 
  described below. There’s no light inside but what characters bring with 
  them. Lanterns are much better than torches in the mine, because they 
  produce less smoke and they can be set down on convenient ledges and 
  stones. There are no wall sconces for torches in the entire mine, and a torch 
  that’s dropped or set down on the floor has a 50% chance of sputtering out. 
  Beyond 20 feet from the entrance, the temperature is a constant 50º F 
  everywhere in the mine.
  Iron cart tracks are spiked to the floor for ore carts to roll on. Marks 
  on the floor indicate mules or horses often pulled them. Chains from the 
  capstan run through heavy pulleys anchored near where the floor meets 
  the wall to prevent miners and mules from tripping over them any more 
  than is necessary. 
  Much of the mine’s ceiling is shored up with stout timbers. These 
  are mostly a precaution. Other than a few exceptions noted below, just 
  destroying the timbers won’t cause a cave-in.
  Note that each hex on the mine map represents 100 feet, but the tunnel 
  isn’t 100 feet wide. In most places, it’s only 10 to 20 feet wide. 
  Pezzi Zakii’s Scheme
  Pezzi Zakii hopes to spring its trap on the characters during their 
  exploration of the mine and the caves beyond. Exactly how it does this 
  is up to you. It needs to get the characters to eat at least a small bite 
  of its flesh. The shroom can easily trim off tiny slices of itself without 
  causing any harm or leaving a visible mark. If it gets the opportunity to 
  feed a sliver of itself to a character, it does so. It is on the lookout for 
  opportunities to “poison” characters by: 
  • passing a plate of food to a character during a meal;
  • aiding an injured character after a battle;
  • smearing a bit of shroom onto some jerky or other rations in a charac-
  ter’s pack while no is watching;
  • asking for a taste of someone’s food out of curiosity, making a yucky 
  face, and handing it back with a tiny “contamination.”
  The most important concern for Zakii is that if its toxic flesh feebleminds 
  a character, there should be no reason for other characters to suspect 
  the shroom was the source of the problem. Or at least, there should be 
  other circumstances that are more likely suspects so Zakii can deflect 
  their suspicions (many people touched the food more than Pezzi did, 
  the character’s wounds might have been inflicted by poisoned weapons 
  or poisonous plants, etc.). Note that characters who make a successful 
  saving throw against the shroom’s toxic flesh are aware something was 
  “off” about the food they almost ate, but they don’t gain any insight into 
  the specific problem beyond their suspicion. They can’t even be sure the 
  food was poisoned without further testing or magic, and they certainly 
  gain no clue from the saving throw that the toxin came from Pezzi Zakii. 
  In all situations, remember that the shroom has a genius intellect, so 
  it never tries anything foolish or reckless. Just as importantly, it’s not 
  likely to try anything spur-of-the-moment. Zakii is a planner. It looks for 
  weaknesses it can exploit in the future. For example, it won’t poison a 
  character the first time it tends someone’s wounds. First, it establishes 
  that letting Pezzi tend someone’s wounds is safe and beneficial, then it 
  makes its move. It is always thinking ahead. That’s easier for Zakii than 
  for the characters in this situation, both because the shroom is so smart and 
  because it knows what lies ahead in the mine and in the caves. 
  It’s vital that characters see other feebleminded NPCs in the camp and 
  in the mine before any characters are affected. Zakii needs them to believe 
  that an unknown toxin, pollen, or magical residue in the environment is 
  responsible for the feeblemind effect. The shroom offers this theory if no 
  one else thinks of it, but it never pushes its ideas too hard; it understands 
  that adventurers are suspicious by nature and they’ll react negatively to a 
  relative stranger trying to steer their actions.
  Top Level
  The floor of the top-level slopes gradually upward as one moves farther 
  into the mine. This effect is slight. Dwarves notice it automatically, but 
  others have a 20% chance to detect it. The mine was constructed this way 
  on purpose; ore carts are easier to move out of the mine when they’re 
  heavily loaded if that direction has a slight downhill grade. The top level 
  is played out, and no mining is done there anymore. This is obvious to 
  anyone with mining experience (or Jake Mottlow can simply explain it, 
  if he’s along). 
  The ceiling is 10 feet high in most places, but it sometimes rises to 15 
  feet or drops to just 6 or even 5 feet. 
  10. Ore Lift and Ladder Shaft
  Chains from the capstan outside the mine run through 
  large, heavy pulleys anchored to the ceiling, then hang down 
  through a 10-foot-wide shaft cut in the floor. The bottom — 
  and whatever is hanging on this chain — is beyond the reach 
  of your light.
  Miners used this bucket to lift ore from below and to lower tools and 
  other supplies to the middle level. The empty bucket can be lifted by 
  tugging on the chain. The ceiling here is 15 feet high.
  Alongside the ore lift is a smaller vertical shaft through which the 
  miners climbed up and down.
  A wooden ladder descends through a hole in the floor to a 
  landing about 10 feet down, where a second ladder descends 
  even farther through another hole.
  This set of ladders is how the miners get to the next level down. There 
  are five ladders and a drop of 50 feet between the top and middle levels. 
  The ladders are scuffed and old, but perfectly safe.
  Middle Level
  The middle level averages 50 feet below the top level. It’s reached 
  by climbing down a series of five ladders. Ore was loaded into large 
  buckets that were raised on chains connected to the capstan outside the 
  entrance. The floor has a slight slope down toward the bucket room to 
  ease moving loaded ore carts. The middle level was being actively mined 
  when calamity struck. 
  Areas 10 and 11 on this level are essentially the same as on the top 
  level; no separate description is provided.
  Fungus bats have taken over this level of the mine. In every chamber 
  of the middle level, characters have a 2-in-6 chance of encountering 
  fungus bats. Roll 1d6–3 and add the result to the number of characters 
  in the party to determine how many bats are encountered. For example, a 
  roll of 5 indicates bats outnumber characters by 2, and a roll of 1 indicates 
  characters outnumber bats by 2. 
  Fungus Bat: HD 2; AC 7[12]; Atk bite (1d3); Move 4 (flying 
  18); Save 16; AL N; CL/XP 3/60; Special: fungus breath (10 ft. 
  cone, 1d4 damage if inhaled, save avoids), stench save or 
  retch for 1d3 rounds). (see New Monsters)
  
  13
  Cave of Iron
  11. Ore Lift and Ladder Shaft
  This area is identical to area 10 on the top level. The only difference 
  is that the drop between the middle and bottom levels is 80 feet, so eight 
  ladders are used instead of five.
   
  12. Tilted Gallery
  The ceiling of this tunnel is 20 feet high. The floor and 
  ceiling are level, but the walls are skewed radically, like a 
  parallelogram. It looks as if some giant creature distorted the 
  rock with a titanic shove after the tunnel was cut.
  Both the right and left walls of this tunnel slant at about a 20-degree 
  angle to the left as characters first approach the room. Characters with a 
  background in mining realize that this is nothing more than a reflection of 
  how the ore was distributed in the rock; squaring off the walls would have 
  meant a lot of unnecessary digging for the miners. The slant has no other 
  significance, but it’s disorienting and creates the impression that the walls 
  might be unstable.
   
  13. Closed-off Tunnel
  A sturdy wooden door sealed with a heavy, rusty padlock 
  completely shuts off the tunnel at this point. Mildew and 
  mold grows on the wood. It looks as if it has been here for 
  several years at least.
  This door seals off an unsafe tunnel. The miners put it here to ensure 
  no one wandered down the passage and accidentally set off a cave-in that 
  the mine foreman felt sure would happen. Nothing of interest is beyond 
  the door. 
  In the years since the door was put in place, however, a phycomid has 
  grown over the wood of the door. Anyone who tries to pick the lock or 
  even examines it closely triggers the phycomid’s attack. Once it becomes 
  active, the fungus attacks a different target every round until destroyed. 
  Phycomid: HD 4; HP 27; AC 4[15]; Atk fluid globule (1d6 acid 
  plus spore infection); Move 3; Save 13; AL N; CL/XP 5/240; 
  Special: acid (20 ft. range), spore infection (save or lose 
  1d2 constitution; every 10 minutes thereafter, lose 1 point 
  constitution; cure disease ends loss). (The Tome of Horrors 
  Complete 430)
  14. Miners
  You hear a faint “tap … tap” sound as you move along the 
  tunnel. The sound is irregular, not rhythmic, and varies in 
  intensity.
  Two feebleminded miners are standing at the rock face, listlessly 
  striking it with their hammers. They react to the characters’ presence the 
  same as all the shroom’s other victims. 
  15. Mandragoras
  As characters approach this area, the 5 mandragoras have a 2-in-6 
  chance of surprising the characters (1-in-6 chance if a ranger or monk 
  is with the party). Read the following information; include the final 
  (parenthesized) sentence if someone succeeded on the roll. 
  You hear a rustling sound ahead, and something darts 
  away from your light too quickly for you to see what it was. 
  (It was smaller than a human, and gangly, and green.)
  Mandragora (5): HD 1; HP 7, 6, 5x2, 3; AC 3[16]; Atk 2 
  tentacle slaps (1d4); Move 12 (burrow 9); Save 17; AL C; 
  CL/XP 3/60; Special: constrict (if 2 tentacles hit, hold for 
  automatic 1d4 damage/round), light blindness, magic 
  resistance (10%), resist fire (50%). (Monstrosities 173)
  Green Brain: HD 5; HP 34; AC 3[16]; Atk none; Move 0 flying 
  15); Save 12; AL C; CL/XP 6/400; Special: mental abilities. 
  (Monstrosities 227)
  Mental abilities: telepathy, wide mental force cone (50 
  ft. long cone, 30 ft. wide at end, spells disrupted, save 
  or become disoriented [–2 to hit for 1d3 rounds, 1-in-
  6 chance to drop held items]), narrow mental force 
  cone (2d6 damage, save resists).
  Bottom Level
  The bottom level is 80 feet below the middle level. It’s reached by climbing 
  down eight ladders. Ore is raised by the same capstan system that serves the 
  middle level, and the floor has the same slope as other levels. The bottom level 
  has been in use for only a few years, so it’s not as well developed as the top 
  and middle levels. This is where miners broke into a subterranean cave system 
  that exposed them to russet mold and set Pezzi Zakii loose in their midst.
  Area 10 and 11 on this level are essentially the same as on the middle level, but 
  they only extend upward, not downward; no separate description is provided.
  16. Cave-in
  The tunnel ahead is completely collapsed. Rubble and 
  shattered support timbers fill the passage. A few tools lean 
  against the walls, as if the miners started clearing the passage, 
  but gave up. 
  This cave-in occurred just one day before miners broke through into the 
  natural cavern. Their efforts to clear this tunnel halted when they started 
  investigating the new find. Nothing of significance is here.
  17. Fungoid “Mule”
  You hear the grinding of wooden wheels on iron rails; one 
  of the ore carts must be moving toward you. No sooner do 
  you realize that than you see the hulking shape of a humanoid 
  creature emerge from the darkness. It’s a bit shorter than a 
  human — probably because of its stooped posture — but it’s 
  massively built. It’s pulling a loaded ore cart with apparent 
  ease. Its flesh has the pasty texture of a toadstool. It opens its 
  mouth as if to roar, but no sound comes out as it drops the 
  ore cart’s chain and rushes toward you.
  
  14
  Quests of Doom 4
  The fungoid is moving iron ore from where the vegepygmies are 
  digging to the bucket lift at area 10 in preparation for getting the mine 
  operating again once Pezzi Zakii understands the smelting process. The 
  vegepygmies haven’t made much progress at learning how to mine, 
  however, so the work is going very slowly. The fungoid attacks without 
  hesitation.
  Fungoid: HD 5; HP 34; AC 5[14]; Atk 2 slams (1d8); Move 6; 
  Save 12; AL N; CL/XP 5/240; Special: immune to charm, resist 
  electricity (50%). (The Tome of Horrors Complete 258)
  18. Vegepygmy Work Party
  Characters hear sounds of mining from the tunnel ahead, but they don’t 
  see any glow from lanterns or candles. If they creep forward and investigate, 
  have them make Dex (Stealth) checks against the vegepygmies’ passive 
  Perception scores of 11, then read the boxed text. If they assume this is just 
  more feebleminded miners and round the bend without any precautions, 
  the vegepygmies hear them coming and are prepared for a fight.
  The creatures in the tunnel are nothing like the miners 
  you’ve encountered so far. They’re humanoid, but only as 
  large as halflings, and they appear to be made entirely of 
  plant material. But unlike the other plant creatures you’ve 
  encountered, these are more fully formed. They have smooth 
  flesh, something that might pass for hair, and distinct faces. 
  They wield tools like miners, though not very well.
  If characters achieved surprise, it won’t last long. The vegepygmies 
  notice them within a round unless the characters retreat out of sight 
  immediately.
  The work party consists of 6 vegepygmy workers and 4 vegepygmy 
  guards. A green brain is stationed farther up the tunnel; it joins the 
  vegepygmies on the second round of a fight. 
  Vegepygmy Workers (6): HD 1; HP 8, 7x2, 6x2, 5; AC 3[16]; 
  Atk strike (1d4) or spear (1d6); Move 12; Save 17; AL N; CL/XP 
  2/30; Special: immune to electricity, resists piercing weapons 
  (50%). (The Tome of Horrors Complete 584)
  Equipment: spear.
  Vegepygmy Guards (4): HD 2; HP 15, 13x2, 10; AC 3[16]; Atk 
  strike (1d4) or spear (1d6); Move 12; Save 16; AL N; CL/XP 
  3/60; Special: immune to electricity, resists piercing weapons 
  (50%). (The Tome of Horrors Complete 584)
  Equipment: spear.
  Green Brain: HD 5; HP 37; AC 3[16]; Atk none; Move 0 flying 
  15); Save 12; AL C; CL/XP 6/400; Special: mental abilities. 
  (Monstrosities 227)
  Mental abilities: telepathy, wide mental force cone (50 
  ft. long cone, 30 ft. wide at end, spells disrupted, save 
  or become disoriented [–2 to hit for 1d3 rounds, 1-in-
  6 chance to drop held items]), narrow mental force 
  cone (2d6 damage, save resists).
  19. “The Breakthrough”
  This tunnel is just like most others in the mine, up to a 
  point. Then it suddenly widens into a much larger natural 
  cavern. The chamber is larger than your lights can illuminate 
  — probably much larger, judging from the echoes — but you 
  can see stalagmites and stalactites, and can hear the sound of 
  splashing water in the distance. The air is completely still and 
  has a rich, earthy scent. A single point of light in the distance 
  breaks the all-encompassing darkness.
  No immediate danger is here at the entrance to the shroom’s cavern. A 
  character who studies the point of light and rolls below his intelligence 
  on 3d6 notices that the light flickers occasionally, as if something moved 
  between it and the viewer.
  The Under Realms
  Before the miners stumbled onto this cavern, nothing lived here but 
  Pezzi Zakii and a handful of its minions — mandragoras, green brains, 
  fungoids, fungus bats — along with a few vegepygmies that tended the 
  patches of russet mold. The miners’ discovery changed the whole world 
  for these creatures. 
  As characters explore the cavern, roll 1d20 per hour for an encounter if 
  they move in darkness; roll every 10 minutes if they bring a light source. 
  If they haven’t encountered russet mold by the third roll, then they trigger 
  that encounter automatically when it’s time for the third check. Characters 
  have the normal chance to surprise foes in darkness, but none if they’re 
  carrying a light. 
  Note that the scale changes between the mine map and the cavern map, 
  from 100 feet per hex to 660 feet (220 yards) per hex. In the cavern, 4 
  hexes are half a mile. The floor is uneven everywhere and in many places 
  it’s wet or strewn with rubble, so the whole cavern should be considered 
  difficult going for cross-country travel.
  1d20
  Encounter
  1–7
  None
  8–9
  2d8 fungus bats
  10–12
  1d4 patches of russet mold
  13
  2d4 mandragoras, 1 green brain
  14
  1d2 fungoids
  15–17
  Vegepygmy Work Crew: 8 workers, 2 guards
  18–19
  Vegepygmy Patrol: 4 guards, 1 chief
  20
  Vegepygmy Band: 14 workers, 8 guards, 1 chief
  Fungoid: HD 5; HP 34; AC 5[14]; Atk 2 slams (1d8); Move 6; 
  Save 12; AL N; CL/XP 5/240; Special: immune to charm, resist 
  electricity (50%). (The Tome of Horrors Complete 258)
  Fungus Bat: HD 2; AC 7[12]; Atk bite (1d3); Move 4 (flying 
  18); Save 16; AL N; CL/XP 3/60; Special: fungus breath (10 ft. 
  cone, 1d4 damage if inhaled, save avoids), stench save or 
  retch for 1d3 rounds). (see New Monsters)
  Mandragoras (2d4): HD 1; AC 3[16]; Atk 2 tentacle slaps 
  (1d4); Move 12 (burrow 9); Save 17; AL C; CL/XP 3/60; 
  Special: constrict (if 2 tentacles hit, hold for automatic 1d4 
  damage/round), light blindness, magic resistance (10%), 
  resist fire (50%). (Monstrosities 173)
  Green Brain: HD 5; AC 3[16]; Atk none; Move 0 flying 15); 
  Save 12; AL C; CL/XP 6/400; Special: mental abilities. 
  (Monstrosities 227)
  Mental abilities: telepathy, wide mental force cone (50 
  foot long cone, 30 feet wide at end, spells disrupted, 
  save or become disoriented [–2 to hit for 1d3 rounds, 
  1-in-6 chance to drop held items]), narrow mental 
  force cone (2d6 damage, save resists).
  Russet Mold (Hazard): A russet mold releases a cloud 
  of spores when anyone comes within 5 ft. of the patch. 
  Anyone caught in the spore cloud must make a saving 
  throw or take 2d6 points of damage. Anyone killed by the 
  russet mold rises as a vegepygmy within 24 hours. (see New 
  Monsters) 
  
  15
  Cave of Iron
  Vegepygmy Worker: HD 1; AC 3[16]; Atk strike (1d4) or spear 
  (1d6); Move 12; Save 17; AL N; CL/XP 2/30; Special: immune 
  to electricity, resists piercing weapons (50%). (The Tome of 
  Horrors Complete 584)
  Equipment: spear.
  Vegepygmy Guard: HD 2; AC 3[16]; Atk strike (1d4) or spear 
  (1d6); Move 12; Save 16; AL N; CL/XP 3/60; Special: immune 
  to electricity, resists piercing weapons (50%). (The Tome of 
  Horrors Complete 584)
  Equipment: spear.
  Vegepygmy Chief: HD 6; HP 42; AC 3[16]; Atk strike (1d4) or 
  spear (1d6); Move 12; Save 16; AL N; CL/XP 3/60; Special: 
  immune to electricity, resists piercing weapons (50%), spore 
  cloud (40 foot spread, save or paralyzed for 2d6 rounds). 
  (The Tome of Horrors Complete 584)
  Equipment: spear.
  20. Miners
  If characters aren’t carrying light sources, or they extinguish their lights 
  for a while to scan the cavern in complete darkness, they notice a pinpoint 
  of light at this location from anywhere in the cavern. If they’re carrying 
  lights, then they don’t notice the candle flame until they get within 500 
  yards of area 20. Read the description below when they get within 200 
  yards.
  As you draw closer to the light, you see that it’s a small 
  lantern holding a candle. Near the light is a large cage made of 
  long bones lashed together with sinew. Six filthy, emaciated 
  miners are crammed inside. Nearby, nine more miners stand 
  idly in a slack-jawed stupor. Four of the green plant-men 
  stand guard.
  The nine miners have been feebleminded and are effectively useless. 
  Those in the cage are the only six remaining who haven’t been feebleminded 
  or transformed into vegepygmies. They’re very weak from hunger and 
  thirst because Zakii has been starving them slowly while threatening to 
  erase their minds or douse them with russet mold in an effort to wring the 
  secrets of smelting iron from them. They can fill characters in on what they 
  know, which is the discovery of this cavern, the first deaths from russet 
  mold, and the increasing attacks from vegepygmies and plant creatures 
  that eventually overwhelmed the camp. They’ll fight if characters insist, 
  but they’d rather just get far away from here. 
  If someone checks at this point, they realize that Pezzi Zakii isn’t with 
  the group anymore. It slipped away as they approached this area, knowing 
  that it would be recognized and its secret revealed by the prisoners. 
  From this point on, it organizes its forces to ambush the characters at an 
  appropriate time and place.
  Miners (6): HD 1; HP 2; AC 9[10]; Atk fist (1hp); Move 12; Save 
  17; AL N; CL/XP 1/15; Special: none.
  Equipment: none.
  21. Vegepygmy Camp
  Ahead is a patch of gigantic mushrooms 10 to 15 feet high 
  with enormous caps that spread like canopies. Child-sized 
  plant-men are moving among them, interacting, gathering 
  water from pools in the rock, fashioning baskets and primitive 
  weapons, and communicating without speaking. There are 
  no lights and no structures, yet the scene resembles a surreal 
  vision of a human village from a fever-dream. 
  These vegepygmies don’t expect intruders, so characters have 
  an easy time sneaking close enough to get a good look — provided 
  they aren’t flashing around an open light. The “village” contains 
  1 vegepygmy chief, 8 guards, and 14 workers/commoners. 
  If characters approach openly, or at least not aggressively, the 
  vegepygmies are puzzled to see strangers and don’t immediately 
  attack. Their puzzlement won’t last long, however, especially if 
  characters ask nosy questions. If characters attack, the vegepygmies 
  grab their weapons and fight back effectively. If characters are 
  noticed but they leave the campsite without starting a fight, three 
  vegepygmy guards follow them while trying to keep hidden, and 
  eventually the chief organizes an ambush.
  Vegepygmy Chief: HD 6; HP 45; AC 3[16]; Atk strike (1d4) or 
  spear (1d6); Move 12; Save 16; AL N; CL/XP 3/60; Special: 
  immune to electricity, resists piercing weapons (50%), spore 
  cloud (40 ft. spread, save or paralyzed for 2d6 rounds). (The 
  Tome of Horrors Complete 584)
  Equipment: spear.
  Vegepygmy Guard (8): HD 2; HP 15, 14, 13x2, 12, 10x2, 9; AC 
  3[16]; Atk strike (1d4) or spear (1d6); Move 12; Save 16; AL 
  N; CL/XP 3/60; Special: immune to electricity, resists piercing 
  weapons (50%). (The Tome of Horrors Complete 584)
  Equipment: spear.
  Vegepygmy Worker (14): HD 1; HP 8, 7x2, 6x3, 5x3, 4x2, 
  3x3; AC 3[16]; Atk strike (1d4) or spear (1d6); Move 12; 
  Save 17; AL N; CL/XP 2/30; Special: immune to electricity, 
  resists piercing weapons (50%). (The Tome of Horrors 
  Complete 584)
  Equipment: spear.
  22. Pezzi Zakii’s Lair
  Toadstools grow to a height of 10 or 15 feet here, but they 
  aren’t haphazard; their careful spacing and arrangement 
  makes them look cultivated. With slender stalks and 
  large, graceful caps, they almost create an impression of 
  being laid out in “rooms” — an impression strengthened 
  by the thick, low furniture arranged beneath them, and 
  the “tables” and “desks” built around the toadstool stalks. 
  Desks contain platters of unfamiliar food, parchment 
  scrolls, stone cups for holding ink, and writing implements 
  carved from delicate stalactites or quills plucked from some 
  subterranean monstrosity. Many surface plants that look 
  out of place in this underground setting somehow thrive in 
  the eternal darkness. 
  The shroom’s lair is nothing resembling a human dwelling. The 
  temperature never varies in the cavern, and the shroom fears no wind 
  or predator, so Zakii has no need for walls. Seven giant toadstools are 
  arranged with one (the largest) in the center and the other six in a rough 
  hexagonal shape around it. The wide toadstool caps protect parchment 
  and cloth against water from the cavern ceiling far above. Darkvision 
  eliminates the need for lights in general, but Zakii keeps a few simple 
  floating wick-type oil lamps handy (but unlit) in case it needs to see 
  something in color.
  If Pezzi Zakii has already abandoned the characters (because they 
  found the prisoners, for example), it will be encountered here. If it’s 
  still with the characters, it turns against them, commanding its plant 
  minions to attack, and then unleashes a magic missile or lightning bolt 
  on the characters. Its reinforcements arrive as listed below. Zakii quickly 
  retreats into the darkness and fights from the shadows until its hit points 
  drop below 10. It then flees for its life toward Area 22. Its minions fight 
  to the death. 
  
  16
  Quests of Doom 4
  Round
  Creatures
  1
  2 giant violet fungi (limited mobility thanks to Pezzi Zakii)  
  2
  5 mandragoras, 1 green brain
  3
  1 fungoid
  5
  all surviving vegepygmies from Area 21
  Fungoid: HD 5; HP 36; AC 5[14]; Atk 2 slams (1d8); Move 6; 
  Save 12; AL N; CL/XP 5/240; Special: immune to charm, resist 
  electricity (50%). (The Tome of Horrors Complete 258)
  Giant Violet Fungi (Mobile) (2): HD 6; HP 45, 40; AC 7[12]; Atk 
  4 tendrils (rot); Move 6; Save 11; AL N; CL/XP 7/600; Special: 
  rot (save resists). (Monstrosities 183)
  Mandragora (5): HD 1; HP 7, 6x3, 5; AC 3[16]; Atk 2 tentacle 
  slaps (1d4); Move 12 (burrow 9); Save 17; AL C; CL/XP 3/60; 
  Special: constrict (if 2 tentacles hit, hold for automatic 1d4 
  damage/round), light blindness, magic resistance (10%), 
  resist fire (50%). (Monstrosities 173)
  Green Brain: HD 5; HP 33; AC 3[16]; Atk none; Move 0 flying 
  15); Save 12; AL C; CL/XP 6/400; Special: mental abilities. 
  (Monstrosities 227)
  Mental abilities: telepathy, wide mental force cone (50 
  ft. long cone, 30 ft. wide at end, spells disrupted, save 
  or become disoriented [–2 to hit for 1d3 rounds, 1-in-
  6 chance to drop held items]), narrow mental force 
  cone (2d6 damage, save resists).
  Vegepygmy Chief: HD 6; HP 45; AC 3[16]; Atk strike (1d4) or 
  spear (1d6); Move 12; Save 16; AL N; CL/XP 3/60; Special: 
  immune to electricity, resists piercing weapons (50%), spore 
  cloud (40 ft. spread, save or paralyzed for 2d6 rounds). (The 
  Tome of Horrors Complete 584)
  Equipment: spear.
  Vegepygmy Guard (8): HD 2; HP 15, 14, 13x2, 12, 10x2, 9; AC 
  3[16]; Atk strike (1d4) or spear (1d6); Move 12; Save 16; AL 
  N; CL/XP 3/60; Special: immune to electricity, resists piercing 
  weapons (50%). (The Tome of Horrors Complete 584)
  Equipment: spear.
  Vegepygmy Worker (14): HD 1; HP 8, 7x2, 6x3, 5x3, 4x2, 3x3; 
  AC 3[16]; Atk strike (1d4) or spear (1d6); Move 12; Save 17; AL 
  N; CL/XP 2/30; Special: immune to electricity, resists piercing 
  weapons (50%). (The Tome of Horrors Complete 584)
  Equipment: spear.
  Pezzi Zakii (Shroom): HD 6+1; HP 43; AC 6[13]; Atk weapon 
  (1d8); Move 9; Save 11; AL C; CL/XP 8/800; Special: control 
  plants, plant growth, spells (4/2/2). (Monstrosities 424)
  Spells: 1st—charm person, detect magic, magic 
  missile, sleep; 2nd—invisibility, phantasmal force; 3rd—
  hold person, lightning bolt.
  Treasure: Zakii does not value or hoard gold or silver, but a basket 
  beneath one of the tables contains one blue spinel (500 gp), an amber and a 
  tourmaline (100 gp each), six bloodstones (50 gp each), one carnelian (50 
  gp), and five moonstones (50 gp each). A second basket contains a potion 
  of diminution and a potion of clairvoyance in sealed clay bottles. The 
  scrolls containing Zakii’s observations and notes on natural philosophy 
  (about 20 in all, written in Aklo) are worth 10 gp apiece to scholars who 
  study the Under Realms. 
  23. Exit to Deeper Down
  A tunnel exits the cavern here, leading deeper into the Under Realms. It 
  plays no part in this adventure, but you can map and populate the deeper 
  caves however you like.
  Concluding the Adventure
  Miners and characters feebleminded by the shroom’s toxic flesh are 
  restored to normal by dispel magic (6th level caster), or by making a 
  successful saving throw (with a –2 penalty) after every 30 days. Eventually, 
  everyone recovers and the mine reopens — with the entrance to Zakii’s 
  cavern collapsed and guarded. 
  If Pezzi Zakii escaped, it harbors a burning hatred for the characters. 
  It could take months or years for it to develop a suitably devious revenge 
  plan, but it eventually strikes back at the characters. If it learned the secret 
  of smelting iron, it could return at the head of an army of vegepygmies and 
  fungoids wielding iron weapons and wearing heavy iron armor!
  New Monsters
  Fungus Bat
  Hit Dice: 2
  Armor Class: 7[12]
  Attacks: bite (1d3)
  Saving Throw: 16
  Special: fungus breath, stench
  Move: 4 (flying 18)
  Alignment: Neutrality
  Number Encountered: 1d4+2, 3d6
  Challenge Level: 3/60
  Fungus bats are slightly-larger-than-normal bats infected by a fungal 
  disease growing on and within their bodies. Every 1d4 rounds, the bats 
  can breathe a cloud of fungus within a 10ft radius. Anyone inhaling this 
  fungal matter must make a saving throw or suffer 1d4 points of damage. 
  A cloud off fungus bats exudes a horrible stench that forces anyone within 
  their midst to make a saving throw or retch for 1d3 rounds,  
  Fungus Bat: HD 2; AC 7[12]; Atk bite (1d3); Move 4 (flying 
  18); Save 16; AL N; CL/XP 3/60; Special: fungus breath (10 ft. 
  cone, 1d4 damage if inhaled, save avoids), stench save or 
  retch for 1d3 rounds). 
  Russet Mold (Hazard)
  Russet mold grows in wet, dark areas, appearing to be ordinary rust 
  from 30 feet away (2-in-6 chance). A russet mold patch grows to be about 
  5 feet to 7 feet in diameter. The mold releases a cloud of spores when 
  anyone comes within 5 feet of it. All in the area must make a saving throw 
  or take 2d6 points of damage. Anyone killed by a russet mold rises as a 
  vegepygmy in 24 hours. 
  
  17
  Cave of Iron
  
  18
  Quests of Doom 4
  
  19
  Cave of Iron
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  System Reference Document Copyright 2003, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jon-
  athan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax 
  and Dave Arneson.
  Swords & Wizardry Core Rules, Copyright 2008, Matthew J. Finch
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  Quests of Doom 4: Cave of Iron © 2017, Frog God Games, LLC; Author: Steve Winter.
  
  21
  Cave of Iron
  Frog God 
  Games
  Quests of Doom 4
  Quests of Doom 4
  ISBN 978-1-62283-456-3
  Cave of Iron is an adventure intended for characters of 1st to 3rd level. 
  The tow of Hillfort has a thriving copper and iron mining business known as  
  the Hardshale Mine. The monthly wagon train from the mine is three weeks  
  overdue and riders sent to investigate are now four days overdue.
  Now the mayor of Hillfort is looking for some capable adventurers  
  to investigate her problems.
  Cave of Iron
  Cave of Iron
  QoD4i
  QoD4i
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Swords & Wizardry/SW Adventures & Settings/Quests of Doom (SW)/Quests of Doom 4 (SW)/QoD4 Cave of Iron (SW).pdf