The Library of the Ancients – A 3d Dungeon Tiles Map

As I wrote about a few days ago, I plan on running the last major encounter of the heroic tier in my home campaign with a bit of 3d thrown in for good measure.  Here now is the map of the Library of the Ancients in the City of Rahesh, based on the article in Dragon Magazine Issue 372, titled “Secrets of the City Entombed” by Matt Sernett.

It is a fairly large map, with multiple areas for hiding behind bookshelves, and difficult terrain to slow movement.  Missing in the pictures is the entrance, a set of double doors at the bottom of the map.   The book shelves will be based off the “Ruined Wall” single use terrain from the DMG2, giving both the players and the monsters more chances to vary their attacks.  There will also be some “Defiled Ground” fantastic terrain as well, also from the DMG2.  The braziers will be usable also, flipped over with an athletics check to cause fire damage.

The 3d is fairly simple, it consists of a single balcony circling around half the peimeter of the room.  It is accessible through a spiral staircase behind the altar in the back of the room.  The staircase costs 4 squares of movement to climb up, and the balcony is about 4 squares high.  The 3d is really there to make the artillery enemies hard to get to, and provide them with a good area from where to attack the pc’s.   The encounter itself is a difficult one, n+3, a level 12 encounter for 7 pc’s, adding up to 4900 XP.  Here’s the list of enemies:

• Skull Lord (Level 10 Artillery Leader, Monster Manual)
• Zombie Hulk of Orcus (Level 8 Brute, DMG2)
• 10 Skeletal Hauler (Level 11 Minion, Open Grave)
• 2 Bone Archivist (Level 9 Artillery, Dungeon Magazine)
• Malicious Ghost (Level 13 Lurker. Open Grave)
• Book Storm Swarm (a flying stack of books, adapted from a similar monster in Dungeon Magazine)
• Deathgrasp Sarcophagus (Level 10 Obstacle, Dragon Magazine)

I don’t expect it to be an easy fight by any means, but hopefuly there won’t be too many casualties.   Expect a full write up after the session so I can comment a bit on the 3d aspects of the encounter.