Introduction

Where the Great River meets the western sea, there exists a vast delta. Its verdant jungle covered banks have long formed a homeland for numerous lizard men tribes, who when their numbers swell periodically, sweep like a torrent into the surrounding lands, bringing with them a tidal wave of death and destruction.

Legend has it that in the centre of the delta is a megalithic city, constructed by a long vanished race in the mists of times dawn. The ruins are partially submerged in the soft sediments of the delta. Around its periphery the lizard men build the rude huts of their settlements. For they venerate the ruins as a city of the gods, only going into it to celebrate certain unholy rituals.

Word has recently come that the lizard men are to crown a new king. In the past these coronations have inevitably precipitated devastating invasions into human-held lands as new lizard kings attempted to demonstrate their virility in an orgy of bloodshed and destruction. One such rampage is expected soon. In an effort to try diffuse the expected invasion, your party has been approached to lead an intelligence gathering mission into the heart of the city.

The Story

Somewhat over one hundred thousand years ago, the delta of the Great River was one of the last surviving outposts of the Lemurian empire, a prehistoric empire of serpent men which at its height encompassed much of the globe. But already they were a declining race. With each passing generation their numbers became smaller and smaller as ice ages and volcanic cataclysms took their toll. Piece by piece their shining empire crumbled until at last only the city of the Great Delta remained. Man had yet to emerge from the dark holes of his caves to challenge their hegemony. Only the elves were sufficiently advanced to challenge them, but they had little interest in the events beyond the borders of their forest homes, so the Lemurians prospered in their city, creating a centre of great learning and culture.

The end for the Lemurians, when it came, came swiftly and without warning. One day the river on which the city stood was sucked out in a swirling rush until all that remained was a few pools. In wonderment the Lemurians came down the riverside to marvel, just as the tsunami that had drawn the river water out, came roaring up its channel. The Lemurian race perished that day, all save one, Ssekaa, a great magician of his kind who magic jarred his soul into a marble plinth instants before his mortal body was crushed by the massive force of the wave.

Within the stone his soul would remain trapped for the next 5000 years until the first primitive lizard men drawn by curiosity came to explore the ruins. Ssekaa driven mad by his solitary confinement over the millennia and sensing the opportunity for escape, possessed their chief. But in his madness and desperation he caused the chief’s body to have a fit, and then fall into a coma. When he finally awakened, it was to find that the superstitious lizard folk were worshipping him as a god. Taking full advantage of the situation, he ruled them as their god-chief until at last his borrowed body began to crumble with age. So began a vampiric process of swapping from one body to the next as the generations rolled past. But with the passage of time he was not idle, he began a process of breeding the lizard men chieftains larger and more powerful until they emerged as a separate race altogether, the lizard man kings.

As the strength of the lizard man tribes expanded under his control, he sought to recover the city and the empire of his people and through his magical powers to revive his race. His ambitions to restore the Lemurian empire were thwarted however when he led the lizard folk from the delta. Only to discover that the sacred homeland of the Lemurian people had been occupied by the brutish, thuggish thralls who had once served the Lemurians during their golden age. But now the servant had become the master. Ssekaa and his followers were crushed and driven back into the swamps of the delta. Defeated by the descendents of the humans who had once slaved beneath the Lemurians in fear and trembling.

The Delta

The river delta forms a bird’s foot outline, the sediment laden rivers reaching deep out to sea. The flora is verdant, the slower moving tributaries choked in vegetation. Wildlife is abundant, but although strange beasts lurk in the darkened woods, it is the lizard people who rule the delta uncontested.

Physically the delta forms a wedge approximately 250 km north to south at its greatest extent, and about 200 km west from the ocean to where the Great River enters from the Ostrom valley in the east. Sea approaches to the delta are difficult due to the force of the current.

The delta is in the convergence zone for weather systems from both the north and the tropical south. The fauna reflects this mixing, consisting of cold weather species such as bear, wolves and the like, particularly in the north and east, while the seaward side and the south have species more typical of the topics.

The City

Deep in the heart of the delta the air is hot, steamy and foetid with the cloying stench of decaying vegetation. The sun blazes down from a slightly misty blue sky dotted with towering thunderheads, and the raucous cacophony of bird calls bursts forth shatteringly from the jungle canopy. Reaching the edge of the jungle, the party will encounter a wide plain of chest high grass. In the centre of the plain rises the megalithic ruin of the legendary city. Surrounding it and partially obscuring the ruins is a sea of thatched huts.

Even from the edge of the jungle, the movements of thousands of lizard men moving around the encampment will be plainly visible. Clearly hacking a path through to the ruins will be impossible.

The Coronation

This event will probably take place about two days after the party's arrival. About sundown, columns of lizard men will enter the city bearing smoky torches and gathering around the arena. They will be excited and happy.

Shortly after sundown, as darkness creeps over the city, the lizard king appears to a massive ululation which lasts for many minutes as he struts back and forth across the summit of the royal ziggurat. When the ululation finally fades, torches are borne out to the centre of the deserted arena below and there follows a series of gladiatorial combats. Lizard Kings locked in combat with fearsome babblers and with each other; every contest is to the death. The noise as each defeated loser is torn limb from limb, deafening. The bouts continue until midnight, when the contestants are whittled down to a single challenger.

At this point, the reigning lizard king will descend to the floor of the arena as 10,000 lizard men warriors raise a deafening cacophony that nearly overwhelms the senses. The two will square off in mortal combat, the victor ripping the still beating heart from the loser's chest and devouring the bloody morsel to the ecstatic delight of the onlooking crowd.

The Arena

Seats formed from vast monolithic blocks surround a fighting arena of dirty red brown sand. The walls surrounding the fighting pit at 12’ vertically. Two portcullis barred gates at either end of the arena give entrance.

The Catacombs

A smooth ramp, worn smooth by time descends steeply beneath the megalithic blocks of the temple. Slimy water weeps from cracks between the blocks. The temperature will be cool and dank whatever time of day.

The Entry Gallery

Once past the first corner, the darkness is absolute. The walls are decorated with a repeated of motif of a hooded eye. The eyes seem to track the party's progress. The characters will be unable to shake the sensation that something is stalking them from the cover of the encircling darkness.

Halfway along the corridor all non magical light will fail (heat from torches will reveal that they are still burning). Dispel magic or continual light can be used to nullify this zone of continual darkness.

The zone of darkness stretches for 50', the last 20' of which has been used to conceal a pit trap of equal depth. Razor tipped stakes line the floor of the pit. Anyone falling into the pit has a 50% chance of being impaled for 3-18 hp damage in addition to 2-12 hp falling damage.

Amongst the stakes are countless bones, and the rotting corpses of many lizard men.

The Pillared Chamber

After some several dozen feet, the passage opens up into a wide, many pillared chamber. The chamber appears empty, but the sensation of something watching their every move will persist. A vacant archway in the far wall is the only exit.

The whole chamber reeks of a fetid musky odour (druids and rangers may roll a d20 roll against intelligence to associate the smell with snakes and lizards). Littered about the chamber are trails of waist high excreta, most dry, some still stinking. Crushed bones, many of them obviously human are visible in the mounds.

If the party advances more than half way across the chamber, a deep growl resonates throughout as a vast serpent uncoils itself from a pillar near far wall.

Tslaagaa the serpent is a gigantic snake of nearly 80' in length, the thickness of his vast body equal to the height of a huge bullock. Yet despite his enormous size Tslaagaa will move with deceptive speed, blocking off the exit.

Tslaagaa AC 5 HD 10 HP 65 Att 2 1-6/3-18 SA Constriction

The Giant Snake Head

The tunnel from Pillared chamber extends another several hundred feet to a circular room. Dominating the centre of the room is a statue of a vast snakes head, jaws gaping, a forked tongue frozen between yard long fangs. The whole effect is intimidating, the head seems to emanate a reptilian coldness . Exit tunnels lead off to the left and right. A detect magic on the statue will reveal a magical aura.

The Library

The tunnel leading to the library climbs steeply up a seemingly endless flights of steps. Streamers of light filtering in from the ceiling overhead (if daytime) may alert the party to the fact that they are close to the surface once more. The tunnel ends in a sprawling chamber, every wall of which is pierced by dark niches. The centre of the room is filled with stone tables. Piles of scrolls and ancient yellow books cascade from every niche and table. If examined the characters may realise with a shudder of disgust, that the scrolls are made from tanned human skin.

The scrolls are covered with a cursive hieroglyphic script unlike any living language. A comprehend languages spell will fail to decipher the script as it is coded. The scrolls if returned to civilisation will prove of immense interest to scholars and sages (who will pay handsomely for them).

Hidden in an obscure alcove of the library are stacked the scrolls of the Codex Ophidious which records a mystical chronicle of the past 100,000 years of the earth's history. The chronicle begins with the fall of Lemuria and extends to the present day. Sages will pay upwards of 50,000 golden crowns for this collection alone.

There are no exits from the library, but if a gaseous cloud spell or similar is used, it will be found the library occupies the top tier of the one of the pyramids overlooking the arena.

or

There are no visible exits from the library. Should a gaseous cloud spell or similar be used, however, the gas will float to minute air gaps near the floor, indicating that the library occupies the top tier of the one of the pyramids overlooking the arena

The Laboratory

Flights of steps lead lead ever downwards, the temperature noticeably cooling. The chamber that the tunnel eventually terminates in is long and high. Alcoves filled with wide, head high urns line both of the long walls. Piercing the sealed tops of the urns will reveal coiled and preserved flesh within, the characters initial impressions might be that of a giant snake or eel. Should any of the urns be broken, the preserved body of a giant snake with some humanoid characteristics might slide greasily from the wreckage. The bodies appear to be dead, and detect evil will reveal nothing. Lining the centre of the room are vats of various liquids, some identifiable, some not.

Store Rooms

Adjacent to the laboratory, are a number of store rooms.

Store Room 1: filled with a variety of different barrels.

Store Room 2: seems to be filled with a weird and eclectic mix of rubbish ranging from bird feathers through to tawdry knick knacks to priceless gem stones discarded in the dust. A full search of the room will reveal precious stones, diamonds and pearls with a market value of approximately 50,000 royal (gold) sovereigns.

The Throne Room

From the store room, a narrow passage runs to the throne room, entering the throne room from behind the vast dias with its flaring throne carved from the shell of a single giant oyster

A Coven of Serpents

In the darkness of a recessed balcony high above the floor of the throne room are 12 yuan ti. The yuan ti will attack any intruders while they are still on the floor of the throne room, deluging them with a bombardment of spells. If captured the yuan-ti will prove to be of little worth for they know next to nothing about the lizard king. Still they will provide the following facets of information in exchange for their lives/freedom.

· they suspect that the lizard king is more than what he proclaims himself to be, but they have no idea what he really is

· they are aware of the uncanny likeness to the between themselves and the preserved bodies in the urns in the laboratory

· they are aware of the hieroglyphic scripts in the library, but so far have not been able to interpret them despite certain peculiar similarities to their own language

· they serve the lizard king and his successors for a 20 year period before rotating with others of their kind, and returning to their homeland in the far south

· they are forbidden on pain of death to reveal themselves to the lizardman people

The Yuan-ti room

Sumptuously decorated with statuettes, silk cushions, and expensive tapestries woven by inhuman hands.

Wandering Monster Table – Delta, Daytime

0-05% Wild Cattle. Smallish herds (1-20 beasts) graze the delta grasslands. Relentlessly hunted by the lizardmen, the bulls are extremely bellicose will attack any intruders fiercely, while the young and females retreat.

06-10% Water Buffalo. These fearsome brutes will react as per the cattle. They live in smaller family groups of 1-12 animals.

11-20% Poisonous viper (number appearing 1). These small serpents suspend themselves from the low hanging branches of tree's. They are non aggressive providing no one blunders within striking distance, in which case they will coil and strike faster that the eye can see, and with deadly accuracy. Any one bitten must save vs poison or die from haemorrhagic shock in 6-24 hours. They are AC 8 (small size) Hp 1-2 Att 1 (1 hp + poison).

21-25% Giant Boar. These irascible creatures are respected even by the lizard men. Typically they will be rooting through the undergrowth for food. But if foolishly approached to closely, they will charge with surprising speed and fight to death.

26-50% Lizard man raiding party

51-55% Cocodiles

56-60% Brown Bear

61-70% Giant Constrictor Snake

71-75% Giant Otter

76-80% Giant Slug

81-85% Constrictor snake

86-90% Giant Dragonflies

91-95% Swamp deer

96-97% Translucent Giant Frog

98% Renegade human traders

99% Green Dragon

100% Voodoo priest accompanied by zombies. The priest will not reveal his mission, even under duress (even torture). Should magic be used to coerce the information out of him (even a speak with dead spell) it will be found that his mission is concealed by a higher power. All that can be gained is that he was seeking an ancient evil in the heart of the delta.

100% Other

Giant Frog, Translucent

Hisstassak

Ssaa-lath-thah

Eradoth

Morpeth