Professor’s Workshop
Board

https://talestavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Shot1.png
https://talestavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Shot10.png
https://talestavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Shot9.png
https://talestavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Shot8.png
https://talestavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Shot7.png
https://talestavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Shot6.png
https://talestavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Shot4-1.png
https://talestavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Shot11.png
Author: DM Steve
Status: Work in progress
TaleSpire Version: EA - Chimera
Created On: November 11th, 2021
Last Updated: November 11th, 2021
Terrain: City

The halfling professor and his assistant worked out of this workshop, producing ‘new’ magics (really just mechanical inventions, seems like magic to most) and research for the local academy . The players, for one reason or another (whatever works for your campaign, burglary, hired help, selling magic items, etc) come to the workshop and stumble upon what appears to be a murder by cultists. The height indicator will hide/reveal each layer of the map as you go down. I’ve added markers to explain the puzzles best I can (EDIT: The markers/bookmarks are removed when uploading to this sadly….). This is my first map and I hope at least someone can have fun.

Puzzles-

First room with dead professor:

  • There is a lever next to the bed, this does nothing but trigger the crossbow behind the bookcases across the room.
  • The trapdoor below the pillow is locked. It is unlocked with the key on the professor- BUT the keyhole is hidden until the switch in the fireplace is flipped
  • The fireplace is a gas fire that only goes out once the 2 valves are shut off in the room. Once the fire is out the switch can be flipped, revealing the keyhole on the trapdoor

Second room/basement:

  • There is a false wall hidden behind the bookcases. Perception check to notice, Strength check to move the shelves. The rats will attack you when you start to move the shelves if you did not find them under the bed (perception check against the rats’ stealth rolls, or a flat DC check if you prefer)

Caverns:

  • Hidden chest above the staircase
  • Staircase has a false section pitfall trap the players need to make a reflex save or trapfinding skillcheck to find if they look for it
  • Cavern tunnel has webs, a spider will wait to attack until the players damage the webs or get caught in them
  • In the main chamber there are clone containers of the professor lining the walls, one coffin hides a hidden ladder
  • In the skeleton treasure pile there is a shrieker waiting for a greedy player…

Hidden Sewer:

  • The far wall with a statue in front of it bears a poem “One and nothing – they are the same, one exists, so does the other. One does not, neither does the other” – Break the matching crystals that match the ones next to the statue. The ones at the wall are invulnerable, once the matching crystals break so do these and the wall disappears (magic wall)
  • Crystal 1 is hidden in an open tunnel leading to a waterway with a skeleton halfway submerged- they will need to swim through, there is a cave in triggered by a switch in the small tunnel where there is a ladder leading to a grate they can get air through. The cave in can be cleared afterwards, the air grate will be a lifeline for oxygen. The crystal’s glow can be seen through the sewer grating on the main sewer level near the abandoned bedroll/campfire if the players are perceptive.
  • Crystal 2 is hidden behind a collapsed tunnel entrance that has a skeleton sticking out of it. Dislodging the sword will collapse the rubble and allow players to enter.
  • Once both crystals are gone, the wall disappears and the exit revealed (teleport pad leading to the actual workshop)

(you can ignore the next 2 paragraphs if you don’t want the backstory I had in mind when I made it)

Campaign background: The cult is interested in the professor because they want some of his research related to their ‘god’. As you delve into the workshop, survive traps, unlock puzzles, find clones in a tomb, and defeat spiders, rats, and cultists, you start to learn the professor is not who he appears to be. At the end you eventually find a teleport entrance to his ‘true’ workshop. The workshop is his own secret space below the academy only accessible through teleport pads he placed in various labs/locations across the kingdom- the professor has been around for quite a while and is the near immortal founder of the academy, who collectively believe he is just a descendant of the founder and avid researcher. He is looking into the cult that has infiltrated the academy he started with his best friend all those years ago. The professor is actually a character present in the folk lore of the region and is often referred to as a demi god representing infinity- in truth he can’t recall how long he has lived and can’t remember it all (or chooses not to tell anyone), he just remembers his friends who have passed. This academy is one of the last bits of his best friend in his entire existence he has left and he wants to save it if possible and will ask the players for help in finding more of the cult and promises to share some of his powers and resources if they do.

The cult worships the professor’s friend as a god- he took their research further than even the professor imagined. He found a way to split his consciousness beyond just mere cloning, becoming one with the very matter making up the mechanical artifacts and inventions the two of them created in their time as academy founders. He is able to project beyond these objects manifesting like a ghost, each piece having a separate but collective consciousness (separate perceptions, but shared memories once joined together again, wielded by the same user, or destroyed)- the cult found his artifacts and research and has been collecting pieces of the inventor and seek to find immortality themselves and corrupt the power they have found, corrupt his very soul against his will. The campaign will be an attempt to track down the cult, gather the artifacts they already have, find the ones they are still pursuing, and either save his soul from corruption and reunite him with his eternal friend the professor, or if the players fail to save him in time- to destroy the artifacts and lay the soul of the professor’s friend to rest and free him from corruption by doing so.

Leave a Comment