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THE HIVE'S MURALS Here is a description of the giant stone murals The PCs can see the murals. Can they make found in Room 1, the central sphere, in the aste- sense of them? roid complex known as the Hive. This material The murals' style: These are artworks of an relates to the description of Room 1 given in alien species. Try to convey the alien quality in Chapter 4 of this adventure. Read the adventure the descriptions of these murals. Works from for- to that point before consulting this description. eign human cultures can serve as examples. For instance, when describing the murals, consider showing the players Mayan hieroglyphics or rongo-rongo script from Easter Island. A good VIEWING THE MURALS Sample encyclopedifile a offers many such "alien" works. To view a stone panel that is up to one mile tall There are some features of the Sazaur mural and one-half mile wide, the PCs must move to a style that are standard regardless of the ap- distant vantage point: at least the center of the proach taken: chamber, and probably at the far side. If the PCs 1. All the murals are carved in very high relief. are afoot, they can view a mural only from the op- From close up, the murals look like ranges of posite area of the chamber. hills cut with odd channels and box canyons. This becomes important in two circumstances. 2. All the figures depicted look odd to human First, the PCs' previous adventures may have left eyes, as though the artists tried to show not just potential adversaries in some part of the central the front of each figure, but part of the back as chamber, perhaps enemies who have followed well. A beholder perceives more than the con- them out of the smaller rooms. Or the DM may ventional 180-degree view of an object facing it; wish to introduce a random encounter in the cen- with its wide-set eyestalks, it sees perhaps 190 or tral sphere. The quest to view a particular panel 200 degrees of nearby objects. For humanoids, it may draw the PCs within range of this enemy. would be like viewing an object from one posi- Second, the gigantic minor globe crystal floats tion, shifting over five feet to a new perspective, in the passage between this chamber and Room and then combining them into one view. 12. The crystal's area of effect does not reach far 3. The Sazaur beholders used 11 arbitrary sym- into the central sphere. But if the PCs want to bols to represent the different powers of their eyes, view the murals on the far end of the sphere from in the same way we use symbols for natural phe- that passage, they must sail or travel within nomena (for example, lightning is often depicted range of the crystal's magic-neutralizing area. Its as a jagged line). Each symbol starts at a beholder's ill effects on a spelljamming ship are described eye and leads to a target (usually another beholder; elsewhere in this module. see below for descriptions of the murals). IL by Allen Varney TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 2 Room 11: Dead Air 42 Chapter 1: Ladder to the Sky 4 Room 12: Ritual Gone Wrong 45 Chapter 2: Spacefarers 9 Chapter 5: The Behemoth Awakens 47 Chapter 3: Rendezvous With Ravager 13 Chapter 6: Mice Against a Mountain 51 Chapter 4: The Biggest Dungeon 18 Room 1: The Central Chamber 20 Appendix Room 2: A Charmed Life 21 Non-Player Characters 58 Room 3: Of All Wild Beasts 24 New Spelljamming Ships 60 Room 4: Pleasant Dreams 26 New Magic 60 Room 5: Ricochets 28 New Monster: Beholder Mage 62 Room 6: The Grind Canyon 30 New Monster: Sentinel 63 Room 7: Emptier Than Empty 33 New Monster: Silver Slime 64 Room 8: Village of the Dammed 34 Room 9: Shell Game 37 Room 1 Mural Descriptions inside covers Room 10: The Gnarled, Bad Caverns 40 Monster Summary Table outside gatefold SampleCREDIT fileS Design: Allen Varney Editing: Anne Brown Cover Art: Brom Interior Art: John Statema Cartography: Diesel Graphic Design: Stephanie Tabat Typography: Gaye O'Keefe, Angelika Lokotz Keylining: Stephanie Tabat, Roy Parker Special Thanks: Aaron Allston, Stephen Beeman, Mike NystuI, Warren Spector, and Rick Swan @ 1990 TSR, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printed in U.S.A. ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, AD&D, SPELLJAMMER, PRODUCTS OF YOUR IMAGINATION, and the TSR logo are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. Distributed to the book trade in the United States by Random House, Inc., and in Canada by Random House of Canada, Ltd. Distributed to the toy and hobby trade by regional distributors. Distributed in the United Kingdom by TSR Ltd. This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of TSR, Inc. TSR, Inc. TSR Ltd. POB 756 120 Church End, Cherry Hinton Lake Geneva, Cambridge CB1 3LB WI 53147 GSA United Kingdom TSR, Inc. 9273 PRODUCTS OF YOUR IMAGINATION™ ISBN 0-88038-819-6 "While far into the vast unknown ship and a base of operations. They the DM will be ready for anything the the strong wing'd Eagles bend/ may choose to remain in space for fur- players might do. Their venturous flight in Human ther adventures. Staging Advice: From time to time, forms distinct; thro' darkness the adventure offers notes on how to deep/ About 2nd Edition AD&D stage a scene; that is, how to pace it, They bear the woven draperies; on create an appropriate mood, and pro- golden hooks they hang abroad/ game rules duce certain dramatic effects. The DM The universal curtains & spread This adventure is written using the can use this advice to create a vivid, out from Sun to Sun/ terminology and rules of the 2nd Edi- memorable adventure for the players. The vehicles of light. ." tion AD&D game. Those who use the original game materials can still play it —William Blake, The Four Zoas easily. STORY BACKGROUND "Vala: Night the Second," This adventure centers on the space- lines 150-154(1797) Some noticeable differences are name changes. The term "magic-user" borne race of beholders. Many sub- has been replaced by "wizard" or species of beholders exist, all with the "mage." The "cleric" character class is same monstrous features and powers, DM NOTES now the "priest" class, though mem- but varying in skin color and texture, bers of that class are often still called configuration of eyes, and so on. The It's waiting out there. To those below, clerics. assumption is that beholders in differ- trapped in the ring of the horizon, it Monsters are presented in a new for- ent environments evolve through very promises only vast black emptiness. rapid genetic deviation and drift. But it waits, and in time they arrive. mat. The monster descriptions in this As described in the SPELLJAMMER The brave and foolhardy, the lucky and adventure's appendix use the format of boxed set, these differences produce unfortunate, all these visitors discover the Monstrous Compendium series. deep racism among beholders. Gener- its secret. The information has been expanded and reorganized, but nothing from the ally, beholders hold few ideals higher The void is not empty. Life teems in original Monster Manual format is than destroying each other. The sub- its reaches; armadas navigate its omitted. The pages of new monsters species organize into "nations" that depths. Million-mile vistas of eerie can be photocopied and inserted in the wage cold war on one another. beauty lie unseen by human eyes. Trea- Monstrous Compendium binder. Most beholder nations number only sures that dwarf worlds hide in distant 20 to 40 individuals, the complement gulfs. Only the strongest and bravest Ability checks: Occasionally, this of one or two Tyrant Ships. But about can traverse the immense distances adventure calls for PCs to make an 1,200 years ago, in a distant crystal that guard these treasures. For the ability check. Roll ld20 and compare sphere far across the phlogiston, differ- strong and the brave . Wildspace the result with the character's appro- ent natural laws allowed the beholder waits. priate abilitSampley (Strength, Dexterityfile , etc.). If the roll is equal to or less than the nations there to grow to enormous ability score, the action succeeds. If size, over ten thousand strong. These About This Module the roll is greater than the ability score, nations were more racist than any Wildspace is the first AD&D® game the action fails. other nation. adventure for the SPELLJAMMER™ campaign setting. The SPELL- Adventure Layout The Sazaur JAMMER boxed campaign set is nec- One such nation, the Sazaur, made essary to play. This adventure is presented in chap- great headway in its wars. Led by a This adventure is designed to fit any ters. Each chapter includes events which happen regardless of the PCs' lo- Hive Mother (or Queen) of astounding existing ground-based campaign, power, the Sazaur virtually extermi- launching the player characters (PCs) cations and actions. Some chapters also include encounters keyed to a nated other beholder nations from into the vast realms beyond their their sphere. However, when the Queen world. A DM can also use it to start a given location or action. Only if the PCs enter that location or perform that died in battle, the Sazaur nation's for- new space campaign. The adventure tunes went into eclipse. works best for four to six characters of action does the encounter takes place.

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