The Angwat call it Luputac. Humans outside of the jungle call it Thracia (Mahukia also knows this name). Both call it the lost city. It is covered by a warm mist coming off the swamps most of the morning. If you’ve been aching to use some of your old-school adventures, this is the perfect place to put The Caverns of Thracia. It looks like the caverns would be a good adventure for 2nd to 7th level characters. The ancient, abandoned city it lies beneath needs to be near both humans and saurians, so somewhere in the north or east of the jungle.
But the adventure itself can be used virtually unchanged. The ancient script is cuneiform; the trappings are Sumerian. Replace mentions of Athena with Ishtar or Astarte. Zeus becomes Dupater. The god of death (Thanatos) is Tawhiri or Enki, the lord of the abyss. His incarnation will appear draped in seaweed. Those whose souls it snatches will have inexplicably drowned. Apollo becomes Sin, the healer, whose symbol is the moon. The lizard-men become saurians, the gnolls and dog-brothers become mananubi, the servants of Tifá, in other cultures known as the children of Set. The minotaurs remain minotaurs. You’ll probably want to assume that these are degenerate forms of those species, and use the hit dice, powers, and hit points in the adventure. The mananubi, for example, won’t have their paralysis wail (except for those listed as having magical ability, who will have the wail instead of the listed spells).
The Red Dragon Sword in the Immortal Lizard King’s lair is one against Water Dragons.
There is a tablet of Enki hidden in the Lost City, in the Lizard King’s lair: Aate’s tablet of music. A clue can be found in Apuiporo, if they make a simple Learning roll while spending a day researching in the library books.
Aate stole the tablets of life from Aatu, who hoarded the secrets that causa would not live. The secrets of language and the secret of gardening were returned by Aate to the Temple. But the third secret, the final secret of Aatu, waits in the court of the lizard king, beyond the ebon demon, beyond the shrine of the moon, past the temples of the dead, in a city lost, ancient beyond imagining. Look you beyond, and beware, the hidden crossroads and the guardians of the lizard king’s rest.
If this information is gleaned by way of Divine Guidance, rewrite it for the prophet’s religion. For example, a prophet of Ishtar will be told:
Ishtar stole the tablets of life from Enki, who hoarded the secrets that man would die. The secrets of language and the secret of gardening were stolen from the city, and hidden in the passage of fire. But a third secret, the tablet of music and the arts, waits in the court of the lizard king, beyond the ebon demon, beyond the shrine of the moon, past the temples of the dead, in a city lost, ancient beyond imagining. Look you beyond, and beware, the hidden crossroads and the guardians of the lizard king’s rest.
The Court of the Lizard King refers to room 53E in the caverns of Thracia. The Ebon Demon refers to room 53. The shrine of the moon refers to room 44, and the temples of the dead refer to rooms 9 and 27A/B. The hidden crossroads is room 53A with its four doors to other planes, and the guardians of the lizard king’s rest are the undead in room 53D. Whoever wrote the instructions assumed a path of 1, 9A, 6, 8, 42, 43, 44, 53, 53A, 53B, 53C, 53D, 53E. There are other ways of getting there, of course, such as the stairs in room 37, but these should be confusing enough for the players.
Players are usually perfectly able to confuse instructions like this on their own, but if you really want to throw a wrench in their plans, there’s a one-way connection somewhere in the temple to the teleportation pad in “room” 54 on level 3 of Thracia’s underground world. If they choose to re-use the teleportation pad, they’ll end up very close to where they want to be—but probably won’t recognize it. If they don’t use the teleportation pad, they’ll need to make their way upwards through the ruins of the lost city.
The lizard king is a 12th level highly intelligent undead with special magic; he’s not going to be an easy kill and will be nearly impossible for lower-level characters to handle.
The saurians know that there are lizard-men living in the lost city, but they won’t mention it. They are an embarrassment, a degenerate race. When asked who lives in the lost city, the answer will be “degenerates”. “Degenerate sons of men and the servants of Aatu.”
The lost city is like the lost city of the Land of the Lost. The myths of the garden underneath the city resemble the myths of Eden and other pre-civilization utopias. And indeed, the Lost City is the land of inspiration and art, because of the tablet that resides there.
The dragons’ tail
The temples of the ancient world were all connected in a web of portals, and there is a passage from Apuiporo to the Lost City. The shrine in Luputac is the grove of the two moons, Kuanuro, on level 3. If someone follows the dragon’s tail and makes a perception roll, they will find a winding stairway that circles to the top of the tower. About eighty feet up, the stairs end at a great metal plate inset into the wall, still a dull sheen on it, like a silvery lead. Tapping on the door produces a pleasing tone that slowly fades away. If looked at by someone who can see divine power, a riddle on the plate says:
Only a glutton may pass this way: who would eat rapaciously, never satisfied, yet refuses any offer of drink, for drinking will sicken them unto death.
Without answering the riddle, there is nothing behind the door but stone. It’s not even really a door. The riddle (but not the answer) is also in the library; researching it is a learning roll at a penalty of 2, and will take one day to perform.
The answer to the riddle is fire. “Fan of flame” or a strong normal fire will cause the metal to melt upwards temporarily. Beyond the metal are more stairs, leading far higher than the tower itself, until it opens onto stairs that hang sixty feet over the canopy, ending in a marble platform, 20 feet wide, hanging a hundred feet above the canopy; looking backwards, the tower is a natural stone spire poking jaggedly above the trees. At this point, they truly are above the jungle: if they fall, they fall for a hundred feet onto the canopy, and potentially another 200 feet below the canopy. When they first arrive, and every five minutes afterwards, there is a 20% chance of an encounter:
| 01-50 | Butterflies, giant (1d100) | 50% |
| 51-75 | Archaeopteryx (1d20) | 25% |
| 76-95 | Pterodactyl (1d4) | 20% |
| 96-00 | Buzzflies (2d20) | 5% |
There is a shattered obelisk on the platform, once marked with the sign of the road. If anyone stands on the platform for more than one minute, they will disappear, and reappear on another marble platform in a grove: if using Thracia, it opens on the teleport pad at area 54. There is a control panel (obelisk) next to the pad, but the top is smashed; now-worthless crystal pebbles lie scattered around it.
Because the teleport pad’s controls are broken, anyone who steps onto the marble cannot return. If everyone steps off of the marble and then step back onto it, they will be teleported to the ruined temple of Sin (Apollo in the original, room 44) as normal. Remember that area 54 is normally guarded by mananubi. Check to see if the guards are surprised by an attack from the pad, and they’ll probably think the characters came from area 45; and (if they survive) will mention to the minotaur guard in the temple that they might want to send someone to the other side to make sure the other side remains guarded.
The lost city: Encounters
In the ruins of the lost city and nearby the ruins, encounters will be a mix of Forest and Lost City. Within the ruins, the chance of an encounter is 50% every hour.
| 01-40 | Guardian of the city | 40% |
| 41-65 | Forest encounter | 25% |
| 66-90 | Lost City encounter | 25% |
| 91-00 | Hive encounter | 10% |
If the guardian is killed or chased away, encounters remain at 50% every hour: denizens of the forest and the lost city will be free to roam the ruins again. Use the table for within a mile of the lost city.
Outside of the Lost City, but within one mile of it, the chance of an encounter is 20% every hour.
| 01-50 | Forest encounter | 50% |
| 51-90 | Lost City encounter | 40% |
| 91-00 | Hive encounter | 10% |
Outside of the Lost City, but within ten miles of it, the chance of encounter is as normal for the forest, but some encounters may be with Lost City denizens:
| 01-75 | Forest encounter | 75% |
| 76-95 | Lost City encounter | 20% |
| 96-00 | Hive encounter | 5% |
If you use The Caverns of Thracia for the Lost City, Lost City encounters use the level 1 encounter chart from Thracia (this includes a small chance of Level 2 or Palace encounters).
Guardian of the city
A very territorial tyrannosaur has taken up residence within the lost city, and considers the entire area its domain.
Tyrannosaur: Animal; Level 15+3; Survival: 94; Defense: 6; Intelligence: animal; Charisma: animal; Movement: 24; Attacks: jaws/claws; Damage: 3d10/d12; Size: huge (49 feet).
The tyrannosaur’s sense of smell gives it a bonus of 4 on perception rolls, and opponents a penalty of 4 on sneaking. On a called shot with its claws, the tyrannosaur will grab a victim into its mouth, doing 2d12 damage each round thereafter. (Victims are allowed an Evasion roll to avoid capture.)
Other adventures
If you’re going to run Lamentations of the Flame Princess’s Hammers of the God in the Æthiopian mountains, this is a good place to put the map to the entrance. The lost city is as old as the old miner’s ancient temple, and few of the denizens would have any desire to travel where the map leads.
