MAZE OF STONE

Hook: As you reach the end of the dark gray granite stone stairs leading down into the earth from Rŵnos's tomb, you are greeted by a strange and frigid sight. A large hole surrounded by a ridge of hard blue-white ice and a few stray, connected icy stalagmites, occupies the majority of the chamber. Your torchlight reveals the lip of the hole. No sound emanates from it, but, as your shock wears off, you realise you are freezing...

Details: This maze is located deep under the earth, many hundreds of feet down cut, dull granite stairs. They are cool and grow colder, as does the air, the deeper one goes, until, eventually, the ice tunnel chamber is reached. It's temperature is below freezing. Ice reaches up from the floor around the ice hole's lip, and dangles from the ceiling directly above it. This is the entry to the maze, below. There is a long corridor to the left and right that circles the entirety of the upper area. The minotaur wakes as soon as the characters enter the ice chute chamber. The chute is almost vertical for 100 feet (before levelling off), but, can be scaled, even without rope, with effort. The minotaur will follow characters down into the hole. Aside from the four challenges described below, a giant crawfish is located inside a tunnel leading to a watery cave where it lairs. It wanders out just enough to wait inside the shadowy entrance to its home to ambush imps and cultists for quick meals. All of the evils located,  here, were threats that Rŵnos overcame in his time and bound to this place to keep it from running rampant in the world above. The wizard is a version of himself from his younger days. A reflection of a time past. A simulacrum. The magical beings are fabrications, magical renderings of elemental things the wizard has seen.

CHALLENGES - This maze has four tests for the primary archetypes usually seen on adventures. Wizard, thief, warrior, and priest. Each test is unique and a key is awarded those who best them. There is an ecology to this dungeon maze. Once all challenges have been met, there is a key awarded to the characters for each test. Each 'key' is in the possession of whomever is last to deal with the characters, in the last correct chest, etc., hanging from a leather cord. The four keys are needed to unlock the rune chamber doors.

1. Warrior's Test - A winter dragon, a young one, rules a group of goblin-like monsters, called imps. They are short and aggrandising cowards who patrol the halls to protect their master and their territory from outside threats. The dragon rules from the ice cave.

• Ice Jarl's Tomb - The ruins of an old ice giant's tomb are where the imps lair. The massive, long dead jarl, mummified by ice, sits in all his grandeur upon a decoratively-carved throne. The imps patrol somewhat all over the maze, but, they tend to stick close to home and leave the jarl's frozen wealth alone, fearful they might wake the thing. The dragon considers him part of her hoard, and enjoys how strong and powerful the old warrior looks in his regalia. She can't bring herself to remove the jewellry or grave goods now caked in ice and frost. There is a larger imp who controls the lot. He will provide more of a challenge for players' characters.
• Ice Cave - The lair of the winter dragon. She is crafty and cruel and will not be easy to defeat. She will use the rooms to her advantage, but, will try to lure people into her chamber where she has the advantage.

2. Wizard's Test - The wizard's area contains a wizard so busy with his own experiments he cannot be bothered with anyone. The outer area of his home has been breached by a collapse and is now exposed to the conditions of the cavern beyond it.

• Wizard's Chambers - The wizard is so busy he barely even cares his outer lab has been compromised. He wants things, though... ingredients, and will ask characters to retrieve them for him, even from other parts of the maze. He says he will call off the water elemental in the pool and give them the key the thing guards, if they want it so badly. They must complete a few tasks, first, however...
• Mushroom Cavern - A magical and tricky place to visit, the inhabitants are wild fairy creatures and mushroom men. A garden of giant mushrooms dominates one side of the chamber, and the gardener, a kobold, lives inside one of the largest mushrooms. His house is quaint, but, he doesn't brook fools and will only help the characters, if they do something for him. The magic of this chamber's inhabitants is tricky and powerful. Characters running afoul of it may find themselves cursed, or worse. The imps have stolen something, and the kobold demands whatever was stolen be returned. If the players dealt with the imps, they may have this item already in their possession. The kobold has what the wizard needs. Additionally, the kobold says there is a bat monster that he has to fend off, now and again, in the upper cave, and he wants it killed so he can work in peace.

3. Priest's Test - The priest's test concerns the dead and a group of cultists. The cultists are slavers. The dead are a powerful thane buried with his grave goods in the catacombs to the north of the temple shrine.

• Temple Shrine - The cultists wander the halls looking for converts and slaves. Their leader is a wild and zealous individual who will stop at nothing to summon the god he serves. He loves sacrificing individuals to him. The priests wander the halls fairly far, but, can't seem to get at the wizard, so settle with the imps. The cultists live in the bunks in a dormitory, of sorts, just outside the temple. It's a living quarters and armoury with tables, chairs, a fireplace, and stores of food in crates and barrels, and chests with the cultists' belongings in them. Only the high priest casts spells. The rest wield swords and wear armour and robes and do the priest's bidding.
• Thane's Catacombs - The maze tunnels north of the temple belong to the undead of savage Northmen. The thane sleeps most of the time, but, even he enjoys wandering the lair with his old companions. They hate the living, even the dragon and the imps, and will fight and kill any they meet. The halls of the catacombs are lined with shallow, human-sized crevices in two rows, one on top of the other, two to a ten foot square.

4. Thief's Test - The thief's test is a series of traps and rooms that require clever thinking, quick wits, and dexterity.

• Traps - The various traps can either be disarmed or jammed, or bypassed by clever thinking, in order to get into various chests beyond them, or, in the case of the right-most pit-trap, inside it.
• Sand or Water Room - Water or sand begins to fill the room, as soon as the characters enter it. The players only have so long to solve the puzzle before the room is filled. The door locks until the puzzle trap has been solved.
• Pit Chamber - The pit chamber contains a riddle or written guide, and a series of long, narrow wooden poles that disappear down into darkness. There is a certain way to leap across the pit, pole-to-pole. Landing on the wrong support causes the pole to fall away, affording the character just one chance to leap to a new one, before tumbling into nothing. Two chests await the one to make it to the other side of the chamber. One is a trapped chest, one is not.

5. Earth Rune Chamber - This room is guarded by an earth elemental standing on the plinth overlooking the stairs. As soon as characters reach the top of the steps, the creature descends. It is a 10' alabaster statue of a knight in armour, armed with a sword and shield. It will try to stop the characters from taking the rune stone. It will not leave this chamber.