Note: the Shadows adventure was originally published by GDW. I have included some of the descriptive text, along with my version of floor plans for the Shadows complex. I have not included the full adventure. If you have any questions, please contact me.
General Note: I run this adventure by gradually revealing the complex to the players. For this reason, each room is drawn separately, ready to be placed on the table when the players peep inside. I have printed these drawings on a colour printer, glued them to Bristol board, and laminated each piece; the resulting pieces are strong enough to survive even teenage gamers (who have a distressing tendency to smear grease over everything).
Not complete yet. Will be uploaded with the power plant room plans.
The fault line in this map should be offset. I do this by cutting the paper at the fault line and shifting the bottom section a quarter of an inch or so to the right before glueing it to the cardstock backing.
This chamber, on the Interior Level, is the area entered from the shaft leadingdown from the statue atop of the pyramid. Its center is also a shaft leading down some 95 metres to the Deep Level. Essentially a simple walkway surrounding the shaft, this chamber is bare of any features, and does not even include fixtures on which to fasten cable or rope.
Throw 9+ for the door to be open. This chamber with a high level floor is reached by climbing a set of raised stair rungs and passing through a doorway onto a metal floor. The upper area is empty, except for some dirt and debris. For careful search, throw 5+: if successful, it will reveal that the dirt and debris are animal spoor, and that the area under the floor is emitting noises as if there were animals down there. If a character manages to get below the floor, a set of animal lairs will become apparent; consult the encounter tables.
Throw 9+ for the door to be open. This chamber with a high level floor is reached by climbing a set of raised stair rungs and passing through a doorway onto a metal floor. The upper area is filled with boxes made of pressed board, now all empty. Careful search (throw 8+; DM +2 if more than 4 people are searching) reveals that indeed none of the boxes are full; they appear to be natural organic products. Additional search below the floor (requires ten minutes) reveals that the entire lower area is filled with a pool of vapor.
Throw 9+ for the door to be open. This chamber has a low level floor, all of which is covered with soil; growing in the soil is a profusion of plants. Careful search (throw 6+; DM +1 for mechanical skill of any degree) requires actually getting down into the soil and moving it with the hands - it will reveal that the area is cultivated rather than wild or natural, although the time between visits appears to be on the order of years. The planst are actually fungi, and appear to be nearing a ripe or mature stage.
Throw 9+ for the door to be open. This chamber is similar to location 3, and should be administered like it. However, the area under the floor is only half filled with vapor.
Throw 9+ for the door to be open. This chamber is similar to location 4, and should be administered like it. If, however, a careful search is performed, those involved will be attacked by crawlers automatically. See animal encounters.
Throw 9+ for the door to be open. This chamber is similar to location 3, and should be administered like it. However, the upper area is empty (obvious to casual search), and the lower area is empty of vapor. Careful search of the lower area (throw 6+; DM +3 for electric torches or cold lights) reveals debris similar to the animal spoor in location 2.
Throw 9+ for the door to be open. This chamber is similar to location 4, but there is virtually no plant life present; what is there appears to be immature specimens.
This chamber is similar to location 1, with the following exceptions. First, there is no shaft leading upwards. Second, suspended from the ceiling is a thick knobby cable which descends into the depths of the shaft leading down. This cable appears taut, and is moving slightly, as if connected to a pendulum. A casual search will reveal nothing else. A careful search (throw 9+; DM + the number of persons searching) will reveal two things. First, that there is a small kicker at the pendulum connection; it occasionally supplies force to keep the pendulum swinging. Second, a concealed passage (location 13) becomes obviousl. An individual with navigation skill will note that the centre of this chamber is at the exact centre of the large pyramid.
The knobby cable may be a method of descending the shaft.
Large chambers have no doors. This large chamber is empty, and has a cross-section as shown on diagram 8 (missing from this page). The central sunken area is filled with vapor. Casual search will reveal nothing; careful search (throw 10+; DM +8 if anyone has infrared goggles) will show that the walls of teh chamber are painted in a strking mural visible only in infrared. It is possible to detect the mural (but not to view its contents) in visible light.
The mural shows a perception of the area around the pyramid complex, with a low range of mountains in the background. Most apparent, however, is the vast throng of reptilian creatures (about human size) crowding the complex. They appear intelligent and civilized, perhaps congregated for a religious or political purpose. Specific details of these beings are not especially obvious to the observer.
Large chambers have no doors. This chamber is similar to location 10, and should be administered like it. However, the mural in this chamber is a depiction of several reptilian creatures engaged in throwing snake-like small animals into the open shaft on the platform above the complex. Careful search (throw 9+; DM +3 if more than two people involved) will show that the fluid in the central depression in the chamber is populated with snakes like those shown in the mural. An individual approaching the depression may provoke the snakes to attack, even if they have not yet been discovered by search.
The fluid in the depression will vaporize if subjected to great heat; specifically, if an energy weapon is fired at teh pool, it will vaporize after three shots. It will immediately begin refilling from the drain pipe, but several skeletons (of crawlers, flyers, and the humanoid reptilians) will be visible at the bottom.
Large chambers have no doors. This chamber is similar to location 10, and should be administered like it. However, the mural in this chamber shows a large flock of flying creatures soaring and diving around the complex.
The floor of this chamber is flat, with no central depression. It is littered with snake skeletons. Large quantities of vapor are wafting from location 17, and cascades of vapor are drifting down from above. Careful search (throw 10+; DM + medical skill) will show that many of the skeletons are reasonably recent, but that the carcasses decay or degrade rapidly in the corrosive atmosphere. In addition, the carcasses are concentrated towards locations 16 and 18, very few are near 17.
Throw 9+ for the door to be open. This chamber is identical to location 2, and should be administered like it.
Large chambers have no doors. The entrance way to this chamber is highly charged; any individual moving through it and touching any surface will set off an electric charge which will inflict 4D hits on him or her. This effect can be avoided by leaping the distance (3 metres), or by crawling through the pipe vent overhead.
The interior of this chamber is quite cold; much of its interior is filled with vapor, obscuring vision. The central depression os filled with frozen gas, and forms a hard surface. However, more than three persons on the surface will cause it to break, dropping all into the cold fluid beneath. Throw dexterity or less to escape if the surface breaks; throw dexterity (DM - vacc suit skill) or less to avoid 1D hits from the fall.
Careful search of this chamber should be promoted by the fact that the walls have a mural (in visible light) of the exterior landscape of the complex. However, even careful search will reveal nothing else.
Large chambers have no doors. This chamber is completely empty, even to the point of the central depression being empty and dry, and the walls being completely featureless. Careful search will reveal nothing.
Throw 9+ for the door to be open. This small chamber is empty. Careful search will reveal nothing.
Throw 9+ for the door to be open. This chamber is unusual in that it is accessed by a long dark small corridor. The chamber itself has a caved-in ceiling; shards of ceiling material have dropped down, and soil or stone has formed a pile on the floor. Careful search (throw 10+; DM +1 for each electric torch or cold-light lantern used) will reveal the skeleton of a reptilian alien, with only rags left from its clothes, and a small fibre pouch in the heap of soil; its contents include a set of 37 coins (a 38th coin is at location 14), and a knife of obvioulsy alien manufacture. Any individual with education 9+ will realise that the ceiling will probably cave in completely with the next seismic tremor. Throw 6+ on each succeeding tremor until it does cave in.
Suspended in the centre of this chamber is a large (one metre diameter) pendulum weight at the end of a knobby cable. Inscribed on the floor of the chamber is a complicated pattern which the pendulum weight follows. Careful search (throw 7+; DM + electronic skill) will show that the pattern is inscribed on moveable panels which can be displaced. Beneath the panels are a series of eight pie-shaped compartments. Numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7 are empty. Number 3 contains a set of twelve grippies - small clamp-like tools of stange form and design. Intelligence of B+ will see that they can be used to create foot and hand holds on the knobby cable; climbing up with them will avoid the negative DMs on the throws given in location 9. Number 6 is connected to the drain pipes, and contains a flock of crawlers which will attack when exposed. Number 8 contains a flat metal fragment; intelligence 9+ will deduce that it is a key which will open or close any doors to chambers.
Large chambers do not have doors. This chamber is obviously a control room when the adventurers enter it. The walls of the chamber are covered with a large array of bar dials - each begins at floor level and ascends to the centre of the ceiling. Changes in colour along the length indicate intensity or value. Careful search (throw 9+; DM +1 per person with education above 9) will show that the instuments and controls are divided into three basic groups which can be numbered from 1 to 100 (arbitrarily, and for convenience).
Group One (numbered 1 to 33) consists of instruments with fluctuating readings - probably power plant related.
Group Two (numbered 34 to 66) exhibits constant readings, with most showing some low degree of value, and numbers 53 and 56 reading (anomalously) at zero. Add 33 to the location number to determine which gauge/control refers to which lighting fixture. Numbers 65 and 66 refer to corridor lighting.
Group Three (numbered 67 to 100) consists of instruments which are reading low values - except for 99, which reads at a very high intensity. Gauge 99 reflects power consumption for the detectors which govern the energy beam.
Large chambers do not have doors. This location is quite similar to location 22, but the interior lights do not work and all of the controls and gauges read zero. An atmosphere tester with a serial number in the 4000 range will emit a beep, and the green and amber lights will come on, although the air remains unbreathable.
Large chambers do not have doors, and this one has no central depression; instead, it has a raised dias of stone rubbed smooth from long use.
Entered from location 13, this long sloping passage leads downward towards the interior of a small adjacent pyramid. The floor is strewn with animal spoor.
Large pieces of machinery occupy most of this chamber. The complexity of this equipment makes it difficult and dangerous to disable this power plant. Should it be attempted, the individual(s) involved in the effort must select a seemingly important-looking item, and cut or destroy it. Throw 12+ (DM + electroni or mechanical skill) to succeed. If not successful by the second try, the frequency of seismic tremors will increase.
This large area is filled with vapor to a depth of perhaps a metre. Careful search (throw 9+) will show feed lines leading from the tank to location 26. Cutting these lines, however, will not affect the power plant.
This unused chamber apparently serves for overflow of power plant exhausts, although this is not currently happening. An individual with intelligence B+ will see that this chamber is required only if the power plant is in overload status.
This small chamber is empty, and apparently part of the power plant vent system.
This small chamber is similar to location 29.
This small chamber is similar to location 29.
Two barred entry points are situated at the bottom of the shaft on the platform outside the complex.