Necromentor's Lair
This needs work, but i’ve been holding onto it for so many years, it's time to put it out into the wild. Let me know what you think of it.
Necromentor’s Lair
(Map art by Billie Longino)
Necromentor’s Lair (Room Descriptions)
Maw of the Bloat-Swine Horrostrity (Entrance): Metal spikes jut up to a great height, forming a sheer cliff of metal spears, each coated in geodized pus that once spilled through the open wounds of the bloatswine's pierced jaw. That jaw has hardened and, left trapped and hanging open in the harsh winds of dust that spill out of the nearby Vortex of Chaos, been coated in a layer of rough stone. The beast's whole head is pulled back, but massive stalagmites and stalactites bear like hungry teeth, waiting to snap down on anyone who would dare dream to trespass here.
But there is no hope of release from this awful trap the bloatswine has been caught in, its limbs firmly entrenched in equal amounts of stone that have spewed this way for 1,000 years.
Murder Tunnel of the Agonizing Esophagus (Main Hallway): Here the stone-encrusted entrance gives way to the first hint that the bloatswine may still live beneath the massive trap it has been caught in for millennium; a baleful cry makes the walls vibrate, and the spongy floor buckles and throbs as people walk over it. Massive tentacle-cilia concealed in vertical recesses that run along each side strike out to grapple any intruders, mistaken by the dumb intelligence of the throat's survival instincts as something trapped that needs to be crushed and swallowed.
Orphan Heart Throne Room (Throne Room): One of the bloatswine's numerous detached, floating hearts is pinned here in a rusted cage that cuts and slices at the still-beating muscle whenever Necromentor moves on the seat he fashioned for himself out of the cage. He claims the slow beating calms him as he worries over the actions of Axiom's worthless heroes.
Note that the other floating hearts may still be somewhere in the dungeon, or possible have all left and now float aimlessly in the world of Axiom. Or have been destroyed.
Vertebratorvator (Access Elevator to higher and lower levels): open platform that jerkily moves up and down along a bony spinal column, constructed over the Wasting river that boils and swishes underneath, it's disgusting purple, green and yellow glow only outdone in cringe-worthiness by the awful stench that billows upward...
Devolvotron Chamber (Laboratory): where local flora and fauna are mutated and experimented on to make twisted versions to assault the heroes!
Megahexorator (Summoning Platform): Where Monsters and Villains pulled from other dimensions arrive to aid Necromentor against the heroes of Axiom!
The Occularium of Bending Dreams (Viewing Platform of the Megahexorator): the crystalline brain chamber where creative thoughts, once used to build worlds, are now forced to imagine and perceive alien dimensions, which Necromentor channels into his Megahexorator to pull dangerous and powerful allies in his quest to destroy the heroes and claim dominion over all of Axiom!
Putrescanence, the Wasting River (Natural/Organic Cave System): boils, swishes, and runs through a vast, heated, and splayed open organic cavern system that leads to a rarely-used (and forgotten) rear entryway into Necromentor's Lair.
There should also be two sub-chambers, or maybe just one: the proverbial "Treasure Room":
Necromentor's Inner Sanctum (Treasure Room): Necromentor is a powerful and formidable foe who has lived for thousands of years in his endless quest to conquer and rule Axiom. However, even he is not beyond exhaustion, and so he must retire to his inner sanctum to restore his energy.
It is here that Necromentor releases the soul gem that give him his powers and reverts back to his weak and feeble form, that of the undead priest Verminion.
Love how things have crystalized in this dead creature. That’s a very cool detail.