This is the only stone structure in Orlane. A wall of granite blocks surrounds the temple, and sturdy wooden gates give access to a courtyard. The temple is on the highest piece of land in Orlane- 20ft above the stream and pond. The temple wall is 20ft high. The gates are strong and wooden. Carved into them with precise craftsmanship is an ornate carving of the chaotic good saint Merikka, portrayed as a beautiful young woman. The temple building itself is made of solid granite blocks, and is completely windowless. St. Merikka is the saint of fertility and growth, DC 12 history. The two clerics were early converts into the cult, but they keep up appearances with weekly services. They play an active role in recruiting new members and spreading the cult's influence. The temple once held the powerful Orb of the Baba, a large white orb that blessed the area with great fertility. The cultists removed the Orb and sent it to Kalarel the Vile.    

Key

1. Courtyard: Day- The courtyard is open. A broad path leads to the doors of the temple. The courtyard is empty except for a gardener, and its grounds are not well tended. If disturbed, the gardener will rudely direct the party to the main temple then ignore them. Night- The gates to the temple are closed and barred from the inside. The sound of a couple animals moving around can be heard on the other side of the wall. The wall can be scaled with the right equipment. Once on the other side the party will come face to face with two Reptile Cultists and two Wolves. One the second round of combat.     2. Outbuilding: This largest outbuilding has a guard on duty. The other outbuildings seem like small tool and supply storage sheds. The largest outbuilding is the kennel and private quarters for the wolves and guard cultists. They will be rudely turned away if they investigate.     3. Central Sanctuary: This large room has a tile floor decorated with an abstract mosaic pattern in orange, tan, brown, and blue. Several tapestries decorate the walls, all depicting scenes of lush farmland and crops in various stages of maturity. Five huge elm trunks serve as columns in the room, and a statue of St. Merikka, carved from a solid piece of jade, is mounted on a low dais at the north end of the room. Her hands are out stretched and cupped, looking like she should be holding something. If the party is just visiting, they will be met in this area by Misha Devi, a priestess of the temple (room 9). She will caution them that non-members are not allowed beyond this area. She will answer questions politely and try to find out what the characters are going in the area without revealing any information of importance. She will not let the party get too close to her, and if the party is hostile, she will flee and warn the rest of the temple.     4. Meeting Room: This smaller room may be larger as it is divided by a rich blue drape just west of the door. The area you can see is empty except for three plain wooden benches. Behind the drapery is a softly carpet room with three comfortable chairs places around a low table. A small shelf to the side holds several unopened bottles of Orlanian Special Win, and half a dozen glasses.     5. Dining Hall: The dining hall has a long table with many chairs to fit all the clerics, acolytes, and servitors of the temple. There is a display showing the fine harvests of Orlane with a huge carrot, plump ears of corn, shafts of wheat, and a bottle of local wine.     6. Kitchen: Three medium-sized ovens occupy the southwall, while cupboards take up most of the storage space. A small table is in the center of the room. The cupboards contain all the expected items of a working kitchen.     7a-e: Meditation Cells: Individual cells used by the clerics and acolytes for personal prayer. A. Empty cell except for a reed prayer mat. B-D. Acolyte (Cultist) on a prayer mat. E. Empty cell except for a reed prayer mat. E has a trap door under the prayer mat, DC18 to notice. If the west door to the cell door area is opened, all three cultists will be ready to fight, but won't unless one of the cell doors is opened.     8. Misha Devi's Outer Chamber: This is a bare room with three wooden benches. The door to another chamber is locked (DC18).     9. Misha Devi's Quarters: This room contains a small bed, a trunk, and a desk. The trunk is not locked. Misha will be found here during the evening and 50% chance during the day. Her trunk contains clothes, chain armor, shield, mace, and a another serpent amulet (200gp). There is a trap door under her bed that will be seen if looked under.     10. Hall of Statues: This hall has a gleaming white tile floor and a series of alcoves along the east wall. Each alcove is lines with black velvet to highlight the beautiful golden statues kept within. All of these statues represent plants that St. Merikka's benign blessing helps to nurture. Each is valued at 5000gp due to the gold and expert craftsmanship. From South to North the statues are; Stalks of Wheat, Potato, Custer of Oats, Cornstalk, Carrot, Turnips, Bunch of Grapes, Cluster of Barley, and a Pile of Beans. It is off that the cultists have left these alone, this is due to the fact that St. Merikka's Curse will befall anyone who touches one of them. The creature who touches an item must pass a DC15 CHA saving thrown, failure results in -2 to all d20 rolls until remove curse can be cast on the creature. The curse is cumulative up to three can be stacked up, taking three remove curse castings to remove.     11. Guardroom of the Undead: This bare room contains only some wooden benches and eight skeletons standing against the walls between them. These undead will remain motionless until a living creature enters the room. If that creature makes the secret sign of the cult as it comes through the door, the skeletons will remain motionless and allow it and anyone with it free passage through the room. If no secret sign is made, the undead will attack as soon as the first creature has enters the room, fighting until they are destroyed or the intruders driven off.     12. Library: This room contains many shelves of books, and two small tables. Most of the books deal with mundane aspects of agriculture or religion. The most ornate book in the room is on one of the tables, entitled: A Most Worshipful Guide to Benign St. Merikka. The huge and richly embossed volume will not fit on any of the shelves. It contains many colorful paintings and was formerly very valuable, but all the illustrations have been crudely defaces. Some of the pages have rusty brown spots on them.     13. Small Meeting Room: This chamber contains a small table and two comfortable chairs, with an unopened win bottles and two clean glasses on a shelf in the corner. DC20 to find secret door.     14. Torture Chamber: A rack and a table with heavy straps attacked to it occupy the center of the room, and an iron maiden stands in the corner. Several empty pine boxes (6x2x3) are stacked against the west wall. What was formerly a storage room for the ample supplies of the grain and vegatables has now been outrageously defiled. It is here that Derek Desleigh does much of his dirty word. Misha and Ambramo also use the devices as a means of coaxing information from reluctant citizens before than have been converted.     15. Goblins' Quarters: This room is barren, except for nine straw mats and a low, crudely-built table. Evidence of some kind of creatures living here lays around. The nine goblins that lived here were captured by the cult's members in the forest and dragged to the dungeon of the reptile god. There, they were charmed and ordered to serve as temple guards, out of sight of the citizens of Orlane.     16. Antechamber: The walls of this chamber are scratched, stained, and covered with strange markings. Loose chips of stone lie scattered on the floor. Aside from the southeast exit, the room appears empty. The door to this area is unlocked. When it is opened, several small bells attached to it chime softly. This is the antechamber to the quarters of Abramo, originally a cleric of St. Merikka. His charming by Defilus has seriously unhinged his mind. He has scrawled meaningless gibberish on the walls of the room. Alambro will always be around the double-corner at position b, watching the party. He will flee if the party attacks.     17. Abramo's Chamber: This room is decorated in a bizarre fashion. There is a dirty star pallet on the floor, yet two soft and comfortable armchairs rest at a low table. A beautiful robe hands on the wall above a battered, locked chest, while the floor is strewn with muddy rags. An exquisitely crafted wooden desk has been placed near the northeast corner of the room. At various points around the walls, small iron hooks for hanging tapestries have been set into the stone. There is nothing of value in this room. The rage are barely recognizable as tapestries. The desktop is covered with insane scribbling in the odd runes. The chest contains only old, ripped clothing, and worthless scraps of ivory that may have come from a destroyed statue. The secret door to room 18 used to be masked by a tapestry, and now may be detected with DC12. It is opened by a simple pull at a hidden switch (DC15) on the desk or picked (DC18). The door can be barred from the other side. If Abramo passes through the door and bars it, he will be able to escape through the secret door in room 18 before the party can break in.(DC20 STR).     18. Secret Altar Room: This large room is dirty and unkempt, with shards of rock lying around four crude granite statues standing about the room in haphazard locations. In the southeast corner in a polished jade figure of a snake with a female human head that is set apart from the other statues by its obviously superiors crafting and material. Near it, a small cage with iron bars hold a listless figure of a beautiful young woman clothes in tattered rags. In addition, two brass-bound chests sit next to the east wall. This chamber provides final proof of Abramo's corruption. The woman, Cirilli Finla, is really no more than a girl. She is the daughter of the village storekeeper. Her listlessness will vanish with the prospect of being rescued. She made the trek to the naga's lair with the rest of her family; but some untapped reserve of courage and determinations prevented her from succumbing to the charm. Hey youthful appeal struck a chord somewhere in Abramo's demented subconscious, and he brought her back as his personal prisoner. She has been beaten and mistreated over the last three moths, but her spirit has not been broken. She has seen the effect of the charm on her family and will not wish to return to them. She understand that they would only betray her, unless the charm can somehow be broken. Cirilli will relate everything that she knows, but under no circumstances will she return to the lair of the reptile god. Cirilli knows that the chests were empties recently, so the hoard is now quite meager (12gp, 54sp). The jade statue is a skillfully carved image of the naga, who Cirilli will name as Explicitica Defilus. Shades of violet, brown, and green jade have been blended into a masterpiece of evil. Light form the torches will cause the colors to swirl and shimmer in an almost hypnotic pattern. The statue is worth 7500gp intact, and weighs 150lbs. The other statues in the room have been chipped fro granite, and are as ugly as they are poorly crafted. Abramo created them himself, and gleefully explained them to his captive; so the lass can identify them as a crocodile, two large lizards, and a coiled cobra. The fragments of rock are the remnants of a statue that has been shattered. At one time it was a likeness of St. Merikka. Behind the statue of the naga is a secret trap door that leads to room 9 on the ground floor level of the temple. Only Abramo knows about it, and he will use it to escape if hard pressed.     19. Hidden Hallway: This dank hallway is cool and musty. Moss has grown over some of the rough stone on the walls. A sparse amount of torches light the way. This hallway connects rooms 7e and 9. It is entered through either of the two hidden trapdoors. The walls, floor, and ceiling are of rough stone.     20. Maze: More rough stone halls wind around various corners. The walls are studded with iron spikes at odd intervals and heights. The cult members have captured and charmed an Ogre, keeping it in a nearly starved state. It will not attack a person or group making the sign of the cult, but all others are fair game. The ogre waits at the positions marked with an 'X' on the map, but will always hear the door open and move to investigate. As with most cult members, it has no treasure of its own.     21. Secret Door: DC18 to find the secret door. It can be opened by pulling on a low spike nearby. It leads to a narrow, dirt filled crawlspace. At the far end is the year old grave of a courageous temple servant who tried to resist the kidnapping by the cult. The body is very old, and wrapped in a rotting leather tunic. Nothing of value is found here.     22. Troglodyte Tunnels: This earthen tunnel has no stone shoring or supporting timbers. Consequently, much fresh dirt lied on the floor. Two sets of earthen stairways descend a total of 80ft before the passage forks. Here sits a squat mushroom-shaped lump about 4ft high. The shrieker has been placed as a look out. The four troglodyte cultists in the room as the north end of the tunnels will certainly hear the shrieker's alarm if the party is careless, and move to attack. The shaded sections of the tunnel have about 1ft of mud collected on the floor. These areas are slow moving, difficult terrain. The four troglodyte cultists will split up, a pair advancing down each tunnel. They will attack any enemies they meet, and if the party has gone down one tunnel, the other two they do not meet will circle behind them. In the eastern corridor are two solid wooden doors set into heavy frames that are barred on the outside. They are used occasionally for storing prisoners, but are now those empty. In the troglodyte's lair at the end of the tunnels is a small chest buried in the dirt by the north wall. The chest is locked, and the key is buried in the loose dirt at the mouth of the chamber. Loot: 45gp, 350sp, and a broach of shielding.