L1-12. Burnt-Icon Cell 'Elite’s Quarters'

Suel features & lore keys

• Erased Mural: Flakes of pigment cling in corners; soot rings the center.
• DC 12 Investigation: Finds chisel bites and scorch patterns—deliberate destruction, not time.
• DC 13 Religion/History: Reads as iconoclasm: faint ledger lines (Wee Jas order) under burn scrawl (Pyremius flame), plus a scraped spiral in the plaster (forbidden sign defaced).
• Table reward: If the party calls this out, grant advantage on one Religion check made elsewhere on this level as they “read” Suel signals correctly.

Features & checks

• Bed: Coarse blankets; DC 11 Perception spots a boot-knife tucked under the pillow (dagger).
• Chair: Provides half cover if tipped; counts as difficult terrain when broken underfoot.
• Chest: An iron fireplace poker is wedged under the lid as a crude lever/lock bar. The actual lock still functions—and is unlocked.
• Inside:
• Blank books (6), some blood-spattered (usable as standard blank journals; evidence of ugly bookkeeping).
• Coins: 8 gp, 14 sp, 75 cp in a rag bundle.
• A twist of charcoal and a grease pencil.

Occupant

Mogruk “Ash-Eye” — an elite Howling Moon fighter with a soot-scar over one eye (he claims the mural “looked at him wrong”).

Tactics & response

• If no prior combat: He is asleep on the bed.
• Stealth: DC 12 Stealth to move inside without waking him; loud metal or bright light within 10 ft wakes him automatically.
• On waking: He grabs greataxe and charges; if cornered, he kicks the chair into foes (contest vs. STR; on failure target is shoved 5 ft and knocked prone).
• Response clock: Sounds of battle here pull—
• Rooms 10 & 11 and 13: next round
• Chief + bodyguard: 3 rounds
• Barracks warriors: 6 rounds

Loot (summary)

• Chest: 6 blank books (blood-spattered), 8 gp, 14 sp, 75 cp.
• Under pillow: Dagger (boot-knife).
• Poker: counts as club (improv)

Map notes

Single entry. Put the burned mural opposite the door; bed to one side, chair angled near the center lane for shoves; chest by the wall with the visible poker under its lid.

Room 12 — Burnt-Icon Cell: Mogruk “Ash-Eye” (through the door, 2nd-person, DM-readable)

soot-scar creaks as he squints “Who scratches at Ash-Eye’s door? You breathe loud, filth. You got temple orders… or a death wish, maggot?”

“Speak up. Show the seal. …No? I smell man-flesh—no incense, no ledger-men. You’re scum dunghill with shiny sticks.”

“That mural looked at me wrong. I burned it. You want the same, swine? Push the door and you feed my floor.”

“Hands high so I can count fingers. Drop steel, kneel, and maybe you keep a few.”

If the door starts to open (alert combat):

“Found you! Now try and hide from this! No more games… time to die!”

“I smelled your fear, human! I’ll wear your bones around my neck! Ha ha ha!”

“I’m going to eat your arms when you’re dead, human!” {growling} “I am stroooonng!”

If the party hesitates or pulls back (avoidance taunts):

“Where’d you go? Gonna find you… Gonna KILL you! Hey! You disappear? No fair!”

“Go ahead and hide, little bleeder! You can’t hide from me—I can taste your fear! Here human, human, human… I got a treat for you!”

If Mogruk calls allies / threatens:

“Pink skins are here. Erk will have his prize! We will bring him!”

“Orc not take orders from humanz—orc take slave. Hot iron on seared flesh.”