A-to-Z Challenge Day 6 Zeta (Ζ): Zodiac Zombies

Entry 6 for The Lost Catacombs of Kadmos

When the characters first look down into the hole from above this room, use illustration (above) and read the following text:

Looking down into the room below, you find a large circular diagram inlaid on the floor. The center of the diagram is placed directly under the center of the hole above (from which you look down), and the circle is divided into 30° segments, each of which features a symbol/illustration pair, with a small circular depression set just below them.

Once the characters have proceeded downward into the room, read the following text:

As you enter the room from the hole above, you find yourself in the middle of a domed stone room 60' diameter, and with a 30' tall ceiling. The outer wall is lined with 12 iron doors, each 30° apart and roughly corresponding to one of the symbol segments of the diagram on the floor. Furthermore, the center of each door features an engraving (about 4" in height) of that corresponding symbol.

Behind each door is a zombie (hp:6 ea.) that wears a gold amulet bearing the symbol corresponding to its door/segement.

Each of the amulets (worn by the zombies) can be placed in the corresponding depression on the floor diagram. If all 12 amulets are laid in their correct place, the domed ceiling will magically become a planetarium. The placement of the stars on the ceiling will be that as they would appear outside if it were night time at that very moment in that location, moving in the “night sky” as normal. The effects will cease when any amulet is removed from the floor. Each amulet is worth 50gp.

The amulets have nothing to do with exiting the room. Instead, there is a secret door inside one of the “zombie closets” (as indicated on the map*).

*Complete map of catacombs to be published at a later date.