Cryptic Hatcheries of the Centipede-Warlord of the Orcs

 

When the earth was young Orc society was at its zenith, their talents for engineering and craftsmanship of magical workings was unparalleled. Compelled by outside forces, both thinking and unthinking, their borders began to recede as their populations shrunk. Some sought ways to combat this and return to an idealized former glory; others sought ways to survive as something new and different. Those who would have once been shunned were now elevated to positions of power in desperate times. One such bold knowledge-seeker was an unnamed orc warrior-wizard who experimented with the very knowledge of creation.

Using a technique for magical grafting, this orc replaced his bottom half with that of a centipede; twenty feet long and scaled with natural armor. His lower half was strong enough to keep his orc torso upright. He gave himself multiple arms as well, in order to wield terrible weapons and perform the complicated somatic gestures of his awesome powers. His people were horrified by what he had done, but in awe of his abilities. The orc led an army into an old Dwarven fastness, driving out what had been hiding there. There he built a factory where he could transform his people into a force for reclamation, protected by wards that would keep it secret and safe until such time as he was ready.

However, during his experiments, something went wrong. He was sealed inside of a magic prison and the fastness was put into stasis, his wards activating and hiding the factory from all knowledge and understanding. The wards portray the hall as a dwarven ruin, too dangerous and unpredictable to be braved by even the most foolhardy explorer. Nothing is as it seems in this place until the veil is pierced and the illusion fades to an even stranger reality—that of the orc warlord-centipede’s hatchery.

There are a number of rooms that are trapped or contain ancient dwarven artifacts. Beyond these halls is the new(er) construction of the orc’s factory, rough-hewn walls created quickly but with some precision. Traps and creatures await to stop the party from reaching the most vulnerable parts of the factory: the hatchery. Upon making their way into the hatchery, the party sees hundreds of egg sacs, throbbing and stretching as the creations inside attempt to escape their prisons. If any of these break, they will witness the birth of unnatural chimeras of both orc and and centipede in many forms and fashions, eager to feast on whatever they lay their eyes on. Beyond the hatchery is the personal laboratory of the warlord-centipede; he is frozen inside of a pulsing, oozing crystalline formation that appears to be melting quickly. Upon escape, the warlord-centipede may thank the party for releasing him or lash out in anger at their intrusion. He will seek to unleash his army on the world, not understanding how much time has passed.