Dark Compactor

 

This can be placed in any sort of fantasy setting but fits best with far-future or science-fantasy. Place this location in a desert area with a canyon. At the bottom of the canyon there is a stream that runs down a sluice towards a pit with sloping sides that resembles a giant funnel. There is a small gate at the precipice of the pit that opens at regular intervals to allow water to flow rapidly down the side into the hole at the bottom. Trash and assorted debris litters the pit. Anyone who goes near the edge of the pit must save or risk sliding down into the hole.

There is a nearby settlement that sends things down the stream never to be seen again. They don’t know why they do this; their ancestors did it as well. Sometimes they bring things to the canyon to throw into the pit. People treat this area with suspicion and warn the party to stay away. Rumors indicate a nearby entrance in the canyon wall that is reachable by trails over a course of days or by scaling the canyon wall. The entrance to this place is concealed in an artificial alcove. There is a 6’x6’ door that is locked and trapped. On each side there are lanterns that hum and crackle and cannot be extinguished or removed. A failed attempt to unlock the door will cause the lanterns to shoot beams of light at the party for 2d6 damage.

If the party enters through the hole at the bottom of the pit:

The hole leads to a vertical shaft that drops 20’ before transitioning into a chute that opens up into a large cavern. The chute is aimed at a massive pool of water and debris that is constantly churning. At the bottom of the pool is a grinder that destroys any solid object that passes through it. Around the pool is a metal catwalk with guardrails on each side. The pool is raised up in the center of this cavern. It is the first part of a long and complex machine with many chambers as well as gears, pistons, and other moving parts. The catwalk around the pool is part of a larger system of walks, stairs, and ladders that lead to every part of this machine. Security robots and worker robots patrol these walkways destroying intruders or performing maintenance on the machine.

If the party enters through the main entrance:

The door opens into a vestibule that leads into what appears to be a communal living and work space for whoever built and maintained the factory. There are apartments, an amphitheater, a workshop, and a heavily-guarded room with a smaller version of the lantern-guarded door that leads into the facility. The inside of this room has myriad buttons, levers, knobs, and switches, as well as strange glass panels with runes and symbols on them that move if touched. This is the hub of the factory, and is jealously protected by the Factory Wardens (see below).

These robots are mindless and only perform their assigned tasks unless they are temporarily possessed by one of the Factory Wardens, a cross between ghost and AI that can jump from robot to robot. There are three Factory Wardens, each with their own personalities and goals. Each Factory Warden has a back-up generator that is powered by these black cubes. The Factory Wardens are unstoppable unless their generators are destroyed or otherwise decommissioned.

The metal construct housing the pool is also shaped like a funnel; at the end is a tube that leads to another chamber with thick glass windows. The party can see thick, swirling liquid and frantic beams of light inside. The automated machinery continues on some distance. It is a self-contained system until the very end where a small tube drops 4”x4” solid black cubes at regular intervals onto a conveyor belt that carries them through a stone tunnel into another cavern.

The small cubes are imbued with magical property. They can be activated by a certain keyword unknown to the party. However, upon learning this word the cube can be used as a spell scroll by anyone who can use scrolls. The spells are completely random every time.

The conveyor belt ends in the next cavern down a 100’ tunnel. The cubes drop into carts that are operated by maintenance robots. When a cart has 100 cubes the robot wheels the cart away and towards the storage section of the facility. The next robot in the queue pushes its cart into place. The storage section is haphazard and has clearly been added onto over time. The first areas are orderly shelves stacked with thousands of black cubes. As you move farther into the storage section you see cubbies cut into the rock walls, pits carved out, new rooms added, all stashed with what must be millions of black cubes.

Beyond the storage section there is a different, much smaller system of cave tunnels. These tunnels are carved out by a society of gnomes who pilfer the cubes and feed them to their god, a massive naked mole rat who belches random magical spells after particularly hearty meals. The gnomes are mainly concerned with keeping their god well-fed, keeping their own safe, and avoiding the security robots while taking the cubes. The Factory Wardens mostly view the gnomes as pests, and the gnomes view the Factory Wardens as both rivals and benefactors. There is a rogue gnome who secretly plots against his people, and has taken to eating the cubes every once in a while.

In addition to stealing the cubes, the gnomes have also been known to collect artifacts from the debris pool before they are grinded and destroyed. They also tend to collect the what they can from unfortunate souls who end up in the Dark Compactor. Thus, they have a collection of strange artifacts and money that they don’t have any real use for.