Your descent into this dark place has only been met by the drifting of motes of dust past your lights, and a thick, stale odor of...reptiles.
Coming to the end of the passage you came by, you see an ancient subway platform, so huge that it extends well out of sight and into the darkness. Train tracks run perpendicular to the platform, and vanish into enormous tunnels on either side.
Beneath the Bernard Megaplex lies the “Megaplex Terminus”, a subway station built by the corporation to provide its employees and staff easy access to the city’s public transportation system. The fact that the corporation warranted its own station is evidence of its power at the time of the Fall, as well as the sheer number of workers employed at the site at its height. The Megaplex Terminus can be accessed from the
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conventional subway station entrance (i.e. escalators) facing the Plaza, as well as from elevators in the sub-basement garages of each of the three Megaplex towers. These elevators (and stairwells) are clearly marked, as civilian employees and their families regularly used them to reach the subterranean subway station to take the train all over
the city. The elevators are no longer working (they’ve fallen and smashed at the bottom of each shaft), but the stairwells remain accessible.
A. Main Platform (EL 0)
The subway station of the Megaplex Terminus is one of the largest in the city, capable of accommodating four separate subway trains and over 1,000 people. The main platform once had its own gift shop, restaurant, waiting lounge, and visitor center (where a collection of androids, all fake smiles and sunshine, walked among the crowds informing visitors incessantly about the ultra-modern technology of the Megaplex, the conveniences of its “self-contained mall”, and the amazing wonders Zoogenic Corporation was performing in the name of furthering science), but these were ransacked and abandoned long, long ago.
This area is empty.
B. Egg Chamber (EL 20)
Not far from the Main Platform is a large cavern, hollowed from the subway tunnel over the years by the Serpent Gods. The odor of scaly things is so strong here that any non-Serpent God must make a Fortitude save at DC 13 or be overcome with
sickness, losing 1d6 points of Strength for 10 rounds. The cave itself is lit by a weak collection of orange and green light rods scavenged from the city, as well as corium lanterns taken from scavs and others who wandered too close to the Downtown area. The lights illuminate a vast clutch of several dozen, man-
sized “eggs”, each an ugly yellow leathery sack nestled against another of its kind in the dim radiance of the lanterns.
These eggs comprise the current generation of Serpent Gods, which are close to hatching. Though powerful, the Serpent Gods are relatively few in number, but they replenish their losses (those that die of extreme old age) with hatchlings every few decades.
Serpent God guardians move through the egg chamber regularly, both to guard the eggs and to keep an eye out for hatchlings. Any egg that hatches prematurely tends to give birth to a Horror, which is quickly rounded up before it can harm the other eggs, and taken to be expelled at the Pit of Horrors (see Area #086). Also, because the form of the Serpent God is a complex creation, other eggs sometimes fail to hatch at all. The Serpent Gods have become adept at recognizing which eggs contain dead embryos, and workers regularly snatch these with staff-like tongs and remove them, to be eaten by the rest of the Serpent God community. After all, waste not, want not...
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C. Excavation (EL 18)
The subway tunnel leading from the Megaplex Terminus ends here, at what appears to be the end of the track. However, the brick wall here appears to have been deliberately broken open in the past, its entire face disassembled brick by brick; even an old dusty bulldozer sits nearby, abandoned once the wall was broken down. The artificial opening is lit by corium lanterns and light rods (replaced regularly when they run out), not unlike the Egg Chamber, and a rough tunnel can be seen extending off into the
darkness.
During the time of the Ancients this was, to most observers, the end of the ‘Terminus subway line. No one ever came here except for city subway workers, and they never noticed anything unusual.
Unbeknownst to these workers, however, before the subway was completed Zoogenic
Corporation used this last stretch of line to construct a secret vault deep beneath the earth. Using contractors sworn to secrecy, the corporation hollowed out a tremendous void in the bedrock, accessed via a
massive portal (see below). The tunnel leading to this vault was sealed up as soon as it was completed, and soon forgotten.
The Serpent Gods re-discovered the sealed tunnel years ago, following clues found in the Bernard Megaplex. Using hand tools, jackhammers, and even construction equipment (like the bulldozer still sitting nearby) they smashed through the old wall and located the tunnel, finally finding the way to the Vault itself.
GM’s Note: There is a 25% chance that 2 Serpent God ophidi will be here, on guard. They will attack
anyone they detect coming near the excavation.
Serpent God Ophidi (2): HP 195. D. Vault (EL 19)
At the end of a huge rough tunnel stands a truly massive portal of solid tungsten - by all appearances, a bank vault door as large as a small building, and wide enough for a yacht to pass through. Small boulders lie about, debris collected from past earthquakes and from the excavation by the Serpent Gods. Old tools (a steam-powered rock bore, an entire dump truck, and many picks and shovels) lie strewn about here. Light rods of various dim and unfitting colors light the scene, their multi-hued radiance glimmering weakly off of the burnished black metal of the giant door. A single electronic keypad, shielded by a metal panel from falling debris, sits at roughly head level on the rock wall beside the door.
This vault comprises the “great secret” of the Zoogenic Corporation. Constructed at the order of Ronald Bernard and his fellows in the “Blessed 13”, the vault was to give their inhuman creations the articles they would need to conquer the post- apocalyptic world.
The Serpent Gods discovered the existence of the