The Dungeon: Level 7 - The Dead Wizard's Lab

This portion of The Dungeon is a once-opulent hermitage gone to rot.  The magnificent rugs and furnishings are dusty, moldering, and falling apart.  Only the shelves and books in the library, protected by powerful spells of preservation and protection, still contains polished wood and many curious volumes of quaint and forgotten lore.  Even these are covered by a thick layer of dust.

The Dungeon: Level 7 - Dead Wizards Lab

The dead wizard once went by the name Garinginax was powerful wizard who learned of the Mad Lich’s Tomb deep on Level 10 of The Dungeon.  He was strong enough to carve out a portion of The Dungeon for his own private workshop, and cunning enough to use his neighbors to keep unwanted guests at bay.  Despite friendly relations with the Fire Giants on Level 9, he was not brave enough to break the seals binding the Mad Lich to his prison.  He was powerful enough to beat back a demon that escaped his control, but not powerful enough to stave off the effects of the poison barb shoved into his heart by said demon.  Distracted by the pain, his teleportation to the safety of his lab failed spectacularly - he missed his anchor sigil by just enough to place him half inside the room and half encased in the walls of his lab.

Now, decades later, his hidden lab is a sealed dusty tomb.  The wards against detection and intrusion still function, but most of the sigils of a more brutish defensive style have waned in power.  The whole region reeks of barely constrained arcane power, but aside from a few remaining guardians and traps, this once mighty fortress is no longer the potent death trap it once was.

The Dead Wizard's once incompetent apprentice is a strong mage in his own right these days, though he has yet to discover the secret to breaking the geas that commands him slay any who intrude on his master’s former lab.