she threw a rock. she didnt want to throw rocks at him because he was her brother. he found a thing in the hard stuff. it was like the gold blades they carried but it was blue in color. he kept it because he had never seen anything like it and he didnt understand it was forbidden. he had no way of knowing because hed never seen it before. the others knew and they caught him swinging it at a cactus and they threw stones at him until he died and she had to throw too even though he was her brother. they were all brothers but they still threw the stones. a large stone fell on him where one of the older brothers threw it and he died.
the judges came and burned him and burned the blue knife. the body of her brother burned but the flames made the blue knife glow bluer. the judges sang a song and the tribe went away but when the sun went down the blue glow was still visible. it lit the glass around it so it looked like the little moon had fallen and got stuck in the bled. she thought of her brother and his blade and thanked god.
Lake of Glass is a rift system created by a fault in the Plain. It gets its name from the places where the sand and earth is baked into glass. "Rivers" of fused sand that shimmer like green jade, knobbly sheets, broken, thin-walled bubbles, green wormlike forms, glass marbles spread across the terrain like gravel... There are trees in the lake, most of them cut down and burned. No ponds or streams or running water, though it once flowed here.
The Lake is free of undead.
A tribe of ELOHIM and a handful of ANAKIM live in the hills and cliffs of the rift valley. They observe intruders to the Lake, curious but driven by the the laws of the God to ambush and kill imperfect beings who defile their paradise. They prefer to fight in sight of the Shrine.
At the end of the valley is a WATCHER, a living tower 100 feet high. It fires on any imperfect beings that stumble into its twelve mile line of sight, sparing only THE WILD MEN. At the base of the entity is a heap of mud bricks, all that remains of a mud brick ziggurat. A hole leads down into the earth.
SHRINE OF SANCTIFICATION
The halls, stairs, doors and furniture of the Shrine are scaled for beings 12' tall. The walls are mud brick, scorched and baked and melted. It's hot, like walking into a pottery workshop or blacksmith's forge. A droning song echoes through the halls.
If anyone in the party is wounded or if any hired help fails morale and flees an encounter, room 9 extrudes a SERAPHIM to prey on the unlucky victim.
1: The light is blinding, emanating from an opening in the northeast corner of the room. The music comes from the THRONE sitting on the sculpted throne of gold colored crystal, singing endless hymns to The Shining One. The room is covered floor to ceiling with images of the deity, including the face. Those who look upon them without eye protection are blinded.
2: Shaft of burnt offerings, perpetually filled with consuming flames. Objects placed here are supposed to be sent straight to the Shining One, but are simply destroyed. 8,410 SP in platinum coins, adamantin and other materials that don't burn easy accumulated at the bottom.
3: Stone wall carved with a false door. Must be smashed with sledgehammers, bored out with tools, blown up with explosives, turned to mud with magic, etc to proceed further.
4: Enormous vaulted chamber with a floor of shimmering water. At the west end of the room is a featureless stone door.
The floor is actually marble. Anyone who utters the word "water" in this room is struck with an effect based on their character class:
- Death: Fighters, Thieves, Dwarves, Half Orcs and Halflings take 10D10 damage.
- Insanity: Magic Users, Gnomes, Elves and Illusionists are driven mad, as Feeblemind.
- Heresy: Clerics, Paladins, Rangers, Drow and Druids are cut off from Divine casting.
5: Scriptorium. Walls liked with giant plates of precious metal engraved with the words of the God. Thanks to the death of their parent deity they only function as scrolls of the Illusionist spell Major Creation. Materials alone worth 30,000 SP.
6: Enormous staircase with staircases twice normal size leads down thirty feet from the foundations of the ziggurat. Heat and light rise out of the chamber at the bottom.
7: A simulacra of a tomb from the plain, complete with sarcophaguses, statues and canopic jars. The room is scaled up to double human size and everything is made of crystal.
8: Stone satues with their eyes burned out, groveling and rejoicing, all pointed at the door to 4. Smashed gems and smeared gold worth 2,000 SP if gathered. On very careful inspection the underside of one statue hand is engraved with the phrase "IT'S NOT WATER" in the Old Tongue of the Monarchy.
9: Silhouettes dance endlessly around a flame mounted atop a statue where the head should be. When a character is reduced to half HP or fails morale in the Shrine, a SERAPHIM breaks away from the fire and slithers through the hole into 10 to hunt them.
10: This room is dark save for a beam of light emitting from a pinhole in the wall. The silhouettes in room 10 are visible through the hole.
11: The long room is filled with candles, braziers and lanterns, blazing with light. Sounds are muffled like the adventurers are underwater, though it's drier here than on the surface.
12: It hurts to breathe in this hallway. The five rooms to the north are full of molten metal, gushing from winged fountains into basins on the floor. Slain CHERUBIM emerge from these pools after five turns.
13: Hall of three pillars. All surfaces painted with eyes. Five CHERUBIM grind to life and attack here, defending the temple from intruders. Any ELOHIM and ANAKIM still following the party attack from behind (and most likely get caught by the Cherubs' flamethrowers).
14: Room of bronze. Surfaces and objects melted and deformed as if by great heat. Gems glitter at the end of a narrow passage to the east. Enormous spikes shoot up from the floor to impale thieves, then retract back into the floor where the metal slowly flows over the holes. The gems are ordinary rocks, painted to look valuable and illuminated by an ever burning flame.
When intruders get here, any ANAKIM and ELOHIM not killed or befriended on the surface enter the temple at 6, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
Andrew Fearnside
THE HEAVENLY HOST
Gods are like viruses. If they kill faster than they spread they burn out out and go extinct. Death Gods who don't understand patience. War Gods who turn on their own kind and feed on their blood. Sun Gods who condemn all of creation to the fires for failing to achieve the Godly perfection they demand of their subjects.
Gods like The Shining One.
CHERUBIM
Four-faced guardian obelisks that burst into grinding
life as pyramidal killdozers with flame-throwers when the temple is defiled. Periodically hover up the temple stairs to the Lake above and distribute edible manna to THE WILD MEN, the only beings worthy of their love.
AC 20, HD 7 (31hp), Att 1 × Trample (4D8) or breath, BAB +8, MV 90’ (30’), SV D8 W9 P10 B10 S12 (7), ML 12, AL Lawful, XP 2,300
▶ Breath weapon: 45’ by 45' cone of fire. Damage equal to current HP, save for half. Can be used three times before requiring immersion in 12. Immune to own breath weapon.
▶ Divine Automaton: Immune to effects that affect living creatures (e.g. poison). Immune to mind-affecting or mind-reading spells (e.g. charm, hold, sleep).
▶ Mundane damage immunity: Can only be harmed by magical attacks.▶ Surprise: On a 1–4 the first time encountered, they resemble sculptures or furniture when immobile.
SERAPHIM
Beautiful and terrible androgynes who carry the wounded to their reward. The WILD MEN love them for bearing off their honored dead. Actually divine scavengers who feed on death and terror, using their charming gaze to alter how victims perceive them. Never kill the healthy unless the healthy prevent them from carrying off wounded prey.
AC 15, HD 7 (31hp) Att 1 × touch (1d10 + energy drain) or 1 × gaze (charm), BAB +6, MV 120’ (40’) or same flying, SV D8 W9 P10 B10 S12 (7), ML 12, AL Lawful, XP 1,250
▶ Charming gaze: Save versus spells at –2 or be charmed: obey the Seraph's commands, unable to cast spells or use magic items, unable to harm the Seraph, perceive the Seraph as it wishes. Killing it breaks the charm.
▶ Charming gaze: Save versus spells at –2 or be charmed: obey the Seraph's commands, unable to cast spells or use magic items, unable to harm the Seraph, perceive the Seraph as it wishes. Killing it breaks the charm.
▶ Energy drain: A touched target permanently loses one experience level/HD. This incurs a loss of one HD of hit points, as well as all other benefits (e.g. spells, saving throws, etc.). A character’s XP is reduced to the lowest amount for the new level. A person drained of all levels dies.
▶ Mundane damage immunity: Can only be harmed by magical attacks.
▶ Regeneration: A damaged Seraph gains 3hp at the start of each round, as long as it is alive.
▶ Mundane damage immunity: Can only be harmed by magical attacks.
▶ Regeneration: A damaged Seraph gains 3hp at the start of each round, as long as it is alive.
THRONE
Wheels, wings, eyes, blazing bright, practically invulnerable, utterly implacable killing machine, programmed to defend the temple of the dead God who created it until Judgement Day. text text
AC 19, HD 20** (90hp), Att 4 × wing (3d10 + 1d10 heat), BAB +13, MV 240’ (80’) flying, SV D6 W7 P8 B8 S10 (10), ML 12, AL Lawful, XP 5,000
▶ Flaming blood: If damaged by an edged weapon, emits a spurt of liquid fire: attacker suffers 2d6 damage (save versus death to avoid).
▶ Immunity: Unharmed by gas, fire and non magical weapons, unaffected by charm, hold, and sleep. WATCHER
A gargantuan baobab-cactus, 100 feet tall and capped with a glistening black eye-organ. Once part of a signaling and defense system that ranged across the God's domain, flashing messages to other towers and protecting Creation with rays of energy that fused the sand to glass. Shoots anything that enters its line of sight and isn't one of the WILD MEN. Capable of movement but won't leave the cap of the pyramid.
AC 21, HD 30* (135hp), Att 1 × beam , BAB +14, MV 15’ (5’) SV D4 W5 P6 B5 S8 (15), ML 12, AL Lawful, XP 10,000
▶ Beam: Attacks in a line 500' long, 50' wide. Those caught in the beam take damage equal to the Watcher's current HP, Save vs Breath Weapon for half.
▶ Immunity: Unharmed by charm, hold, and sleep spells.
▶ Line of Sight: The Watcher's height lets it see twelve miles in all directions, though not outside the valley at the edge of the Lake. Reasonable attempts at cover and concealment avoid LOS, but slow movement through the valley to a crawl (and make travelers vulnerable to Cherubs and Wild Men).
ANGELIC JUSTICE
The Heavenly Host cannot be bargained with, but are not totally merciless. Angels besides the Watcher will accept the surrender of intruders to the valley. They mete out horrible punishments to captives. Roll a D8 to see which. 
- Withering: The transgressor loses D6 points each from three randomly chosen ability scores
- Flaying: Reroll the transgressor’s hit dice. If the new HP total is lower than their current total, it is reduced to that amount. If it is higher, they are killed
- Draining: The transgressor’s experience point total is divided by ten. This can reduce their level.
- Cutting: One of the transgressor’s limbs is severed. Roll a D4 for which.
- Blinding: The transgressor’s eyes are burned out
- Elinguation: The transgressor’s tongue is cut out
- Branding: The transgressor is branded with hierograms. Every time they steal, lie, murder or allow anyone to come to harm through inaction, the runes deal 3D6 damage.
- Execution. Roll another D8 for the method
- Crucifixion
- Breaking on Wheel
- Pressing
- Impalement
- Burning Alive
- Hanging
- Beheading
- Strangulation
Transgressors who survive Angelic justice are given to the Wild Men as slaves. The tribesmen stone their slaves to death immediately out of fear that the Watcher will mistakenly laser them trying to kill the nonbeliever.
ibid
THE WILD MEN
This nomadic pack of desert dwellers is all that's left of the Shining One's perfect kingdom, protected and kept in stasis by the Heavenly Host. They get everything they need (manna, which contains nutrients and water) from the Cherubs, and the Watcher protects the land from the hordes of the dead. They believe the Lake is the only part of the world not overrun with undead, a paradise created by the Sun Disc (what they call their God) for his faithful. Individually the Wild Men are curious, even friendly toward outsiders. In a group or when observed by an Angel they savagely attack the "nonbelievers" out of fear that their inaction will be punished.
ANAKIM
Eight goat horned giants, twelve feet tall. Treat the little Elohim like annoying younger siblings they are sworn to protect. Sensitive and shy in private but believe they have a responsibility to uphold the moral law. Big appetite, can be tempted with exotic foods besides manna. Half of them left the valley to seek their fortunes in the real world beyond. They never told the Elohim and the Angels never asked. They aren't supposed to have names but they secretly picked some out. Katesch, Maani, Aufrer, Tutu, Hamilcar, Ahiram, Astarte and Batnoam
AC 15, HD 8 (36hp), Att 1 × weapon (2d8), BAB +7, MV 120’ (40’), SV D8 W9 P10 B10 S12 (8), ML 8, AL Lawful, XP 650▶ Weapons: Tree trunks, large rocks.
The Anakim have a stash of stuff taken from visitors to the plain, hidden from the Angels who normally incinerate such contraband. 5,000 SP, a +1 Sword, a Ring of Delusion, a Potion of Control Animal and a scroll of (detect evil, continual light (continual darkness), fly, growth of plants, wizard eye)
ELOHIM
Nineteen Ram horned gorilla-men who live at the edge of the Lake. Perfect beings created by the Shining One. Fed manna by the CHERUBIM. Mete out savage punishments to those who break God's laws. Fear greater punishment by their heavenly father (who's no longer there). They have no names and the Anakim secretly have trouble telling them apart at a distance. Occasionally one leaves the Lake and gets killed by undead or scalphunters in the desert (Godflesh is a valuable reagent).
AC 14, HD 4+1* (19hp), Att 1 × weapon (1d8), 1 × headbutt (1d6), BAB +4, MV 120’ (40’), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (2), ML 7, AL Lawful, XP 200
▶ Divine Beings: Elohim can cast spells and Turn Undead as second level Clerics.
▶ Fanatics: Elohim have Morale 12 when fighting alongside an Angel.
▶ Weapons: Big staves, knives and slings.
THE VIOLENT ONE
If the Lich from the Tomb of the Gods escapes the fog of delusions that keep him trapped in his tomb, he comes here. The Heavenly Host try their best to kill him. He's undead and therefore an abomination. He destroys them all and slaughters the Wild Men, reanimating them as undead slaves.
Inside the mastaba he gazes on the face of his Father at 1. Like Wilbur Whately he begins his great work to bring his deceased progenitor back into the world. 
Blake
THE MAKING OF
After casually dropping the Nephil Lich into a minor tomb I decided to make an angel dungeon. At first I wanted to use my Esoteric Enterprises angel generator. The power level wasn't quite where it needed to be. I thought about punching up their stat blocks, or using the Monster Overhaul divine beings. Then I found a cool list of Biblepunk monsters on Shuttered Room.
This dungeon is full of unfair bullshit, poorly calibrated difficulty and underwhelming rewards. The Riverboat Gambler series mixes dungeons which are made to be played and beaten with tombs which are arbitrary and punishing. Angels don't behave according to any reasonable laws of game design. And I love the water illusion from the story of the Four Who Entered Paradise. The Sages of Israel have spent two thousand years trying to figure out what the fuck it means. I like it because it's a sinister mystery with no answer.
The name The Shining One comes from Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. TSO in DCSS is fantasy Allah, handing out Swords of Jihad to angels. But I already adapted Allah as the God of Mercy when one of my players wanted to be a fantasy Muslim, so my TSO is a mix of YHWH and Aten. There was a book I read as a kid and a comic I read a couple weeks ago which both posited Moses got the idea for monotheism from the Atenist heresy.
I'm thinking one more big tomb, a little more depth for the Scalphunters and the Tribes of the Plain, a thing to generate desert features and we're good to go.
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