The Halls of Halloumi

 (This is my entry to the Fromagerie!)

ROOMM 27: The Halls of Halloumi

    In this 30 foot square room, reeking of warm oil, a small in the center of the room contains three large wheels of wet, salty cheese. These slabs of halloumi are about the size of a shield and a little thicker. They act as a sort of lure.

    As soon as all the players enter the room and get a short distance from the door, or inspect the doorframe, the four cheese imps currently occupying the space will laugh at the players' misfortune and turn the crank wheel at the far end of the room (not visible without a round's search specifically across the far wall). This wheel activates the oil pipes, which have been hastily rerouted by the imps. Originally, they were meant to shower the slab in a thin slurry of boiling oil, but the imps made it so that a thick curtain blocks the doorway out. The oil has the capacity to cripple anyone who walks through it unprotected. Any shield  or sufficiently large item interposed is destroyed, but can be used for save passage under the oil. A slab of halloumi used in this way is instead nicely fried, and can be sold for a good price or eaten for an extra benefit.

    The imps cavorting in the room are not alone. After all, an incursion to the elemental plane of cheese doesn't just bring in one creature! There are countless hordes of cheese imps in the pipes in the walls, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. On the wall to the left of the door are rusted vents, from which pour cheese imps. 1d3 imps pour out every two rounds to help their brethren subdue the interlopers. This continues as long as the oil is on and non-imps are in the room.

ROLEPLAYING A CHEESE IMP

    The cheese imps are extraplanar creatures, originally hailing from the elemental plane of cheese. When the Wizard was at the peak of production, he sought the means to make more cheese. His hubris cost him everything. A quick opening to the highly unstable elemental plane resulted in cheese imps flooding the factory floor. Getting rid of them entirely was too impractical and costly, so the Wizard let them naturally congregate and scheme as they pleased, so long as it didn't interfere with the main production.

    Cheese imps are naturally hateful, spiteful creatures. They seek only to make mischief, sowing misery in the other occupants of the cheese factory. They believe cheese to be the unmolded flesh of their brethren, and seek a way to animate more imps from the raw stuff of dairy. However, they are discordant, each one having individual designs and goals.

    Cheese Imp Goals

1 Kill the Wizard for his hubris

2 Ally with Béchamel

3 Accumulate as much money as possible

4 Open a portal back to the elemental plane of cheese

5 Become a wizard

6 Make another cheese imp out of raw, terrestrial cheese

TREASURE

    While the room is sparsely populated, as this was a work space, there is a mothballed set of workperson's tools in the corner the imps have been using to mess with the pipes, as well as 14s in the toolbox as payment. In addition, one of the cheese imps at random carries a golf ball-sized ruby with them, stolen from elsewhere in the Fromagerie.

THINGS OTHERS CAN DO WITH THIS ROOM

    Where did the ruby come from? Why do the imps have it? Who wants it back?

    Where can the players use the tools they found in the room?

    What else might the cheese imps be doing elsewhere in the dungeon?