#Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge

[ericthered]

Mar 14 etr


Description: a 40 yard long beach 5 yards wide. The sand counts as bad footing. The sand is covered in weird patterns. A hidden lore (elder things) roll can identify their makers as Bladed Arm Beasts and warns the investigator against studying the patterns. An occultism or Thaumatology roll at -2 informs the investigator the patterns are dangerous. If these rolls fail, or a search or hidden lore or other investigative roll is made, the user must roll against will-2 or hallucinate for 10 minutes. The hallucinations are strange thoughts of shapes and swirls and dimensions. Destroying the patterns destroys the effect, and ignoring them requires a roll only after 5 minutes of being on the beach, and that roll is will+2.

Monsters: a Trio of Bladed Arm beasts live here. They are likely in the water when the beach is approached. Bladed Arm Beasts look like six-armed starfish with sharp blades formed by the carapaces of their arms. They are covered in a thick chitinous black armor with segments a foot across. numerous eyes form two horizontal lines in their main torso, with an alien orifice serving as a sort of mouth between them*.

Though they are intelligent, They will not negotiate, and will attack trespassers, but may flee into the lake if the fight turns against them.

ST 20     HP 20         Speed 6.25
DX 12     Will 11       Move 6
IQ 11     Per 11        
HT 12     FP 12         SM +1

Dodge 11    Parry 13    DR 10

Bladed Arm (14): 3d6+2 cutting

Skills: brawling -14, stealth -13, wrestling -14

Traits: Doesn't Sleep or breathe, 
Resistant to Metabolic Hazards +8, Magic Resistance 5
Extra arm 2, Extra arm 2 (foot manipulator), Extra attack,
No Head, No Neck, No eyes (many many eyes), Regrowth
Amphibious, terrain adaptation (sand), Night Vision 9, 
Perk: bioluminesense

Class: Elder Thing

Exits: A crank fixed into the wall slowly (10 seconds) opens a stone door on the left side of the beach. The Beach connects to the lake of Mar 3 (its the southern corner)

Treasure: Extracting the bioluminescence organs of the Bladed Arm beasts takes a survival roll for each, and each is worth $1,000 to an alchemist if sold within the next three days, and $500 if sold within the week. They will glow with the light of a torch for the next week. Roll Alchemy or Hidden Lore (Elder Things) to see if the characters know about the organs. 22 golf-ball sized stones engraved with strange patterns reminiscent of the sand have been neatly stacked. The Bladed Arm Beasts made these, and each is a quarter of a lb, and worth $100, if the seller knows what they are.. they're likely to be ripped off for half price or less if not! Starring intensely at one of them trigger the same effect as the sand patterns, but at will+2.

*Thanks to Matrix walker for the basic morphology of this monster!

[ericthered]

Mar 15 etr

Description: a 12 yard by 16 yard room with a 2 yard deep 2 yard wide trough running down the center of it lengthwise. A solid stone bridge one yard wide arches over it. Two cranks are embedded into each wall.



The Cranks: One crank on each wall opens a stone door leading out of the room. The other crank when turned fills the trough with 1d6 fire damage. additional turns in the appropriate direction increase the damage by 1d6 per turn, up to a maximum of 3d6 per second, and turning in the opposite direction decreases the damage by 1d6 per second. either crank can have this effect.



Monsters: 15 black servitors are here (Feb 22). The ceiling is only 12 feet high, not enough to get out of sword range most the time (though over the trough it might be... if only the trough were wider. They are aware of setting fire to the trough, and might use it as a tactic if they see a chance.


Treasure: Each of the black servitors wears a bronze amulet worth $20 and weighing half a pound. A solid gold sculpture of a leaf worth $2,000 and weighing a tenth of a pound is lying on the ground.


Exits: the cranks open and close stone doors like the one in Mar 14.

[ericthered]

Mar 16 etr

Description: a 10 yard by 10 yard room with a lattice work of heavy wooden support beams 8 feet above the floor.

Monsters: 10 giant rats corrupted by the realms of the elder things. They have perfect balance, doesn't eat or drink, DR 5 against corrosion, climbing-15, innate attack (spit) -14, and can spit a ball of goop up to 6 yards once every 10 seconds that deals 1d6-1 corrosion damage. They will generally be hiding in the rafters when the players open the door. Having not eaten for an unnatural amount of time, they will attack until they are all dead.

Exits: Three exits. The South exit is a heavy wooden door locked with an average strength lock (+0 to pick). The other two doors have the bottom half of them chewed off by some creature. A naturalist roll can identify the creature as a rodent. success by 4 will reveal it is some variant on a giant rat.

Treasure:
An Amulet with a rat on it. Its worth $4,920 and weighs 0.25 lb. It provides immunity to acid and magical corrosion (its the equivalent of the salamander amulet, but for corrosion.

[ericthered]

Mar 17 etr

Description: A 10 by 14 oval natural cavern filled with Tall Grass (three feet tall). an indistinct glow lights the room. a stream of water flows halfway through the room before falling down a sinkhole. The stream is one yard wide and counts as bad footing.

Mana: Very High

Vision: +0 (glowing), -6 (if something is trying to hide in the grass or is low to the ground).

Monsters: A giant Armadillo is in this room 50% of the time. (see Mar 8)

Exits: A natural stone passage connects this room to the end of the stream in Feb 24. The sinkhole is two yards wide, and 20 yards deep. climbing it is at no penalty: there are plenty of handholds, but they are all wet.

[ericthered]

Mar 20 etr

Description: A 15 by 15 cavern with natural-looking walls, but unnaturally round. Wild-flowers grow in it, blooming anew every 20 minutes. In the center is a blasted circle three yards across. Occultism, Hidden Lore (divine servitors) or Thaumatology can identify this circle as the remnants of a very strong but broken pentagram spell for containing a divine servitor.


Mana: Very High
Vision: +0 (ambient glow)


Exits: A natural narrow point connecting to Feb 24

[ericthered]

Mar 21 etr

Description: an oval 10 by 20 natural room covered in lightly glowing giant clover two feet high.

Vision: -1 (glowing), -4 (if something is trying to hide in the grass or is low to the ground).
Mana: Very High

Monsters: A giant Ferret (use the stats for a Tiger). It has a 50% of being here if not encountered as a wandering monster.

Entrance: A natural passage coming from Feb 23, and a natural passage leading the Mar 7.

Treasure: A set of manacles that make it impossible for the wearer to cast magic. $30,000, 3 lbs. The ferret pelt is $400 and weighs 25 lbs, with a successful survival roll.

[ericthered]

Mar 22 etr

Description: A 4 yard by 12 yard room, with rats carved into the walls on the sides, and a picture of the Dark One from the statue at Mar 13 (Polriket) standing majestically at the end of the room. A 4 yard by 4 yard pool is at the end of the room, and a yard of steps leads down into the room

The Pool: An inscription on the edge of the pool reads "Leave Tribute." The Pool is full of coins of various kinds. Touching the pool deals 1 point of toxic damage per second to living things: the water does not have that effect if outside of the pool.

Monster: If any coins are removed from the pool, a demon of old will be summoned at the top of the steps. Spotting this "Trap" requires rolling against Traps-2 or Per-based Thuamatology. The Demon of old will vanish after 1 minute.

Vision: -10 (complete darkness)

Treasure: 39 copper, 28 silver, and 12 gold coins($5,399, 1.6 lbs) lie at the bottom of the pool.

Entrance: Connects to the secret door in Mar 13

Note: Added some more hints to Mar 10

[ericthered]

The "Glowing Nature Level" is now complete. I edited the entrances listed just a little to make everything work, and made a map.

Random Monster Table:

1. 3d6 Giant Rats (Mar7)
2. 3d6 Giant Rats (Mar7)
3. Giant Armadillo (Mar8)
4. Giant Armadillo (Mar17)
5. Mother Cave Bear and Cubs (Feb27)
6. Giant Ferret (Mar21)

A few things to remember about this level:

• Getting in either takes you through a portal that removes blades from the players or involves climbing up a hole with water pouring down it.
• All but Mar13 and Mar22 have ambient glow, fast growing plants, and very high mana. The "Natural Sancity" of the area is not explicitly set, but should probably be treated as high.
• Most of these fights are easy, but the fight in Mar10 is really difficult... though not necessarily lethal.
• The "Goal" of the level from its intended point of view of reviving Polriket is to get the amulets from Mar 8, and get into Mar 22 and bring some water away.
• The Divine Servitor used to be confined in Mar 20, and the Very High Mana Zone is centered there. She has prevented Polriket's minions from getting through, for the large part.
• From a Player's point of view, I hope this section really advances who polriket is. They have the chance to actually talk to someone who has met him, and I think this is the first time they see his face.

This level only has 11 areas, but the other half of the portal should probably be considered part of it.

[Tom H.]

This exercise is too ambitious to really keep up with, but it's fun to know that I can check from time to time to see what develops.

You have quite the fortitude, ericthered!

Tom

[Dalin]

Yeah, I'm super-impressed, ericthered! I've gotten a few more entries written-but-not posted, but am way behind.