#Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Sean McCoy has proposed a fun challenge for 2023. Basically, just create a new dungeon room every day for the year. Ideally, you’ll have 365 rooms by this time next year. There are many variations out there: multiple dungeons, wilderness encounters, designing a city, etc.

If anyone in the GURPS community tries this for DF or DFRPG, share your results here. No pressure around writing quality or actually managing this every day. It’s a brainstorming exercise.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

I am on it. See the link to my blog in my signature.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

A short corridor dead-ends here in a fireman's pole: a thick metal pole passing through the middle of a shaft leading downwards. It's too dark to see how deep it goes but at least 20 feet down.

GM notes: pole is made of pure copper. Each 1' of its length is 20 lb. and worth $1000 if extracted from the dungeon. The shaft is 50' deep, ending in the lair of an unintelligent monster two dungeon levels down, such as a pudding or giant crocodile. The pole is only 40' long.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Started today. Freehand dungeon, foyer, (do dungeons have a foyer?) with a 'porch', entryway, two areas caused by long-term water damage, think limestone caves and a great big door with two valves.

Four monsters, two from 'Monsters' and two homemade creatures. Just with the beginning I am seeing a direction, but I am not quite ready to pull the trigger yet.

My tentative thought is a horrific Elder Races, mutant creatures and hideous creations of magic and Elder super-science and the maddened cultists that love them. As well as the foolish dungeon delvers that will risk madness and death to come back with some gold and glory.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

For starters I'm just going to create rooms and see what happens. Maybe they link up in a mega-dungeon or a group of dungeons or something else. My first-draft thought was that they might all be areas around the Caverntown setting. I had more free time for this one, so I wrote it up in more detail. Some rooms may end up with a few words at best.

Room 1/1 — Dripping Shaft

Description: This cave forms a rough vertical cylinder, about 9-yards across and 25-yards up, with ancient carved steps spiraling around the edge from bottom to top (1-yard wide, no railing). Water drips from the stalactite-festooned ceiling and trickles down the worn steps, making for slippery footing (+2 movement points per hex, -3 to attack rolls, -2 to defenses). The floor of the chamber is littered with bits of stone debris covered by a shallow pool that slowly drains through a narrow crevice (bad footing + shallow water = +2 movement points per hex). Hidden within the debris are numerous bones and bits of gear.

Vision: -8 (patches of glowing slime); note that lanterns and torches will be extinguished if they are dropped in the water
Hearing: -3 (dripping water)
Exits: Two rough tunnels at the bottom and top of the stairs.

Slippery Stairs: Climbing or descending the stairs slowly is safe enough. Moving more rapidly, or engaging in sudden motion (as during combat) requires a DX-3 roll. Failure indicates a fall on the steps; roll DX at -2 to stand up. Failure by 3 or more (or a critical failure) means a fall from the steps at whatever height the character was at. The shallow water counts as a soft surface, halving crushing damage from the fall.

Dökkkápa: A cluster of four dökkkápa (Norðlondr Óvinabókin, p. 60) are concealed amongst the stalactites on the ceiling. They typically wait until prey climbs 10–20 yards up the steps before plummeting to attack.

Treasure: Submerged amongst the debris at the base of the chamber are the remains of former victims. Gear is largely corroded to worthlessness, but a careful search may reveal some of the following:

• various coins [$3d×10, 0.02 lb. per coin]
• a rusty but serviceable long knife (cheap) [$20, 1 lb]
• bronze bracelet inlaid with turquoise [$185, 0.15 lbs]
• greased pouch of 13 small polished agate discs (playing pieces?) [$325, neg.]
• 1 siege stone, probably only discoverable with magic as it looks no different from a natural rock [$550, neg.]

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

1/2 — Chasm Arcade

Description: The sound of the wind picks up as the rough, natural passage opens into a worked arcade along the edge of a chasm. The breeze helps clear the air, though it brings occasional wafts of foul underworld odors: brimstone, mold, and the sourness of sewage. The floor of the passage is 6 yards wide with a series of arcades (columns with arches between them) along both sides. The passage extends 120 yards ahead. It is roughly straight, though it is clearly following the contours of a natural cavern on the right side (see below).
On the right side, there is a low stone balustrade between the columns. Beyond this is the darkness of a massive crevice in the earth. It extends in every direction further than most light sources can pierce, though occasional glints and reflections can be seen directly across from the arches (about 30 yards away). About 80 yards along the passage, the chasm narrows slightly and there is an opening for a broad arching bridge that once extended 20 yards to the far side. The center of the bridge has long-since collapsed, leaving a 12-yard gap.
On the left side most of the pillars form a blind arcade with solid rock between the pillars. Occasionally, however, there are openings carved between the pillars. Some of these open into single small rooms. Others open into a series of linked chambers. One of these, located across from the bridge, has a secret trapdoor in a rear room with a staircase leading down to another area of the dungeon.
When this portion of the caves was more active, this was a shopping arcade with booths and a few permanent shops lining the passage. Little evidence remains of that bustling, mercantile past.

Vision: -10 (total darkness)
Hearing: -2 (wind)
Exits: Large passages at either end of the arcade. Secret staircase descending from a room across from the bridge. Partially collapsed bridge across the chasm. Characters able to fly, walk on air, or climb walls can easily climb through the right-side arches to explore the chasm itself.

Hazards
Falling: The chasm can be as dangerous as the GM desires. It could be 100 or more yards deep, likely killing even the doughtiest delvers. Or, it could be shallower with a soft landing (standing water, fungus, mounds of guano…).
Foul Bats: A colony of a dozen Foul Bats (Monsters, p. 28) lives in a series of cramped caves higher up the chasm. If delvers are quiet and keep light to a minimum, the bats will notice them on a 7 or less on 3d every five minutes (rolling at least once while traversing the arcade). Louder noise, bright light, and/or investigating the bridge or chasm increases the odds to 10 on 3d per minute.

Treasure
The arcade and shops have been picked over many times. There may be some treasure at the bottom of the chasm or in the lair of the Foul Bats.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

1/3 — Fountain Shrine

Description: This circular room lies near the middle of the Chasm Arcade (1/2) on the side opposite the chasm. The entrance is an archway between two pillars of the blind arcade. Gurgling water can be heard, and a party without bright light sources will see flickering multicolored light emanating from the arch.
The room is 7 yards in diameter. In the middle is a 3-yard pool of clear water with a thick rim—more of a narrow bench—rising two feet above the floor around it. The interior of the pool is lined with a bewildering array of glowing tiles in myriad hues. This creates a prismatic effect with colored light refracting on the walls and domed ceiling. In the center of the pool, water emerges from a sculpture shaped like a cluster of tentacles rising from the water.
The edge of the room is a 2-yard walkway around the pool. There are bits of broken ceramic jars here and there on the floor. The curving walls and dome above are covered with carvings in a wide variety of styles. They depict scenes of water (mostly subterranean) and various gods and spirits of water, including some that would be recognizable to surface dwellers.
The water is remarkably clear with no algae or other growth. It is fresh and untainted—entirely safe to drink. It drains beneath the floor toward the arcade, eventually spilling into the chasm beyond.
Vision: -3 (glow)
Hearing: -3 (wind in the arcade and splashing water in the pool)
Exits: 2-yard wide arched entrance from the arcade
Nature’s Strength: +1 (effectively a level of primeval wilderness due to the elemental nature of the shrine)

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Looks like we might need some help?

Jan 5 etr

Description: This 3 yard by 10 yard smooth stone room holds pool of water on its ceiling, intitially quite calm, and also quite reflective (if lighting from the air would improve visibility in the pool past -7, it improves it to -7 instead). This pool is 3 yards above the floor.

The pool is held on the surface of the chamber by a gravity spell. If a PC can get their center of gravity above two yards, they will fall into the water. If they want to get out of the pool, they need to get their center of gravity one yard above its surface, falling the remaing 2 yards (jumping, DX, or acrobatics to avoid damage from a 2-yard fall)


Vision: -10 (total darkness)
Hearing: -2 (poor aucstics due to pool)
Exits: A passage at the far end of the chamber. A secret underwater tunnel leading out from the side of the pool.

Giant Tentacled thing: A giant tentacled thing lives in the pool. The surface of the water essentially acts as a one way mirror, and it will be able to attack players from above using their own lighting. Its hungry, and will retreat with a meal (a creature of at least SM-2) to eat it. This monster has six arms, but is mostly a normal animal.

Treasure: Resting on the "bottom" of the pool in one corner is a collection of bodies and rotted and rusted weapons. Among them are a silver comb ($115, .15 lbs), a silver Torque ($865), and 200 lbs of scrap metal (selling for I'd guess 2$ a pound?)


*****************************************
I'm fairly new to DF, so I'm not sure about the balance of this room, or if the creature is too easy or difficult. Let me know.


EDIT: changed the creature to loose a tentacle on 10 injury rather than 10 damage, and added regrowth and some fairly slow regeneration, so that if the main body isn't dealt with the danger returns, and boosted DR to 4.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

I've decided firmly on the Eldritch Gods/Old Ones/Cthulhlu feel for the dungeon. It will be brutal to the overly curious. My own players are used to the idea of 'Things Man is Not Meant to Know', but an unfamiliar group might wind up getting into trouble digging in too deeply or investigating that strange half-heard hum.

Each section will be unique as one group built on top of another, or was wiped out by their own servitor races, or perhaps simply have evolved beyond earthly forms. Unhuman, abhuman, and inhuman are the hominids, and creatures range from the familiar but disgusting (slugbeasts, slimes etc) to unfamiliar and disturbing, flying polyps, glass pikes, spore powered mummies, etc to mutations of humans, creatures of Dagon, mutant cultists, aliens from beyond space and time fungal bats, living shadows.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Thanks for jumping in.

I love the reverse-gravity pool on the ceiling. Perfect DF flavor.

A combat-focused party will likely make short work of the tentacles. Maybe they grow back quickly so you really need to take out the main body to defeat it. I would also change "10 damage" to "10 injury" to sever a tentacle. Might boost DR a bit too (rubbery skin).

With that said, it doesn't need to be a boss. It would definitely be a threat to the main group that I GM for (they're not optimized for combat).

As for my dungeon writing, I've been working at it every day, but am not ready to post them yet. I've started a set of rooms that go together. I keep adjusting things as I proceed, so I'll post them this weekend when I wrap them up.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Galdurnaut in a Porcelain Emporium

A series of octagonal rooms are joined at alternate walls by a three yard wide arch. The rooms stretch into the darkness. Players who explore will find that the arcade of rooms has 45 octagonal cells arranged into a 5x9 grid. None of these spaces are lit.

In each octagonal cell is a wooden table balanced on a single slender leg. The tables are filled with delicate and ornate porcelain urns, bowls, chalices, and statuary. A fine, even dust covers everything, and while moving at 1 hex per turn through a room poses no risk to the objects, running past, swinging weapons, or making any sudden motions like a dodge or a retreat will knock a piece to the floor and shatter it.

After explorers spend a minute or two examining the clearly valuable objects, a galdurnaut charges from the darkness toward the party, smashing aside tables and porcelain in a mindless cascade of destruction.

Hazards
Walking through any room with broken porcelain requires no roll at Move 1. Moving any faster requires a DX roll at a penalty equal to hexes moved minus one. Using any weapon with a reach greater than C is also an automatic failure of this DX roll, as is a dodge or retreat; so a retreating dodge equals two failures, moving at move 3 requires a DX-2 roll for failure. Failure spreads broken fragments of pottery to cover the floor. Multiple failures cause multiple pieces to be broken. Broken pottery does 1d-5 per piece in a room to anyone wearing less substantial footwear than boots. Each room contains 10+2d beautiful and fragile porcelain objects.

Also, a 15’ long metal bull with poison breath is trying to trample and kill everyone, while destroying objects d’art at a dizzying rate.

Treasure
After the galdurnaut is dealt with, any surviving pieces weigh 4d pounds and are worth 1d times 1d times $750. They are a hassle to carry out, most will probably get smashed into ad hoc caltrops, but it’s a decent haul if you happen to have a padded wheelbarrow handy.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Thanks.

Thanks for the summary. I changed the 10 damage to 10 injury, and boosted DR to 4... which still feels high to me.

Fighting the tentacles is a really valid tactic, as long as no one gets pulled into the pool. So I made the tentacles slowly come back... it will take about five hours. So either next time you pass, or if you really dally, when you're coming back home low on resources.

Yeah, its not intended to be a boss. Its intended to be a sort of puzzled room.

Ok, this is clever. I love the battle concept: how do you maximize the surviving treasure? if you act to fast, you loose treasure. If you act too slow, you loose treasure.



The numbers on the treasure are confusing though. Are you supposed to place less than 45 art pieces before the battle? or does the amount of damage control the players do not matter and they just end up with 10+2d objects afterwards no matter what? both of those feel weird to play with.

The money here feels a little high: the median art piece is worth $7,500. I get that you have to do a little extra work, but that's enough that making home with just the best piece makes the whole delve worth it... I think. I'm still getting my feet under me in regard to DF economics.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Jan 10 etr

Description: A 5 yard by 5 yard chamber, with low ceilings. In the center is a stone dias with an singed Ivory cube on it, resting in a depression. A loud tone emanates from the cube, as does a faint glow. In the dias is a small receptacle for something to drop into.

The Dias and the Cube: The ivory cube, about six inches on each side, has animals inscribed on all six sides: Bear, Hare, Wolf, Stag, Rat, and Boar. Its initially found in the Wolf Position. Removing the cube more than a yard from the dias causes everything in the room to take 3d6 fire damage, repeated every three seconds until the cube is returned or is farther than 20 yards away. Rotating the cube in the dias has an effect depending on which side is placed facing up.

Bear or Stag: Everything in the Room takes 3d6 fire damage
Hare: magical darkness fills the room, as via the blackout spell
Wolf: A Clear loud Tone emanates from the Cube. If this is started back up after its been gone for a minute or more, roll for wandering monsters.
Rat: A key drops out of a cornucopia enchantment in the Dias. This key goes to some other room in the dungeon, but which?
Boar: A booming raucous voice calls out: "Stop insulting me with your guesses. You will never get the key". roll for wandering monsters

vision: -3 (soft glowing cube)
hearing: -7 (if the tone from the cube is on)

exits: None
treasure: The cube is worth about $500. The Cornucopia enchantment will fail if moved. The keys are essentially scrap metal. This is a world with Cornucopia enchantments

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

We had two snow days at my school (I'm a middle school teacher) in Minnesota last week. This led to a whimsical title of a room called "Snow Day." As happens with gaming, this ballooned into a whole thing. I'm finally ready to start posting some of it.

——————————

1/4 — Gear Room

Description: The stone passage gets notably colder as the party proceeds. Ahead, there’s the sound of wind, and occasional flurries of snow gust from the darkness. To the left side, a rough opening leads into a messy cave filled with various bits of gear relating to cold weather. There are makeshift skis and snowshoes in a variety of sizes (including some that are clearly intended for non-human limbs). There are also a few rank heaps of rags, mangy fur, and bits of leather that could be cobbled together to provide some protection from the wind. Any furs of decent quality have been absconded with.

A successful Scrounging roll will find appropriate gear quickly (~1 minute per person). A failure (or no roll) will take longer: 2 minutes × margin of failure, max 10 minutes per person. A critical success finds gear rapidly and reveals a valuable item that was accidentally left in the room (GM’s choice).

Vision: -10 (total darkness)
Hearing: normal
Exits: One entrance from the main passage.

Hazards
Encounters: This is a well-traveled portion of the caves. Roll 3d once upon arrival and again after every 15 minutes in this room (see Encounter Table, below). Monsters may not be immediately aggressive, especially in the face of a strong, well-organized party; use a reaction roll to determine their demeanor with penalties or bonuses as appropriate to the party’s deportment.

Encounter Table (3d)

Code:

---

3–6        1d hobgoblins (Monsters, p. 34) + twice as many goblins (Monsters, p. 33)
7–8        1d goblins (Monsters, p. 33)
9–12        No encounter
13–15        2d coleopterans (The Bugstiary, p. 48)
16–18        Nýi, a Dvergr scout (~375 points) on a mission. A loner with high
        Stealth (17), she will only interact with the group if they appear
        friendly. On a good reaction, she would be willing to guide the party
        through the snow caves (see 1/5 — Snow Day) in exchange for
        information about areas that the PCs have explored.

---

Treasure
If any gear from the chamber is kept, it can be resold for 15% of standard retail, at best. For reference (prices already marked down):

• Makeshift skis [$25, 10 lbs.]
• Makeshift snowshoes [$15, 5 lbs.]

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

1/5 — Snow Day

Description: This area of natural caverns—see the map—is magically filled with wind and snow. Because it connects to a number of areas, it is well-traveled despite the hostility of the environment. A few feet of loose snow covers the deeper snowpack making for slow movement without skis or snowshoes (see Movement, below). The ceiling rises 3 yards above the snow at the edges of caves and in the smaller passages and rises another 2d yards above that in the larger caves. Walls and ceilings are often coated in layers of frost and ice.
Vision: -10 (total darkness); max -4 with illumination (due to blowing snow)
Hearing: -3 (moaning wind)
Exits: Six passages, approximately 4-yards wide.

Hazards
Movement: Hiking through the caves in regular boots (or worse) is at Move ×0.20 (minimum 1). Snowshoes increase this to Move ×0.50. Skis allow full Move if the PC either has the Skiing skill or succeeds at a default roll (for this purpose, use the higher of HT-6 or DX-6) . In all cases, encumbrance and fatigue affect movement normally.

Bitter Cold: The raw temperature hovers around 0°F, but wind chills drive the effective temperature down another 20–25°. Each PC must roll vs. HT for exposure when they first enter the cave and again every 10 minutes. The base roll is at a -2 penalty, minus another point after every 10 minutes until it bottoms out at -5. Moreover, apply the following additional modifiers: -5 for normal clothes; 0 for regular winter clothes; +5 for genuine arctic clothing; +3 for the Warmth spell; automatic success for Resist Cold. Using the rags from 1/4 — Gear Room can offset three points of penalty. In all cases, success allows the character to proceed unhampered. Failure means losing FP equal to margin of failure. This is not cumulative, but PCs should take the penalty for their worst margin of failure (i.e., they won’t warm up while in the caves without supernatural help).

Random Events: Roll 2d
Treasure
Wandering encounters will have gear and cash appropriate to their mission. There is certainly other loot to be found within the snow, but it would be difficult and dangerous to find. If the characters want to pursue a thorough survey of these caves, the GM should flesh it out more fully.

Map
The map represents this area of the cave system. The entrance is in the northeast corner (assume north is up) above the 1/5 label. A few areas of particular interest are keyed.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

This whole exercise has me working on two dungeons, one for the end of the year (I'm hoping our New Years eve deal becomes tradition). And one for more immediate play.

The bigger New Years Eve event will need to be epic in scope and I hope to have remastered the game to the extent that I can do a truly otherworldly dungeon justice. The higher levels of the 2023 dungeons will be filled with various failed cultists and the creatures attracted to that kind of mental/psychic/magical failure and weaknesses. While the lower levels will be filled with the truly soul-shaking horrors.

Since I do not want to wreck a years worth of character development and gameplay I will probably adjust the homebrewed critters between now and then.

I have been listening to the Lovecraft audiobooks to get into the proper mood.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

1/6 — Steep Slope (use Snow Day map)

Description: The passage slopes steeply down to the southwest here. It can be traversed rapidly by skilled skiers, requiring a Skiing roll at -4 to avoid a fall (margin of failure × 1d crushing damage to a random body part). The passages to the north descend much more gradually.
Vision: -10 (total darkness); max -4 with illumination (due to blowing snow)
Hearing: -3 (moaning wind)

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

What if you don't have skiing?


should the margin of failure be capped in terms of damage?

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Good question. If you don't have the skill, but you are on skis, I would roll against the default (HT-6, or I would allow DX-6). Without skis, my thinking is that you're moving slowly enough that you'll be able to slowly clamber down the slope.

Yeah, I wasn't sure how to model this. I was thinking that there should be a risk of crippling injury from a crash, but nothing too extreme. Maybe cap it at 3d of damage?

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

1/7 — Sacrificial Grotto (use Snow Day map)

Description: Rusty iron chains and manacles in a variety of sizes are attached to rings that have been pounded into the wall here. There is a 1 in 6 chance that 1d prisoners are present. Most prisoners are goblins or hobgoblins. The local goblin nation uses this as a form of execution (or ritual sacrifice?), feeding the ice wyrms from 1/9 — Ice Wyrms.
Vision: -10 (total darkness); max -4 with illumination (due to blowing snow)
Hearing: -3 (moaning wind)

Hazards
Dinner Bell: If the party stays here for longer than an hour, one of the wyrms is likely to come and investigate, thinking (correctly!) that there is a meal waiting.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

1/8 — Chtiksizz (use Snow Day map)

Description: This cave features a large igloo-like structure with heavy furs covering the entrance passage. A barbarian outcast (perhaps sentenced to death in 1/7 — Sacrificial Grotto) from a nearby coleopteran hive lives here. He has not been given a name in a humanoid language, but a transliteration of the sounds might be something like Chtiksizz (PDF or GCS). His natural affinity for beasts allowed him to befriend and tame, to some degree, the ice wyrms. He is barely sane after years spending time only with his wyrms, but is capable of communication and negotiation. His primary goal is to retain his independence and protect the wyrms, whom he considers to be family. He is concerned that there isn’t enough food to feed a third wyrm when the egg hatches.
Vision: -10 (total darkness) outside; -3 inside the shelter from Chtiksizz’s collection of glowing crystals.
Hearing: -2 (moaning wind)

Treasure
If Chtiksizz is killed or otherwise neutralized, his primary items of value are his meteoric shields, though he has a few tidbits in his hut that may also be useful:

• 2 Dwarven maces [$250, 5 lbs. each]
• 2 medium meteoric shields with spikes [$8,720, 30 lbs. each]
• 3 hatchets [$40, 2 lbs. Each]
• 30 yards of worn-but-usable giant-spider silk cord (supports 360 lbs.) [$300, 1.5 lbs.]
• 17 lbs. of solid animal fat (lard or tallow) which can be used for food or as fuel for lamps [$20, 17 lbs.]
• 1 whetstone [$5, 1 lb.]
• 1 stone disk, roughly 6” diameter, with an intricate carving of a solar disk being pulled by two great beetles. Holy symbol. [$50, 3 lbs.]
• 3 burning stones (DF8: Treasure Tables, p. 23). [$250, 1 lb. each]
• 5 glowing crystals (dim glow giving -3 to vision in a 2-yard radius) [$500, .5 lb. each]

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

1/9 — Ice Wyrms (use Snow Day map)

Description: This cave is lair to a pair of ice wyrms (Monsters, p. 38). The wyrms often burrow under the snow and enter a state of near hibernation to conserve energy. Deep below them, embedded in the ice, is a single egg. While frozen, it is effectively in a state of suspended animation. When ecological conditions allow for it, the parents will awaken the egg and allow it to hatch.

While hibernating, the wyrms are impossible to detect via mundane means without digging into the snow. They will awaken as soon as they detect the party. Begin rolling for Detect (Heat) when the first PCs enter the cave. They will burst forth to attack in tandem, always hungry for warm flesh.
Vision: -10 (total darkness); max -3 with illumination (due to blowing snow)
Hearing: -2 (moaning wind)

Treasure

• Ice wyrm egg [potentially worth up to $1000 to the right buyer, 200 lbs.]
• Ice-generating organs from each worm are valuable to alchemists. Requires successful rolls against Physiology (Animals) to identify the organ and Surgery to remove it (see Dead Monster Bits, Exploits, p. 24). [$7,500, 50 lbs. each]
• Teeth can be fashioned into 1d very fine large knives per wyrm using the Armoury (Melee Weapons) skill. [$800, 1 lb. each]

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

1/10 — Ice Weasel Warren (use Snow Day map)

Description: The center of this large cavern is home to a pack of ice weasels (Monsters, p. 37). They are not inherently aggressive, but they are defensive of their territory. They are likely to engage in playful nipping when the PCs first enter the cavern. This will become increasingly aggressive (and numbers will increase) as the party nears the warren. If this does not dissuade the interlopers, the full colony will attack. The safest route is to skirt the cavern on its west and southern sides.
Vision: -10 (total darkness)
Hearing: -3 (moaning wind)

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

1/11 — Thinning Veil (use Snow Day map)

Description: The already cold temperature drops rapidly as one passes through the southern passage into this chamber and the wind picks up, whistling through the shards of ice that protrude from the wall and ceiling. The cave—antechamber to an elemental vortex—contains 2d ice alfs (Norðlondr Óvinabókin, p. 115) and a larger ice elemental. Treat the ice elemental as an earth elemental (Monsters, p. 25) with these additional traits: Extra Attack (1), Immunity to Cold/Ice, Vulnerability (Fire/Heat attacks ×2). It has Brawling-14, attacking twice with ice shards that can do 2d+4 cutting or impaling damage (it’s choice).
Vision: -10 (total darkness)
Hearing: -4 (whistling wind)
Exits: Two passages. The southern passage leads back out to the wider ice caves (see 1/5 — Snow Day). The east passage leads to 1/12 — Elemental Vortex.

Hazards
Bitter Cold: Each PC must roll at -7 vs. HT for exposure when they first enter the cave and again every 5 minutes. See 1/5 — Snow Day for modifiers and other details.

Treasure

• The “heart” of the elemental can be identified and retrieved with successful rolls against Thaumatology and Surgery. The heart is a grenade (Exploits, p. 44) that produces a 3-hex ice slick upon shattering; treat this as the Grease spell (Spells, p. 57). [$960, 0.5 lb.]

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

1/12 — Elemental Vortex (use Snow Day map)

Description: As one enters this portion of the cave, the cold remains sharp and the wind seems to suck down the wide passage. Faint flickering light emanates from around the corner to the north. The northern portion of the cave is about 15×20 yards. Snow fills the air and forms a bowl-shaped depression on the floor—deeper at the edges of the cave and descending toward the center. Bluish-white flashes of light emanate from beneath the snow at the center of the depression. If a PC spends some time examining the room, a successful Observation or Perception roll (at the current vision penalty) will reveal that the snow on the floor is slowly rotating and shifting, as if it is falling into a hole (see Zone of Attraction, below).
Vision: -6 (total darkness); max -3 with illumination (due to blowing snow)
Hearing: -3 (wind)
Exits: The entrance passage and an elemental portal (see Portal, below).

Hazards
Portal: The flashing lights come from an elemental portal beneath the snow. Anyone who touches it is transported to the elemental plane of ice (sometimes known by other names, such as Frostfell or Niflheim). Whether one can easily return is left up to the GM, though it will certainly be challenging to escape the zone of attraction.

Zone of Attraction: The planar interface has created a zone of attraction around the portal that pulls matter toward it. The pull weakens with distance from the portal. In the hex with the portal, the zone pulls with ST 20. Its strength diminished by 1 for each hex (yard) away from it. Thus the attraction can barely be felt from 20 yards away but is difficult to resist as one gets closer to the center. Creatures can resist the pull with a Quick Contest of ST every second. Don’t bother rolling until the pull is at least half the character’s ST.

Example: Grükuk has ST 14. She can safely approach within 14 yards of the portal. If she approaches further, to 13 yards, she will roll a Quick Contest of ST every second between her ST 14 and the portal’s effective ST 7. With each additional yard that she approaches, the portal’s ST will go up by one and she will need to roll again.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

1/13 — Scorched Chamber (map*)

Description: A low (5 feet high) passage leads into this rough-hewn cave. The ceiling rises to 15 feet in the middle. The rock surfaces within the cave appear to be badly scorched. There is little ash and no fuel, but it is apparent that a large fire burned here some time ago. Every surface is coated with a fine, oily soot. The floor and ceiling in the center of the cave have webs of fine cracks, perhaps from the heat. Casting the History spell (Spells, p. 43) does not reveal when the fire occurred (suggesting that it was more than a year ago).
Vision: -10 (total darkness)
Hearing: Normal
Exits: 1 passage (1–1.5 yards wide)

* Instead of using imgur and hitting everyone with ads, I'll start sharing files on Google Drive instead. No login required. Let me know if this is inconvenient for any reason.

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1/14 — Rock Mites (map)

Description: The passages on the east side of this area are being mined by a pod of 13 rock mites (Monsters, p. 47). Roll one die when the delvers come upon this chamber. On a 1–4, the mites are active, and it is easy to hear the grinding sounds of their work. On a 5 or 6, they are “sleeping,” silent and appearing like rubble on the ground.
Vision: -10 (total darkness) in the outer passage; -7 near any active mites from the glow of their super-heated maws. Sleeping mites produce no light, but stand out to infravision.
Hearing: Normal
Exits: Two passages, about two-yards wide, at the north and south ends of the cave.

Hazards
Rock Mites: The initial locations of the mites are indicated by the x symbols on the map. Rock mites are not aggressive if they are left to their own devices. If anyone approaches closer than 2 yards, they will swarm the interloper(s).

Treasure
The mites have digested most items from previous interlopers, but one hapless victim tossed aside a basket that had no interest to the mites.

• Round woven grass basket with an attached lid and worn leather carrying strap. Holds about 2 gallons or 15 lbs. of material. Enchanted so that any organic material contained won’t spoil, dry out, or attract pests. Currently contains a string of sausages, some hard rolls, and a small stoppered pot of jam. [$500, 1.5 lbs.]

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1/15 — Unholy Runes

Description: This section of tunnel, about 3 yards wide and 4 yards tall, has a series of runes etched on both sides, extending for about 50 yards. There is a slight curve to the passage so even a bright light source won’t reveal how far it progresses. The runes are old, carved deeply into the stone in an unknown language. Some are filled with some sort of pigment. Others are empty. Some have been defaced.

This is a low sanctity area (Spells, p. 5) but it only causes a −3 penalty for clerics because it is no longer actively consecrated to the infernal.

Gift of Tongues (Spells, p. 24) or similar magic will reveal the writing to be prayers to a forgotten god of darkness. (See Evil Aura below.)

Vision: −10 (total darkness)
Hearing: Normal
Exits: This area is a single passage connecting two other areas of the caverns.

Hazards
Sanctity: Low (−3 penalty to clerical spells)
Evil Aura: Moving rapidly through this area is unsettling but causes no harm. Lingering for longer than 15 minutes or reading the evil prayers for more than 5 minutes leads to visions that call for a fright check (at −4 if reading the prayers). Sleeping in the area leads to nightmares that cause another fright check at −8.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

I'm finally caught up!

——————————

1/16 — Collapsed Passage (map)

Description: The stone in this area has crumbled quite a bit. The floor is strewn with debris and ahead the roof has partially collapsed.
Vision: -10 (total darkness)
Hearing: Normal
Exits: This passage goes roughly east-west and is 1–2 yards wide (dipping just less than that at one or two points).

Hazards
Unsafe Stonework: If anyone firmly prods the ceiling or walls or if there are loud noises or explosions, roll 3d. On 12+ there is a further collapse with the severity depending on the margin of failure. A 17 or 18 indicates that the passage will be completely blocked.
Rubble: PCs can clamber over the ~5 yards of rubble on the southern side of the passage relatively easily if they take care (Move 1). More rapid traversal requires a roll against DX with a failure causing 1d crushing damage to a foot or leg (DR protects normally).

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Jan 17 etr

Description: A ten by ten yard room with statues of five people scattered around it, each in very life-like detail:

• A Wizened old man clutching a staff and a book
• A Tall armored warrior with a sword, shield, and helmet
• An Elven woman with a Bow
• A Squat Dwarf with a big two handed axe, covered in ornate chains and holy symbols
• A Coleopteran wearing a sash, ruffles, and four carved stone rapiers

The room is made of masonry.



Each of the first four statues (not the coleopteran) is a stone golem with a hidden keyhole somewhere on their person (a simple search roll will find it). If the correct key is found (they're scattered around various nearby parts of the dungeon) and turned in the hole, the golem will stand aside and lift their heavy pedastle to reveal a secret door leading deeper into the dungeon. If someone tries to move the pedestal without the key, the golem will do its best to kill them without leading the room.



The last statue is Kittering Gortilitat, A coleopteran swashbuckler who was turned into stone by Polriket, a wizard he sought to thwart. Kittering wants to find the rest of his party, avenge himself on Polriket, and return home to see just how long he has been dead. Moving his pedestal will trigger a fireball trap doing 3d6 in a 3 yard radius.


Monsters: Four Golems, and Kittering, who has been turned to stone.

Vision: -10 (unlit)

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

The link says access denied.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Oops! Fixed. Thanks for the tip.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Jan 18 etr


Description: a 3 yard wide 3 yard tall passage way that's 20 yards long. halfway along it is a pit five yards deep and five yards across. A no mana-zone fills the pit up to the ceiling. The bottom of the pit is filled with various refuse. Falling in the pit causes 2d damage. a climbing roll at -3 is needed to climb out.



Lighting: -10 (no light)


Treasure: In the refuse at the bottom of the pit is $58 in various coins and two old and crusty broadswords that break on any roll of 16 or higher, worth $60 each.

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Jan 19 etr

Description: a 3 yard passage 10 yards long. It is completely lined with bones of the dead, somewhat artistically. 8 animated skeletons are hiding among the merely decorative passive skeletons. They won't attack unless the party is returning back through the passage.

There are about 500 skeletons in the room, if the players want to do something like crush every single skull. Searching for whole skeleton's only drops that number by 100 for every point of success on a search skill, to a minimum of 100 skeletons.

Monsters: 8 skeletons


see "Ossuary"

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Jan 20 etr


Description: A round domed Cavern 10 yards across and 7 yards at its highest point. A small pit of spikes 3 yards deep and 3 yards across is at its center, with rough sides easy to enter. Bones are strewn among the spikes Three Levitating Basilisks are present. When failing 15 vs Will after one of them gazes at a player, The target will rise at the rate of one/yard per second for 60 seconds, and then drop. A quick contest against ST 15 can stop the rising, IF they have something to grab. A fall from the top of the dome deals 3d6 imp damage as the players land in the spikes.

Monsters: Three Levitating Basilisks (DF Monsters 3 page 5)



Treasure: $378 in various coins. A suit of light plate armor ($1800), a suit of light scale armor ($960), four wizardly scrolls of levitation (240 lbs, 1 minute, $60 each), 1 wizardly scroll of breathe water ($80)



Exits: The round chamber has four heavy wooden doors at the compass points (DR 3, 33 HP) with "monkey locks" facing inside: roll at +5 against lockpicking to open.

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1/17 — Antechamber (map)

Description: The main corridor leads into an empty cave with a 9 foot ceiling. The floor is strewn with bits of crushed stone, a few torch stumps, and other minor debris. To the west, the ceiling slopes down until it is about 4 feet above the floor. The light gray color on the map indicates the lower ceiling. There are soot marks and scrapes along the ceiling heading down the passage. An Observation or Tracking roll reveals giant rat prints and droppings amongst the detritus on the floor. A faint odor (carrion? animal waste?) emanates from the west passage.
Vision: -10 (total darkness)
Hearing: Normal
Exits: South: 1 yard wide passage further into the complex; West: 4 yard wide passage with a low (4 foot) ceiling to 1/18 — Dauðagrip Front Porch

Hazards
Low clearance: Characters standing more than 4 feet tall will need to crouch or crawl to pass through the lower area. Crouching characters have a −2 penalty to their attack rolls and +1/2 movement point per hex (2/3 regular Move); defenses are normal. Crawling characters have −4 to attacks (and can only attack with reach C melee attacks), −3 to defenses, and +2 movement points per hex (1/3 Move).

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

1/18 — Dauðagrip Front Porch (map)

Description: The ceiling in this low cave barely rises to 4 feet. The central part of the chamber is roughly 13×13 yards with low tunnels leading southeast and northeast. The ceiling in the northwestern portion of the cave drops even lower, barely a foot above the rough, stony floor. Shining a light into the shadows reveals a narrow opening about seven yards back leading into deeper darkness. With a decent light source, an Observation roll at −2 reveals some scrapes along the floor leading back to the opening. Observation at −5 reveals a knife stuck in the ceiling a few yards into the crawl space.
Vision: -10 (total darkness)
Hearing: Normal
Exits: The southeast passage leads to 1/17 — Antechamber. The northeast passage leads to areas 1/20 — Dauðagrip Back Stoop and 1/21 — Glowing Chamber. The northwest crawl space leads through a narrow opening to 1/19 — Dauðagrip Lair. A character who wants to squeeze through this passage must roll against Escape (see Squeezing, Exploits, p. 21).

Hazards
Low clearance: See 1/17 — Antechamber for the effects of a 4 foot ceiling.
Crawl space: The crawl space is so low (1 foot) that a human-sized character needs to be fully prone to enter it. This causes −4 to attacks, −3 to defenses, and a maximum movement of 1 yard per turn.
Dauðagrip: A roper-like creature known as a dauðagrip (Norðlondr Óvinabókin, p. 56) dwells in 1/19 — Dauðagrip Lair. Its 8 tentacles can reach as far as the dashed red outline on the map. With its subsonic hearing ability, it can detect anyone walking (or crawling) on the ground. This ability is ineffective against aerial characters or those using the Light Tread spell or Light Walk skill. It can attack with up to 4 tentacles per turn, attempting to grapple and drag PCs into its lair.

Treasure

• Fine large knife enchanted with Penetrating Weapon (2). The grip is wrapped in strips of troll hide. [$5160, 1 lb.] The knife was forged and enchanted by a Dvergr smith about 90 years ago (and still has her worn mark on the pommel). More recently, it fell into the hands of a stóralf who strayed too far into this cave.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

1/19 — Dauðagrip Lair (map)

Description: The ceiling in this cramped cave is only a foot above the ground. The place reeks of old meat and filth. The remains of former meals litter the floor around the edges of the cave. The cave is dominated by a large rock, almost like a natural pillar, with ridges extending from it across the floor. This is a large dauðagrip. It squeezed in here some years ago and grew too large to exit. This suits it well enough as the odor from its former meals attracts new meals. It mostly feasts on giant rats and other local vermin supplemented by occasional larger prey.
Vision: -10 (total darkness)
Hearing: Normal
Exits: A narrow (1-foot-wide) passage exits to the south, leading to 1/18 — Dauðagrip Front Porch. A web of old rockworm burrows connects the northeast side of this room with 1/20 — Dauðagrip Back Stoop. Unfortunately, the dauðagrip isn’t able to drag larger prey through these tunnels.

Hazards
Crawl space: See 1/18 — Dauðagrip Front Porch for the effects of a 1 foot ceiling.
Dauðagrip: This dauðagrip has eight tentacles and is SM +1 (Norðlondr Óvinabókin, p. 56).

Treasure
Searching the cave is a disgusting process, but there is a fair amount of loot here from former victims.

• 1 empty, slightly rusty iron vial with silver inlay [$45, 0.50 lbs.]
• 1 very large silver bracelet roughly engraved with reptilian faces [$1,035, 0.75 lbs.]
• 7 ozs. of Sealing Wax [$8.75, 0.70 lbs.]
• 3 glow vials [$30, 0.5 lb. each]
• 1 scroll case, bone and metal [$75, 1 lb. (empty weight)] containing:
  • 1 universal charged tattooed leather scroll of Strengthen Will 3 (3 FP, 1 minute duration) [$300, 0.15 lbs.]
  • 1 universal charged tattooed leather scroll of Wither Plant (12 FP) [$1,200, 0.15 lbs.]
  • 1 universal charged tattooed leather scroll of Repel Spirits (5 hex radius, 2 hours, 20 seconds to read) [$3,000, 0.15 lbs.]
• 1 plate breastplate, dwarf sized, DR 6 [$1,313, 10.5 lbs.]
• 21 billon coins [$210, 0.42 lbs.]
• 139 copper coins [$139, 2.78 lbs.]
• 18 silver coins [$360, 0.36 lbs.]
• 7 tumbaga coins [$420, 0.14 lbs.]

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

1/20 — Dauðagrip Back Stoop (map)

Description: This cave has a 4-foot ceiling. There are signs of a recent encampment along the eastern wall, including the remains of a small fire. The west nook has four small (~10 inch) holes in the wall. The remains of the body of a goblin lies beneath one of the holes.
Vision: -10 (total darkness)
Hearing: Normal
Exits: Tunnel leading south to area 1/21 — Glowing Chamber and 1/18 — Dauðagrip Front Porch; four small tunnels heading west to 1/19 — Dauðagrip Lair (the tunnels are just under a foot wide at their mouths, but they narrow to about 6 inches at points).

Hazards
Low clearance: See 1/17 — Antechamber for the effects of a 4 foot ceiling.
Dauðagrip: The dauðagrip in 1/19 — Dauðagrip Lair catches prey here (within the red dashed line), but can’t pull large victims through the rockworm tunnels.

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1/21 — Glowing Chamber (map)

Description: This area continues to require most delvers to stoop beneath a 4-foot ceiling. The southeast end of the central column has pinkish striations that glow dimly in the darkness. (These are actually a type of tiny fungus rather than a mineral.)
Vision: -7 (dimly glowing striations)
Hearing: Normal
Exits: Tunnel northeast to 1/20 — Dauðagrip Back Stoop; tunnel west to 1/18 — Dauðagrip Front Porch; tunnel east (9-foot ceiling) leading further into the caves.

Hazards
Low clearance: See 1/17 — Antechamber for the effects of a 4 foot ceiling.

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Jan 23 etr

Description: A circular track 15 yards across on the outside and 10 yards across on the inside, with an arched 15 foot ceiling. An illusory kaleidoscope of color fills the room up to a height of 2 feet.

The Illusion: This is a magical effect. It has an effective skill level of 20 (for opposing remove curse). It only fills the human visible spectrum: infravision and ultravision can see through it.

Hazards: Three 5 yard pits (2d damage from a fall, -3 to climb out) 3 yards across are found in the floor. The pits are not filled with the illusion, and one of them contains 4 giant viper eggs, worth $200 each.

Monsters: A Giant Viper (DFRPG Monsters page 31). As it has infravision, it can see through the illusory effect. It is quite hungry and will attack aggressively.

Treasure: ~$500 in silver coins, pick up $50 worth per margin of success, +5 if a way to see through the mist is present. Two keys are found in this room, on a search roll at -4.

Exits: The chamber has four heavy wooden doors at the compass points (DR 3, 33 HP). The Doors all have locks with a -1 modifier to pick. All of the doors are locked.

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Jan 24 etr


Description: a 2 yard wide by 7 feet tall passage ten yards long. There are six Average iron grill doors on each (DR 9, 18 HP per bar) with +0 Locks, all requiring the same key. 2 yards is between each grill, and the smashed remnants of a skeleton is in each cell. The grills make a horrendous grating noise when opened. (+4 to attempts to hear the party approach)

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Jan 25 etr


Description: A 10 by 10 yard room with a 1 yard ring of magical fire (1d6-1 per second) around its edges, and a second 5 by 5 yard ring of magical fire in the middle. A short Altar is in the center of the room, bearing two monstrous idols. The room has low sancity, generated by the altar.



Monsters: 2 Demons of old, armed with chains, and with an extra DR 5 against fire, and having an achilles heel of destroying the statues or removing them from the room rather than stabbing through the heart. The demons are magically bound to the room.


Treasure: Inside the altar is a ruby worth $3,000. The idols are worth $1,000 each intact.



Vision: -1 (the room is full of fire)
Hearing: -4 (the crackling of the fire)



Exits: Three doors, each in the center of a wall. They are Light wooden doors (DR 1, 23 HP) secured with light bars from the outside (+5 to pick).

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Jan 26 etr

Description: A 7 yard by 20 yard chamber with a 5 yard ceiling. In the center is a massive stone sculpture of a sword (2 yards high, 2 yards wide, 10 yards long with an altar with ivory inlays on the cross-guard. Climbing up the sword is at -1.

Summoning effect: When the threshold is crossed (Traps -2 to spot it) a magical bonfire ignites on the altar and 10 demons appear on top of the sword. They have the stats of Dinomen, except they lack the disease effect from their bites, have fire DR 5 on their hands, and can hurl fireballs from the altar. (range 10/10, Acc0, 1d6 burning damage, skill 14). These demons will be summoned each time the room is entered until the altar is properly consecrated with a religious ritual. A destroyed altar will continue to summon the demons, who will do their best to repair it after the intruders leave.

vision: -3 if the altar is on fire, -10 otherwise

Treasure: Ivory Inlays from the altar are worth $600 total.


Exits: Massive Arches at each end of the chamber

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Jan 27 etr

Description: A 10 by 10 yard room flooded with 2 feet of standing water (see exploits page 25), and a ceiling 15 feet above that. Two stone pillars, 4 yards apart from each other and three yards apart from each other, running north-south, are in the center of the room. They are smooth (-3 to climb) and end 8 feet above the surface of the water. various shiny looking things are on top of them.

Visibility: -10
Hearing: -3 (sloshing water)

Exits: Four entrances, each at a corner of the room. Each has a set of stairs that descends 4 feet, then immediately turn a corner.

Monsters: Two Eyes of Death.

Treasure: in two stashes on top of the pillars. four coral gems worth $200 each, and five pearls worth $250 each are on top of the north pillar. On top of the south pillar is an dwarven primer on resist fire, written in dwarven ($200, 6 lbs), a dwarven textbook on thaumatology, also in dwarven ($350, 12 lbs).

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

. . . Talk about claustrophobia!

Sounds like a good opportunity for fright checks once sufficiently inside.

You caused me to use a ruler to measure myself from the floor lying down.

I'm assuming you would need to remove heavy armor to infiltrate the area, an interesting consequence.

~~~

By the way, Dalin, what software or techniques do you use to create your maps?

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Totally. Gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Yeah, I actually wasn't sure what the minimum realistic height might be. Fright checks would make sense. And removing heavy armor. Good ideas!

I've been randomly generating caves using Donjon Then I modify with Photoshop. I haven't done much customization yet, but I added the narrow tunnels for the Dauðagrip caves along with the shading and red outlines. I used a photoshop brush to create the rubble in the collapsed passage. (I wasn't entirely happy with it, but it got the basic idea across.)

This week I have been at a remote camp in northern Minnesota as a chaperone for a school trip. Didn't have a computer, so I drew some maps and wrote in a notebook. It's been many years since I've tried that. I'll post pictures of the results when a get a chance later this weekend.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

1/22 — Forgeling Smith Front Door

This is my first entry done by hand in a notebook. It's also my first time ever inking a map and adding crosshatching.

The forgeling is from Monsters 2, p. 18. This is definitely the "hero" variant from the sidebar on p. 19, though I'll probably break some template rules if I create a full character sheet. I also think he'll be better as a wrestler rather than a barbarian.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Your map with the crosshatching reminded me of the technique used by Dyson Logos.

I was into The Fantasy Trip a while back and purchased the Hexagram mini magazine Issue #5 from October 2020.

Starting on page 24, there was a two page brief interview with the owner and creator of Dyson Logos.

He described his popular map designs. Here are a few takeaway points:

• He inks everything by hand.
• He's transitioning to digital with a tablet but still uses his hand technique. He doesn't rely much on software effects.
• He practices all the time.

I purchased a very basic Wacom tablet to create maps, but I haven't started using it yet.

I'm assuming an iPad with an Apple Pencil is a very powerful approach.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Also, this Megadungeon Challenge reminds me of one started by martinl back in 2019.

See the Collaborative DFRPG Mega-Dungeon thread.

martinl had a useful backstory for a diverse dungeon collaboration:
This idea could be useful if this exercise really takes off as the year unfolds.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Me too. This one is more inviting though. I don't feel like posting anything that's not "brilliant" on the mega-dungeon thread. Here, I want to post 5 times a week, and I don't feel the need to make them perfect: just to make them playable and something more than 10 goblins in a room.


As I write more and more, I'm feeling some themes arising. Maybe after the month is over I'll take all my rooms and connect them together into a map.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Sounds cool. I'll try to keep an eye out, but of course no pressure. ;-)

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

My first conscious encounter with Dyson Logos was the map that martinl used for his one-page dungeon, Encounter at 10 Crown Caves. I love their style!

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

1/23-1/25 Smith's Home

For the next few rooms, I tried a side-view of the dungeon to highlight the ledge above the staircase. Like 1/22, I drew this by hand in a notebook.

Now that I'm back home with my computer, I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to proceed from here, but I'll post more soon. I'm also working up the forgeling smith (yet to be named) as a character in GCS, so I'll share that character sheet when I'm done. I figure that this area could be a heist: steal from the smith. Or a negotiation: commission something from the smith or convince him not to accept a commission from someone else. Or, of course, a straight up murder-hobo jaunt to slay the smith and his dragon companion. Could be a neat location in the vicinity of Caverntown.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

I love the hand-drawing on paper.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

When I went to check this out on Dyson Logos' blog, I noticed that he is doing the Dungeon23 challenge as well.

Some initial activity:
#Dungeon23 Dyson’s Delve II Progress Report 1

Here is where Dyson first contemplates the project:
#Dungeon23 – The Tumissan Underworld

It looks like Dyson was torn between two concepts, so he's trying to do two challenges in parallel!:
#Dungeon23 Tumíssan Underworld Progress Report 1

Myself, tending toward the perfectionist, this pace is pretty foreign to me.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Reminds me a little of NaNoWriMo (Nation Novel Writing Month). Of course, I'm NOT keeping to official pace here...



counting up rooms, I may need a bit more for a floor (I only have 12 for January, since I started late). Maybe in February I'll round up about 30 rooms for a floor. Counting them all up was a good excersize though. Let me see what I still needed.

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Jan 30 etr


Description: a 20 yard by 2 yard tunnel, with a 3 by 3 yard chamber at the end, with a big stone dias with a lever built into it, a small receptacle for something to drop into, and a stone chest on top.

If the lever is pulled, a cornecopia enchantment releases a key into the cubby hole.

Monster: A Horrid Skull sits in the stone chest, with a DR 4, 12 HP lock at -3 to pick.

Treasure: The Stone Chest is worth $1,000, if you can get the skull out of there. Cornucopia keys are worthless.

Vision: -10 (no light)

Exits: one way in, one way out.

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Jan 31 etr

Description: A 3 yard by 6 yard room with stone block, somewhat like an altar, at each end, and a third one in the center.

The Entrance Monster: The entrance to this room is a small (SM-8) construct that looks like a spider golem made out of teeth and claws. (DR 10, 5HP, move 5, dodge 9, unkillable 2). When the golem finds a sutiable entryway, it sets up a portal in the doorway. A careful observer (Per roll, or anyone who stops to inspect) will notice teeth and claws lining the entryway. When "enough" people walk through, the teeth snap shut, closing the portal, and leaving only a stone wall. A quick player might be able to stick something in the door: the "mouth" controlling the portal has a ST of 15.

The Altars: The altar on the left of the room has a basin-like depression with a tiny drain built in, with a stone blade fixed vertically next to the bowl. Etched on the blade are the runes for "blood" in common, elder tounge, elven and dwarven.

the altar on the right of the room has a single slot, like that of a coin. etched on its surface are runes for "treasure" in common, elder tongue, elven, and dwarven.

The middle altar has a stone orb mounted to it. On it is etched the word "mana" in common, elder tonue, elven, and dwarven. It is a very small no-mana zone... effectively it absorbs all the mana cast on it.

If 1000 worth of treasure (coins, gems, jewelry) is inserted into the right Altar, or 5HP worth of blood (from any source, even animal) in the left altar, or a spell worth 5FP is cast on the center altar, the entrace monster will make an entrance in the next few seconds, and the occupants will be allowed to leave.

If an insufficient amount is placed on an altar, words will form on the wall: "MORE".

Damage to the room: Attacking the walls of the room is possible, but there is a portal effect that connects the left wall to the right, the ceiling to the floor, and the forward wall to the back. Destroying or removing a block from one wall removes it from the other wall, letting the players see through the portal (often seeing themselves). The structure heals itself at a rate of 1 HP every 10 minute in each damaged location.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

This is a really cool idea. I have a few questions... really I'm just thinking aloud.

1. How many people is "enough?" (I assume it's the GM's call... or whenever the full group enters.)
2. When the portal is closed, am I understanding correctly that it effectively becomes detached from normal reality. It is like a little pocket dimension that needs the mouth to open to return to the mundane dungeon. Right? That might have implications for knowledge or scrying spells.
3. If someone were left behind when the mouth shut, would they just see a blank wall too?
4. If someone does manage to get something into the opening before it shuts, what would be required to pry it open again?

I could easily answer these for myself, but if you had anything in mind, I'd love to hear your take on it.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

This is really freaky and cool. It's a great way to get the players to understand the dimensional nature of their predicament.

Riffing on this idea would be a room with other doors besides the entrance: say a door in the north wall and another door in the south wall. Opening one door would open the other door and create a portal from one to the other.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Uh oh, I started thinking . . .

When you look through a whole you made in the wall, you could actually see the back of your head an "infinite" amount of times: kind of like when you're in a bathroom with parallel mirrors.

In other words, the room is actually connected to itself an infinite amount of times.

What then is the implication for the casting of large area effect spells: do they "hit" you multiple times?

. . . There would also be a very lengthy echo to any sounds in the room.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

I'm glad you like it! This idea was actually part of a series of DF monsters with advantages from A to Z that I thought up in december... this the J monster, for "Jumper". The monster in the pool on the ceiling is A (aquatic, ambidextrous). I'll probably stick more of them in.

Pretty much. The full party is certainly the most convenient for the GM. If they dally too much, shutting the door may be called for.

Yep! Its a little extra-dimensional monster. You are not part of the mundane world anymore.

The creature normally sets up in an existing doorway or archway. So they would see the teeth lining the door collapse into the little tooth-spider thing, along with the room their buddies are in, as the real room the doorway leads to comes into view. The tooth spider is probably going to run away at this point.

Beating the Mouth's ST 15. That's why it's there!

Thanks. The door idea is kind of fun. Really, you can do a lot with this base idea. I've though of having multiple mouths, and having some way for them to dump you in different places. Maybe blood takes you to a tooth spider that hangs out on level 4, but treasure takes you to the one on level 1... but this is a one-day room, so I'm happy with the base form.

Roll 1d6 SAN!

I think most area effect spells are stopped by walls? I'm not sure. You could set up some infinite distance tricks, yes. The one I've got my eye on is the infinite hole, as you drop from the floor to the ceiling infinite times.

Of course, none of this happens unless someone makes the hole in the first place.

I'm glad people seem to be grasping the setup. I usually get into trouble when I try to explain weird dimensional ideas.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Feb 1 etr

Description: 5 yards by 10 yards and 10 feet tall. A series of fountains line the walls, each dumping into a small pool five feet across. The water from each fountain comes from a sculpted animal head: Wolf, Hare, Bear on the left, and Boar, Rat, Stag on the right. The bottoms of the pools softly glow.

At the end of the room is a sculpted human skull with a carved hole for pouring water into via the mouth. Under it is a dias with a receptacle.

Fountain Effects:

Wolf: objects and creatures immersed in this pool are effected by a levitation spell that gently raises them at a rate of 1 foot/sec for 1 hour. Pulling yourself down requires winning a quick contest of ST vs 8.
Hare: Each turn of contact deals 1 point of toxic damage to living creatures (unless sealed). The first time per day an undead touches it, it heals 3d6 points of damage.
Bear:When removed from its fountain, the water from wolf turns into fire, doing 1 point of damage per turn for something like a hand, or 1d6-1 for full immersion. The fire remains until doused.
Boar: The first time per day a living creature touches it, it heals 3d6 points of damage. Each turn of contact deals 1 point of toxic damage to undead.
Rat: No effect
Stag: As Bear

All effects stop working if the water is removed from the room (one way to put out the fire from wolf).

The Skeleton Mouth: If water from Rat is poured in, a key drops into the receptacle. If water from Bear or Stag is poured in, a fire elemental is summoned and pours from the mouth of the skeleton and attacks! the fire elemental can be summoned twice per day, one for each of bear or stag. If water from any other fountain is poured in (or from a source that isn't a fountain), the lights will go out for a second, and a deep booming voice will say "UNACCEPTABLE"

Monsters: the Fire Elementals that can be summoned

Lighting: -1 vision from the glow in the bottom of the pools

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Feb 2 etr

Description: A two yard by two yard room. It has two tables in it, each with a small chest open on each of them. At the back of the room is a six foot by 3 foot mirror.

Entrance: The only way in or out is three square tunnels is three passages 1 foot square and five yards long. Fitting through them requires an escape roll at -8. multiply SM by -4 as an additional modifier. So a Gnome rolls escape at -4 instead of -8.

A set of heavy porticluss occur 3 yards into the tunnels (DR12 HP23), and a set of magial runes occur 4 yards into the tunnel. Spotting either requires a traps roll at +3.

Treasure: one chest holds 235 silver coins, worth $4,700. The other chest is a cornucopia enchantment for an iron key. The Mirror is worth $2,500, weighs 15 lbs ... and will be difficult to get back.

The Trap: If any of the coins from the treasure chest are taken past the runs, the porticluss will snap shut and stay shut for 48 hours.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Feb 3 etr

Description: A 20 yard by 20 yard room, five feet below the level of the main hall, filled with thick deep sand (bad footing, including +1 Movement point to do anything). The sand is 20 yards deep.

Monster: A Sand Wyrm. Use the stats for the Ice Wyrm, with the following adjustments:

• remove slippery, cold resistance, and Temperature Tolerance, Detect, and DR vs Cold
• Change the name of the breath to "Sand Blast", and change the effect from paralyzed to blinded.
• Add vibration sense (air). This works from beneath the sand.
• Change the specialty of the terrain adaptation to (Sand)
• Add Tunneling 4 (only for sand)
• Ice generating organs cannot be harvested, but Mana organs for earth and air can be harvested for $4,000 each

The Wyrm will start burried two yards under the sand. A naturalist, survival (desert), or tracking roll will reveal that there is a creature lurking here, as will a danger sense roll.

Treasure: the natural bounty of the wyrm (mana organs and teeth).

Exits: This room has four entrances, each in the center of the room: dramatic archways with stairs leading five feet down to the surface of the sand.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Feb 6 etr

Description: A 6 yard by 10 yard oval chamber with an underground water channel taking up half of it. It appears to be a natural rock cavity.

Occupants: Nine Metal Balls with arms, legs, and little mechanical eyes. The small gadgets are intelligent, and will talk incessantly to each other. The refer to themselves as the "Frooglings", and talk often of the maker and creator, the ingenious Dylan Ferlak. They are desperate to reach him and save him from the evil wizard Polriket. He's a Dwarven Artificer who is really good with machines, or so they say. They are afraid of the water, saying that was "Diver's Job". Each has a name and a small difference from the others:

• Hoover: Has a small propeller on his head, and the flying trait
• Shooter: shoots small rocks from a hole in its chest. Can attack every other round, skill 14, 1d crushing damage, range 5/10
• Hammer: Carries a hammer almost as big as he is: Skill 14, 1d+2 crushing
• Walls: Has picks instead of hands, and can scale rock walls at a rate of 1/yard.
• Tumble: Takes no damage from being thrown or dropped
• Speedy: has wheels on its feet and enhanced move 2.
• Torch: Has a jet fire attack, skill 14, 1d burning damage, range 3/6, and an additional DR 5 vs. Fire.
• Glow: Glows with a brightness equivalent to torchlight, and has +3 will. Acts as the leader.
• Diver: Not present, but he apparently could swim and they all talk about how they lost him in the channel.

If attacked, they will defend themselves as best they can. They can be convinced to help with the delve, if they are convinced it will help them find Dylan! they will help with a single room in exchange for being let out of the cave.

Exits: Two underwater passages where the channel comes in and goes out.

Treasure: Glow can be smashed treated as an permenant continual light item... but his weight: 10 lbs means he's only likely to sell as though he was a quarter of the price of $8,000. It would take an exceptional buyer to want the frooglings, but one could possibly be found.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Feb 7 etr

Description: A 5 yard by 15 yard natural cavern strewn with boulders two yards high and two yards across.

Vision:-10 (darkness)

Monsters: 3 Demons from Between the stars live here. They travel through the dungeon quite a bit: each one only has a 50% of being present on any given visit, and if the Delvers have killed a monster from between the stars from the wandering monster table*, it won't be here.

Treasure: A broadsword ($600, 3 lbs), six daggers ($20, .25 lbs each), Halberd ($150, 12 lbs), Axe ($50, 4 lbs), Two Medium Shields ($60, 15 lbs), A longbow ($200, 3 lbs), 35 arrows ($70, 3.5 lbs total), two suits of heavy cloth armor ($450, 36 lbs). This totals to $2210 and 129 lbs.

Void-stone, a powerful alchemical ingredient caused by the presence of elder things, has formed in these rocks from the presence of elder thing energies. A Prospecting, Hidden Lore (Elder things), Alchemy, or Thaumatology roll, or Occultism-5 roll can identify it. $2,000 of it is present, weighing 5 lbs.

Exits:Two natural entrances at each end of the cavern

* I've been thinking about a wandering monster table. I'll probably make it along side the map for the level, and make a new table for the next level.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

I'm behind on posting, but I've been doing some work behind the scenes. After my last post with the notebook pages about the Smith's Home, I spent some time figuring out who the smith is (he has a name: Úri Eldskegg) and what goes on in his home. At some point I'll post character sheets for Úri and his dragon companion (also named: Nauðsynlegur Eldur; usually just “Nauð” or “Nauth”).

For now, I'll add a bit about the room with the columns that appeared on the side-view map.

——————————

1/26 — Úri’s Library

Description: This large chamber has a series of 15 large columns in three rows. Each column has stairs spiraling around it from floor to ceiling, about 15 yards up. Most of the columns are covered with carefully crafted dwarven runes telling tales from the region. Not all are carved yet, so there is room to add more text; the chamber can also expand laterally if Úri ever needs more space.
Vision: Permanent Glow spell equivalent to torchlight.
Hearing: Normal
Exits: Staircase up to 1/24 — Úri’s Foyer; large passage to the cavern; doorway to the fireproof study; rough “balcony” opening 10 yards up on the east wall leading to Nauð's tunnels.

Hazards
No Railings: The stairs are three feet wide and each step is fairly broad—safe enough unless you are especially clumsy, afraid of heights, or engaged in unsafe behavior. In the case of a fall, the floor is hard and unforgiving (see Falling, Exploits, p. 67).

Treasure
There is no specific treasure in this room, but there may be information on the pillars that cannot be found elsewhere.

——————————

As I was thinking about what these stairs-around-pillars might look like, I realized that this sort of 3D perspective was well beyond my meager drafting skills. But, I do teach a computer science class to seventh graders where we use Python to design simple 3D objects. It took a few hours to iron out the kinks and get the math right, but I created a simple scale model of what the pillars might be like (without the carvings or lighting or anything like that). This picture shows the columns from a bit of a distance (the camera would be deep in the wall). This one is a bit closer up, looking down one of the aisles.

The squares are scaled to be a yard across. The pillars are 15 yards tall. The space between spirals (the "headspace" if you were climbing the stairs) is about 7 feet, so a bit short for tall humanoids, but spacious for dwarves. I wanted them to lack railings, but I'm not sure how the top of the staircase should end. Going up into the ceiling seems odd, so I stopped them about one rotation from the top. But it does also seem odd that you could step off the top step and fall to the flight below (or worse). So maybe there is a low parapet or bench there.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Feb 8 etr

Description: A 4 yard by 6 yard room with a pentagram spell carved into the floor (skill 20). A small corridor is just outside the door. A stone podium is just in front of the pentagram, with a place to hold a book. in the corridor are two levers, one painted red, and the other painted blue.

Levers: If the red lever is pulled the room beyond the door is filled with flames doing 2d6 burning damage per second. These persist for 10 minutes or until the lever flipped again. If the blue lever is pulled, the room fills with freezing winds doing 2d6 non-incendiary burning damage per second. If both levers are pulled, the damage still happens, but cancels itself out: there is still usually a bit of residual damage.

Exits: There is one entrance, and it has two doors. The first door is an average wooden door (29 HP, 2 DR) with no lock. The second door is an Heavy Iron door (58 HP 50 DR) that has no handle on the side facing the pentagram

Treasure: A Dwarven Spellbook (Textbook) with the spell "Pentagram" ($400, 12 lbs). A Dwarven Spellbook (Manual) with the spell "Planar Summons" ($1600, 24 lbs). Both books are wizardly. Entries in the book include:

• Flamelord (DF Monsters 1 Page 15)
• Eye of Death (DF Monsters 1 Page 14)
• Demon From Between the Stars (DF Monsters 1 Page 9)
• Demon of Old (DF Monsters 1 page 10)

Selling the book of summons will bring uncomfortable questions in most towns!

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Feb 9 etr

Description: A 2 yard by 2 yard vertical shaft going up 5 yards. Its made of rough masonry, with traces of a green slime sticking to it. A puddle of green goo is at the bottom of the shaft.

Climbing: +0 to climb. If the Goo is somehow cleansed or rendered non-slippery, this becomes +3. Most barriers to touching the goo, like gloves, will give an additional -2 to climb. Falls generally land in the puddle, causing a splash in a 2 yard radius.

The Goo: Light exposure (getting splashed or touching with one hand) means rolling vs HT or taking 2 toxic damage and -1 to vision (so attack rolls are effected) for margin of failure hours. Heavy exposure (like an awkward fall in a puddle) means rolling HT-2 and taking 1d6 toxic damage and -2 to vision. Roll each minute of exposure.

Lighting: -10 (no light)

Exits: A passage leading out at the bottom, and a passage leading out at the top

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Feb 10 etr

Description: An 8 yard by 8 yard circular chamber with a domed ceiling. A pile of rock and rubble 1 yard high and 3 yards across is in the center, shaped like an enormous nest.

Monster: A Void-worm, with eight legs, no eyes, and a head made of Four tentacles with a beak in the center. It has a 50% chance of being at "home". Use the stats for a Slorn, except:

• Bite damage is 2d large pi, and initiates a grapple with an effective strength of 29.
• DR raised to 3
• Add Blind and Sonar
• No DR 15 vs fire or Temperature Tolerance
• Breath (a spray of dark energy) deals 2d toxic to living things
• Can Breath a 4 yard radius cloud of thick black smoke impossible to see through that inflicts coughing on a failed HT roll. Dissipates in 10 seconds.
• Remove Single-minded and Stubborness
• Is an Elder Thing
• On death dissolves into a puddle of black sludge that deals 1d6 toxic on contact.

Entrance: A single open archway.

Treasure: $3000 of void stone (See Feb 7 etr). A silver-covered naganata. ($300, 6 lbs). 3 oz of Spice (clove) ($450, neg wieght), Bronze Armbands with extensive relief of a bear ($900, 3 lbs) with Magic Resistance 2 ($8,000) and a 12 point rechargable reserve ($1,200)

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

1/27 — Fireproof Study

Description: Original room where Úri kept any flammable books prior to developing his stone-carved library (1/26 — Úri’s Library). Eight by eight yards square. Tall shelves along the walls with rolling ladders (all metal). Long table in the middle with stone-topped metal stools. The room is enchanted with a permanent Fireproof spell (Spells, p. 30).
Vision: Permanent Glow spell equivalent to torchlight.
Hearing: Normal
Exits: Doorway leading to 1/26 — Úri’s Library.

Treasure

• Magnifying lens on the table, 4 inch diameter, in a hinged metal stand. While it will magnify tiny print (eliminating -6 in vision penalties), spherical aberration of the lens causes -1 to vision and skill rolls, and prolonged use will cause eye strain (see Defective Vision, GURPS Low Tech, p. 42. [$500, 3 lbs.]
• The books are heavy (3 pounds at least) but numerous. Left to the GM to define, depending on campaign needs.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

1/28 — Úri Eldskegg (GCS | PDF)

Úri Eldskegg "Firebeard" (600-point Forgeling Blacksmith and Wrestler)

ST 25 [100]; DX 14 [0]; IQ 10 [20]; HT 14 [0]
Will 12 [0]; Fright Check 14 [0]; Per 10 [0]; Vision 10 [0]; Hearing 8 [-4]; Taste & Smell 8 [-4]; Touch 9 [-2]
Basic Speed 8 [0]; Basic Move 7 [0]

FP 17 [0]; HP 25 / 25 [0]

Reactions: +4 from anyone for whom you do work; -4 from most humanoids

Conditional Modifiers: +3 on all HT rolls to avoid knockdown and stunning; +6 on all IQ rolls to wake up or to recover from surprise or mental stun; +1 to all HT rolls to stay conscious, avoid death, resist disease, resist poison; +3 to HT rolls for crippling; +1 to initiative rolls for your side (+2 if you are the leader); +3 to resist torture

Advantages: Artificer 4 [20]; Combat Reflexes [15]; DR 25 vs. heat/fire only [75]; Enhanced Parry (Unarmed) 3 [15]; Extra Fatigue Points 3 [9]; Fiery [5]; Fit [5]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Increased Strength 5 [50]; Increased Dexterity 4 [80]; Increased Health 4 [40]; Increased Basic Speed 4 [20]; Increased Will 2 [10]; Lifting ST 8 [24]; Luck [15]; No Blood [5]; Pickaxe Penchant 1 [5]; Rapid Healing [5]; Recovery [10]; Resistant to Disease 6 [6]; Resistant to Poison 6 [6]; Temperature Tolerance (Hot) 10 [10]; Tough Skin 5 [15]; Wrestling Master [10]

Disadvantages: Appearance [-16]; Bad Temper [-10]; Bloodlust [-10]; Callous [-5]; Decreased Basic Move 1 [-5]; Decreased Intelligence 1 [-20]; Gluttony [-5]; Greed [-15]; Pyromania [-7]; Stubbornness [-5]; Weakness (1 hp per minute when immersed in water) [-10]

Quirks: Loves eating rare and exotic minerals. [-1]; Minor obsession with tales engraved on metal or stone (that can survive his flames). [-1]; Will always choose to grapple if possible. [-1]; TBD [-1]; TBD [-1]

Skills: Armoury (Body Armor) IQ+6 [8]-16; Armoury (Melee Weapons) IQ+6 [8]-16; Artist (Engraving) IQ+2 [12]-12; Axe/Mace DX+0 [1]-14; Brawling DX+2 [4]-16; Connoisseur (Weapons) IQ+5 [20]-15; Engineer/TL3 (Mining) IQ+2 [1]-12; Fast-Draw (Throwing Axe) DX+1 [1]-15; Forced Entry DX+2 [2]-16; Hidden Lore (Elementals) IQ+0 [2]-10; Immovable Stance DX+0 [4]-14; Judo DX+0 [4]-14; Lifting HT+0 [2]-14; Machinist/TL3 IQ+3 [1]-13; Masonry IQ+4 [1]-14; Merchant IQ+2 [8]-12; Metallurgy/TL3 IQ+2 [12]-12; Parry Missile-Weapons DX-1 [2]-13; Prospecting IQ+2 [4]-12; Push DX+0 [4]-14; Singing HT+0 [1]-14; Smith/TL3 (Iron) IQ+6 [8]-16; Thrown Weapon (Axe/Mace) DX+3 [4]-17; Wrestling DX+6 [24]-20

Equipment: 4 Alchemist's Fire [$100; 1 lb]; 1 Heavy Plate Body Armor [$141750; 6.3 lb]; 1 Heavy Plate Boots [$45150; 2.1 lb]; 1 Heavy Plate Gloves [$12900; 0.6 lb]; 1 Heavy Plate Helmet (Full Face) [$45150; 2.1 lb]; 1 Heavy Plate Leggings [$96750; 4.5 lb]; 1 Heavy Plate Sleeves [$64500; 3 lb]; 4 Throwing Axe [$2400; 4 lb]

Notes: All armor is Dwarven, Fine, and Orichalcum. Body armor is Spiked.Throwing axes are Balanced, Dwarven, Fine, and Orichalcum.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

https://tabletoprpg333.home.blog/202...1-throne-room/

FEB 11: Throne Room

The lower door from FEB 6 leads to this area. This room has a 15 yards wide and 15 yards long main area around the corner from the 5 by 5 yard open square where the door comes out to. The area is fully lit by magical continual light spells cast on on the ceiling (-0 Darkness penalty).

This area has fine marble walls, floor and ceiling. It is controlled by the elementals, with High Mana and Nature’s Strength at -2. In the middle of the greater portion of the area is a metal throne with red cushions on raised steps in front of 20 wooden chairs in two rows facing the throne. Two large polished teak wooden tables are arranged at the north of the room for displaying a silver crown on a bust (worth $575, 0.5 lbs.) – the rest of the valuables that were being displayed are nowhere to be found. On the lap of the throne’s seat, someone has placed a Wisdom Potion openly to lure intruders into a trap.

The central throne is trapped by Mystical Runes covering the 7 square yards of floor around the throne. The Runes cast the Rooted Feet-15 spell upon anyone making contact with the covered floor, resist with ST or your feet are stuck in place for (margin of loss) minutes or until you break free. The Rune rearm instantly and automatically when set off. The Runes are subtle, resembling mere engraved decorations at first glance, recognising them requires a roll of Per-based Thaumatology or Per + Magery. A follow-up IQ-based Thaumatology roll reveals what the Runes do. A roll against DX-5 allows walking up to the throne without touching the Runes.

Sitting on the throne does nothing.

On the upper western wall, there’s an unlocked standard door leading directly to another room.

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Feb 13 etr

Description: A 5 by 8 room with six Deeply carved stone murals on the walls, each of a different animal: Wolf, Hare, Bear, Boar, Rat, and Stag. The Stag and the Bear are upside down. The Rat is depicted with a crown, and the Boar, Wolf, and Hare are shown bowing to the rat. At the end of the room is a dias with a lever and a receptacle for something to drop into.

The Dias: When the lever is pulled, a single key drops down into the receptacle from a cornucopia enchantment.

Entrances: a single archway.

Vision: -10 (no light)

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Feb 15 etr

Description: A 10 yard by 10 yard pool with steep rocky edges dropping two yards down on its edges (climb at +3). Trees surround the pool. The Pool's depths are inky black and its impossible to judge the depth due to the darkness enchantment. The pool is 5 yards deep, has sloped rocky walls, and has a channel coming out of its base. Its fed by a small stream, and has no outlet.

Darkness: The Darkness enchantment is attached to the rocks at the bottom of the pool: moving the rocks removes the effect, though about 2 tons of rock needs to be moved.

Monsters: An enormous snake lives in the pool. It spends most of its time sleeping, but comes up to the surface every four hours or so for air.

Rumors: This Pool is known to town: it is said to be impossibly deep, contain a monster, and lead to an underwater cave complex. The general advice is to stay away!

Treasure: $736 in coins, mostly copper. 10 lbs total. Spread out across the bottom of the pool.

Exits: An underwater passage leads out of the pool

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

And the first floor of the dungeon is almost done! I sat down and made a map for it. I still need a second entrance off of January 27... But maybe this is level 2, and I can stick an easier level up top, or it has a portal that leads to another dungeon, or something.

For a wandering monster table, use the following:

1-3: Demon from Between the stars (Feb 7)
4: Room Jan 31 (Yes its a wandering monster)
5: Void Wyrm (Feb 10)
6: A Pudding

I'm noticing a few trends:

• There are a lot of elder things in here
• This dungeon seems to be designed as some sort of test
• I need to figure out what the animal motif is and what it means
• This dungeon has a strong connection to a wizard named Polriket and his foes. Polriket probably built the dungeon, no doubt for some nefarious purpose. I'm torn if his enemies found in the dungeon should all be connected into adventuring parties or not.

I feel like this is the draft of a dungeon, and I could stand to go back and tweak some things. I'm also getting the urge to run a group of PC's through to see what's too hard and what's too easy... which is a good thing, I suppose! I look at it and think "This is a grueling delve", but most my DF experience is at 125 points: 250 points is a very different game!

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

It looks cool. What program did you use to draw it?

Re: #Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge
 

Thanks!


I used Inkscape. Its a free vector graphics program. I like it because I can move objects around freely, edit lines after the fact, and set exact heights and widths. Its a pretty generic graphic design program though.