Collaborative DFRPG Mega-Dungeon

[Tom H.]

Originally Posted by martinl

The Void of Knives

Very imaginative.

I usually consider creations in a more grounded fashion but am always impressed by the novelty of the fantastic.

Can you clarify when the knives attack? Would it just be if a delver falls off a structure and doesn't fly?

I started working on an entry that turned into a little mini story with a small suite of rooms. Hopefully, I can get it cleaned up before tooo long.

[Tom H.]

martinl,

I was curious. Have you actually used these creations (or similar ones) in previous games, or are you just inventing them now for these posts?

[Tom H.]

Originally Posted by martinl

. . . long bridges of black silken rope and white ghostwood planks . . .

Oh yeah, this visual suggested skeletal structures to me. I'm waiting for skeletons to materialize and attack as I'm traversing the bridges. ;-)

Maybe you have to fight every 13th plank as it transforms into such an adversary.

[martinl]

Originally Posted by Tom H.

Can you clarify when the knives attack?

Anyone not on a pillar (on one of the bridges, or flying) must roll 3d each round. If they roll 13 they will be attacked by a knife

The clarification in parens is apparently confusing. Read it as:

Anyone not on a pillar must roll 3d each round. If they roll 13 they will be attacked by a knife

Originally Posted by Tom H.

I was curious. Have you actually used these creations (or similar ones) in previous games, or are you just inventing them now for these posts?

These are all original to the thread so far.

Originally Posted by Tom H.

Maybe you have to fight every 13th plank as it transforms into such an adversary.

This becomes interesting if destroyed plans don't regenerate, so large parites destroy the brides under them as they pass.

[Anders]

The Tombola


After the PCs have entered this round chamber, all doors shut and the room starts shaking vigorously. Everyone must make a DX-6 roll or take 1d crushing damage (treat as falling injury). Then the doors open and a voice can be heard saying "take a lottery ticket".

(stolen from a classical Swedish adventure)

[Tom H.]

Originally Posted by martinl

The clarification in parens is apparently confusing. Read it as:

Anyone not on a pillar must roll 3d each round. If they roll 13 they will be attacked by a knife

Oh okay, thanks. I see how I misread it now. That makes sense. Very treacherous.

[johndallman]

This room has a single large door, barred on the outside. Listeners will hear low-pitched barking noises, as if from very large dogs. With the bar removed the door opens easily, to reveal thick and quite warm fog, with flickering red light somewhere within it. The floor and walls are quite wet.

The room is actually circular, 20 yards in diameter. There is a 10 yard diameter circular pit, 100 yards deep, in the centre of the room, well hidden by the fog. It is easily detected by someone testing the floor ahead of them (Per+4), but anyone moving quickly will likely fall in if their path goes into it (DX-4).

The flickering light and fog have the same source, a large brass oil burner (25lb, with 50lb of lamp oil in it, $500, plus $100 for the oil) on the far side of the pit from the door, with a large brass bowl (5lb, $100) of boiling water above it. The barking is magically produced sound and does not react to any noises or movement in the room.

Lifted from an old Judges Guild dungeon. The room designer's intention was that a scout goes round the wall with a rope back to the rest of the party. When the scout notices the rope has snagged on the oil burner and back-tracks, they realise the room is a fraud, head back towards the door and fall down the pit, with the rope slack, so that there's a jerk when it goes taut. The only time I ran it, the party did exactly that: I wonder if the psychology of DFRPG characters will be different?

[Tom H.]

Originally Posted by johndallman

with the rope slack, so that there's a jerk when it goes taut.

Was the scout okay in spite of the jerk? I guess the companions were still vigilant in holding the rope?

100 yards seems pretty deadly . . . make no mistake. ;-)

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by johndallman

... thick and quite warm fog...

Which won't survive the first Wizard with Purify Air. And... really? boiling water is producing that much fog? I suspect elemental shenanigans are at play here.

[martinl]

The Greenskin Caves

Level: 1

This area is oddly smooth, worn down my millennia of occupation. Anyone entering it gains Laziness (15) (or reduce the control number for existing laziness by 3) for the duration.

This is one of the oldest sections of the dungeon. It was already ancient when the God of the Underworld brought it here thousands of years ago. It has been inhabited by various slovenly brutes for so long that the grime has formed into a sort of smooth, filthy lacquer, and that in turn has been eroded and redeposited so many times that these surfaces are now as hard as iron.

All of the inhabitants of this place have been soul-bound to the dungeon - when killed they disperse as mist, then reappear in the same location 1d*1d hours later. They have all died more deaths than you have had days, and they are so all bone tired that they no longer even crave an end to it all. They go through the motions of life, fighting off delvers, because that is just what they do, but this listlessness gives them all a negative lower purpose penalty of -1. PCs will get the impression they aren't really trying their hardest. On the other hand, they have practiced all of their skills extensively (increase all skill levels by 6) and know exactly what any of the others will do - assume they have any teamwork/co-operation based perks they might need.

There are three major lobes, laid out like lobes of the club suit symbol.

The Brute Caverns has many trolls and ogres, and a "small" giant, who will attempt to smash any intruders to paste with blunt objects. The noise of fighting one will probably cause the other brutes in nearby caves to waltz in slowly to join the carnage.

Jackdaw Pinktoes, a sort of proto-halfling (furry all over), sings ancient, sad songs of blood and thunder to whichever brute currently controls him.

The Goblin Warren is a maze of cramped twisty passages, all more or less alike, full of goblins who know the layout, the secret doors, and the traps perfectly. They have refined their guerilla tactics to a needle point, and have an amazing assortment of mental, social, and physical derangements. Some wear gimp suits and attempt to grapple with chains, some are naked and covered in poison, and at least one just hunches down, grimaces, and explodes as a 7d explosive fireball.

The Barracks is full of drill yards and fortifications, where mismatched units of greenskins who have drilled together longer than your species has had any organized military go through the motions of defending the area from intruders.

The Chief technically lives here, but since no one wants to bother any more this role is assigned randomly when someone wants to talk to "the chief." Knucklebone dice will literally be rolled with the loser sighing before being hoisted on their companion's shields for negotiations.

Treasure in this area is disappointing, since the inhabitants and their equipment vaporize when slain and the inhabitants stopped coveting wealth ages ago, but if they manage to kill other delvers they'll just push the bodies into a corner to fossilize rather than looting the bodies.

Connections -

• North to The Pit
• A lazy underground river enters the barracks and exits through the caverns
• Several pit traps in the warrens drop you to unpleasant places on level 2.
• A Portcullis to the SW
• A partially collapsed unstable cave to the SE