#Dungeon23 Megadungeon Challenge

[ericthered]

27 Apr etr

Description: A 4 yard by 4 yard office, with a chair, desk, and bookcase

Monster: "The Dark Clerk". The Undead form of one Devid Klorksin, a gnomish cleric who died 82 years ago, as a heraldry roll can tell you. The Dark Clerk has abandoned his original patron Yemas, God of fire and birth, and worships the dark god Kolanton, patron of the undead... and Polriket. He carries a golden staff has ink-stained fingers, and is always muttering to himself.

ST    12    HP 12    speed 6.00
DX    12    Will 14    Move 5
IQ 14    Per 14 
HT 12    FP NA    SM: -1

Dodge 9 Parry 13 DR 2

Staff (16) 1d6+5 cr

Skills: Hidden Lore (Elder Things, Undead) -18, Search-13, Public Speaking -13, Tactics -14

Spells: Minor Healing, Major Healing, Great Healing, Recover Energy, Icy Weapon, Resist Acid/Cold/Fire/Disease/Lighting/Pain/Poison, Armor, Vigor, Wisdom, Zombie, Control Zombie, Strike blind/Deaf/Dumb, Steal Energy, Suspended Animation, Madness

Traits: Cannot Float, Doesn't Eat, Drink, Sleep, or Breath. No Blood, Brain, or Vitals. Immunity to metabolic hazards, No Sense of Smell/taste, Skinny, Temeprature tolerance, Unliving, Vulnerability (crushing x2), 15 Energy reserve

The Dark Clerk is likely to fight with the skeleton horde. If he has important allies, he will buff them, but otherwise is likely to use offensive spells against attackers. He will capture rather than kill if possible, so that foes can be turned into intelligent undead or stored for use as sacrifices.

Devid Klorksin is an assocate of Haruk the Ember: they were trying to destroy Polriket when Devid was captured and turned undead.

Treasure: A fine(+1 damage) balanced (+1 skill) ornate staff covered in gold. This is a power item worth $4,000 and storing 15 energy. Two 8 point Thesis of Hidden Lore (Elder Things) and two more of Hidden Lore (undead). Each is worth $600 and weighs 12 lbs ($2400, 48 lbs). An enourmous stack of paper (100 lbs, $2,000, 2,000 sheets) and materials equal to three scribe's kits ($150, 6 lbs). A large number (27, if they count) of scrolls of the spell that summon's Polriket's spirit from Apr 25. Each scroll has a different lie scribbled above it about what the scroll is: a spell to speak with an ancient king, a summoning spell for a monster bound to fight for the caster three times, an elder thing willing to sell information, or some other lie.


The Dark Clerk carries a ring of keys from May 23.


Devid Klorksin's family will pay $50 for news of what happened to him. The Clerics of Yemas will pay $100 for the return of his body in resurectable shape plus $2500 in "temple credit".

Entrance: A single archway, leading to Apr21

[ericthered]

28th Apr etr

Description: A 7 yard by 7 yard room. In the center is an enourmous anvil and a set of smiths tools. An unused furnace is in the north-east corner. When approaching, a hammering noise will be heard.

Monsters: An enourmous 9 foot tall stone Golem covered with iron, weilding smith's tools, and bearing an unusually intelligent and piercing gaze. When the room is entered, he will ask "What can Humble 'prentice Do for you?" The golem will refer to itself as "Humble 'prentice". Humble 'prentice has skill -18 in armoury and smithing, and will happily do smithing work for them. He will at first insist on "market price", but with IQ 8 and gullible, PC's should be able to get a much better deal. The Golem will not sell anything without being giving an equivalent amount of metal in exchange "I got to keep on workin', you know?". Attacking Humble Prentice or trying to take his stuff will result in a battle. He is obsessed with his smithing craft. Use a stone golem with the following changes:

• DR is 9
• Parry is 11 and uses the free arm
• ST is 30, HP is 45, SM is +2
• Smith-18 and Armory-18
• hammer is one handed and deals 4d+4
• No Automaton or unfazable, but add gullible, hidebound and workaholic
• This golem can be negotiated with

Treasure: A set of SM+2 smiths tools ($1800, 60lbs). 10 lbs worth of copper ($500), about half of which will be a random useful weapon and half of which will be being worked at any given time.



Commisions:

• Humble Prentice can make most custom weapons or armor, as long as it has the right materials and the item is mostly metal (So balanced, dwarven, etc)
• Humble Prentice can do $50 worth of work a day in his current setup.
• Humble 'Prentice will only accept metals he can smith as payment. No Gold, Silver, Gems, artwork, or so forth.
• He will not accept any deal that decreases the amount of metal he has to work with by weight.
• He will happily accept iron, steel, or other metals and metal items as payment
• He will happily work any metal he is asked to smith if paid for his time
• He will not do work for the PC's "For sake of Work", despite the fact that he is going to work hard the whole time anyways.
• He's got IQ 8, and I should probably give him the gullible trait: PC's should be able to get a good deal out of him. The most obvious one to me is to convince him he'd prefer an equivalent weight of iron instead of copper, or maybe even double the iron: its a great deal, isn't it? He's smart/independent enough to make deals like that, and single-minded enough to accept them

Entrances: A stone archway leads out to the south, and to the east.


EDIT: from John Dallman's excellent comments. Cleaned up mental traits and skills, added a section on commissions.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by ericthered

. . . will happily do smithing worth in exchange for metal: he only takes copper coins as money. It will at first insist on "market price", but with IQ 8, PC's should be able to get a much better deal. The Golem will not sell anything without being giving an equivalent amount of metal in exchange "I got to keep on workin', you know?".

This is a bit fuzzy. Presumably you actually need to both provide iron or steel for him to make things out of, and pay him in copper?

His treasure description implies you need to give him enough copper to make something, and that he only makes things out of copper, which doesn't make much sense.

10 lbs worth of copper ($500), about half of which will be a random useful weapon and half of which will be being worked at any given time.

How much to hire him away from the dungeon? Any reasonably ambitious party will realise he's far more valuable elsewhere.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by johndallman

This is a bit fuzzy. Presumably you actually need to both provide iron or steel for him to make things out of, and pay him in copper?

His treasure description implies you need to give him enough copper to make something, and that he only makes things out of copper, which doesn't make much sense.

How much to hire him away from the dungeon? Any reasonably ambitious party will realise he's far more valuable elsewhere.

Those are some good questions. First, about payment:

• Humble 'Prentice will only accept metals he can smith as payment. No Gold, Silver, Gems, artwork, or so forth.
• He will not accept any deal that decreases the amount of metal he has to work with by weight.
• He will happily accept iron, steel, or other metals and metal items as payment
• He will happily work any metal he is asked to smith if paid for his time
• He will not do work for the PC's "For sake of Work", despite the fact that he is going to work hard the whole time anyways.
• He's got IQ 8, and I should probably give him the gullible trait: PC's should be able to get a good deal out of him. The most obvious one to me is to convince him he'd prefer an equivalent weight of iron instead of copper, or maybe even double the iron: its a great deal, isn't it? He's smart/independent enough to make deals like that, and single-minded enough to accept them

So the simple way to do things is for the PC's to grab some crappy skeleton swords and commission Humble Prentice to beat them into a custom item with a bunch of CF added on, giving him a mound of copper coins as payment. a more complex interaction would be to convince him he'd rather have steel than copper, take the copper off his hands and load him up with a room full of iron scrap in exchange for making masterpiece gear for them.

As for getting him out of the dungeon... You're right, its probably the best way to make money off of him. I didn't think of that. Getting him out of the dungeon will be rather interesting: The route to take isn't written down yet, but I can see at least three. I'm seeing portals he might not fit through, vertical drops he'll need to be lifted up, and water obstacles. Also, My plan was that he physically couldn't get out of the room due to his large size and cave-ins and other obstacles.... But that just means the players will have to earn the payoff, and that's good play. I've been debating if he has orders to stay but, and I'm going to go with no, though he won't think of it himself.

How valuable is Humble Prentice? well, he's a 24-7 smith with skill-18 (and it should probably be armorer not smith). We've got to go outside DF to get a price, but according to my description he qualifies for the Fantasy Armorer Job at $1,000 a month, will add +80% to that from a typical job roll, and works twice as long as anyone else, probably doubling it. Of course, that's HIS work, and he's kind of his own boss, so he might make $3,600 a month, but that's not pure profit for an "Owner". It will depend on the exact deal made.

I've updated the post. Thanks!

[ericthered]

May 1 etr

Description: A Passageway nominally 5 yards high, 5 yards across, and 20 yards long. It is blocked by numerous bolders that have fallen from the ceiling, leaving holes about 18 inches across at their smallest. There are five distinct "pockets" that range from 3 feet to 8 feet high.

Monsters: A dark mistling (Mar 23) of the type that does burning damage

Exits: The front and back of the passage

Lighting: -10 (no light)

[ericthered]

2 May etr

Description: A 6 yard by 10 yard room running east-west with a fire pit and bedding for eight set up at one end

Monsters: Eight Drake warriors. They speak only reptillian and will attack on sight. They aren't man eaters, but they haven't seen non-reptillians before, are expecting elder things, and are bandits hiding from the law. Two Warriors have Halberds. Four Warriors use shields (+2 to active defenses, used passively), clubs, and have the higher breath damage. Two warriors have longbows and clubs.


Drakes look like small humanoid dragons, complete with tails, wings, frills, and thick scales. They are powerfully built, but not too much taller than a human.


Drake Warrior

ST    15    HP 15    speed 6.00
DX    12    Will 11    Move 6
IQ    10    Per 11 
HT    12    FP 12    SM:0

Dodge 10 Parry 12 DR 2+1+3(thick skin)

Bite (14) 1d6 cu, C 
Clawed Strike (14) 1d6 cu, C
Clawed Kick (12) 1d6+1 cu, C,1
Tail (12) 1d6+2 cr, C

Halberd (14) 2d6+6 cu 
OR 2d6+5 imp 
OR 1d6+4 imp (and can parry)

Club (14) 2d6+2 cr 
or 1d6+2 cr (thrust)

Breath Weapon (14): 1d6 Burning jet, 1/2D 5, max 10
Breath Weapon (14): 2d6 Burning jet, 1/2D 5, max 10

LongBow (14): 1d6+3 imp

Traits: Nicitating Membrane 2, Flight (winged)
Born Biter, Disturbing Voice

Treasure: 8 Suits of heavy hide armor for flying reptillians with tails. nominally worth $450 each, they will sell for half normal price to a town without drakes. 2 Halberds ($150 12 lbs each), four medium shields ($60, 4 lbs each), two longbows ($200 3lbs each), 40 arrows ($80, 4 lbs total) in two quivers($15, 1 lb each),

Entrances: A Heavy Ironbound door (DR 15 HP 39) Barred (DR 4 HP 23) On the western wall and the west side of the northern wall. A similar door is also on the eastern wall, but it is open and filled to four feet high with a barricade made of sticks.

Note: These are intended to be on the far side of a portal, so they have never seen "Town".

[ericthered]

I sat down and listed the custom/tweaked monsters I've made so far... there are 20 of them, about one and a half each week. Most of them are strongly based on existing monsters, but seven of them are pretty much completely new. I think I make them because I like themes, and because I want each room to be new. Tweaking existing monsters is a great way to make new ones. And this is Gurps, so why not make lots of distinctive monsters?


I listed all these monsters because I wanted to make sure to reuse them when appropriate. This list doesn't include NPC's with stat blocks (I have six of those).

1. Tentacled Thing (Jan 5) a custom monster
2. Entrance Monster (Jan 31) a room that demands payment to get out
3. Sand Worm (Feb 3) based on Ice Wrym
4. Void Wyrm (Feb 10) based on Slorn
5. Enormous Snake (Feb 15) A giant snake not strongly based on an existing statblock
6. Force Thing (Feb 17) sphere projecting forcefields with its trunk
7. Black Servitors (Feb 22) like Goblins, but clinging and homogenous
8. Venom Lizards (Feb 24) custom lizards
9. Bear Cub (Feb 27) based on Giant Rat
10. Obsidian Dragon (Mar 5) based on obsidian Jaguars
11. Giant Armadillo (Mar 8) based on bear
12. Bladed Arm Beast (Mar 14) aquatic starfish with bladed arms
13. Corrupted Giant Rats (Mar 16) spit corrosion
14. Giant Ferret (Mar 21) using tiger stats
15. Dark Mistling (Mar23) based on toxifier
16. Blinding Turret (Mar 29) glass balls and crossbows
17. Gibbering Giants (Apr 10) based on ogres
18. eyeless serpent (Apr 18) based on rattlesnake
19. Elder Ripper (Apr 24) based on siege beast
20. Drake Warriors (May 2) Really high end reptilians with wings

[ericthered]

3 May etr

Description: A 10 yard by 10 yard room filled with a dense fog.

Mystic Mist: A permenant mystic mist effect filling the room. If it is dispelled or blown away, it will return out of the mouth of the living pit at a rate of 1 hex per second.

Monster: A Living Pit (DF 3). It is not effected by the mystic mist, and in fact generates it.

Visibility: -10 (no light), plus the mist blocks vision more than 2 hexes away.

Entrances: Four Average iron-bound (DR 10 HP 34) doors. Two of them are locked (no modifier to pick) with average strength(DR 6 HP 12) locks. One key works for all four doors... though that key is not in this room

Treasure: inside the Living pit are Dwarven lockpicks (DF 8 page 25, $3,000, 3lbs), Compass ($50, 5 lbs), Lantern ($20, 2 lbs), Burgler bar ($20, 2lbs, DF8 page 25), 20 yards elven rope (3lbs $30 DF8 page 21)

[ericthered]

4 May etr

Description: A 3 yard wide staircase leading down for 3 yards, then having a 2 yard flat spot, and then dropping for a long time (a drop of 40 yards over a walk of 50 yards). The ceiling is 10 feet above the stairs. The stairs and tunnel are cut out of solid rock. The walls are made of shaped stone, depicting legions of undead soldiers at a life-sized scale, occasionally with more distinctive characters, such as the a human-sized Rat-man with a crown, a deep one wizard, or a skeleton with more distinctive heraldry. The rock is not only shaped, but painted. At the top and bottom of the staircase, a recess in the ceiling has been carved and painted with the words: "The Hall of The Dead".

Monsters: The Falling Greeter, a skeleton warrior whose skull has been coated in Bronze, and who carries a hunting horn and wears a sword at her side. If the stairwell is opened normally, she will greet them:
"Hail, followers of Polriket! The dead stand ever ready to serve him. What seek ye?"

The greeter will not permit the "living followers" to come down without a specific purpose, but if the party says the seek Polriket, she will fetch them a scroll from April 25.

If the PC's break into the stairwell or show hostility, or don't seem to know what the dungeon is for, the Falling Greeter will blow her horn for 2 turns, and then start shouting in an unnaturally loud voice about the groups numbers, equipment, and abilities. This will warn the considerable forces at the bottom of the stairs

The greeter's body has the stats of an ordinary skeleton. The head has DR 8, 8 HP, penetrating voice, and will survive the destruction of the body. If the body is destroyed the head will most likely bounce all the way down the stairs, shouting warnings the whole way. A DX roll can catch it before this happens. It can bite for 1 damage. The skull weighs 5 lbs. It will shout information about the party carrying it the entire time, including all the way back to town. Threats to destroy the skull will have no effect, though offers to return her may have some effect. The skull is utterly devoted to Polriket. If the skull is lost, she will be placed on a new skeleton by the Dark Clerk (Apr 27) and returned to her post

Treasure: The bronze on the skull alone is worth $150. A Bronzed Skull is worth $1,000, if you can get it to shut up somehow. The horn is magically loud (sounds three times as far as an ordinary horn), weighs 2 lbs, and is worth $3,000.

Vision: -10 (no light)


Entrances: This room is under the Squat Dwarf Golem in Jan 17. It leads to Feb 20

[ericthered]

May 5 etr

Description: A 9 yard by 6 yard room with six stone blocks, somewhat like altars, at each corner, with two more on the front an back edges (it runs the long ways). anyone who has been to Jan 31 will immediately note a familiar style to the two rooms. Towards the front of the room are two carved stone reliefs of Humans farming and Dwarves mining. Opposite these towards the back of the room are two carved stone reliefs showing Drake* Hunters and a Flying Dragon

*These are described in May 2

The Entrance Monsters: entrances to this room are a small (SM-8) constructs that look like spider golems 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.

Both sides, common and reptilian, have multiple entrance monsters for this particular room.

The Altars: The altars occur in pairs, with each altar in the back matching an altar in the front.

Altars on the left side of the room (if entering from the main dungeon) have 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, ancient, elder tounge, elven, dwarven, and reptilian.

Altars on the right of the room have a single slot, like that of a coin. etched on its surface are runes for "treasure" in common, ancient, elder tounge, elven, dwarven, and reptilian.

Each middle altar has a stone orb mounted to it. On it is etched the word "mana" in common, ancient, elder tounge, elven, dwarven, and reptilian. 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 10HP worth of blood (from any source, even animal) in the left altar, or a spell worth 10FP 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. The side of the room chosen matters, as it determines what region the entrance monster they are exiting via is in, and knowledge of this allows the room to be used as a portal between the Drake lands and the campaign start area.

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.

Notes: The amounts required to leave this room is different than Jan 31. T this room can act as a portal between drakes and the main dungeon, if desired. This room is one reason the drakes are so paranoid about their dungeon, because they haven't found all of the portals the elder things come through.