Wallet Dungeons

 While chipping away on dungeon maps, adventure writing, and messing around with miniatures, I came across this cheerful little document.

Wallet-Dungeons

Essentially, roll some dice and get a tiny dungeon. I think I've seen other similar things (I believe a Mothership adventure has a dice rolling method to create derelict ships) but I've had some good fun with this one.

An array of my creations. I love random generators, and there's something about throwing a handful of dice and moving them around that gives me some tactile joy apparently.

The adventure that I'm working on has some high level notes of adventure locales I need, so I jammed my smaller dungeons together to see if they could be used to make a larger dungeon. I've been messing around with all sorts of flow charts and nodes in dungeon design, so this is right down my alley.

Not a long post, the inspiration and drive are ebbing and flowing of late. I've been slowing working on things, but nothing massively interesting to share at the moment. My figure adventures have been thrown up on instagram (for those that are interested in that sort of thing).

Nefolia Caves: sub-level key

While working on the creature and magic item entries for the Nefolia Caves, it struck me that I had not included the 1st draft key for the sub level. This secret area links areas 21 and 25. So I thought I'd throw a post with it quickly. Now to continue on the monsters and items.

Nefolia Caves: map & key

I showed a very draft version of this map some two posts ago. The map redrawn, I thought I'd share something closer to finish rather than the WIPs until now.

It's come a long way since a bunch of boxes in a flowchart and I'm pretty happy with it, as simple and rough around the edges it might be. I'm sharing the current key and map as is, with the idea to make a neater and edited PDF in the future.

Just struck me there's no extended monster or magic item files. I'll compile them and either add them here or in another post.

The dungeon is intended to be used alongside the Caverns of Thracia. My thought was that the place was a smaller village near the palace complex, perhaps a home of workers and others who supported the luxuries of the palace and underground gardens. As such the "Dark One Cultists" are intended to be part of the cultists in the caverns, and statues (which I feel there are a lot of in the Caverns) come up in several areas, either as enemies or decoration.

The dungeon is, and always will be, free to borrow, use, modify, or otherwise throw around the internet.

Map:

(The key is copied from excel and rather crude. A future PDF version will have more effort put into it, apologies if this one is a bit naff.)

Key:

Expanded key:

Dungeon diagnosis - Branches

I returned to my megadungeon for a bit, determined to clean up the starting area I had been working on to work out why I wasn't liking it. I'd flowcharted it before, but I decided to flirt with madness once again and made a cleaner version.

Dotted lines are secret passages, double lines with no arrows are blocked or collapsed corridors.

On a print out version, I'd circled an area and wrote "boring, basically a straight corridor". This is referring to an area where, while there are plenty of doors and rooms, they are only 1 room deep and all lead back to the same path. As I added areas and connections to the flowchart, I discovered this issue was a lot more widespread than I'd initially thought. For all the rooms and connections, there are a lot of branches, dead ends of exploration. Plus there's a lot of squiggly corridors that I feel can be compressed or turned into rooms.

A rethink and a rework is in order. I might even try making a fresh flowchart, making a well looping area then placing my current key over the top of it, rather than try to endless tweak the current one.

1st Draft of the "Starter Dungeon"

 About a week ago I posted a tangle of a map that needed to be edited down. I also set myself a soft deadline of Sunday to get a 1st draft key done. By and large, I stuck to it, and have 95% of a 1st draft (some stat blocks are missing, and a couple of magic items need more than a keyword of detail).

The mess of a map I was working on was also massively cut down. I wanted a small map, but I was sketching more and more rooms which could be a dungeon, but not this dungeon. I wanted something quick and compact to work on, so a lot was cut until I had below.

As the 1st draft was being written, some areas were being cut up into smaller areas or details added. For example, the north-north west cave walls are dotted with small rooms. I was going to take a photo of the notes, but pencil on grey doesn't show well.

As for the key, there are 30 areas keyed, plus a small 14 room sub level not shown on the above map. It's not exactly revolutionary, but its a key. 

There's enough that I'd be comfortable running it. There are 2 main factions vying for control (and a couple of small groups poking around), enough treasure to get a B/X group to level 2, and some magic items and secrets for the curious. Next step, do some editing and some playtesting.

Megadungeon: flow(chart)ing from room to room

 I feel that with projects, especially large ones, there is an ebb and flow much like waves. Things move along, slow down with blocks and problems, and speed up with break throughs and new ideas. I've been working on a megadungeon for a while now, in various iterations and having put it aside several times too, and the ebbs and flows have been keenly felt.

Recently I've been playing around with a new, drastic idea. The last time I did this, my 3+ levels were all smashed together into a single level, massively changing the dungeon's layout. Now, I've been thinking about the map itself and how I present it.

Up until now I've been working on my maps the classic way; ten foot grid, everything laid out in near exact measurements, all that jazz. However after reading through Gradient Descent, a megadungeon for the horror sci-fi game Mothership, I had a thought; did I need to do it this way?

Gradient Descent uses a flowchart type layout to represent their maps. Rather than worry about scale, rooms are either "human scale" or "industrial scale", drawn as rectangles of various sizes linked by lines for corridors. It's not the first time I'd heard or tried something similar myself, but it renewed the thought in me.

I've also been writing some route maps for designing large city and wilderness locales, which I've enjoyed and also inspired this effort.

To make progress and not get bogged down in the size of the place, I cut off part of my megadungeon to begin working on the key. This is that part. I also reckoned that, once complete, I could run groups through this part of the dungeon while I work on the rest.

This is the part I attempted to "flowchart-ify"; Corridors reduced to lines, some rooms linked together into larger rooms. My main concerns while doing this were;

• Does this map the map and key easier to understand?
• Does this make the dungeon easier to run?

Draft one. Boxes are rooms, double line boxes are large rooms, circles are doors. Rooms take about 10 minutes to explore (1 dungeon turn), large rooms 30 minutes.

It's a hot mess, but it's not a blank page and can thus be edited. Areas with lots of smaller rooms, crypts in the original, were joined into "large rooms", the idea being that in the key I would note "x crypts along walls" and include a random table for generating the contents.

I'm not sure if this will stick, or if it would actually to use at the table, but I'm intrigued and keeps up the momentum.

Editing the (stone)hell out of Arden Vul

As my Caverns of Thracia trundled on and the players explored more and more of the dungeon, I could see a crossroads off in the distance; expand the Caverns, add or make a new dungeon, or do something else.

I had already tried expanding the Caverns, but it was a half hearted attempt. I also thought of starting something completely new, but in the end decided to add a new dungeon to the current game, to not annihilate the progress the long timers have already made.

The next question was what. Stonehell was a strong candidate, but I felt for d&d 5e it wasn't enough. While I'm planning on using a new host of house rules to make things less of a cake walk, Stonehell just wasn't enough I felt. I could expand it though.

The dungeon I eventually decided upon is Arden Vul. Arden Vul is ginormous. 10 levels, that many and more sublevels, some of these levels have over a hundred rooms. It's intruiged me for a while and, given the success of several plotting factions in the Caverns of Thracia, Arden Vul with a host of competing groups is right up my alley (down my dungeon corridor?).

The issue is, Arden Vul is ginormous. And unfortunately, I would argue the key isn't all that great. Full of details and nuggets of history and details on who this skeleton was 200 years ago.

But I don't need that when the party enters, looking for gold, and I only discover after half a page of details that goblins were lying in ambush and should have attacked by now.

I can see the good in there, it's just under a lot of... stuff. I feel like it needs a severe pruning before I could use it at the table.

Before I get into my process, I noted down some oddities I found. Maybe I was missing something after trawling through the key for hours on end, but I'll leave them as I wrote them as an archaeological nugget.

• Carving has piercing eyes & empty eye sockets. Understand the idea, but seems a bit off.
• Way too much info on history of some places. Can see a lot of work went into it, but neigh impossible to use at the table (imo).
• Splitting it up into areas, each with own monsters, magic items, and random encounter tables, rather than front loading a lot.
• A ghost appears in a key, then it mentions "if not found in the room before, they are found here". Would be nice if he appeared in the room before, even a "x chance the ghost from the next room appears here". 
• Maybe nit-picking, but why 3-18 instead of 3d6?

To be able to run it, I needed something smaller. Enter once again Stonehell.

I think most people have an idea what Stonehell is and how the key is laid out; map and random tables on one page, key on the other page. There's also a double spread before with larger room entries, magic items and new monsters found there. It's great, I love it, and I needed something similar for Arden Vul.

A sample of the 1st level key. Using excel, there's not really an exact template to it for the time being. In general, monsters/NPCs are noted first, dressing next, and and puzzles/treasure after that.

At the time of writing, I have keyed up levels 1, half of level 3, and starting on level 2. The plan isn't to key the whole thing right off the bat. Any place that a party can enter from the surface, I want that area keyed. As the games continue, I can add to the key over time. Saying that, Arden Vul has so many connections and ways to access levels. While great for gameplay, it's a lot of work up front.

I somewhat feel that, when this is all done, it would be a shame to keep this key hidden. But at the same time, I have no idea about the legalities of sharing a fan key to a dungeon. I'm in no danger of finishing any sort of key for a while though, so that can can be kicked down the road.

Catacombs of the Scaled Ones

I had originally made this dungeon map as an alternative entry into my Caverns of Thracia for my open table game. This was to be the 1st level of a 3 level segment, with various sub areas and such. However, I probably will be using another map for the alternative entrance. If I don't use it for the open table, I've been considering running a B/X or similar series of sessions for my mostly d&d 5e players, though that won't be immediate.

Either way, the map has been sitting on my desk unused for a while, so I though I'd share it here in case anyone might find it useful.

The maps where made on Dungeon Painter Studio, with free assets from 2 minute tabletop. I also shared an image with a white floor

My initial thoughts were that this place is an ancient lizardfolk catacombs. In the northern end Yuan-ti were "mining" the tunnels for bones to create undead minions and guards. In the south was the crypt of a group of lizardfolk paladins, who even in death defend their ancestral burial site. And in the centre, a raider band of goblins and some hobgoblin/orc mercenaries had made their base.

In keeping with Caverns of Thracia, I attempted to have multiple entrances and ways down; a main staircase in the centre of the map is an evident entry to the catacombs, with a yuan-ti carved entrance in the north. To the north west is an aerie, the nest of a lrge bird (hard to see on the map as it looks just like any other cave wall), and there was a plan to have a disused well/air shaft lead into another part of the dungeon.
Stairs down are in the northern large hall, and the dark areas are chasms and fissures which all drop down.
Also the room to the east of the lake was meant to be a secret are, the resting place or prison of a devil. Inspired by this Dyson's map, at the bottom of this long shaft is a White Ziggurat, the prison of the Moronic Devil, held here by a chorus of other devils who siphon the power of the Moronic Devil.

 

Delve 12 - Caverns of Thracia

In which the party checking in on Aatyh and their gnollic allies, the party negotiated a truce, and fought of a large squid creature and found a bunch of treasure.

Party:

• Fang the cleric
• Nieven the warlock (accompanied by a cultist ally)
• Athoz the fighter
• Nox the fighter

• The party enters the main entrance on the 1st level. This level was been pretty much cleared at this point, other than wandering undead and beasts. Mostly parties check that the "death door" (a stone slab leading to a corridor of magical darkness and sinister noises) and continue down to the second level.
• During their routine check, the warlock zones out and has a vision, seemingly someone's memory. It is the end of a conversation, where one person is communicating with Thanatos (the one who the cultists in another part of the cavern worship). The pair seem to be agreeing to something, mentioning how their ambitions are aligned and such. Thanatos refers to the other speaker (who's memory Nieven now has) as Paslaqatal. The memory vision ends, and he tells the party of what he saw, though no one can tell if there is a meaning or reason behind it.
• The party enters a large chamber to the west of the 1st level. It is long, split in two by a chasm. The southern side is a cemetery for the Dark One/Thanatos cultists, while the northern end has a shaft where a platform would bring a demon statue up to laugh and put on a pyrotechnics display, though this has now long been destroyed. In the room the party encountered a group of gnolls, who did not respond to the codewords given to allied gnolls, and the gnolls offered a gem to allow them to climb a rope down the cavern and leave. The party let them go.
• Heading down, the party discovers that Aatyhs' gnolls have set up camp in the western end of the large northern cavern. The telepoter (and the sight of last delve's battle) is in the east, and Aatsyh does not have the troops to repel an invasion from below. The party offers to speak to the lizardfolk of G'ruk, who occupy the southern cavern on this level, and see if they are willing to accept a truce. Aatsyh seems doubtful, but lets the party try.
• The party head to the southern cavern. There they are led to meet with G'ruk, the shaman king of the lizardfolk. He reveals that they now obey Paslaqatal, the Immortal King, and also that they would accept a truce if the party helped them solve a puzzle.
• A stream runs through the southern cavern, and a tale says that a door can be opened with "the blood of the Thracians". The party accept to give it a look, and are let by a couple of lizardfolk up the river. They avoid a giant spider and are shown the door.
• The door is built to resemble the cave wall, and it is not magical. Athoz breaks it down, revealing a small room painted with fanged mouths and three bronze boxes resting on the floor. The party enters. A passageway leads out of the room to a pool, visible, open and unguarded. The party begin they are being led into a trap.
• Tentacles slither down to open corridor. It is a trap. The Guardian Beast, basically a giant squid (or like the Watcher in the water from the lord of the rings) attacks the party, intending to drag one or two down into the water for a snack.
  The fight is tough; Athoz uses a power to grow to ogre size, meaning he cannot be pulled down the corridor, and proceeds to try and keep the squid in place while the party hack off the tentacles and shoot it will missiles. The warlock nearly dies, Nox is nearly dragged away to a watery doom, but eventually the creature is almost slain, causing it to retreat.
• At this point G'ruk conveniently shows up. (Sidenote: I was considering the possibility for G'ruk to be a liar and turn on the party, but given the allotted session time was up, and the open table format, I decided G'ruk would keep his word. Instead, driving off the beast was a test to prove that they could be trusted, and weren't just any old treasure hunters.) The party got to cracking open the bronze chests, being bitten a few times by ghostly fanged mouths, but eventually managed to crack open the locks.
  While the party had agreed to split the loot with G'ruk 50/50, G'ruk instead asked for the magical shield and a fancy jade axe, and left the rest to the party; a potion, magical dagger and sword, a bag of 1000 gold, and some bits of jewellery.
• The party bagged up their loot, sealed a (temporary) non aggression pact between G'ruk and Aatsyh, and left the dungeon.

At this point, the players have pretty much pacified the 1st and a good portion of the 2nd level. Though it is a tenuous hold. Aatysh, while friendly, only has a few gnoll allies (less than 20), and she is expecting a cohort of the Minotaur King any time now. And while G'ruk agreed to not fight Aatsyh, he has a much larger force, and is slowly moving into areas cleared out by the players in previous delves. 

I've also been toying with ideas for a new entrance into the caverns. A couple of levels, offering another way into the caverns, as well as a different biome/area to mix things up. Thinking something to do with poison brewing goblins and kobold traders, maybe a buried stasis prison of ancient plant monsters buried by people who came become the Thracians.

Also, the "magical sword and dagger" are vague as they actually haven't been developed yet. I'm endeavouring not to give out just +X weapons and armour, and I apparently did not update the key here. So that needs to be done.

Filling in hexes (and 3 hexes from my key)

When I mentioned to some French friends of mine that I was thinking of relaunching our game into more sandbox play (it had been on hiatus over the summer, and had gone in a very strange direction because of some bad decisions on my behalf), they groaned; previous sandbox style games they'd felt like they'd floundered, with no real direction. And I confess, t'was a lot on how I ran them.

Before I'd not really read or listened to much about hexcrawls and such, instead just having a vague idea in mind and went for it. However a read through the Alexandrian's hexcrawl series, and reading the Hot Springs Isle adventure, gave be a much better idea on what to do to back my game better. Not perfect by any means (we've had two games since the kick off, still getting used to new ways of note taking) but I'm a lot happier with the density of stuff.

Before I'd have vast swathes of land with... nothing. I'd spend a lot of time drawing a large map, but then didn't actually put anything in it. So, taking a leaf from Hot Springs Isle, I hacked down the map to a smaller size, and filled each hex with at least 3 things. Eventually some of the things got merged into one, but there's a point of interest, landmark, or something to mess with in each hex now. Because I didn't want to redraw maps, I used 6 mile hexes.

Using a lot of random elements (the Perilous Wilds has been super useful), I ended up with some places I'm pretty happy with. I also probably would never have imagined this stuff up unprompted, another thing I'm really appreciating this moment with random content generation. So I thought I'd share some here. Feel free to take any bits, or whole hexes even.

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0308 - HUMMING UNDERWATER CRYSTAL: Under the water is a tiny crystalline object, a wand or rod. Half buried and now it has surrounded itself with a glass like rock, it serves as a repository of transmutation magic, so far untapped.

• Transmutation repository: 60 feet down in the water. Wand of a mage, cast into the sea. Formed a sort of glass like rock that stops it moving. Absorbs magical energy, and can be tapped into with the right knowledge. Lawful, transmutation.

This hex is just off the coast, underwater. I decided even if the players never find it, the nearby coastal areas should also have things of interest. A few rumours could set them off on an aquatic adventure.

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0505 - DRAGON’S HILL: Located in the north eastern part of the hex. The village is called such as it is believed that ages past a dragon died and a hill formed over them. The dragon spirit is said to tend to the lands, helping the plants grow.

• Village: Abundant resources (grow a type of hill weed used for textiles). Problem: Recently attacked (less population, good stolen).

• Ghouls cave: 6 ghouls have a lair in a cave. South eastern end, leave at night to eat the dead warriors in 0606.

• Treasure: 2005cp (gnawed up bits of weapons, armour, jewellery), Ring of Love [the ring of love, moderate power. While wearing the ring, can place hands on someone’s head and kiss their forehead. For the next 6 days, whenever I do something to help the other, the receiver gains inspiration. If one of the pair is incapacitated, save vs heartbreak and anguish. If die, save vs death/incapacitation? If they have a disagreement, both gain un-inspiration, basically a disadvantage the DM can apply once, reversed inspiration).

• Gnomish ghost gate: In centre of hex. Concealed by hills and shrubs is a stone gateway. Made of large rocks. The opening is about 2 ½ meters tall and 2 meters wide. The locals claim that the gate was made by gnomes, and believe that passing through the gate causes evil spirits/ghosts who are possessing or afflicting the individual to break their bond and flee. Claim that the dragon under the hill eats them , or scares them away.

The ghouls in this cave were drawn here due to the presence of a nearby battlefield, which is were all the scrap copper and ring comes from. The Ring of Love was randomly generated, and it's in game effects are still WIP. I've been keeping away from just +X swords and gear; we're playing d&d 5e, so bounded accuracy is a thing, plus I just find them rather uninspiring. With this ring, I'm tending towards the idea that when the pair of bounded characters are together, they're amazing ("The power of love!"), but heartbroken apart/if they fall out. Many folds to iron out beforehand mind.

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0910 - PURPLE OYSTER BEACH: A stretch of coast where gatherers claim to find magical oysters.

• Enchantment oysters: The shells of these oysters have swirling colours, and when ground up can be used to produce enchantment based effects.

• Clear marks (halflings): Halfings have beached here on occasion. The tracks are recent.
• Ghost: The ghost of a fisherman wanders the coast, looking for his boat. He can also be seen wandering across the water.

Recently, I wondered that my fantasy games I've ran have been rather grounded; fantasy elements exist, but more on the lower end. Especially concerning flora and fauna.I decided to shake that up a bit, so oysters whose shells can be used in enchantment magics. Maybe the oysters charm you when you eat them too perhaps.

Delves 10 & 11 - Caverns of Thracia

 DELVE 10

In which Nox (fighter), Nieven (warlock), Iados (monk) and Aspa (rogue) drove off some Dark One cultists from investigating a possible door to their god, and met Aatsyh the rebellious gnoll.

• On the 1st level is a stone slab, blocking a corridor that leads into magical darkness. A plaque (now removed) warned people not to enter the place, for it is the domain of Thanatos, and those that enter never return. Cultists of the Dark One (aka Thanatos) had taken an interest to this entry, and had set up guards while they ponder on what to do next.
• The party had set themselves the task of destroying them. It was a pretty easy battle, as a shatter spell killed many of the hoplites and the officers well to the fighters. One tried to escape and was cut down, while a wounded hoplite shoved open the stone door and ran into the corridor. The warlock sent their familiar through the corridor to have a look, getting a glimpse of the other side of the dark corridor; a room covered in black drapery, and several robed kneeling people faced an undead being of sorts. Then the familiar was torn asunder.
• Continuing down to the 2nd level, they met with Aatsyh at the guard post previously cleared of lizardfolk. She gave them some gold as a thanks for killing the cultists, and a gnoll in Iados' service (taken as a prisoner, and who fought for him as a sort of mercenary) was released of his service to now serve as the go-between for the players and the gnolls. Code words were set up, and the delve ended.

DELVE 11

In which Nieven, Athoz (fighter), Iados, Fang (cleric) and Nox took part in the biggest battle I have perhaps run so far.

• Enter the caverns, the party ran across the zombified remains of the Dark One cultists they had previously thought (bodies lying around a door to a god often associated with death, to be expected I'd say). They destroyed them and disposed of the bodies so they would not rise again.
• As they were ensuring the bodies would stay down, a group of gnolls spotted them. A lucky reaction roll meant they turned out to be allied to Aatsyh, and so the party and the gnolls began the wander down to the 2nd level. However progress was halted when the gnolls, who had been leading the way, turned around and fled from a "large undead alligator". The party also ran and set up an ambush.
• The party found themselves almost ambushing the Immortal King. He was in a good mood, and thanked the party for awakening him, as his people had just returned to him, so his ambition to rebuild his empire could continue. He also mentioned he had been talking to Thanatos, and took his leave.
• The party continued to the 2nd level. On their current path, it opened up into a large cavern. They had always crossed the western part, and to the east could see a dim glow. They knew it was guarded by gnolls, and some gnolls had referred to it as the "way down". They hatched a plan to assault the eastern part of the cavern, and convinced the gnolls they were with to join them in the assault. The gnolls would enter the guard post, attack, then the party would join in the melee.
• What ensued was a rather large battle. 5 player characters +1 retainer, 9 gnoll allies, battling against about 18 enemy gnolls who also had 2 brown bears trained for war.
• The allied gnolls began the assault, quickly overrunning the guards and headed east, forming a shieldwall and hurling arrows and javelins at the enemy gnolls. The enemy gnolls hurried to return fire as they waited for reinforcements from below and a nearby barracks. Unfortunately, while Iados and Nox ran very far ahead (even in front of the shieldwall), the rest of the party were being left behind. Iados took a couple of arrows and ended up at 3 hit points, while Nox went down after being mauled by a bear.
  (I've played a lot of Battle Brothers and other tactical war games to know that you stick in the shieldwall!)
• The allied gnolls stood firm, waiting for the party while harassing the enemy with arrows. The enemy gnolls formed a shieldwall themselves. The bears were slain, and the two lines hurled missiles and war cries at each other in preparation for the melee.

Allied gnolls and players are to the left, enemies to the right. The "1" are dead bears. Yellow squares are pitfall traps, and the teleporter can be seen in the top right.

• The allied gnolls surged forward into melee to try and smash through the enemy. They hacked down two foes, making good headway. I made a morale check for the enemies at this point; total rout! The enemy gnolls broke and fled, initially towards the teleporter but alas, the reinforcements were also allies of the party (There was a 2 in 6 chance of them being gnolls under Aatsyh, which they were). The enemy were taken captive and Aatsyh was sent for.
• Dog sister Aatsyh had a mixed reaction; while she was happy they had succeeded, she also knew this event would be practically impossible to cover up. Essentially, they had declared war on the Minotaur King, and only a miracle would ensure that Aatsyh's betray was not discovered (20 odd gnolls don't just disappear).
• Iados tried to convince Aatsyh to allow him to take some captives so that he could "train them", which she strongly refused; the gnolls had been slaves to and revolted against the Thracians in the past, and she didn't like Iados idea of "captive soldiers to reform them". She told them they could take the plunder, and she would take on the prisoners (to give them a chance to join her, or let them leave the dungeon). The party took the 2000 or so gold coins in loot from the gnoll barracks, and the delve ended there.

Recent delves have really shook things up in the Caverns of Thracia; wihle rolling for restocking, I rolled that G'ruk (the leader of the lizardfolk) was in the lizardfolk temple, meaning he's now also discovered that the Immortal King has returned. If the players can capitalise on their most recent victory, they essentially have a straight path from the top all the way down to the 3rd level, where the Minotaur King dwells.

Of course, the Minotaur King might not just sit on his hands, for the teleporter is the only way he knows to the surface (well there is another way but that's perhaps a secret for himself and his closest officers). He also needs a victory, as the other troops under his command might start doubting his ability to actually lead warriors. The Dark One cultists have also abandoned their chapel (for now), though Thanatos hasn't, and his influence slowly grows.

Now I just need to actually prep the lower levels...

Delves 8 & 9 - Caverns of Thracia

DELVE 8 

In which Iados (monk), Aspa (rogue), Athoz (fighter) and Nieven (warlock) awaken the Immortal King.

• The party decided they were going to explore more of the lizardfolk temple, where they had found a golden mask a few sessions ago.
• They ran into some skeletons on the 1st level, perhaps hinting that a rumour they'd heard about the influence of a "warrior of the Dark One" wasn't just a tall tale.
• Reaching the temple, they began exploring it's southern reaches. Some jars were found, undead lizardfolk fought, nothing too out of the ordinary.
• Then they came across the Immortal King's sepulchre. He was dormant, sitting on piles and piles of coins. When the party appeared, there was a blink of arcane light and he disappeared. The party decided to grab what they can and run.
  However the King was waiting for them in the main chamber, and ordered they drop what they had taken. The warlock decided to be cute and tried to teleport and run away, only to be counterspelled and paralyzed by the powerful mage. He let them live, on condition that they bring the lizardfolk to him so that "I may start my empire once more".

He didn't ask for the jars however, which were worth a pretty penny to a collector in town.

DELVE 9

In which three new characters, Nox (fighter), Nax (druid) and Fang (cleric) made some friends.

• On the 1st level, they saw animated skeletons where the previous party had destroyed some. After opening fire, there a panicked cry as a women, introducing herself as Elise, stated her business; she had been studying some oddities on the level, and had animated the skeletons to protect herself. Suspicion slowly melted away as Elise asked if she could accompany them (to keep her safe), and allowed the party to name her three skeletons in a show of good faith.

Elise is the "1" for now, with her animated bodyguards Chrarles, Trout and Carrie.

• Heading down a level, they ran into some gnolls who asked if the party wanted gold. They agreed, and waited for the gnolls to fetch their commanding officer.
  (This was due to a lucky reaction roll; the gnolls were friendly. This wasn't the first time, and I'd determined between sessions that perhaps there is a faction of gnolls unhappy fighting for the Minotaur King down below. The gnolls had suffered most at the hands of adventurers, while the Minotaur King feasted in the palace below.)
• They met Dog Sister Aatsyh, the head of a burgeoning faction of rebellious gnolls. She told the party that, by working together, they could clear the upper level and a way down to the 3rd. Aatysh and her gnolls would hold the passages open and, for a fee, allow adventurers to pass. The party agreed (as having someone to keep the cleared parts of the dungeon enemy free would be handy for faster travel) and agreed to clear out some lizardfolk from a nearby guardpost, so that Aatsyh could garrison it with loyal gnolls.
• A tough and grueling battle ensued in a nearby guardpost; the 7 lizardfolk were stubborn. The fight was in a 10 foot doorway, Elise blinded javelin throwers with a fog cloud, so it was down to a bloody melee. Nox went down, all of the skeletons were destroyed (though their bones were collected for further reanimation), and eventually the cleric was fighting toe to toe with three exhausted lizardfolk. A lizardfolk asked for a parley and, in exchange for a jewelled sword they found, the lizardfolk offered to retreat. The party, also in poor condition, agreed.
• The lizardfolk produced the jewelled two handed sword, a fine piece of gear. It sold for a few hundred, allowing the party to level up.

I decided to try a different way of writing out delves today. The bullet points feel easier to write and feel less rambling than just blocks of text. They're also a bit quicker to write and easier to sum up details, useful when I've forgotten to write delves from some weeks ago! Maybe I'll write up delves a day or so after I've ran then. Maybe. 

Delves 7 & 8 - Caverns of Thracia

DELVE 7

Four of the longer playing players decide that they need to explore more of the hidden away complex, the one painted with scenes of lizardfolk, full of stalagmites and where they found the golden mask in the 2nd session. Progress down into the complex itself went well, as they'd mapped out a path and cleared it out in previous delves.
Once in the complex, they began prodding around. The first thing they notice is that the area around the gate to the ethereal plane is covered with spider webs. The warlock and monk decide to cut through the webs to try and reach the door, however they are jumped by a pair of phase spiders. The warlock is bitten badly and the monk would have been hit, was it not for the fighter managing to redirect the attack to hit the second phase spider, which promptly kills its friend in a single hit. The spider jaunts away, having lost the element of surprise.
They found a secret panel that went into the red statue room (the statue that guards a large room full of gemstone encrusted statues, which punched a character a session or so ago). After messing around seeing if any of the gems or crown come off, they decided to let it be and continue exploring.
The corridors take them to a room full of funeral jars. They take four, and find a hidden door that leads deeper into the complex. They battle a couple of undead lizardfolk before coming across the final area of the complex; a room piled with coins, swords, and gems. However there is also a ogre sized skeleton of a lizardfolk sitting on a stone dais, and it blinks out in a purple flash as they enter. The party scoops up as much money as they can and run.

Unfortunately for them, the lizardfolk is waiting for them by the exit. Summoning an earth elemental to make a point, they demand that they drop all they have taken. The warlock decides to try and make a run for it, but the undead lizardfolk counter spells the misty step. Introducing themselves as the Immortal King, they demand that the party does not return, unless they bring with them the Scaled Ones (ie the lizardfolk). The party leave behind the gold (though not the jars, but the King doesn't really care about them) and are allowed to leave.

As the module starts, G'ruk, a lizardfolk shaman, is searching for or caring for the complex, which they now know to be the resting place of this Immortal King. However when the party first arrived, they spiked shut G'ruk's only entrance to the complex. I've been rolling in between sessions to see if the lizardfolk find an alternative entrance to the complex, and so far they have not. However, with the King now up and awake, that chance will probably go right up.
The fallout could be interesting for this area; G'ruk is strictly speaking a subject of the Minotaur King, however he only agreed to do so to search for the Immortal King's tomb. Once it has been found, will G'ruk and his loyalists break away? From previous games, we've already determined that not all of the gnolls under the Minotaur King are exactly happy with this rule, if G'ruk breaks away it could end very poorly for the Minotaur King. Or alternatively, cause him to strike back.
Either way, lots of interesting ways this could go, and so many ways for the players to get mixed in and change the situation.

DELVE 8

This delve was another smaller one with my French friends. A druid and a bard, though this time accompanied by the Thakian hoplite the druid had spared in their last delve (now converted from the cult of the Dark One). The pair were determined to go down and investigate more of the dark deeds of this cult, to which the hoplite pointed out the alternative entrances into the caverns, one of which dropped them directly into the cultists' hideout. They decided to drop in through the shaft, and thus would have the element of surprise.

Their first order of business was to get rid of a guard. The hoplite pretended to have captured the druid, and once they were close enough jumped him and gagged him. They then burst through the door to a small chapel/purification room, with the druid wildshaping into a tiger and tearing apart a couple of cultist acolytes. One guard is killed, the other surrenders and is gagged and left with the other one.

They push on, but are repelled when four hoplites manage to hold them off from getting into a treasure room. They kill one but are forced to retreat.

It was a short session, but at the end of it more plans on how to delve deeper were had, and a hireling Jerzi taken on to help out. Jerzi was once a herald to a noble, but was exiled for something he'd rather not talk about.

Delves 2 through 6 - Caverns of Thracia

What follows are brief summaries of my previous games of running an expanded Caverns of Thracia. These follow up from my previous post.

DELVE 2

The party entered down the main staircase, weaving through cleared rooms and corridors. The rogue noticed a secret door in a long, gently sloped corridor. The door led into a huge room. The centre of the room had fallen away, and the southern end (across the chasm) was full of lines and lines of corpses laid out. As they stood around, a demon statue rose from an alcove and proceeded to laugh and shoot flames in a pyrotechnics display. As it began to skip back into the floor, the party jammed and broke the sliding door and climbed down the shaft to get below.

From there they uncovered a seemingly abandoned part of the complex. The walls here were bare stone, and stalagmites had formed over the years or even centuries. They found themselves in a sort of hall or temple. The walls here were covered with paintings of reptilian priests, as well as a large winged reptilian person that appeared in many of the wall paintings.

Here they unlocked a door to the ethereal plane (and prompting closed it, not before one of the characters threw and eldritch blast through it), uncovered a concealed room containing a golden mask, and then climbed out to call it a day.

DELVE 3

The party returned to the large room with the lines of bodies, crossing the chasm and looting a chest they could see on the other side (the chest belonged to a priestess of the Dark One cultists). Many of the bodies began to rise and attack the intruders, who retreated as more bodies rose up. A couple of Thakian hoplites appeared to see what all the noise was about, telling the party that they should leave their cemetery alone.

They left the large hall and began descending to the 2nd level, though the path ahead was blocked by a large construction, seemingly a hodge-podge of several statues. They ran back up, but some disagreement over whether they should run or fight led them to stop and enter combat with the statue. The fight turned south very quickly, with the fighter being knocked unconscious, the rogue getting killed in a valiant attempt to rescue them, and a gnoll retainer being knocked unconscious. The rest of the party then fled, returning to drag out their companions and to resurrect the rogue.

DELVE 4

The group for this delve was rather large, with seven players and two retainers (with two of the players being new). They went down another entrance this time, a southern one to speak to the Dark One cultists. After a lot of talking in which the warlock offended the cultists and began generally causing them grief, one of the rogues decided to take the Dark One's blessing. The rest then left, deciding they had outstayed their welcome. They ran into some gnolls on the surface, but there was no more exploring that day.

DELVE 5

The rogue, who had been punched to death by the statue and then resurrected, was now in debt to a local crime lord. The crime lord, Puzur, agreed to foot the bill for the bringing the rogue back, but in exchange they had to perform a task for them; an adventurer had cheated the Puzur, for they had made a deal involving a magic crossbow, but the adventurer had taken the gold and the crossbow and ran away. Spies said they'd seen the adventurer as well as several others enter the caverns.

The party was focused this time, quickly finding the dwarven adventurer and, after a brief scuffle, "convinced" him to give up the crossbow. The adventurer revealed his plan to sell it to the gnolls, thus getting paid twice, and as the conversation finished up a war party of gnolls was heard approaching. The two parties fled the scene.

The party found themselves in a frost covered room they had visited before. While searching the walls for any secrets, the fighter found part of the wall that was in fact a mimic. It had a necrotic vapour that nearly killed them, though the party was able to extract them and kill the mimic. This revealed a passage beyond, with one way leading to a large hall filled with 10 rich statues, all with gemstones set in their eyes.

However as they began to remove the stones, part of the wall opened up and a huge statue made of red stone walled out, pointing to those who carried gemstones. The party gave up the stones, and the moving statue returned them to their places. The party decided not to fight, given their previous experiences with moving statues.

They continued through another door, a room and corridor covered with alcoves containing skeletons. Of course, the skeletons came to life and attacked. While most of the party hung out around the door, one of the rogues (not the statue punched one, the one who has the Dark One's blessing) ran into the midst of the skeletons, which promptly got him stabbed multiple times and killed.

However, it was at this point that one of the players reminded me of the Dark One's mark. This prompted several frantic messages back and forth as the rogue, dying on the stones, saw a tall lithe figure above them, with slender arms and features and either tears running down their face, or several eyes. It was the Dark One, and they offered the rogue life and power in exchange for service. The rogue accepted, the skeletons disintegrated around them, and the fight was over.

So one rogue had their debt erased, and another found themselves in the service of a shadowy god of death and fate!

DELVE 6

A slightly different delve, as instead of the usual suspects, I ran it for a couple of my French friends. They followed pretty closely to the previous delve in terms of where they travelled. They met a band of Thakians heading to the 2nd level to fight gnolls, followed them, then ambushed two survivors when the gnolls shot them down and sent them running. They caught the leader and killed them, and let the last hoplite alive and freed them.

They also found the room with statues with gemstone eyes, also locating the door the large red statue came from. They also found the remains of the skeleton battle, with destroyed skeletons littering the room and splatterings of blood from where the rogue had sort of died.

They managed to enter the room of the red statue, coming face to face with the red statue in a dormant state. While they tried to remove it's jewelled crown, the statue came to life and proceeded to punch one of them, and they decided to escape for the day.

It was also after this session that I decided I needed to be more proactive with my restocking and faction interaction. Until now, I was rolling for each cleared section, with it being repopulated on a 1 out of 6. However, I feel that lower level parties still need something easy to obtain on the first level, without having to go far and wide.

DELVE 7

The latest delve, in which the normal party decided to continue exploring the dusty temple where they had found the golden mask. They fought some undead that were patrolling on the upper level, and while exploring the temple uncovered some well preserved urns. They also found an alternative entrance to the red statue room (finding the remains of the previous delve's brief scrap with the statue).

Going further into the temple, they stumbled into a sepulchre piled with coins and treasure. However, there was also a large reptilian there too, now a skeleton but very much alive. It blinked out as they entered, and the party proceeded to shove as much gold into their bags as possible.

Not that their victory lasted for long, as they met the large winged skeletal lizardfolk in the main hall. It summoned an earth elemental to block their way, and counter spelled the warlocks's attempt of teleporting away. The creature introduced itself as the Immortal King, and ordered them to drop the gold they had taken and bring "my people" (the lizardfolk) to this temple so that he may rule over his empire once again. Agreeing to this task, the party left.

So that is where we are for now. The game is still going on, and I have ideas on ways to expand the dungeon beyond the Caverns of Thracia (both in downward levels, but also different areas full of different foes and rewards).

Open table experiment in the Caverns of Thracia

Inspired by posts made over on thealexandrian on running an open table megadungeon, I decided to run one myself. Starting with the Caverns of Thracia, I have played 6 sessions so far across various groups. It's a great way to play some more relaxed games (as another game I am currently running is very intrigue heavy, and sometimes I just want to do some dungeon delving).

I did write up the summary of the first delve on another site and was planning on writing up summaries of the others, but I have fallen somewhat behind. Hopefully by starting this blog will help with the focus.

What follows below is the write up I made for the first delve, with some modifications as saying "now" when the delve was last month seems a bit odd!

Armed with a key, random tables galore, and redrawn maps (complete with dynamic lighting on roll20 for that dingy dungeon feel), I informed my d&d friends and organised a game. I have decided to keep a log of the various delves we go on, and perhaps I’ll go into more detail of some more behind the screen stuff too. But for now, the tale of our first delve into the Caverns of Thracia.

Delve 1

For the first expedition to the caverns, we had a party of three brave souls; Athoz the leonin fighter, Iados the aasimar monk, and the warlock Nieven (starting at 2nd level). Before leaving, they rolled up for rumours, with Athoz learning of bat nests in the caverns, so best keep light down not to startle them. He was also told to keep an eye out for strange flora, and an ear out as a strange and loud roar that was heard coming from the caves a few days ago. Iodas learnt that someone who called themselves “the Minotaur King” was leading the beastfolk, and minotaurs are occasionally seen amongst the ranks of lizardfolk and gnolls. They shared their rumours opening, and were ready to go exploring.

Reaching a large stone foundation where a temple or building complex once stood, they found a clay tablet written in a strange language. Unable to decipher it, they descended the wide steps into the caverns. They went without a light, which proved useful as they walked past the huge array of bats living in the starting rooms without disturbing them too much.

The wide entrance room had two exits, right and forward (a left passageway was blocked by a cave in). They went forward, careful not to slip on the inches of bat guano that had accumulated over time. They entered a pillared corridor, again full of bats, noticing a shattered statue at the far end as well as a fissure in the western wall. The fissure opened up to a cavern below, past the reach of their darkvision. As they were debating what to do to try and estimate the depth, Athoz and Iodas heard murmuring to the north; by the statue were a pair of doors, one spiked shut, the other one apparently with someone behind. Iodas listened carefully. While he couldn’t understand the language, they seemed cautious and were debating what to do next. They also sounded reptilian, meaning they were perhaps lizardfolk or similar.

Meanwhile, Athoz and Nieven removed the spike from the other door and had a look inside. It was a nest of large red centipedes, writhing around angry and hungry (4 swarms of insects to be precise, nothing to sneeze at for some level 2’s). Athoz debated spiking the door shut, but Nieven wanted a fight, so combat broke out. A casting of bonfire in the doorway kept the centipedes at bay as they released a volley of missiles into the horde, though eventually some braved the flames to reach food. Athoz was hit with a critical hit, taking 22 damage, his exact health (8d4 is a lot!).

As Iodas dragged away the fighter and restored him with magic (they are sun soul monk I believe), Nieven blasted away with an eldritch blast. The centipedes were emboldened by their success, and they braved the flames to flood the party. However a cone of fire from burning hands killed enough to send the survivors scattering. Those who could not escape into the fissure were finished off in the nest. And with that the room was cleared.

Meanwhile, the occupants of the other room were holding firm (a reaction roll came up as “passive”, so they were waiting to see what happened). They decided to search the nest and get out, rest up, and return later. Prodding through the nest dug up some trinkets; a brass flute, a box with a pair of copper figurines inside, and some sort of arcane stamp or symbol. Not much, but something. Spiking the other door shut, they left.


They rested for an hour outside, Athoz restoring his hit points and Nieven his spells. Iodas had a look at the other ruined buildings, well their foundations at least, and spotted a more intact structure off in the distance, some 60 or so feet from the main stairs. Investigating, it was a low stone building sealed with a thick wooden door, barred with bronze. The party convened to assess the door. No one had thieves’ tools and the lock was far too complex to dislodge with a claw or dagger. So they battered it down with crowbar and maul, and opened up a narrow staircase that led down.


The corridor was narrow, 5 feet to be precise, so they were forced into a single line. At a turn they could see that the corridor seemed to open up into a cave, though there was no floor as they seemed to be at the top end of it. Instead, a rope bridge led across to the rest of the corridor, where they could see a light and a guard, standing there in hoplite-like amour (toughened linen breastplate, spear, shield…). They called out, asking the party to state their business, and didn’t seem too amused at their response of adventurers/explorers. He called for reinforcement, and behind him a door opened up, revealing two more soldiers as well as two robed figures. As the party dithered on what to do (no one wanted to cross the rope bridge), the guard prepared to huck a javelin, though was halted by a robed man who called out to the party.

The man looked cleric-like, with long black robes, an amulet around his neck, and face painted somewhat pale and with dark rings around his eyes and black tears falling from them. He raised his tattooed hands and called out to the party with a certain cheer, announcing that the place was a sacred place of “the Dark One” and offered them safety if they wished to cross and learn more.

A quick religion check later revealed this Dark One to be some sort of god of death, fate, or mortality, worshipped by some of the local Thakian clans and petty kingdoms. They weren’t well known, and definitely not a formal religion in other parts of the world. They decided to reject the offer, and instead leave (with the priest calling “come back if you want to learn more and sate your curiosity!” at them as they left). Hopefully they won’t be too mad about the door.


Returning to the main staircase, they returned to the pair of doors and the centipede scuffle. The spiked door had been broken down, and whoever inside was gone. Inside were remains of a camp, and some of the centipede corpses had disappeared too. They decided to check out the room, namely the “ornate wall paintings” I described. Iodas found a marble head in the remains of a statue that was in remarkable door continuation, while Nieven discovered a secret door hidden behind a stone panel. He decided to blast it with an eldritch blast, failing, and Athoz stepped up to pry it open with a crowbar and some lifting.

It led to part way along a corridor. To the left, the corridor continued into darkness, though of more pressing concern was a gnoll warrior who, alerted by the loud banging of the blast, was growling at them. He was in front of a door, and others could be seen and heard behind them.

Randomness helped them here though, as while this standoff was happening, an alarm cry from further away followed by a “charge!” in Thakian. This kicked off a three way combat between the party, the gnoll guards, and a band of Thakian hoplites who had entered the caverns to drive off the gnolls. The Thakians seemed allied with the priests from earlier and, in a case of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, joined forces temporarily to take down the gnolls. Five gnoll warriors, two gnoll archers, five hoplites, and three adventurers. Athoz was downed at one point by arrows, and Nieven almost met the same fate was it not for a hellish rebuke that annihilated the offending archer. The hoplites protected Athoz while the gnolls were hacked down, the survivors surrendering as they were trapped in the guard room.

The sergeant leading the hoplites, a woman with the same black facial markings of the priests, spoke with the party on how to divide the spoils. She was not terribly happy to deal with adventurers, seeing the caverns as belonging to her people. Iodas and Nieven argued that they could be of use to each other, as the party could help them in fighting off the gnolls who had made their lair in the Thakians’ sacred places. She told them to speak to the priests if they wanted to work further with them, and hashed out a deal for the immediate spoils. The party could take the material loot, and she the captives (for the priests to interrogate). The party argued to take one of the captives, to ask them for information on the caverns and perhaps convince them to into joining them. The sergeant agreed, and healed Athoz to 1 hit point through some lay on hands. The hoplites left, the party hoovered up what trinkets and coins the gnolls had as well as all the weapons, and left the caverns.


While they didn’t level up, they are most of the way there. The marble head was worth the most, and the trinkets added up eventually. They also now have a captive gnoll, who Iodas is planning to treat well and try to convince into helping them navigate the caverns in the future. While the rolls haven’t been made yet, it’ll probably be likely if Iodas shows he is the stronger leader, and will reward them with gold for their service. I’m using hireling/companion morale rules and such, so they might start with a low morale, but the gnolls of the caverns are raiders and tend to follow the strongest. Those who follow the minotaur king have little concern over nations and family bonds. Other gnolls perhaps, though not these particular ones.

All in all, I’m really happy with how things went. It was my first time running for the open table, and while some streamlining could help (namely printing off all my random tables and dungeon key) I am excited to play again.