The Dungeon So Far
“Step 3 involves the decision aspect already mentioned and the actual work of sitting down and drawing dungeon levels. This is very difficult and time consuming.” (Gary Gygax, Europa, April 1975, 19)
To what “decision aspect” Gygax refers I know not, but I am intimately familiar with the “actual work” next mentioned. I sat down, for more than a hundred days, to draw dungeon rooms. Difficult? Maybe. Time consuming? Definitely. Enjoyable? I love it!
And then other obligations distracted me, and for more than a hundred days since, I have not been so diligent. Progress on Deep Dungeon Doom halted at the bottom of Fury’s Deep, level 4. I intend to get back to it, but we’ll see if I conquer that dragon. Meanwhile, I continue here with Gygax’s step 3: “The location of the dungeon where most adventures will take place.”
“In beginning a dungeon it is advisable to construct at least three levels at once, noting where stairs, trap doors (and chimneys) and slanting passages come out on lower levels, as well as the mouths of chutes and teleportation terminals” (The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures, 4).
Although the mapping pace is one room per day, I take this advice and seek opportunities to slip in ways to get to lower levels. In area 1 Cave Entrance (the first day), I placed a secret door (1a) and a deep pool (1b). Both, I imagined at the time would lead to another level.
Once drawn, a chute marked “to level unknown” hangs in the air until the cartographer advances to the logical terminus. Eventually, the secret door at the Cave Entrance opens into a network of secret tunnels (39) that riddle Lyceum Arcanum. More recently, the deep pool turns out to be the upper end of a watery passage through two areas that begins on level 4 (92 Force Field). An exciting part of #Dungeon23 is realizing that a stairway or chute from an upper level, placed weeks or months before, should come out in the room you are going to map tomorrow.
“Each level should have a central theme and some distinguishing feature, i.e. a level with large open areas swarming with goblins, one where the basic pattern of corridors seems to repeat endlessly, one inhabited by nothing but fire-dwelling or fire-using monsters, etc.”1 (Europa).
Here, Gygax lays out an important aspect of dungeon design long overlooked by my younger self. Early in my dungeon-drawing career, I got the idea that a dungeon was all about what treasures were guarded by what big mean monster in its lair. Certain, monsters and treasures are an integral part of a dungeon. But a compelling theme helps to capture the players’ imaginations, gets them into the dungeon, and holds their interest long after the monster is vanquished, its treasure removed, and the lair restocked. The difference between a collection of rooms and an interesting delve environment is theme.
I summarize Deep Dungeon Doom’s levels as completed, before outlining a few ideas for deeper levels.2 The ideas are mined from the dungeon’s time line (see “Using How to Host a Dungeon for #Dungeon23”). Plans, if executed, may change.
Completed Levels
Lyceum Arcanum [Level 1]
A magic school built during the reign of the Lore Kings and destroyed in the Time of Vengence, it is still haunted by magic-users, living and dead.
Ningalgaur [Levels 2, 3]
Within this area of natural caves, the Illmind first constructed a holding area where they stored brain vessels (any sentient beings) prior to harvest. Only a few wall carvings hint at the purpose. Later, demons converted the structure into charnel pits, carving horrid faces in wall reliefs. To block a deep chasm, dwarves built a fortified drinking hall on the edge of the “Abyss.” The hall is now defended by the Doommaker Cult.
Fury’s Deep [Level 4]
A sinkhole descends over 400 feet to a bottomless pit. Between the surface and infinite depths, a precipitous path winds by access points to several dungeon levels, including a faerie cascade through which is a one-way portal to other worlds and an ancient dwarf-built subterranean road.
Future Levels
Old Dwarf Road [Levels 4, 5, 6]
During their civilization, the dwarves connected their subterranean realm to neighboring dungeons. The sinkhole that makes Fury’s Deep opened access to a still-intact portion of the ancient highway. It runs through a former dwarf dormitory that was re-purposed as laboratories by the Lore Kings and now serves a wyvern as lair. The highway continues down a gentle slope to a bridge across a wide chasm. A river flows below. On the opposite side, a wizard’s tower overlooks the chasm.
Giant Stronghold [Level 7]
The subterranean river flows toward the Abyss (Ningalgaur, above). Along it, a treacherous path leads to an oversize castle built into the rock wall of a high cavern, where the river falls into the Abyss. This was the principle stronghold of the giant empire. A few giants still occupy the place, along with dragons, trolls, and wraiths among others. A clan of ogre magi pretends to sovereignty.
“Garden of Eden” [Level 8]
To increase the quality of the harvest, the Illmind created favorable living conditions for the brain carriers captured on the surface. A nearby magma chamber provides heat. A central orb radiates magical light and darkness in a daily cycle. Fresh water flows through canals. The area became—and yet remains—a lush subterranean forest. Heaven in earth? More like hell, because its inhabitants were aware of their fate.
Sealed Empire [Level 9]
Thanks to a platinum vein, adamantine deposits, and their metalsmithing craftsmanship, the dwarves built an empire wealthy beyond imagination. But they got too curious about the workings of the mysterious device in a deeper level. When the gate opened, a demon horde poured through it. Many dwarves were slaughtered in a great carnage. Survivors fled to the imperial throne room and sealed themselves inside. Though they could not enter, the demons did not retreat for many long years. The location of the sealed door is now lost. Should someone find it and break the seal, an empire’s riches await.
Arena Arcane [Level 10]
The Cyclopes, primordial creatures enslaved by the Illmind, quarried granite from this region. From the space, deep elves later carved an arena. During the giant empire, it served as a slum, before the Lore Kings restored the arena.
Deep Elf City Ruins [Level 11]
The pits and sanctums of an ancient deep elf city are in ruins. The once-magnificent opera house is more or less intact. While they have not lived here in millennia, deep elves frequent the place, seeking lost treasures and forgotten lore.
Infernal Sanctum and Demon Gate [Level 12]
The Illmind constructed the gate to the demons’ home plane. Before departing, they opened the gate to call forth the horde that would destroy any of their remaining works. The dearth of remains from the Illmind civilization testifies to the project’s success. The adjacent sanctum is a cyclopean complex wherein the demons held their infernal revelries.
Deeper
“Before the rules for D&D were published ‘Old Greyhawk Castle’ was 13 levels deep” (Europa).
Ours is to be twelve levels by years end. From the start, I imagined Deep Dungeon Doom to comprise 24 levels at least: 12 beneath the surface, 12 more rising up through the tall tower, called a “donjon,” of the Greater Ones. There are, however, ideas and space for many more levels.
Godthrone [Level 13]
The Illmind built a thing atop the donjon. No one is certain of its purpose. It resembles nothing more than an enormous chair. Hence, it’s common name: Godthrone. The location has been used on and off throughout the millennia as a place of worship.
1 Gygax’s dungeon-level theme examples may seem uninspired to modern adventurers and dungeon makers. In his defense to posterity, the co-creator points out: “The first level was a simple maze of rooms and corridors, for none of the participants had ever played such a game before.” I for one would trade my jade spectacles for a seat at that table.
2 Here, at the crossroads of #Dungeon23 and #Gygax75, I am neglecting McCoy’s precept “Don’t make a grand plan” (“#Dungeon23,” Win Conditions). Rather, the instigator advises: “Just sit down each day and focus on writing a good dungeon room.” Time to get back in the dungeon…
In Deep Dungeon Doom, I follow #Gygax75 and #Dungeon23 to create a D&D dungeon campaign in a few minutes per day for one year. I intend to post irregular updates here. To get the daily rooms, follow me on Mastodon.
Fury’s Deep
In the middle of a dark night, the ground shook, the earth groaned. Startled from shadowy dreams, the folk of Domesday lay still, wondering throughout the night what new doom had befallen their accursed town.
The sinkhole was soon discovered by goatherds in search of strays in the steep, rocky hills outside town. All was quiet, at first, in its dark depths. Before a year was out, though, shadows could be seen deep down, and after unquiet nights, strange tracks appeared in the narrow gorge that led to the rim.
The townsfolk built a watchhouse to block the only easy access to and from the pit. The post was manned in the day, but none would stay the night after the first such attempt. Avery Dain was a man of 27 years when he came to be called “Oldave,” for he aged a lifetime in that one night.1
Even the daylight shift proved too hazardous. One stormy afternoon the next year, a fury of flames blew from the depths and ravaged the watchhouse and the hills around.
That was a hundred years ago. Now called Fury’s Deep, no one goes there these days save the foolhardy… Save the foolhardy.
Description
A tear in the landscape, Fury’s Deep stretches 110 feet from Rock Point (map 96, northeast) across to Deep’s Dark Defile (104, southwest) and 180 feet from Faerie Falls (102, southeast) to the Carver’s Sand Cliffs (105, northwest). A pit (106) in the western crevasse, over 400 feet down, is said to be bottomless.
An upper floor once joined the two rooms of the Old Watchhouse (95) that straddle the only safe path into the Deep, which is otherwise surrounded by steep granite hills. Steps carved into a rocky cliff once led up to a door, but the wooden upper structure is burned away.
Slipping by the ogres, who lair under a log shelter within the watchhouse, we proceed to a rocky outcrop, called by the locals Witches’ Finger (97), from which we survey our path.
Natural stairs take us to the first precipice (98), down which we must climb or rappel. A hundred feet below, a steep, winding path of rocky dirt leads through Unicorn Grove (99), under the Dryad’s Tree (100), to an Enchanted Lake (101). We then follow the river west, passing Hive Rock (103) and Deep’s Dark Defile (104), before descending farther into the Deep in the northwest at the Carver’s Sand Cliffs (105). A second precipice drops 60 feet onto a slope that slips under an archway of pitted granite stone blocks (107). The archway is about 400 feet below the rim. We avoid the Bottomless Pit (106) to the south.
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Nexus
Fury’s Deep is a nexus, connecting to diverse dungeon levels and other worlds. Except the Old Dwarf Road (107), further development of the following areas are left to the DM.
- 98 Cave of the Unknown: They say no one has ever come out of this cave alive, and it’s true. But no one has ever gone into it, either.
- 101 Enchanted Lake: Nixies live in a complex of submerged caves 80 feet below the surface. The caves may lead to another dungeon level or to an underwater realm beneath the surface of some distant sea.
- 102 Faerie Falls: The 200-foot waterfall hides two passages:
- First, from where it emerges from the cliff, 50 feet below the rim, we can follow the river upstream to the Subterranean Lake (33) in Kubra Kowthar’s Realm (Lyceum Arcanum). Who knows what lies between here and there.
- Second, through a grotto beyond the cascade, we enter the realm of Faerie or that of Grimshade, depending on some unknown factor. Both realms are dangerous for mortal beings. From neither does one easily return.
- 104 Deep’s Dark Defile: Here the river drops into unnatural darkness. I don’t yet know how far down it goes or through what dangerous paths. Eventually, it enters a lower level (probably 8 or deeper) of the dungeon.
- 105 Carver’s Sand Cliffs: These three sandstone cliff faces seem to be carved by a giant hand. Behind this bizarre facade, a nest—or multiple nests—of giant ants riddles the earth. Foraging tunnels may lead to other dungeon levels.
- 106 Bottomless Pit: Descending to a magical void on a lower level, the hole is truly without end. Perhaps the void takes hapless characters to the world’s underside.
- 107 Old Dwarf Road: Beneath the archway, we enter a wide thoroughfare built during the dwarven civilization. We now follow this road farther down into Deep Dungeon Doom.
1 I have the idea that Oldave, despite his apparent advanced years, went on to enjoy a long and successful adventuring career. On retirement, he bought a tavern in Domesday. He became its keeper and occupies the post to this day—for he yet lives, going on his 14th decade and in perfect health!
The Charnel Pits and Caverns of Ningalgaur, Great Lady of Demons, Called the Laughing Fiend
In Deep Dungeon Doom, I follow #Gygax75 and #Dungeon23 to create a D&D dungeon campaign in a few minutes per day for one year. I post irregular updates here. To get the daily rooms, follow me on Mastodon.
Progress: For the second time in the year-long daily dungeon-making exercise that is #Dungeon23, I got behind a few days and caught up again in March. Each day’s room often takes me some time more than a few minutes, but I love the work and am so far pleased with the resulting dungeon.
Campaign: Meanwhile, after closing the door on the baalgaur’s prison (Lyceum Arcanum, 9) on the uppermost level, the player party explored the Auditorium’s balcony (2a): The cautious adventurers turned away from three great blades swinging like pendulums in an archway (2d). They then defeated a giant black widow spider (2e), foiled a pit trap in front of a treasure chest (2f), and purloined the gold coins the chest contained. Emboldened by this success, the duo acquired hirelings in Domesday and prepared their second foray into Deep Dungeon Doom.
Ningalgaur [nin-gal-GAW-r]
Named after the nefarious empress and “great lady of demons,” this dungeon region was first used by the demons during their civilization that followed the Illmind’s departure. Most walls, whether natural rock or built from rust-red brick, bare vestiges of relief carvings depicting gruesome faces: bulging eyes, bulbous noses, fat cheeks, wide mouths grinning, lascivious lips, rolling tongues. Since then, a succession of civilizations and empires have connected the former charnel pits with tunnels to create a dense network of rooms and caves.
Now, with its 55 encounter areas (40-94) spread across levels 2 and 3, Ningalgaur may be divided into four sections: Minotaur Maze (NE), Veiled Grotto (NW), Laughing Rift (SE), and Daemningstadr (SW). A brief description of each follows the map.
My thanks again to Tony Dowler for his How to Host a Dungeon: The Solo Game of Dungeon Creation (2nd Edition, Planet Thirteen, 2019), whence I draw the civilizations: demonic, dwarven, and magic-using. You didn’t think I came up with a fortified drinking hall myself, did you?
Minotaur Maze (NE)
A deluded magic-user employs illusion, polymorph self, and a hero henchman in a bull’s-head mask to discourage trespassers. It’s Scooby-Doo meets Theseus and the Minotaur, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a real minotaur in there.
Veiled Grotto (NW)
A lost pebble sheds an impenetrable darkness throughout these natural caverns filled with noxious molds and creeping animals. Largely considered impassable by the locals.
Laughing Rift (SE)
A deep chasm connects diverse regions of the dungeon, this level and beyond. A mad hermit holes up in natural caverns below a dwarf-built dam on the south rim. Nearby, a magic portal wants repair. Carved tunnels on the north rim are presently inhabited by gnolls, who dispose of their waste in the rift’s nether regions and guard the entrance to Daemningstadr.
Daemningstadr (SW)
Built during the dwarven civilization, Heillwaegg Daemningstadr Drekkenhal—in the common tongue, “Drinking Hall of the Blessed Wall in Dam’s Site”—is a fortified construction, now occupied by members of the Doommaker Cult. The priest-leader’s mission is to destroy remnants of the Gold Flame, which defends the Bastion of Law on Level 1, to make way for the cult’s main objective in the dungeon’s shallow levels: to release the balgaur from its prison in the Infernal Tower.
Doom’s Door: Death Trap Design
“Zap! You’re dead!” J. Eric Holmes warns against these sorts of traps in the 1977 Basic D&D (40). I tend to comply. Sometimes, though… sometimes!
During the daily cartography exercise that is #Dungeon23, I noticed an auspicious alignment. Let us go to Deep Dungeon Doom’s Level 2 (image above). From room 37 in Kubra Kowthar’s domain, a corridor runs northwest to an apparent dead end. Stopping to search for secret doors—as adventurers do—we stand above Level 3’s Laughing Rift.
I am doomed to put a pitfall there. The floor opens beneath our feet. We fall 110 feet to the rocky floor below—Zap!
Holmes lets us get away with such a trap, though, if “a character might avoid or overcome [it] with some quick thinking and a little luck.” With that in mind, we set about to give ourselves a chance.
Warning
Beyond the secret door—for one there is—room 23 lies at the bottom of the Bastion of Law. Carved into the stone block wall that disguises the secret door is the following warning:
YOUR DOOM LIES BEYOND
FOR BEYOND YOU LIE BELOW
On our side of the door, we read a similar inscription:
YOUR DOOM IS UPON YOU
FOR YOU ARE UPON YOUR DOOM
Ignoring the warning—we’re adventurers after all—we find the secret door, whose presence we think obvious. The trap is armed when the opening mechanism is engaged. From room 23, we would walk through, into the space beyond. From this side, the floor opens beneath us.
Chance to Spring the Trap
If the DM is a little soft, we might say the trap is not maintained. It engages when weight is upon it only one-third of the time, to use a B/X-ism (B22).
Saving Throw Conditions
Further, the aperture is 3 feet square. The tight fit allows us a save vs Turn to Stone to catch ourselves with outstretched arms, feet kicking in the void, fingertips gripping a floor stone’s edge. Quick comrades have a chance to snatch us from fate. Otherwise, we might be able to haul ourselves out on our own. DM’s call. This DM would ask how we intend to do it.
Failing that, we have time to feel heart rise to throat, as we plummet into darkness.
Unexpected Deliverance
One last chance. Directly below, the Sludge Pit (78) awaits. We save vs Dragon Breath to take half 11d6 damage.
We still have to wrestle off any armor before drowning and swim to the surface through viscous muck. Then we find ourselves all alone and sans armure at the nethermost point of the Laughing Rift—Zap! Welcome to Deep Dungeon Doom!
LYCEUM ARCANUM
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Extending from the first level and into a second-level sublevel of the dungeon, LYCEUM ARCANUM comprises 39 areas and includes four buried towers, three surface entrances, 11 exits to the first, second, fifth, and unknown levels. It contains myriad secrets and untold riches and magic items, guarded by diverse traps, a cast of magic-users, a lesser djinni, and a baalgaur.
The player party, a pair of neophyte adventurers, descended to the Auditorium (2), took the bronze mask from the statue (b), which they then toppled, and opened the brass door to Baal-Dagan’s Prison (9).
Domesday and Environs
In Deep Dungeon Doom, I follow #Gygax75 and #Dungeon23 to create a D&D dungeon campaign in a few minutes per day for one year. I post irregular updates here. To get the daily rooms, follow me on Mastodon and Twitter.
“Step 2 requires sitting down with a large piece of hex ruled paper and drawing a large scale map. A map with a scale of 1 hex = 1 mile … will allow you to use your imagination to devise some interesting terrain and places, and it will be about right for player operations such as exploring, camping, adventuring, and eventually building their strongholds” (Gary Gygax, Europa, April 1975, 18).
Making the Wilderness Map
Scale
We might assume a “large piece of hex ruled paper” is tabloid (A3) size, although I have no idea where one would acquire hex paper in the mid ’70s, especially tabloid size.1 Even at that size, one mile per hex makes what seems to my eyes a too-small area for building strongholds. I suppose I’m used to establishing a barony and having extensive space to explore.
When perusing Dave Arneson’s First Fantasy Campaign (Judges Guild) map and text, though, I imagine a more intimate setting for several PCs and their interactions, the 1977 map’s scale notwithstanding.
Furthermore, with Deep Dungeon Doom’s focus on the dungeon, a small wilderness area feels right, and Ray Otus points out that we’ll have “time to draw a larger scale map in week 5” (The Gygax 75 Challenge, 11).
The reMarkable gives me a hex grid that comes out to ½" hexes on a letter-size page.2 One hex per mile—and limiting the map size to 8" × 10", so as to fit on either US letter-size or European A4 paper—gives us an area of 16 × 20 miles or 320 square miles. Intimate.
Settlements
Following Otus, I place a large town on the coast and a couple villages support-distance away. I like to work in as many terrain types as is logical for a map’s aesthetic appeal and to exercise the wilderness encounter tables, which are differentiated by terrain.
Mysterious Locations
I choose a remote, vacant area between highlands for a mysterious location. I don’t know why the vale is forgotten or why it might be important to the campaign, but I’m guessing it’s got something to do with the Doommaker herself.
Also, inspired by the real-world map source, the central hills connecting the north and south mountain ranges also mark a geographical divide between the eastern highlands and the western lowlands. A long, straight, sloping tunnel runs between the two. Parallel to it, a series of level tunnels joined by sheer precipices runs the same length. Both structures are huge and blocked by rubble, debris, and monsters. A surface-level track also traverses the hills.
Cyclopean Tunnels
The parallel tunnels are a remnant of the Greater Ones. The sloping tunnel was used for ground transport. The other, after the builders diverted the river, was a series of locks for watercraft. The elves of the eastern woods re-diverted the river some longtime ago.
Dungeon and Base Town
The dungeon, which I name after its most prominent feature, is located off-center, and I place the base town—a stronghold—nearby. I also add regions inhabited by PC races, plus monstrous races for tension.
So early in the campaign—the PC party is still practically at the dungeon entrance, I don’t expect the neophyte adventurers to explore the wilderness soon. I highlight only geographical features on the map, marking each with a single large icon, and restrain myself from adding further detail—apart from an encounter table.
Wilderness Encounter Table
I divide the wilderness map into quadrants, marked by the central hills. Entries separated by a pipe “|” should be read west|east; those by a slash “/” north/south. For example, a 3 result yields halflings when traveling in the west or elves while exploring east of the central hills.
| 2d6 | Result |
|---|---|
| 2 | Magic-User (Men*) (L or N) |
| 3 | Halflings|Elves |
| 4 | Knights** |
| 5 | Orcs/Dwarves |
| 6 | Men*|Humanoid* |
| 7 | Roll on Wilderness Encounter Table* |
| 8 | Bandits |
| 9 | Lizard Men|Goblins |
| 10 | Ogres |
| 11 | Trolls/Hill Giants |
| 12 | Magic-User (Men*) (C) |
| * See Wilderness Encounter Table (X57-8). ** Knights? I don’t know yet. |
Daily #Dungeon23 Rooms on Mastodon and Twitter
I post the dungeon map, updated with the day’s room and a brief description, every day on Mastodon and Twitter.
1 Avalon Hill of course. In “Hexmaps and Random Encounters Before D&D,” Tom Van Winkle notes that the makers of Outdoor Survival (1972) sold 22" x 28" hex maps for amateur game designers (Tom Van Winkle’s Return to Gaming, September 2, 2023). In an email exchange, Tom points me to a notice in the July 1964 issue (Vol. 1, No. 2) of the Avalon Hill General. Under the heading “Design Your Own Games” on page 1, AH offers the large hex maps in sheets for $1.00 each.
2 Only interesting for reMarkable users: To achieve half-inch hexes, I use the reMarkable template medium hex grid, portrait orientation, exported to PNG, and printed at 176 ppi. Use the highlighter in different colors and export grayscale to get the varying shades. I have to turn the tablet landscape, because reMarkable got the hex orientation wrong. The engineers maybe never played Outdoor Survival, whose map board has the horizontal lines at top and bottom. This is, therefore, the “correct” orientation.
Added footnote 1. [19:04 8 September 2023 GMT]
Edited footnote 1 to include the source. [5:45 11 September 2023 GMT]
First Twelve Days of Deep Dungeon Doom in Video
A megadungeon in one room a day for 365 days in 2023. These are the first 12 days of Deep Dungeon Doom, a #Dungeon23 project.
Using How to Host a Dungeon for #Dungeon23
“Not playing through it, I use the rules booklet as a reference work. Tony Dowler’s dungeon-building game provides primordial nexuses, ancient civilizations, and master villains to fill out the dungeon’s space and history should need arise.”
—on How to Host a Dungeon, Inspiration, “Campaign Hook: ‘To All Who Enterin—DOOM’”
As a prelude to some future rendition of Deep Dungeon Doom, I’ll play through an extravagant run of How to Host a Dungeon to establish a robust and detailed history for the 24-level adventure locale. By extravagant, I mean: instead of eight, the dungeon spans 24 strata; not one but a few nexus points are planted within; instead of one each, I’ll run several ages of civilization, monsters, and villainy. Even greater in scope than Wyrm Dawn, it’s a dream project for another day.
Meanwhile, for this outing, we adhere to #Gygax75 and #Dungeon23’s prime directive: “Don’t overthink it!” How to Host a Dungeon is a reference work. I use elements from the game’s various “ages” as focal points. So, “rooms” that might be built during civilization and villainous periods become sections of the dungeon, principle characters become major historical figures, and a brief outline of history based on the successive ages becomes the framework for hanging past events on a time line.
“The (unobserved) past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities.”
—Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow, The Grand Design
Working Framework for Historical Events in Deep Dungeon Doom
The following table outlines the major historical periods in the dungeon. This is how I see the time line now. Other—perhaps many other—civilizations, monster ages, and villainous periods, certain to have taken place, may be inserted as the campaign progresses. A thing is malleable until it is observed, that is, used in play.
Time Line—Deep Dungeon Doom
| Ages | Primordial Nexuses | Civilizations | Villains |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prehistory | |||
| Void | |||
| Primordial Monsters | |||
| Alien (Illmind) | |||
| Cyclopean Complex | |||
| Godthrone | |||
| Gateway (Abyss) | |||
| Demon | |||
| Devil (empire) | |||
| Bronze Age | |||
| Drow | |||
| Iron Age | |||
| Dwarven | |||
| Giant (empire) | |||
| Dark Age | |||
| Medieval Age | |||
| Magician (Lore Kings) | |||
| Fearthoht (empire) | |||
| [Present] | ? |
This historical framework is mostly for the DM, so to maintain some coherence as I build out dungeon areas. The process also informs the present situation in the dungeon. Player characters might learn some of the dungeon’s history as they explore it, but they are not obliged to. Players themselves may not much care.
Illmind
The Illmind is a sinister collective of hyperintelligent, extra-dimensional beings. It is responsible for the Rending—the cosmic cataclysm that is the campaign world’s origin. (See Song of the World Dragon.) After the cataclysm, the Illmind established a colony at this location. The colony, whose objective is not yet known to me, grew into the dungeon’s first civilization.
The Illmind civilization ends with the construction of the Godthrone (Megastructure) and the Gateway (Uplift Facility). The latter gates in demons to destroy alien works. The former is now called “Godthrone,” but its true purpose is unknown.
Lyceum Arcanum
To get straight into the thick of things, I want to start the campaign with something about the wizards. Looking at the magician civilization’s constructions, I am attracted to “Lyceum Arcanum.” According to How to Host a Dungeon1, this large structure is built at a nexus point either above or below ground (16). I place it on the surface, knowing that, at civilization’s end, it is buried under a new surface level. For the required nexus, I choose Ley Lines, which is one attraction for the immigrant magicians and later generations.
Lore Kings
As it may be of immediate usefulness, we sketch the history of the magician civilization. It is important to note that, when referring here to ages and civilizations and empires, we speak of the local dungeon and its environs. Other ages, civilizations, and empires take place in the greater world, in parallel and at greater scale.
During the dark age that followed the fall of the Giant Empire, mages were drawn to the donjon, a towering remnant of the Greater Ones from before the Rending. As they grew in power, the mages formed a civilization that brought the dark age to an end.
The magician civilization was ruled by a succession of monarchs, who sought arcane lore lost in the Rending. The Lore Kings discovered much but lost it again in their own apocalypse, which sages now call the Time of Vengeance.
Sometime later, Fearthoht Doommaker rose to dominate the dungeon in an age of villainy that ended with her imprisonment. Now, the dungeon has fallen into another age of monsters, in which the Doommaker Cult attempts to free Fearthoht and promote her to godhood.
Meanwhile, other monster groups vie for power—either through amassing wealth or increasing their numbers—in order to become the dungeon’s next master villain. To determine which monsters form what factions would be overthinking it. Details spill from play.
1 Dowler credits Philip LaRose for the Magician Civilization.
Campaign Hook: “To All Who Enter Herein—DOOM”
In Deep Dungeon Doom, I follow #Gygax75 and #Dungeon23 to create a D&D dungeon campaign in a few minutes per day for one year. I intend to post irregular updates here. To get the daily rooms, follow me on Mastodon and Twitter.
Gary Gygax, in the Europa article (April 1975), notes mythology, folklore, and fantasy and swords & sorcery literature as typical sources of inspiration.
“Settings based upon the[se] limits (if one can speak of fantasy limits) can be very interesting in themselves, providing the scope of the setting will allow the players relative free-reign to their imaginations” (18).
In addition to listing our inspirational sources, Ray Otus suggests we write a few concise bullet points in describing the campaign setting to arouse the players’ excitement (The Gygax 75 Challenge, 7). My general inspiration, as well as two of five specific sources, comes rather more from D&D itself. The dragon eats its tail.
Mimicking a source, I preface the lot with a brief background. And, because Winninger’s Dungeoncraft is in my DNA, I make up a secret, which I hide behind a spoiler tag. Those who wish to explore the dungeon in play should not peek.
Background
“…the dungeons beneath the ‘huge ruined pile, a vast castle built by generations of mad wizards and insane geniuses.’”
—Gygax and Arneson, Men & Magic (D&D Vol. 1, 5)
The last of these mad wizards desired godhood. In a laboratory on the dungeon’s lowest level, Daerdread Fearthoht constructed a device that would channel divine energy. She had only to capture a god. A religious order tricked the wizard, trapping her in the device, thus preventing the apotheosis and rendering the wizard impotent. But not before Fearthoht, now called Doommaker, threw a powerful curse on the dungeon: “To all who enter herein—DOOM!”
Doommaker
Fearthoht feigns impotence. Though trapped in Godthrone, she communes with a sect of evil mage-priests devoted to the would-be deity. The mage-priests have reversed the energy flow between trap and device. Their continuous prayers restore the wizard’s power.
Description
- DONJON LANDS setting: The campaign takes place in a far-future Earth: “a world with magic, monsters, and a ring around it, with stars that aren’t fixed but dance and swirl.” See also its creation myth Song of the World Dragon.
- Medieval Greek and Roman culture: An empire recently encompassed the known world. Following a collapse of imperial power in the west, an overlord retains power over eastern realms.
- Dungeon campaign: Game play focuses on dungeon exploration with occasional wilderness forays.
- Wizard opposition: The principal villains are Fearthoht Doommaker and an array of powerful wizards and their many and diverse minions.
- Fun-house dungeon: Encounters and adventures are intended to be fun without so much attention to fantastic realism.
- Deadly: The mood is doom.
fun house noun
: a building in an amusement park that contains various devices designed to startle or amuse
Inspiration
- Tegel Manor: Commonly considered the original fun-house dungeon, the 1977 Judges Guild module’s terse descriptions also lend well to #Dungeon23’s short-handed stocking method.1
- Magic-users of Jack Vance and Clark Ashton Smith: Various works of these two authors portray the sort of “mad wizards and insane geniuses” I’m looking for.
- How to Host a Dungeon: Not playing through it, I use the rules booklet as a reference work. Tony Dowler’s dungeon-building game provides primordial nexuses, ancient civilizations, and master villains to fill out the dungeon’s space and history should need arise. I may elaborate on this point later.
- World history: The campaign is set in a place and time similar to the 11th-century Byzantine Empire.
- Greek and Roman mythologies: Gods and religion are drawn from an amalgam of these two real-world mythologies.
My notebook is a reMarkable tablet.
1 “365 rooms written like ‘3 orcs, 25 gold pieces’ is better than 5 rooms written like ‘In this beautiful hand carved obsidian room sit 3 orcs arguing over a dice game. 25gp sit on the table, each of them…’ See what I’m getting at?”—Sean McCoy, “#Dungeon23”