#Dungeon23 #DoomGate #TheShip October Wrap Up

Long long ago in another dimension, a brain eater ship's drive failed and sent it wildly off course, tearing through dimensional barriers and coming to rest within a mountain. The few survivors attempted to repair what they could, but realized they were stranded, with no means of rescue. They sealed themselves in stasis pods, and hoped for the best. 

The best didn't arrive, but the second best did. A primitive race found the ship, its first exposure to alien life. They couldn't realize, or even conceptualize, that it wasn't just an extra solar alien, but from a craft from an entirely different dimension. Not that it would have stopped them from experimenting with it. 

Due to the extended time the ship's crew was in stasis, the primitives were able to board and begin stripping the ship before any of the set defenses kicked in. 

The ships drive ring was removed, and became the Doom Gate, ending the world and ushering in a new age of magic and monsters. In the meantime the crew slowly emerged, and has continued their efforts to repair their ship, or at least the communications array to call for rescue.

#Dungeon23 #DoomGate #AlienCaves September Wrap Up

September brings us to the lower levels of the Alien terraformed caves. The danger increases as herds of fungal garden tenders wander the caves, taking anything that isn't terraformed and adding them to the local fertilizer pile. Weird crystals can be harvested from the gardens and sold to the dwarves or to surface jewelers. 

Beyond the fungal gardens and their tending herds are the hulking brutes that prowl the narrow connecting passages. Other dangers include the lurking tentacled beasts, bipedal walking creatures with triradial heads, and even mounds of shambling flesh eating terrain!

But the worst danger comes from the mighty worm that is tunnling through the caves and will release the terraformers into the wider world when it breaks through to an underground river...

#Dungeon23 #DoomGate #AlienCaves August Wrap Up

The natural caves under #TheFacility are blessedly free of demonic beings, but only because the alien life emerging there is, as far as the demons are concerned, soulless, and thus of no interest. That doesn't mean it's without danger. Weird lifeforms are being created, molded, mutated, and evolved by a set of mobile terraforming devices. 

In addition to the creatures, the very air in the caves is mildly toxic, and long term exposure is harmful to native creatures. 

Not all is danger though. The terraformed alien life has bumped up against the outer edge of a dwarven settlement down in the lower caves, and hints of their existence can be found in the upper caves.

I did find it interesting how much larger the caves ended up being as compared to my average dungeon room. No idea why that is, but it definitely didn't feel like a proper cavern area unless it was at least 50% bigger than the average dungeon room. 

#Dungeon23 #DoomGate #The Facility July Wrap Up

The lower level of The Facility is an important one, as it contains access to both the Terraformed Caves and the Doom Gate itself. In addition to these important points, there's a mix of monsters to encounter, both demons and aliens. 

As this was the hub of the research on the alien tech from the crashed ship, there's lots of artifacts to be discovered, but also evidence of how things started to go wrong. Bricked up chambers full of human remains mutated by the alien tech, and lots of evidence of violent death can be found throughout these chambers.

The Doom Gate itself is currently closed and powered down, but the alien tech that powered it is still running, and actively working on converting the caves below into habitable environment for it's native life... a terraforming project that will soon expand out of the caves and onto the surface. 

And as for the gate itself? Well, a minor demon lord has found it, and is making plans to open it from the hell side. Probably should find a way to stop them.

#ReaperCon #Dungeon23 Session Reports 3-5

In case you missed the first part, click here for Sessions 1+2

Session 3

**Short session, as I played Blood on the Clocktower (after dark 21+ session) prior to running this session, and ended up too drunk to run the game for very long

The party takes the shorter hallway to the room, and then through the large heavy metal door that was in that room, reaching a massive multi storey tall chamber dominated by a circular opening in the floor. A metal walkway stretched over it, and blue light shimmered up from the depths of the clear water within. The white tiles of the room gleam, and great steel machinery hums on the far side.

Carefully looking around, they quickly all find themselves either on the metal walkway or standing on the edge of the pool looking down at the 36 gold rods standing on end at the bottom of the pool.

Greed getting the better of him, Balfasak jumps in, sinking down to the rods, the water getting hotter as he goes. He grabs a rod, and reaches up toward the elf for help. The elf wants no part of the gold death rod, but Ivermectin the dwarf follows his cousin down into the hot water. Not to be outdone, Maypole follows, and feels himself getting woozy as he approaches his fellow dwarves wrapped obscenely around the gold pole.

**Drink more water! Less Rum, whiskey, and beer!!

 

Session 4

**No silly notes this season, clearly I was too sober.

We return to find our 3 dwarves underwater, clutching a gold rod in a nuclear reactor pool, all beginning to seriously suffer the effects of radiation poisoning that even their dwarven constitution is having trouble handling. The fighters on the catwalk use a rope and grappling hook to drag their irradiated companions from the water. The dwarves have acquired a tan and a “healthy” faint green glow.

Deciding that the gold isn’t worth it, they press on, and try another door, this one taking them to a changing room with a large sunken circular shower in the middle. Suits similar to the ones worn by the zombies are stored in cubbies on the wall, along with some metallic tanks that look like they can be worn with a harness on the back. They play with the shower, but aside from a few clunking noises, they don’t get anything from it.

Continuing on to a room with a large double metal door without handles, one door slightly recessed from the other, and an impressive looking desk in the corner, the party is set upon by large rats bulging with tumors. Watermelon provides a running commentary on the fight, followed by a post-fight pep talk to the party on the virtues of not being eaten by giant radioactive cancerous rats.

The party circles around and comes to the control room of the facility, full of displays and blinking lights. A voice addresses them in a language none of them know, but one recognizes as an ancient human tongue from before the end of the world.

“Speak Dwarven!” Maypole yells! And the voice does.

“System damaged. Water level is critical. Immediate repairs required before core meltdown.”

“Who are you?”

“I am the Core Computer interface for this facility.”

“What happens if the core melts down?”

“All connected facilities will go offline. Damage to the local area within 5 miles, total. Radiation will cause a 50 mile area to become uninhabitable. Systems must be repaired. Emergency Authorization for repairs is granted to any personnel capable of performing necessary repairs.”

“What needs to be repaired?”

“Water levels must be restored in the main pool.”

“We can pee in it…. How much water?”

“22,000 gallons.”

“That’s a lot of pee… how long do we have?”

“Approximately 11 months until total system failure and core meltdown.”

“How do we get that much water into the tank?”

“Repair the main pump”

One of the displays flickers, and in Dwarven runes lists out the repair needed, and the parts to accomplish it.

What does it say? Asks a party member.

Maypole, prophet of the Core Computer, translates that Computer requires a pump to be repaired. We need a virgin to sacrifice.

Everyone looks at Watermelon.

Where do we find the parts?

The screen changes again, and a map of the facility’s 4 floors appears, highlighting different storage rooms.

The party sets off to collect the parts. They run into another group of Roachkin, and a heated debate between Maypole and Mojito the Cleric on the blasphemy of calling the Computer Core a god. This debate triggered an existential crisis among the Roachkin who had no concept of “god” or “soul” but now had to grapple with the concept.

They fight some more rad rats, and collect some of the needed parts. In another supply room they find a massive steel shelving unit running the length of the room, stacked with barrels. Mojito screws up and causes the entire shelving unit to collapse. The noise was deafening, and the heavy barrels caused some serious injury among the party members in the room. It also caused a large and lumpy mutant to investigate. Hoping to avoid any more mutants showing up, Wooo goes out to calm the mutant, and the pair of them bond over a wineskin full of the good stuff. The mutant leads Wooo back to his chambers, the party follows, and closes the door behind them, allowing them to collect the remaining parts while Wooo takes one for the team.

 

 

Session art created by Smaht Goblin

 Session 5

The party has everything they need, so off they go to fix the pump (no virgins were sacrificed to prime it). Returning to the control room, they talk with the computer core some more, and find out about the system that connects the different facilities via underground tunnels. Of course they head directly to the room labeled “motor pool” all the while wondering why you’d put a motor in a pool.

3 dusty old vehicles sit in the large chamber with a wide opening out into a dark tunnel. Most of the party searches the room, while a few poke around one of the open topped vehicles. Eventually they manage to activate it, and it begins to hover a good 6” off the ground. A bit of experimentation, and they get it moving toward the tunnel. There’s two rails running down the tunnel, and the vehicle forcibly shifts to the left one.

Everyone piles into the back, and off they go!

6 hours later, through dark passages with no idea which way they’re going, and randomly picking directions when turns or splits appear on the way, they enter into a room almost identical to the last one they left, the main differences being no other vehicles, and the 6 GIANT SCORPIONS!

They party scurried off the vehicle as the scorpions attacked the driver…

**I don’t remember who was driving

…tries to ram the scorpions, but they’re too quick, and he just crashes into the far wall. House Red takes a stinger right to the chest, and drops, foaming at the mouth. The rest of the party clambers over the crashed vehicle, and through a small doorway with stairs going up… and up… and up….

**Sorry House Red, you were too sane to live with this group. Also, sorry about stealing your drink, but to be fair, it was handed to me.

At the top of the stairs was a busted door, and a rocky mountain side with some scrubby bushes. The scorpions were following the party, but due to the small size of the stairwell, were moving slower than they normally would in the open. The party started throwing rocks down the stairs. For 15-20 minutes they chucked every liftable rock… and then stopped to listen. Their efforts were seemingly enough.

Taking stock, they knew they couldn’t go back down, and only had a vague idea of where home was.

And then the large red dragon appeared.

**Gotta love random encounter tables!

The party hid as best they could, and thankfully the dragon either didn’t see them, or didn’t care.

**It didn’t care

After dark, they started to make their way down the mountain.

**We were getting short on time, and everyone was very tired from the long nights of the convention

The party made it back home after a week of travel, much to the shock of the nearly waterless town. Another party had followed them down a few days ago, but had also not returned. After they report what happened, the town elders focused their questions of the underground stream that served the well.

“So what you’re saying is that you need to dig a little dirt and rock out from where the wall collapsed?”

“Uh… Yes?”

They’re sent back down the well with shovels and picks, and after some hours of work, restored the stream to its original flow, saving the town.

#ReaperCon #Dungeon23 Session Reports 1+2

Games played the evenings of 8/30 to 9/3

Players and Characters - Not all players/characters played each night
Smart Goblin - Notknot Focust, Magic User
Thes - Ethanol the Cleric (aka 80085)
Aaron - Ivermectin the Dwarf
Haldir - Balfasak the Buzzed (aka The Aborted) the dwarf
JeepNewbie - Gorbeliead the fighter
Merrick - Charles Notchuck the fighter
Kyle - Ankou the fighter
Matt - Whooo the lover (not a fighter)
Thorne - Lethe the elf
Andy - Sarin
Natalie - Urethra
Brad Arm Candy - Mojito the 1st
Cranky - Maypole the Fudge Bringer, Prophet of Core
Ariel - Tila the Thief
Arthur - North The Elf
Evil Halfling - Mojito the 2nd (& 3rd) Cleric
Jeff/Dilvish - Uri
Dragoneye - House Red
Watermelon, NPC Torchbearer (12 year old boy or adult halfling, unclear, in platemail with no shoes and shoe polish blackened feet)
Lefty & Righty, NPC meatshields

Over the course of 5 nights I ran a rotating group of players through the first month’s worth of my #Dungeon23. These were all late night sessions (usually starting after 9:30pm) in which almost everyone had consumed various adult beverages. At any given time, there were usually about 8 players at the table.

DM’s notes, as written, will be indicated with **. These notes may or may not have anything to do with what's happening in the game, and may or may not make any sense… even to me.


Introduction

The world ended. Fire burned the sky, and demons poured forth from the mountains to sweep across the face of the world, destroying the monuments and empires of mankind. But nothing lasts forever, not even the end of the world.

Everything was changed from that point on. New peoples with ancient empires appeared where once there was open farmland, and old nations fractured and split as what once was common became impossible to repair. Creatures of myth now walk, swim, and fly across the face of the world.

In the town of Dragon's Maw, so named for the ever steaming rocky gorge the town sits next to, the town's main well has gone dry. Workers were sent down to investigate and repair it. They didn't return. The townsfolk are nervous, and old wives tales about "The Demon Core" that lurks below seem a little more real. With nerves running high, and water supplies running low, a call has gone out for some would-be heroes to face whatever danger lurks below the town.

**I gave this intro every session, and sometimes multiple times if new players showed up.

 

Session 1

Too stupid to step back when the town council calls for volunteers, a half dozen unlucky souls are geared up to find out what happened to the workers and solve the problem if they can. Heading down the well, the strongest being lowered down first, they drop down into a long and somewhat narrow cavern with an underground stream running through it, and quickly discover that the cause of the problem is that a wall has collapsed, pushing the stream away from the well opening. More interesting is that the collapsed wall has opened an entrance into… somewhere else. Somewhere with a flickering blueish light.

As the fighters poke around, the nearly naked wizard, with bandoliers of flaming oil, loses his grip on the rope near the bottom, and falls. Lucky for him, he only suffers a bit of rope burn, a badly bumped noggin (no big loss) and a couple broken vials of oil. He then uses the oil to rub his nearly naked self down

**everyone is drunk, both in and out of game

**roll Tiddy dice for decisions

The party doesn’t see any sign of the workers in the cave, and so heads up toward the light. Once through the broken wall, they find themselves in a clearly man-made passage, with ancient flickering light panels set into the ceiling. Picking a random direction, they explore the hallway, ignoring the door near the break in the wall, and going directly away from it, ignoring the door at the turn of the corridor and looking further along, they see a group of four 6’ tall cockroaches, attempting to open a door further down the hall. 2 of them drop down onto all sixes, while the one at the door, and the one furthest back remain upright. They click and chitter amongst each other, then at the party.

Notknot, in his glistening glory, carefully approaches the roaches. They’re cautious, but let him approach, backing away from the door. He reaches for the door handle, turns it, and pushes in, and is immediately trampled by 4 more Roachkin busting out of the room. The Roachkin collectively scurry away down the hall, mostly on the floor, a couple using the wall until they round the corner down the far end. After a moment one sticks his head back around the corner and waves an arm before disappearing down the hall.

The party rushes up to Notknot, picks him up, and then they check out the open doorway. Beyond is a large open cubicle farm. The fabric walls are torn and moldy, and thick dust covers the inoperable machines within.

Returning to the previous door, they find a large plush office that once must have been for the boss, but was now just as ruined as the cubicle farm. Ivermectin does his best to fix the throne-like chair behind the desk, but the plastic wheels are beyond his skill and drunkenness level.

 

Session 2

The party continues exploring the underground facility, coming next to a store room, which was largely empty and the few remaining items were ancient and not in very good shape. Urethra offered someone a drink, and was weirdly turned down. Can’t imagine why… 

Among the various dusty artifacts is a weird four legged thing, about the size of a dog, but made out of metal and some other hard materials. A box, semi-attached to the bottom was the only bit that the party could shift with any ease. They pushed it one way, then another, and it clicked, and the dog thing stood up. While it didn't have a head, there was the impression that it was looking around. On unsteady legs it began to move, and then got more steady. They watched it for a bit, and it kept making a circuit of the room.  

**Resting Serious Face

The door across the hall was way more interesting, but stinky. Full of trash and lots of unidentifiable material, several more large Roachkin as well as an uncountable number of Roachkin nymphs, scurry in panic at the light coming in through the open door. Lots of clicking, chittering, and hissing can be heard.

**I’m smart enough to have an extra language, can I speak Roachkin? Sure!

Notknot clicks and chitters in return..

**We interrupt this session report for the sounds of Bohemian Rhapsody echoing down the hall, being played for Sophie Says in the main ballroom. None of my players heard it, and were apparently confused as to why I leapt up and ran into the ballroom to sing along

Conversation with the Roachkin continued for a bit, and the party agreed to not harass any of the roaches they might see in the facility.

**into a box

Leaving the Roachkin nest, they continue down the hall and into a decent sized room with 4 overly swollen zombies in torn radiation suits. Lefty and Righty charge in with the party fighters while Watermelon pees himself.

**Whooo’s toddling Watermelon (tutoring)

The zombies are tough, tougher than expected, and every time they get poked, a nasty gush of fluids squirts out toward the person poking them. Lefty and Righty both get a blast of the noxious fluids right in the face, and neither survives the experience. In a terrifying move, the wizard Sarin grabs the head of the nearest fallen zombie and chucks it at one of the last standing ones, killing it.

**That’ll do Canadian

After the fight is over Balfasak takes the intact heads of 3 of the zombies, and pulls the flesh off of them by hand, keeping them to throw later. He gets a minor case of radiation sickness.

**It might be small, but it’s neat and tidy... Really beautiful.

Opening the 3 doors to the room at the same time, the party finds a long hallway to the south, stairs going up and down to the north, and a shorter hallway to the east that leads to a room. 

---

Sessions 3-5 next post

#Dungeon23 #DoomGate #The Facility June Wrap Up

The middle levels of The Facility continue on from the previous month, with more demons, more nasty traps, and a shocking amount of treasure. 

There's also a little sub level that has both a teleporter to the surface, and a dragon that's taken up residence. And if successful, the party can take the teleporter with them... and with a little ingenuity they can even relocate the hardware at the other end to a more accessible location. 

There are several other boss or mini-boss type monsters to be found, including a giant spider demon that when reduced to half hit points will release insect swarms for the PCs to deal with. 

#Dungeon23 #DoomGate #TheFacility May Wrap Up

May brings us from the various outer installations to the main HQ, where I will spend through July detailing out. The upper section is infested with demons, a smattering of undead, and some weird tech to play with. 

There are also a number of tricks and traps, including a med bay that can heal all ills, but drain ability scores in the process. A pool filled with blood and a golden teleporting chalice (good luck keeping it), and a robotic forge burning with literal infernal fires. There's also an old gargoyle that's happy to chat and trade. 

The influence of the DoomGate can be clearly felt, but also the fungal/primordial push from below, and the weird alien tech from beyond mix in interesting and strange ways. It might have been better if the ICBM was launched at The Facility.

#Dungeon23 #DoomGate #TheSilos April Overview

After the 4 map January, and the 4 map February and March, having only 2 maps for April feels a little weird. It shouldn't, since both February and March were basically 2 maps each, but because they were part of a single complex, and April is all by its lonesome, it feels different. 

This section is the local ICBM launch site that's connected to the larger complex. 2 of the 3 missiles are gone, but one remains, and remains active. 

There are no intelligent inhabitants of the upper level of the Silos, but it isn't without its dangers. A demonic hydra and several packs of hellhounds roam these halls. 

The lower level has more demonic threats, as a small family of bugbears that found the open silos and climbed down to check them out. They didn't expect some of the demonic energy to influence them in weird and amourous ways. 

#Dungeon23 #Doomgate #TheGarrison February & March Overview

Like The Core, I did the maps for The Garrison out of order. This wasn't an intentional choice exactly, just sort of the way it worked out as I was going. The Garrison is closer to the DoomGate and so shows more effects, and has a different population, although, as with The Core, the AI system is still active and attempting to keep things running as it was programmed to do. While working on this section I hit on the idea that in each facility there's a problem the AI needs fixed, and if the players help the AI, things will be a little easier for them in the next section, and if they don't things should be as I write them. If they actively piss off the AI, it will make their lives harder. 

Below are the levels in order, top to bottom, but not in the order I made them. 

The upper level of the Garrison has 2 exits onto the surface (imagined as a mountainous area) that has a troop of Hobgoblins that have recently moved in and started to make themselves at home (middle left side) a flooded area with various degenerate mutant creatures and natural hazards, and up top the lair of a young red dragon.   

The second level's largest feature is the zombie infested cryo lab and med bay. More otherworldly creatures lurk in this area.  

A small clan of Dark Dwarves have made there home here and the bottom level. The main computer core is here, and the dwarves have taken an important component. 

The final level of The Garrison has some warped architecture and weird effects resulting in part from a device taken from The Ark (October's section). I still need to ink this level.

#Dungeon23 #DoomGate #TheCore - January overview

So I haven't posted about this since mid-January, but the project is ongoing! I haven't typed up many of the rooms, just a few along the way that have gotten posted to Twitter or Mastodon. I really want to have some time to sit down and type it all up. But until I do, I want to share what I've got so far, starting with the January maps!

January's maps are a self contained complex known as The Core that is connected to the 2 other subsections, and the main larger dungeon by way of a semi-functional underground monorail system. The Core houses the megadungeon's nuclear power plant. 

Map 1 is actually the 3rd level of The Core, but is the most easily accessed via the well that serves the settlement above. It's the home of a clan of roach-folk whose life centers around the pool containing the nuclear reactor, and the AI trying to keep things from literally melting down. The recently diverted river is messing that up. 

Map 2 is the 2nd level of the dungeon and home to the mutated descendants of the workers who were in The Core when the DemonGate opened and ended the old world. They're enemies both of the Roach-folk and the AI that maintains the Core. 

Map 3 is the uppermost level of the dungeon. The mutants are largely in control of this area as well. It also contains the motor pool/monorail stop for The Core.  

Map 4 is the lowest level of the dungeon, and contains a large number of radioactive undead, and some flooded areas that are causing the AI issues. 

Unmapped is a large crevice on the surface that is used as the Core's cooling system. The hot water is pumped to the lake at the bottom of the crevice, which causes it to be constantly full of warm steam that a small group of steamdrakes (as gargoyles) have made their home. 

#Dungeon23 DoomGate Introduction

During the weeks leading up to 2023 I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to include in my dungeon, how I wanted  to go about building it, what the background was. Initially I was thinking that it would be a basic fantasy megadungeon, that I would roll things up randomly and work with what I got. Back when I wrote my first post about it I said it would be "largely unplanned" 

HA!!

That didn't last long. By the time I started my dry run with The Poisonous Vaults, I was already scheming. 

So here's the elevator pitch for my new megadungeon: DoomGate

The world was at, or just slightly beyond our current tech level when an ancient crashed alien space ship is found buried in a mountain. The military takes control of it, builds a sprawling underground base around it, and begins experimenting. This causes an apocalypse that includes opening a literal rift into hell. Fast forward an indeterminate amount of time. Society has rebuilt to a late medieval stage, magic is now real, but relics of the modern age are still around...

Couple hundred years ago a wizard finds The Core, the underground nuclear power plant (built to power the military instillation) and takes it over, using it to fuel his mutagenic experiments. Things obviously get out of his control. His victims lock him up. The settlement on the surface locks them all in. 

Very recently the well/water source the settlement above The Core uses stopped working, because they stopped wishing into it. The spirit (elemental? fae?) diverted the water, which breached the power plant. It also caused the reactor water supply to drop, as the pipe which supplied The Core got blocked. This upset the reactor AI, which upsets the roach kin.The mutated descendants of the wizard's experiments are always upset. 

After exploring The Core, my Dungeon23 will expand to include The Silos, Aux Control, HQ, The Ship, The Caves, and finally Hell on Earth (names subject to change). The upper areas will all be connected by miles long underground rails. Some working, some not.

#Dungeon23 Dry Run Week 1

A week ago I decided to do a dry run at #Dungeon23. I have no idea if I'll include this little 14 room dungeon in my megadungeon, or add it to Stonehell, or what, but as I've completed the first week, I wanted to share it.

Welcome to the Poisonous Vaults

1. Stairs down open up to a massive fountain that dominates the north side of the room. Serpents & snakemen hiss a harmless water mist that blankets the floor 1' deep in concealing mist.

2. Sloping passage down to storage room. North side piled 10' high w/ precariously stacked rotted worthless crates. Dry well in the SE corner drops down a little over 100'. Secret door is trapped with poison gas. Save or take 2d4 Con damage (heals @ 1pt/day)


2A. Secret stash. 1000gp, 10 bottles of wine (10gp each) 7 gems (100gp each). Rotted food and travel clothing.

3. A pair of Medusa polish the copper serpent lamps and duct work (500gp value if carefully removed). All gates are locked. Stairs down to next week's level. The polish is caustic (as oil).

4. Copper lamps continue from 3. 1 not working. West side has dais with hooded cobra backed throne. Non working lamp has a 7,000gp gem wedged in the pipe. Removing it & not relighting the lamp will fill the room with gas. In 3d4 rounds will explode as fireball

5. Beyond the locked door is an area of magical darkness. 2 gargoyles flank the door. They hate the Medusa and will give the treasure away if given one of the Medusa heads. Along the N wall is an empty wine rack save for an ebony scepter wrapped with a gold serpent and topped by a goose egg sized polished garnet (900gp). The SW quarter of the room contains destroyed rugs, floor pillows, and couches.

6. A Medusa and her pet giant rattler are playing with a blinded giant rat. The rat has already been bitten and will die in 1d6 turns. The Medusa has a pouch with 76ep.

7. Blinded giant rats (14) pick at the torso of an orc. The petrified legs are leaning in the NW corner.

#Dungeon23

Sean McCoy came up with an idea, a dungeon room a day, for a year. At the end of the year, you've got a 12 level, 365 room megadungeon. He posted this on Twitter, and it took off. He then wrote up a blog post about it here.

And as I love a good megadungeon, and can use a good kick in the pants to get posting more regularly, I'm joining in! I've even got my notebook all set up. 

 

 And the plan is as follows:

• 1 Room per day (or small group of rooms)
  
• 1 Section per week - and one blog post about it 
• 1 Level per month

I'll be using the Tomb of Adventure Design and the Dungeon Alphabet for inspiration, and leaning toward Old School Essentials/Rules Cyclopedia as the rules set

Since it's going to be largely unplanned, I'm going to make a number of connection points early on that won't be identified until later. 

As for the maps, I'm considering a number of options, from dice drop maps to whatever I can doodle out to reusing some maps I've drawn but never did anything else with before. I'll probably end up doing a mix by year's end. 

The most exciting part about this is that it feels like that collaborative creative rush we used to have back on G+! I think I might start early, do a practice run before starting the project in the new year.

Stonehell: The Temple-Prison of Ka-Nefer

Session 58 was played on 1/16, and introduces my own sublevel to the dungeon... one that will have some far reaching consequences going forward.

Eiric, wizard 6 (Kat)
- men at arms (Koltic, Bollox)
- linkmen (Lomax)
- Neon (dog)
A-A-Ron, Thief 6 (Henchman)
Daryll, Cleric 6 (Henchman)
Orpheus, Human Fighter 5 (Henchman)
Karl, Dwarf 6 (Julia)
- Hobart (dog)
- men at arms (GoMat, Scar the Useless)
Lex the Cheeseman, Fighter 3
Brie, wizard 2 (Apprentice to Eiric)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief 5 (Josh)

After resting and recovering in the Kobold Korners, Trustee Sniv comes to the party's room to announce that his workers have completed their task. The way is now open into the new section of the dungeon!

The party quickly gears up, and heads down to the Reptile House, with the kobold work chief and 2 assistants. Piles of rubble fill the pillared hall. Passing through the path between the piles, the party heads into the shored up passageway that almost immediately comes to a set of stairs dropping down into the dark.

Switching back and forth, following the stairs down, the passage opens into a large chamber. Without a railing, the stairs emerge from the ceiling, curving along the wall, but shattered before reaching the ground 15' below. 3 of the 4 rune covered pillars supporting the ceiling are intact, The 4th is cracked and broken on the floor. Between the pillars, in the center of the room is a massive sarcophagus. Eiric has the kobods weave one of their ropes into a rope ladder, dropping a few coins into their claws for their effort. The kobolds attach the ladder to the bottom step, and the party climbs down. Sitting on the edge of the stairs, the kobolds watch.

A-A-Ron investigates the room all around, working his way toward the sarcophagus. The runes on the pillars, and the writing on the sarcophagus are a mystery to him. Darryl the Dark knows the runes are magical wards against the Blacksun, an ancient deity of undeath. The sarcophagus is covered in the story of the dead within, Ka-Nefer, and warnings to any that would disturb his restless death.

Shifting the lid of the sarcophagus takes Orpheus, Karl, and 2 more hirelings, but they do, and a highly decorated coffin is revealed within. Darryl uses some charcoal to scribe some of the same runes from the pillars onto the coffin, and garlic and stakes are handed out to everyone. The lid is pushed off. Karl uses his pick to destroy the foot of the sarcophagus, and they drag the coffin out, looping it with rope to keep it closed. There is definitely something within, but they aren't ready to dare opening it yet.

Under the coffin was a small round hole, barely as wide as a dwarf. Ribs are set into the wall like a ladder. A-A-Ron drops a torch down, and it falls about 50', sputtering once it hits the stone floor. Bollux and Koltek play rock-paper-blades to see who would go down first. Bollux loses, gets a rope tied around his waist, and starts the climb down. He describes the room that opens up below him as he climbs. 4 large animal headed statues, and a pile of bones... Nothing too threatening... A-A-Ron starts to follow.

Once he sets foot on the floor, and picks up the torch, the bone pile rattles, and then pulls itself up into a 4 armed monster! Bollux wants to bolt, but Eiric tells him to stay there! Grabbing another coil of rope, they stick the grappling hook through Darryl's belt, and drop him down. A-A-Ron manages to avoid getting hit by the falling cleric, who gets yanked hard about half way down. Pointing his finger threateningly at the bone monster, he summons his divine power and... nothing happens. A-A-Ron sends a screaming arrow into the monster's skull. Bollus flails at the creature with his sword, but doesn't even chip a bone. He leaps back and tries to scale the ladder, but the best grabs his leg. It rips him from the ladder, and uses it's other 3 arms to tear him apart. A-A-Ron shoots it again in the skull, now shattered, and then keeps climbing down. Darryl grabs the ladder, and Karl drops into the hole going down. Darryl see's the dwarf coming and climbs down as well.

A-A-Ron dodges and weaves around most of the arms, but gets slammed against the wall. He stabs back with his sword, bones splintering against his 3rd critical hit. Karl, about 10' above the fight, leaps down onto the beast, Hammer of the Honey Badger first, and crashes through it. Bones scatter all over the floor. Looking on silently, the 4 tall animal headed statues do nothing.

After the rest of the party makes it down, including the dogs (Neon long suffering, Hobart goofy) they examine the only door out of the room. Massive, bronze, and completely covered in pictograms. Over this are black runes seemingly burned into the metal, a divine lock to keep something in. Karl shrugs, and tries to push open the door. Black lightning sends him reeling away from the door. Darryl summons his own gods power, and turns the door's magic. The black runes fizzle away under the sustained turning.

A-A-Ron notices that the pillared corridor before them is trapped, Specifically, blades in the pillars, but he can't find a trigger. Karl, sure the pillars are decorative, smashes the first, revealing the blade mechanism, and then smashes that. As he does, beetles begin to come out of the far end of the corridor wall, and chitter loudly as they swarm toward Karl. As he sprays them with Power Thirst the now flaming bugs form onto a skeletal humanoid shape and attack. Orpheus jumps in, and both Karl and Orpheus take some hits before the bugs drop and disperse. The whole party then engages in several minutes of bug stomping.

Karl resumes smashing the pillars until the last set, when Eiric wants to test the mechanism. Karl tells Scar to stick his finger between the pillars. Scar breaks down, falling to the floor, and crying in terror. Karl then turns to GoMat, who reluctantly agrees. Nothing happens. They try using Bollux's mostly intact body, but again, nothing happens. Karl offers the gold and silver arm band he wears, to GoMat if he walks through it. He does, and once past the pillars, the flagstone shifts under his feet, triggering the trap, but as no one was standing near the pillars, the blades scythe out harmlessly. A-A-Ron disables the pressure plate, while Darryl marks up the hallway with the runes he copies from the pillars.

Ahead of them, a large empty room dominated by a glossy black sun covering most of the north wall, and ceiling. Black rays shoot along the walls, and between them, figures carved into the wall cower from it.

Gains: None
Kills: 2 Scarab Defenders, 1 Bone Golem
Losses: Bollux

Stonehell: Loot the (un)Dead!

Session 14 was played on 7/1 (This is part 2 of 2)

Wilhelm, drunk Dwarf 3 (Julia)
-Hammond, war dog

Stayed in town
Tink, a pretentious Elf (but I repeat myself) and former barkeep (Hanna)
Frank, halfling 1 (Emily)
Tobias, Cat, Cleric 1 of Persephone (Mollie)
Shelly, a vegetarian recovering alcoholic halfling Thief 3 (Nadia)

After more than a week of R&R, Wilhelm renews the contracts with his hirelings, and they head back to Stonehell...

The dungeon was remarkably quiet, and they make it past the great doors leading into the Quiet Halls. The body of the spider had mostly been stripped away, and only a few chitinous plates lay scattered about. The body in the web was still hanging up near the ceiling. It took some effort, but they dragged it down. Cutting open the webbing that it was wrapped in, they found the desiccated body of an albino like the ones they'd seen on level 2.

Heading back toward the crypts, the now experienced hirelings followed their standard practice of holding the doors shut as they went, and only letting out one or two monsters at a time. In spite of the fact that Wilhelm had been down this corridor before, the crypts were as restless as before. Zombies, skeletons, and a ghoul were all efficiently cut down form the first 4 crypts, and an impressive pile of loot recovered.

Getting out of the dungeon was equally as easy. Almost as if they were being given a wide berth...

Gains: 2020gp, magic short sword, magic scroll: Protection from Magic
Losses: None!
Kills: 9 zombies, 8 skeletons, 1 ghoul

Stonehell: Bad Touch

Session 14 was played on 7/1 (This is part 1 of 2)

Wilhelm, drunk Dwarf 2 (Julia)
-Hammond, war dog

Stayed in town
Tink, a pretentious Elf (but I repeat myself) and former barkeep (Hanna)
Frank, halfling 1 (Emily)
Tobias, Cat, Cleric 1 of Persephone (Mollie)
Shelly, a vegetarian recovering alcoholic halfling Thief 3 (Nadia)

Bumming around town alone, Wilhelm came across a group of out-of-work mercs looking for a job, and while dungeon crawling wasn’t usually their thing, gold spends. With the exchange of coin, Wilhelm found himself in command of a dozen soldiers: 10 men at arms, and 2 link bearers, as well as his trusty hound Hamlet.

They head to the dungeon, bypassing the gatehouse, and making straight for Rocky. With only a single question “How do we get past the orcs” Rocky tells Wilhelm that the only way is through them, that they are blood thirsty and cannot be negotiated with.

From there, they march quickly to the great doors adorned with the Danse Macabre, shoving them open and entering the quiet halls. Through the pillared room and into the crypts where skeletons and a ghoul jumped out immediately at them. After the first few skeletons were knocked down, the ghoul made it to the front row, and laid into Wilhelm, paralyzing him. His troops rallied around the frozen form, killing the ghoul and the skeletons, then dragging Wilhelm back to the dungeon entrance.

Nearly out of the dungeon the paralysis wears off, and Wilhelm commands his troops back to the quiet halls. Passing through the pillar room, a large spider dropped down on one of the link bearers, but failed to do more than knock him back. The rest of the group turned and beat down the giant arachnid, bludgeoning it into pulp. They see a body suspended in the webbing above, but hurry off to another section of crypt.

The first pair of doors had some skeletons, but the group put their combat tactics to use and held both doors shut, only allowing a single skeleton or two out at a time. The next set of doors had another group of zombies and a ghoul but once again the combat tactics worked to their advantage. After putting the undead back to their rest, the crypts were looted, and a secret door was found. Beyond was a large chamber littered with bones. Humanoid skeletons were scattered about and a giant snake skeleton was coiled around the middle of the room. As the troops entered, the skeletons rose up, including the big snake! It lashes out, taking Wilhelm’s helmet but barely leaving him his life. He orders a general retreat, and they all retreat back through the secret door, slamming it shut.

With his scalp bleeding, and his pack full of treasure, he decides that it’s time to go. They make their way out of the dungeon, and back to town.

Gains: 900gp worth of treasure
Losses: 1 helmet
Kills: 17 Skeletons, 6 Zombies, 2 Ghouls, 1 Spider

Wilhelm's second delve to come...

Suddenly Stonehell

Unexpectedly, I'm going to get to run the Stonehell campaign I've been wanting to run, using classic D&D.

Due to a combination of factors, my Friday night group is putting the Star Wars campaign on carbonite, and I suggested some old school dungeon crawling as an alternative.

I don't think any of them have ever played an edition of D&D prior to 3.X, but I did run my 5e campaign in a more old school, let the dice fall where they may style, so that shouldn't come as a shock. THAC0 on the other hand... that might take some work.


I've got a lots of options, as far as what sort of dungeon crawl to run, from Dyson's Delves to Rappan Athuk to my own work in progress dungeon... but I really do want to run Stonehell. Plus, I've already e-mailed them a brief history of the dungeon and a couple of rumors.

I think I'll use LL/RC to run it, at least behind the screen. From the player perspective it'll probably be a little more stripped down, and look more like S&W 

Things I need to do prior to game:
Reread Stonehell intro areas
Meatshields henchmen
Make a couple of pregens?
Decide if I want to include the changes that have happened in my 5e Stonehell game...

I think that's it!

5e Stonehell: The Quiet Halls

On Sunday 9/7 the open table Stonehell Dungeon-crawl continued. In attendance were the following PCs:

Human Paladin
Rogue
Human Fighter (pregen)

Realizing that once again they lacked any real healing ability, they opted to hire a cleric to join them. The new guy, in spite of never having played 5e before decided that he'd run the cleric was well.

As the Paladin was the only player to have entered Stonehell before, and he had the map, they followed his lead through Hell's Antechamber until they reached the great Dance Macabre doors of the Quiet Halls. The corpses of the fire beetles from the last delve seemed undisturbed. Pressing on into the chill darkness, they discovered an old morgue, and a remembrance chamber before discovering a secret hallway that brought them to a hall of crypts.

They explored 4 of them, encountering giant rats, numerous skeletons, some zombies, and a ghoul. The fights were hard and draining, even with the cleric's help. They opted to rest in the morgue, barricading themselves in and praying that nothing would come knocking.

Amazingly enough, nothing did.  Or at least nothing made it through the barracaded door. After their rest, the adventurers returned to the hall of crypts, fought some more skeletons, a ghoul, and a crypt shade! Looting from the various crypts they ended up with a mixed pile of coins and a few pieces of jewelry. Certainly enough to provide them with comfortable lodgings for a bit, and even a few spare healing potions.

---

The addition of an NPC cleric improved the PC's survivability, not just because of the healing, but also because of the radiant damage against the undead, not to mention the bludgeoning damage against the skeletons.

In running Stonehell with 5e, I've been halving the number of creatures encountered, and that seems to be working pretty well. The players are going at it with much more caution this time around, so I guess nearly killing them off last time was effective. I also haven't been doing very much prep since I don't really know where they're going to go. I just skim though the first level and glance at the second, and then keep the book handy. I can't wait for them to get to the Kobold Korners.

5E Stonehell TPK

On Sunday 8/31 I ran D&D 5th edition at Titan Games. Last week I started the Lost Mines from the starter set, but I spent the week thinking about it, and decided that an open table, which is how I want to run it, doesn't work so well with such a structured adventure. I need something more... open. I only came to this conclusion a couple of hours before the game, even though it had been niggling at me all week.

A megadungeon campaign offers the ability for players to make forays into the dungeon, and return to town at the end of every adventure, making it easier to swap out players every session. This is going to be important in the future since I know at least one of the players will only be able to attend every other week.

Now, I have multiple megadungeons to choose from, including Stonehell, Barrowmaze, Dwimmermount, The Black Stairs, and even my own. There are also a number of mini-megadungeons out there like Dyson's Delve that I could snag. Since I had planned to run a Stonehell flailsnails game on G+ later that night, I had it with me, so that's what I decided to run. 

I quickly skimmed again through the entire first level, and especially the antechamber quadrant, while a new player rolled up a character. I also decided to steal the Yawning Portal Inn entrance to Undermountain for my game. This got the players into the dungeon (and into the action) much faster.

The characters for this past week:
Wood Elf Ranger
Wood Elf Thief
Human Paladin

The party gathered in the Yawning Portal Inn, paid their gold to enter the dungeon, and were winched down the 60' into the entry hall. They then headed south east, encountering an empty room, then some suspicious dwarves, and then a room with a giant rat. The paladin strode in to kill it, at which point 7 more emerged from the trash piles. The fight was painful and fast, dropping the paladin and the ranger over 2 rounds, and injuring the thief. Deciding that discression is the better part of valor, the thief ran back to the dwarves, and had just enough time to cry out for help before he was jumped by a giant rat, bringing him to zero.

T.P.K.

I decided that the dwarves would help, so all the characters woke up several hours later with 1hp each, and owing the dwarves for their lives. They returned to the surface to rest.

After resting his 4 hours for the night the thief tried to pick some pockets which resulted in him spending most of the night hiding in an alleyway. 

The next morning the adventurers returned to the dungeon, exploring the ruined rooms to the north east, and then venturing through the ogre mouths. They avoided some territorial snakes, passed through an ancient battleground, and then shoved their way past a large stone double door. The 8 fire beetles on the other side of the door were a challenge, especially since I started using Giant Crab stats instead of Giant Beetle stats. Once I corrected my error, the adventurers prevailed, removed the glowing glands and then scurried back to the surface to sell them.

I look forward to seeing what they're going to do next week...