Late to Week three - The Dungeon

This was not the week to get hung up on. Out of the whole challenge, this one requires the most work of all. Dungeon development is complex and tricky at times if you want anything other than a meaningless, random assortment of rooms with a hodge-podge of denizens, traps and empty spaces. In all fairness, the Gygaxian way would be something much akin to exactly that, but I'm not a huge fan of such design, so maybe I'm making more work for myself than I need to.

The first thing that I need to do is decide which of the potential dungeons in this setting to use. To me, the logical choice seems to be a dungeon in the Silver Spires. It is closest to Haven (save for the potential dungeon right below Haven) and fits the bill nicely for a dungeon that can be reached in less than a day. The Silver Spires is also a place where I can easily create multiple entrances to a single or multiple dungeons or combinations thereof. 

"A silver door hidden within a crack in ancient stone."

This should be enough to elicit adventure.

For me, this step comes too early in the list. Arranging rooms and levels without having established those things we do in later steps seems counterintuitive. For now, I will put that on the back burner and continue with the other steps.

This dungeon, in the Silver Spires will take the form of one of the spires. As such, I think it would be cool to give it an unorthodox dungeon arrangement. In this case, this means dividing the verticality of the dungeon between the areas closest to the ground, up into the spire itself, and then an area that goes below the ground in true dungeon fashion. 

For my three themes, I picked...

• Sand [3]
• Wreckage [5]
• Ancient Secrets [3]

This ratio of mundane to more fantastic thematic elements will work well for the first steps into the spires. I can imagine a party entering Level 1 and encountering places where the wreckage of the spire has left the interior exposed to the wastes outside and as they move up (Level 2) or down Level 3) within the dungeon they will encounter less sandy wasteland influence and more wreckage in whatever form that takes. Ancient secrets would be rare and will stand out and this vague theme can easily cover many wonderous things. 

This leads naturally into...

I chose to do this after establishing themes because I felt it would easier to conceive of ways up and down after I had conceptualized the dungeon more. My roll result are as follows...

• Level 1 = 2. This will make a very linear connection from the ground level which makes perfect sense. I immediately thing of an ancient lift tube that goes up into the skyward part of the spire (Level 2) and maybe a broken, crumpled passage down into the areas beneath the spire (Level 3).
• Level 2 = 2. Level 2 seems similarly linearly accessible but with one established connection to Level 1 perhaps the other passage only connects to Level 3. This immediately gives me the idea of some ancient conduit or service chute that goes from Level 2 down into the bowels of Level 3.
• Level 3 = 4. This is an interesting state of things as, even after calculating the direct connection to Level 2 up in the spire and the more gradual connection to Level 1 by the wrecked passage, we still have two other connections to someplace else. This is perfect for leaving the deeper section under the spire with two undeclared connections. In my mind, the branch out to spaces under some of the other spires.

One thing to keep in mind with this dungeon is the enhanced verticality of the spires. This means that Level 2, which is the spire proper will actually be many connected small levels, each being a floor of the spire but for the sake of design we will consider them a contained level. The lift from Level 1 will go up to Level 2 but within that level I can imagine a number of ladders, stairs and other doors off that lift from Level 1.

The exit from Level 2 to Level 3 will completely bypass Level 1 which, for this dungeon sits between 2 and 3. I'll explain this by having its wall made of some ancient, incredibly strong material that won't be easily breached. It's also important to remember that these are guidelines. It is possible that this long, vertical passage into the depth of Level 3 might be accessible at other point on Level 2 but that still only connects Level 2 and 3 directly.

Eleven different monsters in this setting should be easy enough but I want to stick to the weird and odd for this setting as I think it better sells the techno-fantastic, post-apocalyptic weirdness I want to permeate the world. Across the various old-school products out there, there are some really wild humanoids and monsters that fit this world far better than typical orcs and the like. Where a premade monster is missing, I will first try to reskin existing monster to fit the setting and ultimately create new ones if needed. Of the monsters in my first random encounter list, only the Steel Death and Silver Scourge were not stock monsters and they were only renamed and rethemed. 

My go-tos for monsters will be the Creature Catalog (CC) and Creature Compendium (CCom). These provide most of the oddball monsters I will need and leave the standard B/X monsters as fallbacks.

My list of monsters for this dungeon will be as follows...

1. Cactus Cat (2HD) - CCom
2. Gaseous Lantern (1 hp) - CCom
3. Giant Spider Gorilla (7HD) - CCom
4. Izzoo (3HD) - CCom
5. Steam Weevil (1/2HD) - CC
6. Wyrdwun (2+1HD) - CCom
7. Tangleworm (1-8HD) - CCom
8. Stinking Pile (2HD) - CCom
9. Skyfish (1HD) - CCom
10. Strangle Vine (1HD) CC
11. Scavengers (Bandits) (1HD) 

With this mix of monsters we have a mostly wild space without permanent populations of many humanoids or other intelligent monsters. Creatures like the Cactus Cat and Giant Spider Gorilla are likely here as predators, having come to feed on other monsters. Gaseous Lanterns, Steam Weevils, Skyfish, worms and plants and even the very strange Wydwuns are also likely part of the strange, mutant ecosystem that has built up around the spires, moving in and out through smaller holes and gaps in the structure. The truly odd creatures such as the Izzoo and the Stinking Pile are the most gruesome reminder of the horrible, toxic world having been created by the degeneration of other creatures, not over generations of mutating development but from quick and horrible degeneration. Scavengers, of course, are likely to be an ongoing and ever-present threat throughout adventures in the setting.