#Dungeon23 2-1 and 2-2: The hole problem

 Once back on the main path, the party continued deeper into the dungeon, searching for the missing dwarf. Fortunately, we had our dwarf, Buri in the party and he was leading. It could not have been more than a few seconds after we started that Buri held up his hand, signaling us to stop. 

"There's water up ahead", he whispered. "And mist. It's interfering with my infravision. Wait here a second." He moved up maybe ten feet until he was a dim shadow in our torchlight before hurrying back to us. 

"The floor is gone. Come and see. But be careful near the edge."

As a group we moved forward to the gaping hole. And what a sight it was. For almost forty feet, the floor was missing in the passage. We could see it at our end, in the pit, ten feet below us. Somewhere in the pit was the sound of running water, but it was past the view of our torches. For what we could see, a large sloping chamber descended downwards, a combination of gravel and cobble and larger stone. 

"Why is this here?" Marcus asked the dwarf. 

"That, I cannot say. It seems unnatural. Like someone built this dungeon on the kind of fill you have between the walls of a castle. And then water got in and eroded it away."

"What do we do?" asked the thief as she eyed the vague shape of the continuation of the passage in the distance. She was worried she'd be asked to climb it. 

"I think.. we should try and follow the water first", Buri replied. "The walls are undercut and it would be exceedingly hazardous to climb out. The water must go somewhere. Maybe we can find some answers there." He was thinking back now to his youngest days and his elders in the clan. 'Follow the water' they always told him. 

After several minutes of nailing a single piton into a stable gap between the flagstones on the floor, a rope was lowered into the pit. The thief went first, followed by the dwarf and the rest of the party. After several moments of scrambling, the group reached the stream - a narrow but fast trickle over cobble and stone. They followed the stream further, to where it bent slightly to the right. They were now in a second chamber, whose roof looked like a precarious mix of rock and rubble. Ahead was a short waterfall and then the stream ended in a perpetually gurgling pool of water. 

"It just.. drains into the ground here." Marcus said. Buri frowned.

The party elf, a ranger by profession, who had remained silent until this point, spoke up from the rear. She had been quietly examining the rest of the new chamber when the pool was discovered. 

"Over here." she announced quietly. The party scrambled up some of the breakdown away from the pond. Ahead, they could see that the rubble ended and became a proper cave. "Look at the ground", she gestured. 

Between her feet were a set of not-entirely human tracks. They had the overall humanoid shape, but the toes on the left foot were clawed, and the right foot had six normal digits. 

The party looked up at her. She had already drawn her daggers. "Mongrelmen." she said. 

When you miss a day, the next post tends to be long. Mongrelmen is an OSRIC term, but they could just as easily be morlocks, etc.. some sort of "degenerate" humanoids. I haven't yet, but I'm very likely to come back and add a cross section into this room (maybe two!) because this is exactly the sort of room that will drive the up-and-coming GM crazy trying to interpret it. 

#Dungeon23 1-7: The Black Room

 It took almost half an hour to move all the furniture away from the door and then the thief spent several minutes examining each portion of the door before decaling it safe to open. So it was disappointing when the revealed passage was discovered to be only five feet long with a door at the far end. 
"They do love their connecting corridors", Marcus, our leader, muttered. The thief took her time again looking for traps before declaring this door safe as well. Surprisingly, this door was not locked and opened with a gentle push. 

Inside was a circular room, some 20' in diameter, crafted out of what seemed to be a giant block of jet black obsidian. A raised circular platform,  a foot high and five feet in diameter and also carved from black obsidian, sat in the room's exact center. Its border was ringed in what appeared to be white marble. 

Two dead ogres lay on the far side of the room, dead. Numerous stab wounds covered their bodies. A single dwarf lay under one of the ogres, crushed and also dead. 

"Over here!" the thief called to the rest of the group, and picked up a thick tome, charred from fire. The thief opened the book. "Buri! Maybe you can translate this?"

The dwarven cleric moved over alongside the thief. "Let me see. Yes. Dwarven script, again, from one of the more distant nations. Most of this is destroyed by fire, but I can pick out some of the phrases. Yes. Here. It says they were abducted - seven in all - and brought here. They explored the place, but found no way out. Some time passed. Then the ogres arrived. There was a battle, in this room - some sort of arrival chamber. The ogres were killed, but the dwarves were wounded badly. Most went to the cold storage chamber to hide. Two stayed behind to barricade the place. That is all."

"How could they not get out? the mage asked. It's right by the main gate. Unless..."

"A Trap!" the thief rushed out of the room, followed by the rest of the party. A few moments later, they were all in the entrance corridor, standing next to the remnants of the amber vine and armor.

"Well, we can still get out", Marcus said. "But what also bothers me is that they said seven..."

"...and we've found six corpses." finished the cleric. "One is still unaccounted for."

Marcus shifted his sworld belt and pointed down the main passage. "That way. It's really the only option left." With the fighter leading the way, the party passed deeper into the dungeon. 

One week down - fifty one left to go. Time to explore the right fork. The theme.. is death. 

#Dungeon23 1-6: A confusing room

 With only one direction left to go in what the party began to refer to as the "Abandoned dwarf tunnels", the door leading out from the back end of the Great Hall was selected. This, in turn, led to a short hall, which led to a locked door. The locked door being quickly unlocked, the party found themselves in a room whose original purpose was unfamiliar, but which currently seemed to serve as makeshift sleeping quarters. Five bedrolls were spread across the floor to the right, each neatly made, and a chest lay by the door. However, to the left, another door was barred from this side by numerous pieces of furniture including a large, comfy chair and a heavy dresser. Clearly whomever inhabited this area desperately wanted to keep whatever it was beyond the chamber outside of the chamber. But what that was, was a mystery. Even examining the contents of the chest (once the thief had picked the lock) was not helpful as all that was contained therein were some coppers and silvers and some personal effects (brooches). However, these were clearly of a design of a faraway dwarven kingdom and, as the cleric confirmed, did not correspond to the style of the rest of the chambers. Curious...

#Dungeon23 1-5: We've had one room, yes... what about second room?

Having explored the Great Hall, the adventurers chose the door to the south to continue their explorations. This led to a short corridor, dimly lit with another door at the far end. Trying this door, the party found it to be stuck. Not locked or trapped, just stuck. After several minutes of shoving and heaving, with a little help from the prybar, the door unexpectedly popped open, spilling the party within. 

What they found were the kitchens. Knives and utensils scattered across the main prep table, shelves formerly filled with food, now empty, barrels missing their ingredients. Whatever had been in this kitchen was long since removed or eaten. 

And in the southeast corner of the room was a large oven in an alcove, flanked by two stoves, one to each side. Knowing that ovens like this were frequently places that valuables (or traps) were hidden, the thief carefully moved to inspect it. A mere moment later a small flight of mischievous imps, trapped within this room for ages, dropped out of the flue and onto the floor. With a crazed look and extended claws, they leaped at the nearest adventurer with malevolent intent. 

The kitchens should always be at least near to the dining room, even if the long term cold storage is a couple rooms away. This little section is shaping up to be a nice little dwarven camp, though how it got here is a mystery. A generation ago, this was all one huge void - the den of a massive dragon. What filled in the dragon's cave and how did a small colony of dwarves arrive and where, ultimately did the dwarves go to? (Well, the ones that weren't zombified). 

#Dungeon23 1-4: The Great Hall

Today is exactly 9 years since I was married - one of the happiest days of my life. And, as such, today's room draws inspiration from that event:

Having survived the attack by the dwarf zombies, our party continues deeper into the dungeon. The door at the opposite end of the empty guard room opens into a wide, long hall, tastefully appointed for some long forgotten event - a great hall ready for a feast. But it appears that the feast never occurred. The place settings sit unused, while the meat has been long picked to the bone by scavangers and the fruits withered to dust. At the head of the room, upon a dais, are two place settings set for the master and mistress of the event. Behind them is a faded tapestry depicting a castle situated on rolling hills over a cavern where dwarves toil for gold. A small door lies behind and to the left of the head table, while another door - possibly to the kitchens - lies at the opposite end of the room.

We're now halfway through this little section of the dungeon. I've got ideas for the next few days - enough to take me through the end of the "Ancient" prompt. The next prompt is "Death" and it will be the right half of the dungeon (that big passage that we have not yet taken). Ideas are already churning for that and hopefully it will illuminate what happened to the dwarves!

#dungeon23 1-3: A Secret Door!

 The party, having explored the abandoned guard chamber discovers the south wall to be colder than the rest. Further examinations reveal a secret door! Opening it, they are greeted by a blast of cold air. For a moment all is still before the sounds of scraping begin to emanate from within. Another moment passes and squat shapes emerge from the gloom - zombified dwarves wielding battle axes!!

Secret doors have always been a fun thing to find in dungeons and I didn't want to wait too long to reveal my first one. That the treasure hidden behind it is not gold or jewels but delicious meats and cheeses is, I think, a nice twist. But, of course, the food has long wasted away as have the unfortunate dwarves who now guard the place in their undead state. 

The dwarves are my second encounter, following the vine in the entrance. I'm trying to maintain a nice balance between encounters, traps and empty rooms. And above all I want there to be something in each room. I grew up in the day where AD&D modules frequently had "This room is empty." in their dungeons. I'd like to avoid that as much as possible. 

#Dungeon 23 1-2: The first room.

 Having passed the vine, the path continues to an intersection. To the left and through a set of doors is a long abandoned guardroom in the dwarven style. Two cots, a bench and some debris line the walls while a single door lies to the north. A mass of spider webs to the SW is ultimately harmless. But this place appears to be abandoned for a very long time...

As you can see, I've redrawn the map and added a few cross-sections. Now the dungeon looks a little bit more like what I've been envisioning. And honestly, I like adding onto the map a little each day. Hmm.. how is that going to work with my journal? lol. Maybe I'm not going to use a journal after all and just keep with this map and some regular paper? Dunno. We'll have to see. I still have a few days to think about this.

Dungeon23 1-1: The Entrance

 Here is is - Day 1. I'm excited! The entrance is as described yesterday, so there's no need to go into more detail. However, my graph paper also has some suggestions on how to render walls. Remember, I'm hoping to put this into a proper journal by the end of the week. Enjoy!