#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 0-0: The prelude

The City had been around for centuries and had suffered through many crises. A century ago, the great red dragon Imbirrex devastated whole neighborhoods before a group of adventurers slew him in his lair. The adventurers who survived were lauded for years by the residents of the City, right up until the day they themselves disappeared. That was almost a generation ago. Since then, the City has been mostly quiet. 

Until recently. A month ago, a most strange event occurred. In the middle of dinner at one of the cities' many taverns, a dozen orcs spontaneously materialized and began to attack everyone in sight. Although the orcs were quickly overcome, the patrons and neighborhood watch were rattled. Even moreso when it happened again on the next night in a different tavern in another part of town. After a week of random monster encounters savaging citizens, the Lord Mayor called in his trusted sages, who in turn called in the most prominent adventurers of the city. These adventurers set out east from the city, into the Wilderness and three days later their search took them to the doorstep of the very same lair of Imbirrex. But whereas a large maw of a cave once greeted intruders, now a solid stone wall with a door of dwarven make marked the entrance. And on it's lintel was the most curious message written in stylized runes. It said 

"You are expected. Bespoke demises within".

The adventurers retreated to the city unaware that reading the words carried a curse and a geas with them. When they arrived at the guild, they reported their finds and upon repeating the words, they flew into a beserker rage. Most of the adventurers gathered in the city were present at the meeting and most of them died that day. The Lord Mayor was forced to rely on the greenest and newest of adventurers, noobs who barely knew the handle of a sword from it's pointy end. In short, you. 

But he sent you out anyway. Out into the wilds with only the most fundamental of protections and the thinnest of platitudes. Yet it was enough to steel your feet through the forests and up the mountains. And now you stand at the doorway. The magic of the words have gone but the fear inside you is greater than ever...

Dungeon23

 I've always wanted to do a megadungeon. I love drawing maps, I love creating encounters and I have some very specific and particular ideas about dungeon ecology and layout. 

What I've never had is time. When you think about it, putting together a 200+ room dungeon is a crap ton of work, on the scale of writing a novella or long graphic novel. And I never could figure out how to divide up the time so that I could manage it. 

And then along comes #dungeon23, suggesting I do a room a day. One room, one day, each day for a year. Got an idea for two days? Put the pen down after day one and sit on it for 12 hours. The idea for force myself to work in smaller, manageable chunks is itself a habit worth getting into (I'm one of those people who works at 200% until burnout) and if I can keep it up for a year, I figure the discipline alone will be worth it. 

That's the background. I'm going to do #dungeon23. I've ordered a nice journal, which should arrive sometime next week. After some nervous consideration, I've decided that any actual rules I incorporate into this dungeon will be of the "Old School Revival" variety. I don't think I have enough time and energy to worry about dungeon design and complicated ruleset balance. So it will be OSE or OSRIC or (more likely) a horrible mish-mosh of both. 

I have a general backstory written up as well. I'm not going to show it to you now because it would reveal too much about the dungeon ahead of time. And I'm proposing releasing a small block of text with each entry explaining the dungeon as your standard adventuring party encounters it for the first time. Thus you, the reader, will explore the dungeon along with me, the author. 

That's all. Wish me luck. I have no idea if I can keep this up for a year.