Help me design a mine?

[Dunjin]

An upcoming plot hook will drag my players into a mine that provides a good-sized city with steel and a livelihood. The problem is, I've never designed a mine, so I don't know what to include as far as typical features and room types.

Here's some info on the mine:

1) It's dug into the side of a mountain. As the mine has dug out more and more of the mountain, the city has grown to fill the cleared areas.

2) It's mined by slaves, the majority of which are criminals from the city.

3) The main product is iron ore. I don't know if iron mines would supply any other products or not; i.e. would you come across copper or minerals while digging for iron?

4) Deep in the mines there's a section in which the pain and suffering from the deepest miners have tainted the iron, producing what's known as "black iron", which has special properties depending on how the iron is forged. In this section, slaves are deliberately exposed to torture and suffering in order to "season" the ore, and the ghosts of slaves who've died linger there.

Other than slaves and guards, what encounters can the players find in a mine? I imagine that something could have moved into abandoned sections, and pockets of escaped slaves could have set up societies in there, perhaps.

What sorts of features would I find there? I imagine there needs to be water sources, sleeping areas, guard quarters, and methods for carting ore and tools about.

Oh, and the party is currently level 2, and will likely be level 3 by the time they enter the city. I don't know when they might be looking into the mines, but they seemed to express interest when they picked up rumors about how madly the miners were treated. So assume lvl. 3 or 4.

Any pointers? Tell me about any mines you may have created.

Thanks!

 

[jdrake3]

1) It's dug into the side of a mountain. As the mine has dug out more and more of the mountain, the city has grown to fill the cleared areas.

I would have the mine open into some natural caverns. Some of these can be quite impresive. Underground lakes. Enormous stalagtites, boulders, etc.

2) It's mined by slaves, the majority of which are criminals from the city.

Are there gaurd posts setup at the main entrance? Throught the mine? How often is the prision moved? Assuming that the jail must be moved deeper and deeper into the mine.

3) The main product is iron ore. I don't know if iron mines would supply any other products or not; i.e. would you come across copper or minerals while digging for iron?

The stalagtites could have salts or other minerals in them. You could have other viens of metals, etc. that begin in the walls of the newly opened cavern.

4) Deep in the mines there's a section in which the pain and suffering from the deepest miners have tainted the iron, producing what's known as "black iron", which has special properties depending on how the iron is forged. In this section, slaves are deliberately exposed to torture and suffering in order to "season" the ore, and the ghosts of slaves who've died linger there.

Nice.

[5] Other than slaves and guards, what encounters can the players find in a mine? I imagine that something could have moved into abandoned sections, and pockets of escaped slaves could have set up societies in there, perhaps.

If you are playing in the Realms, or have the equivalent of the Underdark you can have some of it's denziens wandering into the area. You can also flip through the Monster Manual and pick out creatures that have the terrain tyoe underground. Further there could be Dwarves in the area. Possibly a competing city mining from the other side of the mountain. To go along with your suffering from before, maybe some agents of the God of Death are in the area, possibly allying with the party, allowing you to throw in monsters above the party's level.

[6] What sorts of features would I find there? I imagine there needs to be water sources, sleeping areas, guard quarters, and methods for carting ore and tools about.

Yes, and the underground lakes and rivers etc, could provide water, and flavor, like having a bridge at some point in the mine shaft.

[7] Any pointers? Tell me about any mines you may have created.

Definetly make up a random encounter list from the Monsters manual, that way you'll have it if the PCs ever head back this way. Do not forget the trip to the city itself.

Under 2nd Edition I had a Dwarven stronghold above a sealed mine that the PCs had to enter to recover a magical substance. In the mines they encountered an Umber Hulk (random encounter), a group of renegade Male drow, and an ancient Deep Dragon. Of course they were a high-level party, in a high-magic world. They barely made it out however, and I think they had a good time.

 

[alsih2o]

tons of non-plot stuff- http://www.geocities.com/teammanley/southcaradon/SouthCaradonMap.htm

sooo much goodness

 

[Piratecat]

I did a lot of research on copper mines when I wrote Of Sound Mind, but that's all leaked out of my brain by now. I found some great resources through google, though.

 

[Sanackranib]

hey Pk

I did a lot of research on copper mines when I wrote Of Sound Mind, but that's all leaked out of my brain by now. I found some great resources through google, though.

just remember thata little leakage is a bad thing!

 

[KeithHays]

I had the players be hired to explore a newly-opened, previously mined then flooded section (following the Hill's Edge description in the old FR campaign). They stumbled across a couple of gricks (make sure the party has a magic weapon or two or the Magic Weapon spell). There's an 'underground pool' tileset in one of the Dragon magazines that worked beautifully.

Things to find in a mine: broken picks and mine carts, lots of graffiti on the wall (this can be a lot o' fun), weird sounds from wind whistling through the abandoned passages...

 

[Al'Kelhar]

Help me design a mine

So, is it pressure, proximity, or remotely detonated? Anti-personnel, anti-tank?

 

[Rel]

I also did a lot of research for a mine that I used in my own campaign that I wanted to make as realistic as possible. One thing I learned was that flooding is virtually always a big problem and that it wasn't until reasonably effective pumping apparatus was available that miners could mine very deep underground.

With your mountain setting this may be less of an issue since you could say that other tunnels were dug up from below the mines to allow water to run out. One possible adventure hook would be if one of those tunnels collapsed causing the mines to start flooding. This would be especially bad if the mine were used to running without any sort of pumping equipment.

I wonder if that tunnel just collapsed...or maybe it was made to do so by the minions of an Aboleth who sought to take over the mine and enslave the trapped miners...

 

[Steve Jung]

Bad air may be common. Brush up on those suffocation rules. Xorn may be attracted to or repelled by this black iron.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Isn't there something about mines on the Expeditious Retreat Press website?

http://www.exp.citymax.com/page/page/381629.htm