D&D General #Dungeon23
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- Start date
Eyes of Nine
Everything's Fine
Hey-o hardcore #dungeon23'ers! Good to see those of you still here 
We're 82 days in, roughly 22.5% of the way there
This last week was terrible from a d23 standpoint. I rolled up my hex on Monday or Tuesday (as opposed to Sunday), and then noodled on it for a day, then drew it on Wednesday and wrote up the hex overview stuff. Thursday drove 4 hours and spent all day visiting a friend in hospital, and then 4 hours back (upside, I did record an episode of my podcast on the drive!). Yesterday had more stuff going on. Finally today, after doing the groceries and eating dinner, had a block of time to do all 7 days/locations at once. The result is the most visually complex hex so far; and also the hardest to describe in written form. And because I love the phrase "just because you can doesn't mean you should", I decided to use Welsh as the language base for all the locations
Next post will be the hex
We're 82 days in, roughly 22.5% of the way there
This last week was terrible from a d23 standpoint. I rolled up my hex on Monday or Tuesday (as opposed to Sunday), and then noodled on it for a day, then drew it on Wednesday and wrote up the hex overview stuff. Thursday drove 4 hours and spent all day visiting a friend in hospital, and then 4 hours back (upside, I did record an episode of my podcast on the drive!). Yesterday had more stuff going on. Finally today, after doing the groceries and eating dinner, had a block of time to do all 7 days/locations at once. The result is the most visually complex hex so far; and also the hardest to describe in written form. And because I love the phrase "just because you can doesn't mean you should", I decided to use Welsh as the language base for all the locations
Next post will be the hex
Eyes of Nine
Everything's Fine
Week 12, Hex 11 Ymyl Clogwn (aka Cliff's Edge) (all Welsh mistakes are my own)
This hex is over 75% a single tall mountain, with a sloping plateau circling around it from top to bottom. The plateau expands anywhere from a half mile to a mile in width. (The inspiration for this was Mont St. Michel, the island in France - but became much more). Every so often as you wend your way down the plateau there's a cliff that cuts across it. The inhabitants have solved the up and down of the cliffs in both mechanical and magical ways.
At the peak of the mountain is Brig Goron (aka Crown Point) - a soaring/hulking gothic cathedral/bureau of administration and the seat of power in the hex. The hex is ruled by a harengon named Janu. She rules with an iron hand - there are practically more military, para-military, and police force members than regular citizens. Most folks are lawful, or at least act that way.
The populace is an even mix of black dragonborn, harengon, and hobgoblins. There is no "racial essentialism". While every individual acknowledges another's biology, culturally most everyone is a "Ymyl" through and through.
From Brig Goron there is a river that comes out of the cathedral. That river runs down the spiralling plateau all the way to the bottom, where you'll find the port town of Tref Harbor (Harbor Town). If there's any seedy underbelly to be found, it'll be here - but good luck finding it haha.
The upgate also happens to be in the city with the most military presence. And in fact the "guardian" is literally the military industrial bureaucracy: a series of interminable nonsensical interviews followed by form-filling, then more interviews and more forms. Finally you get to a small windowless office with what appears to be a tertiary functionary who hits you with a riddle. If you answer, they boredly open a non-descript door, on the other side of which is the gate.
Up to the north, near one of the branches, there's a steady influx of immigrants/refugees into the hastily erected shelter city of Blessed Valley. I'll find out more about what's happening in that hex in a couple of weeks. To the southwest is the gate to the other branch - trade is robust between that branch and this; but there's still plenty of customs and other types of police presence on this side.
From a terrain and climate standpoint, there are soaring cliffs, deciduous and evergreen pine forests. It rains pretty incessantly, but the farmers can farm - there's enough sun, sometimes.
Oh yeah, and there's an airship factory, so you'll see airships large and small flying about here and there. Because who doesn't love airships?!?
Questions:
This hex is over 75% a single tall mountain, with a sloping plateau circling around it from top to bottom. The plateau expands anywhere from a half mile to a mile in width. (The inspiration for this was Mont St. Michel, the island in France - but became much more). Every so often as you wend your way down the plateau there's a cliff that cuts across it. The inhabitants have solved the up and down of the cliffs in both mechanical and magical ways.
At the peak of the mountain is Brig Goron (aka Crown Point) - a soaring/hulking gothic cathedral/bureau of administration and the seat of power in the hex. The hex is ruled by a harengon named Janu. She rules with an iron hand - there are practically more military, para-military, and police force members than regular citizens. Most folks are lawful, or at least act that way.
The populace is an even mix of black dragonborn, harengon, and hobgoblins. There is no "racial essentialism". While every individual acknowledges another's biology, culturally most everyone is a "Ymyl" through and through.
From Brig Goron there is a river that comes out of the cathedral. That river runs down the spiralling plateau all the way to the bottom, where you'll find the port town of Tref Harbor (Harbor Town). If there's any seedy underbelly to be found, it'll be here - but good luck finding it haha.
The upgate also happens to be in the city with the most military presence. And in fact the "guardian" is literally the military industrial bureaucracy: a series of interminable nonsensical interviews followed by form-filling, then more interviews and more forms. Finally you get to a small windowless office with what appears to be a tertiary functionary who hits you with a riddle. If you answer, they boredly open a non-descript door, on the other side of which is the gate.
Up to the north, near one of the branches, there's a steady influx of immigrants/refugees into the hastily erected shelter city of Blessed Valley. I'll find out more about what's happening in that hex in a couple of weeks. To the southwest is the gate to the other branch - trade is robust between that branch and this; but there's still plenty of customs and other types of police presence on this side.
From a terrain and climate standpoint, there are soaring cliffs, deciduous and evergreen pine forests. It rains pretty incessantly, but the farmers can farm - there's enough sun, sometimes.
Oh yeah, and there's an airship factory, so you'll see airships large and small flying about here and there. Because who doesn't love airships?!?
Questions:
- Are there competitors to Draig Ffatri (Dragon Factory - the airship manufacturer)?
- What will the result of the tensions around immigration be?
- Where and who will rise up in the face of faceless bureaucratic and active police oppression?
- What does Janu fear most?
M_Natas
Adventurer
Day 85 - Shelter in the Cellar of the Ruin of the Forge
The cellar of the forge is clearly inhabited. Someone has made himself comfortable here and ... let's say ... opened a Devil butchery. The stench as we open the door to this room, the remains of shredded devil's parts piled up on one side of the room, contrast with the almost cosy hammock and the small side table on which a book lies. The occupant must have been here recently. The meat is still warm.
Bill Zebub
“It’s probably Matt Mercer’s fault.”
I'm now 2 days behind, but playing online tomorrow night and will work on part 2 of the the Goblin King's Labyrinth of Doom then.
M_Natas
Adventurer
Day 86 – empty room (cellar forge)
Just spent the evening in the hospital because my little one fell down the stairs. Everything seems to be fine, but that was a big scare. That's why we have an empty room today. Can't sleep anyway ...
Eyes of Nine
Everything's Fine
Oh no! Glad to hear they seem fine. Super scary - wow appreciate the post anyway!
M_Natas
Adventurer
Yeah, when Inwas home and she was sleeping I was like, what now? Definitely not being able to sleep ... so a little drawing to calm the nerves.
M_Natas
Adventurer
Day 87 - Moss Room in the Cellar of the Forge
A head-sized crystal stands in the middle of the room, bathing the moss-covered walls in an eerie light. A small pond covers one corner of the room and splashes away soothingly. Mushrooms sprout from the ground in the damp cave.
M_Natas
Adventurer
Day 88 - Stash in cave under forge
Actually we just wanted to refill some water, but our paladin tripped and fell into the water. He was lucky in that he noticed a small passage in the water that led to a hidden cave that could be reached by squeezing through.
The small lake there had a narrow bank on which lay the remains of an ancient corpse, with old leather armour still hanging in tatters. It lay next to an unopened treasure chest.
In the corner lay a small nest with an egg.
Trying out more color.
M_Natas
Adventurer
Day 89 - Fishing pond in cave under forge
Not sure yet if color is an improvement for my map style.
Eyes of Nine
Everything's Fine
I like the colors, especially in the gems, the blood smear, and the water effectsDay 89 - Fishing pond in cave under forge
Not sure yet if color is an improvement for my map style.
Are you doing it by hand with some sort of felt-tip pen? Or are you doing it digitally?
M_Natas
Adventurer
I use Brush pens/Fineliner Combinations. There was a set with 60 colors:
https://amzn.eu/d/23v5q9N
I draw everything by hand, photograph it with my phone and then I only adjust brightness, contrast, saturation a little.
M_Natas
Adventurer
Day 90 - The mutant's cave The cave that stretched before me was lined with crystals that glowed in a variety of colours, bathing everything in a strange light. And the light almost distracted me from the figure crouching by the small pond, which was also illuminated by an eerie light. A shadowy figure, a deformed figure whose clothes were made of rags. Growths covered the dirty body and the strong extremities. She turned to us and stared at us from eyes of varying size. "What have they brought us?" it hissed in my head, "are they lost? They smell different, strange." The creature snapped open its mouth, revealing broken, long, sharp teeth. A tortured moan escaped. "You smell different, strange," it now screamed in my skull and the ground began to shake. What was this monster?Day 89 - Fishing pond in cave under forge
Not sure yet if color is an improvement for my map style.
View attachment 280285
M_Natas
Adventurer
Day 91 - The city wall / a portal to hell
Memoirs of a survivor from Kyrthar Tahlketh, written down by Rotragia van Lattius
"The city walls were high, firm, strong. They meant safety. At least that's what we thought. They became a death trap when the devils opened their gates beneath the city and everyone tried to flee. We pushed our way to the gates, some of which were still locked because it was night. We were trapped and had to flee. We had to ... the mass of our bodies pressed against the gate, we broke it open, gained freedom ... we thought ... but in front of the gate another hellmouth had opened and spat out the devils ... but we couldn't go back, behind us were the masses who wanted to get out of the city and pushed us out, into the clutches of the monsters. I ... I could only escape because I pushed others into the arms of the devils, because I knocked others over to escape. Women, children ... I didn't care. I had to escape ... flee from the devils... and became one myself ... ."
gorice
Adventurer
Oops! Completely forgot to post this yesterday.
New Area: The lost path
The Air in this section is much better, aside from the Mole Midden. Only real danger is the Bone Eater. Molerats avoid this place unless lured here for some reason.
22: Mole Midden
23: Singing Cavern
24: Lair of the Bone Eater
25: The Secret Garden
27: Sunken Passage
28: Secret Garden Skylight
29: Narrow Caves
Surprise Twist: Back to the Sunken Passages
30: Temple Treasury
31: Secret Sanctuary
And that's the end of the month, thank God. I didn't really have a plan for this one, just a few ideas, and I think it shows. Next month's level is something deeply unpleasant (for the adventurers) but fun to write (for me).
New Area: The lost path
The Air in this section is much better, aside from the Mole Midden. Only real danger is the Bone Eater. Molerats avoid this place unless lured here for some reason.
22: Mole Midden
- A reeking pit, 30’ down, filled with detritus. The walls are sheer and slippery. Fungi cluster in the bottom walls like pale blue balloons. Smells like death.
- (!) Fungi are bluefruit. Explode on collision, making a loud sound and releasing toxic spores.
23: Singing Cavern
- Wind whistles through this craggy cave tunnel.
- (?) humans can squeeze through. Too narrow for the Bone Eater.
24: Lair of the Bone Eater
- Smells like wet dog. Floor is littered with tiny fragments of bone.
- (!) The great shaggy shambler nests here. Only eats dead bones, but not averse to speeding up the process.
25: The Secret Garden
- Dimly lit – natural light shines from sinkhole high above.
- A large cavern filled with pale, purple-leafed foliage. A little spring trickles into a small pond. Alarmingly large frogs luxuriate in the cool air.
- (?) The frogs are peaceable.
- (?) The water is cold, clean, refreshing, and completely safe.
- (?) The pond is deep – a sinkhole that leads to the Sunken Passage.
27: Sunken Passage
- Completely submerged, dark natural cavern. 20’ ascent to the Secret Garden on one end, and Lotus Garden on the other.
- (?) The faintest of lights from the direction of the Secret Garden.
- (??) A skeleton is huddled on the floor, clutching something that glimmers – Headtaker, a demon-possessed two-handed sword of bronze.
28: Secret Garden Skylight
- Forty-five degree climb through a narrow, craggy passage leads to the base of the cliffs in the city’s side, beneath the storm water drain.
29: Narrow Caves
- Winding passages of craggy stone. Crawlspace only.
Surprise Twist: Back to the Sunken Passages
30: Temple Treasury
- A bare cellar of smoothly fitted stones. There is a hole in one wall where the masonry has collapsed, large enough to crawl through (leads to narrow caves). A stone chest sits against the opposite wall, with a cat-sized gargoyle carved from the same stone as its flat lid.
- (!) The gargoyle will animate and bite the hands of anyone who tries to move the lid, naturally.
- (?) Inside the chest: 4d6 silver ingots.
31: Secret Sanctuary
- A circular room with a circle of nine cracked clay vessels within.
- (?) Each vessel holds a fistful of lapis lazuli beads worth 10 coins.
- (!) The beads are cursed – the New God of the deep will know the thieves.
- (??) A secret door connects to the Leaky Valve room – just push on the wall.
And that's the end of the month, thank God. I didn't really have a plan for this one, just a few ideas, and I think it shows. Next month's level is something deeply unpleasant (for the adventurers) but fun to write (for me).
Mad_Jack
Hero
Still Dungeon-ing, although it's been slow...
About 93 days into it? Hrmm.
I may still be caught up with where I'm supposed to be. I've actually started (finally.) mapping out parts of the dungeon complex(es)...
The Great Black Swamp transitions into a salt marsh to the west, and then a small bit of beach between it and the sea. About a mile offshore are three islands called The Blades (Longknife, Dagger, and Smallpoint), large rocky outcroppings jutting up out of the ocean like knives, the sole remains of the western side of what used to be the small mountain the Dwarven settlement was in.*
Each of the blades is about half the size of the previous one, with the largest being about a mile wide, one-and-a-half long and about something like seventy-eighty feet high. The largest two have beaches with small docks on their shore-ward sides, and the Swamptown clan of the Firstfolk use the few remaining rooms, corridors and stairs carved into the rock as the staging point for their smuggling operation - the pirates they work with drop off the goods, and the Swamptown Firstfolk take them through the swamp to the town of End-Of-The-Line where the local thieves' guild contact uses the wagon clans of the Firstfolk to move them on to the larger towns and cities.
At the moment, I've got around 2/3 of the Longknife Island "dungeon" mapped out, nine or ten rooms so far. It's split into the beach level, a lower level I haven't drawn yet that's going to have a few partially-flooded rooms below it, and a couple of long winding staircases that lead up past a couple rooms on the middle level to the lookout posts on the top of the island.
Once I get Longknife finished, Dagger should go by quicker, since I anticipate only having about six or seven rooms in it, and one staircase to a lookout point.
At some point, I really need to photograph all of my maps and get them cleaned up in Paint, and start doing the write-ups of the locations and NPCs.
* (The southernmost spur of the Mistside Mountains range that run north-south parallel to the coast is a ridge of rock about a hundred miles long, around ten miles wide and around 100-150ft. tall at the end. The end of it, just south of the now-petrified forest known as the Stonelands, was called Mistside Reach by the Dwarves. When the ancient magical cataclysm turned Mistside Forest into the Stonelands it dropped a huge chunk of the coast into the sea (leaving Mistside Reach less than a mile from the shore), and a later earthquake shattered the Reach and caused everything between the Reach and End-Of-The-Line to sink wholesale into the Underdark cavern below it, allowing the Great Black Swamp to form over it. The Dwarven buildings exposed when the recent quake lowered the water level of the swamp were originally the few surface structures built on top of the Reach.)
About 93 days into it? Hrmm.
I may still be caught up with where I'm supposed to be. I've actually started (finally.) mapping out parts of the dungeon complex(es)...
The Great Black Swamp transitions into a salt marsh to the west, and then a small bit of beach between it and the sea. About a mile offshore are three islands called The Blades (Longknife, Dagger, and Smallpoint), large rocky outcroppings jutting up out of the ocean like knives, the sole remains of the western side of what used to be the small mountain the Dwarven settlement was in.*
Each of the blades is about half the size of the previous one, with the largest being about a mile wide, one-and-a-half long and about something like seventy-eighty feet high. The largest two have beaches with small docks on their shore-ward sides, and the Swamptown clan of the Firstfolk use the few remaining rooms, corridors and stairs carved into the rock as the staging point for their smuggling operation - the pirates they work with drop off the goods, and the Swamptown Firstfolk take them through the swamp to the town of End-Of-The-Line where the local thieves' guild contact uses the wagon clans of the Firstfolk to move them on to the larger towns and cities.
At the moment, I've got around 2/3 of the Longknife Island "dungeon" mapped out, nine or ten rooms so far. It's split into the beach level, a lower level I haven't drawn yet that's going to have a few partially-flooded rooms below it, and a couple of long winding staircases that lead up past a couple rooms on the middle level to the lookout posts on the top of the island.
Once I get Longknife finished, Dagger should go by quicker, since I anticipate only having about six or seven rooms in it, and one staircase to a lookout point.
At some point, I really need to photograph all of my maps and get them cleaned up in Paint, and start doing the write-ups of the locations and NPCs.
* (The southernmost spur of the Mistside Mountains range that run north-south parallel to the coast is a ridge of rock about a hundred miles long, around ten miles wide and around 100-150ft. tall at the end. The end of it, just south of the now-petrified forest known as the Stonelands, was called Mistside Reach by the Dwarves. When the ancient magical cataclysm turned Mistside Forest into the Stonelands it dropped a huge chunk of the coast into the sea (leaving Mistside Reach less than a mile from the shore), and a later earthquake shattered the Reach and caused everything between the Reach and End-Of-The-Line to sink wholesale into the Underdark cavern below it, allowing the Great Black Swamp to form over it. The Dwarven buildings exposed when the recent quake lowered the water level of the swamp were originally the few surface structures built on top of the Reach.)
Eyes of Nine
Everything's Fine
M_Natas
Adventurer
Thanks
I really tried to go for something realistic here. And yes, the story of Kyrthar Tahlketh is a dark one. If you go deeper it will only go darker, you will get your hands and your soul dirty. Once our adventurers entered the city, they were doomed. They just don't know it yet ...
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