D&D General #Dungeon23

Eyes of Nine

Everything's Fine
Agree with this
I've always intended to make it something I can publish later

and this
(if I'm going to go to all this trouble, I might as well do something with the finished product),

and this
but that also meant accepting that whatever I was writing this year would be an initial draft only.
and this :ROFLMAO:
I think the full process of mapping, keying, testing, revising, writing up stat blocks, etc. is not really feasible for a daily writing activity.

Although that said, my next step is to start to go through this project with an eye to building things out as if I was going to run it, and maybe doing some editing along the way. Things like fleshing out the central adventure, creating factions, making random encounter tables, coming up with new creatures, and more.

I may subject a group or two to the venture too, just to playtest it before I get too deep into the thing. A mini campaign of a few sessions...

I've got a friend who's a (not as well known as he should be) professional comic book artist. I may approach him to see if he wants to partner on this project with me - may add some rigor (and creative zest!) to the work
 

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Agree with this


and this


and this

and this :ROFLMAO:


Although that said, my next step is to start to go through this project with an eye to building things out as if I was going to run it, and maybe doing some editing along the way. Things like fleshing out the central adventure, creating factions, making random encounter tables, coming up with new creatures, and more.

I may subject a group or two to the venture too, just to playtest it before I get too deep into the thing. A mini campaign of a few sessions...

I've got a friend who's a (not as well known as he should be) professional comic book artist. I may approach him to see if he wants to partner on this project with me - may add some rigor (and creative zest!) to the work
Getting it complete is a surprising amount of work. It’s so much more work than just prepping for a campaign.
 


ichabod

Legned
Okay, first week's posting for me. As I started working on it, it just sort of became a fun house dungeon. I think that's appropriate if you aren't supposed to spend a ton of time planning things.

level_01004.jpg


Level 1 - Sphere of Air​


Room I: Breezeway
A wind blows across the room, without visible vents, from the south to the north. You can only open doors in the direction of the wind. You can change the direction of the wind by all getting together and blowing in one direction.

Room II: Twin Winds
Two air elementals on guard near the southern door. High treasure.

Room III: Woon
Carvings of the air god Woon.

Room IV: Suckage
There are small holes all over the room. They sense changes in the air. If someone passes the halfway point, air comes through the holes creating suction to the ceiling. Each round each character on the floor must make a Dexterity save to avoid flying 20 feet into ceiling and taking 2d6 falling damage. The DC for the save is 22 minus 1 for every 25 pounds of body weight the character has. The suction is turned off after 1 minute/10 rounds, or if someone exits the room. When it turns off, characters on the ceiling fall to the floor, taking 2d6 falling damage.

Room V: Widdershins
The air in this room moves in a counter-clockwise direction. There were carvings on the wall, but they have been worn away by the constant air movement.

Room VI: Vacuum
The doors to this room swing shut and lock if not held open. If all the doors are ever closed with more than 20 lbs of weight on the floor, all the air is sucked out of the room in one round. The doors closing is obvious, the pressure sensors are very subtle (DC 25 Perception).

The doors are DC 20 Thieves' Tools to pick the locks and DC 25 Athletics to force open. While they appear to be light wood like the other doors on this level, they are actually light wood over metal. The secret door is DC 20 Perception to find, and once found it is obvious how to open it. It is not locked.

Low treasure.

Room VII: Steam Pit
The pit in the northwest corner goes down to level 2. Climbing down it is DC 15 without a rope. It is a 30 foot drop

There are eight smoke mephits in this area. They will be poking around in the adjacent hallways as well. Once combat starts, 1d3 mephits fly out of the pit every round until 8 have come out of the pit. These are removed from the room below. Medium treasure (here and below).

The secret door is DC 20 Perception to find, DC 15 Investigation to operate.

Room VIII: Monty Hall
All three doors have two locks, but only the lower one is locked. The lower locks are DC 15, the higher locks are DC 25. If you unlock a lower lock, a bell rings in a random other adjacent room with a monster and the monster slams against that door. If any of the doors are opened, all of the locks on the other doors re-lock.

The mephits in Room VII will hear the bell and come it to the adjacent hallway to yell conflicting advice at the PCs. Some will tell them to open the door, and other will tell them to open the other door. If they go to the door with the bell, they all says "No! The other other door!"

Room IX: Goat #1
This room has an Air Myrmidon, upscaled to CR 8.

Room X: A New Carriage
This room has a beautiful new carriage. The carriage is enclosed, painted blue, and has beautiful cloud and wind designs painted on it in silver. It does not have any animals to pull it, and it does not fit through the doors. However, it does contain a very high treasure. The door to the north is one way and reinforced metal.

Room XI: Goat #2
This room has a Howler and a couple of Quasits.

Room XII: Ghost Dice
Two ghosts playing dice. They are playing over a lesser MacGuffin. It's going on forever because they are having rules arguments and accusing each other of cheating. If a character can make a DC 18 Charisma or Intelligence check, they can resolve the dispute or catch the cheater, and the game ends with the ghosts fading away. Otherwise they have to fight the ghosts to get the MacGuffin.

Hallway XIII: Wind Tunnel
There is a strong wind blowing south in this tunnel, making the tunnel difficult terrain. In addition, to move or take the dash action requires a DC 15 Strength save or the action is wasted. On a failure of 5 or more, the character is pushed back 15 feet. A secured rope at the end of the passage (or something similar) provides advantage on the save.

Room XIV: Funny Smell
The northern door in this room is locked. However, the ostensible lock is not really the lock (DC 15 Perception to spot, DC 15 Investigation to find the fake brick you can push to unlock the door). The ostensible lock is only DC 10 to unlock, but it unlocks a resevoir of posion gas (DC 15 Constitution save, 2d8 poison damage and poisoned for 1 hour on failure, half damage and not poisoned on success).
 

ichabod

Legned
I guess I should explain "lesser MacGuffin." I plan on having items in the dungeon that are useful later on in the dungeon. I will go back and add the details once I design the room that needs the MacGuffin. Lesser MacGuffins are helpful for doing things, greater MacGuffins are required to do something. Note that this means greater MacGuffins can't be hidden unless there are multiple ways to get to it.

I'm also going to determine treasure at the end of the level. So I'm going to determine how much treasure the level should have, and then split it up between the rooms based on whether they have high/medium/low treasure.
 

Making steady progress, from first to second draft on my not-megadungeon and not-dungeon23 project! The second draft mostly involves typing the things that were in my notebook. My aim is to make this available as an adventure at some point, so I'm writing for an audience outside myself. It's more difficult than I imagined! I did make an above-ground map to go with my dungeon

View attachment Ayaan above ground.jpeg
 

ichabod

Legned
Final Level 01 Map (Yeah, I know I'm late, but I had a mold crisis and a nasty vertigo attack):

level001.jpg


The remaining room descriptions are below. Also, I've been thinking about environmental effects due to these levels being associated with other spheres of existence. I decided to go ahead with it, and on this level (Air), you gain a fly speed of half your normal speed if you flap your arms. If you do anything that requires an arm or hand, you float slowly to the ground. This should not matter in combat, but it would make Room XIV easier.

Room XV: Sending
An invisible stalker, that targets whoever opened the door. If it kills that character, it stops fighting until someone else opens a door to enter the room.

Roov XVI: Rain
This room has the body of a human male targeted by the invisible stalker in room XV, but ran to here before he was killed. The body has a hidden pouch on him (DC 12 investigation) with a low treasure.

Room XVII: Under Pressure
Every five foot square in this room is a pressure plate (DC 15 Perception to spot, with advantage after spotting the first one). Each time you step on a pressure plate, a random event occurs:

1. Dart (+5, 1d4+1 piercing damage)
2. Electric shock (1d6 lightning damage, DC 15 Constitution save for half)
3. Blast of wind (DC 15 Strength save or knocked prone in a random adjacent square, setting it off)
4. Chunk of ceiling falls down (DC 15 reflex save to avoid 1d6 bludgeoning damage, but if you fail by more than 10 you set off an adjacent square's pressure plate, after seeing this once you have advantage on the save).
5. Bird naughty word falls from celing (DC 15 reflex save to avoid, but if you fail by more than 10 you set off an adjacent square's pressure plate).
6. A gold piece falls from the ceiling.

The western door is fake. Each pressure plate is DC 15 to disarm with Thieves

Room XVIII: Spin Hatch
There is a round, bulging hatch set into the floor in the middle of this room. It is about five feet in diameter. On top of the hatch is a wheel. There are six square holes in the hatch, around the outside, each showing part of a cog with a letter in Auran. As the wheel rotates, the cogs rotate, and the letters change. If you rotate the wheel so that one of the wheels shows an Auran 'A' symbol, and then reverse direction, the 'A' stays. Note that there is a 1 in 4 chance at any point that an 'A' is showing. When they get the next correct letter adjacent to the 'A' and reverse again, the second letter stays. The goal is to spell out Aethus, the name of the air god. At that point the hatch opens, revealing a tube with a ladder. The tube goes down 60 feet and ends with a 10 foot drop to the floor of the third level.

Going past the correct letter or reversing too early resets the cogs and all of them start to turn again. A DC 20 Thieves' Tools check can force a cog to change position, but that breaks the mechanism and the lock will no longer open.

There is a very faint click sound when the correct letter is reached. It is DC 25 to hear, DC 20 if you press your ear against the hatch.
 
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ichabod

Legned
Fourteen rooms of level 2, which should have me caught up to today. This is the level associated with the Sphere of Fire, and the environmental effect is that you apply the penalties for extreme heat, as per DMG p.110. I decided to try out some symmetry with this level, but I'm not sure I like the effect.

level002.jpg


Room I: Emephity

This room should be empty of the mephits who went to fight in room VII of level 1. There is a medium treasure here, however.

Room II: Firing Line

This room has periodic lines of fire shooting across it, north-south and east-west, through the middle of the room. If you can make a DC 15 Intelligence check you can avoid the flame. Someone who has made this check can coach another person to give them advantage on the check. If you fail the check, you must make a DC 15 Dexterity save or take 4d6 fire damage with an extra save against extreme heat, half damage and no extra save for a success. If someone wants to dodge the flames, note that they are at different levels and angles each time. It's a DC 20 acrobatics check to try and dodge, giving you advantage on the reflex save. But if you fail by 10 or more you have disadvantage on the reflex save.

Room III: Mercy

This room is a temple to Ffvvv, the god of fire (DC 10 Religion to identify it as Ffvvv's). There is a round altar near the south wall carved to look like Ffvvv's fire snake form. On the altar is a stone bowl with molten metal bubbling it it. If a character puts 25 gp worth of coins in the bowl to melt, they are relieved of one level of exhaustion due to heat. If they put any coins in they should get a hint of this effect, like a whiff of cool air.

If the altar is defiled in any way the heat in this level rises, and characters must make saves against heat every 20 minutes rather than every hour. This effect lasts until the PCs suitable atone, as determined by the DM. When cooled, the molten metal in the bowl is worth 50 gp.

Room IV: Burn Baby Burn

This room has two fire elementals. No treasure.

Room V: Heated Metal

This room contains a fire elemental myrmidon. No treasure.

Room VI: Magic Brazier

In the south wall of this room there is a fire place with a fire burning in it. Inside the fire is a heap of charred and melted weapons. None of the weapons are in useful shape, but if someone pokes through them they will find a low treasure in gems. If a weapon is held in the fire, it will continue to burn for an hour, and will do an extra 1d6 fire damage while it is burning. If put in a non-magical sheath or quiver, it will burn the sheath or quiver, and any ammunition in it. At the end of the hour, any non-magical weapon subject to this effect is melted and deals half damage.

The fireplace has a chimney. A character can take 1d6 fire damage to enter the chimney and climb up it, eventually reaching an exit to the surface.

Room VII: Smokey's Nightmare

This is an empty room. The western wall has a carving of a forest fire.

Room VIII: Snakity Snakity Snake

Each wall of this room has a three foot wide brazier with a burning flame in it. If any character goes into the center of the room or if any of the brazier's are closely examined, a fire snake crawls out of each one. When one of these fire snakes dies, another one crawls out of the brazier the dead one came from. This continues until the fires in those braziers are put out. This can be done by taking an action to turn one over. They are also AC 19, 20 hp, immunity to piercing and fire damage, vulnerability to cold damage. Allow for other ways to put out the flames, but they should require a spell slot on an action. Once put out the flames do not restart.

The brazier's themselves are a medium treasure. Each one taken out by damage other than cold damage reduces the treasure by 1/4.

Room IX: Language

Each time a character says 'fire' or 'heat' in this room, a half damage fire ball goes off, centered in the middle of the room.

Room X: Reverse Pit Maneuver

There is a large pit in the middle of this room. It has what appears to be two 5' x 10' panels made to look like the floor, but those panels are now hanging down into the pit on the east and west sides. If any character moves next to the pit and tries to look down into it, it spews fire up into the room. Everyone next to the bit must make a DC 12 reflex save or take 4d6 fire damage and make another save against extreme heat. If they make the reflex save, they only take half damage and don't have to make the second save.

The pit is 30 feet deep and has a low treasure in it. After the trap is set off it makes a low hissing sound for one minute (DC 12 Perception). While it is hissing it is recharging, and it will not go off again until it is done recharging.

Room XI: Ashes, Ashes, We All Cough Cough Cough

The floor of this room is covered with a thick coat of ashes. Anyone not moving slowly and carefully will kick up a cloud of ashes, forcing everyone within 5 feet to make a DC 12 Consitituion save. Failure means they develop a hacking cough which give disadvantage to any Stealth checks involving sound. The saving throw may be repeated every hour to end the effect.

There's a low treasure in coins under the ashes, but anyone search through the ashes will definitely have to make the save against coughing.

Room XII: Pressure Cooker

The floor, walls, and ceiling of this room have a pattern of octogonal and square tiles of different red and orange stone. The octogonal tiles are pretty obviously pressure plates (Perception DC 10). Each five feet a character moves in this room sets off one of the plates, and a square on one of the walls opens up and shoots a +5, 1d10 firebolt at them. Noting that the squares in the walls can move back is also Perception DC 10.

You can avoid setting off the pressure plate for a given 5 feet with a DC 5 Acrobatics check. (I realized after posting the rest of level one that this is the second room full of pressure plates. Whoops.)

Room XIII: Coal

This room is empty except for three barrels of coal in the north east corner.

Room XIV: Columnar

Each of these four hallways has a row of twelve columns down the middle. Each column is a depiction of one deity, with the four elemental deities and then the eight regents of the dead. The first column is a depiction of Asmodeus, which is odd. While there is no set order for the regents of the dead, Anubis is always shown first, because the souls go to him first before going to another regent. Furthermore, there are only four flames on Ffvvv's column, and they are usually associated with five flames. But there is a flame on Asmodeus's column, on the contract he is holding. If that flame is pressed, the secret door in the hallway unlocks (The secret door is Perception DC 25 to notice, but DC 20 after hearing the click of it unlocking).
 
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gorice

Hero
Was camping, but brought my notebook so was able to put in a bunch of updates

Feeling good about my progress

Appreciate this community for just being here and giving +++ reinforcement in the form of emojis and comments
Keep at it! I'm still hanging in there, but it's been really difficult to keep to schedule this month due to holidays + lots of disruptions and responsibilities. Realistically, I'll probably slam through rooms in batches when I have time, and return to regularly scheduled posting in August.
 

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