So im currently wanting to write up an adventure involving undead miners and a variety of underground goodness. Still working on all the nitty gritty but my main thing is i have no idea, what so ever, what all is included in an actual mine... i mean i know the basics buuuut thats about it.
So in light of that i was hoping the good people of the boards could be of some use (and i was wondering what the Thassilonian Necromancers were... or if people had some ideas for an adventure involving a mine and undead miners. Keeping in mind this is a prequal to the ROTRL campaign).
As always, Happy DMing! :)
In dungeons of golarion there's a mine near I alkensar I think that ,right have a layout you'd like. I cannot remember the name though
Mines need to pump out water, and pump in fresh air. So a few zombies tirelessly working huge bellows would be a nice touch. Unless everyone inside is undead anyway.
Generally...
Shafts following the ore veins, big enough for a miner to get through. These can be very narrow, or wider if you are, say, mining coal.
Ventilation, somehow. Fans are nice but shafts can be set up to cross circulate. Air vents don't have to be very big. If these get plugged, you can have areas of stagnant or unbreathable air, maybe methane zones that blow up with a spark.
A way to transport what's mined to the surface. Perhaps carts on rails, or the backs of workers. If you're lucky you can be in a hillside mining upwards and use chutes to deliver the ore by gravity. If you're mining gems you probably don't need much in the way of transport ability, but you might have a checkpoint where the miners are/were strip-searched. Ditto for precious metal mines.
A way to hoist stuff to the surface. Often some kind of crane or elevator platform. Not so needed if the mine is on a hillside and the veins of ore are horizontal or gently sloping. Usually these will be structures around the mine entrance,-- why chisel out stone to build something underground? -- but in a multilevel mine you might have some of these onme ting other levels. You might have elevators, or ladders, or wooden stairs, all nicely decayed and dangerous to trust to.
Processing ore would usually be done on the surface in a nearby building. Dwarves might have everything underground. Machinery is likely to have been scavenged for the metal but you might have some left behind depending on the circumstances. Ore crushers might still be working if a PC falls into one.
You might have the original miners block off areas, either because they're unsafe -- gas, kobolds, undead,curses, or just exhausted ore veins. The players don't have to know what the runes on the door mean.
Undead miners could be trying to protect their mine from intruders, or keep mining and delivering the ore to the elevator, where it pileup unprocessed. You could have someone who turned to cannibalism and became a ghoul. You could have skeleton or zombie miners originally enchanted to do the digging -- they don't care about air ventilation and the air they're in might be bad enough to fatigue the characters, or even cause damage. Probably the undead miners would have picks or hammers as weapons.
You might have more powerful undead -- specters or ghosts. Maybe a miners son was down the shaft when the collapse happened and just wants to possess someone to get home. Of course his favorite route is blocked... Do the PCs speak his language? Maybe a greedy miner owner is still in there toiling away at something... Perhaps ore processing, perhaps something else. He's got all the gems with him, and will let the PCs go if they mine ,ore for him.
Zorlurket mines? opened the book soon as you suggested it, and yes it does do a good job but i am looking for something more towards the beginning levels (trying to find something more relevant to sandpoint, though it does provide several things that may be interesting) As always Mojorat your suggestions and advice prove fruitful :)
And thank you guys for the information and suggestions, I will definitely have to write these up, and i like the idea behind the lost ghost... would be interesting to see what happens.
So another Question: Would Albino Reef claws use the advanced template? Giant Template? and should i make them Blind but give them blindsight?
Also, Im imagining that a new mine is opened up near sandpoint, and these mines unlock some Thassilonion runes holding a Well for Gluttony which slowly causes the miners to go insane and delve into Canniblism (causing them to become Ghouls) One of the routine supply runs for the mine comes back (well, some of them) telling about the ravenous band of ghouls that have attacked the mine. Brave souls are sent to provide relief for the supposedly beliegered miners only to find out that the miners are in reality the ghouls. But im only thinkiing of some of them being ghouls the rest are zombies and skeletons.
Probably have the ruins be in a giant with on an island or something of that nature.