I need help designing a megadungeon; more specifically the monsters within. Here's what I have so far:
The party is headed to a ruined town on the edge of a bog. The area is thick with trees and wild growth but there are a couple free-standing buildings still intact. Still more of the town is so consumed by the surrounding environment that it is effectively buried making it underground.
The main villains of the whole campaign are evil fey. The plot arc of the first few levels involves stopping a blight on the land that has something to do with an agent of these evil fey. Other "muscle" employed by the fragile fey are goblins, evil humanoids and lycanthropes.
I'm following a template from the Angry DM's blog called a "slaughterhouse" dungeon. In essence for ease of use the whole dungeon is reduced to zones and then these zones are populated by a total xp value of monsters and then a stat block details pertinent data of each zone. I have an "open" zone, a woodland zone, a swamp zone, an underground zone, and a ruined building zone.
My problem comes in with: should I provide one cohesive story for ALL the zones tied together, little vignettes for each or none at all and just say "here there be monsters" and call it a day?
Several smaller enclaves within the dungeon, and one mega-overlord who runs it.
You can run it in several small sessions and than conclude with the BBEG. /Loot!
Connected stories usually work better in my experience. Even if they're only lightly connected. Mobile monsters can roam widely, so you want a brief explanation, for instance, of why a fey hunter lord hasn't killed everything near his lair. Non mobile monsters, like dryads, are easier to explain as staying in place.
With a boggy area you have a high water table, so the underground zone is not likely to be very big unless there's a hill or something. If its under the town then the town needs to be on high enough ground to allow a non- flooded dungeon beneath it. Or you may have a goodly chunk of underwater adventuring.
The zones adjacent to each other may well relate in various ways.. Even if it's only"monsters from the open zone don't go into the forest"' or "thethings dwelling underground come up at night and make the town even more dangerous." a lot will depend on the nature and characteristics of the monsters involved. You'll want to have some idea of e major movers' personality. This helps a lot I figuring out how they react when the players do something you weren't expecting.
Which they will.
@ JS: one overlord would definitely be easier. Would you have mini-bosses and if so would all their stories interelate with each other or just the main baddie?
@ Tonyz: the physicality of the place is pretty well defined. The entire area is hilly and the portion of the town still accessible was in fact on higher ground. However mounds of earth and clay have collapsed from even higher during the past 2 centuries; coupled with supernatural growth of the wilds (part of the homebrew's backstory) these earthen mounds are now covered with moss and shrubs. In essence the hills have begun swallowing the town.
That being said the lake-turned-bog has seeped into the dungeon areas so some parts will be flooded. I've already had one "water feature" where the party tried to outrun a flash flood. Good times...
There will be some cross migration and I've set up crossover points between the zones; a cypress shrine between the open area and the forest, a partially flooded plaza where the ruined buildings or the swamp can be accessed, etc.
I guess what I'm really looking for is story help. In the forest for example I was going to put some evil goblins. Why are they there and what's their motivation? Or in the underground/swamp areas I was going to put in mites and perhaps an aranea miniboss. What purpose do they have for remaining?
I don't want just another dungeon with stuff in it. But by the same token I don't want to recreate the wheel. What motivates a bunch of fey and their minions to congregate in one area?
Multiple entrances.
Multiple connections between levels.
Sub level not accessible from same level.
Multiple factions that can be played against each other.
Places to rest.
I think several mini-bosses, though they may or may not all directly work for Mr. BBEG.
If the place is mostly human, you could have one area or level populated with orcs who have invaded. It changes up the adventure and creates the possibility of strange alliances.
Each Mini-boss should have some defined relationship with the others, as it would be unrealistic to have all these folks sharing a living space and not having any kind of relationship. It may not be friendly, but most should have something spelled out.
Maybe not the places to rest.
Some monsters just live in an area because they can live there. I figure goblins are like kudzu -- they actively spread everywhere they aren't actively exterminated.
Some things can be around because their boss is -- lackeys, people scrounging off the boss, warriors in his service, people selling stuff to him... Fey may work their economy differently from humans, but a lot of things will be the same. You might want to consider why the boss is there, though. Looking for something? Claimed this territory and wants to holdit? Enjoys the smell of the swamp flowers inthe spring? Courting a dryad that lives in one particular tree?
Some lesser people might be there to oppose the boss. Perhaps the PCs could make allies or learn things if they try. Why does the boss tolerate them nearby? maybe they deceive him. Maybe he wants to have foes around to keep him sharp. Maybe he keeps some hostages around to force cooperation from other people. Maybeheknows but regards them, accurately or not, as beneath his notice and not dangerous?
Lots of options...
What motivates the boss: the BBEG isn't even on site. But the individual factions I suppose would have their own reasons:
The Aranea and the mites I suppose could use the swamps and underground chambers as a hatchery for their pets and they feed them with humans (read: meal worms) from the surrounding barony.
The goblins and their bugbear master are here to prey on...everything. The master likes torturing the fey and this particular section of woods gives good access to other forest areas of the barony plus lots of food sources nearby (giant insects, rats and nearby human crossroads.
The ruined buildings will be held down by a wererat and his horde of rats. He's bound here somehow by his curse. I don't know how yet but he's stuck there. He is a potential ally for the party but he's just as likely to turn on them as he is to help.
So does all this make sense? Any tips/pointers with this would be much appreciated.
Seems reasonable to me, though you might want to insider how the various sub-bosses interact with each other.
The goblins hate everyone equally; the Cypress Shrine entry to their "zone" displays a crucified dryad or something and all along through the labyrinth of thickets, hollows and root-infested barrows there will be other faction members in varying states of distress/decay.
The Rat King sits on his cursed throne, brooding. He hates being stuck here and wants desperately to escape. He doesn't fear the goblins but his curse has something to do with the fey, so he is intimidated by them.
The mites will be changelings; beings whose souls have been sent on to the fey world while their bodies become tools for the wicked spirits of the faeries. They have no motivations other than the alien curiosity of their race and as such they don't much care at all who or what lives nearby.
The goblins prey upon both factions for food/resources/victims. They consequently also prey on humans and leave the dungeon from time to time for banditry. The rat king has some hyper intelligent rats plus some minions out in the world, so he acts as a storehouse for information. Perhaps the bugbear and his goblins try to shake him down or pay him for his knowledge and sometimes he obliges. The aranea and her court of fey keep to themselves except when they come out to do the bbeg's bidding or inflict some cruelty upon the world. She enjoys toying with folks in the dungeon as well as nearby civilization. I'll give her and some of her minions guises they wear in town.
This is getting really complex.
So if I understand your setup you have a big swamp with several hills and other areas of solid ground scattered throughout, and the big bad is some kind of evil fey.
If so, why not treat the swamp as a kind of mini-Ravenloft? With each area of solid ground its own "kingdom" cut off from the others by the power of the big bad who uses them as larders, or just enjoys screwing with the creatures imprisoned in the swamp.
Do fey eat people? I guess they do - it was all the rage in fairy tales like Hansel & Gretel (or was that a witch?)
OMG megadungeons are hard!
What keeps throwing me and intimidating me is the size of the area I'm designing. Instead of neat little graph paper maps, 5 levels deep, beneath the ruin, I'm trying to plot out a dungeon sprawling across the size of a small suburb. I know megadungeons are supposed to be large and evolving but admiring someone else's work and doing it yourself are 2 different things, believe me.
Ok Mark old boy; get a hold of yourself.
So I have 3 distinct personalities taking shape here. I think I'll table the Ravenloft idea for now Son of Vet, but don't consider it removed - crossing that bog will be important when the players work up enough levels to go after the BBEG in the castle overlooking the bogs.
Getting back to the 3 mini-bosses: the one I'm honing in on right now is the Rat King. He's a tragic figure of greed. He was a thief who tricked women out of fortunes. He made a deal for power with an evil fey of some kind and stole an honor sword from the widowed last noble of a knighted house. I'd planned a side quest involving her where she's begging on the street as a last resort to regain the blade and her family's honor.
Ok, so...the party meets this lady, begging. There's some eerie rats nearby. She also says she's seen rats on the road. Anyway, if they're going to help this woman (and they should: good characters, artifact hunters, and the cleric has the Nobility domain) then they have to go get some paperwork from the local magistrate.
They can either bribe their way in or sneak in or kill the guy and go hard. Any way you slice it once they get the paperwork the building bursts into flames with them inside. Ground floor is totally engulfed so the party can either go out the roof (ratmen) or through the cellar and into the sewers (giant rats).
Now they're out and back to the lady. The papers prove that the rogue came through this way and bragged to the magistrate that he was carrying the sword to the local ruins for his "final reward". The party heads there and finds rat tracks in the area of the "open zone" (among other prints that is...) Following the "3 clue" rule there's the tracks forming a trail, the party hears a squealing through the ruins ahead, and there's rat-themed grafiti on some old half-walls on the way to the Ruined Building Zone.
Once they descend on this dude's lair he first tries to inflict lycanthropy on them to get one of the PC's on his side. If this doesn't work then the Rat King and his minions go toe-to-toe with the characters. If this becomes futile he breaks down - he has no "escape plan"; he can't leave these ruins. He begs for his miserable existance and offers to broker info about what little he knows of his neighbors if the party will find a way to free him of his curse.
All that writing, and that's only ONE zone...
Please critique and tell me if I'm doing this right.
Do megadungeons HAVE to be underground? I just googled megadungeon adventures and all the blogs/threads I read all involve Castle Greyhawk, TOEE or similar sprawling diablo-spawn.
Can anyone point me in the direction of a megadungeon design that doesn't involve an underground labyrinth?
Also: the bugbear is pretty self-explanatory. He preys on fear and gets off on intimidation and sadism. As such he and his minions are the stock standard "muscle" of the dungeon.
Their vignette can involve a sign in the local tavern looking for noble adventurers to rid the land of foul brigands. These of course turn out to be goblins who prowl the woodlands.
What's their endgame? The bugbear desires total annihilation of his enemies and is hunting for a weapon in the dungeon. If the players drive their way into the heart of his territory they will find him a tough fight but well worth it as he's sitting on mounds of loot.
Do megadungeons HAVE to be underground? I just googled megadungeon adventures and all the blogs/threads I read all involve Castle Greyhawk, TOEE or similar sprawling diablo-spawn.Can anyone point me in the direction of a megadungeon design that doesn't involve an underground labyrinth?
It sounds like you should be going into this as if it were more like Kingmaker. Instead of trying to treat the swamp as a labyrinth treat it as territory the PCs have to explore and pacify.
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Do megadungeons HAVE to be underground? I just googled megadungeon adventures and all the blogs/threads I read all involve Castle Greyhawk, TOEE or similar sprawling diablo-spawn.
Can anyone point me in the direction of a megadungeon design that doesn't involve an underground labyrinth?
Well, you could use a VASTLY large tower. Or a collection of interconnected demiplanes. Or anything of the sort, really.
Here's a question for you: Why are you starting this project with such ambition? Is it important to you that this megadungeon be one of your own personal design? There's cheap and even free megadungeons out there for you to borrow from, or even steal wholecloth.
Also, you don't have to design your full megadungeon from level 1 all the way down to the bottom before your PCs encounter it. As long as they don't delve any further than you have planned, you don't need to "complete" your dungeon. Hell, you can even add intermediate levels later that they just didn't notice (wink wink).
@ KTH: I really wanted something NOT in the form of an indoor dungeon. When I went huntnig for megadungeons they were ALL castles, towers, dungeons, etc. I want at least a portion of the megadungeon to be above ground. My vision originally was inspired by the shrine ruins in asia that are overgrown by trees and roots and such.
Y'see, my original thought was it was a place where humans had delved too far into the wilds and for a time it was an urbane settlement. But then stuff happened and the immortal fey returned and began reclaiming the wilds and with it these ruins.
@ SOV: I like the idea of the Kingmaker map and was thinking of using that for the "Open Zone" but the design style I'm following basically sets up the whole living dungeon type scenario which also appealed to me.
I think I could blend the two concepts together. By exploring hexes in the "Open Zone" they could find clues to the various other zones of the dungeon.
Back @ KTH: my players came to me when I was in the planning phase of the campaign a few months ago and said they wanted more dungeon hacking. I asked for points of reference and they mentioned thinks like TOEE and Undermountain. One of my players just got a re-release of an old-school dungeon exploration video game. But then when I pitched fey they really thought it sounded fun and new.
I thought an above ground, wilds-based megadungeon would kill 2 birds with one stone. I can't justify a bunch of wild loving fey in some dank, stinking cave somewhere so I made a dungeon-forest.
My game isn't ONLY fey - it's basically Ustlav but with lycanthropes instead of undead. Not that there's NO undead; just not plagues of them. So I thought a megadungeon might also explain why I've got fey, lycanthropes and evil humanoids (all the potential villains stated to my players at the outset of the campaign) all living near one another.
Ok, I give. I can't figure a way to make a cohesive megadungeon that my limited 2d brain can comprehend in the wilderness. And if I can't come to grips with it then I can't describe it to my players.
I am not scrapping the whole idea though. I have instead created 3 hexes of adventure, each with a 15 mile radius. Any path you take will take you at least 8 hours of travel (at level 1 on foot that is) to reach the ruins.
Rather than just running a single monster per zone, there will be a dominant influence to each and then the potential for random encounters and fixed events (a la Kingmaker). This isn't a Western Reaches style game however so I want them to get to the ruins.
The ruined town of Falkiveg lies on the edge of the Kivmere bogs which have begun to seep in amongst the crumbling remains. The megadungeon ruins then are divided into "islands" of dry ground dominated by landmarks such as a church spire, an overgrown plaza, an earthen barrow mound and others. Outside these spots and at a safe distance the party will have the opportunity to make camp.
Each zone will have its own hazards, creatures and motivations. I'm going to use goblins, ogres, centaurs and other "physical" creatures. Instead of doing an entire zone or dungeon devoted SOLELY to the fey (since they're so alien and specialized) I'm going to put individually powerful fey scattered throughout the dungeon.
Ex: The halls of midnight - a forested hillside covers an old forum-style building with 2 levels, multiple chambers and halls. While the interior of the area is inhabited by goblins and their bugbear master the trees above house an inquisitive faerie dragon. He'll have the mindset of the "I like toys" type fey and may provide his latest action figures with info, gear or whatever to see what they'll do. If the party allows this however he can quickly devolve into "greatest fan" style.
Here's my suggestion story wise --
Years ago a powerful man fell in love with one of the princesses of the Fey. He courted her endlessly, and for a time she returned his affections. The man was rich, and noble -- so he moved his subjects into the sacred territory of the Fey's wood, and build his castle there. The princess was offended by this, but he would not stop in his advances, insisting that if he built a castle in the Feywood they could live together forever. The Princess of the Fey Spurned him for this, but the man was obsessed -- he asked to meet with her one last time and he would abandon his building project...
...But he lied. Using potent magics he turned her to stone, and displayed her statute on his castle ramparts for the Followers of the Fey princess to see in their very wood. The fey were outraged, but dared not attack the noble outright -- for he threatened to shatter the statue if he did. At first they used their nature magic to endlessly harry the lord and his followers -- it rained for weeks on end, and the soil glutted for it, turning everything to mud. But the noble was resolute, and despite the unceasing storm he would neither move, nor enable his subjects to leave the fey wood. So the Fey had another idea.
They hired a mercenary cohort -- with the logic being that the best way to deal with a human infestation is to treat it with humans, and the fey could convincingly deny their involvement if the mercenary failed and they faced reprisals... it did NOT go as planned.
The mercenaries attacked the castle of this petty noble, intending to steal the statue by dead of night. But mistakes were made. The alarm was raised. A fire broke out. In the panic and chaos, the precious statue was shattered by the mercenary's men, and cast from the battlements into the mud -- to be carried off "in manageable pieces" -- The moment the statue was shattered, the wrathful spirit of the fey princess leapt skyward and became one with the storm -- and the whole of the fey wood mirrored her shrieks of rage with their own cries of anguish. The ground shook, and the storm that had carried on for weeks trebled in power, and coursed with malicious magic. The entire land around the castle shook with lightning and ran with mud. The castle and the surrounding buildings literally began to sink into the earth, some vanishing completely beneath the earth, some half buried and slipped from their foundations, some carried or scattered far from their footprints. The castle had become a scattered ruin, and the homes of the lord's subjects had become a swamp.
The fey prince who had hired the mercenary, aghast with grief -- cursed him for his callousness. "You and your pack-animal followers are not even fit to bear the lousy mantle of 'human'" he said, you are all vermin -- and will be seen as such, until you and you alone restore the princess. And with that, the mercenary leader was turned into a were rat, and the men who remained, both friend and foe, were turned into rats and all manner of rat things.
So that's the backstory -- The storm that half-sunk the fortress/buildings (making it now a ruin) caused mudslides that carried the pieces of the Fey Princess statue to the various areas in the zone you have to populate. One has sunk far beneath the ground near the ruin, perhaps in an underground void (or system of voids) created when the castle sank. The Wererat(s) and their minions are bound to kill anyone in any of the areas who might try (or succeed) in locating a part of the statue as well -- they must gather all of it to be free of the curse. (there is a nuance though -- there are actually two factions among the wererats... of the were rats who used to be the lord's peasants and builders, they have actually grown to favor the power of lycanthropy over their dismal human servitude -- They have taken to killing interlopers to prevent the pieces from being found, or they may even in fact be hiding a piece from the rat king.
Another piece is in the swamp, and while the area still has it's legendary back rainy season to mark the magical storms, it is nowhere as bad as in the center of the swamp. The inclement weather has been a celebrated treat for lizard men, however -- who are flocking to the swamps as a result of encroaching on their homelands elsewhere. The construction of a Dam by a city far upriver had caused their spawning grounds to dry up, and three different tribes of lizard men have crowded into different portions of the swamp, all of them at odds with one another.
(the lizard men all fight against each other but may have different diplomatic relations with the other factions in your map. In fact, one of the ways the party can succeed in the swamp is to either side with one faction of lizard men, or pit them all against each other. If one lizard man tribe can emerge the victor (not happening without party intervention) or the lizard men as a whole can be somehow weakened sufficiently, they will offer to fulfill any request the party might have if they promise to leave the swamp and never return -- even retrieve the 'rubble-arm' that seems to generate the swamp-storms, and give it to the party.
(you've probably already got the idea that the party could already have been sent by one of many factions to recover all the statue bits so the princess can be reassembled and animated, or perhaps they come upon this territory for another reason entirely, but either come into possession of one of the statue pieces, or are asked to get involved by an outside authority or one of the factions -- i.e., the magical storms that still happen from time to time have to be stopped as it makes the land unusable and floods often, or the rat king might offer the treasure sunken beneath the castle for help getting the pieces (though he's probably lying and even if he's not the faction that wants to stay were rats will be a problem, even if the party gets all the pieces for the rat king since the curse relates he alone must resolve it, he'll explain he needs to kill the party when their work is done -- perhaps the party will find this out when they learn about the particulars of the curse, and of course there are clues all around as to what happened, be they talking wisps/marsh lights who are drawn to certain areas to relish the tortured mourning of some of the fey -- or linger in the places they died of grief) -- there are also the written accounts of the lord or his servants in the ruin and buildings, as well as the loose lips of the were rats themselves. One area between the ruins and the swamp may have skeletons rise from the mud every rainfall, attacking outsiders, but otherwise running through the rain and sinking into the mud in a manner akin to how they died... skeletons that are pulled from the mud or destroyed (so that the cycle is broken) will tell of the events that lead to the fey wood being cursed.
The woodland zone is the deepest part of what once was the fey wood. Only three evil fey remain. They haunt the wood like revenants, looking for the pieces of the princess, and in fact one of them might have one. In truth, they have all gone mad -- the enraged spirit of the fey princess warped their minds either the first night of the magical storm, or slowly in the years that followed (each one is mad in their own way) -- they tell stories of how all the fey blamed one another, turned on each other -- they each want to reassemble the princess, but at the expense of the others... their madness carries too much blame for all other fey, and they each see themselves as the lone champion destined to restore her, and the others incompetents who had a part in causing their disaster.
One of the twisted fey has hired a tribe of goblins, with promises of all manner of wealth and power. The goblins spy on everyone (hoping to steal recovered statue bits) but have had limited success defeating any of the other factions. They mostly wander the deepest parts of the wood and dig deep holes, seemingly at random -- in an attempt to locate the part of the statue that buried itself in this area. They haven't found any part of the princess, but they have found a bunch of other interesting stuff -- numerous entrances into the underground zone, for example -- one entrance being a break they dug in a vaulted ceiling/main chamber of that area, one entrance is a cave they excavated out of a mudslide that occurred during the storms. maybe even a couple of other points of interest.
One of the fey has actually already died -- he went searching for a statue piece that supposedly washed into the underground caves/temple-complex and became trapped and died deep in a necromancer's lab somewhere at the bottom -- but in his madness his spirit possesses and animates many of the corpses buried in the catacombs around and within the temple complex -- appearing again and again as what he imagines is himself, but is merely a series of corpses, and a retinue of other undead he's risen to support him. one or two factions of humanoids also dwell in these tunnels, one being a clan of bugbears and lesser humanoids who were sealed below ground when the landslides buried them, only recently finding the surface again when the goblins excavated them out -- their chief has been somehow tricked into serving the fey necromancer -- perhaps he wears a cursed bit of jewelry, perhaps there is a mind control spell, or perhaps he is charmed into inhaling incense or smoke from the lower laboratory that keeps him prone to suggestion. He has bullied the tribe into staying in place to protect the spirit of the fey necromancer -- also to protect the piece of the statue within the temple-complex (it has been found since this fey died) -- the bugbear leader has gone as far as to kill any rivals who want to leave the caves in single combat, and insist the tribe resort to cannibalism when sufficient food cannot be found in the caves. Naturally the party can navigate this zone in a variety of ways -- they can clear away the clan and destroy the fey necromancer, they can by whatever means get past the clan and deal with the necromancer fey (either destroying him, or somehow convincing him that he's dead - he just thinks he's been reading about the black arts as a means to accomplish his mission, and my... he hasn't been feeling very hungry lately. If the fey spirit is exorcised/defeated, the bugbear chief can be freed of control, and will co-operate with the party -- depending on their alignment and makeup he may part with the statue piece, or offer to help wipe out another faction, or if of parallel alignment or interest become clients or allies of the party, now that his mind is free of control. There are also rivals in the clan who the party may put in power instead (if they end up killing the chief or negotiations with him sour, at that point the rivals offer their cooperation for support as the new chief and ask that the fey spirit be destroyed if it hasn't already.
The last Fey seeker of the princess is the most rational -- he knows the spirit of the princess has gone mad and is no longer one of his kind but an abomination of sorts, and with her madness so too have all his brothers and sisters succumbed or become monsters. He seeks to rebuild the statue not to rescue the princess, but instead by reviving her from the stone her non-corporeal form can be destroyed by killing her physically. He has one of the statue pieces, and also knows of a secret last location, a fey shrine where the statue must be rebuilt. The vengeful princess' spirit haunts that shrine, and she remains powerful, and extremely angry. Evil as this last fey may be, he has as vested interest in closing the book on what happened here, and hopefully freeing the spirits of his brothers and sisters by laying her spirit to rest, or whatever it is fey folk do with their deceased. He has various wild animals at his disposal, or perhaps other lesser wood spirits like dryads, or treants or what have you. He is the one Fey who will actively cooperate with the party most sincerely to get all the statue pieces together at the shrine. If this can be done, the magical storm starts again and begins to flood the shrine with rain and mud and the fey princess ghost has to be dealt with before the shrine sinks and the party dies, or perhaps as bad, the INTEGRATED statue sinks beneath the mud again, and the fully manifested ghost of the fey princess is free to roam the world and spread madness, pain and mischief on a scale she never could have before.
The spirit can be defeated in two ways -- if the proper series of spells are cast on it (get creative, but basically a good chain of spells that would mend the statue, dispel the magic and evil associated with it, then reanimate it -- then the evil fey princess, weak and physically manifest (however magical in nature) can be executed.
If the party doesn't have the spells or isn't creative, make it a dangerous non-corporeal undead encounter, and every time it's defeated a part of the statue becomes flesh, and she takes a saving throw. If the save succeeds, you have to fight the spirit again, if failed, another piece animates. The DC on the save gets harder and harder the worse the spirit is beat as well as the more times it is beat (if necessary) -- if the party is lucky and/or a lot of saves are failed, once all parts of the statue come to life, the princess can be executed, and the lands can return to normal -- either to be ceded back to the fey, or now the storms are gone perhaps to resettle it, or to give it to one of the factions the party chooses, or perhaps even take claim of the land by right of conquest.
There's your story.
Umm...whoah. I am COMPLETELY humbled!
Consider much of this stolen. You hit on exactly what I was missing here to keep it a megadungeon: a point.
In my original concept I had just a disparate band of monsters living near one another with no reason to (other than the rat king). Now with the idea of the statue and the fey shrine there's a reason for all the zones to exist, be populated and for the party to return again and again.
The main thing I'll have to change is timing. Many centuries ago she's imprisoned and the sly king builds a castle around her using the power of Abadar (Earth, Protection). Then he conquers the area, turns on the Abadaran and runs them off. Following his treachery 2 centuries of tyrants rule until crusaders of Abadar return and liberate the area. In the final siege the statue's shattered. Terror in the land ensues which in turn triggers a fault line causing the Great and Terrible Shudder (the global event in my homebrew).
Shards of statue goes everywhere. Following the Shudder there's a sudden surge of fey energies that causes the wilds to begin consuming civilization (another regional even of significance). During this time the statue is almost completed but events in another campaign ends up closing all the portals to the first world at once and BAM! The pieces are scattered again.
Now in the aftermath terrible blights have begun scarring the land. They started small but have grown worse over the past 20 years as those searching for the pieces become more desparate. The heroes and most of the land is unaware of what's going on.
So the heroes go to the town and find out there's a ruin in the woods with some cool stuff in it for their Archivist's Guild. They also find out that an honor sword was taken there, they see weird rats behaving strangely and a girl with unearthly beauty has disappeared.
The sword is needed for the final ritual; the girl is suspected of having some tie to the fey; the rats are pretty obvious.
Vicon, I can't thank you enough for this! You've totally turned my planning around on this one. Rather than attack this al at once I'm going to just keep most of it background and try to go after one zone at a time.
Glad to do you a solid, Good luck running from here, and feel free to tap me if I can help with something else. Your welcome, and thank you to -- this was a kickass mental exercise.
Thanks for sharing how you fleshed it out. You laid out the bones of the story, I hung some flesh on them, and it looks like you've got a very fine skin there. :D
Thanks again Vicon. I also like how it makes it seem from a player's perspective that the rat king is the big bad but I'm going to throw in a curve ball; the king can't die, but also can't leave his tower. He's learned he can use rats and his bite can make more wererats, and his minions can wander far afield, so he does everything through them.
As per the slaughterhouse megadungeon rules there's several factions, several bbeg's. Each employs different methods for finding the pieces. I don't want this to take up the whole game, but I do want it to go for a few levels. For that reason I think I'm only going to put the total piece count at 5.
The rat king has probably been banished there.
If someone destroys the tower he will be free.
You could include a Vampire Unicorn(detailed in a seperate topic) who was slain by a human and who is out to get humans. He has summoned the wild hunt to purge the area of Humans(A wandering encounter that won't harm other monsters.)
A children's nursery rhyme, common to Erdanstadt (sung to the tune of "London Bridges")
Sweet Queen Mab has fallen down, to the ground; broke her crown
Sweet Queen Mab has fallen down; Fair-y Curses
In the water, in the ground, in the forest, in the town
Find the pieces all around; Fair-y Curses
Now Queen Mab has got her crown, no more broken; no more bound
Now Queen Mab has got her crown; Cur-ses lifted
As the song begins one girl stands in the center of a ring of other children. During the first verse she hurls pieces of something that's been broken; bits of paper, splinters, pottery shards, etc.
A subset of other children oustside the circle with their eyes covered act as the queen's "court" and have to hunt for the items after they're thrown. They have only the time of the second verse to find them. During the third verse they must present what they've found (if anything) to make up the "crown".
If the kids don't have the full crown by the end of the game one of them is punished and is sent to the "tower"; a spot where they have to stay until the rest of the kids come back for them. They can't leave and are frequently taunted by the others in the group.
If they do find all the bits and reassemble the crown the "queen" gives them all a prize; hair ribbons, kisses or favored beads are often given. Since the "queen" doesn't want to lose often she tries to keep her "crown" as challenging as she can to find. The seekers don't usually know the type of object they're hunting for either, so the game is heavily weighted against them.
I don't know whether to laugh or piss myself scared.
Sorry I haven't really read the whole thread but this might help.
Sorry I haven't really read the whole thread but this might help.
Something on their site went wonky and I can't get to the subscription part to check pricing. How much to subscribe?
You can't at the moment. They aren't taking subscriptions anymore due to some money issues last I heard.
Grrr... any idea how much it USED to cost?
Nope.
But they (Super Genius Games) have The Tomb World of Alak-Ammur for sale from that site.
I talked to my players last night; we didn't get the chance to play but we hung out and played board games. During the conversation I subltely asked them if they'd be interested in:
1) a megadungeon as opposed to several smaller dungeons: their response was yes as long as there were multiple reasons to be there and not just "Today we'll enter and go left. Tomorrow we'll enter and go right..."
2) a dungeon both above and below ground: an emphatic yes. They like the idea of lots of interactive environments.
3) a villain that didn't play by the rules (such as a fey, though I didn't give them that example): I got a "no" on that one. They want villains like Beloch and the Nazis from Indiana Jones 1; clearly evil, motivated, with a discernable objective.
I had originally planned for the megadungeon zones of Falkiveg to be all open to any exploration and kind of sandboxy. After chatting with the players last night they don't want to explore...they want MISSIONS.
So there's all these different zones and factions at Falkiveg right? What if I pulled a Burn Notice here...
Set the party up with a contact in town (I've already got one built in) that finds little side reasons to send them to certain parts of the dungeon. Oh there's a widow who's lost her wedding ring to goblins? You have to go to the ruined tower in the forest zone to go get it. Some kids got snatched by mites? You should probably go hunting for them in the bog zone. You say the cleric's having dreams about rats? Head for the broken church in the heart of the town zone.
Now in the show Burn Notice there's an overarching plot where the main character wants to find out who burned him and get his old job back. For my game I have a to set up an overarching storyline simple enough for the party to remember from game to game (1 month between games) and interesting enough to see to the end. I'm thinking that's where the Queen's pieces come in.
Somehow, their first game out they've got to get drawn into direct contact with the statue plot. The only way to motivate a bunch of tactical gamers is by the numbers, so I'm thinking I have them head to one of the dungeon zones, come into contact with one of the pieces, and imperil them because of it; +2 to something but a terrible disease as well.
Now each time they head back on a mission they unlock various parts of the dungeon, pieces come and go or change hands, and slowly they figure out what's killing them. Season one ends with them fully cured of the disease but realizing there's a worse threat looming on the horizon if they don't get the pieces reassembled.
One potential plot complexity is that they find out there is an evil Fey trying to gather the same pieces that they are, but it's his intention to kill her rather than revive her. If they have just jumped to the conclusion that she's a lovely damsel in distress -- it might be interesting to have him as an enemy who keeps getting away, or stealing pieces, or laying traps for them, or shutting them out of a mission objective... before he finally realizes he can't further risk his mission with the party's continued success and comes clean to them... Even if they don't believe him and kill him, he'll monologue or spend his dying breath telling them what they'll have to do when they realize their mistake to kill the evil spirit before it gets completely free.
Some missions: There's that Necro lab in the underground area, right? Maybe the town mortician wants that Necro's spell books to help with his preservation jobs. Maybe he's hiring them because he figures nobody's heard from or gotten trouble from the necromancer in a long time, so maybe his old lair is abandoned and he left something behind, or maybe they used to be colleagues and he wants to open trade/comm with him again -- it would lead to the location of the Bugbears and one of the other fey.
Perhaps there are a bunch of people in town who lost family in the mudslides, and there's a bounty on any remains they can bring back to be buried, bonus if there are effects with any of the bodies that can identify them. (so the skeletons are valuable, but even better if the players track the skeletons to where they rise, because there might be personal items that have rotted off of the bodies)
The local constabulary is concerned about the influx of lizard men into the swamp, and who wouldn't be. Perhaps they want the party to escort an ambassador into the swamp to acquaint himself with each of the tribes of lizard men, to learn their intentions, and a bit about their customs to determine to what degree any are a threat so if necessary the can be effectively negotiated with or destabilizes. Problem is, the Ambassador is a dope, or a coward, and the PCs will either have to get him out of trouble, or do his job. Maybe one of the lizzie tribes MUST be exterminated because they're hunting livestock or nearby farmers.
Maybe there's an evil Druid in the wood who's been making dangerous plant golems with all the wild-growth vegetation. There's a bounty on his head for killing a couple of the village's druids -- apparently he doesn't want to share the rare plants that some folks go into the woods to get (hell, THAT could be a mission) ... Thing is, as proof that the Druid is dead, they want the glass eye he has, (since they can be sure he won't part with it peaceful. Thing is -- the eye isn't glass, it's polished stone... and it's the one of the eyes FROM THE STATUE. That's right , they could very well end up trading away a piece of what they'll end up needing back -- only by then it could have changed hands all over town, eventually winding up in the head of a noble, or in a museum, or some other unwelcome place.
I'm sure you've got it under control, but I couldn't help chiming in again. Rock on.
-Vicon
Hey Mark,
We'll have an announcement soon about how folks can get access to Dungeonaday.com. If all goes well it should happen this week.
Hey Mark,
We'll have an announcement soon about how folks can get access to Dungeonaday.com. If all goes well it should happen this week.
:O
My money is now yours
Soon my pretties; soon...
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Nodal networks and the older D&D Published Dungeons
Don't be afraid to look at the old stuff and rip off the Dungeon Structure - indeed if you have your design down - compare it to the old stuff.
Source: Dungeon Nodal network maps
Likewise dont be afraid to consider some concept art.
Source: Dungeon Concept Art
Evil Fey and Lycanthropes
Why not make up new and unexpected Monster races - The Hob in Hob-goblin was the Ancestor to Elves.
Source: Evil Fae
The Lycanthrope is nothing more than a strange legend about our Human Ancestors.
Source: Lycanthropes
Mark, if you want to create a megadungeons that encompasses wilderness, ruins, and dungeon locations, it's best not to nail down every detail. Work out the areas where the players will go for the first few sessions and come up with some of the notable NPCs whose influence will define aspects of the area. The rest can wait! Things that you haven't figured out or which don't yet make sense to you can remain mysteries for the moment.
Back in the early 1980s, Roger Musson wrote a series of three articles in White Dwarf magazine entitled "The Dungeon Architect". I've always found Part I ("The Interesting Dungeon") most helpful. In it, he describes the importance of building an intriguing cast of characters for your setting. In addition to the characters and creatures that player characters may encounter, Mr. Musson suggests that you consider the "dungeon dignitaries" whose influence shaped the area of the adventure. Such characters may be long gone, but their resources and personalities still influence the adventure locale. Expand on the ruins in the area: What were they built for? Why did the town fall?
Remember, fae are weird. They don't think like humans and their relationships with other races aren't the same as humans. I could see the goblins fawning and groveling, eager to serve a powerful fae. In turn, the fae might pick up some goblin habits.
I'd also add a local weed that allows creatures to breathe water, but doesn't keep its potency long once picked. Perhaps overuse of the herb reduces the user's ability to breathe air (making him fatigued), but makes him able to breathe underwater for days or weeks. Such a weed would allow you to expand the tunnels and chambers under the marsh, placing all sorts of land creatures in them. I picture a vicious band of goblins with swim fins...