As pat of the Anartica Adventure Jam, which runs until February 2026, I ended up committing myself to first an island, then 5 dungeons and then a second smaller region.
So due to a lack of OSR content on my blog, I may as well post the first level of my small dungeon. For those of you who only know D&D from WOTC, a 22 room level may not seem "small" but it is by TSR/retroclone standards.
This also makes up for that week I missed when I was on vacation.
Unless otherwise stated, this uses B/X or OSE monster stats.
# Dungeon 1 – Beneath the Rock-Marked Hill
### Any dimensions not stated are assumed to be 10 feet. The
ceiling is a uniform 10 feet high, excluding the vaulting the sides, which
rises from 8 feet. Unless otherwise stated, all rooms are lightless and made of
yellow brick. All doors are not stuck.
Descriptions in the Before language/writing are labelled
BFTXT
## Level 1
### Random encounters occur on a roll of 1 in 6 per turn.
1- Reroll (1d3 Gecko if door to Room 14 opened, revert when
cleared)
2 – Reroll (4d4 Kobolds if Room 4 and 11 cleared or door to
Room 14 opened, revert when Room 21 cleared)
3 – 1d10 Stirges (Nothing if Rooms 6 and 11 cleared)
4 – 1d10 Killer Bees (Nothing if Room 4 cleared)
5 – 1 Pit Viper (Nothing if Room 19 cleared)
6 – 1 Green Slime (mutated pipe cleaner)
1.
Staircase half of tracked dirt. Walls are
moisture-soaked, smells of dirt, any coverings have dissolved into mould and
paste. There is a faint light at the bottom of the staircase during the day.
Three vertical indents some 15
feet down the staircase on west side. Can be pushed to reveal a ventilation
shaft.
2.
Brightly lit. 14 Merchants (F1) with bags and
bedrolls where dry. Soot-stained ceiling and upper walls. The door to Room 14
is blocked up.
Under soot and dead mould are
depictions of creatures known and unknown in round bubbles, Exaggerated BFTXT: “Here
is the future, made by the Power of Hands and Skill of Mind”.
The merchants are quite friendly,
the Lepetis Coastal Association, led by Kiga. She says they are here to find
the rumoured treasure. They have 1 of everything available on the player
equipment list for sale between them. They know Room 14 contains 8 Gecko and Room
18 has metal pipes but they couldn’t prise them off. Another door there had slithering
sounds.
They have 200sp of wall scrapings
and jewellery (control panels and connections pulled off the walls) worth 2 x
1100gp and 1200gp.
3.
Empty room with foundation-like stumps of raised
brickwork. Roof is lumpy, with packed dirt and roots pushing through the
vaulted bricks, occasional dripping onto the muddy floor. The round after the
party enter, the ceiling falls in at the entrance they came through. Doing 1d10
damage to any in that 10 x 10 square and sealing it without six human turns of
digging.
4. Whole room is filled with buzzing,
and the walls and ceiling are obscured by honeycomb. The floor is covered in
rotting honey and wax.
Some 21 Killer Bees lair here, access
outside via narrow pair of ceiling holes under a grove of trees. Four bees are
1 HD Guards, and the queen has 2 HD. 10, ½ HD bees will pursue to an adjoining
room, but no further.
Magical honey (around 2 pints)
may be found in the hive. It heals 1d4 hit points if eaten (in its entirety).
5. Orange corridor. Metal pipes made of
what looks like bronze and petrified wood run the length and terminate at each
end. Ceiling drips with moisture and hollow noises occur with each step.
Wax build up in Room 4 has
clogged the pipes carrying a variety of curdled gasses. Interacting with the
pipes or moving more than 10 feet upsets the delicate homeostasis. Pipes burst
with a pinging sound. Filling the room with poisonous white gas (save versus
poison or die).
6. Warm, red and dimly lit room with floor
of corroded shattered glass and powder-like droppings. High on the upper walls
are layers of comb-like structures, made of paste and grit. Each is set around
a large, reddish socketed gem.
11 Stirge nest here, they do
pursue.
The 6 gems if prised off, show
themselves to be pale yellow glass. But the sockets are 300gp of gold.
7. Pipes hidden by vaulting. What has
not been stained by mould depicts a fantastic landscape of glaciers, seas and
jungles. Inhabited by humanoid and archosaurian figures, all flexing and
performing feats of excellence.
All labelled BFTXT, indicating a
name and a proclaimed previously unattainable feat.
8. Pipes hidden by vaulting. What has
not been stained by mould depicts a fantastic landscape of glaciers, seas and
jungles.
A bestiary of the Before Kingdom
is stylistically laid out. BFTXT describing uses and critical or valuable
parts. Disconcertingly, these include animals the player characters would not
think were useful and humanoid figures.
9. Nothing except four broken
pedestals. Touching the pedestals causes a voice to boom from them, in the
Before language. Horrible hollow screeching. Make a random encounter check.
BFTXT: Welcome to the Central
Hall of Life Enlightenment. We are proud to display the latest in philosophical
research into the use of nature. (Silence). Join us today as we will
explore the future of companion and labour animals to improve your lives and
the lives of your (Volume dip).
The egg-nation rooms will
exceed all expectations for urban environments, and the air-nations rooms will
explain how new thoughts will enhance material thoughts. (Silence) How
hereditary crystalised-thought can be shaped and altered as if clay. For we are
now the potter, and the facility staff hope you may consider the possibilities.
10. Orange and traces of violence. Burst
pipes, black soot shadows on the walls and small skeletons of obscure
creatures, that fall to powder with footsteps.
11. Warm, damp, red and dimly lit room with
a powdered mixture of fairy-dust droppings and glass coating the floor like a
starfield. An exsanguinated giant lizard with blue scales and orange spots on
the floor. High on the upper walls are layers of comb-like structures, made of
paste and grit. Set around are five reddish gems in stone sockets, size
corresponding with the density of nests. Rest are blackened husks.
22 Stirges chitter in their
almost-language. They swarm.
The glowing gems are Before
crystals; 10gp, 100gp, 500gp and 1000gp.
12. Orange and surprisingly dry. Empty
shelves with rims of partially petrified vegetable matter, otherwise powder.
Blast shadow of a humanoid form on wall, reveal colour was slightly darker shade.
Searching the right square for a
secret door reveals on a base 1 in 6 check, the door to Room 13.
13. Red brick. All walls from floor to
ceiling with BFTXT detailing emergency evacuation measures. The site was at
ground level. 400sp of wiring showing control panels in Room 2 and 18 (Trader
removed them). Notice of total pneuma shutoff control in Room 27.
14. Room filled with broken pedestal-like
machines scattered about floor. Otherwise covered in paste-like droppings,
reptile stinks. The machines are labelled BFTXT: words like Colour Banding,
Skull Size and Muscle Fiber Thickness.
Eight ravenous Ginat Geckos lurk
here on the ceiling and walls, aware of door being unblocked. Couldn’t hunt
outside since the Traders sealed the door.
15. Broken machine, covered in dials and
levers. Shattered glass bubble. Broken glass statues of beetles on the edges. BFTXT:
Bewildering array of terms like “ion channels” “arcane infusion” and
“fundamental strand removal/insertion”.
Silver wiring is worth 500sp,
dials and internal systems are gems worth: 10gp, 50gp and 500gp.
16. A circular stone circle in the middle. Entering
the room causes an illusion of a Cyclops (Antarctica Adventure Jam Bestiary) to
appear with a pop inside it. Followed by roaring and combat. The monster has AC
9 [10] and vanishes if hit in combat. Its attacks do not inflict real damage: a
PC who appears to die just falls unconscious for 1d4 turns.
BFTXT on circle: Experience
the power of life enlightenment philosophy on command.
17. Large machine that looks like it was
melted. The glass birdcages sealed on a ceramic body. However, the front of the
machine looks like it was raked by a marsupial lion.
Investigating the machine
triggers the kobold trap. Precariously weighted sticks covered in blackened
metal blades, swings down from the ceiling. Entering the room causes a block to
drop from the doorframe with a clatter. For every person who enters or
interacts with the machine, the trap activates on a roll of 1 on a d6.
18. This room stinks of mould and humus.
Moisture drips down the walls and disappears into floor cracks. The pipes that
run along this wall are all rusted or bloated yet pitted. As if made of wood
and stone combined.
Waiting longer than 2 turns,
touching the pipes or door causes the homeostasis of the room to collapse and
curdled pink gas to spray from the burst pipes. This fills the room in 1 turn
but is harmless. It settles after 8 hours, staining the non-mould spaces a rosy
shade.
19. 2 Pit Vipers have laired here to hunt
widely. Have not eaten since Traders blocked door to level 2. The southern wall
has collapsed from water damage.
20. Staircase lobby was supposed to be
sealed by a staff-access door and wall. Both have collapsed from water damage.
The stairs lead below.
21. It smells fresher here from an airshaft
and all the pipes have been broken. Kobold creeper vines reach outside for light
and blood. They don’t remember how they came here from distant lands.
They await any noise of foes
activating the circle in Room 16 and if so, are not surprised. There are 28
knobbly gourd-men in various states of ripeness. 21 ½ HD, 7 1+1 HD bodyguards
and 1 2HD Chieftain with the thickest rind.
The Great Gourd is cunningly. If
they fail morale, they will let foes enter the treasure chamber and ambush them
at an opportune moment.
22. The orange treasure chamber of the
Kobolds, a junction of pipes that connect like a tree on the southern wall. Only
the bottom pipes are intact. A repurposed metal chest is affixed to the south
wall with resin. As are the hinges.
Opening the chest more than a
Kobold-known crack breaks the seals and causes the poisonous white gas (save
versus poison or die).
2500sp and 20gp fill the chest.
No comments:
Post a Comment