Wednesday, October 29, 2025

Anartica Adventure Jam Dungeon 1 - Level 2 and Level 3

Finishing off my Dungeon 1 of what is turning out to be a bit of a mistake.

Five dungeons is quite a bit of work, especially when I got a second region (no dungeons though) to write.


## Level 2

### Random encounters occur on a roll of 1 in 6 per turn.

1- 1d8 Pit Vipers

2 – 1d8 Troglodytes (Replace with 1d6 Ghouls if Room 30 cleared but Room 34 is not)

3 – 1d3 Giant Black Widow Spiders

4 – 1d8 Oil Beetles (Nothing if Room 24 is cleared)

5 – 1d6 Ghouls (Nothing if Room 34 cleared)

6 – 1d4 Green Slimes leaking out of broken pipes or ceiling mould

23.         Staircase is suddenly unstable. Gaping brickwork somehow suspended above the void with yellow mud below. Every character making their way down has a 1 in 6 chance of falling through a weak spot for 1d6 damage.

24.         This room is covered in humus from the leaking ceiling and the beetle dung. 10 Oil Beetles have been unable to feed on the upper level since the Traders blocked the door to Room 2. They will defend themselves.

25.         Floor of room is completed covered in sheen of water. Mould grows thick and black on the walls and air feels clammy. Three vertical indents on eastern wall, only visible with a searching for secret doors roll beneath the mould. Can be pushed to reveal a ventilation shaft to Room 33.

26.         A room of many pipes and a large cistern rising out of the floor. Broken dials and corroded metals and wood-stone. The brickwork has been worn smooth and grey by discolouration. The North wall is covered in Before writing about pump and pipe systems, import is central BFTXT: “Pneuma Shutoff Control”.

              One a 1-3 the Grey Ooze is in the filtration cistern, it’s origin. On a 4-6, it lurks on the discoloured floor.

To the left of the writing is a stuck, secret door to the pneuma shutoff control. This red room is entirely scoured by bursting pipes but 3,000gp of gold joins can be salvaged.

27.         Slimy mould coats everything. A metal table with bronze disease, a model of the continent is picked out but only a rough outline is determinable.

28.         Here the yellow brickwork collapses into a wider cave, the shadow-scars of the end of the world in sharp relief on the walls where perishable furniture once stood.

29.         This cave stinks of a potent mix of solid and liquid waste. A stream runs down the middle for 21 Troglodytes (AB) residing here. They feed on what they catch and have the faces and jaws for it. They fear no foe and sparkle when light shines upon them.

              Though they split before fire and most tools, they do wear jewellery. Multitudes in tactile patterns comprised of smooth glass and gems pillaged from the complex. 2 x 400gp, 600gp, 3 x 700gp, 3 x 800gp, 900, 4 x 1000gp 6 x 1100gp, 2 x 1300gp, 3 x 1400gp, 2 x 1500gp, 2 x 1700gp and 10,000sp in spare wire.

              Stone tablets in Before, worn nearly smooth by rough fingers tracing the gouges and rubbing the patterns. Usable as Spell Scrolls.

BFTXT: The Instructions of Discovery; Detect Invisible, Phantasmal Force, Polymorph Self, Read Languages, Continual Light

BFTXT: Experimental Handling Instructions; Web, Invisibility 10’ Radius, Detect Invisible, Levitate, Sleep

Round metal plate used as a rock polisher/flaker. Flipping it over reveals a handle strap made from something green, +1 Shield.

30.         A series of worn cavern steps. Water running down each means slips, trips and falls, save vs wands or take 1 damage. The water runs outward halfway, into a crevasse stretching beyond the reach of light. It’s three to four feet wide at best.

Emphasis this leads beyond the scope of this adventure into the dark cracks under Udore. Maybe after a slow, harrying trip in the dark for days, with lots of random encounters, they cross into a blast karst elsewhere.

31.         Long dry cave. When light reaches the eastern wall, it reveals the masonry of Before. Cracked pipes hang over a brick-dusted floor.

One pipe slant over a small pool, clear as crystal. Drinking from it gives the effect of a random magic potion. 1d4: 1 – Potion of Delusion, 2 – Potion of Gaseous Form, 3 – Potion of Growth and 4 – Potion of ESP.

32.         Narrow room with protruding brick dividers every 10 feet, chest height. In the middle pair of dividers is a pair of long thin bones (troglodyte limbs) and the gleam of silver animal statuettes. It smells drier like a crypt. A visible ventilation shaft to Room 25 enters through the eastern wall.

The middle dividers house a dart trap. 1d6 spring-loaded darts fire at the character, doing 1d4 damage each. The trigger as soon as a character crosses into the middle divider from a glass eye on each side. Set up by the ghouls who are alerted by the noise. They recharge the eyes, which are depleted triggering. 500sp of knick-knacks as lure.

33.         12 Ghouls lair here. Workers or guests, human or something Before humans, it doesn’t matter. Now their faces and bodies are taut and animalistic. They pursue until the Troglodyte lair in room 30.

Besides cracked bones, their lair contains a cockatrice skeleton. Which looks like an Avialae, bedecked in looted treasure like an icon. There are no teeth set in the jaw. 5,000cp in bracelets, anklets, tailets, crest supports and plaques. 6,000sp of wire binding the bones together. 2,000gp of gold decorations in the form of mashed and twisted sheets, like a loose-leaf shroud. Gems 10gp and 50gp set in the eyes.

Beside it, lies a dismembered ghoul-cor35pse, gnawed and disarticulated, except for the chest, neck and head. An embedded metal rod there, is somehow covered in fused ivory, the teeth pointed to form an edge. Sword +1, +3 vs Undead.

Carved in a scratchy hand are Before words.
BFTXT: I Refuse To Exist

34.         Dry staircase below to level 3, slightly crumbled from age and not wear.


Level 3

### Random encounters occur on a roll of 1 in 6 per turn.

1- 1d6 Tiger Beetles (Nothing if Room 41 cleared)

2 – 1d8 were-rats disguised as rats, will attack if characters are weaker than them in number (If Room 43 is cleared, replace with 1d6 White Apes until Room 37 is cleared)

3 – 1d3 Tarantella Spiders (Nothing if Room 45 cleared)

4 – 2d8 Wraiths (Antarctica Bestiary), in lieu of defined attacks, they cause -1 to all rolls per hit for 24 hours.

5 – 1d6 Wights, ghosts of White Apes past

6 – 1d6 Crystal Living Stautes in the form of snakes and birds falling from ceiling holes

35.         Lining the corridor where the staircase descends are life-sized, impressively detailed statues of animal and humanoids: fire beetles, blink dogs, pixies, sprites and various small ceratopsids. Though not discernible from the outside, they are just carvings. Room ends abruptly in a sheer rock face that has hardened over the floor. Gold and silver plaques with BFTXT list species names, 500sp and 500gp altogether.

36.         A circular stone circle in the middle of the room. Inert, breaks in the stonework show gold and silver banding on the inside. Touching the metal discharges stored energy for 1d8 damage. 1000sp and 1000gp of components.

37.         It first appears to be a cave, but then you see the faint glowing glass in the ceiling and stands of plants along the edges. There is an animal smell and faint whistling.

Hiding in the dark are 6 White Apes, last of the demonstration breed. They are frightened but will not reveal themselves unless the characters press on with exploring. If they do, they will burst forth with hooting. They will not pursue beyond the room for fear of the were-rats.

38.         Stuck in eastern wall are dozens of crystal shards. If interacted with, they form two enormous crystal wolves (Living Stautes, Crystal) and attack anyone who has or will enter. They do not leave the room and remains active for 24 hours before resetting. On the final wolf’s death the crystals shatter to powder, all dungeon gems in room, including in loot, glow for a second.

39.         The entrance from Room 37 and 40 appears to be glass when viewed from this side and is clear. A Caved in door in the north wall. Here are some chairs the yellow of the walls and not much else. There is looping Before words on the wall.
BFTXT: Observe the White Ape, how it chooses not the tools but the sanctuary of caves. Observe the Tiger Beetle, it’s shell as useful as it’s mandibles.

40.         Room that was once sculpted like a cave, a selection of old still-bright wall is coloured like beetles, flies and bees. Fragile insect moults in corners. Cupped holes look like purpose-built nesting holes. The doorframe to 41 has been pushed apart.

41.         Wide room stained with secretions, insect moults and the too-hard elements of carcasses. 6 Tiger Beetles lair here in musty nests. A caved in door in the right south-western wall. There are Before writings on the walls, but they are too defaced to be read. Some have blast shadows in the shape of hands and arms.

42.         Worn metal hooks with stains on the wall beneath, in the shapeless form of cloth. Brick shelves with the calcified powder of vegetable products. The door to Room 43 has a stone block rigged with a tripwire along the opening seam of the door. The noise alerts the were-rats. Falling block: Inflicts 1d10 damage (save versus petrification to avoid).

43.         An orange room, with all the metal pipes and pulled off the walls and repurposed as supports or weapons. Among the refuse and food scraps is a large pool of water. 12 Were-rats live here, as part of a salvage team. They strip Before ruins of all useful treasure and components and take them back across the Sunrise Straight to their hidden homes.

They will reveal this only if they are reduced to half and fail morale. Negotiating to trade the jewellery to leave by the water tunnel with their metal hoard. They say truthfully it connects to the sea as part of an underground river. They will fight to the death for the swords.

Among their scrap metal and glass is: A piece of jewellery 800gp, a leaf-shaped Sword +1 named Wave-Cutter and the sentient Autumn Sword.

INT 9, Ego 1, Communication Empathy, AL Lawful, Sensory Powers Detect evil or good, Detect traps, Extraordinary Powers Healing Enchantment +1 (+3 vs Dragons), Dmg 1d8 +1

The Autumn Sword seeks to bring about the end of the old forces and renew the cycle of the world. Primarily concerning itself with slaying the Dragon IXix (304-567) and his ilk. The wielder will feel great hostility to any dragon and to a lesser extent to giants, the Hydra and its servants.

44.         In a room decorated with benches stands a fountain. This fountain is red brick and bears repeated Before writing all along the edges. Drinking from the fountain or otherwise disturbing the water produces a cycling and gurgling of the pumps and that alerts the Tarantella in Room 45. Before writing on the walls.

BFTXT on Fountain: Animal to Non-Animal Non-Humanoid Conversion Source Do Not Drink Unless Cleared By Master, Penalties Apply!

BFTXT on walls: Intelligence is the key to successful work-life, behold how magic monsters with and without. Are made more complete with special water.

Drinking from it gives +1 to the drinker’s Intelligence score and nothing after that.

45.         A silk-strewn rock-hollow, what is not actual rock is plaster over brick. The floor covered in a morass of moult and web. Here dwell 2 Tarantella. They lie in ambush if alerted and pursue to Room 44. Each wears a silken band with a gem set in it over the thorax. Gems worth 100gp and 500gp.

46.         This room was made up to be like a tropical jungle from the green paint on the walls. The gems in the celling are blacked husks, and the plants have decayed into discolorations. Claw marks on the door and a stain on the ground resembles a feather. Nothing else.

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