Dungeon Notes

UPDATE: See the following for more detailed writeups, maps etc. 

• Part One, The Surface
• Set Piece: The Mimic Hell
• The Dungeon: Levels 1 + 2
• Bestiary: The Underworld
• The Dungeon: Level 3
• Set Piece: Ape Monastery
• The Underworld: 3 Locations
• The Tombs of the Maze Builders
• CHAOS ITSELF
• Set Piece: The Reverse Needle
• Bestiary: The Deep, Hot Biosphere

What follows are a set of extremely rough notes on a dungeon for the Barony setting that I've recently started putting together. I am planning on compiling a bestiary and a lore/fiction document to go with the slim set of player rules already completed, and thought that a dungeon would be a nice way to cap all of that off. 

I have been fascinated recently with the idea of 'ultracore' content - things that are close to archetypal in a dnd setting. With this is mind (and because I was rereading Keep on the Borderlands recently) I thought that trying to write up a descent into a dungeon/underworld/hellscape would be fun and appropriate. Also, I am a Moorcock fan and wanted to have a go at establishing my own Law/Chaos dichotomy in-setting, next to the God/Future Hell Demons axis of conflict, and in what follows (hopefully) one bleeds into the other.  

I would like to make all of this actually useable soon. To start with though, notes:

The Surface

- A tower prison with a sprawling subterranean dungeon. It was used by King Mag, a regional noble obsessed with the occult, to capture and interrogate demons.

- The site is controlled by two Baronial Agents and a levy of fifteen or so local deputies. They are warning people against entering, but will not stop anyone who is determined to do so - they know what adventurers are like. If the party show obvious intent to travel into the complex, they will ask them to watch for any members of the Starlings, a mercenary band who ventured in about four days ago under contract to destroy the demons therein, and have not been heard from since. The captain of the Starlings was a well-known Saint of the Church, who carried holy relics, and considered the cleansing a holy mission. The Starlings (there were 16 of them) travelled with a heavily armoured war wagon, which is parked outside the site. 

- In the top of the tower is a library that used to owned by King Mag, which is under guard and which the BAs and levy will not allow the players to see (BAs have standing orders not to allow any works on magic into the hands of the public). If they do manage to get in and have a look around, they will see that it is a reference library on demons and demon lore. There is enough knowledge here about the Hating Engines, the Material Hell, and travel from the future, that there is a chance that reading it all will put the character at risk of visits from assassin and even returner demons. 

- Also under guard in the library are the physical remains of King Mag, along with a lamp whose strange, harsh white light shows invisible things. Mag has been made into a stuffed fabric puppet, with the original larynx, brain stem, lungs, and tongue still inside. These remains are animate, and make horrible slurping noises. The puppet is otherwise inanimate. 

- There are undead pilgrims who come through the site every now and then. They have told the BAs that there is a holy place at the bottom of the prison (for a long time it was Mag who allowed them access to it), and will not be dissuaded from entering. 

- If the PCs really look like they're going to head down, the BAs will provide them with the prisoner manifest from the prison - 3 demons (one is called Misery, the others do not have recorded names), 15 Chaos Eaters, 42 Dimensional Vermin. There were also 20 or so human prisoners in Mag's dungeons whose fates are uncertain. 

    NOTE - the players won't know this but this dungeon does not repopulate until further in. Mark each kill made in the Dungeon level against the total number listed in the prisoner manifest. After they are all killed, they can no longer be encountered randomly. d6+2 Dimensional Vermin and d6 prisoners have already been killed. 10 of the Starlings have been killed. 

Rumours. The BAs are professionals and won't give out information that is not verified, but the levy with them are not. If you get talking with them they will have heard the following rumours.

• There is a Mimic Hell somewhere below. All adventurers have heard of Mimic Hells and fear them. 
• All of the Starlings are dead or possessed by demons.
• At the lowest level of the dungeon is a gateway to hell.
• A racket of thieves operates from the upper levels. 
• There is a second entrance to the dungeon, hidden somewhere nearby.
• The things that haunt the corridors below are invisible and intangible.  
• King Mag's undead body can be found the caverns below, a pilgrim like the others.

- (could probably get rid of this, there's already a lot going on) Unbeknownst to anyone, there are also four Chemical Courtesans hidden in the region. They want King Mags library, but would prefer to get it without violence if possible. They will wait three days for the BAs to move on, and then if they don't they will poison their supplies. If the site is still inhabited a day after this, they will attempt to slaughter everyone and leave with the books. 

Dungeon (5 levels)

- Evidence of the Starlings fighting the things in the dungeon. Corpses of both sides are strewn about. The bodies of the Starlings look well equipped. The bodies of their enemies are invisible - if they are investigated by touch they will be found to be humanoid. 

- One of the demons that escaped from Mag's prison has built itself a Mimic Hell on this level. The hell is built with crude timber and other materials into several large stone rooms. Think SAW traps in a badly constructed rats nest timber maze - cheap walls, you can easily knock them down or put a fist through them. Lit by red lanterns, and strewn with the remains of more Starlings. The demon Misery sits at the centre screaming and laughing, and two Chaos Eaters patrol the maze. 

- A band of thieves (7 or so people) also live on this level, and have been convinced by the demon to lead adventurers (and the Starlings) into its trap. They then loot the bodies. They have a secret exit/entrance into the dungeon, and the BAs above don't know about them. There is a flooded tunnel that leads up the surface - too long for most people to swim, but the thieves have installed a chain that use can use to pull yourself along. A scary thing to do but pretty reliable. They know not to venture down into the lower levels (to avoid the Chaos Eaters and Dimensional Vermin). 

- There is a room where three Starlings have barricaded their position against the thieves, and the roaming Chaos Eaters. If the players help them to the surface the BAs will give them a small reward. The Starlings will say that their captain has been possessed by a demon, and has run further into the prison. They will offer a reward if the players can bring their captain back alive.

- There are five escaped Chaos Eaters on this level, two in the mimic hell and three roaming the halls. They look like gigantic centipede-coded vermin and can instinctively control probability. They're not a specific species, they're a swarm of different worm-like, biting things. There will be physiological differences. 

- There are also many Dimensional Vermin in the level; they are invisible humanoids with commoner stats.

- There are two entrances to the underworld on this level, one natural and one artificial. The artificial one is a crack in the earth, and the natural one is a long, carved stair. The stair is carved with a warning (maybe a magic mouth? classic?) - 'fool! abandon hope of return!'. The crack in the earth is diseased. Both take around 10 hours of walking to get to the bottom of. 

    QUICK STATS

    CHAOS EATER: Huge (maybe 10 feet long) centipede vermin. Moves as a horse, armour as chain, 4HD, attacks for d10. When they hit you with an attack, your d20 rolls of 20 count as 10 for the rest of the combat. This effect stacks (so results of 20, 19, 18 and so on, different Chaos Eaters still stack), but only lasts for the combat. 

    DIMENSIONAL VERMIN: Stats as commoners, but with permanent invisibility. Scary to fight but not very tough. If you can see them they look like weird bright red, oily humanoids with staring eyes are long fingernails and teeth. The Hating Machines seed them through the timeline like equipment, to be made use of as terror weapons by their demon soldiers. They are mostly mindless. 

    MISERY: Misery has had the thieves who inhabit the upper levels build it a large puppet body of rags and wood. It prefers not to engage in combat, but if it does it has 4HD, defence as leather, and attacks twice for d6 with a long, sharpened iron needle. 

    THIEVES: Will need writing up as individuals. Most are basic bandits. 

    PRISONERS: Not all are dangerous, roll disposition when you encounter them. Hostile prisoners will be insane and will fight to the death with whatever they have picked up. 

This is basically your random encounter generator for the dungeon. 

Underworld (5 levels)

- The underworld is a series of natural caverns of living rock. The only natural light is bioluminescence, which is very rare - mostly pitch black. If you don't have light you're fucked. There is an ecosystem here, with flora, herbivores, and predators.

- Sections of the underworld will be diseased. Each room has a 1 in 10 chance of being diseased, rolled each time the PCs return here. The Monastery of the White Apes is always clean. 

- There are two NPC populations down here. One is of White Apes, the other is of Cuckoos. Cuckoos are known to be associated with the fall of the Old Kingdom. 

- The apes have a monastery here, where the largest and oldest of them meditate next to a naturally forming lake of petroleum. Their section of the underground is better lit, with phosphorescence and perhaps torches - White Apes have good low-light vision but cannot see in pitch blackness. They have a large jagged piece of flint onto which they execute and mercy kill people. Nothing sacrificed in this way will ever be raised again. There are a few zombies down here meditating with them, in advance of their truly final death - King Mag's body is among them, and can tell the story of the tower if spoken to. 

- There is one White Ape meditating who is way, way bigger than the others (like 15 feet tall, where even the biggest others are like 7 or 8 feet). This creature cannot be roused, not even by cutting into it. 

- Cuckoos are obviously unnatural creatures. They will surround the party and slowly start to take on their features and abilities over about 24 hours. Their 'natural' form is thin, paper white humans with no genitalia, with very large dark eyes and small, sharp teeth. While making the transformation they will also attempt to mimic the voice. If they are attacked, they will fight back in a swarm, with fists and teeth. There are various tribes of them in the Underworld. They really don't like light (it blinds them), but there are lots of them. If they are dissected (or killed by violence), the PCs will find that their internal organs are black and smell of petrol. They 'eat' petroleum, and usually cluster by rivers of the stuff. They breed by vomiting up a clutch of eggs, and are short lived (one or two years).

- There are Serpent Man tomb complexes on this level, carved into the rock (the stairway down is of Serpent make). Many are guarded by Serpent Thanes, buried alive with their mummified nobility. Serpent People are, like White Apes, biologically immortal, and they will defend their tombs. They are armed with ancient bronze armour and archaic weapons. Serpent people are large and strong, around 8 foot tall. The cuckoos were originally engineered by the serpents as infiltrators in ages past - the ones that remain down here are a degenerate, wild population of that original war-species. 

- One Thane was buried with his mate, who was stationed with him as a guard, but who long ago left his post and descended down the well into Chaos.

- The two final missing Starlings are down here with a pack of cuckoos who look exactly like them, but naked. The first unnamed demon is puppeting one of them (friendly, laughing, weirdly aggressive), and the other is almost catatonic with trauma and stress. The cuckoos will be protective of them. If you rescue the catatonic one, she will revive and tell you that the captain has ventured further in, possessed by a demon. 

- There are 10 Chaos Eaters left down here, and also 4 Law Eaters who have come up from below (giant praying mantises, or maybe giant blowflies?) Law Eaters are intelligent, and one of them is a soldier, armed with a sentient Chaos Blade and heavy, iridescent metal armour. They have come to hunt the Chaos Eaters, and will retreat back down into the earth when they are satisfied that they have all been destroyed. They are highly intelligent and will generally hunt as a unit. Against one or two Chaos Eaters they will usually win. Need stats. 

Chaos Blade: single piece of heavy iridescent metal that makes a strange ring if you hit it. 'Buds' of barbed metal studded at intervals down its blade. These flower off themselves in fractal patterns and are wickedly sharp. You use it like a Macuahuitl - it's a heavy club with ripping edges. Requires 14 STR to wield, +1 longsword, also gives +1 damage if used in two hands. It is sentient (barely), and remember God's pogroms against the core with terror and hatred. It counts as a +3/+3 weapon against angels and demons and screams as it slays them. 

- The White Apes have an altar with a circular pit that descends down into Chaos itself. They generally will not allow people to descend, unless the Law Eaters tell them to do so. The White Apes are not soldiers, not guarding the pit, and not especially vigilant. 

- If the players descend into Chaos, it will take them a day of climbing to reach the bottom of the shaft. There are handholds, but the climb will be arduous for humans (climbing gear and ropes will be needed to attempt this). The inscription at the rim reads 'none go unchanged' in the script of the white apes. 

Random Encounters: 

- White Apes

- Cuckoos

- Hunting Fauna (Hunter Maggots (scavengers), Brightmoths (predators), savage White Apes)

- Zombie Pilgrims (once)

- Chaos Eaters

- Law Eaters

UNDER CONSTRUCTION Chaos Itself 

- This section of chaos is made up of round tunnels bored into solid iron. The walls are oxidised and smell of blood. Sometimes they are honeycombed with pockets and indentations. They are bored with a spiral pattern, which, if examined, show the same fractal patterning as the edge of the Chaos Blade. In some section they glow red hot, and many parts of the honeycomb structure are infected with disease. In several places to the tunnels open up onto a wide openness of fire, plasma, fuel, and other high energy matter. The feeling is something like being inside a combustion engine.  

- This entire area is completely inimical to humans. They cannot survive here for any length of time. Each day you spend here you must make a CON save or suffer an insanity (maybe a list of chaos insanities?). After CON days the body will begin to die from exposure to the energies that flood this place. Each failed CON save after this will: a) strip 1 max HP from your character, and b) force a roll on the D+D table in addition to the normal insanity roll. White Apes are not humans, and can survive here as well as on the surface. 

- Hanging above this emptiness, accessible via the large dark metal chains that hold them in position, are several structures. They are also chained to one another, providing tenuous access. 

- The first is a large temple complex where the Law Eaters live. It is well stocked with valuable loot, and its floorplan shifts and changes. The Law Eaters are not hostile, although any character caught talking to God, and angel, or a demon will be attacked with intent to kill. Any diseased character will be killed from range. Their captains will speak Enochian badly, and they will teach you some Primordial (their language) if you stay peacefully for a month or two. There is nothing humans can eat in the monastery.

- The second is an elaborate iron mechanism/building of unclear purpose. The Law Eaters will tell you that it is the tomb of a soldier. If it is investigated (this is very difficult, as the mechanisms are working - it would be like crawling through a working mill), the tortured and restrained (but still living) body of one of God's crusader dragons will be found at its heart. The Dragon's limbs are smashed and it is gagged to prevent it from using the word or the breath. It is still wearing the Regalia of Heaven. 

- Further down still is something like a matter siphon or transfer that drops down into the boiling sea of high energy matter. It is made entirely from a strange white alloy that does not conduct any heat. The mechanism is completely infected with the Anathema, and hums audibly. Close inspection will reveal that there are also biological, muscle-like components mixed through the construction.

- The Captain of the Starlings is down here, with his Sword of Law. He has collapsed, and stares into the circular eye tube that drops into the white heat of the high energy matter. He makes no attempt to communicate, and if inspected will be found to be muttering feverish prayers to God. He was possessed by an Angel, not a demon, and this being rashly decided to use the Captain's body to launch an assault on Chaos, without really understanding what that meant. If you can escort it back to the surface (you will need to smuggle it somehow past the Law Eaters), the angel will leave the body of the Captain, who will survive the process, remembering everything. 

- The Captain is completely broken. He will give you his sword and armour and take a vow of silence, which will only last as long as it take for him to die of the Anathema. The angel will die the same way. 

- Anything that passes down the matter tube into the high energy materials will be annihilated without appropriate protective gear. Those WITH protective gear will find things elaborated on in a future post.