Dungeon Patches - Week 1
Over on Rise Up Comus, there's a theory of elemental dungeon design. Very interesting, very cool. You know, I’m something of a Dungeon Patcher myself!
A megadungeon is like a good modular synth, a lot of modules and patch leads everywhere. Lots of connections.
So, here's what i have guiding me:
Burial Site for Opulent Merchants
Entrance in a Well, Entryway made of Obsidian
Crumbling from it's Long Term Abandonment
(Courtesy of Cairn 2e)
The Silken Ties are the Tomb and Personal vault complex of the Ancient Merchant Families, the Heartseekers (a branch family would later marry off to become the Heartsbane family.) The patriarch was a believer in Monetapotisim, the literal idea that having more possessions made you physically stronger.
The Vaults of The Beloved
W1-01 - Vaults of The Beloved
Locked By Mechanism
A Tall circular room painted to look of glimmering gold. Windows line the upper half, revealing corridors to places undiscovered. Vast Piles of treasures still live in the central vault, too large and odd to effectively make quick cash off of. There is a Nest of some fine silks in the centre of the room, belonging to a beast of some prodigious size. The whole room smells of metals.
- Windows: Indestructible from force and most spells a spellcaster might be able to bring to bare.
- Special Beasts, or Some Magical Treasures can break the windows
- Treasure Piles: Impossible to Carry it all. 10,000 Gold Pieces. Another 10,000 in fine art (Most requiring four hands) and gems (Bulky). Touching even a coin of it immediately draws the ire of the dragon.
- If the Guild wants to steal from the dragon, start a Challenge Phase (or Initiative) and go PC by PC. Ask what they're picking up or gathering and how. Adjudicate speed based on method. At the end of the first round, the Dragon appears (assuming no measures have been taken).
- Nest: It's lined with opulent silks and golden scales, glittering and shiny.
- The scales flake apart at the slightest touch once disconnected from their source.
- This is, of course, the place that Cardacia the dragon calls it's home.
W1-02 - Upper Hall
An empty corridor, threading around the length of the hall. Windows line the hallway, peering into a vast vault below. The floor is made of thick slabbed stone.
- Windows: Indestructible from force and most spells a spellcaster might be able to bring to bare.
- Special Beasts, or Some Magical Treasures can break the windows
W1-03 - Lantern of the Profit
A Square room with benches scattered around. It is quiet here, and there is a massive lantern made of stone on a dais in the centre of the room. It smells of fresh air in here, but there's no evidence of a draft.
- Massive Lantern: A Gigantic stone lantern on a dais. There is a slot the size of roughly a large coin. A plaque on the centre in a dead tongue reads "Show your profit to light the way.".
- When a coin is inserted the room becomes bright, as if a light source was in the top of the room.
W1-04 - The Vault Entrance
A large room with statues depicting the merchant princes of the tomb. There are Large Clawmarks on the side of the walls, crossing one of them out. A Steel Door with bars in front of it
- Large Clawmarks: Belong to a massive beast, definitely flying and not clinging.
- Steel Door: The steel door is barred and will not open from here. The door is locked by a Mechanism of some description
- Mechanism: It may be elsewhere on this floor, or it may be on another floor.
W1-05 - Money Sink
Piles and Piles of Gold Coins! They fill the rooms in amounts unseen to even the most adventurous eyes. The pile is concave, with all the coins dipping towards a central depression in the centre of the room.
- Gold Coins: All are fake, they're melded into one big pile and are some form of treated stone. Not even worth scraping off the walls.
- There's a few real ones on the depression though.
- Depression: A Pit trap that leads to a long fall - see you on another floor. There should be something to break that fall...
- It collapses when a single person's weight is put on it, the floors of the room sloping to trip up others in the room.
NPC
Cardacia, Ascended Patriarch
Stats as Dragon
Woe, for the patron of the Heartseeker clan has ascended to his terrible and powerful form! A Golden Elemental of Fiscal Power! Speaks in a low and sorcerous voice.
- Likes: Gold, His Horde, Discussing Art (of any variety).
- Hates: Thieves, "Lazy" People, People who insist there is no deeper meaning to art.
- Wants: New Interesting Treasure, Frozen Meat.