Necropolis, week 4: The Sump

22: Imperial Bridge
    A bridge of human bones, skulls clustered into posts on either end.
Creaky but stable.
    (!) Actually a centipede-like undead construct with a mass of skulls for both ‘head’ and ‘tail’. Dormant until the mausoleum is breached.

23: Imperial Mausoleum (exterior)
    Atop the spiral stair, at the very centre of the great cavern. Ringed by marble pillars shedding flakes of red paint and gold leaf; barred by bronze doors shaped like a mass of snarling gods; heaped with glazed urns and lacquered chests.
    (?) 9 lacquered chests/urns, each locked, with a 50% chance of rare item in each (silver coins, incense, silk, etc.), or just dust and rot. The 10th is a pot containing stardust.
    (?) Doors are locked from the outside with a heavy bronze latch.

24: Imperial Mausoleum (interior)
    Walls a forest scene in jet and gold leaf; dome a night sky of lapis lazuli studded with diamond stars. Floor of crimson marble littered with a score of skeletons, hands bound with rotting silk rope. Golden sarcophagus in the shape of a giant man with imperial robes, fillet and rod.
    (!) Lifting the weight of the casket lid makes something go ‘clunk’ below, causing a pot of stardust to fall from a hole in the ceiling.
    (!) The blackened, shrivelled corpse of the godly imperial sorcerer is undead, but held in place by iron pins inscribed with runes of binding and driven through bone and stone. He will bargain, wheedle, threaten, and beg for freedom.
    (?) The ceiling is at least 15 feet high and the gems will not come loose without some serious prying, but if the PCs do find some way of getting them down, they can grab 1d6x10 coins’ worth of gemstones per hour of work, -1 per additional hour.


New Area: West Quarter/The Sump

25: Overgrown Passage
    Dim light from bioluminescent slugs.
    A dank, damp tunnel, crowded with mad fungal growths and glowing molluscs.
    (!) Harmless, but difficult terrain for humans unless the fungi are cleared out.

26: Damp Tomb
    A beehive tomb with a portal overlooking the sump – water seeps in and puddles in the floor. The sarcophagus lid is shaped like a silk-ensconced noble with mask and fan.
    (!) The dart trap is broken; the casket is empty but for a suspicious, greasy puddle… A corrosive ooze.
    (??) The lid is ever so slightly ajar.

27: The Sump
    The floor of the great cavern. Black silty water up to your waist. Bone and stone shift underfoot.
    (!) Disturbing the water raises the alarm level. Skeletons rising from the water and the infant god rising from the shrine in the water roads are both options.
    (!) Drinking the water leads to parasite infection unless boiled.
    (!?) There is a short stair caved under the water, descending down into an underwater hall in the water roads. Under illumination, coins glitter at its base.
    (?) The stair to the imperial mausoleum starts here, but its base has crumbled away.

28: Velvet Worm Nest
    Still air. A reek of rot, and something musky. The floor is sticky with traces of acrid slime. A dark and writhing mass blocks the passage ahead.
    (!) Lair of the velvet worms, each 2-3 metres long, entangled in a sleeping mass that blocks the way.

Necropolis, Week 3: South Quarter & Imperial Tomb Entrance

I completely forgot to post this the other day! Better late than never.

15: Pottery Room 

 A square room cluttered with pots and amphorae. A sort of stone ladder with carved hand-holds leads 10’ up to another level.
    (?) The larger urns are open and empty, except for a few copper coins on one; the 6 smaller ones are sealed with wax and bear runes of warning on their lids.
    (!) The sealed pots contain stardust, a potent pharmacological agent that, when inhaled, causes disorientation and sickness (1 failed save) unconsciousness (2 failed saves) or death (3 failed saves).
    (!) Breaking a pot fills the room with golden stardust. When anyone falls into the room from the hall of coins, roll 1d6 for each poison pot in their path (all 6 begin in the path). Each 1 rolled means a poison pot breaks.

16: Skull Tholos

A beehive room tiled with human skulls. Their eye sockets glitter in the torchlight. A rune is carved into each forehead.
    (!) Blackdamp threat emanates from here.
    (!) A cursed place – magic and machines may malfunction; gems bring bad luck.
    (?) Each eye holds a polished moonstone worth 1 coin, cemented in place. Can be pried out, but it takes time.
    (??) The runes are all curses and accusations of treason.

17: False Tomb

A beehive tomb with a sarcophagus. The lid is carved in the form of an armoured warrior holding a sword. Their grotesque war mask has staring, coin-sized eyes. A dead end.
    (?) Sarcophagus is solid and cannot open. There is no trap.
    (?) Secret door to the bridge is unlocked by placing coins in the eyes of the sarcophagus.
    (??) The eyes of the lid are exactly the size of two copper coins.
    (??) Also, there is the faintest, door-shaped seam in the west wall, through which a damp draught can be felt.

18: Feast of the Dead

A broad hall with a high vaulted ceiling. A long marble table is laid out in the centre, piled with gold plate and painted pottery. 4 armoured figures wearing large swords and bronze masks stand with their backs to the walls.
    (!) Figures are skeleton warriors, waiting for intruders to meddle.
    (!) Disturbing the table by increasing or decreasing its weight in any way causes a heavy clunking sound, followed by the partial collapse of the roof. Anyone standing around the table must save vs. damage from falling masonry. A troupe of skeletons falls down after the stones to join the fight.
    (??) There is a slightly raised stone under each table leg, and some of the stones in the ceiling vault are loose and uneven.

19: Stair

Broad stone stair, descending to the west quarter. A faint, damp draught rises.

20: General’s Tomb

A duplicate of the false tomb (#17).
    A portal leads to a bone bridge that spans the sump, connecting to the emperor’s stair.
    (!) The sarcophagus has an armed poison trap, and is not empty; it contains an elite skeleton warrior in full panoply, wearing general’s insignia and holding a battle standard in the shape of a wolf’s head.
    (?) A bronze lever in the wall opens the secret door.

Area: Imperial Tomb

21: Emperor’s Stair

A broad stair made of solid stone slabs, rising in a tightening spiral. Exposed to the great cavern.
    (!) The section that leads down to the sump from the bridge has crumbled away, leading to a 20’ drop. Only a few slippery handholds remain.

Necropolis, Week 2: East Quarter

The door and trap hall, or the labyrinth?

8: Stone Stair

• A broad flight of stairs, reaching down 20’ into the East quarter from the North. Dry and silent.

9: Bridge

• A decrepit bridge of bone held together with loops of brass wire, spanning a dark and echoing space. A faint draught of damp air from below(?) 40’ above the sump.
• (?) The bridge grinds and creaks when disturbed.
• (!) The bridge is safe if people pass one at a time, but excessive loads may cause a collapse.

10: Carved Room

• A cavernous beehive room, stone walls and floor carved with winged people. A blackened metal door blocks one wall; a blood-blackened altar stone against the other. 6 great red urns cluster around the altar.
• (?) The urns are sealed with wax, stamped with runes of command.
• (!) Breaking the urns or desecrating the altar wakes the sword-wielding skeletons within.
• (?!) The door is unlocked. However, it is one-way: it opens outward, with resistance, and will close on its own. There is no handle on the other side.

11: Maze

• Desolate tangle of identical winding pathways.
• (!) Danger of fear and disorientation in the suffocating dark.

12: Sealed Room

• Heavy metal doors, barred from the outside by a bronze rod with a snarling mouth on either end.
• A plain stone tholos ringed by skeletons in foetal position. Bronze wire once bound their hands and feet. Beside each is a ruined bronze tool: mallet, pick, chisel, etc.
• A narrow stair leads down to the South Quarter.

13: Tomb with a View

• A tholos tomb overlooking the great chamber, identical to #6.
• (?) The skeleton wears imperishable robes of gold thread and spider silk, and holds a curved dagger with gold inlay, enamel, and pattern-welded bladed. Each is worth 100 coins.

14: Hall of Coins

• A broad passage of gleaming limestone. The floor is smooth and inclines steeply to the south. A mass of uncanny stone faces glares from the walls and ceiling.
• Halfway down, a scatter of copper coins.
• (!) The floor is polished and slippery. Characters who run or fall must save or slide down the hall, over the edge and 10’ down into the poison jar room in the South Quarter.
• (!) A large pressure plate (slightly depressed stone spanning almost to the wall) under the coins releases a torrent of coppes from the mouth of the face directly above. Anyone directly under the initial spill must save vs. damage; anyone walking on the copper-strewn path must save or slide down the hall.
• (??) A face directly above the scattered coins has a stone stopper in its yawning mouth.

Necropolis, Week 1: North Quarter

Catacombs under the city are an extremely prosaic theme for a dungeon level. A cliche, even. The idea here is to play it straight (it’s a big scary underground labyrinth full of skeletons), but make it interesting – solid level design, including some weird traps, ratcheting pressure, alternate paths, and a great big shiny treasure lying tantalisingly out of reach the whole time.

Silent, dark. Events are fuel use, panic/disorientation, and wandering skeletons (they simply rise from tombs or peel themselves off the walls).

Apparent trunk line leads past the pit, but the trap there may close the path. Alternate paths: down the pit, down from the tomb with a view, or through the horrors of the Midden.

1: Temple Stair

• A spiral stair and long hall of close-fitted stone.
• (?) Links to the temple arcade in the city.
  

2: Pit

• A winding stone corridor, featureless aside from the black pit in the floor. On the West side of the pit, the corridor turns aside from a giant stone death’s head carved in the wall.
• (!) The pit blocks the path, 10’ long and 60’ deep, ending in the chest-deep water of the sump.
• (!) Stepping on the pressure plate flagstones past the West edge triggers the moving wall (death’s head), which shifts quickly forward until it is flush with the edge of the pit.
• (??) Uneven flagstones on the Western side of the corridor.

3: Path of Bones

• The walls of this deep, winding tunnel are made of human bones.
• (??) There is the faintest breeze moving toward 1: Temple Stair.

4: Looted Tholos Tomb

• A beehive-shaped tomb of fitted stone, 20’ high at its peak. In the centre is a raised limestone sarcophagus. The open lid is shaped like a youth in silken finery.
• (?) Inside is nothing but bones.
• (?) Small brass darts scattered about the room’s edge. The tips are smeared black (with a crippling blood poison, adder’s kiss).
• (??) Sarcophagus base is ringed by little holes.

5: Dead End

• The desiccated remains of a person, huddled foetal against the dead-end wall.
• (?) No signs of injury. Rotted clothes, 1 coin, and a dagger.

6: Tomb with a View

• Another beehive tomb with sarcophagus as per #4.  An open portal looks over the Prince’s Tower of the Central Tholos, with its jade sarcophagus and golden urns.
• (!) Dart trap is armed. Until the venom is neutralised, a wound weeps black ooze and the affected area begins to rot.
  
• (?) Corpse has a golden torc and a fine sword with sapphires in its hilt (100 coins each).
• (?) The sump is 60 feet below.

7: Bone Stair

• A narrow stair made of human femurs, leading up to the Midden. A faint but hideous smell of rot and burnt flesh drifts from the opening.

dungeon23: new month, new system

So, I managed to actually get through my first month. Lessons:

(1) The implied 7-room themes of Sean McCoy's original post don't really work for me. Henceforth, I'll be dividing levels into little 'area' subunits based on my own needs, rather than an arbitrary schema.

(2) I missed a bunch of days for various reasons, but when circumstances permitted, the system did actually work. Jotting down a room with coffee in the morning every day is a good routine for me.

(3) Actually blogging every day is a bit messy, especially since I usually tweak something the next day. Henceforth, I'll be making notes every day, and posting weekly progress.

See you in a week for the first 7 rooms of an old-fashioned necropolis, Level -1 (yes, they go both ways).