Stocking the Dungeon with a Newb, Part 2

Welcome to the second part in a series of posts in which I - a neophyte GM - explore the arcane and enigmatic art of dungeon-stocking. In our first post, we introduced our canvas: this sprawling underworld from Dyson Logos.¹ We then counted all the rooms and assigned them rough room-type designations (i.e., monster with treasure, special, etc.). We finished up by sketching out a rough dungeon 'narrative' and keying the first seven rooms, with a focus on thematic connectivity and utility at the table.

In this post, I'll present the finished key for the next 10-or-so rooms in largely the same manner. However, in order to make the keying process slightly more transparent, I will include in each room description the room-type designation originally prescribed to it. If I decided to change this label during the process, I will include both the new label and the old.

The Lesser Barrows

This section of the Catacombs - comprising rooms 8 through 17 - serves as both a gallery of imperial propaganda and a tomb for lesser nobility. The wide corridors are lined with bas-reliefs depicting conquests and secular achievements. The numerous alcoves bear vertical stone sarcophagi, engraved with flattering depictions of various military leaders and high-ranking members of the clergy.

Rooms 8 - 12

8. Exploding corpse trap (special). Smell of rot. Echoes of dripping water. A gleaming crystal bull skull (500gp) sits on a stone pedestal in the central alcove, flanked by two doors of thick iron. If removed (or if any additional weight is placed upon the pedestal), an iron portcullis will fall on the northern stairwell, and the iron doors will open, revealing 1d6+1 Corpse Bombs per side. 

Corpse Bomb: HD 1-1, AC 9 [10], Claw (1d4), Mv 6, Sv 18, AL C, CL 1/15, Special: When reduced to 0 HP, the Corpse Bomb will violently explode. Anyone (including other Corpse Bombs) must save or take 1d6 damage as they're showered in putrid, concussive viscera.

9. Unfinished tomb (monster, no treasure empty). Smell of damp. Sound of dripping water. The walls and central pillar are lined with unused coffins and stacks of cut stone. Rain water trickles into this room through cracks in the ceiling, pooling and slowly draining into the secret passageway. With the right equipment, a party can break through the sealed-up masonry here in 3 turns (roll for random encounters).

10. False tomb (trap, no treasure). Smell of mold. Stagnant air. An unadorned stone sarcophagus sits in the center of this room, within which are only the mummified remains of a nameless slave. The floor is covered in several inches of stagnant rain water draining in from room 9; every other surface in the room is coated in condensation. A Grey Ooze clings to the slick cover of the sarcophagus.

11. Tomb of the bastard (unguarded treasure). Air thick with dust. This is the burial chamber of one of the Sorcerer-King's illegitimate male heirs. Burial gifts include a clay urn containing 7 tiger eye gemstones (10gp each), 3 black pottery vases depicting mythological vignettes in gold leaf (50gp each) and a marble bust of the heir himself atop a gold-trimmed plinth (450gp). The heir was also entombed with 1pp over each eye. A small but obvious tunnel connects this chamber to the Corpse Bomb cell in room 8.

12. Embalming room (empty). Smell of chemicals, faded but still stinging. A number of stone slabs populate this room, marred with ruddy brown stains. The floor is littered with empty jars and ancient trocars.

A. Graffiti. A mural depicting the Sorcerer-King in golden plate has been vandalized; his eyes have been painted over with ruddy brown pigment, the phrase "Trust not your eyes, for they are blind" written beneath them.

13. Dead adventurers (trap, no treasure, empty). Smell of ammonia and corpses. This room is largely identical to room 8 in its layout and function. The central pedestal is empty, and the two iron doors hang open. The room is decorated in dried putrescence, and six dead adventurers lie on the stone.

Rooms 13 - 17

14. Rynn's lair (monster, treasure). Smell of mold and infection. This is the chamber of Discordant Rynn, one of the Sorcerer-King's 13 deathless minotaurs. Rynn suffers from advanced stages of dementia, and has found comfort in these long millennia by surrounding himself with blankets of Yellow Mold. What remains of his immortal flesh drips with purple sores and boils.

Discordant Rynn: HD 6, AC 6 [13], Atk 2 Claws (1d4 + 1), Mv 6, Sv 14, AL C, CL/XP 7/600, Special: Acidic Pustules - whenever struck, there is a chance (% = damage times 10) that the attacker will rupture one of Rynn's many sores. The resulting splatter possesses the corrosive properties of a Grey Ooze.

A large, rotted wooden chest sits against the eastern wall, covered in mounds of Yellow Mold. Within the chest are 1112gp, 851sp, 2156cp and an intelligent longsword +1 named Discharge. The sword grants its bearer the ability to assume the form of a man-sized eukaryotic jelly twice per day. Discharge longs to be corroded; the sword automatically fails any save against acidic or corrosive effects that target metal. Also hidden at the bottom of the chest is a small watertight scroll case of tanned leather, containing the deed to Thurstaston Silver Mine; it will not survive a fire.

15. Laboratory (empty monster, no treasure). Smell of chemicals. Uncomfortably warm. Stone slabs dot the room, and most walls are lined with shelves and bookcases. Every surface is cluttered with jars of pickled organic matter. The wall separating rooms 15 and 16 is illusory; any physical contact ends the effect and reveals the secret room.

A colony of 4d6 Giant Rats makes its home within the drainage system beneath the stone floor here. 1d6 + 1 rats lurk here at any given time, with an ongoing 50% chance of 1d6 additional rats arriving every two combat rounds (or every turn).

Giant Rat: HD 1d4hp, AC 7 [12], Atk 1 bite (1d3), Mv 12, Sv 18, AL N, CL/XP A/5, Special: 5% are diseased.

16. Secret library (unguarded treasure). Filled with well-preserved and neatly organized vellum scrolls. Many are scientific reports documenting the creation of and experimentation with various forms of undead (including the Corpse Bombs), while others are highly decorative religious texts complete with gold-leaf illumination (50gp worth, if scraped).

Also here are a scroll of light, a scroll of wizard lock, and a large leather-bound spell tome bearing the title A Treatise on the Place of Magic in Empirical Research. Amongst its waxing essays, the book contains the spells hold portal, knock and magic mouth; any magic-user user may use this artifact as her spell book. While doing so, there is a 5% chance (non-cumulative) that any spell cast by the magic-user will not expend a spell slot, so long as the magic-user's list of prepared spells has remained unchanged for longer than 24 hours.

17. Stassi's oasis (special). Smell of salt and sea. Sound of rolling ocean waves. This room has been enchanted by the satyr Stassi to appear as an idyllic island paradise. Tropical vegetation sparsely populates a floor of white sand. A hot sun sits permanently in a cloudless sky. Despite all this, the melancholy Stassi longs only to be reunited with his true love, Priscilla, who has become lost somewhere within the catacombs. Stassi promises wealth beyond measure in exchange for the PC's help.

Stassi keeps a large clam shell buried beneath a non-descript section of sand, within which are 19 pink pearls (100gp each) and a ring of magic resistance (+5 to save vs. magic). Also burrowed beneath the sand are 4 loyal Giant Centipedes.

Stassi: HD 3, AC 12, Atk Weapon (1d6 - 1), Mv 12, Sv 14, AL N, CL 5/240, Spells:purify water, cure light wounds, read languages (3/day), obscuring mists, heat metal (2/day), cure disease (1/day).

Giant Centipede: HD 2, AC 14, Atk Bite (1d8 + poison), Mv 12, Sv 16, AL N, CL 4/120, Special: poison bite (+6 save or die).

B. This tall stone door is reinforced with brass straps and engraved with imagery of a skeletal minotaur with four arms. It is barred from the south side.

Concluding Remarks

This was a long post, and we've covered a lot of ground. Whether or not that ground is any fun to walk across is another matter.

First, let's step back and see what we've done so far...

Entranceway & Lesser Barrows

Obviously, there are sections of the full map that we haven't keyed yet. Rooms 18+ are next on the docket, and will lead us back into the wide sewage tunnel. I have no idea what's going to be in room 66, despite the fact that my players could well get through door B with the knock spell in room 16.

There was quite a bit of label-swapping this time. The trap originally written into room 13 (a hive of flesh-eating insects in the gut of one dead adventurer) felt slightly too stressful when viewing the final map and tracking potential routes of progress. Likewise, the laboratory felt too empty, hence the hive of trope-appropriate giant rats.

We've also met two NPCs, one of which is our first of the 13 eponymous minotaurs. As a self-described dungeon slime/gelatine enthusiast, I'm a big big fan of Discordant Rynn. But who knows, he may just get fireballed.

Also, I have no idea who Priscilla is...

Thus far, dungeon-stocking is an energetic yet tedious exercise in not knowing what the hell is going on. Until you do.

Stocking the Dungeon with a Newb, Part 1

Welcome, all!

Thus marks our first post on Sol Invictus Games, a space where I plan to compile and publish random thoughts, ramblings, and occasionally useable material that may or may not be of interest to D&D enthusiasts and the old-school gaming community.

Simultaneously, this post marks the first of a series that will explore dungeon stocking techniques and "best practices" through the lens of a naive, fledgling GM. Which I am.

halp...

As the name might suggest, the dungeon is a fundamental constituent of the D&D experience. It is the mythic underworld. A cursory Google search will reveal dozens of unfathomably large dungeons that have no doubt supported years of campaign play. Wiser minds than my own have written a great deal on how to fill it with things.

This series will not be an attempt to reinvent the wheel, but rather will be a vehicle to preserve the notes and remarks of a fresh-faced referee attempting to fill his first dungeon "by-the-book". The "book" in question will be the free and fabulous Swords & Wizardry SRD. To determine room type and contents, I'll be using a method detailed in this excellent blog post by Patrick Wetmore. And because I skew toward masochism, the map to be stocked will be this behemoth from Dyson Logos.¹

Without further adieu, let's begin...

...with some math.

Counting the Rooms

In total, I counted 134 individual rooms or areas which I thought should be keyed with some sort of encounter, description or feature. As per Patrick's post, this number should be split up amongst the following categories: (i) monster with treasure, (ii) monster without treasure, (iii) trap with treasure, (iv) trap without treasure, (v) special, (vi) unguarded treasure, and (vii) empty.

Following Patrick's distribution (itself derived from the B/X rules set), we get the following recommended frequencies:

• Monster with treasure: 22-23
• Monster without treasure: 22-23
• Trap with treasure: 7-8
• Trap without treasure: 14-15
• Special: 22-23
• Unguarded treasure: 14-15
• Empty: 37-38

I then went along Dyson's map room-by-room and marked preliminary labels according to what I thought they could be. In practice, since I'm not terribly experienced in creating traps and tricks, I ended up with a lot of unused "special" rooms toward the end. I guess I wasn't entirely sure what to do with these at first. These were subsequently redistributed amongst earlier rooms, replacing existing labels where seemed appropriate. 

Since this initial pass, many of these labels have changed, either because they didn't make any sense or because I thought changing the layout would improve pacing or general play experience. Depending on how drastically different the final room-type distribution looks, I may skip this step in future.

Keying on Theme

Once the rooms have been allocated in this abstract manner, it's time to start putting actual things into them.

But where do we start?

Dyson calls this map The Catacombs of the Flayed Minotaurs, and I believe this title is evocative enough to inspire some semblance of thematic or narrative thread throughout the keying process. For now, I'm working with a fast and loose history involving a god-like Sorcerer-King, his favorite 13 bulls, the creation of the first minotaurs, and their subsequent immortal bondage to the Sorcerer-King's burial halls.

In terms of concrete gameplay elements, I am aiming to prioritize the role of factions and inter-factional conflict within the dungeon. Since my players are also new to this hobby, I also want to introduce the tenets of old-school play - player skill, deadly encounters, etc. - in as organic/unobtrusive manner as is possible. For this, I'll be looking at the excellent Tomb of the Serpent Kings for pointers.

The First Six Seven Rooms

To make my life a little bit easier, I randomly chose one of the many possible entrances to the dungeon, popped the full map into gimp, cropped it to a manageable chunk and numbered each location that should have a key.

I even played around with gimp's blur filter
to avoid actual writing

1. Water tunnel. Smell of sewage and blood. The current is slow and moves from south the north. Two crocodiles lurk in the brown, opaque waters; there is a 4-in-6 chance that the crocodiles will surprise any PC that ventures through the waist-deep mire. At the bottom of the pool, at the far end, is a small rotted chest containing 189gp, 476sp, 340cp and two cloudy blue gemstones (10gp each).

Crocodile: HD 2, AC 4 [15], Atk 1 bite (1d6), Mv 9 (Swim 12), Sv 14, AL N, CL/XP 3/60

2. Entrance chamber. A cold draft from under the eastern door. A scratched and tarnished mural covers the northern wall, depicting the olive-skinned Sorcerer-King atop a golden palanquin, pulled by 13 magnificent golden bulls. A trail of day-old blood leads from the stairwell to the door opposite. A successful Listen at Doors check will reveal hushed voices speaking common on the other side.

3. Abandoned mess hall. Smell of sulfur. Rotted or splintered wooden stools and tables furnish this otherwise spartan mess hall. The remnants of a small stone hearth adorn the north wall. 5 bandits are currently resting in this room, along with the corpse of a sixth who lost his leg to the crocodiles in room 1.

Bandit: HD 1, AC 7 [12], Atk 1 weapon (1d8), Mv 12, Sv 17, AL C, CL/XP 1/15

4. Sacked servant's quarters. Open, broken down door. Cluttered with vermin-infested bedrolls and splintered furniture, along with the ancient bones of roughly 6 slaves. A stone carving of the Sorcerer-King is enshrined along the west wall. The shrine itself has been broken open, revealing an empty, hollow chamber.

5. Servant's quarters. Mirror image of room 4. The shrine in this room is still intact. Breaking into the hidden chamber will release a mild hallucinogenic toxin (save vs. poison or gain -2 penalty to hit for 1d6+6 turns). Within the chamber are the long-decayed and almost unidentifiable corpses of a small hive of moon slugs. Also within are 56sp and a carving of a sphinx in onyx (75gp).

6. Prayer room. Faint smell of incense. Two ghouls are currently gorging on the slightly dismembered body of a goblin, who is paralyzed but still alive. At the far end of the room rests a large stone altar, atop of which are 2 silver chalices (50gp each). The altar itself is draped in a translucent holy shawl of purest ivory (Cloak of Protection +1, +2 vs. Undead).

Ghoul: HD 2, AC 6 [13], Atk 2 claws (1d3) 1 bite (1d4), Mv 9, Sv 16, AL C, CL/XP 3/60, Special: Immunities, paralyzing touch

7. Hall of murals. Smell of stagnant water. Echoes of distant dripping. Both walls in this corridor are covered in ornate mural. The north wall depicts the Sorcerer-King bestowing his 13 bulls with the power to stand. The south wall depicts the 13 bulls bearing a black pyramid upon their shoulders.

Final thoughts

That's it! In the end I've got what I hope will serve as the jumping off point for an enjoyable and educational dungeon adventure (if not campaign). Stats were pulled straight from the SRD, and treasure was determined semi-randomly. It's fairly linear (unless they somehow make it past the crocs), but will begin to open up shortly, I'm sure. I'll also have to remember to work that poor goblin into one of the factions that I'll inevitably create.

A few trouble spots: I'm not terribly confident about my treasure placement. I can't tell if I've put enough or if I've put too much. I suppose that'll be something that can be adjusted as the level comes together, and the total treasure gets tallied up (because of course I'm tallying up the treasure as I go). Also, I need to figure out what moon slugs are and why they produce a hallucinogenic effect when they decay.

As a final thought, I just want to say thank you, dear reader. I hope you enjoyed this meandering beginning to what will be a long and ongoing process here. Please bear with me as I update the site's layout and aesthetic.

Keep an eye out for Part 2, and feel free to comment below with things I could have done better, and/or things I should keep in mind as I continue.

¹ The Catacombs of the Flayed Minotaurs, © 2019, Dyson Logos, is used here in good faith under the creator's non-commercial license.