Under the Volcano

A horrific legend, about to impose its terrible truth upon a frightened people

Three comrades on a desperate mission to right an injury that calls out for justice

A glowering idol full of dark intent and cruel machinations

A deed of bravery that lives on to inspire in song and story

Bookworm Dungeon

"Explain to me why we're on this mission again?"

The wizard chuckled. Long experience had taught him that abstract thought was beyond the fighting class, but he did not mind indulging them. He flattered himself that an easy condescension was among his virtues.

"Some years ago, the wizard Azxerkak foolishly allowed himself to be encaptured by a certain magical tome prepared as a prison by his rival. That rival, fearing discovery, stashed the book away in a library contained in this very dungeon until he could safely return at a later date."

"So this wizard's caught, like in a cage?"

"Yes."

"And the cage is a book."

"Exactly."

The fighter thought about this for a long moment. "So this wizard's caught in a prison, that's really a book in a library. So how do we know we're not caught in an even bigger book in some bigger wizard's library and he's reading that book right now?"

The wizard shook his head. "Tut, tut, my boy. The very idea is patently ridiculous."

Bad Neighbors

An old feud between monstrous neighbors creates an opportunity for a band of mercenary adventurers

An ill-tempered Ogre whose violent demeanor masks an insightful intellect

A family of goblins, stubborn and set in their ways

A doubting cleric, uttering platitudes whose veracity he doubts

A young warrior unacquainted with the world eager to make his name and fortune

I... Am... A.... Robot...

*** Queen of the Demonweb Pits SPOILERS ahead ***

That giant spider mech at the end of Queen of the Demonweb Pits was crazy. It was the kind of thing that can make or break a campaign. I'm sure lots of groups really dug the way it changed the game, but I'm equally sure others can say their campaign started to fall apart when they found the spider robot. It was incredibly cool, but did it really belong in AD&D?

This mech might stalk the blasted plains of your campaign. Maybe it's the secret weapon of the local Baron? Maybe it's a tool of the Orc hordes, imbued with the soul of a fallen hero. Maybe it's the party's toolin' ride (just try fitting it into the dungeon, though).

The robot dungeon is inspired by the art of Scott C, whose artwork seems to be popping up everywhere for me lately. Scott draws these crazy environments full of little characters living their everyday lives. That's very dungeon-y to me.

The Casks

As of yesterday I've got a batch of homebrew beer bubbling away in my basement. So I thought I'd celebrate with a brewing-themed dungeon!

A crumbling ruin that provides harried travellers a respite from a vengeful storm

An imprisoned spirt desiring immediate release

A peice of forgotten lore, immensely valuable to some, but in the wrong hands, a terrible danger

A convival band of thieves under the sway of a charistmatic leader

The Barrow on the Hill

A lonely malevolence, grown twisted and hungry in its stone cell

Stalwart guardians, their original mission forgotten, but their zeal undimmed

A frightened community, teetering on the verge of explosive retribution

A determined explorer, full of confidence and careless of danger

A glittering treasure in the dark, secret key to a sleeping gods dreams

Under the Escataur Mausoleum

Out on the Old Abian Road where the necropolis of the old city sprawls, there's a second city to mock the first. Where the city is a hive of commerce and a capital of politics, the necropolis is a metropolis of decay, filled with prowling thieves and unquiet dead.

But this is not to say that the place is without value. The dead, too, sometimes ply useful trades, or perform useful civic functions. Many a guild wizard has found himself forced to turn to the denizens of the necropolis for knowledge or even aid, though the price is always high. And even the old nobility pay a tithe to the graveyard ghosts for the protection of their family tombs.

The merchants of this, the city's quietest corner have their own rules, their own festivals, and their own humor. After a successful transaction, they always send the customer on their way with a cheery epitaph: "Well be seeing you!"

Find the Center

The quest for the heart is so commonly undertaken that it has entered common parlance as a metaphor for any journey where you seek something of value. But true delvers know that the quest for the heart is neither easy nor common.

As mazes go, the challenge is not extreme, there being several navigable paths to the center. However, the barriers on the way are so pernicious, that more than one confident seeker has been sent packing. You've probably met some; disillusioned adventurers who loudly claim there is not heart after all, its a chase after smoke, an illusion, a ruse.

But the heart is there still and, if the tales are to believed, well worth the finding. Happy valentine's day!

Thinking Too Much

Don't over think it.

Happy Friday!

Alienation

Some dungeons weren't built by anybody. They weren't formed by natural or arcane processes. They grew. When enough people think some idea, there's a dungeon for it somewhere. When enough people feel one way, their feelings creep together and coalesce like a cyst underground, to give those feelings shape. Woe be to the adventurer that enters this sort of dungeon--unless, by chance, they recognize the feeling that gave it birth, and recognizing it, know how it may be slain.

Pit of the Dutiful Fiend

Something is amiss in the mountain retreat of the flower monks. No monks came down to trade at the winter festival, and a delegation sent to investigate fled home in mute terror. The abbot has been dabbling in things best left undisturbed. It’s time to send some stout professionals to find out what happened at the mountain retreat of the flower monks.

What the Miners Found

The Elves say that the cloudfall hills came into existince after a battle of the gods when the greater portion of the flying Kingdom of Eb fell to earth in a great heap.

True or not, miners in those hills do occasionally bring up the strangest things: old plates and weapons, pillars and polished stones, strange monsters with petrified bodies.

But today the shift went down and nobody came back up. The shift foreman who went after them came back, but he's kind of messed up and he can't talk any more.

If the mines don't operate, the town will die, and it won't do any good for the kingdom either. Someone has to go down there and find out what happened.

Home of the Crystal Giant

The Taxonomies describe the crystal giant as and edge-case hybrid stone giant with exaggerated igneous facets, but this description is inadequate. The crystal giants are a race of ancient and distinguished pedigree. And if they are rarely encountered by mortals of the ordinary sort, it's because they prefer to live in their crystalline cities beyond the plane of fire.

A few, however, being of a solitary bent, may be found living in astral geodes, pocket Earth dimensions, and even large crystal deposits on the primary planes. Their disposition is not specifically evil, however, they are surprisingly quick to take offence, measuring the behavior of all races by their own skewed set of laws.

The home of a crystal giant is very perilous, yet even a poor outcast is likely to have a cache of gems, often of enormous size.

The Goblin Back Door

There’s always a back door… This little dungeon trick revolves around an ancient stone throne with a secret catch that causes the entire seat to spin, placing the occupant in a natural cave behind the throne room. There’s just one catch–the cave has become the den of a pack of fierce wolves.

There are a lot of ways your players could encounter a room like this. As part of a greater dungeon, it could provide an escape route for a hated nemesis NPC. If the NPC isn’t ready to handle the wolves, however, the escape could easily be one-way. Going the other way, the presence of an ornate throne in an apparently natural cave could be a party’s way into the dungeon proper.

I used a similar room in a megadungeon adventure using the Moldvay Basic rules a couple of years ago. A pack of starving wolves found their way into the dungeon, but couldn’t find their way out, making a surprising encounter for a party of PC (and, given the deadliness of wolves in that edition, the death of more than one adventurer [sorry, Ben]).

Oh yeah! Also, the original encounter was inspired by a room in Stefan Poag's epic Mines of Khunmar megadungeon!

Kobold Perfidy

In the south end of the Wildwoods, where the thick oak woods turn into steamy marsh, the usual run of goblins, ogres, and bandits give way to a particularly feral breed of kobold. It's easy to underestimate these blighters because of their size, but don't be tempted. They have a fierce cunning and attack without fear when they have the advantage numbers. You will find their lairs on rocky islands in the swampiest areas. Their dwellings are surprisingly sophisticated and built to a human scale. No doubt they were once the homes of some other people, but their names are lost to history.

This was an experimental dungeon to see if I could get the "old school blue" look using blue pens. I kind of like the effect, but not as much as my black-and-white dungeons.

Hurray for Tanita Davis!

Young adult novelist Tanita Davis just won a Coretta Scott King honor for her novel Mares War. The Coretta Scott King award is awarded for distinguished portrayal of African American experience in literature for children. What does this have to do with dungeons? Tanita is the owner of the original of today's Writer's Block Dungeon. Yay Tanita! We're all very proud of you!

As you might have guessed, I drew this dungeon while struggling with a particularly nasty bout of writer's block. Dungeons aren't just about the monsters under the Earth. Some dungeons, like this one are about the monsters inside.

So keep delving!

 
 

Under Gavin's Woods

The fishing town of Gavin’s woods has been plagued by a determined band of Goblin highwaymen. Now, in a daring raid on the Old Trunk Road, they have captured the Baronesses sapphire torc. The constabulary has tracked the robbers to a hidden dungeon entrance under a boulder in the woods. Dungeon delving being no business of theirs, they’ve hired a likely bunch to recover the torc, with a nice cash reward offered.

Lair of the Possessed Otyugh

Luke used this dungeon to run an impromptu one-on-one RPG session over IM, and posted his APon the Story Games forum. His descriptions are perfect, far better than anything I planned to write for this dungeon, for example:

You are in the Lair of the Possessed Otyugh. You are standing in the rubble of a partially collapsed tunnel. Ahead of you is a door. You pry open the jammed door and... Enter the Preparation Room. The room is lit by guttering tallow lanterns. Tables covered in jars line the room. A slab for embalming bodies rests in the center of the room. A corridor leaves ahead of you and another entrance on your left leads to a small room.

And the climactic encounter later:

A mountain of refuse and offal cascades from the back wall down over the altar into a viscous pit in the center of the chamber. There are four vestibules, two on the left wall, two on the right. They lead to the murder holes. At the top of the refuse pile is an opening. Water runs from the opening down into the pit. A ghoul cultist stands atop the pile, shovelling garbage down into the pit. The pit contains a writhing mass of flesh and tentacles, “FEEEEDMMME.” it bellows. “YOUR GOD HUNGERS.”

The Spelltower of Dremetar

As you approach the City State of Dremetar, you can see the Spelltower for miles upon miles. It dominates the view, sparkles in the setting sun. As you draw close to the walls, you may even catch a glimpse of a moving figure behind the great arched windows at the summit. But ask any inhabitant about the Spelltower, and you will rarely receive more than a grunt in reply. Point it out to them, and they will only look at quizzically before glancing away and changing the subject. Is there some enchantment upon the city, that makes its inhabitants ignore its most prominent landmark, or does the tower have some other secret that the people are loathe to dwell upon?

The Mad Sculptor

In the infamous Apocalypse Megadungeon there is a door cast in bronze depicting the fall and incarceration of the goddess Asundra, a master work so fine that more than one scholar has braved the dungeon (with proper escort) just for a look at it. Beyond lays the workshop of the mad sculptor. His genius transcends the boundary twixt art and thaumaturgy, producing effect indistinguishable from magic. Monsters, relics, and unfortunate adventurers have all found themselves unwilling components of his twisted works. What is the mystery behind the mad sculptor?

Snake and Sword

What a sight was Terrance the brave, brandishing his Borealis Blade, vanquishing friend and foe alike. But all good things come to an end, and Terrance the Brave subsided into a cranky retirement and downright surly old age. In his final days he invested his considerable stores of loot in creating an underground vault he considered worthy of his genius. There he set the legendary Borealis Blade, until an adventurer worthy of it should claim it from its resting place.

The Hell of Doors

It is said that if you kick in too many doors in the Apocalypse Megadungeon you will find yourself trapped in the Hell of Doors.

Manse by the Sea

Manse by the Sea
Originally uploaded by orkboi

Hey! Microdungeons.com was featured on the MAKE blog, thanks to John at MAKE! To celebrate, I'm posting tomorrow's dungeon early!

Sir Kond lies in state in the Town Hall and his house, Manse Kond, stands empty for the first time in a century. They say that alive, the Baron treated with monsters, that he poisoned his one true love, and that his wealth is buried in a hidden mine beneath Manse Hill. Then again, perhaps he was just the lonely, bitter man he always appeared. But if so, what was the fate of Lady Kond, and where is his fabulous treasure? The answers surely lie beneath the manse by the sea.

Temple of the Iron Arrow

Temple of the Iron Arrow
Originally uploaded by orkboi

Pride of the archeomancer guild in his younger days, Magus Vitzhago's growing eccentricity was regarded with indulgence for many years; after all, if a mage can't be eccentric, who can? At last, however, after several incidents which were rather disturbing (and in once, downright gruesome), Vitzagho disappeared from the public eye. No one has seen him for years. Has he finally gone mad? Is he in seclusion? Dead? Now the guild has offered a sizeable reward for whoever might enter his lab in the abandoned Temple of the Iron Arrow, determine what has happened to him, and return his staff of office to the guild.