Montporte Dungeon Campaign 2.0 Session 1 Notes (Montporte Session 47)

Cast of Characters
Alaric: Human Cleric (PC-Main Character)
Alicia: Human Footman (NPC Henchwoman)
Diana: Human Torchbearer (NPC Henchwoman)
Horace: Human Footman (NPC Henchman)
Magnus: Human Magic-User (PC-Sidekick)
Merv: Human Torchbearer (NPC Henchman)
Pulvarti: Human Magic-User (PC-Sidekick)
Septimus: Human Fighter (PC-Main Character)

The Session
The session started in the town of Montporte. The town's business and political leaders, led by Rindolph (Count's Steward/Mayor) and Gunderson (Master Guildmaster), had a two-fold mission for Alaric and Septimus:

1. Find potential trade partners for the town of Montporte who are living in the Montporte dungeon.
2. Search for a an abandoned dwarven city, rumored to be somewhere beneath the Montporte dungeon.

The party was armed with a bit of gold, a few healing potions, and some dungeon maps recently purchased by town leaders.

About a year had elapsed between the first Montporte Dungeon Campaign and this session, which is the start of the second Montporte Dungeon Campaign. At the beginning of the first campaign, a band of orcs had moved some stones and found an opening into the Montporte Dungeon. For centuries, the dungeon had remained unknown in the remote mountain wilderness north of the isolated town of Montporte.

With the dungeon's discovery, dwarves had reinhabited ancient mines, orcs continued to explore and homestead, and humans began poking around for treasure and knowledge. Montporte's town mothers and fathers wanted to cash in on this newly uncovered subterranean world. Alaric and Septimus were asked to lead the charge.

After getting a bit of information, some supplies and a team of henchman, the party descended into the first level of Montporte. Their careful scouting discovered an orc archer, slouched and asleep behind an arrow slit in the first room. Septimus quietly ended his slumber and his life with a well-placed arrow.

The party moved east through a doorway and met a few more orcs. Melee ensued and soon orcs were pouring into the room from several doorways. The party was surprised at how organized and tactically sound the orcs were. The party would have been hard pressed, were it not for a well timed sleep spell that stopped almost a dozen orcs in their tracks. The party kept one orc alive, tied him up, and dispatched the rest.

The captive orc revealed the following information after a bit of questioning:

• The orcs were in the dungeon, searching for a tunnel that would lead them deep underneath their current lair, located about 15 miles to the northeast. 
• Underneath their lair were a nest of antmen. They wanted to find a tunnel that would lead them underneath the antmen so that they could attack the antmen from above and below.
• The orcs believed that there was a hidden tunnel on Montporte's fourth level that would connect to their lair from below.
• The orcs are led by a powerful mage who is neither orc nor human.

The party decided to let their captive live. The explored the surrounding area and found the orcs' food (nasty), beds, and cooking area.

Deciding not to push their luck, the party returned to the town of Montporte. There they discovered, much to their delight, that a live orc was worth a bounty of 50 gold pieces.

Montporte Dungeon Campaign 2.0--Campaign Reboot

We are six sessions into the second Montporte Dungeon campaign. I will try to catch up with some gaming session notes in the upcoming week before I get too far behind and I lose track of what happened in each session. Sadly, because of my work schedule, the gaming session notes will be less detailed and will have fewer maps.

Here are some random details for the Montporte reboot:

Bloody Basic: We are using John Stater's Bloody Basic: Classic Edition for our rule set, with the following modifications:

• Player characters are limited to humans only.
• Clerics, fighters, and magic-users are the three classes. Most of the thief skills that are useful in the dungeon have been allocated to these three classes.
• Player characters have additional hit points at first level--Clerics have an additional 6 hit points, fighters have an additional 8 hit points, and magic-users have 4 hit points. These points are in addition to the hit point die roll at first level for each character.
• Clerics can lay on hands for some additional healing, fighters have a weapon specialization, and magic-users automatically read magic.

Bloody Basic tops out at sixth level, which is fine by us. We plan on using something similar to the E6 variant of Dungeons & Dragons. We do not have all of the details I worked out, but there is a lot to draw on from Blood & Treasure (e.g. feats and additional spells) as well as other resources.

Heroes and Sidekicks: Each player has two characters. One character is their "main" character and the other is the "sidekick." The main character is the default for role-playing and decision-making, unless there is a specific reason for the sidekick to be involved (knowledge of a language, class-based conversation, use of a skill, etc). Main characters earn two shares of experience at the end of each session while sidekicks earn one.

Resource and Time Management: We are keeping more careful track of resources, such as food, torches, and arrows. We are also tracking encumbrance. We are working to streamline the process for the former while relying on the simple and elegant system in Bloody Basic for the latter.

Economics, Exploration, and Experience: In additional to the usual ways to gain experience points, the party gains experience with successful conversations and negotiations, exploration of new areas of the dungeon, and making a profit off of trade. The party was commission at the start of Session 1 to establish trade relationships in the recently discovered dungeon and Deep Dark, as well as to seek out a mythical subterranean ancient dwarven city.

Campaign and Continuity: One of the challenges for a dungeon-based campaign is maintaining momentum and continuity. We lost a lot of that in the final dozen sessions of our last Montporte campaign. We changed rule sets, lost players, added players, and the main threads of the campaign were lost in all of it. This time around, we are starting with a couple of goals (explore, establish trade relationships, and find a dwarven city), using a simple rule set, and playing with a smaller group (and only playing when everyone is present).

A key to the campaign working so far is the players themselves--they are keeping notes, making decisions, and determining the direction of play within the parameters we had agreed upon prior to playing.

So far, so good.

Dungeon Rules: Holmes Dungeons & Dragons + GURPS Dungeon Fantasy

I am a big fan of GURPS DF. I also have very special place in my heart for the Holmes D&D Boxed Set. My original experience with D&D back in 1977 was with the first printing* of the Holmes boxed set. My little thought experiment today is mashing these two together, using the race and class configuration of Holmes D&D to create the list of GURPS DF templates.

My boxed set of Holmes D&D goodness did not contain an adventure module. Instead, it came with dungeon geomorphs and monster/treasure lists. The two lasting effects of this were: (1) Each person in my original group created a dungeon to use when it was their turn to DM...my first year of D&D was homemade megadungeon only; and (2) We never used adventure modules (it is only in the last 10 years that I have even owned an adventure module).

GURPS Templates
Here is what I think a Holmes-inspired GURPS D&D game would look like in terms of templates:

• Dwarf Templates: Dwarf Cleric, Dwarf Fighter, Dwarf Fighter/Cleric.
• Elf Templates: Elf Fighter, Elf Fighter/Magic-User, Elf Magic-User.
• Halfling Templates: Halfling Fighter, Halfling Fighter/Thief, Halfling Thief.
• Human Templates: Human Cleric, Human Fighter, Human Magic-User, Human Thief.

If my math is correct, that is 13 different templates, which I think still gives players a fair amount of choice. The beauty of GURPS DF is that the template for an Elf Fighter can be very different from a Dwarf Fighter.

Points
A key part of GURPS is determining the starting points players receive to create their characters:

• 250 Points: This is the default number of points for character creation in GURPS DF. There are some good reasons for it as 250 points provides more options in character building and more tactical options in play. Characters are tough but still vulnerable.
• 200 Points: Characters are still hardy but would have fewer options and more vulnerability.
• 150 Points: This would more closely mimic the experience of low level Holmes D&D but GURPS doesn't have the same kind of power curve, meaning more experienced GURPS characters are left in the dust by their D&D counterparts. The dual class character templates could be particularly anemic at 150 points.

Eric Smith has some additional thoughts on what GURPS DF character templates could look like at different point levels.

Conclusion
Right now, my schedule is not allowing me to do much gaming. Weekend evenings are filled with music performances and weekday nights are spent on other things. It is fun, however, to do some thought experiments and blogging as a substitute.

*I wish I still had my copy of the Holmes rule book as it was the first printing. "Hobbits" were one of the four races and this was later changed to "Halflings" in later printings.

Related Posts
Comparing GURPS and D&D on Dungeon Design
Systems Matter: Exploration, Encounters and Intent in the Megadungeon

Design It To Run: How I Am Designing & Running the Montporte Dungeon

We are closing in on Session 30 of the Montporte Dungeon Campaign and I feel like I can now speak with a bit of experience about designing and running a megadungeon. Back in the 1970s, I started with a dungeon-only campaign as my Holmes D&D set came with dungeon geomorphs, rather than a module. None of my fellow gamers owned modules, just lots of graph paper. So running a dungeon was our default. But that was a long time ago and I hadn't really attempted to run a megadungeon since.

What follows is descriptive, not prescriptive. I am attempting to describe how I am designing and running a dungeon, not how you should do it. Most weeks, I am scrambling to get ready for game night in between family, work, and my music obligations. So with those caveats, here is my approach:

Campaign Mindset: From the start, my mindset has been to run it as a campaign setting and not an adventure module on steroids (which is how most published megadungeons appear to me). Rather than focus on rooms, I focus on areas, peoples, etc and then fill in the details as needed (or as I have time), just as if I were running a typical non-dungeon campaign.

My Dungeon: The Montporte Megadungeon is designed by me for me to run. And I run it with people I know. I am not creating something for publication or something to even post on my blog for others. It is very specific to me and our Monday Night Gaming Group. I don't feel like I have an audience of gamers/consumers to please, just a group of friends to entertain.

As Needed: I only create the dungeon a little in advance of where the players might go. At the beginning, this meant a fair amount of mapping. But now, not so much. There are several reasons I do this: (1) I don't have the time or energy to create a 20 level dungeon all at once; (2) I don't always know what will catch the players' interest and I would rather have things be more open-ended and flexible; and (3) Inspiration comes to me slowly and if I try to do too much at once, the dungeon turns out bland. I need to give myself time to let ideas germinate.

Mapping Part 1: Fortunately, I love to draw dungeon maps. Unfortunately, we are playing online with a VTT (our group uses either Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds, depending on the GM...I opted to use Roll20). This means that I could either draw maps by hand, scan them, and upload them...or create maps digitally. I opted to create them digital in AutoREALM, which is a slower process for me, but it cuts out the conversion process.

Mapping Part 2: I usually start my mapping process of a level by creating a 5x5 grid in Publisher. Each square in the grid is 10", which means I use the custom setting to create a 52" x 52" page (allowing for 1" margins). I then place a text box in each grid, describing in as little detail as I can, what is in each square. In dungeon terms, each square represents 300" x 300", the same sized used in Stonehell. I then, as I need to, create the detailed 300' x 300' maps in AutoREALM, with a 5'/square scale. I convert it a JPEG and--Presto!--I have my map for Roll20. I can also drop the JPEG file into my Publisher grid and create level map, which can also easily be converted to JPEGs. By using blackened rectangles to cover unexplored areas, I can create overview maps for the players like the one below (it takes about 15 minutes):

Level 1, From the Players' Perspective

Seeds: I try to drop adventure or plot seeds into the campaign as we play (from this blog post by Michael Curtis {The Society of Torch, Pole, and Rope}). It is up to the players to decide what to do with them. This only works for me if I do not plan details too far ahead. I have had to let go of my inner-world builder's conceit of "this place exists whether or not a PC ever sees it." It should feel that way to the players, but that is not how I am operating behind the scenes.

Tropes Part 1 ("the lack thereof"): For the most part, I have avoided the OSR cliches and tropes--random tables, lots of slash and grab sessions, and traps for the purposes of having traps. It is not that I have a philosophical or ideological reason to avoid them. My reasoning is more pragmatic: It takes a surprising amount of time to create a random encounter table that might only be used 1 or 2 times. It is easier to just create the encounter than to create the table to generate it.

Tropes Part 2 (my trope): My one conceptual trope has been the computer game, Myst. I am not trying to recreate Myst as we play, but I like the idea of using interlocking clues and details so that the players gradually piece together the multiple back stories of the dungeon. There are a few chatty NPCs in the dungeon, plus lots of scrolls and documents. In fact, every encounter is a clue to the dungeon. Not all clues are earth shattering, but they all pile on one another to paint a picture and tell the story of the dungeon.

Improvisation and Planning: I only occasionally use set-piece encounters that are tied to specific physical locations within the dungeon. They are there, but there are not a lot of them. I do, however, improvise a lot. For a lot of people, improvisation implies a lack of planning or forethought, kind of like "winging it." As a musician, improvisation means something different to me. Improvisation means creating responding to others as you play, but it still requires as much planning, forethought, etc. I spend a considerable about of time planning for each session, but I look at options the players have in front of them and how they might respond, rather than planning specific encounters ahead of time. I am not sure if this makes sense to you, the reader, but I have found it to be my style of GMing...at least most of the time.

Rationalization and Logic: The Montporte Dungeon has a series of backstories that provide an inner logic for myself and the players. However, it only works when we (our group) let go of (1) the question of why a big multi-layer hole in the ground would be there in the first place; and (2) previous preconceptions about megadungeon play (this has been a bit of a struggle as the cliches of dungeon play haunted us when we started).

Inspiration: I read a lot--close to a book a week--and while I do not plan my reading around gaming, I often read things that end up in the dungeon. A recent example are the small bottles of impossibly cold water (why did it not turn to ice?) found in Session 22. These were inspired by So Cold the River, a novel by Michael Koryta. My days with the Appendix N types of literature are mostly in the past, but I am finding inspiration in unlikely sources. This has proven to be a benefit as some of the guys in our gaming group have way more gaming stuff than me. I have thus far avoided the dreaded "You pulled this from B1, didn't you?" or "Hey, this sounds like Dragon #135."

Further Reading: John Arendt (Dreams in the Lich House) recently published two posts on megadungeons that present an interesting point and counterpoint: You Will Never Finish That Dungeon and From an Alternate Universe. I found them interesting and helpful. For me, Michael Curtis' (The Society of Torch, Pole, and Rope) post, With New Old Eyes, is my "go to" reading for running a megadungeon. Peter D (Dungeon Fantastic) wrote an excellent post, Megadungeon Play Reflections-The Immediate and the Cumulative, that lives up to "Fantastic" moniker. I have previously tried to capture a bit of my own thinking on designing and running megadungeons: Five Paths For Dungeon Design and Creating Meaningful Choices in a Dungeon-Centered Campaign.

Montporte Dungeon Campaign Session 12 Notes

The Cast
Adzeer Mattiu, Hunter of the First Circle (Half Orc, 3 Lvl Hunter): Tim (Gothridge Manor)
Dante Rathburn (Human, 3 Lvl Warlock): Chris (The Clash of Spear on Shield)
Luven Lightfinger (Human, 2 Lvl Thief): Rob (Bat in the Attic)
Larramore “Little Larry” (Kobold, 2 Lvl Marksman): NPC
Ansarkhan ("Mushroom Man", 2 Lvl Fighter): NPC
Diana (Human, Torch Bearer, Goat Driver): NPC
3 cave goats

Map A: Level 1 (1 square = 5 feet)

The Session
At the end of the last session (Session 11), the brave adventurers had decided to bed down for the night in Room 1 (Map A above). They were exploring an abandoned mining area and had moved into Room 1 from the south.

During the second watch of the night, Luven heard muffled voices coming from the corridor in the northwest corner of Room 1. Initially, he tried to hide in the shadows but Dante then heard the same voices and quietly woke the rest of the party.

Luven decided to scout ahead and moved north in the corridor between Areas 2 & 3. The voices were a bit louder but were echoing from a source further north. Luven used the faint glow of a magic dagger as a light source and discovered four skulls on the floor. Two (an orc skull and a kobold skull) had been placed on the floor in Area 2, facing east. Two more kobold skulls were placed on the floor in Area 3, facing west. Curious, and a bit dim, Luven lost track of the voices and began poking his fingers into the empty eye sockets of the skulls.

He heard more voices, but still nothing more than low mumbles, coming from both east and west. The voices from the west were a bit louder, so Luven moved past Area 2 and met up with some tall gaunt bug-eyed humanoids wielding halberds in Room 4 (Map A above). Each humanoid was about 7' tall, with one in plate mail and the rest unarmored, except for shields. One of the unarmored guys blocked Luven's path into Room 4 and attacked.

Luven attempted to enter the room and found himself fending off his initial attacker and the guy in plate mail, which turned out to be a really bad thing for Luven. In the meantime, Dante moved up the corridor past Area 2 and Adzeer and Little Larry moved towards Area 3, but never quite made it there. His path was cut off by a human-sized guy in a black cloak and hood. He was unarmed. Behind him were two more of the 7' tall halberd guys. Adzeer was familiar with their type from an previous encounter (Session 7).

The battle turned into a two front war and it was not going well for the brave adventurers. Luven went down, mortally wounded. Dante, Adzeer, and Little Larry were unable to strike their respective foes.

Ansarkhan, trapped behind everyone because of the narrow corridors, worked his way over to Dante and the tide began to turn. Adzeer and Little Larry were engaged in a bit of stalemate due to the narrow passage, but Dante and Ansarkhan took out two 7' gaunt guys. They were just in time, too, as the plate mail guy had scooped up the limp body of Luven and was scurrying off to the north, towards Area 5 (Map A above). Dante unleashed a sleep spell and rescued Luven--or at least Luven's body--just before the armored guy made his getaway.

In the meantime, Little Larry and Adzeer killed the hooded guy without being touched by him (the hooded guy was trying to touch Adzeer with his bare hand). Adzeer and Little Larry also killed one of the gaunt guys, forcing the second one to flee to the northeast. Adzeer followed him into Room 6 (Map A above) and dispatched him.

Dante forced a healing potion down Luven's throat and the magic had a mighty effect, restoring him to consciousness. Luven wasted no time cutting the throat of the plate mail guy and the battle was over.

The characters thoroughly searched the bodies and the room, turning up a bit of treasure and two more skulls (facing west) in Area 7. They then descended down the staircase they had found in Area 5.

Map B: Level 2?? (1 square = 5 feet)

The adventurers descended the long staircase from Area 5 (Map A above) to Area 8 (Map B above). The vertical drop was about 100', similar in vertical distance to their descent down a different staircase in Session 9.

The characters found themselves in large irregular empty room, with plenty of rock dust on the floor, much like the abandoned mining area they had just left behind on Level 1. There was a corridor heading north and one heading south. The most curious feature of the room were the two parallel bands of golden metal running east to west out of narrow tunnels and across the southern half of the room (Area 9 on Map B above). Each band was thick, almost like a construction beam, and they were supported from underneath by a series of similar but shorter pieces of golden metal running perpendicular to the longer pieces of metal. Luven poked and prodded at the metal, but was unable to identify it beyond determining that it was not gold.

The party opened the door into Room 10 and discovered another "restroom," much like they had found on Level 1. Luven made use of the facilities before Dante had a chance to search the bowls under the seats for treasure. No subsequent search was conducted and the party quickly left the area via the southern corridor.

Luven failed to find a crude spear trap securing the door into Room 11, but was able to dodge out of the way, letting the spear clatter to the ground before it skewered anyone. Room 11 was empty.

The party then moved to Room 12 (Map B above) and discovered a 7' tall guy with a halberd guarding four hunched-over naked humanoids. The naked humanoids were chained together tending to a 4' tall mushrooms, planted in uneven rows in the room. Luven, using his magic throwing knives, killed the tall gaunt guy before he had a chance to defend himself. The naked humanoids cowered in the corners as the party search the corpse and the room. The party noticed that the chained humanoids were similar to the ones they encountered in Session 7. Allindrihl, the elf, had given them more information about these various humanoids during Session 10.

The party then moved into Room 13 (Map B above) and found it empty, save for another mushroom garden. Room 14 proved to be similarly planted with mushrooms, but otherwise empty.

The party moved south into Room 15 (Map B above). This room had a total of 5 steel doors leading out of it, including the door used by the party to enter the room. It also had a spiral staircase that headed up. Looking up the staircase, the party could see that it was blocked with webs. Unlike the previous few rooms, Room 15 had a finished floor and walls. There was also less rock dust on the floor.

This is where the session ended for the night.

The Dungeon Explored So Far

Level 1

Part of Level 2?

Another part of Level 2?

Megadungeon Hall of Fame Post: "Minimal Dungeon"

I like the posts that give me a lot to think about without trying to tell me what to think. Rob Conley (Bat in the Attic) has an excellent dungeon think-piece in his post, Minimal Dungeons. In this post, he describes an approach to dungeon preparation that focuses on play rather than on the time consuming process of create detailed notes and descriptions.

Nice job, Rob, and welcome to the Megadungeon Hall of Fame. Why do more preparation when you can do less? 

Montporte Dungeon Campaign Session 11 Notes

The Cast
Adzeer Mattiu, Hunter of the First Circle (Half Orc, 2 Lvl Hunter): Tim (Gothridge Manor)
Duncan Kern (Gnome, 2 Lvl Wizard/Thief): Dan
Dante Rathburn (Human, 2 Lvl Warlock): Chris (The Clash of Spear on Shield)
Luven Lightfinger (Human, 1 Lvl Thief): Rob (Bat in the Attic)
Larramore “Little Larry” (Kobold, 2 Lvl Marksman): NPC
Ansarkhan ("Mushroom Man"): NPC
Diana (Human, Torch Bearer, Goat Driver): NPC
3 cave goats

Map A (1 square = 5 feet)

The Session
The last session ended with the party exploring the eastern end of the first level. Allindrihil the elf had told them of a treasure hidden in a secret room beyond the dwarven temple. They would find it to the east on Level 1 of the dungeon.

The characters started off the session in Room 1 (Map A above), which appeared to be a dwarven bunk room. The door on the northernmost section of the east wall was a highly polished and well-preserved oak door. It had dwarven writing on it, which Duncan was able to translate: Let us lift pure hearts to the gods of our fathers. Duncan also discovered a magic trap in the door and disarmed it...the door was set to discourage exploration beyond it by shooting out flames (Burning Hands).

The party moved into a narrow room, lined with elegantly polished marble (Room 2 on Map A). They checked for secret doors and finding none, moved into Room 3. Room 3 was also lined with polished marble on the floor, walls and ceiling. Every member of the adventuring party felt a deep overwhelming sadness upon entering the room. At the southern end of the room there was a small font on a pedestal. There were also two sconces on the wall for torches; one on either side of the marble basin. The room was littered with bones, mostly piled along the edges of the room. Upon further investigation, they proved to be dwarf and gnome bones. They had been disturbed and moved around the room, but even the passage of time and the movement of the remains by subsequent visitors could not hide the violence suffered by the bones' original owners.

The party examined the basin and sconces, seeking secret compartments, a trigger for a secret door, or some other hidden feature that might give them access to the treasure they were seeking. Duncan decided to check out the walls. Using the finder's glass, he was able to locate a secret door in the southeast corner of Room 3 that allowed access to Room 4 via a narrow corridor.

The adventurers were thrilled to see an unguarded chest lying in the middle of the floor in Room 4. Their excitement waned upon discovering their way to the chest blocked by a shimmering transparent barrier at the entrance of the room. The shimmering was barely visible, but it did have a blue hue. This barrier defied all manner of pushing, poking, probing and even a few hurled weapons. While all of this was going on, Luven was still in Room 3 and he decided to pour water into the marble basin. As he did so, the barrier took on a bit of a reddish tint. Thus encouraged, Luven placed a torch in each of the two sconces and lit them. The barrier turned blood red.

Luven took the color change as a hint to drip some blood into the water-filled basin. The barrier dissipated as soon as the first drop of Luven's blood fell into the water. With the barrier gone, Adzeer and Duncan charged forward into Room 4. Their path to the chest was blocked by a dwarf made of stone, who suddenly appeared.

Adzeer was forced to engage the stone dwarf in melee combat while Duncan, Little Larry, and Luven made some wild attempts to use ranged weapons over, under, and around Adzeer. Duncan did a diving roll past Adzeer and the stone dwarf. The stone dwarf, heavy and slow of foot, was unable to impede Duncan as the gnome tumbled past him. The next round, Duncan attacked from behind with Ommar's Dancing Dagger. Duncan was struck by an errant arrow from Little Larry and he decided to hunker down and open the chest while the dancing dagger did the attacking on its own.

Despite accidentally tossing his magic mace to the other end of the corridor, Adzeer was able to destroy the stone dwarf. A few lucky tossed daggers from Luven, who removed both of the dwarf's ears, helped the process. As the battle was winding down, Duncan opened the chest.He paid for his success by taking a magic missile in the chest. So there was a trap in the chest after all.

The chest was bigger on the inside than on the outside. It turned out to be a chest of holding. It contained gold bars, silver bars, gems, a magic battle axe, magic armor, a magic shield, a magic cloak, a bandolier of magic throwing knives, and a magic lantern. It also contained two small spellbooks and a scroll. The party had a party, as they gleefully divided up their booty.

The scroll was written in the dwarven tongue. Duncan was able to translate and it turned out to be a letter requesting help. A civil war had erupted between the humans living in the dungeon complex. The dwarves and gnomes living with them were caught in the crossfire and feared for their safety. The gnomes and dwarves who could fight prepared to make their last stand. The rest of the dwarves--the very young and very old--hid to the north, among the land of the dwarven dead. They took with them the most precious heirlooms of the dwarves. The non-combatant gnomes fled to the east, into their subterranean gardens and maybe beyond.

Armed with new weapons and new information, the adventurers decided to go north, spurred on by the thought of more dwarven treasure.

The party moved back to Room 5 (Map A above) then through Room 6 to Room 7. As they went, they noticed that the corridors had more rock dust and there were wheel ruts worn into the thick dust. Room 7 contained a narrow spiral staircase heading down. Luven looked down the steps and, at the edge of his vision, saw the stairwell blocked by a thick mass of webs. The party opted to move north through door rather than down via the stairs.

Duncan checked for traps at the door leading north out of Room 7. No traps, at least none he could find. When he listened at the door, he hear the light pattering of feet running away.

The party cautiously moved into Room 8 (Map A above). Adzeer could see fresh kobold footprints in the thick rock dust, heading due north out of the room. The party moved cautiously and started to explore the narrow corridors beyond Room 8. As they began to look around, it was clear to the party that this area had been a mine. It was not clear as to what was being mined, however.

They continued to move north and the mine opened up into a large irregular space. Two small black kobold arrows whizzed past them, just as they were moving through Area 9 (Map A above). They quickly moved towards Area 10, but saw nothing and decided to retreat, lest they get ambushed.

They continued north until they arrived in Room 11 (Map A above). They decided to set up camp, rest, and recover. This is where our session ended.

Level 1 So Far

Map B (1 square = 5 feet)

Montporte Dungeon Campaign Session 10 Notes

The Cast
Adzeer Mattiu, Hunter of the First Circle (Half Orc, 2 Lvl Hunter): Tim (Gothridge Manor)
Duncan Kern (Gnome, 2 Lvl Wizard/Thief): Dan
Dante Rathburn (Human, 2 Lvl Warlock): Chris (The Clash of Spear on Shield)
Luven Lightfinger (Human, 1 Lvl Thief): Rob (Bat in the Attic)
Larramore “Little Larry” (Kobold, 2 Lvl Marksman): NPC
Ansarkhan ("Mushroom Man"): NPC
Diana (Human, Torch Bearer, Goat Driver): NPC
3 cave goats

Map A

The Session
At the end of the last session, the brave adventurers had descended a spiral staircase and found themselves on a very small island in the middle of a small pond, with a narrow wooden bridge to shore. Giant mushrooms in profusion were growing all around the room and the mushrooms were being tended by 7' tall mushroom men who, inexplicably, spoke elvish. The session ended with the characters being to led to Area 1 (on Map A above) where they were introduced to an elf who was the master and friend of the mushroom men.

The ancient-looking elf introduced himself as Allindrihl. He welcomed them to his humble abode, apologized for his lack of hospitality ("...it has been centuries since I have entertained guests..."), and he led them to Room 2 (on Map A above). Along the way, the party walked through Room 2, which featured a number of sylvan forest plants growing under artificial "sunlight" from the ceiling (a bansai garden). Room 3 was similarly illuminated. Room 3 also had a number of comfortable chairs. A mushroom man brought a flagon and small chalices. Allindrihl offered the group wine, which he explained, was made from mushrooms and was not so bad, considering the source.

Allindrihl appreciated the presence of Duncan, a gnome, and he offered to answer any questions they might have. He had lived in the Montporte Dungeon for about a millennium, having discovered it with a fellow elf while seeking refuge from a war raging in the area. Even then the dungeon complex had long since been abandoned by its original inhabitants and its existence was unknown to the locals.

Eventually, Allindrihl and his companion parted ways, with Allindrihl dabbling in magic while he companion decided to explore deeper into the complex and perhaps beyond. Allindrihl had not seen his companion since and Allindrihl admitted that he had not left the little area he had created in "about century, as humans count their days."

Perhaps it was the lack of company that made Allindrihl chatty. He spoke non-stop for quite a while. From him, the party learned:

• The location of the dungeon was not an accident. It lies in the foothills of an ancient mountain range. When mountains form, they stretch the fabric of the world and powerful magic becomes less difficult and rare. More importantly, the barriers between the five planes become thinner and travel between them becomes a more of a possibility.
• The complex started out as a monastery of sorts. The inhabitants were human and had a religion or way of life that was based on the four elements. Parts of the dungeon predate the arrival of the elementalists.
• The elementalists developed a mastery over elemental magic and brought in dwarves and gnomes to assist them as miners, engineers, machinists, and alchemists.
• Eventually, the elementalists developed the ability to split the four elements and three powers and recombine them in ways that defy description. Allindrihl believed that had help from outside of our plane (and maybe outside the five planes) to gain this ability.
• The elementalists then suffered a series of very nasty civil wars. Allindrihl believed that they had split into at least three factions and this led to their demise as a community.
• One faction, called "Breeders" by Allindrihl, lived in the original elementalist complex. They retained at least some of knowledge of elemental magic and had turned to cannibalism. They had enslaved some of their fellow elementalists and started breeding and herding them like cattle. Some of these slaves were eaten, others traded to groups deeper in the dungeon.
• Another elementalist faction had gone a bit deeper into the complex and turned to demon worship. They had occasional conflicts with the breeders but had developed trade with them, based on slaves and foodstuffs.

Duncan and Adzeer asked Allindrihl about the mysterious magic object that they found in Session 6. It looked like a small pane of glass, only it was not made of glass or anything else anyone could identify. The party gained a little bit of insight from Nevin (of Nevin's Notions) and Pavel the Mage (Session 9). However, they still did not learn much.

Allindrihl examined the object carefully. He had seen objects like this before and, in fact, had a few himself. He believed that they stored information, much like a book or a scroll. Each disc was like a long sentence, only it was written "into" the surface instead of across the surface. He fairly sure that the elementalists had come across these objects, figured out how to read them, and thereby discovered how to manipulate the universe in powerful and truly frightening ways. Allindrihl could not read them and was unsure of their origin, although he guessed that they could come from somewhere even outside the five planes.

Having been filled with dungeon knowledge and mushroom wine, Luven asked the most consequential question of the session: "Do you know where we could find lots of treasure?"

Allindrihl then told them of a secret room on the east side of the first level, beyond where they had explored. They would have to go through a small dwarven temple area to access it. The dwarves had hidden some of their prized belongings there. Allindrihl could not promise it was still there, given the recent activity of the orcs and kobolds, but it just might still be there. Allindrihil then asked a favor of them...would it be possible for one of his younger mushroom men, Ansarkhan, to accompany them? He wasn't much for finding his way around, but Ansarkhan was handy with a weapon.

Map B

The party agreed to take Ansarkhan along and, having their thirst and curiosity sated, then left for the first level. They made their way up the stairwell (Room 4 at the far west on Map B above). They began their traverse across the known area of Level One and made it as far as Room 5 (on Map B) where they encountered a group of skeletons, one of them having a reddish tint. The skeletons moved aggressively and the party responded by attacking. Adzeer hung back in order to see Ansarkhan in action. Ansarkhan moved into the middle of the fray, along with Dante. Duncan started tossing daggers, starting with his Dancing Dagger. Luven moved around the northern edge of the melee zone, hiding behind columns, in order to gain a more favorable position to attack from behind.

They were able to take out one skeleton. However, the red-tinted skeleton moved in and toasted Dante and Ansarkhan with a Burning Hands spell. Adzeer decided that he had to act and he successfully turned the main force of the skeletons, leaving the red-tinted one left alone on the battlefield. He was quickly reduced to an inanimate pile of broken bones.

The party then continued to move east to the statue (Area 6 on Map B), then north. They arrived in Room 7 (on Map B) to discovered the freshly killed Ian and his three dwarven companions. Ian had been a henchman of the party during their first few sessions and they had encountered Ian, the three dwarves, and Spensol, another former henchman, during the last session.

Each of the four corpses had numerous small black arrows sticking out from them. Death by kobold, was the conclusion. The party searched the bodies but they had already been picked clean.

In the meantime, Duncan decided to wander off and explore. He first checked out the corridor to the northeast and found that it just went off into the darkness. He then backtracked into Room 8, which had not been explored in their previous foray into this area of the dungeon (Session 3). He found a gnome bath, a true sign of civilization (Duncan being a gnome). Sadly, the only water in the bath was a water elemental of significant size, albeit slightly dehydrated. It smacked Duncan, almost to the gates of the life to come.

Duncan backed out of the room and called for help. He found that the water elemental could not leave the bath and so the party attacked it from a distance. This effort was hampered by narrow corridor leading into the room (only 5' wide). Luven delivered the telling blow by tossing an open wineskin into the bath. The water elemental, being dehydrated, sucked up the newly delivered source of moisture. The next round, it settled calmly into the bottom of the bath, which allowed Duncan to finish it off with the Dancing Dagger.

The party then moved into another previously bypassed area, Room 9 (Map B). This room turned out to have rusted cooking utensils and a lot of soot on the ceiling. In the middle of the soot was a black circle, about 2' across. Adzeer and Duncan guessed that it was a portable hole, much like the one they had found in Session 5. Like the other portable hole, this one was filled with smoky air.

The party then went to Room 10 (Map B) and found it filled with mining tools and rope. Most of the picks and shovels were in bad shape, but one pick was still in pristine condition. Adzeer swung it at the wall and it took out a big chunk of granite. Usually, granite is very difficult to break and, when it does, it tends to be almost explosive. Not with this pick.

The last room explored was Room 11 (Map B), which had the remains of wooden bunks strewn across the floor. There was enough of the bunks remaining that the party decided that this was a dwarven bunk room. There was a door in very good condition in the northernmost section of the east wall. It had dwarven writing on it, which no one in the party could read.

This is where the session ended for the night.

Montporte Dungeon Campaign Session 9 Notes

Tim (Gothridge Manor) and Chris, the Blogger-Formerly-Known-As-Bard (The Clash of Spear on Shield), each wrote up a post about the session. Tim's is here and Chris's is here.

Map A: Level 1 (1 square = 5 feet)

The Cast
Adzeer Mattiu, Hunter of the First Circle (Half Orc, 2 Lvl Hunter): Tim (Gothridge Manor)
Duncan Kern (Gnome, 2 Lvl Wizard/Thief): Dan
Dante Rathburn (Human, 2 Lvl Warlock): Chris (The Clash of Spear on Shield)
Larramore “Little Larry” (Kobold, 1 lvl Marksman): NPC
Diana (Human, Torch Bearer, Goat Driver): NPC
3 cave goats 

The Session: Part 1
Session 9 began where Session 8 had left off (Area 1 on Map A above), in a large cavern surrounded by some giant ant carcasses and neatly stacked piles of cube mushroom (about 1' on a side). The characters had quick discussion of their options and decided that they should leave the dungeon to head back to town of Montporte to stock up on supplies. The group was running low on healing draughts and potions.

On the way out of the dungeon, the characters ran into another group of adventurers (in Room 2 on Map A above). Spensol and Ian, their former henchmen, were part of the group, along with three dwarves. After exchanging pleasantries, the party left the dungeon and rode off for the town of Montporte.

Map B: The Montporte Area

The Session: Part 2
The characters arrived back in Montporte with bags of gold and silver, ready to do some shopping. They hit Nevin's Notions first and bought up every healing draught and potion Nevin had. Nevin is a gnome and also supplies some gnome-crafted devices that miners and their ilk find handy. Duncan bought a magnifier glass and a finder's glass, which has some simple magical properties and can be used for finding things like secret doors.

Weird "Pane of Glass" Item

Adzeer asked Nevin if he recognized the weird "pane of glass" object that the party had found during Session 6. Nevin found the item fascinating and puzzling. He was not able to identify what it was made of, except to say that it was like nothing he had ever seen.

The party then went to Pavel, one of the senior mages in town. He, too, found the item fascinating and was unable to identify the material from which is was made. The three discs, when look at straight on, had a three dimension look to them, as one was looking down three long parallel tubes. The party had already figured that out. Pavel noticed a pattern of a sort and demonstrated this pattern to the party by opening up a book, laying his cheek on a page, and looking at the writing. They tried it. When they looked at the book in this manner, they could see the pattern of the letters but couldn't necessarily read the words. He saw a similar pattern by looking into the discs. When they tried it, they could see repeating patterns, as if it were a language or symbols. But this was all they and Pavel could glean from the item.

Map C: Level 1 (1 square = 5 feet)

The Session: Part 3
The adventurers left Montporte, made it back to the dungeon entrance without incident, and headed back to where they had left off (Room 3 on Map C above). This was the beginning of their third foray into the Montporte Dungeon. They moved into Area 4 and saw two giant ants (workers), each carrying a cubed mushroom. The ants seemingly ignored the party, but the party did not ignore the ants. Duncan pounced on the back of the lead ant and plunged his dagger into its thorax. The rest of the party spread out and attacked both ants, with Duncan and Little Larry landing the telling blows on both creatures.

The party then moved south into Area 5, which turned out to be a dead end and a storage place for more cubed mushrooms. The party's cave goats started to dine on the mushroom cubes and Duncan decided to have a go. It was really chewy, but surprisingly flavorful (and non-poisonous). They grabbed some cubes to take with them for the cave goats.

As the party turned around and went back north, Duncan used his finder's glass on the mushroom piles, the floor and the walls. This turned out to be Duncan's day, as he found a secret door at Area 6 on Map C above. He checked for traps and, finding none, had Adzeer open the secret door. The door opened into a narrow passage, heading west. It ended in a room with a spiral staircase (Room 7 on Map C above). There was writing on the north wall of the room, next to the stairs. It was in the elven language and Dante was able to read it. It said: Elves, ants, and mushrooms only. All others stay away.

Map D: Level 2 (1 square = 5 feet)

The party took this as an invitation and descended the stairs. The stairs descended about 75' and the party found themselves on a small island with the wooden bridge leading off east into the darkness (Area 8 on Map D above). Duncan started to walk east across the bridge while Adzeer peered into the darkness to the west. They could hear the sound of feet shuffling all around them.

As Duncan and Adzeer were able to see more of the room, they could see giant mushrooms growing in neat beds all around the edge of the room, being tended by about a dozen mushroom men. Each mushroom man had a farming implement of some kind, but each also had a nasty looking weapon nearby. The shuffling sound was them arming themselves.

Duncan met three of the mushroom men at the end of the bridge (Area 9 on Map D above). They were armed with halberds and swords, creating an imposing barrier, as each mushroom man was about 7' tall. Duncan is a gnome.

One of the mushroom men spoke...in elvish. This took the party off guard, but Dante struck up a conversation that went like this:
Mushroom Man: Who are you and what do you want here?
Dante: We are travelers, and explorers
Mushroom Man: We know of no such things here. Are you an elf? Or a flesh eater?
Dante: I am a friend of elves. We come seeking the dark ones who were imprisoning others up above.
Mushroom Man: I will get our friend and master. Please wait here and be of peace.

The mushroom man left through an opening in the southwest part of the cavern. He returned about ten minutes later with an elf. The elf, speaking the common tongue, explained that he was a mushroom farmer. He invited them to have a chat and some refreshments. They followed him into Area 10 on Map D above. This is where the session ended.

Explored So Far
The following maps show Montporte Dungeon. I didn't include a map of the small sub-level the party discovered during Session 6.

Level 1, So Far

The newly discovered Level 2

Megadungeon Hall of Fame Post: "The Megadungeon and the Horror"

There are a few books that are so good and so important to me that I find myself reading them more than once. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, Plimpton's The Bogey Man, and Keegan's The Second World War are all on that very short list.

The same is true with blog posts. There are a few blog posts that I find myself going back to in order to read again and think about contents. Beedo's (Dreams in the Lich House) post, The Megadungeon and the Horror, is one such post. Beedo compares and contrasts the typical characteristics of a megadungeon (large areas, multilevel, factions, sparse details) with the typical characteristics of a horror scenario (atmosphere, detail, a careful buildup of tension).

Given the challenges of creating a horror-based megadungeon, Beedo suggests incorporating small, detailed, set-piece areas with weird, powerful, horrifying monsters to create a sense of horror. While that doesn't create a horror-based dungeon, it can create some horror-based sessions within the larger megadungeon campaign. From my perspective, it also creates some additional variety and contrast for the GM and players.

Montporte Dungeon Campaign Session 8 Notes

Map A (1 square = 5 feet)

The Cast
Adzeer Mattiu, Hunter of the First Circle (Half Orc, 2 Lvl Hunter): Tim (Gothridge Manor)
Duncan Kern (Gnome, 1 Lvl Wizard/Thief): Dan
Dante Rathburn (Human, 1 Lvl Warlock): Bard (The Clash of Spear on Shield)
Larramore “Little Larry” (Kobold, 1 lvl Marksman): NPC
Diana (Human, Torch Bearer, Goat Driver): NPC
3 cave goats

The Session
Session 8 began with the brave adventurers in Room 1 (Map A above). They had just killed two tall scary humanoids, both armed with halberds, and their hooded companion at the end of Session 7. There were also four cowering naked humanoids, chained together and cowering in the corner.

The party tried to converse with the chained up group but it only frightened them further, leading to lots of babbling and squealing. The party discussed whether or not they should lead these pathetic creatures to the surface and let them go, but then decided that they would die for sure. In the end, the party unchained the four, left them with some food and water, and headed out of the room.

They went across the hall and explored Room 2 (Map A above) and found a few small treasure items buried in the debris on the floor. Then they went west to Area 3 on the map. There was a portcullis in the corridor but it was raised so they were able to head north. The corridor sloped downward and a curious wide shallow groove had been worn in the floor. There was some concern that this was the sign of a trap but Duncan was able to discern that it looked like an area where barrels were rolled along the floor.

As they turned the corner into Area 4 (Map A above), they heard a metallic thud behind them and concluded (correctly) that the portcullis had dropped. And, more importantly, they were face to face with 3 ghouls. A Web spell, lots of oil, and a torch made for quick work with the ghouls. The party also found a lever in the wall in Area 4 that raised and lowered the two nearby portcullises (Areas 3 and 5 on Map A above). One portcullis is raised while the other is lowered.

The party moved on and explored a few small unexplored corridors, which eventually led them to Room 6 (Map A above). The room had a pool in the middle, with a thick column at each corner of the pool to support the ceiling. The water looked to be about 10 feet deep and was crystal clear. At the bottom, the group could see a shiny object. The temptation was apparently too much for Duncan and he did a little gnome cannonball into the pool. At this point, the group remember Duncan's affinity for jumping into things (in Session 1 he famously stated "I'm a gnome, I wanna go in the hole"). Lots of laughs all around.

As soon as he jumped into the pool, three water elementals formed on the pool's surface and the party's laughter was cut short. Dante was able to fish Duncan out of the pool before the elementals fully formed. There were three water elementals...two small ones and one that was a little bigger. A fierce battle ensued and, after a fair amount of swinging and missing (plus some poorly tossed daggers), the party finally prevailed. Duncan, on hunch, decided to inspect the columns and was rewarded for his efforts. He found a small compartment in one of the columns. There was a some gold and silver tucked away, along with a Cloak of Protection.

Duncan dove into the pool once again and was rewarded with a shiny key. Using the key, the adventurers unlocked the iron-bound door on the west wall of the room. Heading west from there through a narrow corridor (Area 7 on Map A above), the party found a secret door that provided access into a large cavern (Area 8 on Map A above). There they encountered four giant ants (3 workers and 1 warrior). The workers were stacking some sort of cube-shaped stuff into piles. The party didn't have much time to take it in as the ants were intent on defending their territory.

The ensuing melee saw Little Larry going down for the count. Dante and Adzeer also critically failed and each of them had their weapons slip from their hands in mid-swing. Adzeer's mace sailed off towards Area 9 (on the above map) and Dante's battleaxe spun off into Area 10. Once the battle started to turn in the party's favor,* Adzeer rushed over to Little Larry and poured a healing draught down his throat. Duncan and Dante finished off the four ants.

Adzeer walked a bit west to get his mace while Dante went north to get his battleaxe. They were set upon by more ants. Dante went down but Little Larry rushed to his aid to keep the two worker ants off him. Duncan cast a Color Spray on the three ants that attacked Adzeer, knocking out two (workers) and blinding the third (a warrior). Duncan and Adzeer quickly finished them off then went over to rescue Dante. They made quick work of the two ants and used one of their last healing draughts on Dante.

They explored the room a bit further and found that there were piles of cubed material all around the room. The cubes were about 1' on a side and turned out to be pieces of giant mushrooms. We ended the session at this point. The map below (Map B) displays the area explored so far.

Map B (1 square = 5 feet)

Montporte Dungeon Campaign Session 7 Notes

The Cast
Adzeer Mattiu, Hunter of the First Circle (Half Orc, 1 Lvl Hunter): Tim (Gothridge Manor)
Duncan Kern (Gnome 1 lvl Wizard/Thief): Dan
Leif (Half-Elf, 1 Lvl Mage/Cleric/Trickster): Josh
Luven Lightfingers (Human, 1 Lvl Thief): Rob (Bat in the Attic)
Larramore “Little Larry” (Kobold, 1 lvl Marksman): NPC
Diana (Human, Torch Bearer, Goat Driver): NPC
3 cave goats

The Session
The last session, Session 6, ended with the party climbing out of a narrow tunnel into Room 1 (above on map) via a trap door in the floor. The adventurers, battered from their encounter with the gibbering mouther, decided to spike the door shut, lay out some caltrops, and take some time to rest and heal up. Their rest was briefly interrupted by some scratching at the door, but otherwise their time in the room was quiet.

The party moved south out of the room and found themselves in an east-west corridor. They opened the door on the south wall and found a room with the rotted remnants of some wood crates, three much newer barrels, and four giant centipedes (Room 2 on the above map). The centipedes were quickly dispatched with flaming arrows and a few arrows. The party suffered a serious mishap when Little Larry accidentally shot an arrow into the middle of Adzeer's back, but the centipedes themselves did no damage. Adzeer healed himself after the battle.

The three barrels bore the marks of the Montporte trading guild. One was still sealed...it contained an odd mix of salted meat (still quite edible) and rough cloth. The other two barrels had been opened, with the lids just laying on them. One contained an assortment of rotted kobold body parts. The other contained a collection of peasant clothing.

The adventurers moved back into the corridor, headed west, and found an orc corpse (Area 3 on the map above). The body was badly decomposed but the rib cage and skull looked like they had exploded outward. The floor, wall and ceiling were stained by an enormous amount of blood...far more than should have come from one orc.

While part of the group was looking at the orc body, Luven went further west and found that the corridor turned north. He found a portcullis similar to the one that had blocked the party at the beginning of Session 6, only this one had already been raised (Area 4 on the above map). Luven could see that the corridor sloped downward as it headed off to the north (Area 5 on the above map).

After finishing their examination of the dead orc, the party attempted to go into the door on the south wall (Room 6 above). Duncan found and disarmed a trap on the door. He then listened at the door, but heard nothing. When Adzeer tried the door, he found that it wouldn't budge. The door didn't open, even with a fair amount of banging and shoving. They decided to dismantle the door hinges, which allowed them to break loose the door from where it was spiked to the frame.

Room 6 contained two large human-like guys, each about seven feet tall, armed with halberds. Behind them stood a slightly smaller guy in a black robe and hood. There were also four naked humans, chained together and cowering n the corner.

The guy in the black hood shouted, "Did the elf send you to get us?" The two brutes with the halberds then attacked. Duncan had the jump on everyone and cast a Color Spray, knocking out the two guys with halberds and blinding the hoodie guy. As he staggered back, the rest Adzeer and Luven attacked him. Leif slit the throats of the two unconscious guys. Little Larry and Duncan slid to the west in order to shoot arrows from the flank. Blind and overwhelmed, the hooded guy never had a chance. As he fell to the ground, mortally wounded, his hood fell back and the party was able to see his bug-eyed but otherwise human-like visage.

In searching the bodies, the party found some gold and silver. More importantly, they found a magic dagger and a magic ring. The dagger, the Blade of Ung, is a +1 dagger that can also do an additional 1d6 of electrical damage (once per day). Using the Lens of Melnar, the group discovered that the ring had an evil aura. It also has the ability to create an incredible amount of water inside a living being...typically causing that creature to explode outward from the pressure. This explained the orc corpse in the hallway.

This is where the session ended for the night.

The Montporte Dungeon (so far)
The "U" symbols represent corridors and doors leading to unexplored areas.

Montporte Dungeon Campaign Session 6 Notes

I haven't had much of a chance to blog...work has been crazy (we are rolling out a merger which, thankfully, doesn't involve job losses but it involves job changes plus working with hundreds of staff, clients, and thousands of donors, but I digress). I have 4 sessions of gaming to blog about--3 Majestic Wilderlands GURPS sessions and 1 Montporte Dungeon session. Today's post will cover the short Montporte Dungeon session we had on Monday night (using Blood & Treasure).

Cast of Characters
Adzeer Mattiu, Hunter of the First Circle (Half Orc, 1 Lvl Hunter): Tim (Gothridge Manor)
Duncan Kern (Gnome 1 lvl Wizard/Thief): Dan
Leif (Half-Elf, 1 Lvl Mage/Cleric/Trickster): Josh
Larramore “Little Larry” (Kobold, 1 lvl Marksman): NPC
Diana (Human, Torch Bearer, Goat Driver): NPC
3 cave goats

Map A (1 square = 5 feet)

The Session
At the end of Session 5, the brave adventurers had just finished off a group of giant rats (Room 1 on Map A above). The room looked like a kitchen. The corridor heading south out of the westernmost part of the south wall sloped downward, possibly promising access to a lower level. Unfortunately, the way was blocked by a very heavy portcullis. They continued to search for a way to open the portcullis, a search that had started in the previous session. Not finding a mechanism, they opted for brute strength, using a crowbar as a lever under the lowest portcullis crossbar. The portcullis budged but then stopped, as if it were locked in place or stuck.

Just as the party was giving up on the portcullis, two skeletons wandered into the room from the east. Little Larry and Adzeer quickly dispatched them. Adzeer then went east himself to make sure there was nothing else more dangerous behind them.

The party decided to move north out of the room. Duncan checked for traps on the door and, detecting nothing, moved aside so that Adzeer could open the door. A heavy stone swung from the ceiling on the other side of the door, but the rope snapped before the stone could do any damage. Based on the condition of the rope, the trap had been placed there quite a while ago.

Adzeer and Duncan moved north into the room (Room 2 on Map A above). There was a large sudsy puddle on the floor and Adzeer and Duncan were both overwhelmed with the stench of stale beer. Both became nauseous and struggled to draw their weapons. Adzeer noticed that the puddle was moving and rolled the large stone (from the door trap) into the room and through the puddle.

The puddle struck back at the stone and the party was confronted by two beer oozes. Adzeer and Duncan attacked but were hindered by nausea and weakness. Despite their condition, they were able to overcome the beer oozes, thanks in part to the initial damage done by Adzeer's bowling with the stone.

The room was filled with barrels, many of them rotted and broken. They did find a small bar of silver (worth 50 silver pieces) in one of the intact barrels. The barrels were otherwise empty. Of more interest was the door in the floor in the northeast corner of the room.

Adzeer lifted the door and could see a small 3' wide shaft descending down about 25 feet. Small metal rungs had been installed, which beckoned the party to descend. At the bottom of the shaft, the party found themselves at the north end of a narrow passage that headed due south (Area 3 on Map B below). The group discovered just how dexterous cave goats can be, as they descended down the rungs with no difficulty.

Map B (1 square = 5 feet)

The party moved south, noticing that the floor was slimy and covered with all sorts of rotting refuse and bones. As they continued south, the slime on the floor turned to mud then muck then a putrid pool. Duncan opted to take the lead by riding a goat into the water. The floor had a very shallow slope, creating a very shallow pool as a result.

As Duncan led the party south, he noticed a slimy brown pile of refuse about 3' tall, almost completely blocking their path (Area 4 on Map B above). He decided to shoot an arrow at it. The arrow glanced off the pile, doing no apparent harm. The pile, however, was not happy. Opening its many eyes and many mouths, it let loose with horrible gibbering sounds. Yikes! A gibbering mouther!

The gibbering din left Duncan and Little Larry confused and standing in a daze. Worse, Duncan's goat was also affected and, becoming enraged, started bucking to throw Duncan off. Adzeer rushed forward to attack. By the end of second round of combat, Adzeer had done no damage and had three mouths attached to him. The gibbering mouther was about to pull Adzeer down into the water when Duncan and Little Larry snapped out of their stupor.

Duncan let loose with a Color Spray. The spell left the gibbering mouther blind and stunned. Diana rushed forward with oil and a torch. The resultant fire severely damaged the creature and snapping it out of its stunned state. The gibbering mouther began to move north up the corridor, still blind but very much alive. A well-placed arrow by Little Larry and a Magic Missile from Lief finished off the scorched monster.

The Color Spray left Adzeer unconscious. After recovering his wits, Adzeer searched the muck around the corpse of the gibbering mouther. He stirred the water and mud with a spear butt and turned up a ring (still on the finger bone) and something that looked like a pane of glass. A Detect Magic and the Lens of Melnar identified the ring as the Ring of Elsot, a +1 protectiveness ring (+2 versus elementals) that also gives the bearer the ability to see up to 40' in total darkness (including darkness spells).

The mysterious "pane of glass."

The "pane of glass" was another story. A Detect Magic revealed only that the object possessed a very bizarre form of magic and the Lens of Melnar gave no additional information. The object looked like it was made of glass, as it was transparent, but it was lighter in weight. It felt like a small piece of wood (it was about 3" x 5" in size). It had three silvery disks embedded in it. On closer examination, each disk looked like it had considerable depth to it, despite being embedded in a 1/4" thick object.

Not finding a quick answer to the problem of the mysterious object, the party opted to move south and found themselves on dry land at the south end of the corridor (Area 5 on Map B above). There, they found another set of rungs and a shaft leading upward to another door. This door was on the floor of another room (Room 6 on Map C below).

Map C (1 square = 5 feet)

Conclusion
We ended the session at this point, with the adventurers entering the room via a door in its floor. The map below (Map D) shows the the starting point for the session (Room 1) and where it ended (Room 6).

Map D (1 square = 5 feet)

Megadungeon Hall of Fame: "The Dungeon as a Mythic Underworld"

The Dungeon as a Mythic Underworld is a classic megadungeon blog post. You can find plenty of comments and references to it, which speaks to its influential place among many gamers. Alas, the post itself is no longer available, with the demise of the blog Philotomy's Musings. However, the content is still available online with only the slightest bit of work. Pages 22-24 of Philotomy's Dungeons & Dragons Musings (free PDF) preserves the content of the original blog post, The Dungeon as a Mythic Underworld. Be sure to follow the link and check it out.

Musings on Playing in the Dungeon

Like a lot of gamers, I am intrigued by a dungeon-centered campaign. And like a lot of gamers, I get stuck on things like realism (as in simulation, not the philosophical school), logic, etc. But my main stumbling block is simply keeping it fun and interesting. For me, this means finding ways to infuse dungeon-based gaming with some other concepts that add to or expand on the fundamentals of good dungeon play (exploration, encounters, and extractions). For example, what do you think of these ideas as a way to play out a dungeon-based campaign. I am just throwing these out there...I haven't worked through any of these ideas myself in any detail:

• The Lewis & Clark Expedition: This expands upon the exploration theme. The idea is to equip a party for a long long unsupported adventure for the purpose of exploration. Of course, there would be encounters and extraction along the way. I like this in the abstract, but how would it work in actual game play.
• Mt. Everest: Similar to the Lewis & Clark idea, but instead of a well-equipped party moving along as a unit, the party establishes a long-term base camp within the dungeon to use as a jump off point to explore and adventure.
• Silk Road: The dungeon adventurers somehow get involved in economic trade that involves moving valuable goods from Point A to Point B through dangerous territory. 
• British Colonization of India: The dungeon adventurers set themselves up as rulers, creating a mini-realm within the dungeon.
• British Settlement of North America: The dungeon adventurers (and maybe their families, friends, and underlings) all move into the dungeon.

I am not sure if any of these ideas have merit or if they even make sense. I am curious to hear what you have to say about it.