#Dungeon23 (week 3 / day 1)

A large room with rotting remains of carpeting and tattered strips of flowery wallpaper. In the center of the room, on a raised dais, a great baldaquin bed, the once beautiful curtains now ragged far beyond recovery. An old stained painting, removed from the original frame, lies rolled up on a chair.

Painting: the frame was probably looted, leaving behind just the blackened canvas. It's hard to tell what was pictured under the grime, but careful restoration will show the portrait of a beautiful lady holding an elaborate feathered mask. In the background a tall and dark figure stands reflected in a mirror. The renovated canvas is worth 300 gold pieces to a collector.

Bed: Sturdy and well preserved wooden frame. The four columns supporting the baldaquin are finely inlaid with different motifs: flowers and fairies for spring, ripe fruits and fawns for summer, grape vines and sickles for autumn, thorns and demons for winter. Each pillar has a rotating pommel at the base, each with four faces: a child, a maiden, a lady and a crone. Matching the right face with the right pattern will unlock an hidden mechanism in the dais, letting the whole bed swivel to the side with minimal effort and revealing a secret passage.

Under the dais: a small chamber, with a set of stone steps going down to the hidden door in the dressing room on the nobles quarters. An armoire contains fine dresses and silks worth 100 gold pieces. a locked vault is enshrined in the wall.

Vault: coiled serpents decorate a metal plate almost flush with the wall, with no keyhole or handle. If the bearer of the coiled serpents flask (found in the hearth room) approaches the safe, it will just unlock by itself. Cracking it open with brute force is noisy, it will trigger a random encounter. Inside, a silk lined coffer containing a bottle of perfume, some desiccated cosmetics, and a pair of silver and gold necklaces worth 100 gold pieces each.

Perfume bottle: actually a strong aphrodisiac. While wearing it reaction rolls from intelligent creatures that might find you attractive are at +3, but surprise checks are at -2 due to the strong scent. 3 doses remain in the bottle, each lasting 1 hour.

#WildFrontier

In the spring of her life, the Mother was the Child, and with innocent fancy and primeval wonder she birthed the stars, the moons, and the worlds to be her toys. Her childlike whimsy took a life of its own, becoming the Fae; their moods as mercurial as the newborn's own.

In the fullness of summer the Mother became the Maiden, ripe with vigour and mirth. Dancing about she gave birth to the plants and the beasts. Her footfalls made thunder and storms, the rains forming the lakes and the seas. Her stumbles made mountains and gorges, her laughter gave song to the birds, her joyous tears became the ores and gems of the earth.

When harvest came, and with it wisdom and poise, the Mother was then the Lady. She looked back at the world and the state it was in, and sought to impose order to all things. From this desire to tame the wild beasts, till the plains into fields, dig the ores from the mountains, master the lands and the seas; from all this arose men and women: to inherit this world and care for it well.

At last winter came, as it must for all things, and the Mother was the Crone, bent and blind to the world. The shadows she imagined became the spirits and demons that haunt the places where the light doesn't shine, where the matter is not.

As a last gift to creation she gave birth to herself, to start the cycle anew, and remind us that often the conclusion is not the end.

#WildFrontier #WorldBuilding #Fiction

#Dungeon23 (week 1 / day 7)

A stained glass double door opens on the ruins of a balcony, almost completely buried. Many circular tunnels of various sizes bore through the earth. Sturdy roots woven through the soil keep it all from collapsing.

Roots: when cut a thick white sap squirts out. It's sticky. When dried it holds as glue. The only way to dissolve it is to burn it. Cut too many and the tunnels will cave in, blocking the entrance from the servants' hall.

Tunnels: Labyrinthine. Some are small, some are large, all are dangerous. You can hear the sound of running water somewhere down there. There is a 2-in-6 chance to attract a maw while moving through. There is a 1-in-6 chance every turn to find the way to the large worm hole.

Worm hole: a huge hole, 2m in diameter, going straight down through the earth (to the underground lake in the ruined complex). there is a 1-in-6 chance the Maw Mother will appear every turn.

Maw: HD 1, AC 11, Morale 10, Attacks +1 bite (d6) Numbers Appearing: solitaire

2-in-6 chance of surprise underground: they tunnelling in from unexpected directions.

An unholy mix of earthworm and lamprey. Completely blind, hunts by vibrations. Attacks anything that move. Always hungry.

Maw Mother: HD 6, AC 13, Morale 10, Attacks +6 bite (d10+1, swallow whole) Numbers Appearing: unique

Swallows a medium creature on a roll of 19-20. while swallowed: d8 damage each turn.

Completely blind, hunts by vibrations. Can be soothed by music.

Rumbling earth announces her coming. 9m long, 2m wide. The queen of the toothy annelids, in all her glistening grace. Run for your lives.

Her long ivory teeth will fetch a small fortune on the right market (200 gold coins)

#WildFrontier

#Dungeon23 (week 1 / day 6)

The entrance door is blocked by vines and mud. The room is covered in colourful mushrooms and creepers with sweet smelling flowers sprouting from broken adobe vases. Most of the eastern side collapsed in a mud slide. The air is so humid stalactites started to form.

Blocked door: forcing it open requires a cumulative STR bonus of at least 4. Noisily breaking it down triggers a random encounter.

Mushrooms: Mostly inedible varieties. Looking for unusual ones you find:

d6	aspect	effect
1	Toadstool, green-blue cap	Restore 1hp.
2	Sac, orange and red	Lose sense of touch for d4 hours. Can't feel pain.
3	Stinkhorn, brown and black	Feel sated for one day, but causes shivers (d4 DEX damage, save vs poison for half).
4	Puffball, big white and spongy	Intense fear of the dark, 2d6 hours.
5	Chanterelle, pink	Tastes like chicken, makes you hungry. Need double rations for the day.
6	Jelly, translucent yellow	Gain a spell dice and a random fey-touched spell for one day.

Creepers: Green vines dotted with tiny trumpet like blossoms. Searching the tangles or the floor reveals the desiccated corpses and bones of small animals. The flowers emit a psychoactive substance. After one turn make a poison save or become charmed, unable to leave the room voluntarily. Every turn after that make a poison save or become unconscious. The vines will completely wrap a human body in 1d6 hours.

Mud slide: The soil is soft and crumbly. With the right tools one hour of digging opens up a new access to the balcony.

Stalactites: limpets with razor sharp mother of pearl shells cling to the limestone formations. Worth up to 250 silver coins to the right buyer. Carefully harvesting them takes one full turn.

#WildFrontier

#Dungeon23 (week 1 / day 5)

A large corridor with doorless openings on four spartan rooms. A small red gem lies atop mounded sludge in the middle of the hallway.

Rooms: sloped ceiling, sleeping pallets, rags hanging from wires. Hidden under one of the beds a canvas roll containing mismatched silverware (value: 100 silver coins) and a couple of makeshift lock picks (breaks on a 2-in-6).

Red gem: one of Carmenta's core crystal, used as bait for a concealed bear trap under the mud.

Bear trap: rusty, creaking. Has a 2-in-6 chance of actually going off if disturbed. 2d6 damage. on a failed death save take 1d6 CON damage: whatever appendage you got in there is now broken.

Ambush: if the bear trap goes off, Rolsch will spring from the privy holding his flintlock pistol. if too much time passes and the snare doesn't land, he will come out and try to justify the lure has “mud shrimp bait”. “Those leggy beasties love shiny stuff, they do! Good meat on them, good eating… Wanna share?”. He will try to flee as soon as possible, possibly with stolen belongings.

Privy: locked from the inside. The key is still in the hole. You can easily hear heavy breathing from the other side. Rolsch is waiting in ambush. His meager belonging are stashed here: a pile of smelly clothes, a satchel with 32 silver coins, an half empty wine jug, and a fine rapier used as a skewer for mudcrawler's meat.

Closet: looted. A footlocker violently hacked at the center of the room, the ripped clothes inside scattered on the floor.

Rolsch: HD 1, AC 11, Morale 7, Attacks +1 pistol (2d6), +1 dagger (d4)

Wild eyes; feverish shivers; mismatched clothes, crusted with blood. Holds his pistol in both hands. “You wanted to rob Rolsch, yes? Ah…”, stammers, spits, takes aim “Now we'll see who's robbing who!”

Rolsch lost two brothers to the lower floors. He doesn't remember much, he escaped with his life and not much else. Got bitten on a leg and lied feverish in a corner for a few days. Now he's trying to get enough loot to leave this accursed place forever. He found the core crystal hidden in the butler's room secret alcove. “Piece of junk. It's just tinted glass, see? Looks pretty though.”

Pistols ignore 5 points of AC at short range and require two turns to recharge. Rolsch only has one bullet.

#WildFrontier

#Dungeon23 (week 1 / day 4)

A small room with a couple of stoneware basins, a wooden tub, and a large laundry copper. Shards of broken pottery litter the floor and clog the drain at the center. The air is thick with the sickly sweet smell of decay.

Loundry copper: stuffed inside the large vat there is the relatively fresh corpse of an almost naked, frail old man. The right leg is broken and lacerated, but the cause of death is clearly repeated stabbing.

Drain: the muddy floor around the drain was disturbed recently. Someone attempted to clumsily hide undrained blood by mixing it with soil and rubbish.

#WildFrontier

#Dungeon23 (week 1/ day 2)

A spartan room, almost as big as the dome above, but square and with a low ceiling. The air is thick, hot, and humid, with a strong earth and mushroom funk. Rotted wood panels cover the walls, crawling with small insects going in and out the lichen spots. A thick, long wooden table sits at the center of the chamber, with broken chairs and stools thrown around, and broken shards of plates and glasses littered above. More simple crockery can be found in an armoire nearby. Some is even still intact. Brass bells hung just below the ceiling. No wires attached anywhere. A swarm of of floating lanterns glides gently toward anyone entering the room, providing a soft blue light, and showing the way toward the doors in the eastern wall.

Rotted wood panels: a small panel is hidden behind the lichen on the western wall. if pushed it will open into small niche containing a mouldy basket with the spoiled remains of delicate skeins of yarn, a couple carved bone knitting pins and a decorated silver needles holder with 4 sewing needles inside.

Brass bells: if the core crystal in the butler's apartment has not been restored, Carmenta will make the bells on that side of the room start chiming when someone gets near, if she's able to.

Floating lanterns: tiny bubbles of clear glass, impossibly thin and light. Look like a swarm of ghostly fireflies when lit. If controlled by Carmenta they float in the air slowly, swirling around adventurers and toward the nearest core crystal holder.

#WildFrontier

#Dungeon23 (week 1/ day 1)

Emerging from the mud, a partially excavated dome of terracotta bricks. All around, wooden walkways and support structures. At the top, near the broken remains of the roof lantern, a descending platform powered by a wheel pulley, guarded by 4 company men. Inside, various groups of explorers and adventurers are loitering and preparing for their next expedition. Stacked gear on the walls, lit torches and lanterns. This area has been thoroughly looted for a while now. All around the walls huge arched windows offer a look at stratified clay. At the NW, NE, SW, and SE corners, four alcoves open on long descending spiral stairs. The ceiling has a faded and mud splattered mural depicting the four aspects of the Mother.

Descending platform: a wooden platform big enough for 4 people with backpacks to stand on. The pulley must be operated by two persons using the 2m tall dented wheel nearby.

Company men: stats as brigands. lightly armed and leather clad. Will let people with a Company contract in and out without questions. Can be bribed for entrance, but will refuse exit unless most of the loot finds a way in their pockets. 2-6 chance they will still denounce the trespassers afterward.

Explorers: 1d6 groups present. Roll randomly on (or choose from) the adventuring parties table.

Stairs: all of the spiral stairs go down to the the “piano nobile”, and all of them have a semi-hidden door (forced open) halfway down to access the upper servants quarters. The NW stairs are collapsed after just a few steps.

Aspects of the Mother: the Child of Spring, the Maiden of Summer, the Lady of Autumn, and the Crone of Winter. The cult of the Mother and her Aspects is the main religion in the Wild Frontier.

#WildFrontier

a #Dungeon23 #WildFrontier project

I love the idea of building a megadungeon one room per day in 2023.

I had this vision of a palace submerged under an enormous mud slide, with just the top accessible from the outside. But not just any old palace… The magically sentient seat of power of a dreadful blood sorcerer of course!

Well, at least it was sentient, hundreds of years ago. Nowadays, most of its core crystals have been misplaced, looted, or just plain broken and dispersed. Its mind feel slow, its thoughts patchy, and it lost track of entire sections of itself. Also, strange things started living in its guts, and now bands of pillagers started to infiltrate and plunder the higher floors.

Direct inspirations: – The Founders Trilogy (a specific part, but no spoilers here) – Gradient Descent for inspiration about how to handle a sentient dungeon. – The Dragon Prince for the inspiration on how Blood Magic works in my games.

P.S: what about that #WildFrontiers thing up there? Well, I haven't written anything about it yet, but that's my home-brew campaign world and system, mostly still WIP. In short, more about that later!