Beneath the Abbey of Iron: Floor B2

 B2. The Entrance to the Ossuary

So when we left off in the design of this new dungeon, I had detailed the first level, which was entirely newly added with no pre-existing info in my notes about the original work.  Today, we’re gonna start the actual work of redesigning (and expanding) the bits that I’ve already worked on.

I think my overarching lesson (or at least the thing that I’m ruminating the most on) during this post is gonna be scope and theme.  When it comes to brainstorming, I usually have my best ideas either in the shower or while walking my dog.  This case is no different – while walking my dog, I decided that I want this adventure to have 5 levels of dungeon.  Why 5?  Well, because.   It’s an utterly arbitrary number.  But it gives me a discreet goal to work towards, and has a great side effect – I can theme each dungeon floor in a way that works for me and, ideally, reinforces the OVERALL theme of the entire adventure.

That raises the question: what IS the overall theme of the adventure?  Well, last time I decided (again, pretty much arbitrarily) that the party was adventuring under an abbey, under false pretenses by a chaos cult masquerading as the monks of that abbey.  Our first floor was a straightforward catacomb that led to the real dungeon, which is deeper down.

So off the bat, I know the following things about my adventure:

1)      The adventure location is a tomb.  I introduced a catacomb on floor one, so the through line of the adventure should be the party moving through different levels of a tomb complex.  I like that, and I’m gonna come back to it in a little bit.

a.       This also means that at least one of the factions in the dungeon HAS to be the undead.  As much as I like the idea of subverting expectations, if you advertise a tomb and you don’t have undead attack the party, you have committed a cardinal TTRPG sin.

2)      The bottom level of the dungeon must be a chaos temple.  Or at least somewhere with a strong chaos connection.  The cultists are trying to get to it, so it necessarily has to be something that will afford them power in some way (either by freeing an entity, capturing an artifact, learning a spell, tapping into a wellspring of magic, w/e).

a.       This also would imply to me that the cultists shouldn’t be the ONLY people looking for this power.  I like the idea that chaos draws its own, and so there should be creatures of chaos in the deeper levels.

So, with that, I’ve got a couple of ideas – I think the ultimate move here is that the Tomb was built above an ancient chaos temple.  The Lord who built it had done so to prevent the temple from falling into the wrong hands, and he and his knights swore an eternal oath to protect the temple, which they keep – even in death.  That gives us a nice chance to subvert expectations anyway – the undead aren’t the bad guys, they’re actually the good guys!  It also explains why the cult needs the party to clear the way for them.

So, what would a tomb complex built by an ancient king to protect a temple of chaos look like?  Well, I think the king would place himself closest to the temple, as a final line of defense.  Therefore, his retainers, soldiers, and knights would be buried above.  The tomb would be rife with traps and other defense mechanisms to prevent potential enemies from getting to the temple, and some of them must have already been tripped by cultists trying to make it down.

I also kinda like the idea that the temple is starting to bleed chaos power into the area.  Maybe at the very bottom of the temple, there’s a pool of primordial chaos energy, and the power that was once sealed away is beginning to flow again.  So the further down the party goes, the more chaos influenced things become.

 

Anyway, that’s all just ideas that I’m throwing down while I work.  In the meantime, here’s the map that I put together for the 2^nd level of the dungeon:

1. Waterlogged Cavern

Ankle Deep water, slippery.  (move carefully, no risk.  Otherwise, Dex DC10 vs slipping) Dank.  Water flows towards hole in floor (deep hole, can be scaled down at difficulty)

Double door leading north, was locked, but lock smashed open.

2. Brazier and Portcullis

Unlit brazier, covered in dust.  Heavy iron portcullis attached to marble pillars, each pillar has a key hole, one gold, one silver. (keys located elsewhere in dungeon)

3. Statuary

Lines of statues leading 30ft tall statue of St Edhardt.  Piles of gold, silver, and treasure at his feet (itemized treasure list to follow).

4. Through Room w/ trap

Piles of humanoid skulls.  Lower body of a monk on south side of trap.  Heavy block falls from ceiling, triggered by pressure plate.  Crushed remains of the victim visible on ceiling.

5. Main Ossuary

Thousands of skulls and other bones.  Rubble and coffins in NE corner fallen from B1.

NW door buried under bones.

Danger: Characters may be crushed under bones that fall on them if not careful!

6. Stone of Remembrance

Large granite stone, carved w/ ancient language.  Memorializes the dead.

Coins and silver key hidden in pile of skulls in room.

North wall flaking stone.  Center mortared back together, slightly different the rest of wall.  Hides a staircase that leads to level 4 of dungeon.

Two options here.  First, the party can smash through the wall.  There should also be a mechanism tied to the tablet.  Still working out exactly how that one will go.

7. Stone of Warning + Cursed Guardians

Stone has a cryptic warning about not being greedy.

Each of these six rooms contains a sarcophagus and a pile of gold.  Touching the gold in a room causes the sarcophagus to open, revealing a GHOUL that will attack the looter and their companions.

8. Companions of the King

Stone memorializing the king’s advisors, some of whom are buried here.  The door is not locked.  Opening or interfering with the coffins here causes the advisors to rise as (1d4) Shadows and attack.

9. Stairs Down

It’s stairs, they lead down.  What more needs to be said?

 

So, I’m happy with the overall direction that I’m taking with this dungeon, but I feel like this level is gonna need some refinement before I say it’s good to start testing.  Namely, I have to actually put together any of the mechanics on this level, and I have to think long and hard about the combat availability in this area.

Anywho.  We’ll continue on next time with the 3^rd level of the dungeon, and I’m gonna keep going on this track – bang out the design theory first (i.e. a trap goes here, but damned if I know how it works yet!) and then go back and flesh out the mechanics, enemies, treasures, and other specifics that make a dungeon actually useful.