Introduction

Welcome to The Dungeon!

The Dungeon is a compact little mega-dungeon suitable for use in just about any fantasy role-playing game. On its own, the place is too small to support a full blown campaign without a lot of padding and effort on the part of the guy running the joint. Beyond that, the difficulty of the dungeonstarts low with the obligatory goblins at the entrance, but it quickly ramps up to larger humanoids and big nasty critters too much for most low level parties.

Areas farther from the dungeon entrance should challenge more experience parties, who have morefreedom of movement, and should be able to deal with areas near the entrance with little trouble. You can let them wade through goblins and low level cultists once in a while it is fun to remind successful players of just how powerful their characters have become the deeper challenges will show up soon enough.

This place should be large enough to keep any party busy for multiple sessions. The variety of environments and challenges will require some scouting, retreat, and retooling. Charging blindly in might work for some large and well equipped parties, but clever and cautious play will make life a loteasier for would-be plunderers.

It may be too small to be considered a proper megadungeon, this hole in the ground should be just the right size for a tent-pole dungeon in a West Marches style exploration game, especially if you take a little time to tie it into the larger region. A smart party could make frequent raids on The Dungeon in between tackling smaller single-session dungeons. There are plenty of nooks and crannies in The Dungeon for GMs to place maps and pointers to places in the wider campaign world, and plenty of places to hide treasures hinted at by lost libraries elsewhere.

The surface of this dungeon is left blank on purpose. It may be a small cave mouth, a trapdoor under a seedy pub, even a trans-dimensional portal high in a wizards tower. It might even move about among the three, depending on the phase of the moon.

Take this place and make it your own.

Getting StartedBefore you throw your soon to be long suffering players (and not so long suffering characters) into The Dungeon, you're going to need to know a few things. The Dungeon is a journey, not a destination. There is no set finish line, no ultimate goal, and no final boss fight. There are things to accomplish and some very dangerous fights, but this is a dungeon - not a narrative. The pieces are here for multiple story lines, and players and DMs can pick and choose, or even wind back and forth between them. To help you decide, here's a brief overview of what you and your players will encounter in The Dungeon.

The Dungeon contains ten major levels:1. The Goblin Caves2. Cult of Chaos3. Bugbear Den4. The Lizard King5. The Pillars of the Earth6. Da Brutes (Minotaurs and Ogre Slaves)7. The Dead Wizard's Laboratory8. The Arachnid Burrows9. Forge of the Fire Giant10.The Mad Lich's Prison

Four smaller sub-levels are scattered throughout The Dungeon as well:

The Dragon's Lair, upper left corner Tomb of the Lost Dwarven King, lower left

corner (Sublevel 5A) Temple of Air, lower right corner (Sublevel

6A) Wardens of the Mad Lich, upper right

corner (Sublevel 9A)

There are five red circles scattered throughout the dungeon. Each red circle represents a font of pure evil. These are holes in the fabric of this reality through which the DungeonGod forces its influence. For now, its power is limited to spawning children, hideous creatures born of malice to spread malice. Man knows these children by many names - goblins, trolls, wyverns, and giants, just to name a few. Each font takes the form of a low, wide pool, but each one is unique:

The letter A (in the Temple of Air) is an open, bottomless pit. Winged creatures rise up from its unmeasured depths. It may tap into the elemental plane of air, but only creatures of evil use it for passage.

The letter E (on Level 5) is a fountain of sand. A central font spews the sand up and into the pool, which never fills. All manner of creatures rise up from the sandthat fills this pool.

The letter F (on Level 9) is a burning pit ofcharcoal that the fires never consume. A fire giant and his apprentices have converted it into a forge. Whatever climbsfrom this pool they catch and toss to their hellhounds or to the spiders that live nearby.

The letter W (in the Dragon's Lair) is a bottomless pool of water. The dragon does not watch it carefully, and its proximity to running water may have allowed all manner of evil to enter the

world and make homes for themselves fardownstream even to the depths of the ocean.

The last pool is the pool of chaos (Level 2). A foul black ichor burbles away inside this pool, and countless creatures have been vomited up by it. They are all welcomed by the human cult that monitors the pit and hopes to turn the power of the pit to their own ends.

The deepest, darkest part of The Dungeon is actually a prison. An ancient lich is trapped there, guarded by creatures unimpressed by his mastery of all fire related magicks. This undead evil force is stuck inside four small rooms with nolaboratory, no books, and no means of researching a way past his guardians. Powerless despite all his power, he dreams of the day that some brave but stupid souls will break the chains that bind him. If some naive hero were to slay his guardians, then the lich would show his gratitude by making that hero's death swift and painless.

There are many legends and rumors about The Dungeon, some of which are even true! As is so often the case, the best source of information about The Dungeon can be found within The Dungeon itself. Treasure maps, history tomes, and memories of the intelligent denizens of The Dungeon are useful sources of information aboutThe Dungeon. Smart characters will use each ofthese to find clues to the presence of the dragons, the lich, and even unguarded treasure hoards.

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RumorsThe best source of rumors, not to be confused with the source of the best rumors, is Half-Baked Harold. Half-Baked Harold is a doddering old coot who sits at the end of the local tavern spinning tall tales about his lifetime of adventures. Somehow he always has money for drinks, but isnt above trading a few rumors for a free draught or two. Ply him with a couple of free drinks and hell let slip a few details of his adventures. Too many questions will trigger flashbacks and hell start shouting and hyperventilating.His decade of adventures have left his body mangled - he has a peg leg, is missing three fingers on his left hand, and has a long scar running from his forehead down the side of his cheek -and his brain addled. Hes actually only 30 years old, preternaturally aged by his adventures, but believes that he really is 92 years old. Hes a friendly old coot who loves to swap tales. Its a shame that his attention drifts in and out of stories seemingly at random. Choose or roll a d30:

1. Take a blanket. Trust me on this one. First thing your gonna need is a nice big blanket. Cant remember why, but I know its important.

2. Remember that old green dragon bastard that litup the area thirty some odd year ago? Hes sleeping down in there. We found him snoring away in a wet hole, but we tip-toed out nice and quiet. Thats the smart way to treat dragons, amI right?

3. You can bribe your way past some of the guardsdown there.

4. It aint really a hole in the ground. Its a hole in the universe. Something big and mean is trying to force its way into our world, and that dungeonis how its going about it.

5. Theres monsters, kid, and then theres monsters, if you catch my meaning. Most of the critters down there dont wander much, because they dont want to run into monsters themselves.

6. Bring a rope. We used enough rope to choke a horse every time we went down there.

7. Theres a whole lost library down there. Dozensof lost books on spellcraft if you can find em. But you can only take one at a time. Try taking more than that, and zap!

8. Aint a whole lot of undead down there, but hoo boy! The ones that are? Some real humdingers, I tell you what.

9. Sections of the place are flooded out. You

better be able to hold your breath a while if you want to clear out the whole thing.

10.Take it one section at a time, if youre smart. Theres some cave systems, some minor complexes. Theyre all tied together mind you, but you can tell from the walls, and floors, and general dcor when you move into a new territory.

11. Spiders! So many spiders! Big fat bastards, too! Bleargh!

12.That big hole in the ground isnt the only way out. Theres a river that you can ride down and itll spill out into one of the nearby lakes.

13.Dont head up river. Theres something big and mean up there.

14.It isnt a dead-end. Its a crossroads for the universe. Find the right door, and you can get toworlds made of fire, or nothing but water, even one where theres no ground at all.

15.Four magic pools. If you find them, and figure out how to destroy them, you can destroy the whole dungeon from the bottom up.

16.Eat from the tree on the right. Never the one on the left.

17.Its not a cave system. Its one big trap. A crazyold wizard went down in there looking for the secrets of life, and got snared by his rival. If youre not careful, you might kill the guard and release the crazy old coot.

18.Once we met a genie. Hes hiding behind a great big honking set of double doors. We didntcrack those, though. We snuck in through a side door and he granted us one wish. Wasted it on getting out of there alive that day.

19.Fire and ice. I remember twin hells of fire and ice. Run from one to the other and back again.

20.Ran for a year or so with a dwarf named Beryltooth Bucklerbottom. Barry, we called him. Swore up and down that a legendary dwarven hammer of the gods was somewhere down there. Doomthrower he called it. He got eaten by a Shark.

21.You know them creepy red-robed weirdos always out front of the chapel warning us about the end of the world? Theyre down in that hole trying to make it happen. Got a whole temple down there. We gave em wide berth if theyreup here begging they aint got enough money to be worth the trouble.

22.One time we made a big old score. Thousands of gold. Jewels you wouldnt believe. So much we couldnt carry it all. So we stuffed what we couldnt carry in an alcove, our mage shaped it up to look natural like, and then he got his melonbusted open by an ogre. Would have taken a year of digging to get it back, and danged if I can remember where it was anyway. I think thatmage carved a map somewhere, he was alwaysdoing stuff like that. One time he drank himself a full quart of troll piss blah blah blah...

23.Living statues? Pshaw. But if you see a statue

of a big tough barbarian hero? Thats Oleg Hroganhro. You get yourself a way to turn that grafter back human, and tell him to come see me he still owes me a hunnert gold.

24.Oh theres all sorts of critters down there. Orcs, ogres, trolls, giants, even folks like you and me -we seen em all. We played em off each other best we could. Made getting to the good stuff easier, but theyll turn on you in a heartbeat. Had to fight our way out as often as in.

25.Take it from old Harold, best let sleeping wizards lie.

26.Dont know what I drunk more of down there, poison or antidote. One of the two, Im sure.

27.Hell, I cant remember a tenth of what we saw down there. Why dont you ask the fat man? It aint cheap, but hell never lie to you. Never lied to us.

28.If youre smart and sneaky, you can find piles of loot just lying around.

29.Its crowded down there. You couldnt swing a dead cat without something scaly and toothy trying to eat it.

30.Wha-!? Who are you anyway with all these questions? Why are you hassling a tired old man like me? Aint I been through enough? Aint I earned me some peace and quiet? Just want to sit here like a normal man and forget and you gotta come in here dredging up all these bad memories! Go on! Git, you nosy bastard! GIT!

Most of these rumors have an element of truth to them. Feel free to add to the list, replace rumors that have been used already, sprinkle a few whoppers into the tale. Half-Baked Harold may even be able to identify something aboutartifacts artifacts recovered from the dungeon if the players think to show him what they found.

Sub-Level 5ATomb of the Unknown Dwarf King

This secluded corner of The Dungeon is the tomb of an unknown dwarf king. The dwarf whose bones are interred here is not of this earth. Indeed, he fell in a battle against otherworldly foes, and somehow this humble cavern became his final resting place.

There are two obvious ways of discovering the tomb. The secret door above is constructed in a near mythical style that only a dwarf might recognize. As a result, any dwarf passing through the hall will automatically notice the outlines of the secret door, but everyone else will only be able to find it if they deliberately search for it, and even then, only with a 1 in 6 chance (read: elves and halflings get no bonus to locate it). The area can also be accessed by the swift flowing underground river. As the river plunges in a terrific fall to depths (and planes?) unknown, the sandy beach of the tomb is the last chance anyone in the river has of staying on this realm of existence.

A finely crafted obsidian statue representing the lost king stands in an alcove away from the water. The perfect carving of the glassy stone is un-natural, and the way it swallows torchlight lends the statue a sinister air. The dwarf king stands firm, fists planted on his hips, a look of grim determination on his face. A golden crown rests upon his brow, somehow fused with the glassy rock. It is impossible to remove the crown without damaging the

statue and the crown both. In the event that the statue is smashed it is worthless and the crown worth only the value of the gold melted down (100gp).

This is one of the few statues in The Dungeon that is not trapped.

Only one creature stirs the sands of these halls, a wraith. This is the spirit of the unknown dwarf king.

AC: 3 (Can only be hurt by silver or magic weapons)

HD:4Move: 120(40) Fly: 240(80)Attach: TouchDamage: 1d6 + energy drainSave: F4XP: 175

The wraith lurks in the back halls of the tomb, but it will rush to attack if anyone who dares lay hands on the king's statue or sarcophagus.

The sarcophagus of the king is a plain coffin carved out of the very

stone of the mountain. It is engraved with ancient dwarven runes that spell the name of the unknown king. So ancient is this tomb, that the letters are unreadable, even as they so clearly of dwarven origin.

Inside the stone sarcophagus are the bones of the king. He still

wears his ceremonial armor (worthless after all these years), and his hands still grip a powerful artifact, the Doomthrower.

The Doomthrower is a stone dwarven warhammer engraved with silver runes that glow in direct moonlight. It is so heavy that it must be wielded with two hands. In addition to dealing 2d6 damage, when thrown by a dwarf (range 15/30/45), it always

returns to his hands. The legend of Doomthrower is strong enough to inspire dwarves to great acts of valor dwarven henchmen of a dwarf who wields this weapon have a morale bomus. Likewise, this is a dwarven weapon no dwarf will follow a non-dwarf who holds this warhammer. Indeed, dwarves will stop at nothing to steal the hammer away from such characters.

Notes:This corner of The Dungeon is a quick side job that serves as a perfect end goal for a quest to recover a treasure. If a player wants a particular staff or wand or other weapon, the DM should replace the Doomthrower with something more appropriate.

Cartography and Copyright NotesThis all began with one clever map, The Mappers Challenge, by the inimitable Dyson Logos, he of theDecahedron Fame. Ive made a few minor alterations to the map to for a variety of small reasons, to create a few more secrets, to help direct low level parties to survivable areas, and of course to throw off players who have seen the map for themselves. The best parts of the maps belong to Dyson, the worst to myself.

Likewise, the cover art is supplied by Dyson Logos as well. Note that this map is NOT the map detailed within. The cover art, The Great Underground, is left partially exposed as a red herring. Clever GMs can leave the cover exposed as a red herring for players who might catch a glimpse of the map.

If you really like this thing, and want to express your gratitude financially, you should consider supporting Dysons Patreon campaign.

The maps are used under a non-exclusive, non-commercial license. All copyright for the map belongs to Dyson Logos.

The written portions of this document is likewise released under a non-exclusive, non-commercial license.

Thanks for reading.