Megadungeon: laying the foundations

I want to run a campaign centered around a megadungeon one day. And why not creating my own? I have been collecting ideas the last few weeks, and here are the results. Everything is subject to change, provided I go through with this project. Please, have a read, and steal everything you deem worth it.

A loose origin

There is an antediluvian wish-granting engine buried somewhere. And one day a peasant found it whilst toiling his field. He asked to be made king, and the machine designed him an underground palace ripe with riches and domestics, with gardens and therms.

The first level.

The engine sank deeper.

Word of the treasure the palace contained soon traveled the land, and attracted curious and greedy visitors. They pillaged the place and killed the new king twice. Finally, they met the engine too.

The second level.

The third level.

The engine sinks, slower and slower as its becomes harder to reach.

The fourth level.

Each new layer a realm to a new god, or so they think.

The fifth level.

They forgot the engine, this place is cursed.

The sixth level. The seventh level and the eight.

What will happen, should you reach the engine? Will you too ask for your own dominion?

I think that there should be a secret layer, the engine’s “mind”. A Place of chaos, and also the only way to stop this madness for attracting greed and power forever.

5 Factions to Live Here

The royal guard

• They come from outside.
• The law is always on their side.
• Intruders will be captured.

They occupy the first layer(s), controlling as much as they can the entries. They are organized and full of themselves, positioning themselves as the unique authority of the place. The king knows this place is full of horrors and wants to control what goes in and out. Or maybe he knows about and seeks some treasure down there?

The Rocktopus

• Made of rock, live in the walls as if it was water.
• Pet sharks (made of rock too).
• Can use the floor and the ceiling too, but feel uncomfortable doing so.

They are just cool, I don’t know. Also imagine you see a giant rock octopus swimming toward you, one axe per tentacle? Oh my, the players will love being killed by these guys!

Inspired by Jérôme Moucherot’s comic Les Dents du Recoin.

A hive, an infection, a deadly mirror

• What one knows, all will soon know.
• Will copy your tactics, your gear, your magic.
• These mud pits slowly vomit them endlessly, unless burnt for 3 days and 3 nights.

Inspired by Skerples’ Fungus Goblins from Tomb of the Serpent Kings.

Elves?

• Embodiment of the climate, ever changing.
• The air changes: dense fog, toxic pollens, immense heat, freezing cold.
• Claim they come from outside but only found in the dungeon.

Basically eladrins, but with more punch. I should design some king of “climate wheel” and advance it every day/week/session maybe. Can’t find a cool name yet, so I will probably use “eladrin”.

Mushrooms?

• Warlike, conquerors.
• An infinity of variants.
• Come from deep below.

I should go crazy when designing these guys. No two should have the same weird abilities, so that the players will be terrified of meeting them (well, like the other factions actually). They should nover reach the surface or bad things will happen.

5 Secrets for your Pleasure

These secrets are things that can be learned about the dungeon, patterns. Once you know them, you will navigate more easily or reach hidden treasures. They require some tinkering or luck to understand; or you can learn them from someone maybe?

Temporal doors: a set of doors with special locks. Each lock unlock for one day every X days; each lock bears a symbol representing this number of days. A door can have multiple locks. These doors can be used to either restrain access to sub-levels, or drastically change every day the navigation possibilities in a level. Once you learn the symbols you can wait for a specific expedition day.

The spirit’s shared dream: a set of underground temples each hosting a spirit. Thes spirit has a vivid personality; should you do one a favor, they will let you enter their shared dream when you visit them. The shared dream is an odd dungeon level with its own logic (maybe an entire region?). If you find the other spirits in the dream you can leave at this spirit’s temple. So the more you befriend these spirits, the more entrances you unlock to this special level, which allows you to bypass large sections of the dungeon. A kind of weird half-safe fast-travel.

Undead bunkers: a set of small sub-levels beyond the dungeon’s edge, built by an ancient faction. Cursed? Punished? They have all been turned into undead. The entrances are all secrets, and you will probably have to take apart wall sections. Near the entrances one may spot old graffitis, and maybe one or two undead.

Inspired by a place I know.

Expedition Memorials: a set of statues, erected by an old faction to commemorate lost expeditions. “Call my name in this dark place and I will grant you help”. Call the expedition’s name and you will receive some kind of favor; destroy the statue and you will find the expedition’s gear and treasure buried under, and that the statue is now empty of power. Each statue has a date and a cause of death, maybe encoded like “1943 M 33” or something like that. You have to deduce who it represents by using these clues outside, perhaps in some other ruins or great city. Good for breaking the dungeon’s monotony, good for making the players come back.

The level’s master: each level has or have had a master. Learn who there are, and you will deduce things about the level. It’s that simple. Ask the inhabitants what they know, observe your surrounding, seek rare books! Also the engine will always create (and maintain) multiple connections between levels, despite the master’s wish and later efforts. It wants to be found again.

Conclusion

Would you look at the time, it’s mapping time baby!