Dungeon ‘23 - Week 7
Week 7 has come and gone and Zone A - The Caves is nearing completion! Coming up with ideas for the different rooms this week was actually a lot easier than I expected after last week. The highlights for me were writing up A17 - The Slug Ranch and A18 - The Tuber Farm. I figured goblins have to eat, and what’s tastier than slimy slug meat and flavorless potato-like “vegetables”? The capstone of this week’s work is A19 - Goblin Town which contains one of two ways to get to Zone B - The Furnace (the other entrance will be detailed next week).
While I’m glad I already wrote up Zone D - The Outer Ward (since it contained a lot of the flavor and themes that I’m going to be using throughout the dungeon) I’m a little bummed that I’ll probably have to wait until mid-March before I can start running some friends through the dungeon on account on the lack of connection between Zones A and D. Alas…
Week 7 was a lot of fun. I had an idea for a swamp witch that I didn’t want to forget so I may have worked ahead a little bit…
A13 - Western Mushroom Grove
Dirt-covered floors and smooth, slick walls. Approximately 40’ W x 25’ L.
Lots of mushrooms of varying sizes and shapes. Aromas mix and mingle in the air in a confusing manner.
A mangled goblin corpse (it looks like it exploded) is in the center of the room. Dozens of tiny gray spores are growing on the torn flesh.
Six goblins surround a scared looking mushroom-like humanoid, poking at it with spears and shouting in their goblin tongue.
The mushroomfolk was born from the goblin, who had eaten a gray capped mushroom. It has the memories of the goblin, but doesn’t know how to communicate with its former kin.
After 20 minutes the noise of the goblins will draw the attention of a mushroomfolk patrol in A5 - The Mushroom Forest. Battle will most likely be joined, with the mushroomfolk being victorious unless the PCs intervene.
Along a cove on the southern end of the chamber is a painting depicting the wizard defeating the wyvern before giving the creature a piece of the demon’s heart and building a second tower on the castle.
A14 - Southern Mushroom Grove
Smooth stone walls and a soft, loamy floor. Approximately 45’ W x 30’ L.
Scores of mushrooms of various heights and shapes. One particularly large mushroom (more than 20 ft. tall) grows by the stream.
The giant mushroom emits spores that lazily float through the air before landing and growing into mushrooms. If a creature inhales a spore, roll a random mushroom effect.
ALong the southeast wall is a painting showing a peryton landing at the castle and swearing fealty to the wizard. In return for its loyalty the wizard grants it a piece of Haborym’s heart and builds a third tower for the beast to call home.
A15 - Mushroom Forest
Dirt floors, heaped in piles resembling small hills. The walls are smooth, but thousands of tiny quartz crystals are embedded in the walls, reflecting and magnifying light sources.
Hundreds of mushrooms fill the room, growing along the floors and lower portions of the cave walls.
A stream flows from a large crack in the eastern wall, creating a stream that forms an island in the middle of the chamber.
Inside the crack is a lever that will open a secret door leading to A25 - The Mushroom Village. A creature can try to find the lever, but if they don’t already know about its location they’ll likely only stumble upon it through sheer luck.
8 Mushroomfolk patrol in the chamber, unless summoned to a neighboring chamber by noise.
Distrusting of outsiders, but not violently hostile. Will try to drive off interlopers, but won’t resort to violence unless threatened or outright attacked.
The northern wall is dominated by a painting of a sphinx debating the wizard just outside the castle. The number of pictograms indicates the debate lasted for years before the wizard finally built the creature a tower and gave it the final piece of the demon’s heart.
Mushroomfolk - STR 12, DEX 8, WIL 13 - HP 5
Spear or Sword (d6), Wooden Armor & Rubbery Hide (2)
- Fight in formation, highly coordinated in their attacks.
- Remain silent, communicate through telepathy-granting spores.
- Often hide among more mundane mushrooms, ambushing enemies.
- Will die before revealing their hidden village to a threat.
A16 - Dragon Fossil Chamber
Massive chamber with a ceiling that disappears from sight. Rough and jagged walls with a dirt floor. Stalagmites and piles of dirt are scattered across the room. Ancient gems and coins scattered throughout the room at random. Approximately 40’ W x 85’ L.
Dozens of goblins toil away under the watchful eye of a corpulent “foreman.” They work tirelessly to unearth a massive dragon fossil. Pieces of fossil are loaded onto giant slugs being used as pack animals.
The foreman, Burk-Burk, is a cunning sort and is willing to work with the PCs. The “stone snek” has been killing his workers - if the PCs kill the “stone snek” he will give them all the gold and gems his workers dig up (they have no value to the goblins).
Burk-Burk believes the “stone sneks” live in a chamber in the northernmost parts of the cave, but no goblin has found the snake’s lair and lived.
Also warns the PCs about the “hag witch” who lives in the “swamp room” to the north. “Tricksy woman, no go to her!”
Four partially buried and locked chests can be found in the room, seemingly unnoticed by the goblin laborers.
One chest contains 1,000 gp in ancient coinage.
Another chest contains 500 gp in various gems and jewelry.
Another chest contains bottles of vintage wines worth upwards of 500 gp to the right collector.
The fourth box contains six random scrolls and a spellbook.
Stone statues of (petrified) goblins can be seen throughout the chamber, many of which look like they are working to dig up the fossil.
A painting on the western wall depicts a goblin tribe being attacked by gnolls and orcs. Many goblins are killed.
A17 - Slug Ranch
Long, narrow chamber with dirt floors and slime-covered walls. Lots of stalagmites with dried mushroom “lumber” used to section off areas of the cave. Approx. 90’ W x 25’ L.
Each pen contains multiple slugs, most the size of ponies or donkeys.
Goblin “ranch hands” scurry back and forth feeding the slugs, cleaning slime and waste, breaking in slugs.
Occasionally lead overweight slugs to the butcher shop in the western side of the cave to be slaughtered and skinned.
A painting in an alcove in the eastern side of the cave depicts the castle suddenly appearing and the wizard unleashing his four beasts upon the gnolls and the orcs, slaughtering them to a one.
A18 - Tuber Farm
An uneven floor made from stone with two large plots of soil made from a mix of “fertilizer” (goblin feces and ground up slugs) and dirt. Approx. 25’ W x 55’ L.
This chamber smells absolutely terrible.
Small cracks in the southern wall allow a small amount of light to filter into the cavern. Too small for anything goblin-sized or larger to pass through.
Goblins grow sickly, potato-like tubers in the dirt. They have almost no flavor, a mushy consistency, they smell terrible, and they give the goblins terrible gas. Highly nutritious, though.
Three hollowed out stalagmites serve as silos for harvested tubers. Locked mushroom-stalk doors.
Twin stalagmites flank a mushroom-stalk palisade, always guarded by at least 4 goblins. They will sound the alarm for reinforcements from A19 - Goblin Town if attacked.
A painting on the northwest wall depicts the goblin tribe sneaking into the caves while the wizard destroys the gnolls and orcs.
A19 - Goblin Town
The pinnacle of goblin civilization in these caves. A massive cavern with smooth, rainbow-striated walls and a rocky floor. Filled with the hustle and bustle of scores of goblins going about their business. Approx. 60’ W x 85’ L.
Broken into three “districts”: Uptown, Midtown, and Downtown.
Downtown contains most of the goblin “businesses.”
A pub where powerful mushroom and tuber spirits are distilled and sold. Live music every night.
A chitin smith who forges weapons and armor from stone and spider chitin.
A general store where random items the goblins find in the caves are bought and sold (more of a pawnshop, really).
A “bank” - really just a clever goblin named Tuk-Yup who tricks other goblins into giving her shiny rocks and gems.
A prison for unruly goblins. Not well-guarded, so most prisoners wander out when they get bored.
Midtown contains many goblin residences, including a massive structure made from a stalagmite and stalactite that fused together. Most homes are made from hollowed out stalagmites or caved into the cave’s walls.
The largest structure serves as the residence of the goblins’ king and a temple to their god Ozzyfrag.
If the PCs slay the basilisk and maintain good relations with the goblins they’ll be named king and be given this residence. Eventually some goblin will think they’d make a better king and try to usurp. Such is goblin politics.
The temple contains Ozzyfrag’s Wand, rumored to be a piece of the sorcerer’s staff.
A graveyard was built next to the mansion/temple. Most tombstones cite falling as the cause of death.
Uptown is where the wealthiest goblins live in hollowed out stalactites. Mushroom-stalk ramps and rope bridges connect Uptown houses to one another and to the other two “districts.” Goblins regularly fall to their deaths.
A massive painting on the northern wall depicts the goblins crowning a king in their new home while worshiping the wizard as a god.
The image of the throne is painted on a chunk of rock that protrudes from the wall. Warm air thick with the odor of sulfur leaks past this part of the painting, belying a secret door leading to Zone B - The Furnace.
Ozzyfrag’s Wand - Functions as Spellbook
A legitimate piece of one of Ossifrage’s many staves. It is imbued with the remnants of a random spell. The first casting of this spell each day does not cause fatigue. Otherwise the wand functions identically to a spellbook.
