Dungeon ‘23 - Week 13

As with the previous zones, I’ve cut this week “short” to keep rooms from the same zone together. The Furnace Layer turned out very differently than I previously imagined, which wasn’t hard since the only idea I originally had for it was “The Room of Calicfer from Howl’s Moving Castle, but evil." However, one room still leaves 30 to go for the month of March so I got to work figuring out a few more room ideas. Zone B - The Furnace will definitely need a reordering of rooms come final edits time (it wasn’t nearly as bad as Zone D - The Outer Ward), but overall I’m quite pleased with how things turned out.

I feel like I’ve said this for the last two Zones, but I’m a little nervous about Zone C - The Dungeons. Not sure exactly how I want to lay it out. I think it’s going to have a lot of named NPCs that can serve as potential allies and/or replacement characters as PCs get themselves killed through stupidity or bad luck. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what strikes me as I work through rooms each day.

The final draft for Zone B - The Furnace, a.k.a. the Lair of Haborym and the “engine” of the Castle.

B27 - The Golem Assembly

• Locked stone double-door with image of Haborym’s skull. No handles, no key holes. Flanked by a pair of crystal pillars (as B26).

• Door can be unlocked by shining all seven colors of light on it.

• Long chamber, brazier on the eastern wall allows Haborym to oversee construction of his army (1-in-6 chance he’s checking in on the room).

• Large brass hoop, 20 ft across, hangs on the western wall. It’s covered in runes, but doesn’t appear to be doing anything.

• It is a portal, but Haborym cannot activate it while Ossifrage lives for fear of catching the sorcerer’s attention.

• Can open to any location on the current plan, allowing Haborym to send his golems out into the world to do his bidding.

• A smaller brass loop, equally rune-carved, hangs from the northern wall. A large stone container sits on rails, filled with orichalcum ingots (each worth 500 gp to the right buyer, but incredibly heavy).

• Also a portal, connected to B28 - Shipping Chamber. Ingots are transported here once a day at midnight.

• Cart and rail runs past furnaces and anvils to deliver ingots to the 6 Iron Golems tirelessly working to assemble Orichalcum Golems for Haboryn’s army. It takes a week to build such a creature. Ten have already been crafted and stand at the ready by the western portal.

Orichalcum Golem - STR 16, DEX 14, WIL 10 - HP 15

Slam (d10+2), Orichalcum Hide (3)

- Twelve feet tall, cast in the likeness of great heroes of olde - beautiful to behold. Eyes made from rubies, each easily worth 1,000 gp.

- Resists all non-magical weapons and attacks. Any spell cast upon it has a 3-in-6 chance of being reflected back upon the caster.

- Fanatically loyal to Haborym (or whichever creature displaces him). Follows his orders without question.

B28 - Shipping Chamber

• Doors to B5 and B20 are obvious from inside this room.

• Brazier allows Haborym to check in on the room.  1-in-6 chance he’s relaying orders to the Imps.

• Brass loop covered in runes hangs from the northern wall. A portal connected to B27 - The Golem Assembly.

• 2d4 Furnace Imps fill the stone container with orichalcum ingots made from B5 - The Forge. Send it through the portal at midnight each day.

Furnace Imp - STR 6, DEX 12, WIL 9 - HP 6

Burning Fangs (d6, Dex Save or target takes another d6), No Armor

- A flaming skull with bat wings, flits about chaotically.

- Speaks quickly with a voice that snaps and pops like burning wood.

- Turns invisible and flies away if it fears for its life.

B29 - The Chasm

• A long chamber with perilously steep stone walls.  A waterfall on the eastern end fills the chasm with pure spring water from the heart of the landmass the castle was built upon.

• Orichalcum pipes cut into the stone walls pump runoff and slag into the water constantly, polluting it and filling the air with a brackish, sulfuric malaise.

• Water flows west toward several cavernous holes in the rock. Flow down and dump the water in Zone A - The Witch’s Swamp.

• Small islands dot the “river” each consisting of little more than stone and perhaps some hardy lichen.

B30 - South Chasm Overlook

• A small cave in the chasm wall sits 30 ft. above the putrid, roiling waters below.

• Small barricade of stones and scrap.

• 4 Furnace Imps loyal to Ember keep an eye on B23 - Camp’s Hidden Entrance. Remain invisible and will sound an alarm to Ember using Sending Stones.

Furnace Imp - STR 6, DEX 12, WIL 9 - HP 6

Burning Fangs (d6, Dex Save or target takes another d6), No Armor

- A flaming skull with bat wings, flits about chaotically.

- Speaks quickly with a voice that snaps and pops like burning wood.

- Turns invisible and flies away if it fears for its life.

Sending Stones - 7 Charges

A pair of linked stones carved with ancient runes. A message lasting no more than 1 minute can be sent from one stone to another, and a response of the same length can be returned. To recharge, the stones must rest upon the tongues of two creatures capable of speech for 24 hours while they remain completely silent, but awake.

B31 - Laborer Bunkhouse

• Small, cramped room.  Stuffy and reeks of body odor and humanoid waste.

• Nine bunks, each with three beds, crammed into the room. Lock boxes with dirty clothes shoved under the bottom bed.

• Stained mattresses can be found on the floor wherever they can fit between the bunks.

• Laborers are constantly rotating through the room - one creature gets up and an exhausted labor fresh off their shift falls into the still warm bed.

• Half-hearted fights occasionally break out, but end quickly and with minimum injury.