Megadungeon 23: Week 14

On By Wittering of a worldbuilderIn Maps, Megadungeon 233 Comments

Welcome back to Megadungeon 23, a concept developed by Sean McCoy over on his blog here.

It is a project that I have decided to embark upon this year as a non-labour intensive side project to help develop a cool megadungeon for my world. The idea is simple in premise: draw a dungeon room a day, everyday; for the whole year. 365 dungeon rooms, drawn in 7 room sections. Each month will represent one layer of the megadungeon, resulting in a 12 layer dungeon by the end of the year.

Here is Week 14 – The Dwarven Palace. This is the ruling seat of the Stonehand Dwarven City forming this level of the Megadungeon. The palace complex includes the Royal apartments and the halls from which the City Council met and governed. However, 200 years ago, the City was abandoned due to a mysterious sickness known as ‘Gold Sickness’ that drove the leaders and many of their subjects mad over time. The Palace was locked up and sealed off from the rest of the city by revolting peasantry and turncoat guards, but sadly, this was not enough to stem the flow of sickness throughout the population.

Continue reading “Megadungeon 23: Week 14” →

Megadungeon 23: Week 13

On By Wittering of a worldbuilderIn Maps, Megadungeon 23Leave a comment

Welcome back to Megadungeon 23, a concept developed by Sean McCoy over on his blog here.

It is a project that I have decided to embark upon this year as a non-labour intensive side project to help develop a cool megadungeon for my world. The idea is simple in premise: draw a dungeon room a day, everyday; for the whole year. 365 dungeon rooms, drawn in 7 room sections. Each month will represent one layer of the megadungeon, resulting in a 12 layer dungeon by the end of the year.

Here is Week 13 – The Halls of the Timekeepers. This is a section of an ancient Stonehand Dwarf settlement where the Dwarves would keep their sacred ‘Tally’ on the passage of time and mark the hours of the ‘Day’ from a bell tower that once rang out across the settlement. The Timekeepers recorded time, kept history and in some cases predicted future events from these halls, whilst others of their sect tinkered and experimented with smaller timekeeping devices.

Continue reading “Megadungeon 23: Week 13” →

Megadungeon 23: Week 11 & 12

On By Wittering of a worldbuilderIn Maps, Megadungeon 23Leave a comment

Welcome back to Megadungeon 23, a concept developed by Sean McCoy over on his blog here.

It is a project that I have decided to embark upon this year as a non-labour intensive side project to help develop a cool megadungeon for my world. The idea is simple in premise: draw a dungeon room a day, everyday; for the whole year. 365 dungeon rooms, drawn in 7 room sections. Each month will represent one layer of the megadungeon, resulting in a 12 layer dungeon by the end of the year.

These last two weeks have been extremely hectic in real life and as a result I have not had any time to publish my work or keep on top of it all on a daily basis – Hence the lack of post last week. This time of year is a bit of a pinch point in the teaching profession and the combination of work stress, exam marking, life admin and other busy events has taken me away from this project. Nevertheless, I have managed to recover my pace and complete the last two weeks and so today, you have a double post to read!#Here are Weeks 11 & 12 – Two more sections of the Wildercave Complexes!

Continue reading “Megadungeon 23: Week 11 & 12” →

Megadungeon 23: Week 10

On By Wittering of a worldbuilderIn Maps, Megadungeon 231 Comment

Welcome back to Megadungeon 23, a concept developed by Sean McCoy over on his blog here.

It is a project that I have decided to embark upon this year as a non-labour intensive side project to help develop a cool megadungeon for my world. The idea is simple in premise: draw a dungeon room a day, everyday; for the whole year. 365 dungeon rooms, drawn in 7 room sections. Each month will represent one layer of the megadungeon, resulting in a 12 layer dungeon by the end of the year.

Here is Week 10 – The Old Mines. This area was dug out by the prospectors of Dingeport above after a vein of iron ore was discovered. Mining down revealed a large open crevasse, named ‘the Red Maw’ which was crimson with exposed ore. The miners set up a pretty good network of vertical and horizontal shafts and had a fairly efficient and well-supplied mining complex, until they accidentally struck the Wildercaves, unleashing their murky denizens.

Continue reading “Megadungeon 23: Week 10” →

Megadungeon 23: Week 9

On By Wittering of a worldbuilderIn Maps, Megadungeon 232 Comments

Welcome back to Megadungeon 23, a concept developed by Sean McCoy over on his blog here.

It is a project that I have decided to embark upon this year as a non-labour intensive side project to help develop a cool megadungeon for my world. The idea is simple in premise: draw a dungeon room a day, everyday; for the whole year. 365 dungeon rooms, drawn in 7 room sections. Each month will represent one layer of the megadungeon, resulting in a 12 layer dungeon by the end of the year.

Here is Week 9 – The first section of the Wildercaves, a wild level of the underground world, where civilised creatures have tried and failed to colonise. This area is particularly plentiful in life, surviving on the evolving food chain established by geothermal processes and the water supply provided by the world above. Nowadays, many adventurers brave the Wildercaves to explore and forage the depths of the world for riches to return to the surface world.

Continue reading “Megadungeon 23: Week 9” →

Monster Musings: The Ankheg (Ficula)

On By Wittering of a worldbuilderIn Bestiary, Worldbuilding3 Comments

Welcome to Monster Musings. In this post, I will explore one classic monster from the Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual and either redesign it using historical myths or take inspiration from it to create a new, realistic creature that could exist in my world – Egaar. I will try to remain true to the original monster influences but am aiming to create something with a new and interesting take.

[Adapted from Monster Manual, 2014, WoTC]

Continue reading “Monster Musings: The Ankheg (Ficula)” →

Megadungeon 23: Week 8

On By Wittering of a worldbuilderIn Maps, Megadungeon 23Leave a comment

Welcome back to Megadungeon 23, a concept developed by Sean McCoy over on his blog here.

It is a project that I have decided to embark upon this year as a non-labour intensive side project to help develop a cool megadungeon for my world. The idea is simple in premise: draw a dungeon room a day, everyday; for the whole year. 365 dungeon rooms, drawn in 7 room sections. Each month will represent one layer of the megadungeon, resulting in a 12 layer dungeon by the end of the year.

Here is Week 8 – Dingeport – A Goblyn trading town on the edge of a deep chasm, where folk from all areas of the world below congregate to trade in their dark arts and dangerous wares.

Continue reading “Megadungeon 23: Week 8” →

Megadungeon 23: Week 7

On By Wittering of a worldbuilderIn Maps, Megadungeon 232 Comments

Welcome back to Megadungeon 23, a concept developed by Sean McCoy over on his blog here.

It is a project that I have decided to embark upon this year as a non-labour intensive side project to help develop a cool megadungeon for my world. The idea is simple in premise: draw a dungeon room a day, everyday; for the whole year. 365 dungeon rooms, drawn in 7 room sections. Each month will represent one layer of the megadungeon, resulting in a 12 layer dungeon by the end of the year.

Here is Week 7 – Lakeside Terrace – A small Goblyn hamlet on the side of the underground lake.

Continue reading “Megadungeon 23: Week 7” →

Megadungeon23: Week 6

On By Wittering of a worldbuilderIn Maps, Megadungeon 231 Comment

Welcome back to Megadungeon 23, a concept developed by Sean McCoy over on his blog here.

It is a project that I have decided to embark upon this year as a non-labour intensive side project to help develop a cool megadungeon for my world. The idea is simple in premise: draw a dungeon room a day, everyday; for the whole year. 365 dungeon rooms, drawn in 7 room sections. Each month will represent one layer of the megadungeon, resulting in a 12 layer dungeon by the end of the year.

Here is Week 6 – The Goblyn Industry

Continue reading “Megadungeon23: Week 6” →

Megadungeon 23 Bonus Content: Section 1 Encounter Table

On By Wittering of a worldbuilderIn Megadungeon 232 Comments

As part of my Megadungeon project, I thought I’d experiment with creating some encounter ideas. I conducted lots of research on the creation of random encounter tables and finally decided on a design I liked that incorporated a full mix of what I wanted from my table. This included a mix of NPCs, Faction encounters, Combat encounters and Environmental encounters, as well as the potential of just missing encounters through ideas taken from the old Wandering Monster tables of older editions. I further wanted a table that could be used for the entire first level of my Megadungeon and so incorporated smaller nested tables within it for different sections of the level. However, if I want true randomness, I can still use it as a d20 table.

Level 1 of the Megadungeon

Using MS Paint I crudely cut together the 4 sections of Level 1 into the below map.

Continue reading “Megadungeon 23 Bonus Content: Section 1 Encounter Table” →