Recently my open table megadungeon campaign has been expanded into an open table hexcrawl campaign. One of the interesting consequences is that players can become intensely focused on the idea of being “scooped” by other groups: There have been discussions about need to “get back here quick” before someone else can swoop in; there have been a few feelings of friendly acrimony about groups “getting lucky” on the backs of another group clearing out the “tough stuff”; and at some point there is going to be a group that goes delving into a complex that has recently been emptied by someone else.

The adventure I’m about to share is not one of those. But it was designed with that final concern in mind: Knowing that cleared out dungeon complexes were going to crop up eventually, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to key a few in ahead of time. I knew that I was going to be keeping a “restock checklist” as part of my campaign status document for the hexcrawl, and I figured pre-seeding it with a few entries would actually be for the best.

Which brings us to hex K13: The Ruined Temple of Illhan.

I’ve mentioned previously that I drew on the work of Dyson Logos considerably when it came to stocking the hexes for this campaign. The Temple of Illhan was one of those maps, and you can find Dyson’s original maps on his site (along with a lot of other wonderful stuff). In this case, Dyson had posted the map, but not the key. So it was very easy to simply plug in the map; write, “Nothing down here. Currently completely cleaned out.” And then move on to the next hex.

A few days ago, one of my groups stumbled onto the temple while looking for something else entirely. They decided to check it out, quickly concluded that it was not the place they were looking for, and then decided to continue exploring it any way. I found the resulting session (and the need to make an empty complex as entertaining as possible) intensely interesting and it seems like most of the players agreed.

(One of the players, unfortunately, was less than happy with exploring an entire complex that had nothing he could stick a sword in. It clashed hard with his expectation that “if there’s a dungeon, there will be monsters”. But based on the brief discussion I had after the session with him, it seems like the session helped reinforce the idea that, in a sandbox, you don’t have to stick around. Because there are a lot of options to pursue, you don’t have to engage with the options that don’t entertain you. That’s the great thing about them: As a DM I’m there to facilitate your entertainment, but I’m not responsible for it. It takes a lot of pressure out of the prep work.)

What I’ll be presenting over the next few days is the full key for the dungeon as it was developed in play. We’ll start today with the portion of the temple which remains above ground.

Special thanks to Dyson Logos for giving me permission to reproduce his maps and the adventure key as part of this series. (It should be noted, however, that the map of the above ground temple below is not Dyson’s work. His stuff is much, much cooler.)

I’ll also note that Dyson has has posted some session logs of his group playing through the original version of the temple. My version of the temple isn’t based on those logs at all, but it might be interesting to do a side-by-side comparison of the same map being used in two different ways.

THE RUINED TEMPLE

(Map drawn in Dundjinni.)

DOORS: Front doors hang loosely from their hinges. They appear to have been smashed open. The splintered wood is gray and desiccated, however, indicating the damage is well-weathered with age.

TREE: A stunted, twisted growth.

COLLAPSE: Tumbles out across the prairie. Grass is growing up amidst the rubble pile. The pile can be easily climbed over to enter or exit the church.

INTERIOR: Filled with rubble. It appears that the upper floors of the building collapsed at some point. This rubble has been scooped out to the right and the left beyond the door, however, forming a path leading to a stone block in the far end of the building (the altar).

ALTAR: A kind of stone block. On the side of which is a bas relief depicting crossed hammers.

SECRET STAIRS: The stone block has actually been pushed forwards towards the door, partially revealing stairs going down. (Originally it would have cleared the stairs entirely, but it has ground to a halt and is now jammed halfway open, forcing human-sized characters to squeeze through.)

Continued tomorrow…

I was working on underwater rules that would be both (a) useful and (b) simple when I came across this photograph. Although the explanation for this ladder is probably pedestrian, it evokes in me a deep sense that something is down there. Something strange or magical or enigmatical or terrifying. But something.

You’ve got a ladder leading down into a placid pool of endless blue-green. Small waterfalls babble and crash through the quiet confines of the emerald forest.

So you tell me: What’s down the ladder?

Cricket = PC.

After viewing the photo above, I had a sudden compulsion to map out the demesnes and citadels of the ice dwarves.

Let us take Gimli’s speech regarding the Glittering Caves and reshape it to our purposes:

“Strange are the ways of men! Here they have one of the marvels of the Northern World, and what do they say of it? Ice, they say! Ice! Glaciers to take water from in time of need! My good elf, do you know that the glaciers of the Frozen Sea are vast and beautiful? There would be an endless pilgrimage of dwarves, merely to gaze at them, if such things were known! Aye indeed, they would pay pure gold for a brief glance!

“Do think those halls are fair where your King dwells in his castle of ice mounded up from the snows? It is but a hovel compared with the wonders I have seen here: Immeasurable halls, filled with everlasting music of water that tinkles into pools as fair as the mirrored sea in moonlight!

“And when the torches are kindled and men walk upon the snowy floors, ah! Then the walls cast shadows that dance with all the puppeteer’s skill among rivulets and eddies of twisted frost! There are columns of hard white holding up roofs of endless, perfect blue — waves of an ocean which laps but once in a millennium! It is a glimmering world viewed through cerulean glass; cities, such as the mind of Durin could scarce have imagined in his sleep, stretch on through avenues and pillared courts, on into dark recesses where no light can come. And plink! A silver drop falls, and round wrinkles in the glass make all the towers bend and waver like weeds and corals in a grotto of the sea.”

Thus did the first dwarf fall in love with realms of ice and turn his purposes towards them.

But that was long ago, and the halls which those elder races wrought have been compressed and changed and turned by the tides of time. They are now perilous with the weight of the ice above them, but the slow, grinding pressures of those places have not wholly deformed the wonders which have been left behind.

In addition to whatever other treasures may lurk down there, there’s a fair market for the snow suns which once lit those halls. The art of their craft has been lost, but they burn with a cold light which can nonetheless light fires to keep the limbs of the living warm while leaving untouched the ice about them.

(You should also click thru; the original photographer has a lot of really great inspirational photos.)

Deer in Scotland have begun biting off the heads of baby birds, sucking out their bones, and leaving behind deformed carcasses of deflated meat. Apparently they’re seeking to supplement the limited calcium in their diet (which they need in order to support the growth of their mating antlers)

But slap on a ritualistic patterning to the bird murders, and you’ve got the basic building blocks of a pretty decent horror scenario. (Or are the birds the real problem with the deer being enchanted by a local druid circle to stop whatever cuckoo terror is nesting on the island?)

Alternatively, crank up the stakes in a fantasy horror game: Replace “baby birds” with “actual babies”. Replace “deer” with “dire deer”. (Possibly deer who have become dire due to their blood-drinking rites. And what happens when the bloodcraze begins to spread?)