The Level 6 map is actually the last of the series, the ninth map I drew post-hurricane (and, mercifully, our final night without power, which came on the next afternoon). This is also the last of the "finished" levels in which there is stonework, excavated rooms and corridors, and features like doors and such. The remaining three levels are caves and caverns (with the exception of a finished temple area on Level 9).
I recall designing this map specifically as a maze with chambers, rather than a functional "place." With a few exceptions, the rooms are 30x30 with doors at one or more cardinal points, and most corridors are 50' or less in length. It's a tight, circuitous space without obvious purpose. It reminds me of an architectural circuit board, which perhaps has some sacred geometric significance for the empress's arcane machinations.
Compared to other levels, there are fewer secret doors, but all the larger rooms are hidden behind them. I don't recall making that deliberate creative choice, but it's an interesting one from a design point of view. It will also create these tantalizing blank spaces on the party's map, obvious secret locations with difficult to locate entrances far removed from the actual area. I see this level as a place where the empress hid important things inside a baffling maze. (She's insane, so who knows what she's thinking?)
There are also four staircases to other levels, one ascending and three descending. I was able to incorporate the ascending stair into the map for Level 5, and I had two additional staircases down from Level 5 that I needed to add to this map. Finally, I rolled four access routes on the stocking rolls for this level: A chute down one level, a stair down 2 levels, a stair down 3 levels, and a chimney down 2 levels. Finally-finally, the original map has two teleporting hallways which could be interconnected, or they could lead to other areas/levels.
In the end, trying to add more multi-level stairs into the cavern levels below proved too tricky to resolve in a way that was satisfying, so I kept the chute and the chimney routes, and counted the two teleporting hallways as the stocked stairs, one of which goes to Level 8 and the other to Level 9 (as a backdoor into the evil temple). Doing so also provided me with a rationale for the fire giant who lives on this level. With shading, titles, and all the incidental features added, the map ended up like this:
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My content stocking rolls (for a 44-room dungeon level) came up with the following results:
–Empty: 16 (36% / 35%)
–Monster: 8 (18% / 20%)
–Monster + Treasure: 10 (23% / 25%)
–Stairs: 4 (9% / 5%)
–Trick/Trap: 3 (7% / 5%)
–Treasure: 3 (7% / 5%)
The
first % number is the percentage of the actual content rolls; the
second % number is the typical expected percentage spread (per OSRIC
guidelines).
For the "Monster Only" results, I rolled once each on DMG table III (wererats), table IV (poisonous toads); table V (giant spiders), table VI (wraiths), and twice on table VII (shambling mound, mind flayer). I also rolled once on Fiend Folio table II (lizard man) and once on table III (bonesnappers). There were no results using the Monster Manual II.
For monsters with treasure, I rolled once each on DMG table I (zombies), table II (gas spores), table III (gelatinous cubes), table IV (carnivorous apes), and table V (cockatrices); FF table III (gambados), table V (leucrottas), and table VII (fire giant); and MMII table I (giant bats) and table VIII (will-o-wisp).
Much of this seemed underwhelming, though there are a few good dungeon classics (wererats, gelatinous cubes, and wraiths) and some heavy-hitters (shambling mound, mind flayer, fire giant, will-o-wisp). Indoor leucrottas could be a challenge to place (logically and tactically). I don't remember using gas spores in the past but my recollection was that they are weak sauce (which they definitely aren't). I know I've never used gambados before, and I've always regarded them as a gimmick monster without much *oomph* (which they are).
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| DCS isn't my favorite old-school artist, but this one perfectly encapsulates the monster. |
Nevertheless, it's basically a low-grade fireball primed to blow, a wandering trap designed to trick trigger-happy players into charging and attacking before realizing it's a fake. If multiple gas spores are encountered, this could easily be a daisy-chain situation, in which the detonation of one triggers the rest. It's a pretty slow monster (move 30), but it only needs to get within 20' of its victims to have a devastating effect. If the characters get into melee with one, it rubs against a victim to transmit its spores, infecting the creature with a deadly growth then dying in an orgasmic rush. The victim also dies within 24 hours (meaning they have 1–24 hours to get treated, not 24 hours). Of course, having only 1 hp means the gas spore attacks on the lowest, "Up to 1–1" HD column on the attack matrix, so the odds of a successful contact are low. Still, it's a potent encounter under the right circumstances, but not much else (and easily avoided). Meaner than I remembered, for sure.
It's an "okay" monster on first glance, though an immediate flaw is apparent. Despite going on and on about how the creature's springing ability works, and how it camouflages its presence to appear to be just a skull lying on the ground, the gambado gains no combat advantage from either lengthy detail. There is no modified surprise chance for the jump-scare attack, nor does the powerful leap provide any bonus to hit or have any effect whatsoever (presumably, it has a killer dunk on the basketball court). Sure, it has three attacks, but not on the springing round, and even then the extra attacks don't do a lot of damage (paired daggers, essentially). Also, its bite does 1d8 damage, regardless of whether its skull-head is a human or a lion.
Pretty lame, but I did the best I could with it. Well, not exactly true... I gave it a situational surprise chance of 1–4, and I added a circumstance in which, if the gambado beats party initiative by more than 4 segments, it can spring out, attack, and withdraw before the characters can react (unless they prepare an attack beforehand). Yes, this isn't how the creature is supposed to work exactly, but I'm making an exception in this case to make the encounter at least semi-interesting.
I did do quite a bit of switching monsters between those with treasure and those without (carnivorous apes < > mind flayer, zombies < > wererats, and gas spores < > wraiths). This was to accommodate some of the magic treasures I rolled up (e.g., when Pipes of the Sewers came up on the stocking roll, I knew that item had to go with the wererats). Also because I wanted any fight with a mind flayer and/or pair of wraiths to have a payoff (I also wanted to use the wraiths as guards for another of the magic items I rolled).
With 13 treasures to roll out, I came up with a lot of copper, silver, and electrum, and a few gold and platinum results. Only one gem/jewelry result, but since this is level 6, the amount is multiplied by 6. As stated in another post, for these cases I don't roll once and multiply by 6; rather, I roll 6 times for 1–3 gems or 1 jewelry (I like the variety of treasure this method provides better).
In AD&D, a "Magic Item" result means ONE item; whereas in OSRIC it means one item PER LEVEL. I rolled 2 magic items stocking results, which means a total of 12 items. For this level, I came up with a Wand of Fire, a Potion of Invulnerability, a Defender Longsword, a +2 Trident, a Potion of Heroism, a Scroll of Protection from Undead, a Potion of Gaseous Form, +1 Scale Mail, +1 Shield, +1 Banded Armor, a Scroll of Know Alignment (2/Cl).
I also rolled the bonus items for this level, another 12 rolls (i.e., 2 per level). In this case, one of my rolls was a "Roll Twice" result, while another was "Roll once on Table I and once on Table II), meaning 12 bonus items turned into 14. These were Oil of Etherealness, a Cursed Arrow, a +2 Shield, a Potion of Fire Resistance, a +3 Hammer, (14) +1 Arrows, Bracers of Armor (+6), a Cloak of Resistance, a Periapt of Proof Against Poison, a Bag of Holding (Type I), a Scroll of Protection from Petrification, Oil of Slipperiness, Pipes of the Sewers, and – BEHOLD! – a Wand of Wonder.
I was super-jazzed when the wand came up, as it's such an iconic D&D item and a great way to inject a big dose of the random unknown into the game. Some of its powers are beneficial, while others can really barf up a party. But it's completely out of the hands of the DM (which I find exhilarating on my side of the screen), and the players have no one else to blame but themselves as they make the choice to use it. Wonderful!
With this level, I decided to end the "bonus item" program. I was trying to make up for the utter lack of items on the early levels, and I feel the change more than compensated for that. It didn't help that I had so many magic item results on the mid-level stocking rolls, resulting in a glut. Going forward into the lower third of the dungeon, I'll let the rolls stand where they may. Despite the volume, I make many of the items difficult to find/obtain so as to not be a total giveaway.
Another note about treasure distribution. I developed my own method of allocating the treasure to the various locations because, if you go by the book, when you have a magic item result with multiple items due to the level modifier, they are all in the same location. What I do is, first roll out the list of all treasures (with or without monsters, and regardless of location), then roll a separate list of all containers and whether they are hidden and/or trapped (using another custom method).
I then roll all base coin amounts in OSRIC, adjusted by an "over/under" roll to randomize the final amount, then make individual gem/jewelry/magic item rolls (also in OSRIC). Once I have my lists of treasures and containers, I allocate treasure in rounds to more randomly disperse everything. For example, in the first round of allocation, I take my list of containers and roll 1 treasure for each from the list (removing it from list, obviously). In the second round, I go back through the list of containers and roll 50/50 chance for each one to contain an additional treasure item. If "yes," I roll from the treasure list and remove it. In the third and subsequent rounds, I repeat this process for every container, even if they got a "no" on the previous round, until all treasure items are distributed. Once all the individual treasure hoards are compiled, I then place them in the various locations, according to what seems logical and appropriate.
With the rest of the dungeon stocking, I had higher than normal results for Stairs and Trick/Traps (all 3 were "Tricks"). Because I had enough stairs on the map already, and because I was having difficulty locating stairs down multiple levels, I decided to count the two existing teleporting halls into two of the problematic stairs. This created a slight problem, as I did not count the teleporting corridors into the number of room stocking rolls I made, so two location numbers now had no corresponding content rolls.
Similarly, I had combined several monster results into one (group) encounter, and also merged a few rooms that should have only had one thing (e.g., stairs) into rooms with two things (e.g., stairs and a trap), so I ended up with a total of seven rooms on the map unaccounted for in the stocking rolls. I rerolled to see how many were "Empty" (3 rooms were) and, because I wanted to boost the non-combat-challenge quotient for this particular level, I simply made the remaining four rooms "Trick/Trap" results (1 trick, 3 traps).
Combined with the 3 tricks that came up in the original stocking rolls, the 4 tricks rolled out to be: An idol that decreases Dexterity, a painting that dispenses a map, a pool with reverse wish fulfillment, and a "shifting" painting (whatever that means). The three traps came up as a neck-high wire, a pit with a locking trap door, and a lightning bolt.
I had already imagined this level as a funhouse/puzzle-maze just based on its layout, and the rolls didn't disappoint. I ended up throwing a lot of my own "special" ideas into the various encounters and treasures on level 6. Almost everything has some complication or obstacle to suss out, and I ended up quite pleased with the variety of things to do and interact with here. A lot of the dangers can be avoided, but by doing so, many of the treasure/reward opportunities will be missed.
All told, Level 6 contains ~570 HD of monsters (not counting wandering monsters), for an approximate total of 31,464 xp. Monetary treasure comes out to 25,449 xp (not counting individual loots). Magic item xp is 35,380 for items kept in AD&D, or 19,455 for items kept in OSRIC. Selling the items nets 167,580 xp in AD&D, or 194,550 xp in OSRIC.
Total xp for this level should run around 92,293 (224,493) using AD&D rules, or 76,368 (251,463) using OSRIC.
>>Hurricane Dungeon – Level 6 Key
>>Hurricane Dungeon – Level 6 Map
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