The Hurricane Dungeon – The Curséd Caverns (Level 9)

With this map, the eighth of nine, we come to the finale of the Hurricane Dungeon. Out of all the levels, I fiddled with the content on this one the most as I wanted to both wrap up the threads that developed while writing, and come to some sort of conclusion at the bottom. This doesn't preclude expanding the levels and restocking the plundered areas, and there's a whole 'nother, even-higher level adventure to be designed for the Ivory Tower in the palace ruins, but the party can also call it a day if they conquer this level.

The original penultimate map is a more well-defined "location." I mean to say, it has a presence and implied function just by looking at it. It screams "evil temple" and seemed perfect for a conclusion-type area.

I like underground rivers, but even more than that, I love underground lakes. Gary really captured my imagination for natural underground spaces with the D-series of modules (and Tsojcanth, to a lesser extent). "The Sunless Sea" is just such an evocative name, and if the drow hadn't been co-opted by Forgotten Realms' "Underdreck" and turned into lame edgelords, I could have easily seen myself adapting Gary's source material into a full-on underground campaign.  I also relished accounts of the Black Reservoir level in Castle Greyhawk, so this level map is kind of my homage to all that.

A big lake in a cavern projects fear, creates a sense of vulnerability, implies unseen threats and alien danger... and, more importantly, suggests hidden treasure. Who knows what might be trapped in this cave beneath the black water? That scene in The Two Towers (the film) in which Gandalf fights the Balrog as they plummet down a chasm, then emerge into a vast space with their fires glimmering across the black water as they fall... I think it's my favorite scene in the entire trilogy. 

My first thought was to make this a drow temple-outpost, but as I said, I kind of hate the modern drow and wasn't sure I had a decent spin on the classic version, so in the course of writing the upper levels, I decided to make the inhabitants of the lowest level a mere cult of demon-worshipers. I made the decision earlier in the writing process, though I don't remember at which point (maybe as I was figuring out who the NPCs were for the Level 5 stocking roll), but the idea developed into a lot more than that by the time I got to writing the key for Level 9. Certainly, the decision gave me a generic creative goal to work toward that I (hopefully) make pay off at the end.

This level had a few more rooms than the previous two cave levels, and I added a few more just to provide extra living space for the cultists. I also added the new access from Level 8, plus some doors and other details like ledges and columns, and cleaned up a few incongruities and flaws in the map that were bugging me. After adding the title, scale, and shading, along with level key numbers, the map turned out like this:

I made my content stocking rolls for the original 26-room dungeon level and came up with the following initial results:

–Empty: 9 (34.5% / 35%)
–Monster:  8 (31% / 20%)
–Monster + Treasure: 6 (23% / 25%)
–Stairs: 0 (0% / 5%)
–Trick/Trap: 0 (0% / 5%)
–Treasure: 3 (11.5% / 5%)

The first % number is the percentage of the actual content rolls; the second % number is the typical expected percentage spread (per OSRIC guidelines). After adding 5 more keyed areas to the map, bringing the total to 31, I counted them all as "Empties," knowing I would have to fudge the final number in order to house the extra cultist encounters I intended to add to the temple. So, out of the now-31 rooms, the numbers looked like this:

 –Empty: 14 (45% / 35%)
–Monster:  8 (26% / 20%)
–Monster + Treasure: 6 (19% / 25%)
–Stairs: 0 (0% / 5%)
–Trick/Trap: 0 (0% / 5%)
–Treasure: 3 (10% / 5%)

As I filled out the key, added new enemies (and removed some), these percentages changed again, but I'll get into that further below.

The Hurricane Dungeon – The Curséd Caverns (Level 8)

Continuing down into the depths of the Hurricane Dungeon, Level 8's map was drawn on the fifth night without power. Like the previous cavern map for Level 7, there are only 21 encounter areas here, so about half the number as the "finished" levels.

I like underground rivers, so this map has a big one winding right through, with many side caves and tunnels filling out the level. A pair of waterfalls, various ledges, and a series of rapids provide some nice natural obstacles as well. There are no ways off the level other than the river channel, so I needed to add a few; specifically, the three tunnel connections from Level 8.

As for connecting this level down to Level 9, one major thing complicated the situation: Level 9 is not directly below Level 8. Rather, it is down one level but shifted completely to the right. On that map, the river channel enters the level in the top-left corner, directly connecting to the river outlet on this map. This means that the likeliest routes down to Level 9 would be in the upper-right portion of the Level 8 map.

I also rolled one "Stairs" results on the dungeon stocking rolls, so I added a single tunnel down to Level 9. This provides for only two routes off the level (including the river channel) which results in a bit of a bottleneck to further progress. The party will have to either master the river channel somehow, or locate the cave with the statue where the new tunnel leads down. Usually, you don't want bottlenecks like this in your dungeon, but it's not so bad in this case.

That's because the layout of this level makes it clear that the dungeon "rooms" lie along the river's descending path, so it should seem logical to the players to investigate the downstream area where the river leaves the map. If they do, they will find that the river dumps via waterfall into a huge cavernous reservoir overlooked by a ziggurat temple carved into the wall. At the top of the falls, another cave entrance leads into other areas of Level 9. How they reach this area is up to the players and their resources, but it will at least be obvious that more dungeon lies in this direction. Even if they can't manage to get further downstream here, the knowledge of this area should motivate them to search the E side of the level for another route in this direction, in which case they will quickly find the new tunnel in the cave with the statue.

For some reason, I labeled many of the natural features by writing on the original map, which I didn't do on the others. I took the opportunity to remove the extra words and clean up a few things while adding river fords in two obvious spots. One of the "Trick/Traps" I rolled was a collapsing bridge, so I drew a span over the river. I also drew a connecting tunnel between two previously-isolated caves to give the level a little more flow. After adding a key and shading, the map turned out like this:

My content stocking rolls (for a 21-room dungeon level) came up with the following results:

–Empty: 9 (43% / 35%)
–Monster: 6 (29% / 20%)
–Monster + Treasure: 3 (14% / 25%)
–Stairs: 1 (5% / 5%)
–Trick/Trap: 2 (10% / 5%)
–Treasure: 0 (0% / 5%)

The first % number is the percentage of the actual content rolls; the second % number is the typical expected percentage spread (per OSRIC guidelines). Another high-empty, low-treasure level unfortunately, but I'll have to make due.