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:
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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.
For the "Monster Only" results, I rolled once each from DMG tables IV (owlbears) and VII (demon, type II), once each from Fiend Folio tables III (symbiotic jelly), V (NPC), and VIII (clay golem), and once from Monster Manual 2 table IV (hook horrors). I ended up changing the symbiotic jelly, which I'll get into below, so I re-rolled on FF table VII (mimics).
For "Monsters + Treasure," I rolled once on DMG table V (slithering tracker), and twice on FF table VII (giant, 2-headed troll and demon, type III). There were no rolls on the MM2 tables here. Most of these results seem workable on first blush, though I tend to think of owlbears as more of a surface creature. Hook horrors make perfect sense down here, and I decided right away that they would be vying with the owlbears for territorial dominance of the level.
I was chuffed about the two demon results. I'd already been imagining the cultists as demon-worshipers and here was some validation. Also, I knew the NPCs would be cultists and their items would help boost the lack of treasure (and boy, did they). Golems make perfect long-term guardians so that was a good fit as well. The only two question marks were the symbiotic jelly and the slithering tracker.
Yeesh, where to begin? This is a "gotcha" monster, which I don't have an inherent problem with, but this one completely ignores so many rules beyond the communication issues. For one, the jelly is a cave-dwelling creature who likely feeds on other subterranean creatures. Most jellies would never come into contact with treasure-loving humanoids, so the "treasure" illusion should be more along the lines of food or other appealing necessity. Okay fine, this is D&D; it knows what "treasure" is.
How does it know what would appeal to a party of random adventurers, though? I suppose its telepathic ability could tell it, but what is the range of its telepathy? How much forewarning of a party's approach does it have to prepare the illusions? If it makes its charmed subject appear as a "weaker beast," how does the jelly know what that would be, relative to the party's size and level? Is there no save against its telepathic probing? No, the monster description just hand-waves all that in its eagerness for the "gotcha" moment.
The description of its illusion ability, likewise, does not follow the standard rules. According to this, creatures that view the illusion can save vs. Magic at –7 (!) to see through the facade. Okay, but you don't normally get an upfront save to see through an illusion, it requires investigation and reasonable disbelief. This isn't that big a deal, though the monster's description indicates the illusions are of an "advanced" type. Compared to what?
Finally, the symbiotic jelly uses the weak-seeming-but-actually-strong monster to attack other creatures coming into its cave. If its charmed subject defeats the intruder, the jelly feeds on the slain creature by "drain(ing) energy (which it can do remotely in a fashion whose means defy investigation)" as the charmed monster eats its opponent. Oookay, fine. Dumb, but whatever.
Complicating matters in this case, the jelly was rolled up on the table for Dungeon Level III monsters, but this is Level 8, meaning the base number of jellies encountered (1) is multiplied by 6 for the difference in levels. I tried to work this encounter any number of ways to account for six of these jellies all occupying the same space using the same abilities, but nothing I devised was satisfying. In fact, I hated every scenario I came up with. Ultimately, I admitted defeat and simply re-rolled a new monster because this one flat-out sucks.
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| 2e version |
These creatures hide in wait for a living creature (i.e., an adventurer) to wander by, then it "tracks" the creature until the creature goes to sleep. At this point, the tracker nuzzles up next to the sleeping creature and paralyzes it, then drains it of blood plasma, a rare specificity of effect. If it can do this for 1 hour without interruption, the victim dies.
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| 1e version |
This may be a realistic outcome, but an unsatisfying one that is likely to cause an argument and anger among the players (not the characters). This will then necessitate a DM out-of-game explanation of what exactly happened, which destroys any verisimilitude of the encounter. It's just poor design and I don't much care for this creature. Despite this, I kept the stocking roll as-is, because it is a classic monster and I didn't want to swap out a second monster.
When it came time to roll up the NPCs, which I'd already decided were more cultists, I ended up with two 8th-level fighters, an 8th-level thief, and a 10th-level magic-user (using the AD&D guidelines, not the OSRIC procedure). To round out the remaining "henchmen" in order to reach the recommended party of 9 (I still don't get why this specific number is the standard), I used the standard "cultist thugs" (generic 4th-level fighters). I also rolled to see if the NPCs had any higher level stats using the methodology I created for an earlier group: roll 4d6 per ability score, dropping the lowest die result, and also rolling a series of 7 scores, dropping the lowest total. This ensured that most of these higher-level classes had at least one decent ability score where it counted.
I then rolled magic items for the four classed NPCs and came up with a mish-mash of 26(!) items, but they often clashed with the class of the NPC (fighters with scrolls, the thief with magic splint, the magic-user with a magic hammer, etc.) So I took the list and split them up among the various relevant NPCs. I also made a decision to take three of the treasure items I rolled up and give them to the NPCs as well. This concentrates a lot of the level's treasure in one location, but it should be a helluva fight to get it all
The actual treasure rolls resulted in a lot of copper, along with some gold and platinum. I often wonder why the treasure tables weren't made more relevant to the dungeon level. I hear often in CAG circles that copper is meant to be a logistics trap, but there is a comparatively high chance for a result of copper coins in the stocking tables. If the treasure is intended to level characters up as they descend deeper into the dungeon, the chance of more valuable coinage should (to my mind) increase as well. Out of the six treasure rolls I made for level 8, two are for copper, with a total of just over 18,000 coins (or about 90 xp). That seems off to me.
One of the treasure results was for "Magic," so I rolled up the eight items (using the OSRIC guideline rather than the AD&D version which would have been just 1 item). I came up with a Potion of Speed, two Protection Scrolls vs. Undead and Magic, a scroll of 5 MU spells of levels 1–6, a set of +1 Chain Mail, a Wand of Illusion, a Cloak of the Bat, and a Rod of Cancellation. Despite the cultist NPCs already being well-equipped, I moved the armor, spell scroll, and wand into their possession as well. The rest of the treasure I seeded into the three monster locations. I don't recall whether I rolled the rod as being in the type III demon's treasure hoard or whether I placed it there, but the demon seemed like a fitting guardian for such a potent item.
The two traps rolled out to be blinding gas and a collapsing bridge (which seemed perfect for the underground river). Speaking of which, the presence of the river provided me with a couple of other potential dungeon hazards in the form of drowning, waterfalls, and rapids.
Level 8 contains ~292 HD of monsters (not counting wandering monsters), for an approximate total of 34,764 xp. Monetary treasure comes out to 7,832 xp (not counting individual loots). This is the lowest amount of any level, and about one-third of level 7's treasure xp. Part of this is due to the level's low number of rooms, but part of it is the prevalence of copper pieces in the stocking tables. Magic item xp is 47,400 for items kept in AD&D, or 22,480 for items kept in OSRIC. Selling the items nets a respectable 224,500 xp in AD&D, or 224,800 xp in OSRIC.
Total xp for this level should run around 89,996 (267,096) using AD&D rules, or 65,076 (267,396) using OSRIC.
>>Hurricane Dungeon – Level 8 Key
>>Hurricane Dungeon – Level 8 Map
<<Dungeon Level 7<<
>>Dungeon Level 9>>
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