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.

The Hurricane Dungeon – The Curséd Caverns (Level 7)

With this level, we move into the lower third of the Hurricane Dungeon, a series of natural caves and tunnels I titled "The Curséd Caverns." (Yes, it's not a very original name, but that's sort of the point with this throwback adventure.) This was actually the map I drew on our fourth night without power, but I moved some of the maps out of creation order to put similar-looking maps together. I enjoy drawing natural cave networks and I was happy with how all three cavernous maps turned out.

This one is interesting because three tunnels lead off the map , enabling it to link it up with additional levels. It has plenty of loopy-doopiness which is essential for a good cave level, although the southern-most portion of the map is bottlenecked by a single passage.

A major negative issue with this level is the fact that it only has ~20 distinct "rooms," which is slightly less than half the average number of the other levels. I could have increased this number by treating some of the larger caverns as multiple spaces, but I didn't want to get into issues of dungeon logic. Having too many creatures and things crammed into directly adjacent spaces starts to strain believability (despite the fact that the format has pretty low thresholds already).

I seriously considered this option up until the time of writing, but once I started keying the level, I felt it ended up with the right density of encounters. I didn't design these maps with any purpose or even end-use in mind. Were I to create maps specifically for a megadungeon (rather than the reverse happening here), I would make sure that each level had a proper number of rooms (minimum of 30) and enough accessways between the levels.

Speaking of which, I had three staircases and three chutes from the upper levels to connect to this level. I also rolled one result of "Stairs Down 1 Level" in the stocking rolls, and I already had the three existing accessways leading off the map. In addition, one of the stairs from Level 6 continues down to Level 8. I built the various stairs from pieces of the other maps, and added a few extra details from the key like ledges, a bricked-up wall, a set of double doors, a pile of guano, and a pool of magic water. I also created a new tunnel to connect areas 14 and 19, just so that end of the dungeon didn't feel so isolated and linear. When completed, the map came out like this: 

My content stocking rolls (for a 20-room dungeon level) came up with the following results:

–Empty: 9 (45% / 35%)
–Monster: 4 (20% / 20%)
–Monster + Treasure: 4 (20% / 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). I was disappointed in the high number of empty spaces and low amounts of treasure on this level, but kept the results as rolled. 

The Hurricane Dungeon – The Chambers of Woe (Level 6)

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:

 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).

Ophidian Temple (2025 Adventure Site Contest Submission)

Taking a brief break from writing up level 6 of The Hurricane Dungeon to talk about this year's Adventure Site Contest hosted by Coldlight Press. I'm not judging this year (I may have "overstayed my welcome" with such long and in-depth breakdowns of each submission), but I am definitely entering. My submission for the first contest, Etta Capp's Cottage, won a spot in the final publication. Last year's entry, Owlbear Hill, was a bit too ambitious and failed to make the cut.

I just turned in my submission for the third annual contest, though I actually finished it back in August (the contest didn't open until November 1). I've titled this one Ophidian Temple (not great, but precise... I just couldn't land on a better title that didn't sound dumb or trite). It's written for AD&D and intended for 4–6 player characters of 5th to 7th level. The elevator pitch for the adventure reads:

Drums in the jungle herald the return of the snake-men to their evil temple.
Blood sacrifices to their demon-god begin anew.
Who will stand against their evil plans?

The site began as a sketch map I doodled in one of my notebooks many years ago (probably early-2000s). Over the summer, I pulled my box of old, hand-written/drawn game materials out of the attic and scanned everything in: Unfinished adventures, house rules ideas, character sheets and sketches, etc. Forty years worth (sheesh!). This map was in that lot. It's pretty simple and has no liner notes or indications of what it was intended to be. I doubt it was anything more than a random scribble while I was working on something else. It had a pleasing shape though, so I decided to put it to use after many years. I love it that an idea from the past has found a home in the future.

The original map had a few problems I needed to address to make it an adventure worthy of a Classic Adventure Gaming title. For one, it's pretty linear despite the side branches; not very suitable for CAG-style exploration. The layout also creates several bottlenecks for both player characters and enemies that had the potential to make dungeon combat a series of hallway fights between opposing sides of 2–3 combatants. That happens frequently in D&D, and smart players know how to use bottlenecks to funnel large numbers of opponents into a manageable front line, but I wanted to open this one up a bit.

The layout and details I drew suggested a tomb structure of some kind, nestled in the back of a canyon or maybe a deep cave. There's also a throne room, which isn't necessarily out of place. Tombs are a bit limited in terms of monster selection, though, mostly undead, vermin, constructs like living statues and such. As I thought about what I would want to say with yet another tomb dungeon, I came up blank. More accurately, I couldn't find anything interesting to do with it that I (and others) haven't done a million times.

In my Keep on the Badlands sandbox campaign, I had a whole adventure area populated by yuan-ti: A hidden valley filled with crumbling temples, dinosaurs, a giant ape, and terraced gardens subsumed into the rain forest. Unfortunately, my players never quite got to the yuan-ti area and their temple went largely undeveloped (the players gave up two-thirds of the way into the valley).

The idea of the yuan-ti temple stuck with me, though. Yes, it's still trope-y as hell, but I've never done much with this type of setting other than when I ran my version of Dwellers of the Forbidden City back in the 80s. This, despite my love of Tarzan novels, movies about jungle exploration and lost cities, and tales of dinosaurs and other monstrous versions of real-world creatures. A formative influence was watching Land of the Lost on Saturday mornings as a kid. The world-building in that show is incredible and would make for a banging campaign area.

 

With a yuan-ti temple in mind, I dropped the original map scan into Photoshop, added a grid, and then sketched out the contours of the dungeon, fixing some of the issues to make the site more interesting. I also dropped in a few notes about the dungeon contents.

 

This is almost identical to the final version I used.

As I started reading through the monster descriptions to sort out how I would place and use each encounter, I really fell out of love with the yuan-ti for this site. I never much liked them to begin with; they're not terrible, but they have a high degree of specificity and a fair amount of complexity, which is not something you want in an adventure site with a hard page limit. I planned on using the ophidians from Monster Manual II as minions of the yuan-ti, but then I realized they work perfectly fine as the primary antagonists.

I never paid ophidians much attention before now. My previous 20+ year campaign was firmly rooted in a classic, Northern European/Scandinavian-style fantasy setting, so snake-men were far from my typical antagonists. My 5e Badlands campaign was set in a Southwestern US/Meso-American-style desert region with adjacent jungles, which was perfect for using monsters I'd never really employed before. Even then, I overlooked the ophidians.

I think this has a lot to do with two things: One, the MMII is not very good. There are some standout creatures for sure (though the best of these were introduced in earlier modules), but most are either meh or borderline stupid, or just variations on another monster (the Fiend Folio is full of this as well). The second problem is the artwork. It's boring.

There are four artists listed: Jim Holloway, Harry Quinn, Dave Sutherland, and Larry Elmore (who did the awful cover). I honestly don't like Elmore's art style, and the way that ogrish-looking creature wields his halberd is completely backward. I attribute Elmore's art with the decline of AD&D (contemporaneously, not causally) and so it triggers a certain revulsion in me, perhaps unfairly. Same with Harry Quinn. His stuff is just ugly and uninspiring. I didn't care much for DCS's art back in the day, although I pored over every inch of his illustrations, but now I have a great deal of respect for his giant-sized contribution to the look of the game (and modern fantasy, for that matter). His work in the MMII is not his best, however.

Jim Holloway accounts for maybe half of the illustrations. I love his character stuff and he has a great eye for setting up a (usually comedic) scene that still looks like classic D&D, ridiculous situations that you could see happening to player characters. His creature designs, on the other hand, leave a lot to be desired. They're not bad, per se; just bland and static, lacking any of the dyamism or creativity in his character illustrations. Behold: The Ophidian. *Yawn.*

He looks like he just got out of bed. Yeah, it's a snake with arms, big deal. It's so dull, your eyes sort of wander over it and then move on. He should be coiled upright, weapon and shield raised, baring his fangs dripping with poison, setting his beady, soulless eyes on his prey. Instead, we get this and it sucks. I imagine these guys were rushed by the production deadline, underpaid (or not paid), and just DGAF because the company was falling apart around them. Still, what might have been otherwise remains a tantalizing dream.

In any case, the ophidian! It's not bad at all. They're natural minions with 3–4 hit dice, so in the same upper class as creatures like jackalweres, wererats, and ogres. They have natural armor the equivalent of mail, and can use weapons and shields to boost their combat numbers. Their bite attack isn't that great, but an extra 1–3 damage attack is nothing to dismiss, either. Their venom inflicts a lycanthropy-type disease that slowly turns the victim into an ophidian over the course of 2–3 weeks. (It was this mutability that gave me the idea for the big boss: A snake-ape hybrid demon.) The disease is easily curable though, so unless it goes untreated, it's not too big a long-term threat (and a non-existent one if the adventure is played only as a one-shot). Still, it's a neat idea that could spin into all sorts of complications for the party in a long-form campaign.

That's basically it: Snakes with weapons. Perfectly simple for what I want to do here. Moving on, when I think of jungles, I always think of giant ants, so they're in as well. D&D giant ants are no joke. I talk about this in another blog post for the Hurricane Dungeon. The 3 HD giant soldier ants have a poison sting that is poorly written in the Monster Manual and completely mistranslated in OSRIC, but even the 2 HD workers can be nasty in numbers. An unfortunate wandering encounter of just two worker ants chewed through a 1st- and 2nd-level party in my Sinister Secret of Zenopus' Tower campaign, resulting in a near-TPK.

I also wanted a plant monster of some kind that wasn't a yellow musk creeper or shambling mound (both of which are present in the Hurricane Dungeon levels). There are the weird flowers and the wolf-in-sheep's-clothing from S3 in the MMII, but I remembered there being a couple of other plant creatures as well. While flipping through the book, I came across the mandragora (which I am committed to using somewhere as it's kinda neat) and the mantrap just below it, which turned out to be precisely what I wanted.

Using plant creatures in subterranean settings is always challenging for a designer without resorting to a hand-wavey magical solution. In this case, I created a collapse in the ceiling through which the jungle has entered the complex, allowing for an organic (and logical) scenario to unfold. Another recurring problem with plant monsters is their lack of mobility, making them easy targets for missile fire and spell casting, so I threw in a few giant boring beetles to make this encounter harder, tactically. Boring beetles are most certainly not boring, however; they are jaw-droppingly deadly with 5 HD, plate armor carapace, and a mandible attack that does frikkin 5–20 damage. One of these nearly demolished our party of 4th-to-6th-level characters in Prince's campaign.

They are also an anomaly. Of all the giant beetle species, they are the only ones that include any treasure type at all, and theirs is a doozy! A combined C, R, S, T on the treasure tables is comparable to a low-grade dragon's hoard, with mid-range chances for lots of gold, platinum, gems, jewelry, potions, and scrolls, and modest chances for copper, silver, and electrum coins and a couple of magic items to boot. Our group in Prince's campaign stumbled across a beetle in its lair and made out like bandits. The beetle's description doesn't say why this is, though it mentions a communal intelligence in some cases. My theory is that this is a misplaced treasure type, a publishing error that belongs somewhere else. The only creature with a similar type is the triton (C, R, S, T, X).

I picked two other monsters to reinforce the serpentine theme of the place. The necrophidius, or "death worm," is an interesting creature. It looks like a human skull with fangs on top of a skeletal snake's body, but it's not an undead; it's a golem-like construct created to serve as either assassins or guardians. I've used them on several occasions and, while they might not be that tough physically, they are quite deadly. They have a hypnotizing effect that renders victims who fail their save helpless. On top of that, their venomous bite paralyzes, which also renders victims helpless. It doesn't say this in the monster's text description, but I added a reminder in the adventure key that their bite against a helpless victim, according to the rules, would be equivalent to an assassination check on the assassin's table. This creature is perfectly capable of one-shot killing any of its victims. That's nasty.

The other choice was a couatl. I've always enjoyed putting little places within an adventure in which the party can get some sort of boost or helpful aid. I hid the couatl in a secret treasure vault and trapped it inside a "good" version of an iron flask. That seems like the sort of prisoner an evil snake-man cult would keep. If the party frees her, she can cast some healing/recovery spells for them. I left open the possibility that a Lawful Good character could persuade her to help their fight, but they would have to be of the Lawfully-goodest type and their current situation would need to be dire for me (the couatl) to intervene like that.

Finally, I created the main antagonists: A snake-man priestess, who is mostly just a human cleric with snake-like features including scaly skin (natural AC) and poison fangs, and the snake-ape demon "god" who isn't present unless the party dicks around and allows the priestess to complete her summoning ritual.

Speaking of that, I included several environmental effects in the temple as well. One of these is the ever-present sound of frantic drumming and droning chants by the cultists as they work to bring forth their demonic master. While the party is present, the pace and intensity of the drumming/chanting increases, signalling to the PCs that they better get a move on. The players won't know it exactly, but they have 24 turns (4 hours) to put an end to this or the snake-ape demon arrives in the main temple and will add to the difficulty of the final fight.

Another effect is that the temple is filled with clouds of herbal incense being burned in copious amounts in the summoning areas. It smells unpleasant but isn't harmful in the outer areas. As the party gets closer to the central chamber, however, the smoke's narcotic effects can overcome them after just ten minutes. This will require the party to either figure out a way to remove the smoke, or beat down the cultists in less than 10 rounds. Otherwise, poison saves to avoid falling unconscious are on the menu. Anyone who stays unconscious in the smoke will eventually die of an overdose. The smoke stimulates the snake-men but is not toxic to them.

A third effect is the pollen of the mantrap plant. It is so fragrant and pleasing that it nullifies the smell of incense in the chamber, and has a hypnotizing effect as well. Victims who fail their saves are compelled to approach the main plant, which then envelops and digests them in its leafy fronds. Lovely.

I placed several traps also: A spear trap in a central hallway and paralyzing darts from the walls in another chamber. Both traps are triggered by stepping on certain floor tiles, and the snake-men know which ones to avoid. The third trap is in the necrophidius' lair, and its a simple tripwire that closes and locks the entrance door, to split the party and allow the necrophidius to more easily kill its isolated prey.

I don't recall how I selected the treasure. After so many random stocking rolls made for the Hurricane Dungeon, it all kind of blends together. I'm certain I chose the Staff of the Python to reinforce the snake theme, and maybe gave the priestess the Cloak of Protection, but the others feel randomly rolled. Who knows? I was very generous with the money, however, though much of it is hidden and/or tricky to obtain.

Players who defeat all the monsters and find all the treasure can expect to net about 175–250,000 xp, depending on how much magic treasure they keep or sell. This is around 35–50k each for a party of 5 PCs, which is enough to go from 4th to 5th level, or 5th to 6th level, and a fair chunk of the way from 6th to 7th.

You can download the PDF here.

The Hurricane Dungeon – The Chambers of Woe (Level 5)

Continuing my series on creating this megadungeon, this is the seventh map I drew during the power outage, which became Level 5. Again, this is because I wanted to keep the "finished" levels and the cavern levels together (with the caves being the lowest levels). The original map feels a little uninspired compared to the others, though it is probably a more "classic" dungeon layout.

There are a few interesting features on closer look. Large rooms and long corridors, lots of loopey-doopiness, many secret doors and passageways, false doors marked with a 'T' for "traps," and hey, look at that...stairs to the levels above and below! It's not too bad, actually. The central, cross-shaped feature, includes directional arrows and four movement options. That's cool. (I was certain I cribbed this idea from somewhere, and sure enough, a similar feature is in the OD&D Sample Dungeon.) So, I felt pretty good about what I had to work with as I started fleshing out this level, even if it's a little Plain Jane.

I had already connected the staircase up to Level 4, and I lined up the stairs down to an area on the map I was using for Level 6. That map for Level 6 also contained a staircase up in a different location, so I had to figure out that connection as well. The stocking rolls for Level 4 had also indicated two stairs, a pit shaft, and a trap door and ladder leading to this level, but I had already placed those by the time I began work on Level 5. Finally, my stocking rolls for Level 5 included an additional two staircases and a chimney exiting down from here. Once I added those access routes, along with the room key numbers, a title, and shading, the level looks like this:

 My content stocking rolls (for a 35-room dungeon level) came up with the following results:

–Empty: 11 (31% / 35%)
–Monster: 4 (11.5% / 20%)
–Monster + Treasure: 11 (31% / 25%)
–Stairs: 3 (9% / 5%)
–Trick/Trap: 5 (14% / 5%)
–Treasure: 1 (3% / 5%)

The first % number is the percentage of the actual content rolls; the second % number is the typical expected percentage spread (per OSRIC guidelines).

The Hurricane Dungeon – The Chambers of Woe (Level 4)

The fourth level uses the sixth map I drew, this one on October 2, 2024. Maps 4 and 5 were both cave networks, but I wanted to keep all six "finished" dungeon levels together, with the three cavern levels being at the bottom so I moved the order around. This particular level had some interesting features: Large rooms, a chamber with a huge pool of some sort, and a massive central chamber with an altar and four columned wings projecting out from it. A few secret areas, lots of statues, and a second pool of water provided additional inspiration but, like the previous level map, this one included no access points, neither stairs nor passages leading off-map.

I knew from keying Level 3 that I had added three stair locations down to this level, and there was a fourth stair down from Level 2 as well. I also knew that the next map I was going to use for Level 5 had an access stair drawn on the original, so I would have to place that stairway down on this map. Finally, my stocking rolls came up with five (!) access points, more than twice the average statistical percentage for a level this size. I didn't end up using all of the stocking access points as rolled, which I'll get into further below. After adding all the access points, title, and location numbers, the map looks like this:

My content stocking rolls (for a 41-room dungeon level) came up with the following results:

–Empty: 11 (32% / 35%)
–Monster: 7 (14.5% / 20%)
–Monster + Treasure: 13 (29% / 25%)
–Stairs: 5 (12% / 5%)
–Trick/Trap: 2 (5% / 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). Pretty close, statistically, with the "Stairs" result being the only real deviation.

The Hurricane Dungeon – The Upper Works (Level 3)

Level 3 was the third map I drew during the power outage. The direct correlation between creation date and level number ends with this one, however. The level has a few unique features to the other maps I'd drawn so far. For one: It has an entrance portico and an exterior area (bottom); two: It contains no routes (stairs, etc.) to other levels; and three: It has a teleporting passage similar to Level 1, but its destination is "off-screen."

Again, these maps were just unrelated doodles at the time I drew them so I wasn't concerned with logical structure or access points. This particular map's weird features (at least the first two) created some design challenges as I developed these maps into the mega-dungeon.

The problem posed by the front entrance/exterior comes when lining up the maps. I didn't want to "shift" any of the maps if I didn't have to. In this case, if you lay the first three maps on top of each other, the exterior cliff wall drawn on level 3 intersects with a few areas on levels 1 and 2 above it. It's a discrepancy that's fairly easy to hand-wave if you're not nitpickey. But I am, so I accounted for the exterior space in the key, describing it as a recessed area carved into the cliffside. This kinda deal: >>>

Not the greatest solution, but it works. Especially because shifting the dungeon would have complicated some of the level connections that I still needed to add to the map. There were already two stairs and an elevator to be added from Level 2, and my stocking rolls added another two stairs down to Level 4. Counting the main entrance and teleporting passage as additional routes, Level 3 has seven points of access – not bad at all. (I added an eighth access point in the stirges' room, and the dungeon's ventilation system adds even more, unquantified access points, but both require miniaturization of some sort so I'm not counting them in the total.)

After placing all the new stairs and marking the destination point of the elevator, and then adding a title and key, wall shading, and some incidental details (such as blockages and a pit trap), the map came out like this:

 My content stocking rolls (for a 37-room dungeon level) came up with the following results:

–Empty: 16 (43% / 35%)
–Monster: 3 (8% / 20%)
–Monster + Treasure: 14 (38% / 25%)
–Stairs: 2 (5% / 5%)
–Trick/Trap: 0 (0% / 5%)
–Treasure: 2 (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).

The Hurricane Dungeon – The Upper Works (Level 2)

With the Level 1 key under my belt, writing the key for Level 2 was simply a matter of refining the format using the map I drew on our second night without power. Note that I did connect this map with the first map, via the stairway in the center-west portion of the map. I included only one other exit from the level to the east-southeast, hidden behind a secret door. 

There was also the nearby circular room with two levers and a floor circle, which I recall thinking of as some sort of elevator platform/shaft while drawing; but it, too, was concealed behind secret doors. Getting off this level would be a challenge, as providing those inter-level connections wasn't an objective at the time I was just doodling a map. I also wish I had drawn passages leading off the map, to expand the level horizontally. I mean, I still can with some Photoshop trickery, but I wish I'd thought to.

In designing Level 1 for this megadungeon, I added two stairs down to level 2, so I knew I had to add those connections to this map as well. My stocking rolls came up with two additional "Stair" results: one "Stair down 1 level" and one "Stair down 2 levels." The descending stair on the original map (near the "elevator" room) was proving difficult to sync up with the map for level 3, so I made that stair the one that went down two levels (to Level 4) and made both newly-rolled stairs a single-level drop to Level 3. The elevator platform ended up also descending one level to Level 3. 

After adding the new points of egress, keyed room numbers, a title, and shading, the map looked like this:

 My content stocking rolls (for a 40-room dungeon level) came up with the following results:

–Empty: 11 (27.5% / 35%)
–Monster: 10 (25% / 20%)
–Monster + Treasure: 13 (32.5% / 25%)
–Stairs: 2 (5% / 5%)
–Trick/Trap: 2 (5% / 5%)
–Treasure: 2 (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).

The Hurricane Dungeon – The Upper Works (Level 1)

The first level of the megadungeon is, in fact, the first hurricane map I drew on the night of September 29. The storm rolled in around 3–4 in the morning, but when I'd gone to bed a few hours earlier, my area wasn't really expected to get much beyond some heavy rains and high winds. The hurricane took a big swing to the northwest and passed right over us on its way to some Biblical-level destruction less than 100 miles north. That area is still badly messed up 11 months later.

I woke up on my office couch around 4 AM because I could hear the roof creaking (never a good sign). You could feel the shifting air pressure. I got up and looked outside, but noped back inside when I realized how intense things had gotten. I'm originally from South Florida and went through many hurricanes as a kid, so I knew this was a big storm. I got in bed in my shorts and t-shirt, with my heavy boots in easy reach, and just lay there listening to the winds howling and the sheets of rain lashing the house.

I'd heard some trees going down at some distance away, and we lost our power around 5, but at 6 AM I heard the first tree(s) come down in my yard. A neighbor's mimosa fell across my backyard, taking a second tree (and part of his fence) with it. That was it! I got out of bed and started a vigil. I live in an older section of my city (my house was built in 1929) and have several hundred-year oaks within crushing distance (not to mention a few dozen smaller, but still-dangerous trees). 

So far, just the two trees had come down near me, but as I stood at my back door and watched, another 12 trees in my yard came down between 6 and 8 AM. My house sits on a moderate hill slope, and after the the torrential rains soaked the ground, the hurricane winds came up the slope, "against the grain" of the tree roots, and just toppled them, one after the other. Luckily, none of the oaks fell, but my neighborhood was now officially a disaster zone. My girlfriend slept through the whole thing. A crazy time and hard to believe it has already (only?) been a year.

The hand-drawn map came about while reading the DMG by candlelight that first night. I got tired of reading but felt some creative energy, so I just started doodling on a graphing pad. I began by rolling on the random dungeon design tables, but got bored with that so I started over drawing on my own, letting the rooms and corridors flow out of the pencil without any real design concept. I love creating maps and it usually doesn't take me long to start sorting out a good, logical floorplan. I ended up with this map:

Since this was only a drawing exercise I wasn't worrying about connections or routes between levels. As drawn, there is a staircase from "a" level above in the upper-left-center of the map that serves as the level "entrance." A second staircase to the left of that descends to "another" level below. There's also some teleporting halls with 4 entry/exit points, though there is an error, with only three letters (A–C) represented instead of four (A–D).

As I began developing this map into a connected dungeon complex, I realized I would need to create additional routes between the levels. I did not want to mark up the original hand-drawn maps (call me sentimental), so I used Photoshop to add some details to the digital image. Some of these details are copied from fragments of the existing map and repurposed elsewhere. Other details were hand-drawn on paper, scanned in, and converted into .pngs which I dropped into the map image.

I also created fonts for numbers and upper- and lower-case letters from my own handwriting, with the same pens I used to draw the map. After dropping in the room key numbers and a level title, fixing the issue with the mislabeled teleporting hall, placing a new grid, and adding shading to the solid walls of the dungeon, I ended up with this map:

Next, I settled on a methodology for stocking the dungeon, relying mostly on the AD&D/OSRIC tables to flesh out the level contents. My first set of rolls (over a total of 42 dungeon locations) came up with the following results:

–Empty: 19 (45% / 35%)
–Monster: 8 (19% / 20%)
–Monster + Treasure: 10 (24% / 25%)
–Stairs: 2 (5% / 5%)
–Trick/Trap: 0 (0% / 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).

The Hurricane Dungeon – Surface Ruins (Level 0)

This post begins a series that will examine the process of turning my Hurricane Maps into a proper megadungeon, using the guidelines provided in the stocking tables found in the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide and recreated in OSRIC. The methodology I'm using to create the dungeon levels sticks pretty close to these two sources, with a few modifications based on personal preference and a desire to expand the source of monsters across the three original books (favoring OSRIC stats over AD&D stats where the monster exists in both sources).

By the time I finished rolling up contents and writing keys for levels 1–3, I had built enough background connections into the material to warrant adding a surface ruin, to not only serve as an entrance area into the dungeon, but also provide a few clues as to what lies beneath. As a result, I'm starting this series with what is technically the fourth level I rolled out and keyed: The surface (level 0) of the dungeon.

Most of the interior dungeon levels have 35–45 chambers or obvious locations, so I was calculating the surface level as having half that many, or 20 potential areas. The surface ruins will have already been picked over, meaning little of obvious value should remain except natural lairs and a few secrets.

Since I intended the exterior space to have a larger map scale, I first placed the dimensions of the dungeon-scale (10' sq.) graph paper sheet in the (approximate) center of the larger-scale (20' sq.) graph paper sheet, then sketched out the map in pencil. Thus, each dungeon level map fits inside the boundary of the outer palace walls.

After a few corrections and retakes, I drew over the finished sketch with a Sharpie ultra fine-point and added more detail with an even finer-point Pilot Precise V5.

I finished off the map in Photoshop, adding shading and a key (this step was performed after making the content rolls and figuring out their locations). I considered drawing separate (10' scale) maps for the outer ruins and palace interior, but decided against it. I like the flexibility of uncertainty that makes it easier to add stuff later. Any interior encounter areas will be easy enough to sketch out on the battlemat, ad hoc.

I made all the content stocking rolls using the methodology I established. My results for the 20 estimated surface locations were:

–Empty: 9 (45% / 35%)
–Monster: 3 (15% / 20%)
–Monster + Treasure: 5 (25% / 25%)
–Stairs: 1 (5% / 5%)
–Trick/Trap: 1 (5% / 5%)
–Treasure: 1 (5% / 5%)

The first % number is the percentage of the actual content rolls; the second % number is the typical expected percentage spread (per OSRIC). They came out fairly close to the statistical percentages, leaving me with 11 locations to key (since I won't bother identifying or keying this level's empty spaces).

The Sinister Secret of Zenopus' Tower –The Adventure

I recently formatted all my notes into a PDF format suitable for use at your table. This is 100% a fan-made conversion of existing work with bits of my own creation sprinkled throughout. I make no copyright claims to any of the source material. I worked it all up for my home campaign, but the originals remain popular adventures to this day. If someone wants to use my work as inspiration for their own versions, feel free.

A special shout-out to Zach Howard at Zenopus Archives. His enthusiasm for the Sample Dungeon in Holmes Basic, and his own homebrew expansion of it, inspired me to develop this adventure location for my players and include it in this adaptation. Be sure to visit his site to see the Forgotten Smugglers' Cave in its original glory.

>>The Sinister Secret of Zenopus' Tower for Labyrinth Lord

>>The Sinister Secret of Zenopus' Tower for OSRIC/AD&D

>>The Adventure Maps

>>Things to Do in Town Handout 

_____ 

Thus far in my campaign, the players have mostly cleared the manor house and explored much of the estate grounds. They fought pirates in the manor basement and discovered the fate of the missing alchemist. After a tragic expedition into the naga's lair below the bluff, they delved for a bit on the dungeon level (via the garden entrance).

Most recently, they found a boat pilot willing to take them into one of the sea caves. There, they battled a giant octopus, fought some more pirates, freed Lemunda the Lovely from captivity, and found a tunnel entrance into the bluff. They also noted a flooded tunnel to the east, accessible via a shallow shelf at low tide. At first, they thought to go north, further into the sea cave level where they assumed pirates would be waiting. Instead, they decided to take the opportunity of low tide to venture east.

They soon entered a side cavern divided in halves by a rushing river of fresh water that emptied into the sea cave nearby. The cave was protected by a giant crab, hidden beneath the sand, which got the drop on the party but failed to hit with its pincers. Upon defeating the crab, the party found a long stairway leading up to the dungeon level, where they entered a room with a sundial, a strange bronze mask, and a riddle. Figuring out the riddle, they caused the mask to speak and offer an answer to a single question. They asked about the "Philosopher's Stone" they found in the alchemist's secret cellar chamber in the manor, but the mask made no reference to the party's stone, speaking only of what the "legends" say about such an item.

Leaving this room, they next came into a crypt chamber with a dirt floor and smashed-open coffins. Within, a pair of ghouls dressed in finery feasted on the bloody entrails of one of the thaumaturgist's unfortunate goons. Horrified, the party attacked, but within moments two of their party had succumbed to the undead's paralyzing touch. Things looked grim for a moment, but after a flurry of well-placed blows, both ghouls lay dead.

Searching the various coffins and burial niches turned up a small fortune in gems, jewelry, and old coins. In one of the niches, the party found a tunnel that had been clawed to the surface, the exit of which the party had already discovered previously while exploring the garden cemetery. Dragging their paralyzed comrades out of the hole, the group returned to town, but from their discussions it sounds like they want to keep exploring the dungeon level and will return via the cemetery (they have more questions for the mask).

Owlbear Hill — Adventure Site Contest 2 Post-Mortem

My reviews of submissions for the Adventure Site Contest 2 are complete, my scores are turned in, and I've spent some time reflecting on what I learned from the experience, both as judge and adventure site designer.

Thanks to the other judges: Ben Gibson, BX Blackrazor, Owen Edwards, and Grützi for their kind and fair words about this adventure, and for all the hard work they put in to conduct their contest reviews. I was honored to be asked to judge, and I hope I brought something helpful to the table. 

Also, congratulations to all the contest entrants. I've said before that it takes a lot of guts to write something and put it out there for other randos to critique. I have respect for every author and encourage everyone to keep writing, as all the entries had good, creative stuff in them.

Yes, my reviews were nit-picky, far more than I am in "real life," and yes, they were long-winded, but I believe it's more important for the author to hear what doesn't work than it is to hear what does. Criticism, not praise, is the entire point of the editorial (judging) process. And to make sure the criticism is sound, you have to dig into the details and tear things apart to get at them. 

I went through each submission with a fine-toothed comb and double-checked the rulebooks (where I could) to form my critical questions. Often, I found the answers; sometimes, I found new questions. I put everything out there in terms of what I noticed, even if it was nit-picky, off-base, or purely personal opinion. Everyone's tastes are different and I'm just some guy on the internet, so the stakes of my criticism are low. My only goal was to give an honest and thorough evaluation of each site, from the perspective of a DM preparing to run it in a few hours.

The most valuable lessons about professional writing I ever learned were from the experienced editors who were hardest on my work. Their lessons stay with you, help you recognize the same mistakes next time before you make them. I certainly carry them over into my own editorial duties, contest or otherwise, and I hope all the authors take my reviews in that spirit. 

In the spirit of accountability, on the other hand, I thought it would be fun to apply some of the same critical standards I used for the contest submissions to my own work. I won't be scoring the categories numerically, of course, because I already think my adventure is GREAT! 5 out of 5!! 

Kidding, of course. There are actually lots of flaws and things that bothered me about my entry, regrets big and small, and could-have-beens that I forced myself to live with to meet the contest guidelines. Instead of giving it a score, I'll discuss my personal satisfaction with the results. I'm also including some design notes and elaborating on the original writeup. Stuff that might help someone trying to run it better understand my intentions. 

Since the methods I use for judging are subjective, I'm going to apply some of the questions/criticisms from other judges to test my creative premises. This is for no other reason than to have something to bounce off as a discussion point, because it represents something in my writeup that probably needs clarification. I accept their critique as 100% valid and agree with most of it—and much of it was positive—but where I can provide an explanation for my creative choices, I will.

 Onward!

Adventure Site Contest II

Starting October 1, Ben Gibson at Coldlight Press is taking submissions for his second annual Adventure Site Contest, with a January 1 deadline for entries. You can read all about the contest guidelines here.

Last year's contest was a lot of fun and my submission, Etta Capp's Cottage, found a spot among the winning entries. These were published in a handy compilation available to all for FREE! It was even reviewed by the esteemed Prince of Nothing over at the Age of Dusk blog.

I've been asked to be a judge for this year's contest, so I'll be posting my reviews of the submissions as they come in. My own submission for the second contest is already in the preliminary stages, and I plan to post some of the developmental work here as well. I also have about a dozen unfinished drafts in my posting queue that I need to finish up. Looking forward to all of that, as I have let this blog languish due to other projects/real-life demands.

Ben's contest is part of an effort to foster a return to the "Classic Adventure Gaming" mode of play that is distinct from the OSR community, which has become fragmented and beset by opportunistic content creators shilling for a fast buck. The creators in this contest are old-school veterans and dedicated students of the original versions of the game (OD&D/BX/AD&D), who actually understand good design and know what they're doing. 

These adventures can actually be played at the table right out of the can, without having to parse through AI-generated walls of text, artsy-fartsy nonsense, and a designer's incomplete knowledge of what the game is about.

Image by the incomparable Erol Otus.

The goal is to keep this style of play alive by providing a much-needed infusion of good creative energy into the D&D hobby, which has devolved into a weird and cliquish form of social interaction that has little to do with slinging dice. 

It's been a thrill finding like-minded fans of the early game, and after converting my own tabletop campaign from 5e to an LL/OSRIC hybrid, I even began playing in an honest-to-goodness AD&D campaign recently, my first since (roughly) 1988-ish.

The Temple of Oblivion – Part 3: The Temple Ruins

<< Part 1

<< Part 2

The campaign began in 2016 as an ad hoc test of Roll20 and an introduction to 5th edition D&D for one of my long-time gaming friends. I never intended it to be a full-on campaign, but more people joined the "playtest" and before I knew it, we were gaming online every week. The party ballooned at one point to 7 players plus 3 NPCs, but by the end, after a series of interpersonal conflicts/meltdowns between some of the players (and, in one instance, between myself and one of the players), the group had shrunk to 3 PCs plus 3 NPC followers. 

Most of the first half of the campaign was fairly free-wheeling, with several different, mostly unrelated adventures. By the second half, however, the party had discovered an evil idol with a curse, and became the quarry of a trio of mind flayers who were after the idol. The curse prevented the party from simply throwing the idol away (it reappeared among their belongings the next day), and also served as a psychic "homing beacon" for the mind flayers as they pursued the party.

The mind flayers already possessed one of the idols after the players missed an opportunity to retrieve it, and were actively using it to summon other aberrations from their alien realm. Working through their human proxies—the Cult of Khoss—the mind flayers harried the party across my campaign world, with the PCs barely staying one step ahead of their pursuers. 

The party discovered the hidden location of a third idol (of three needed to open a dimensional portal), but a moment of carelessness caused one player's NPC follower to fall into the clutches of the cultists, who sussed out the idol's location and secretly implanted the NPC with an intellect devourer (a fact the party never discovered until it was too late). The compromised NPC was allowed to be "rescued," and he rejoined the party as an unwitting and unaware mole.

The party raced the cultists to find the third idol, but failed. As part of that failure—to the players' utter horror—the intellect devourer burst from the NPC's skull, killing him instantly. (Regrettably, this was one of my finest DM moments as the NPC was popular with the players and his grisly death really caught everyone off guard). The loss was even more painful because one of the players had innocently put the NPC in a position to be captured in the first place.

Having gained sufficient levels to take on the enemy, imbued with a burning desire for revenge, and gifted with some inside knowledge from rebel cultists seeking release from their thralldom to the mind flayers, the party decided to end their constant harassment by attacking the source.

Thusly, they came to these ruins and made their way through the secret entrance to the temple complex. Originally, these ruins were intended to be the setting for several low-to-mid-level dungeons, including parts of the Caverns of Thracia, but the party didn't glom on to the site early in the campaign, so I repurposed it for the high-level conclusion instead. The climactic battle would take place within the Temple of Oblivion, where the party would confront the mind flayers who needed all three idols to open the dimensional portal and bring through their elder brain master.

By this point, we were all feeling a bit fatigued. We were more than 110 sessions in when the party made it through the secret entrance shrines, and I was definitely ready to wrap up the campaign and move on to something new. So, I presented the players with a choice of entrances into the pyramidal complex via one of the two smaller pyramids. I then roughed out two gantlet-style point-crawls, rather than developing full-on dungeon levels that might have taken the players another 15–20 sessions (or more) to get through. 

One pyramid was already opened by the mind flayers and full of their thralls. This was a route that was "cleared," but difficult to sneak through without getting noticed. The other pyramid was still sealed and could be opened with the idol the party possessed, but it would require them to overcome the monsters and perils present in the point-crawl dungeon.

They chose to navigate the unopened pyramid (the Temple of Death), so I designed a dozen or so encounters and a path with several detours so as to not make it a completely linear experience. Success in certain areas made it possible to avoid other encounters, whereas failure took them down side-paths that ate up valuable time and resources. The players were aware that the mind flayers' plans were underway, and that the longer the party took to resolve this situation, the more difficult the path forward would become.

I'm not going to post the full point-crawl write-up like I did with the secret entrance shrines, as I'm not terribly proud of using this method, but bits of it were good and I am fairly happy with the encounter design work. I will, however, post a summary of the point-crawl below the cut for those interested in what occurred.

The following is the map and general key for the temple ruins. I'm also including links to a full-sized "clean" version of the map, as well as a version with an isometric grid. I'm extremely proud of this map and regret that I was only able to use it for a short period at the end of the campaign. I hope to repurpose it for a future site, but hopefully it will inspire others to make something of it as well. 

I built it as an homage to one of my fave AD&D modules: I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City, as well as the superlative Caverns of Thracia by Jaquays (which I renamed as The Caverns of Eternal Night). In the beginning, I wasn't certain what would go in the Halls of the Ancient Ones, but when I retooled the map for the high-level group, I determined that it would be the extended lair for a nasty beholder, another holdover aberrant god of the ancestors of the hillmen who once lived here. It also fit the eye motif well, which was kind of a happy accident.

The Temple Ruins

>> Full-size "clean" version (no grid)

>> Isometric grid version (scale = 20x20-ft. squares)

Adventure Sites I Is Now Available!

I had the pleasure of being a finalist in Ben Gibson's Adventure Site Contest over on his Coldlight Press blog. The contest guidelines were to present a short lair or dungeon setting on 2 pages (plus map) that could be played straightaway, and completed in a session or three.

My submission, Etta Capp's Cottage, is part of a compilation now available on DriveThru RPG for the low, low price of free!

Adventure Sites I

I'm proud to have been selected for inclusion and am thrilled to find myself in the esteemed company of some of the OSR's luminary creators.

I look forward to next year's (?) contest and am already looking through my catalog of previous adventures for a worthy submission.

The Temple of Oblivion – Part 2: The Secret Entrance

<< PART 1: The Temple Valley

The party learned of the existence of a secret entrance into the temple ravine from the cultists, but I left it up to the players to decide how they wanted to proceed. There were a number of obvious ways into the area, and by this point the players ranged in level from 7th to 9th, so they had the resources to try any number of approaches. The party had some additional info about the site they acquired during their previous adventures which, combined with the visual details they could see from the vantage hill, gave them a fairly good overview of what they would need to do.

They opted to try to find the secret entrance and avoid a frontal approach using either force or bluff. From the vantage hill, they headed north, winding through the gullies between the hills. They encountered swamp trolls in some flooded ruins, and then entered one of the main valleys to the northeast of the temple mound, passing into the zone of corruption.

They crossed the valley and began moving south toward the eastern face of the temple mound in search of the concealed stair. During this part of their exploration, they encountered a band of hillmen patrolling the valley. With the band was one of their shamans, who was already infected by a juvenile mind flayer. The levitating creature was being led along by ropes, and appeared to be psychically scanning the valley for intruders. Fortunately, the encounter distance was outside its detection and the party avoided the hillmen.

The party found the secret cliffside stair and ascended it, where they learned that they needed to "unlock" the secret entrance by performing a series of rituals in each of six separate shrines. They were ultimately successful, though they struggled in a few places. They also managed to avoid fighting the harpies in the aerie.

I created the image to the right as a vertical map for Roll20, which worked really well to convey the creepiness of the site and give a sense of scale for what was to come (1 square = 5 ft., both horizontally and vertically). The imagery of the façade depicts the ancient civilization's aberrant "gods": a mind flayer, a "frog-demon" (slaad), and an "evil eye" (a beholder, which wasn't immediately obvious to the party). 

Each of the shrines can be entered from the façade map, and contains a small puzzle complex that, when solved, releases one of six switches to open the main seal to the secret entrance. The individual shrines are described after the cut below.

As with Part 1, I've stripped out the 5e-specific monster stats and details (including specific saving throws and ability checks) from this write-up for a more generic presentation and easier adaptation if anyone wants to use this in your own campaign.

The Concealed Stair
Hidden among the foliage at the base of the eastern face of the temple mound is a winding switchback stair that rises precipitously up the steep, vine-shrouded hillside. Carved into the cliff at the top of the stair is a shrine complex which protects a secret, ritualistic entrance into the valley. Using this route to enter the temple ravine is not a simple matter, however.

The Temple of Oblivion – Part 1: The Temple Valley

When I was bringing my first 5e campaign to a close, the PCs were trying to rid themselves of a curse they had acquired after finding and removing an evil idol from a warded vault deep beneath the earth (intending to have it destroyed). The idol depicted a tentacled, demonic figure that they could not rid themselves of—no matter what they did or where they tried to leave it, it always reappeared among their belongings.

Part of the curse revealed the party's location to sinister beings from beyond (mind flayers) who sent their minions to attempt to retrieve it. These minions included gnolls, frog-demons (slaad), and members of the Cult of Khoss. The cult misguidedly thought they could subvert the mind flayers to their cause, but soon found themselves under the thrall of the alien geniuses.

A faction of the cultists who remained free of the mind flayers' control made contact with the PCs and divulged that the mind flayers' base of operations (and the source of the idol's cursed power) lay within the Howling Hills of northwestern Remedios, among the ruins of an ancient civilization that once worshipped the mind flayers. The cultists provided the party with another piece of crucial information: The mind flayers already possessed two similar idols, but needed the party's third idol to open a portal to their beyond-realm, through which "something" would emerge to conquer this world.

Finally, the cultists gave the party directions to the site. The cultists' plan was to convince the party to go to the temple and do the dirty work of wiping out the mind flayers (or at least distracting them) while they freed their enthralled comrades and escaped the area. Whether the party succeeded or not was irrelevant to the cult (Glorious chaos!); they simply wanted to extract themselves from a situation that had gotten out of their control. This was the background for the campaign's grand finale.