Zungeon 25: Floor 1
Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Philadelphia replica of The Puritan. 1904. Bronze.
I know I said I would only write monthly updates on my 52 floor mega-dungeon, but I wanted to check in one week into the challenge.
Floor 1 has introduced a couple key players into the mix:
- Saint Winthrop is the quasi-mythical founder of the tower. Think The Puritan crossed with Andrew Ryan from BioShock.
- The Village of Downside is the last stop for would-be pilgrims ascending the tower and home to those who couldn't make it past the early floors. I know the village has a reverend and charges a toll on returning parties, but I'll find out more about them this week.
- Some dungeon wildlife have started to emerge. Tower goats, heartleaf ivy, and hex gulls. I want to take seriously the idea of dungeon as ecosystem, but what kind of creatures living a teetering ruin on a mountaintop?
So far I'm really enjoying working with the Root Devil implementation of Marcia B.'s Bite-Sized Dungeons. I'm supplementing this generation process with Gucci Fuligin Cloaks' trap tables and some d6 tables of my own for detailing staircases and other means of vertical travel. I laid out the seven room floorplan using the BSD connections and hallway lengths as a guide, then fill a room key each day.
Starting this process for Week 2 introduces two exciting complications: where do the lower floors staircases connect and what do you do with rooms that are more than 2 stories tall? I'm enjoying the cramped layouts that are starting to emerge from these pressures.
So far I have been keying with a sort of paragraph description plus breakaway detail system borrowed from Yochai Gal. This works great, but I'm quickly realizing that if this is going to be an A5 zine and not a gazillion pages long, I'll need to edit substantially. Still, better to be wordy now and cut back later than strain myself trying to be brief. Unused details can just be recycled further up the tower.
Anyhow, without further ado, a rough sketch:
Floor 1
Unless otherwise mentioned:
- Ceilings are 20' in rooms and 10' in corridors.
- Floors are heavy paving stones and walls are chiseled stone brick covered with crumbling plaster. Doors are wood with iron latches, prone to getting stuck (2-in-6).
- Rooms are unlit and have no windows.
1-1 Grand Entry Hall
(Interactive, Entrance)
An archway wide enough for two carts to pass abreast lets sleet and freezing rain into this vaulted hall. Puddles form on the floor. On the opposite end, double doors flanked by two colossal stone eyes set into the wall 20 ft up. To the right, a smaller corridor entrance.
Archway: Engraved in blocky, utilitarian lettering over the arch: "The Eyes of the World Are Upon Us."
Puddles:Â Tracked water and mud indicate this area is often travelled.
Eyes: The eyes cry pure water in the presence of chaotic creatures. Water flows for 1 minute before running out with a mechanical sputter from pumps in the ceiling.
1-2 Statue of Saint Winthrop
(Treasure)
A square chamber with a solitary bronze statue of a striding man in buckle hat and cloak. His right hand points forward as if hailing those entering from the south. Three corridors exits this room to the north, west, and south.
- Statue: A lifelike bronze rendition of Saint Winthrop, believed to be the founder of the tower. This statue is quite valuable to a collector (500 gp), but heavy and the locals in Downside will hate any who take it.
1-3 Ivy Room
(Trapped)
Formerly frescoed walls overgrown with heartleaf ivy. Shoots poke out from between the paving stones, concealing the floor. An exit to the north opens onto a long corridor.
Heartleaf Ivy: Beloved by tower goats. Worthless in its ubiquity. Can be brewed into a soothing tea that heals 1 HP, but causes intense belching.
Floor: Downside residents have removed a flagstone on the fastest route towards the north exit and replaced it with a thin wooden panel. Human bodyweight breaks the panel, causing the victim’s foot to drop 6 inches onto makeshift spikes (damage as spear).
1-4 Locked Staircase
(Empty, Entrance)
Two stairways with wrought-iron railings spiral up to the second floor of the dungeon. Dust covers every surface here.
Stairways: Under the west stairs, a secret passage accessible by depressing a wall panel and sliding it aside. Cramped tunnel connects to 1-5.
Dust: This are doesn’t get much traffic, but some humanoid footprints have passed this way recently. The footsteps lead to the secret passage entrance.
1-5 Downside Palisade
(NPC)
Two villagers guard a palisade made from a hodgepodge of logs and pilfered masonry. Behind them, due west, an solid wooden door with the muted sounds of a marketplace.
Guard: Buckle hats, patched buff coats, and spears. They try to extort newcomers for a “Visitor’s Tax” of 10s. They see most adventurers headed into the rest of the tower, but not all of them (“A real headscratcher, that.”)
Palisade Sharpened stakes propped at a diagonal. Anything wider than a human would have to squeeze through slowly or risk impalement (damage as spear)
1-6 Downside Market
(NPC, Treasure)
Village of would-be pilgrims and the provisioners that prey on them. Ovens belch smoke through chimneys grafted to the exterior walls, grilling meat and flatbread. Lean-to market stalls connected by taught lines of pendants and drying laundry. Wooden door to 1-7 is always propped open.
Pilgrims: d4 potential hirelings replenish weekly. Folks who want to travel up the tower, but haven’t made the leap, gradually growing surly and restless.
Provisioners: Torches and rations are always available. Other common tools are available on a 3-in-6. Weapons are available on a 1-in-6 and valued double.
Ovens: Chimneys connect to the exterior through a narrow metal tube to the exterior of floor 3.
1-7 Spiral Staircase
(Linking Stitch)
Ancient stairs retro-fitted with wooden steps and railings spiral up to 2-2.
Encounters
- d4 tower goats, grazing
- d6 Downside villagers on patrol
- d6 Downside villagers dragging wood or game back to town
- Damaged repair servitor (???)
- Mountain lion
- 2d10 hex gulls fighting over a corpse (roll again)