Aergoth
2009-05-26, 08:26 AM
The idea dawned on me while re-reading a few sourcebooks and similar that adventurers have to do a lot of running around in order to gain levels. You could start in a dungeon in one place and cross the country a dozen times before you hit 10. So I had an Idea(TM)
The Idea:
Build a dungeon/campaign location that will allow players to go from level 1 to level 20 without running around.
The Setting:
Blacksky Keep. The Keep itself exists on the material plane and serves to cover an entrance to a dungeon. This dungeon is sort of a planar mish-mash. The first dozen "floors" are all bits and pieces of the material plane, parts of the underdark and similar. And then it gets weird. The dungeon is a planar scrapbook. It will occasionally (once in a blue moon) open up a portal on to another plane. Or more accurately, around a section of another plane. It "eats" that section and adds it to itself, trapping any native life there.
The Plan: Blacksky Keep is the main setting for the campaign. The nature of the dungeon allows it to be essentially infinite, and house a mess of monsters. DMs can add, remove and replace floors as they will, sub monsters in and out of levels, or modify them as they will. Traps and strangeness work fine in Blacksky, and there is plenty of opportunity to adjust the dungeon as they will. The only things that need to remain unchanged are the anchor points (explained below) and the existence of the Keep.
Details
Blacksky was built as part of two anchor points, one on the material plane at the entrance to the keep, which forces it's mouth open, and another at the bottom of the dungeon, which prevents it from moving. The anchor point in the bottom of the dungeon has become loose, which means that bits of the dungeon can shift, where they were once static.
The Keep, and attached "dungeon" comprise 46 levels. The keep consists of the outer keep, four towers and the inner keep (where the anchor point is located). The outer keep has been sacked a few dozen times over the ages, and is now inhabited by goblinoids. The inner keep is still largely intact, and the goblins have sealed it against things escaping. The towers (which stand at the cardinal points) are equally infested. The northern tower has a gargoyle dwelling at the top, while the southern tower has been taken over as some sort of hive structure. A tribe of bugbears inhabits the western tower, and a few undead defenders linger in the eastern tower.
The next level is a section of caverns which are now home to various denizens that have escaped the lower levels of the dungeon, mostly weaker creatures such as kobolds and assorted vermin. Below these, the “dungeon” has apparently eaten a section of the underdark, and feral drow now roam the remaining halls.
The Keep was built to keep the “dungeon” in place, and the Keep was staffed by a group of defenders. These defenders would maintain the anchor points, which would lead to a sort of culling of the dungeon, leaving only the stronger varieties of monster as one went deeper. Eventually, the Keep came under siege by those who wanted to control it. Though the defenders managed to fight off the invasion, the anchor point was damaged and many of the stronger defenders were lost. Those remaining attempted to descend to repair the anchor point, but did not return. The Keep was abandoned, and the remaining defenders went on their ways. The idea to convey this was to have bodies of former defenders (or their equipment, either alone or used by a monster) as they went down.
The Blacksky dungeon is warded against intrusion. Attempts to teleport into the dungeon do not work, and nothing short of a gate, or a plane shift will allow characters to enter the dungeon, since it is effectively another plane. Magic has leaked around in some levels of the dungeon, resulting in areas where magic does not work, or works strangely. (Anti-magic fields, anti-psionic fields and areas of wild magic are common occurrences as one descends into the dungeon. Parts of the dungeon were added by the Blacksky Defenders, and act as “safe” rooms. Over the years, some of these have been breached and are no the lairs of dungeon creatures, and others have been hidden or blocked off.
Detect magic registers an overwhelming resonance from the anchor points of the dungeon, and causes the caster to make a dc 30 will save or be dazed for 6 rounds. A critical failure of the check results in the character being stunned for 6 rounds and forgetting their spells.
The Idea:
Build a dungeon/campaign location that will allow players to go from level 1 to level 20 without running around.
The Setting:
Blacksky Keep. The Keep itself exists on the material plane and serves to cover an entrance to a dungeon. This dungeon is sort of a planar mish-mash. The first dozen "floors" are all bits and pieces of the material plane, parts of the underdark and similar. And then it gets weird. The dungeon is a planar scrapbook. It will occasionally (once in a blue moon) open up a portal on to another plane. Or more accurately, around a section of another plane. It "eats" that section and adds it to itself, trapping any native life there.
The Plan: Blacksky Keep is the main setting for the campaign. The nature of the dungeon allows it to be essentially infinite, and house a mess of monsters. DMs can add, remove and replace floors as they will, sub monsters in and out of levels, or modify them as they will. Traps and strangeness work fine in Blacksky, and there is plenty of opportunity to adjust the dungeon as they will. The only things that need to remain unchanged are the anchor points (explained below) and the existence of the Keep.
Details
Blacksky was built as part of two anchor points, one on the material plane at the entrance to the keep, which forces it's mouth open, and another at the bottom of the dungeon, which prevents it from moving. The anchor point in the bottom of the dungeon has become loose, which means that bits of the dungeon can shift, where they were once static.
The Keep, and attached "dungeon" comprise 46 levels. The keep consists of the outer keep, four towers and the inner keep (where the anchor point is located). The outer keep has been sacked a few dozen times over the ages, and is now inhabited by goblinoids. The inner keep is still largely intact, and the goblins have sealed it against things escaping. The towers (which stand at the cardinal points) are equally infested. The northern tower has a gargoyle dwelling at the top, while the southern tower has been taken over as some sort of hive structure. A tribe of bugbears inhabits the western tower, and a few undead defenders linger in the eastern tower.
The next level is a section of caverns which are now home to various denizens that have escaped the lower levels of the dungeon, mostly weaker creatures such as kobolds and assorted vermin. Below these, the “dungeon” has apparently eaten a section of the underdark, and feral drow now roam the remaining halls.
The Keep was built to keep the “dungeon” in place, and the Keep was staffed by a group of defenders. These defenders would maintain the anchor points, which would lead to a sort of culling of the dungeon, leaving only the stronger varieties of monster as one went deeper. Eventually, the Keep came under siege by those who wanted to control it. Though the defenders managed to fight off the invasion, the anchor point was damaged and many of the stronger defenders were lost. Those remaining attempted to descend to repair the anchor point, but did not return. The Keep was abandoned, and the remaining defenders went on their ways. The idea to convey this was to have bodies of former defenders (or their equipment, either alone or used by a monster) as they went down.
The Blacksky dungeon is warded against intrusion. Attempts to teleport into the dungeon do not work, and nothing short of a gate, or a plane shift will allow characters to enter the dungeon, since it is effectively another plane. Magic has leaked around in some levels of the dungeon, resulting in areas where magic does not work, or works strangely. (Anti-magic fields, anti-psionic fields and areas of wild magic are common occurrences as one descends into the dungeon. Parts of the dungeon were added by the Blacksky Defenders, and act as “safe” rooms. Over the years, some of these have been breached and are no the lairs of dungeon creatures, and others have been hidden or blocked off.
Detect magic registers an overwhelming resonance from the anchor points of the dungeon, and causes the caster to make a dc 30 will save or be dazed for 6 rounds. A critical failure of the check results in the character being stunned for 6 rounds and forgetting their spells.