Dungeon 23: January

 

 

I fell behind for several days because Sean McCoy sold me on Dragon's Quest XI (which is fucking amazing, more on it later I think), and this past weekend I was at a small local board gaming convention where I wrote the rest of the dungeon in my downtime.

Finishing a bit early works out because I need to talk about the hallways of this dungeon, maybe figure out an encounter table, detail room 19's effects, and (more importantly) catalogue the things referenced in this dungeon level as a whole. I started in the Abyss to ostensibly make it easier when I did the upper levels of the mega dungeon in the real world. The things down here should have echoes and references up above. We'll see how that actually pans out. In the meantime, here's the rest of (one of) Graz'zt's Ivory Towers in the Abyss.

January 15: Repository of Hearts

Black metal doors with intricate flame designs open on a spherical room of red glass. If anyone willingly gives their heart to Graz'zt it appears in here. Thousands of small hearts with flaming wings flit around in here. Those with purple flaming wings also gave him their soul. There aren't as many purple coming in as there used to be. He's beginning to wonder if he's losing his touch. Any heart can lead you unerringly to the corresponding mirror in the Library of Vanity [10].

January 16: Heartache

A room of mirrored black glass, dark as the void, seems like an abyss. Empty until crossed, then it "shatters" and millions of slivers of black abyssal glass slice up people in the room for 75% of their life and they begin bleeding profusely. Anyone who has truly been in love and had their heart broken is unaffected. Note: Everyone enters the room alone and finds themselves alone, even when together, even if connected somehow. Group up normally upon exit.

January 17: Slime Chamber

Octagonal room of metallic silver metal coated in layers of translucent, shimmering red slime. Slime in the northern hallway too, no door there. Drips constantly from ceiling. Works like green slime but sparkly. Forms into beautiful humanoid female shapes. They seem to relax and melt down onto reclining couches, then the scene melts into the floor and another forms. Anyone currently in love, and loved in return (direct family/platonic doesn't count) is immune to the slime. But they will be immediately marked as a succubus/incubus target.

January 18: Moonlight Hallway

Walls of white latticework, black and white tiled floor. Filled with potted ferns and night blooming jasmine. The hall is always night, bathed in soft moonlight. A chandelier in the center of the cross of the hallway emits true moonlight from any moon. Snapping carnivorous plants in here too.

January 19: Control Room

A plain room despite the name. All black, mirrored floors. A single black plinth in a spotlight. Putting a heart from [15] on the plinth "syncs" many of the other rooms in the dungeon (e.g., 18 emits moonlight from the planet this heart is from, 9 has cursed weapons/armor from that planet, etc)

January 20: Draped Room

Empty except for 6 mirrors (covered in white fabric) forming a sort of hallway, 3 on either side. Each mirror shows the reflection of a world ending conflict and things shoot into the room if it's uncovered. To remove a cloth it must absorb the blood of one human. Touching the white cloth begins sucking out blood rapidly, turns red. Hard to let go.

January 21: The Librarian's Lair

A bone filled cave, where the white lion bodied lamia librarian lairs. A weapon rack holds a spear of wind. Book cases line the south wall. All books comprise an exceptional curation on a single topic. Put your hand in a devil face on the wall to change them. Ten sets total. Topics: Astral Plane, Love, Power, Wind, Chronomancy, An Ancient Culture, Economics, Geology, Soul Trapping, Gardening with Carniverous Plants

January 22: Hidden Grotto

A 20'20 cave with a waterfall and pool. Warm. Heated from below. Somewhere on the librarian's home plane. Not in Abyss. Graz'zt doesn't know. Not accessible from that plane normally (she grew rock to seal her favorite spot away), but a dwarven kingdom nearby is expanding it's mines. She doesn't know. Bio-luminescent lotuses in here. Candles. Super chill. Magic moss.

January 23: Entrance to the Hell of Needles

No doors, open arches. An austere chrome room, however it's NOT mirrored. Matte finish. Domed ceiling. A 6" gap runs around the perimeter. If a mortal enters the room, thousands of chrome tentacles with needle tips shoot out of the ceiling, pierce them, then the floor opens and they're flung down into a hell of eternal piercing torment.

January 24: Stables

4-6 manticores are stabled here in a room of obsidian and bone. The north wall is mostly open like a hangar. White lion bodies, silver metallic wings, shiny black scorpion tails inject you with pure hellfire and visions of your most soul crushing life events. The cambions ride them and shoot arrows of pure pain from black bows.

January 25: The Hive

A room filled with hexagonal honeycomb structures grown of bone. Swarms with 8" tall red skinned naked male faeries with wings of fire. They are vicious and love nothing more than peeling skin off faces. Small brass spears. It's a whole tribe/clan/group. South door to [26] is an opening almost completely grown over with hive. Crawl through.

January 26: The Honey Chamber

The gargantuan (by fairy standards) 5' fairy queen resides in this room laying her brood of hell fairies. She's attended by swarms of 8" females. The room is filled with oozing, sparkly, purple honey made from the collected anguish of souls in the Abyss down below. South door is not locked, exactly, more overgrown and sealed by fairy hive.

January 27: Escher Hellscape

These 8 rooms are a full on Hellraiser/Berserk/Labyrinth/Escher area of stairs and arches and relative gravity. It goes all the way down to the ground level of the Abyss and below. No. I don't know how it works or how to run it, but that's what it is.

January 28: 'Cubus Training Room

9 large, blue liquid filled tubes stand like columns in this austere room of white marble. Each contains a naked, floating human. Some are visibly eunuchs. ALl are impossible to arouse sexually. Young succubi/incubi come here to train and figure out how to captivate, charm and enrapture without the crutch of sexual arousal. They will pay a king's ransom for new people for the tubes.

January 29: 'Cubus Spawning Pool

A room of smooth black granite, not mirrored. Dark. Only illumination from a 10' pool of sparkly red slime. Glows from within. The air is thick, sweet and warm. It is also full of every pheromone imaginable. If you can get turned on, you get turned on as soon as you enter the room. Baby succubi/incubi occasionally rise from the pool. Freshly spawned and hungry. Pool slime like green slime functionally.

January 30: Reluhantis' Lair

The eastern wall is gold bars. The room is a bamboo forest with comfortable seating areas and lounges made of bone and plush fur. Two hellfire tigers in here. A 10' pit of venomous moss vipers where Reluhantis sleeps. They don't all stay in the pit. Graz'zt and Reluhantis like to hang out in here and taunt Korag [14]. Reluhantis was Korag's consort before his imprisonment.

January 31: Sculpture Garden

Marble floor and walls, mirrored ceiling. Filled with life sized, highly lifelike statues of beautiful naked people in all manner of athletic and warlike poses on plinths like in a museum. No one looks upset. There's a medusa curator in here. If a visitor is hot, she'll keep her veil on and silently call for a succubus/incubus.

BONUS 32: The Caged Star

The last flaming remnant of a cold dwarf star is kept here in a 20' spherical cage of adamantite. Graz'zt could collapse it into a black hole in an emergency, but he likes to keep it here as a memento. Long before he became a demon lord, and even longer before he became a devil, the planet of his birth, the first planet he conquered, orbited this star.

BONUS 33: Blood Altar of Sacrifice

Stolen from a world at a mythical nexus of ley lines, the floor of this 30'x30' room is ancient, ugly grey stone, carved with millions of tiny grooves. A central altar is made of organic looking pitted metal. It is ugly but clearly an altar. Any blood sacrifice performed on it will operate perfectly. The blood will flow to the floor and fill in/form any necessary runes or magical symbols automatically. Many demon lords seek to conquer Graz'zt's domain to get their claws on this, more than anything else.

BONUS 34: Hellfire

The doors to the room glow and radiate heat. The "room" is a 10'x10' column of pure hellfire that goes up and down forever. The door's are simultaneously molten and solid and are difficult to open.

BONUS 35: Sand and Darkness

40'x50' room with a floor of burning sand. Pitch black. Wind. Flying sand. Hurts. Can see the glowing door to 34. An air elemental lord is bound to the room. Angry and trapped, can't remember its name. Kills with the sand. Graz'zt uses the room to keep his skin smooth and sand to make special mirror glass.

BONUS 36: "Blackshield's" Rest

Austere marble room. South wall mirrored. North wall: Huge naked balor, spread eagle, chained to wall with unbreakable golden chains. Malkath. Brother of Korag [14]. Must challenge all who enter the room. Shoots lightning from eyes, animate floating flame whip. Breathes sleep clouds. Graz'zt always appears in the mirror to watch. Legendary sword "Blackshield" floats in the center of the room. Black aura. Intelligent. Hates idiots (everyone is an idiot). If Blackshield lets you take it, Malkath is released to hunt you. But he's soul bound to this room and will return.