Stock These Caves

Need a natural cavern map?  Here's one you can use:

The Dungeon: Level 7 - The Dead Wizard's Lab

This portion of The Dungeon is a once-opulent hermitage gone to rot.  The magnificent rugs and furnishings are dusty, moldering, and falling apart.  Only the shelves and books in the library, protected by powerful spells of preservation and protection, still contains polished wood and many curious volumes of quaint and forgotten lore.  Even these are covered by a thick layer of dust.

The Dungeon: Level 7 - Dead Wizards Lab

The dead wizard once went by the name Garinginax was powerful wizard who learned of the Mad Lich’s Tomb deep on Level 10 of The Dungeon.  He was strong enough to carve out a portion of The Dungeon for his own private workshop, and cunning enough to use his neighbors to keep unwanted guests at bay.  Despite friendly relations with the Fire Giants on Level 9, he was not brave enough to break the seals binding the Mad Lich to his prison.  He was powerful enough to beat back a demon that escaped his control, but not powerful enough to stave off the effects of the poison barb shoved into his heart by said demon.  Distracted by the pain, his teleportation to the safety of his lab failed spectacularly - he missed his anchor sigil by just enough to place him half inside the room and half encased in the walls of his lab.

Now, decades later, his hidden lab is a sealed dusty tomb.  The wards against detection and intrusion still function, but most of the sigils of a more brutish defensive style have waned in power.  The whole region reeks of barely constrained arcane power, but aside from a few remaining guardians and traps, this once mighty fortress is no longer the potent death trap it once was.

The Dead Wizard's once incompetent apprentice is a strong mage in his own right these days, though he has yet to discover the secret to breaking the geas that commands him slay any who intrude on his master’s former lab.

AAR: Borderwilds

In which the author recounts his experience running 5-7 thirteen year old kids through an OSR D&D campaign:

When last we met, our intrepid heroes successfully foiled the evil wizard Bargle's plan to discredit the king by retrieving the king's Sword of Authority from a dungeon of Bargle's design.  The wizard, tired of fancy footing around, murdered the king, assumed the throne, and ordered the arrest of the heroes who ruined his first plan.  Getting wind of the threat, the heroes fled to the farthest corner of the tottering empire, there to lay low while they lay their plans.

Borderwilds - DM Map

Cornerstone Keep is the empire's trash heap - the place where the Emperor exiles all the screw-ups and misfits who are too politically connected to be shot from a catapult.  This is the last place Bargle would think to look for them.  The keep lies on the far border of the empire in a quiet, out of the way hole that hasn't seen any trouble in decades - not since the wildmen of the north stopped raiding civilized lands.

Borderwilds - Player Map

That's the keep at the bottom of the map.  North of this map are the barbarian tribes who once warred with the empire for generations.  A few hundred years ago, their numbers dwindled, and the frontier fell quiet.  No one really knows what lies north of the Brillig River any more.  Used to be the Battle Plains stretched farther north, but time and nature have changed things.  At the start of the campaign this is all they have to go on.

Two roads diverge before them.  Do they explore the Borderwilds to find treasure and powerful artifacts with an eye towards returning to civilized lands and stabbing Bargle in the face repeatedly, or do they carve out a kingdom of their own from the Borderwilds, attract followers and henchmen, and then march on the empire to overthrow Bargle and stab him in the face repeatedly.  Either way, they are going to need a lot of gold.  And that means finding holes in the ground to plunder.

Not the final disposition.

Their first encounter at the Keep was with the Castellan, who bade them investigate rumors of foul creatures in the mining town of Ogrefell.  After meeting with the locals, they assaulted a small cave and got their asses handed to them by the tribe of rat creatures that lived there.  After some retreating of the expeditious kind, they planned out an elaborate ambush at the mouth of the cave.

The wizard and two halfling henchmen stand above the cave, ready to roll rocks down on the heads of the the stupid rat creatures.  Archers stand behind trees, with the dwarf ready to flank.  In the end, they laid out bait for the stupid rat creatures, and pulled off a big win.  Thinking they'd dealt with all but the ring-leader and his shaman side-kick, the evening ended with the plucky adventurers once more delving into the dark.

De Nile Ain't Just a River in Egypt...

...it's also a river in Sudan.  Just sayin'.

FU12 - Mummies

FEY3 - Pharoah's Undead Tomb Guards

DN20 - Treasure Pile

This post wraps up the undead portion of our show.  Stay tuned for the big brutes, coming soon; rock monsters, ogres, and trolls, I'll spare you the 'oh my'.

The Dungeon: Sublevel 6A - The Air Temple

Back into the Dungeon we go.  The Air Temple centers on the Pool of Air, a bottomless pit which emits a steady stream of clean fresh air.  This could be a portal to the Elemental Plane of Air, but that would be a literal leap of faith.  More likely, it's a conduit to the alien mind forcing its way into this reality in the physical form of The Dungeon.  The other side of this well might contain nothing more than sanity crumbling dreams of chaos.
The Dungeon: Sublevel 6A - Air Temple The Temple of Air has two obvious entrances, but the big locked double doors are the easiest to open. A constant stream of air whistles out through the seams around the heavy oaken doors. These doors are intreicately carved with all manner of cloudy faces, mouths puckered and emitting swirling clouds of wind.

The smaller side entrance is an obvious door that is just as obviously sealed up by the surrounding rock.  It can only be opened if you blow on it. Good luck sussing that out unless you see one of the monsters inside the Temple inadvertently blow on its sister door. Then it serves as an easy back door or escape route from pursuing monsters.

The walls and floor of this temple are carved out of massive tan sandstone bluffs. The sandstone is very friable, meaning that brushing against it rubs sand off. This results in a dungeon level where find grit swirls around the floors, gets into your clothing, and is a continual irritant - especially when combined with the breeze that constantly wafts through the level. These winds rise out of the Pool of Air and grated foyer floor, drying everything in the level, snatching at loose scrolls, and threatening to put out even the tightest sealed lanterns. The ceilings of the rooms are high vaulted affairs, stretching up more than 30 feet and providing dark cover for the flying creatures that call this level home. Even the ceilings in the hallways rise 20 feet above the floor. The only area seemingly built to human proportions are the back rooms behind the altar. Though barren, they lack the continuous breeze and blowing sand that marks this entire level. The feeling of normalcy in these rooms keeps wandering monsters at bay - none will disturb those who rest and recover here.

Dungeon Plunder: Cursebreaker

This otherwise non-descript steel sword is marked by the blue runic letters engraved along the blade as shown.  Any character who speaks the language of the northern barbarians will recognize the words from an ancient dialect that can be loosely translated as "the breaker of curses".  


In game terms, this is a +1 shortsword that also renders its wielder immune to curses of all stripes.  It cannot cure a curse that has already taken effect; all it can do is deflect the curse from a spell, trap, or anything short of a god's whim.

Dog Faced Boys

Pendraken calls these dog faces Anubis guards.  They've got a great fantasy Egyptian feel to them.

FEY1 - Anubis with sword

FEY2 - Anubis with spear

And for a little bonus, here's a close shot of the bat swarm.  You can see the scale in the group shot posted a few days ago.  I cut the stands for these in half so they wouldn't tower over the rest of the figures.

AC12 - Swarm of bats