The Dungeon: Level 1 - Goblins in the Foyer

Once the characters enter this map they have left the old world behind.  There are only two ways to get back to the world they left - turn around now and walk back up the stairs to a long and boring life full of kids and bills and everyday worries, or take the long dark plunge down the river on the left side of the map.  Of course, no one knows exactly where that river vomits back out into the world.  It may be a long walk home.

Level 1 - The Goblin Burrows


The goblins, as with all natives of The Dungeon, subsist on a steady diet of hate and anger.  They are well stocked in both, as they are supplied by the DungeonGod.  They have no qualms about supplementing that diet with some nice tasty manflesh or even fish from the caves to the right.  They only fish in groups, and keep a sharp eye out for predators from Level 4, whether it's the owlbear or shark or even one of the giant crabs.

Humans are not unknown to these goblins, as they often allow safe passage through their burrows to the gates of chaos - the heavy, jet black door to Level 2.  Safe passage for groups, that is.  Lone travelers have been known to disappear before they reach the Temple of Chaos.  The goblins never allow safe passage to the bugbears south of them - they know the bugbears poach goblins as they poach humans.  The door south is heavily barred on both sides, but a clever man might be able to lift the bar on the far side with a long thin blade.

This entire level is composed of rough cavern walls with a floor of uneven stone, loose rocks, and the occasional thick layer of well packed soil.  The first two rooms have thick layers of hard packed soil for floors, and the pit near the entry way has been dug down into it.  Every time the players enter The Dungeon, that hole will be there.  They can mark it's location, steal the covering material, or even fill it with rocks, and when they return it will be right back to a simple 10-foot pit with a stretched cloth cover camouflaged by loose soil.  Since this is the only entrance to The Dungeon, the characters will become used to seeing that pit, and walking around it on either side.  When they start to take it for granted, that's when the denizens of The Dungeon (or the DungeonGod itself) will fill the center pit and place two pits of the same style on either side of where the pit used to be.  That should keep them on their toes and remind them that this place has a will that is set against them.