Vast Underground

[Jkeown]

Vast Underground

Megadungeons in Fantasy HERO

by Jeffery Keown

"Deep Aura don't fit on no treasure map, son... it goes on for the rest of your life."

--Overheard at Delver's, Chalkcliff Merchant Quarter

 

In Caleon, we have a few dungeons that rival cities in their vast scope. For miles their tunnels and passageways stretch, vast open spaces acheived by precious few tunnels only a meter or two wide. Their names send chills down the spines of the most seasoned delver; Deep Aura, Twilight Caverns, Besmirk, Ancient Regio, Yathlaan and probably a dozen others. The older your world, the more of these you are likely to have.

 

There are resources Down There. The nations of the world know this and have, from time to time, sent bands of talented individuals into these nightmare realms only to find they are beyond the ability of small parties. Entire legions have gone into these places, only to have scattered, maddened survivors limp home with a pittance of loot.

 

Why do the guilds and governments raise troops to throw at these Megadungeons? The reasons are as numberless as the powerful people who commission these doomed delves. Guildmasters, Kings, Merchant Princes and military men are all fond of sending hundreds to their deaths to secure a large diamond, enchanted scepter or a scrap of parchment that might lead to yet another sunken, accursed city.

 

Even worse is the notion of Gamemastering one in your own campaign. In a white hot burst of inspiration, I will herein try to capture the logistical nightmare of a Megadungeon. Such heat often leaves in its wake deep scars and certainly dire burns. Corrections, clarifications and after-market assistance are, as always, quite welcome.

 

Justification

Why do this? Why go to the headache of designing a Megadungeon if you're only going there once? Simple... that one trip will take months to game through! This will keep parties busy for weeks on end, provide ample loot, throw political intrigue, stealth, magic and all-out brawls into every episode you run for a good long time.

Some Terms

Faction - One "side" or force of creatures struggling for control of a megadungeon.

 

Hall - An area of relatively easy access, somewhat cutoff from it's surroundings. An example, using the idea of a vast underground city would be a residential area. One or two ways in, but each area inside is very open and accessed quickly.

 

Loot - Anything of value; magic swords, treasure, slaves, art objects, armor and weapons.

 

Natives - The lifeforms (or automata) present in the megadungeon when the struggle begins.

Trap - A mechanical deterrent. Often of a one-shot nature. Sophisicated ancient cultures might have created auto-reloading magical traps, however, but those might be called wonders.

 

Wonder - Non-mechanincal traps assets and features, usually recharged by ambient magic, Magic Healing/Buffing pools, Teleport chambers, Illusory rooms and objects. Room of Regeneration anyone? These will always be coveted by one or another faction.

 

Design Considerations

 

Location

Where is the megadungeon situated? How was it constructed? Is it square miles of twisting natural caverns and water-carved tunnels? Or is it some ancient Dwarven city, built by stubby hands over thousands of years? While the concept begs for a location removed from polite society, the image of a teeming labrynth below the campaign city's streets is appealing.

 

Entrances

How do you get all those troops down there? Perhaps a vast bridge over a waterfall leads to a great set of doors that have recently been opened. Or the entrance is more mundane, a simple rune-carved hole leads to glory and doom. Each entrance is likely to be controlled by a faction, or is the focus for an active contest for control. If there is only one entrance, it can be the scene of constant fighting

 

Factions Present

How many factions are struggling for this bit of real estate? Even if you do not include guilds, cults, more litigimate religious organizations or governments, there's still the current tenants versus the Player Characters. That's two right there!

 

Faction Territories

Depending on the layout, number of entrances and so on, factions may have secured certain areas for themselves. This, as in the case of Entrances, is one of determining preparedness.

Factions will want to secure areas that are easy to defend, or contain the loot they wish to claim. It helps their cause immeasurably if these features are found in the same Hall. Most of the time, anything worth taking home will be very hard to get to, so this might not seem so unreasonable.

 

I like to keep things simple, and break things down by security level (see Encounters, below). At a glance, the SL of a hall determines a great many things.

 

Faction Size

How many in each faction? This ranges from around a thousand low-point troops and support personel to six people roughly equivalent to the Player Characters in point cost.

 

In fact, start with those six. One of them is the leader, his point cost is 110% to 150% that of the Player Characters. He's got five buddies almost as dangerous as him. They have points roughly equal to the Players. Or, more fitting, they are just as capable, but perhaps built with more "Economy of Design" that allows you to concentrate on their combat-oriented abilities, rather than producing a detailed character sheet for each one. They are teh group with the most complicated motivations. Everyone beneath them in power is probably just here to do their job and hopefully get out alive.

 

Below those folks are Scouts, Elite Troops, Guards, Loremasters and bookkeepers, cooks, and skilled and unskilled laborers. As the points go down, the population increases. Not that you'd have hundreds of 25-point cooks, but you might, it depends on how much a given faction likes its food.

 

That brings us to how many of each type a given faction brings along. One designed to get in and out fast won't bring a cook, but if they plan to colonize the place, expect to see everyone you might normally find in a city environment.

 

Size of faction is also determined by how long the faction has been involved in the conflict. After a few weeks, one would expect reserve forces, smiths and a supply train.

Encounters

Encounters are based on the Hall in question. If it is newly entered by a rival faction, there may be "natives" to deal with in addition to the rivals.

 

Random Encounters usually take the form of a chart, keyed to each hall. The chart will consist of encounters with every faction who claims the area, plus any remaining traps, wonders or native life.

 

Programmed Encounters should be more than just bumping into the enemy faction around a corner (though it might be just that). They should be scenes that PCs interrupt, view from a safe distance or hear from afar. An example would be a research team in the process of opening a vault. The Player Characters hear the Spells of Opening, listen for a while to the conversation of the rival team and rush into replace them at swordpoint. The treasure in that encounter is relatively light, consisting of the rival's gear and tools, and a puzzle to work out (the vault).

 

Some GMs prefer to never use Random encounters, instead coming up with programmed ones on the fly, or in a burst of activity, write an entire Hall's encounters before the game, which allows a good deal of realism that off-the-cuff encounters can lack. Programmed encounters can also be a drawback, what with no scene ever going off as planned due to player action, which is highly unpredictable.

 

Security Level

Security Level tells you what sort of encounters, loot and native life you might have to deal with. Think of security level as a palette of colors you will paint the area with.

 

Unexplored - Newly discovered by one or more factions, the area is ripe for picking! Native life will be at its peak, treasures will be undisturbed (unless the natives are intelligent folks like Orcs or Drakine or what-have-you). In that case, the area is most likely Secured by the native faction. Any rivals will be scouts. Eliminate these, and you set into motion a whole slew of encounters with natives who heard the fighting, reserve forces investigating the scout's absence and finally, the high-end party who shows up to really clean house.

 

Claimed - One or more Factions claims this area. Any fighting is sporadic, no units will have been committed to the area as yet. Only scouts and maybe a guard force will be present. Even then, they will only be encountered near their faction's entrance to the zone. Native life is present and possibly aware of the actions being taken to destroy them.

 

Contested - Regular clashes between rival factions is the order of things in a Contested Area. Expect to see all native life driven out or killed by the fighting, probably a quarter of the loot is missing, but then, a similar percentage of traps and wonders will have been set off and not re-loaded.

 

Hotly Contested - Constant Dungeon Wars action! Night and day, troops are being sent into prevent the loss of the Hall to a rival faction. Any loot discovered is either being used in the fight, or awaiting other Faction members to haul it off.

 

Secured - One faction has won out over the other(s). The area is relatively secure, troops and support are able to actually sleep in some state of comfort and peave of mind. Research teams are scouring the place for un-tripped traps, loot and resources Encounters in such an area include well-fed and well-rested troops who know the terrain like the back of their hands. Any loot uncovered in this area has been moved to the Faction's base camp (either outside, or in another secured Hall), or is awaiting shipment. Conveniently, Player Characters who win through this kind of area have their loot boxed, labelled and ready to steal.

 

Abandoned - This area has been well and truly picked clean, perhaps it contained nothing of value, or such resources were not discovered. Encounters in an abandoned hall almost certainly include critters driven from their homes in other halls. This motivates them to extra voilence against the first thing they encounter.

 

Creating Halls and Areas

 

Name it. Even if the Player Characters never hear the name, the inhabitants certainly call it something, and the rival faction's troops have names for the areas for quick reference. While you can call the Hall just before the Big Open Space Area A, its much more fun and flavorful to overhear an enemy sergeant refer to troops moving into Vile Demense north of The Canyon. Names should be based on the type of native life encountered there, as well as archectural features such as wells ("Well of Life"), narrow passages ("Noosfal's Squeeze"), high-sided open areas ("Ambush Alley") or just really cool design ("Awesome Arches"). Sometimes a bit of statuary or a fresco can give rise to a name. Alternately, what the Faction's commanders call Area 521 North, the troops refer to as Lemmy's Deathtrap in honor of a fallen comrade.

 

Define it Pick features that will define the Hall to the players. Was this area an industrial sector, filled with rusting armories, cold forges and memories of ringing hammers and long-silent work-chants? Or was it a magical college, filled with traps that summon demons, crumbling libraries and hidden tomes of knowledge. The better you define an area, the more the unusual will stand out when encountered. A perfectly preserved book among piles of rotting tomes will be a signal to all but the most daft of parties.

 

Populate it. Each Hall will have creatures, traps, wonders and loot. If the above example of an armory is used, consider having armored undead, fire elementals and secret caches of enchanted metal waiting to be discovered. The magical library example might be populated by the spirits of dead wizards, lore-elementals and new powerful magic spells to fight and be fought over.

 

Game it! Once the population is fixed in your mind, ideas for "side quests" and scenarios might fill your head. This is good. Using the two examples, suppose the armory contains the ghost of a long-dead smith, and she cannot rest until she knows the fate of her love, a wizard of no small talent, now a dread lich who controls the library. Perhaps he can be calmed by the sight of her spirit, or she can laid to final peace by knowing her love's condition. Sounds like you need to get these two crazy kids together, but between those two halls lay several secured zones, the bastion of an undead hunter and his powerful entourage.

 

Cinematic Effects

Lava - Extremely silly to have molten rock running like a babbling brook through your megadungeon, but it makes for neat lighting, hazardous travel and provides a hook or theme to the monsters encountered there.

 

Water - Not quite as dangerous as magma perhaps, but certainly good for forcing swimming, air supply issues and providing secret passages that aren't immediately obvious. Sure there's a pool in the room the PCs are sleeping in, but that's just good drinking water. When the evil guys show up, dripping wet, to kill them they'll know they should have been a few points more observant.

 

Heights The ruddy light provided by all that magma can give hints as to the height the PCs are above the floor, narrow bridges spanning deep cracks provide a certain dramatic flair and fighting on precarious ledges a thousand feet from the unseen cave floor can make any fight more interesting.

 

Vermin - Albino cave creatures, swarms of rats or beetles, bats by the thousands..not to mention the dreaded fairy swarms found in some particularly awful megadungeons.

Controls

The Big Boss

In Deep Aura, the whole place is ruled over by a being called the Deific. He doesn't mind the player characters coming in, he doesn't mind them killing a few dozen Ur-Grubs. He does take them to task for shutting off the Fire Fountain and stealing the Eye of Chaos. In the case of Deep Aura, there is a limit to the active points he'll allow to be cast in his domain, as well as a list of specific actions he won't tolerate.

 

Consider having a powerful creature, demon or undead automaton as a Hidden Faction. Hints of this character abound, but he does not reveal himself and his forces until some specific action is taken.

Multi-layered battles

Similar to seiging a castle, a multi-layered encounter can be great fun. If the party is pleased with uncovering the Tomb of Laarn, perhaps they'd enjoy fighting for it not with folks rushing down a narrow hallway at them, but a large force of archers in balconies four stories up? They will be pleased with both finding the tomb and the victory over the rival force. Give them 5 archers and six guys rappelling down the walls, plus a wizard throwing fireballs from one high and they'll never forget the battle. They also won't forget to look up on occasion.

 

I'm sure there's more to write on this subject, look for it soon. Specific topics include barricades, salvaging, example factions, some spells and wonders, and of course a few worked examples of Halls to fight over.

[LordSkatterhawk]

Re: Vast Underground

 

This article on megadungeons is phenomenal. I don't know where to start with my comments so I'll share some reader's reaction.

 

I read this article as part game theory (dealing with dungeons as more than PCs v. Monsters), verisimilitude for a specific setting (the armies and factions realize how dangerous these places are, megadungeons are taken for granted as structures), and design philosophy (especially the planned encounters and security levels). Sometimes authors try to accomplish too much in essays of this nature, but I think this piece is balanced. I can use it as a player or as a DM. Even if I am not fond of dungeon play, some of this piece could be of use designing battlefields. Thanks for an entertaining introduction to some useful terminology, theory, and gaming design.

 

I like the idea of naming areas and having multi-layered combat. I have designed several dungeons in my days as a GM, but it was nice to see these ideas succinctly expressed. I look forward to further articles in what I hope is a series.

[Lucius]

Re: Vast Underground

 

One of my unfulfilled ambitions is to craft a 60 level dungeon....

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary says "Maybe when you retire, Lucius..."

[Jkeown]

Re: Vast Underground

 

Thanks for the kind words.

 

The article was born of a bit of a disappointment. The players had been hearing of "Deep Aura" in my game for a while (2 years, at least) and had wanted to delve it at last. I drew a map. It covered one page in my notebook, roughly 1/4 hex=2m scale. I was really annoyed at myself. Hardly the epic experience I had imagined. Then I thought maybe it was a vast underground city in and of itself.

 

Vast Underground? Nice title. All sorts of things have occured to me since then...Big things. I'll type 'em up when I get home from work.

[Gawain]

Re: Vast Underground

 

Great article! Very cool.

[Curufea]

Re: Vast Underground

 

Didn't some game company come out with a module called "world's biggest dungeon". Actually - I think it was the folk that produced the Farscape D20 game (yes, I stooped to buying a D20 book because I'm a fan of Farscape)

[Jkeown]

Re: Vast Underground

 

Didn't some game company come out with a module called "world's biggest dungeon". Actually - I think it was the folk that produced the Farscape D20 game (yes' date=' I stooped to buying a D20 book because I'm a fan of Farscape)[/quote']

 

I am familiar with the product, but at $100, I'm not likely to ever see the inside. The idea did influence me, however. From what I've heard, the different areas aren't tied together much at all story-wise, the Vast Underground concept suggests a unifying concept and conflict.

 

I'll try to post some examples.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Vast Underground

 

The Worlds Largest Dungeon is alright. Its really more of a curiosity than a real setting though.

 

Ptolus has more staying power, and combines the idea of a vast, multi-origin, interconnected "underground" right beneath a major city mentioned in the opening post. Ive been occassionally converting material from it to the HERO System over the last couple of months. PtolusHERO

 

Older material worth checking out are the Greyhawk Ruins which are near to the City of Greyhawk and offer the opportunity to travel back and forth for those that like a mix of delving and city play. Ruins of Greyhawk. I once finally got an experienced and powerful group of PCs to attempt the Ruins, but they chickened out a couple of days into it and bailed on it, never to return no matter how much I dangled the carrot.

 

Also, theres always Waterdeep, though I was never particularly a fan.

 

Im sure there are other "megadungeons" in print that could serve as an inspiration / source of material.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Vast Underground

 

If you can get a hold of the Epic of Aerth for the Dangerous Journeys game, there's a lot of "vast underground" type material there. Ecosystems and civilizations. No maps though. They're pretty easy to come by anyway.

[kiahoga]

Re: Vast Underground

 

actually if you wanted to get something of suitable size try ruins of undermountain from 2nd ed ad&d a mostrous dungeon if they're ever was one . but your right 100$ for one module is very steep .

[Super Squirrel]

Re: Vast Underground

 

I have always wanted to play the Ruins of Greyhawk. I own a copy but never had the chance to run it or play it.

[Savinien]

Re: Vast Underground

 

Isn't there a Myth Drannor in Forgotten Realms?

 

I always wanted to build that multilevel Uber-Dungeon that they hinted at in the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide. It was just a sideview/cutaway map of all the various levels, but it seemed interesting.

 

Or, be a dwarf in the retaking of Moria?

 

Lots of potential in such an idea and I'm impressed by the way the jkeown went about putting it together.

[Super Squirrel]

Re: Vast Underground

 

Incidently, I was thinking a couple of days ago about creating large dungeons. I started writing up some information on how to design a dungeon. It is nothing compared to this which is amazing but part of it does assist the situation.

 

Questions to answer before you begin the dungeon design:

Who created it?

Knowing who created the dungeon helps shape it. Was it a paranoid wizard? Was it a clan of goblins? The design of the dungeon will reflect the personality of its creator.

 

Why was it created?

The biggest flaw with dungeons is there is no reason for them. They are just there. Ask yourself why it was created. Was it crafted to hide a secret lab at its deepest level? Was it a complex path to the surface world? Was it designed to provide a place for the residents to hide from the outside world?

 

How was it created?

This helps best with doing room descriptions and designing the physical map. Were the rooms natural? Were they crafted by magic? Were they dug by dwarves? Knowing how the rooms were made helps provide texture to the dungeon.

 

When were they created?

Is the dungeon new? Is it ancient? This also helps with designing the map and the room descriptions. Older dungeons might have marks of previous battles on the walls. Sections of the dungeon may have collapsed long ago. Bodies of victims will be nothing more that skeletons. Doors may be rotting and falling apart. Newer dungeons may have unfinished sections with piles of fresh rock and mining equipment. Rooms may be nearly perfect with brand new doors and unrusted hinges.

 

What is the history of the dungeon?

Have there been any major battles in the dungeon before? Have any adventures gone down into the dungeon in the past? Were there any fires or magical explosions in the dungeon? Did the lands ever flood after the dungeon was first created?

 

 

 

That's all I had really.

[Super Squirrel]

Re: Vast Underground

 

I own Undermount as well. It is on my list of AD&D books to sell.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Vast Underground

 

I have always wanted to play the Ruins of Greyhawk. I own a copy but never had the chance to run it or play it.

 

Its got some interesting bits in it as I recall (its been many many years), but it wasnt very well organized or summarized so you really had to put the time in to read ahead of the group and have an idea of what was on each level. Not easy to run on the fly. There were also so areas that were miskeyed in the text or the map which could throw a wrench if you didnt catch it ahead of time and figure out the right mapping.

 

Ruins of Undermountain had similar layout issues IIRC, but I never actually ran or played in that one, just browsed it and reused the maps for something else.

 

Newer megadungeons do a better job at giving a GM a heads up and containing more relelvant info in the text rather than requiring the GM to own and bring with them a pile of (undisclosed) reference books.

[Super Squirrel]

Re: Vast Underground

 

I recall that about the Ruins of Greyhawk.

 

I also love the part about a pillar that has the Earth Stone in it. You can't find it by any method other than going up to the Pillar and casting a Wish spell and specifically asking if there the Earth Stone was in the pillar IIRC.

[Lethosos]

Re: Vast Underground

 

The Underdark book for Forgotten Realms can give you some ideas about life underground. Similarily, "Creatures of the Endless Dark", an OGL d20 book can give equally illuminating critters down there. I particularly like the slaver race they have in there...

[Markdoc]

Re: Vast Underground

 

My gameworld has several gigantic "dungeons" in it. The world's backstory is that long ago the lords of Darkness almost - but not quite - conquered the world. One civilisation (Thanataya) survived by digging in - literally constructing cities and fortresses underground and surviving by the use of magical gates and cornucopias to produce food. Some were destroyed during the dark ages, or abandoned at their end and sealed off when the Dark age ended. Still others stayed at least partly in use for centuries until they were destroyed in the great war between Thanataya and Atalantë....

 

That was of course, long, long ago but some of the ruins are still down there. Imagine. The ruins of cities built to hold millions of people, created and sustained by some of the mightiest wizards ever known.... Oh sure, they've been plundered, but you never know what you might find there... apart from the surviving minions of the lords of Darkness.

 

The current game (though the players don't know it yet) is headed towards another megadungeon, where I plan to play out most of the story - a formerly wealthy city that was destroyed by a earthquake that caused a volcanic eruption. Half the city was buried under steaming mud and the other half subsided enough to let the sea come roaring in. What's left is a melancholy bay of ruins, thickly populated where the land was high enough to form small islands that allowed rebuilding, and small city built on a maze of ruins and tunnels on the landward side, that draws adventurers to dig and loot - while the descendants of the former inhabitants try to stop them so they can dig and loot themselves.

 

And last of all, the cornball favourite - a giant purpose-built dungeon created as a trap/dwelling/treasure-collector by an ancient, powerful and totally mad lich. It's designed to draw in powerful adventurers (who almost always have neato magical items, natch). When they die in the dungeon, the lich's servants eventually find the bodies as they shuffle about resetting traps and placing or feeding new monsters and loot them, hauling the loot back to the lich's fabulous horde. Some of it - the 'less interesting" items - are placed in various sites so as to lure new adventurers in - that way, rumour has gotten out that the Lichlair is a truly dangerous place but if you avoid going too deep and you are fast and canny, you can come out rich...

 

cheers, Mark

[Super Squirrel]

Re: Vast Underground

 

I'm working on a dungeon that was built by a mad alchemist. He died many years ago when an adventuring party went in, killed everything they found* and killed the mad alchemist. The took the loot and left.

 

The module, however, focuses on creatures that survived and others that moved in to this very nifty, abandoned dungeon.

 

* Except for one thing they decided NOT to kill.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Vast Underground

 

And last of all, the cornball favourite - a giant purpose-built dungeon created as a trap/dwelling/treasure-collector by an ancient, powerful and totally mad lich. It's designed to draw in powerful adventurers (who almost always have neato magical items, natch). When they die in the dungeon, the lich's servants eventually find the bodies as they shuffle about resetting traps and placing or feeding new monsters and loot them, hauling the loot back to the lich's fabulous horde. Some of it - the 'less interesting" items - are placed in various sites so as to lure new adventurers in - that way, rumour has gotten out that the Lichlair is a truly dangerous place but if you avoid going too deep and you are fast and canny, you can come out rich...

 

cheers, Mark

 

His name wouldnt happen to be Lyzandred would it?

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Vast Underground

 

I have to confess to a love of megadungeons myself, and have several of them in my setting. I can't really bring myself to go totally old school D&D/T&T style however, so I try and have a plot plausible reason for them to be there.

 

for example...

In my setting there is a blasted barren desert wasteland region so blighted due to the fallout of a ancient seige from an ancient war. At the center of the wasteland is an obsidian mountain that was formed when the wards about the city went nova under the onslaught of demonic magic and melted through the earths mantle.

What is mostly unknown is that the wards allowed the city to survive the eruption intact. The residents, trapped, weren't so lucky, and now this haunted city lurks entombed under black glass waiting to be someday rediscovered.

 

Essentially this gave me a chance to take a Walled City map and then go to town "post-apocalypse"ilizing it with a rough timeline of what happened to the survivors and how they became the undead they are today. It can tie into my plotlines a dozen or so ways, any of which could lead the players there eventually. But at its heart..its a dungeoncrawl.

I even call the remaining "inhabitants" grues

[keithcurtis]

Re: Vast Underground

 

One of my unfulfilled ambitions is to craft a 60 level dungeon....

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary says "Maybe when you retire, Lucius..."

 

I'd hate to see you wait that long. Here is a map. Just add monsters and treasure.

 

Keith "The Palindromedary's friend" Curtis

 

[Vestnik]

Re: Vast Underground

 

And last of all, the cornball favourite - a giant purpose-built dungeon created as a trap/dwelling/treasure-collector by an ancient, powerful and totally mad lich. It's designed to draw in powerful adventurers (who almost always have neato magical items, natch). When they die in the dungeon, the lich's servants eventually find the bodies as they shuffle about resetting traps and placing or feeding new monsters and loot them, hauling the loot back to the lich's fabulous horde. Some of it - the 'less interesting" items - are placed in various sites so as to lure new adventurers in - that way, rumour has gotten out that the Lichlair is a truly dangerous place but if you avoid going too deep and you are fast and canny, you can come out rich...

 

cheers, Mark

 

I could never figure out why some king or whatever didn't just assemble an army and ransack the Tomb of Horrors. It wouldn't be that hard if you don't mind sacrificing a bunch of peasants.

[Markdoc]

Re: Vast Underground

 

His name wouldnt happen to be Lyzandred would it?

 

Don't recognise the reference - but then it I never thought it was a terribly *original* idea As I said, it's kind of a homage to the days when I ran my game using D and D, since it was the very first dungeon I ever ran, back in 1980, when I was still trying to wrap my mind around the idea of why there would *be* dungeons.

 

After a while it got the reputation among my players of being simply too dangerous. They all set off for overland adventures and it's basically lain unused ever since...

 

cheers, Mark

[OddHat]

Re: Vast Underground

 

I vaguely recall a 3rd party module that included the Builder Worm, a gigantic worm that ate dirt and rock, leaving behind 10'x10' corridors and excreting precious metals, gems, and edible luminescent slime. Nomadic tribes followed the worms, collecting the metals and living off of the slime, and often leaving traps behind to deal with rival tribes and invading surfacers. I always wanted to use that in a campaign.

 

I've also thought about using the Wielzca salt mines and other salt cathedrals, suitably exaggerated.