Dungeon23 Room 189 (The Darkened Tradeway)

Should the PCs go left, rather than right towards the end of the spur, they will soon encounter an area strewn with large rocks and boulders and the occasional fibrous white bundle, furry with frayed filaments. Cut one open you say? We would find pieces of bug carapace, bones of indeterminate species, and a foul smell that will almost certainly get the attention of the creature that made the bundles. Which is a pair of Cave Fishers (AC 4 HD 3 MMII pg. 24)

Dungeon23 Room 188 (The Darkened Tradeway)

Across the stream from the beach is a raised area populated by 4 Shriekers (AC 7 HD 3 MM pg. 87) The Shriekers will avoid crossing to the beach, and the PCs should too.

 This is the end of the Spur's end Twarg Tribe. The next post will return you to your regularly scheduled Gygaxian Hallucination.

Dungeon23 Room 187 (The Darkened Tradeway)

Here we have the trash cavern. There is a small stream entering thru the wall opposite the entrance, it runs close to the left wall past a small sandy beach littered with odd looking debris and drains into a 16" wide crack in the floor. The wall behind the beach is actually a Stun Jelly (AC 8 HD 4 MMII pg. 84) Stuck inside of the Stun Jelly are a Trident of Submission and a Sword +2 Giant Slayer.

Dungeon23 Room 186 (The Darkened Tradeway)

The smaller cavern entered by crossing the ant nest hole field contains a mixture of 5 Pygmie Twargs, 12 Giant ants, and 3 Carnivugus Goons. stats to follow 

Pygmie Twarg reskinned Kobolds (AC 7 1-4 h.p. MM pg.57)

Giant Ants (AC 3 HD 2 MM pg. 2)

Carnivungus Goon (AC 8 2-5 h.p.)

Dungeon23 Room 185 (The Darkened Tradeway)

This is a large cavern with vaulted ceilings and a quaint nest of 97 Giant Ants (AC 3 HD 2 MM pg. 7) Overflow damage rules encouraged... For every 20ft traveled across the floor of the cavern roll a d6, PCs have a 1 in 6 chance to fall into an entrance to the nest and inviting even more attacks from the lil armor plated ankle biters. Hilarity ensues...

Dungeon23 Room 184 (the Darkened Tradeway)

This side cavern is not only home to immense piles of rubbish and collected treasure but 8 Deep Twargs (AC 5 HD 3+1 MM g.12) The Twargs are guardians of the large gold statue of Zuggtmoy draped with bejewled skulls of numerous different species. Leader of the Twargs wear the fungus of power. Pendant Fighter only as Enlarge spell at +75% growth.

Fungus of Power

Dungeon23 Room 183 (The Darkened Tradeway)

Here lie large pile of rotting organic material the PCs will find various sizes of regular eatin mushrooms. Almost as if they were being cultivated.

Dungeon23 Room 182 (The Darkened Tradeway)

The forest of giant mushrooms gives way to a space devoid of fungus but muddy and slimy. Within the mud are 9 Cave Lamprey (AC 7 HD 1+2 MMII pg. 80) I hear them things are good eatin...

 

Dungeon23 Room 181 (The Darkened Tradeway)

Aside from the miniature murder mushrooms there are 6 Cave Crickets (AC 4 HD 1+3 MMII pg. 23) roaming the giant mushroom forest. 

Dungeon23 Room 180 (Ther Darkened Tradeway)

Emerging from the passage in a small carved alcove in the way is a solid platinum statuette of the deified fungus queen. Should a PC touch said statuette, 3-18 Carnivungus Goons will come waddling out from the giant mushroom forest.

Carnivungus Goon

No. Appearing: 3-18

Armor Class: 8

Move:1"

Hit Dice: 2-5 h.p.

Treasure Type: B

No. of Attacks: 1

Intelligence: Non

Alignment: Neutral

Size: S 1' tall 1' diameter

Damage/Attack: 1-4 hp

Bitten PC must make a save vs. poison, if failed roll 1d6:

1) Attack random creature in range

2) Drop weapon to slap at imaginary spiders for 5 turns (30 seconds)

3)Flee in opposite direction for 5 turns

4)Paralyzed by fear for 1 round (1 minute)

5) PC has an overwhelming urge to disrobe and will begin to do so.

6) PC decides to have a philosophical discussion about the merits of belly button lint with a rock. No attacks for 3 rounds.

Dungeon23 Room 179 (The Darkened Tradeway)

Leaving the alcove of funky fungus about midway up the wall is a small half round basin carved into the wall. In the basin is a black oily viscous liquid, the surface broken by the occasional bubble. The liquid is Zuggtmoy's spore oil. Any creature coming in contact with it must succeed on a save vs. poison or fall into a trance that lasts for 2-24 hours.

 

Dungeon23 Room 178 (The Darkened Tradeway)

At the other end of the alcove is a small hollow primitively carved into the wall. Sitting in the hollow is a small statuette of Zuggtmoy. It is solid platinum worth 350 pp.

Dungeon23 Room 177 (The Darkened Tradeway)

Rounding the corner into this small alcove there is an irregular 16 inch wide crack in the wall. A steady stream of water pours down the wall to form a small pool on the floor. The water flows further down the tunnel into the darkness. On the mineral deposits surrounding the pool, there are small mushrooms of various colors growing around the water's edge. The mushrooms glow softly.

I encourage the DM to mess with PCs if they so much as even touch them.

Please please please touch the mushroom!

Dungeon23 Room 176 (The Darkened Tradeway)

Once over the barrier of rocks and dirt the PCs will find a very steep, dark passageway going down at nearly impossible angle to negotiate. Other than the precarious descent there is nothing to complicate the situation further.

Dungeon23 Room 175 (The Darkened Tradeway)

Heading into the end of the spur, off to the left side is a curious pile of debris. Poking around in the pile the PCs have a standard chance to detect secret or concealed doors.

 

Dungeon23 End of spur (The Darkened Tradeway)

 Turning right from the black marble door the walls start to come together. In the corner is some large rocks and dirt, but nothing else.

Dungeon23 Room 174 (The Darkened Tradeway)

Here are 3 standing stones. A closer inspection will reveal remains of an indeterminate demi-human. Not much remains but a few broken pieces of bone and dry cracked leather. Under a heavy coating of dust is a small leather pouch containing 11 gems.

Dungeon23 Room 173 (The Darkened Tradeway)

Across the tunnel from the parking lot is a cleared area of floor with an obelisk standing in the midle. If any of the PCs can read Duergar, they will read "end of the Purgon spur"

Dungeon23 Room 172 (The Darkened Tradeway)

Just to the left of the block of marble down the tunnel a bit are 6 dungeon carts brought by the Duergar. The carts are 4' wide and 5' long.

Dungeon23 Room 171 (The Darkened Tradeway)

Once past the block of black polished marble the space opens into large tunnel with a flat floor relatively free of debris. Rangers and those able to track will be able to tell the only thing to have passed by this way lately were the Duergar encountered at the bottom of the mines. Following the tracks will show a great deal of activity across the tunnel. Behind some rocks are 5 chests made of strange wood marked with gold seals and indecipherable markings. Inside the chests are various tools and supplies. All together it's worth about 1000gp. More importantly, there is edible food and drinkable water. Dwarves cannot subsist on centipedes alone after all.

The Shallow Dark whole maps

 

Dungeon23 Room 170 (The Shallow Dark)

This is an enormous block of black marble. No secret keyholes, just a big block of marble. Figure out your own solution. This also marks the end of the Shallow Dark. Now entering The Darkened Tradeway.

Dungeon23 Room 169 (The Shallow Dark)

The 20'x20' square area of floor will descend 30' at 1' per second. When it stops at the bottom, the last 10' being in open air, this will alert the nest of 23 Huge Centipedes (AC 9 1 h.p. MMII pg.24) that thier next potential meal has arrived.

 

Dungeon23 Room 168 (The Shallow Dark)

The is a short primitively built stone wall or jetty even, on the other side of which is a large flat area approximately 20'x20'. This area is an elevator that descends as soon as it's inconvenient for the PCs.

Dungeon23 Room 167 (The Shallow Dark)

The point of random tables is so that the DM has something to blame for when stuff gets boring.

Dungeon23 Room 166 (The Shallow Dark)

Right now, it's an empty spot on a wall. Maybe I'll think of something later.

 

Dungeon23 Room 165 (The Shallow Dark)

A bit further along the same wall there lies another mound of ick. This mound of ick is covered in strange looking blobs, Yellow Mold (AC 9 HD -- MM pg. 71)

Whilst reading the entry, it says a Continual Light spell will cause it to go dormant for 2-12 turns, then it will grow over the light and obliterate it. What if cast it on a Tenser's floating disk in mid air?

Why so empty?

First thing, I did this late last night so the numbers might be a little off here and there.

 

If you've looked at the Dungeon23 stuff I've been doing, you can't help but notice the amount of empty areas and rooms. This is distressing to me. I place the blame on Table V. F.: Chamber or Room contents pg. 171 AD&D DMG.

 

Being as dissatisfied as I was, I started tinkering. I didn't want to have to start from scratch, I'm old and get tired easily. So I rolled some dice and started scribbling. Draw your own conclusions from the data, I don't remember doing most of this.

I rolled 100 d20 and 100 d6's.

Original table 

1-12 Empty        71

13-14 Monster Only   8

15-17 Monster & Treasure   13

18 Special   4

19 Trick/Trap   1

20 Treasure   3

Harumph! Thatsa whole lotta empty.

Reversed

1 Treasure   7

2 Trick/Trap   4

3 Special   7

4-6 Monster & Treasure   15

7-8 Monster only   12

9-20 Empty   55

Still too much empty...

set on a 1d6 table

1 Empty   15

2 Monster only   25

3 Monster & Treasure   12

4 Special   11

5 Trick/Trap   20

6 Treasure   17

Might have to go with the d6 table.... But since I can't resist messin wit stuff...

Reconfigured

1-2 Empty   11

3 Special   8

4 Monster & Treasure   12

5 Empty   2

6 Monster & Treasure   4

7 Empty   6

8-9 Monster   13

10 Empty   9

11-12 Monster  9

13 Monster & Treasure  5

14 Empty   3

15 Monster & Treasure   9

17 Treasure   8

18 Trick/Trap   6

19-20 Empty   4

 

From here my Dungeon23 stuff will get rolled on the reconfigured table, cause even I thought it was boring.

Dungeon23 Room 164 (The Shallow Dark)

 Along the cavern wall in this area is an enormous pile of rotting and decaying "organic matter". Crawling over the pile of ick, are 5 Carrion Crawlers (AC 3/7 HD 3+1 MM pg. 13) Buried in the pile of ick are 10 ornately carved siver goblets total worth 5000 sp.

Dungeon23 Room 163 (The Shallow Dark)

 This what the arrow trap was guarding. A secret cache. Put there by one of the deep races, there is mushroom jerky, lichen bread, and firefly ale.

Dungeon23 Room 162 (The Shallow Dark)

 Depending on if  there is an observant character in the party, they may or may not (I always hope for not) notice the arrow trap. Why would someone put an arrow trap here?

Dungeon23 Room 161 (The Shallow Dark)

 I have no idea why I put a number there. Nothing there to indicate anything... If I were you, I'd ignore it...

Dungeon23 Room 160 (The Shallow Dark)

 There is a flat smooth area of wall here, inscribed with scratch marks of strange symbols. Only those PCs able to understand "Undercommon" will be able to read the writing on the wall. It happens to be Duergar. Things to the effect of...

Gordak wears a false beard

Brogdor's sister is easy

Dogork's nose is the biggest thing on him

Kilroy was here