Notes and thoughts on the deepest dungeon yet attempted. 18 Levels deep.

On the first level there is a giant air shaft that goes from the first level to the eighteenth.

All the shafts for the different levels that open onto this air shaft have heavy portcullises, and most have a guard of some sort, either magical or monster.

The air shaft is not the only way down to the various levels, just the most obvious one.

Most of the levels are interconnected and shafts and ramps may connect with buildings on the surface.

The buildings above the ground over the dungeon are collectivly called "The town of Lasket." Those in Lasket who are in power seek to corrupt the city of Tilden and Pors. Their sect was thrown out of Tilden. They retired in Lasket determined to rule Tilden in time. There are 4 important areas to them. These are Deepway, Tilden, the ruins of the city Kransk (abandoned near Pors) and the abandoned castle Resok that is 20 miles outside of Tilden.

Resok used to be the home of Baron Housemunchen when he lived with his sect. It has been abandoned for 400 years. It has been left alone as it was known that it was stripped of its possessions and was already run down.

Also, being 20mi (a days ride out of town) and as it is a forest populated by the Baron with Orks, it wasn’t worth recovering. The party may think different when they see it.

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The shaft is the life’s blood of the dungeon. It brings air and water to those below and is a way for anything to get up or down. The air enters through The Great Gate that the carniverous apes guard. The entrance is well hidden as well. There is no main entrance, but rather several tunnels through a nearby hill. These holes are of several different sizes, and lengths. They are jealously guarded by the various races under the ground. Many of the tunnels lead to deadly traps, and some terminate in a drop directly into the maw of the Shaft.

The bottom of the shaft disintegrates anything that touches it including gases. Thus a terrific air flow is stimulated in the Shaft. Anything falling down this shaft is doomed. If the drop so many hundreds of feet wasn’t enough to kill or destroy a falling object, the disintegrator will simply cause it not to be. The only items that even get a saving throw against the disintegrating effect of the magic stone are magic items. This is a special ST. The base roll necessary is 60%. For each magical effect, (+1 of weapon or spell effect cast) add 10%. This means that throughout the years, adventurers with magic items who fall down the Shaft leave behind a percentage of the magical items they have lost. This is a rich hoard and only a very deadly adventure will suffice to release the items to a party. The only kind of thing that makes sense at this time is that they are guarded by all those who were killed by the Rock of Instantaneous Destruction. The places where the treasure arrived is random. See the Bottom of Shaft map for exact positions of these items.

Though the buildings are very old they were all built from rock removed from the dungeon beneath. This includes the castle of Baron Housemunchin.

Town of Lasket - Wild Animals, Giant Insects, Kech (servants of Guh’ Rak) Guh’ Rak the Carniverous Apes (Dominant Race)., some other humanoids.

This is the most evil city the players will ever come across. Athough the Guh’ Rak run the place, they will take the money from humans and dwarves as well. If they can be killed and eaten, so much the better. Most of the Guh’ Ruk speak pidgen common tongue, but the Kech do not. Three hundred years ago, the gods took an interest in the little town of Lasket. This place was in no way special except for two things. It was built above a series of natural caverns. The other thing was the Ale. Five hundred years ago, they made the beer of Kings. It was famous and caravans would travel far to deliver one of the precious casks. Then Baron Housemunchin met Drolartar the High Priest of Lovitar who introduced the Baron to the arts of Demonology. It was thus that he was bound to the evil gods. They now rejoice in the pain and suffering and warfare that takes place here. It is said that they sit at their ease in Gehanna and laugh together at the killing.

One of the primary random encounter types are the Spell Bubbles, a spell that creates a bubble that contains a spell. These bubbles move at random throughout the dungeon and are constantly being created from the somewhere near the central shaft. From there they spread out into the entire dungeon. The bubbles for instance may contain a summon spell and when the bubble bursts the summon goes off and the creature appears before the party. These bubbles are invisible to normal sight and to infravision but are visible as floating, coruscating blobs to those with Ultravision.

LEVEL 0 Entrance Level - Wild animals, Insects, Mutant men Level 0 is actually a high hill that covers the entrance to the shaft. There are numerous tunnels that honeycomb the hill. These shafts are the result of Tunnel Maker excursions. Many of the tunnels are dead ends as the result of collapses over the years. The rest of the tunnels lead somewhere. Some of the tunnels are guarded by the race who inhabits the dungeon level the tunnel leads to. Other tunnels have traps to prevent unwanted entry; but in some of the tunnels the traps have been sprung and not replaced. A large pool at the base of the hill in the NW is the source of the water that flows throughout the dungeon. There is also a earthen cave system of relatively recent origins. These caves were dug by and inhabited by Mongrel Hobbits. These are mutated hobbits that have been turned out of their communities and have wound up here. The most interesting thing on this level is the huge air shaft that goes to the bottom level. The air is constantly being sucked through the tunnel. The wind moves at a consistant 40 MPH down the tunnel, and makes air currents of incredible strength throughout this level.

LEVEL 1 Mutant men living area. The heurmans and lizard men from the lesels below prevent them from going any deeper into the dungeon. They also take trogs for dinner or for slave labor on an as needed basis. For this the mutant men have no love for those below them, but are terrified of doing anything to get them mad. But, if they can do something that will hurt or mess with the "Lower Ones" they will do so if the reaction roll is good.

LEVEL 2 Heurman, Mutant men slaves The Mutant men from level 1 and the Sseillek of level 3 often contest areas of this level and stealing one from the other has become formalized as a rite of passage into manhood. The Heurman will raid Level 1 for slaves and the MM on 1 will try to free them through raids on Level 2. The area around the northern portion of the level around Air Shaft are controled by the Heurman and the south portion by the SSeillek. All the area surrounding both of them is controled and patroled by the Pech. They have traps that insure that many lives are lost by coming into their area.

LEVEL 3 The SSeillek (Lizzard Men) The city of the SSeillek is large and dangerous. The center piece of this level is the Temple to the SSeillek and the prison therein awaiting ransom or sacarfice. This level has a ramp tunnel that leads to the old tin smiths building on the surface.

LEVEL 4 Headless and BugBear slaves.

LEVEL 6 Green Dragon Thralls, SSeillek (Slaves) This part of the dungeon appears to be natural caverns. They are mazelike and large. The Dragon Thralls employ the Lizzard men to do the bidding of the Dragons beneath. These natural caverns house wild giant lizzards of all kinds.

LEVEL 7 Green Dragon Thralls The natural caverns here are 20ft high, but not very large.

LEVEL 8 Green Dragon There is a large entrance to the surface from this level. The green dragon holds court and will reward anyone that can prove that they have killed Sseillek.

LEVEL 9 Dinosaurs This level is a series of natural caverns. There is no way to the surface from this level and the only connecting tunnel to the levels below and above are far to small for adult dinosaurs to get through

LEVEL 10 Air Octapus. Archetecture is like in Alien. Lots of ribbed tenticles and beaded surfaces in swerling patters of ominous appearance.

LEVEL 12 Level of Pools. There are many artesian pools here that appear to be a very cunning construction of the Captured Creatures. The Air Squids directed the Captured ones, and they were given directions by the Alboleth on level 9. These pools provide fresh water for the alboleth whose directing of the water has enlarged his cavern world tremendously. There are a number of waterfalls and tubes linking this level to levels 7,8 and 9. There are fish farms every where tended by slave labor and algie pools fed by the shit from the slaves.