I know that part of the #Dungeon23 plan is to share daily progress, but I far prefer a more substantial post once a week. This not just because some days the work is not completed.
All of these entries are written so that I can fill them out later and still know what I was thinking.
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1. Grand Entrance -
Wide stairs lead 20' down to the floor, for a ceiling 30' above. Both sides of the stairs are cluttered with centuries' worth of failed attempts to keep the doors open.
Openings stretching into darkness can be seen in both side walls, from one comes the sound of laughter and song. From another comes whistling and howling.
The far end of the chamber is filled with a large fountain, the center of which is a statue of a younger man with arms outstretched in greeting.
Fouling the fountain is a corpse in the water behind the statue; the only things of value are the glass eye and a letter in a wax-sealed tube to a lover in Skara Brae. This lover has a notable spouse in the city, so delivery of it (which brings a ghostly blessing via dream) sows chaos for the PCs.
2. Register - stairs lead down into round chamber that is lit from within and features a pedestal seemingly grown from the center floor. The walls are covered with rows of murals (think Egyptian hieroglyphics people) depicting adventurers doing adventurous things and often dying in the attempt.
Upon the pedestal is a massive book, open about 2/3 of the way through.
The book lists names with (dungeon entry) dates in red ink. Most names are lined through in the same red ink. PC names are among the latest additions to the book. Lined through names are those that died after entering the dungeon.
Flipping back far enough reveals that Emperor NAME's name is not crossed out. It also reveals that an older someone (elf, dwarf, ancient human) a PC knows in fact died in the dungeon.
Attempts for mortals to add names or line through names will end badly for said mortals.
There are ten rows of murals. The ten rows feature the 10 levels of the megadungeon, and the various encounters show some of what is/was there.
3. Bandit Approach - singing, laughing, and talking can be heard from this direction. The chamber itself is wide, with a double row of columns running down the center. In the center of the room is a group of humans (12 - 2 leaders, 8 bandits, 2 berserkers) gathered around a fire, drinking and carrying on.
The main group distracts from the guards (3 bandits, 1 berserker) hiding behind columns near the X entrance. These guards watch and flank if violence starts. If possible, they capture to hold people for ransom, but they don't try all that hard.
Leaders are Arlo (thief 3) and Alice (magic-user 3). As Arlo approaches the PCs to speak, Alice slips behind pillars to angle for a sleep spell, followed by charm person, followed by invisibility and a hasty retreat.
DM NOTES: Arlo charges a small toll to pass; will accept wine, food, or treasure; charges a LARGER toll to pass back towards the surface. If the returning party appears weak enough, violence is an option, as is kidnapping for ransom. Refers to the pillared chamber as 'Alice's Restaurant.'
4. Bandit Lair - the raised platform is where the leaders sleep on actual beds and two chests are stored, with the collective treasure of the bandits. Both chests are locked, and Arlo has the keys. Under one bed is an invisible box holding the magic-user's spellbook.
There are 30 bedrolls and sacks of private belongings here, as well as crates and barrels (with markings from Skara Brae merchants) of supplies.
There are a half-dozen (4 bandits, 2 berserkers) people sleeping, because they have night watch.
The doors bar from the inside and stay barred throughout the night. The bandits don't know exactly what roams the corridors at night, but they know that things do, and they want no part of them.
For a fee, the bandits might be convinced to let the PCs overnight with them.
5. Bandit Second Approach - bandits (4) here watch the corridor from the Fountain Crossroad. At night they fall back to lair.
6. Bandit Guarded Stairs to 2nd level - 6 (4 bandits, 2 berserkers) humans sit around a table, focus split between the stairs, their card game, and their ale. If they hear fighting from 3, 4 of them advance to help, the other 2 remain to watch the stairs.
At night, they are replaced by the sleeping guards in area 4. The night guards are more alert and overall jumpy and suspicious.
These stairs are the closest, safest, and most publicly known way down to the 2nd level, which is how the bandits get by - charging HIGH taxes on those that come up the stairs.
7. Fountain Crossroad - this chamber features openings in all four walls and is dominated by a large fountain in the center of the room. The floor features patchy blood stains and scattered and broken bones (with large and small teeth marks). The fountain itself features a multi-headed hydra spraying water from its many mouths.
The water is a shared source of fresh water for this level and random encounters may just be critters getting a drink or filling water bottles.
Hydra Statue: observation reveals one of the mouths isn't spraying. This is because a thin stick (wand of detect magic) is rammed down the pipe. Freeing it allows water to flow again from that mouth.
NOTE: the bandits leave stripped bodies of those they slay (and their own slain) in this chamber. If asked, the bodies disappear in a day or three, sometimes in silence, sometimes accompanied by terrible rending noises.
By leaving bodies here, the bandits have inadvertently trained a pack of ghouls and all the rats to periodically check this chamber, so any random encounters in this room are ghouls or rats.
8. Empty Room. The bandits have taken to tossing looted gear they cannot use (mostly clothing, but sometimes more useful items - roll or choose) into this room.
A dedicated search reveals dirt in the corners of the room and that one of the flagstones on the floor is angled, as if it has settled poorly.
Lifting that flagstone reveals a hole dug into the earth below it, containing two sacks and a longsword in a scabbard. Sacks contain coins, longsword is aligned, sentient, and vocal (it is reluctant to share this, but it was hidden away because it is so vocal). In addition, it has a purpose and agenda.
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