As posited in my initial post about my #Dungeon23, the main (known) entrance to Askorun opens but once every 50 years, remains open for a year and a day, then close for 50 years.
Anyone trapped inside is out of luck, and over the centuries, no mortal magic or stratagem has kept the doors open longer, nor managed to force them open. Wizards have been able to Dimension Door and Teleport out, but if anyone has done so to enter the dungeon, they didn't survive to brag of it.
This post is about these survivors.
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Most survivors are individuals or pairs, although a dwindling company of Dwarves have established a defensible position on the third level, sending out sorties to gather ever more loot. The problem that these survivors face is that many of them no longer want to return to the surface.
Initially, they did, but with every sleep, the Dungeon whispers to them, entices them, changes them. While they still recall the surface, many now prefer the Dungeon.
Frankly, they're all a bit mad, now. Mad and pale white from lack of sunlight.
Not Derro level mad - at least not yet - but approaching it.
Especially that human that just can't die. That poor, poor bastard.
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Above I mentioned a human that cannot die.
Once he was a cleric. A cleric with a name. None of this he remembers, although he sometimes cries when he looks at the holy tattoos on his arms.
He came below with a group of stalwart companions and was quite literally cursed to be the last of them. In a sack he carries the skulls of his former comrades, and in more lucid moments, pulls them out and talks to them.
Mostly though, he wanders and as needed he talks and fights, and when at death's door, he fades away, returning later. He never hungers or tires, though, because of the Ring of Sustenance and Regeneration (and immunity to permanent death) he wears on his right hand.
50+ years of sleep deprivation have taken their toll. Yet if calmly approached and spoken to, he may provide some useful information before starting to rave and wandering off or attacking the PCs as he hallucinates.
To end the curse, he and his fellows (their skulls, at least) must be buried in hallowed ground - and the Ring must be buried there, too. At that point, his spirit appears and thanks whomever buried him.
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Next is the Dwarven enclave. Staying below was always the goal of this company. Initially, the Company of the Axe was a full 27 strong - 20 Dwarves and 7 Gnomes, plus a train of packmules. In the last 50 years, their size has been reduced to 12 Dwarves and 3 Gnomes, but these 15 still pursue the goal of accumulating the vast wealth of Askorun, but now they plan to keep it here.
They are led by the Dwarf Oskar Gem-eyes, a noble and a capable warrior with eyes that glitter like the sapphires they are (these sapphire eyes allow Detect Magic, See Invisible, and True Seeing - all of this has a negative effect on his mind). The Company of the Axe has an arrangement with clanmates that will meet them when the doors to Askorun once again open. Those on the surface may be shocked at the change in their dungeon-dwelling clanmates - but being Dwarves, they won't show or discuss it publicly.
The key to these survivors' success was preparation. While the natural food and drink they brought with them (and the mules that carried it all) has long ago been consumed, they have several magical items that they guard with their lives.
Horn of Plenty - this large wicker cornucopia provides enough fruit and vegetables to feed twenty every morning.
Mug of Many Meads - a large mug that holds a liter of liquid and can fill itself with the best mead one will ever taste 5 times per day. A full mug is used as a reward to those members of the company that have done something of merit - otherwise it is divided up among smaller cups.
Long Pig - recovered from the hoard of the venerable Behir Azzuzir (from the Night Below box set), this item looks like a 4-inch long ceramic pig.
Once every five days, on command, it creates a roasted pig (reasonably small, but agreeably filled with chestnut stuffing!) to appear nearby, providing enough food for up to 20 people.
Decanter of Endless Water - as per the DMG; when not filling the pool the Company has constructed, it is used as a defensive weapon, knocking attackers back and prone.
Cauldron of Iron Stomachs - this large black cast iron cauldron is etched with a variety of arcane runes. It heats and cools upon command - no fire needed. It stands nearly 4 feet tall and is a good 4 feet across (the mule that carried it in was the first stew cooked in it).
The survivors have been surviving on perpetual stew - they won't eat their fallen comrades, but anything living they kill ends up in the Cauldron - meat makes the vegetables taste better.
Being Dwarves, there are multiple stone, spear, and crossbow-based traps and defensive positions near all the entrances to their redoubt - a redoubt clearly marked with Dwarven runes and the skulls of pigs and mules (and other things they've killed). They have established a neutral meeting place where other dungeon denizens can trade gold and information for food.
This neutral place is where the PCs are most likely to encounter them in a safe fashion. Once these survivors encounter surface-worlders, they trade information for surface foodstuffs (especially bread, beer, beef, salt, and spices - although the Gnomes wouldn't mind some tea) and tobacco. They will pay for it, but would prefer to pay with information rather than their precious gold.
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One individual survivor is an Elf wizard who calls herself Newra the Learner. Those that learn her True Name can compel her to divulge all sorts of information.
Newra has been in the depths for two cycles now, puzzling over how to get past the permanent Prismatic Sphere that is keeping something well secured. Through the translucent glittering lights of the sphere, she can make out a table or workbench with smaller items upon it, and a pair of large chests flanking it. On a few occasions, she has seen a figure moving about inside the sphere, but how it comes and goes she has no clue.
What she does know is that this Prismatic Sphere is a nasty variant of the traditional spell, as the normal counters to the layers fail to work. She has worked out how to get past the first two layers through trial and error, but is seeking more spells (and guinea pigs) to test her theories with.
Newra craves more spells most of all - perhaps a spell the PCs know can break past the third layer. If she cannot trade for them, she will take them by force.
Her collection of undead servitors (many of which are spell-stitched former adventurers) keep lesser threats at bay, and her collection of spellbooks (taken from uncooperative wizards) rivals that of established archmages on the surface.
Newra is willing to trade information (and maybe spells) for wine and spices and fresh food. Her sole source of sustenance is a Spoon of Murlynd, which works, but the blandness of the food it creates is much of the reason she is angry all the time.
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Another pair of Elves lurk near the main entrance. Brioc carries Cynhafel on her back, because Cynhafel lost both legs two decades ago.
This has had the side effect of them being difficult to surprise and impossible to flank. This means that the Meazels have yet to destroy them - they still harry the poor Elves, though.
Their proximity to the surface has made them less mad than most, with Brioc being the most sane of all the survivors. Which is good for Cynhafel, because he has entirely become a creature of the dungeon.
They have been living on water from the entrance pool and have become adept at trapping vermin.
Honestly, Brioc will be content to die under sunlight, preferably after returning Cynhafel to their home far from Askorun.
Cynhafel wields a pair of Katars that glow in the darkness, while Brioc wields a short spear.
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A lone Gnome named Kharagosa has found a hiding place on the fourth level.
This Gnome mageling gets by on honey and beer from his Alchemy Jug, supplemented by whatever he can catch with his Sleep spell, which is mostly rats and other vermin.
It's a miserable life, but at least he's alive.
He will gladly give up the Alchemy Jug as a reward to those that escort him to the surface.
Of course, the escorts may find that Kharagosa heads right back in.
Kharagosa knows that Askorun is a sentient, malevolent being because one item that Kharagosa does not willingly part with is an Amulet of Stonespeak.
The Amulet of Stonespeak allows its attuned wearer to communicate with the very stones. The only stones Kharagosa has had access to are those of Askorun, whose thoughts have twisted Kharagosa's view on many things, but does allow Kharagosa to function as an oracle of sorts, because Askorun has had centuries of things to talk about and no one but Kharagosa to tell.
Kharagosa's only saving grace is that the Amulet doesn't function 24/7, but needs to recharge regularly by being placed in a pot or bucket of earth (although burying it underground works). Ideally, the pot or bucket is warded to prevent a gate to the plane of Elemental Earth from opening - there are no such wards if the Amulet is buried in the ground. Submerging the Amulet in water renders it dormant.
Naturally, Kharagosa owns such a warded container of earth - it being how he discovered the Amulet decades ago.
Incidentally, the Amulet of Stonespeak also allows its wearer to communicate and command Earth Elementals, but Askorun has successfully kept Kharagosa from learning this aspect of the Amulet.
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Often survivors become undead - surviving after a fashion, but not really. Mostly, they become ghouls after being forced to cannibalism in the dark, but other types of undead are certainly possible.
As such, these individual undead can be found anywhere. If incorporeal, their remains are no doubt nearby, forever waiting to be properly buried.
But the corporeal undead just skulk and stumble about, waiting to bring the hated living to ruin.
Frankly, it's a miracle that Askorun isn't crawling with undead. Perhaps with time, it will.
Until then, wise adventuring companies have clerics among them.
And wise DMs have a random encounter table featuring an Undead subtable.
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There may be some foolhardy sorts that intend to stick around in the depths. The smart ones outfit themselves with magic items that are variations on the Create Food and Water spell. Items such as these are worth their weight in platinum to these mortals.
As the survivors demonstrate, this doesn't help that much, but it's a start.
