I’m going to do another section of Level 4 of my megadungeon today. If you missed it last time, Level 4 is my attempt to do something different with the layout of a dungeon. Where level 1, The Nether Prison of the Astral Vulture, is a densely packed building, I want Level 4 to feel more like The Dungeon in Delicious in Dungeon – a sprawling ecosystem of loosely connected areas. Rather than map this all out right away, I’m going to map out individual sections, and then fill the spaces between with some descriptions and wandering monster tables as appropriate. Level 4 is now named The Cyclopean Ruins. (map from donjon)
Room 1: Empty
Room 2: Empty
Room 3: Empty
Room 4: Empty
Room 5: Empty
Room 6: Monster, no treasure (I also rolled a 6 on my extra die, which I use to determine if otherwise empty rooms have a special feature so I might do a little extra here.)
Room 7: Empty
I turned once again to my old RPG magazines for inspiration on this one. This time, it’s the article “How to Make Monsters Interesting” by Lee Gold in Different Worlds Issue 6, Dec/Jan 1980. In this short article, Gold posits the idea that having a monster’s stats and abilities all set in stone makes for smooth gaming but removes some of the folkloric mystery that these creatures feel like they ought to have.
“But there is always the same paradox; the more the players have learned about a creature’s capabilities and know for sure what it can and cannot do, then the more humdrum the creature becomes, and the less exciting the encounter with a chance-met representative of it. It may be terrifying to meet a D&D Stone Golem, but it is fear of the known dangers, not the unknown possibilities that animates the party.“
Lee Gold, “How To Make Monsters More Interesting,” Different Worlds 6, 1980
Since this section of the Cyclopean ruins is home to just one occupied room, I actually rolled twice on the monster chart, resulting in 2 harpies and 25 hobgoblins (5 are armed with missile weapons). In the spirit of Gold’s article, I’d like to give these harpies a twist on the traditional harpy abilities in order to spice up the encounter. Some brief researching on harpies in folklore shows a recurring theme of poisonous dung, toxic tears, etc. In the article, Gold suggests writing out a number of possible abilities for any given monster species, then assigning each individual monster a number of those abilities based on a rolled stat. With that in mind, our harpies will each have some combinaiton of the following abilities:
- a bewitching song that can charm mortals who hear it
- particularly strong talons capable of carrying a grown human
- acidic blood that will injure any who strike it
- tears that cause hobgoblins to arise from dead stone
- a limited form of the Astral Vulture’s cry, stunning the target by assaulting its spirit
- venomous bile that can be fired at distant targets
I’m going to say they both have the ability to create hobgoblins, but each will have 1d3 randomly determined extra abilities from the list when encountered.
I’ll do the same for the hobgoblins. Monster & Treasure assortment already says 20% of the hobgoblins are armed with missile weapons, so I’ll break them up into groups of five.
- stony protrusions on skin, can be removed and thrown as sharp rocks
- an uncanny ability to camouflage with stone, double damage when striking from hiding
- limited stone and earth manipulation, as the Transmute Earth spell
- a modicum of the Hobgoblin King’s power, fighting with increased efficiency
- a random gem embedded in the forehead, shedding light in a 30 foot radius
- shapeshifting
We know one group has the missile weapons, the other 4 will be determined on the spot in play. When the harpies create a new batch of hobgoblins, they will be one of the above types. The harpies and their brood of hobgoblins will be found in room 6, but all the rooms in this section bear their mark; noxious guano, almost human-shaped pockmarks in the stone, and scattered feathers.