It was some years ago that the question was posed, as the party trudged
out of the dungeon loaded down with plunder, what happens to the dungeon now
that it’s empty…? The immediate thought was that some other monster would move
in. After all, nice solid walls, built in traps, probably water and storage
areas if the dungeon had been designed in any sort of sensible way, why would
you not, it’s like squatting in a premium property.
Derailed by the youngest of us who asked “Why would they want to live
somewhere when we’ve just nicked everything…?”
At the time (Being twelve) I didn’t have the answer, but I never forgot
the question.
Eventually, people/monsters would see that the dungeon was still there,
and might have forgotten the fate of those who initially built it, together
with their motivations and treasure. In
a lot of cases, the dungeon would be repopulated simply for convenience, and
without any plan to make use of it in the purpose that it was originally
created for.
I should point out here that the nature of building things has always
been of particular interest to me, especially when it’s no longer being used as
it was intended…
In England, there’s a group of people who call themselves Subterranea
Brittanica, (www.subbrit.org.uk) and
they dedicate themselves to the finding and investigation of places that are
abandoned and have been so for some time.
I have no doubt that there’s a number of similar groups in other
countries (and indeed in other worlds), as many have the interest for finding
places where once people were, together with understanding why they eventually
moved out of those places and moved on to other things.
These places, including nuclear shelters, underground stations,
icehouses deep underground and long disused hospitals are places on the edge of
the world where it seems inconceivable that people would ever have lived. There are the remains of a building on top of
Ben Nevis, constructed many years ago as a hotel and observatory as seen here.
Now this is all that remains of it…
Would something like this, in a place as inhospitable as this, be of
interest to those who have no fixed home?
Would others consider it easier to put a few coverings or bits of wood
over the top of these derelict structures to make their homes rather than
having to build one from scratch. In the
case of tribes of “Monsters” that find themselves continually harassed by
adventurers looking to clean them out, do they ever want to set down roots and
live a normal life, or have they been on the road for so long that the nomadic
lifestyle is the only one that they can live with?
Does this interest in things extend to other creatures beyond the
player races? Does a Kobold consider things like the stone walls and a warm
fireplace or do they just like finding somewhere that’s dry? It’s well documented that the larger and more
intelligent creatures like Dragons often choose their lair carefully, ensuring
that they have a place that’s well defended from attack and comfortable for
them, so why not the smaller creatures?
In Quest, the new game I’m making, there’s a place on the high plains
of Elevas called the Storm Vaults, where once a number of mages plotted to do
something terrible but were struck down before they could complete the
task. They left the immense underground
complex there for the next person to come along and chance their arm at it. This is when my interest was rekindled in the
idea of abandoned dungeons and what can be done with them.
There’s a difference between a barrow or cairn, where there’s about
enough space for someone to sleep for the night or make a small home from, and
a purpose designed dungeon where there’s dozens, maybe hundreds of rooms where
there could be any number of things.
When it’s a small building of less than five rooms, I have the place
populated by single intelligent creatures or small numbers of wandering
monsters, because there wouldn’t be sufficient space for an intelligent
creature to keep themselves safe unless they rebuilt the structure and put in
safeguards to prevent creatures wandering in to kill them.
I should point out that I don’t consider creatures of below “Human”
intelligence to be grouped in this, they fall more into the wandering monster
category and if found in a dungeon, will either be the pets of those who
actually use the dungeon, or will have just wandered in there on a whim.
So why would you want to live in a place that’s been raided before…?
Ease of use can’t be discounted, and if you can find a way to
reactivate all the different traps and defensive measures, it could be a very
good way of keeping things secure. The
general nature of things notwithstanding of course, there’s upkeep to handle on
most dungeons, and it’s unlikely that most of them would have even the basics
of damp proofing to keep things dry down there.
So unless you’ve got a reasonable amount of magic, you’re not going to
want to delve too deep or too far, because getting supplies down to the lower
levels unless you’ve got an army would not be the way forwards.
Hence places like Moria…
Originally a mine, invaded and overrun, and then used as a home for
those who had done the overrunning, albeit with none of the knowledge of the
original creators of the mine, so many parts of it had fallen into disrepair.
When the fellowship first came to it, they realised almost immediately that
something terrible had happened, but they were forced to travel through, and in
that, revealed a lot of the reason why such places are built. In Moria, the focus was simple…
Here be Mithril…
But when you’re putting together another massive dungeon complex, there
needs to be a reason similar in importance and resonance to hold the idea of
the dungeon together. Hubris notwithstanding, no one goes to that much trouble if they’re only looking
for a place to rest their hat, and if they’re doing it to show themselves off,
the place usually has one gigantic room with everything pointing towards the
head of the table, and a number of smaller rooms where the servants are allowed
to go.
When it’s a complex, there has to be a reason, and that’s where I
started with the Vaults.
The Vaults are more than they appear, the initial levels are a set of
doors that open out into a staircase leading down into the vault proper, but
the doors are mounted on a plain, so anyone looking for them over a distance
would not immediately see them. In the
upper levels, the power levels have dropped over the years and the
non-essential equipment has been laid to waste there, leading to a number of
creatures coming here to escape the terrible dry winds on the Elevas Plains.
There are a number of wells within the Vaults, all of them large enough to supply
all the servants on the level, so water is not a problem, and as a result, a
lot of the wandering animals in the area know that there is water here, which
explains their presence.
Move down a level, and there’s a low level of light coming from the ceiling,
not as bright as it was a long time ago when the vaults worked at full power
and there were regular recharge cycles to keep them powered up, but as time has
gone by, so the power has drained, and the safeguards put in place have started
to drain the power from the upper levels to make sure the lower levels still
operate. It’s not dark enough that you
need torches, but something with darkvision of any sort will have a distinct
advantage down here, and as the very nature of the vaults keeps it dry and heated,
so other creatures have found their way down here.
Down another level and the light level has increased, rather than
decreased, but that means that the defensive measures built into the vault are
also there. One of these is the mage
map, a device designed to change the appearance of the area below depending on
who passes through it. While the
solution to the map is very simple, you need to know the solution in advance,
and getting that solution is an adventure all of its own.
Down another level and we come to the vault proper, well lit from all
angles and open all the way from one end of the vault to the other. It is lined by statues of hundreds of
different creatures, both humanoid and not, some with weapons and armour still
upon them. Those who failed to penetrate
the vaults defences in times past would still be made use of when their attempt
had failed…
Down another level and the stairs become more and more narrow till
walking single file along a suspended staircase no wider than a single person,
to a door suspended in the air just beyond the end of the staircase, behind
this are the truths of the vault…
And that’s as much as I’ll mention here, more to follow when the
adventure comes out…
The point of it all is to ensure that the dungeon has purpose, don’t
just stack random monsters in there, that’s such
a waste of potential, consider where the dungeon is, consider what would want
to be down there. Consider that the
original plans for these things would be, if it was just a place to hold prisoners,
it’ll have lots of cells, but the areas where the guards would be will be
reinforced far beyond the realms of the cells themselves, and unless the
prisoners were particularly skilled or able, they wouldn’t put anything beyond
simple bars on the cells.
If it was a foodstore, there’d be a butchery and a place for all the
offal and offcuts to be disposed of, there’d be channels cut in the floor to
let the blood run away and not foul everything.
If animals were kept in the Dungeon, there’d be housing for them,
usually away from the main resting areas.
Air…
Never forget the requirement to breathe, as the dungeon goes deeper, so
you need to provide some sort of ventilation to allow fresh air down into the
darkness. Otherwise the heavier elements
of air (including carbon dioxide) would fall and accumulate and without a
circulation system, the air down at the lower levels would be at best, foul,
and at worst, toxic…
Above all, consider the places in our world where such places already
exist, the massive underground city in Turkey that could have housed more than
twenty thousand people, the complex tunnel systems beneath London and other
cities, and then the other places where once people lived but no longer, then
ask the most interesting question about it…
What happened to make everyone leave…?
I know what happened in the Storm Vaults, but I’m the only one that
does, and those that venture deep into the Vaults will find that the story
reveals itself the deeper they go, just as the fellowship found more than they
could have feared when they travelled deep into the stone. The creatures that had taken up residence
were not the main threat, that remained far below and only came up when roused,
and so is the normal way of things.
Larger creatures often keep guards to prevent them from being disturbed
all the time, and so it is no different here.
The question today then, is what is the point of dungeons, and do they
still have a place in the GM’s repertoire…?
Tomorrow, Overground...
