One of the banner elements of old-school play is the ‘megadungeon’. Essentially, this is a dungeon massive enough that by itself it could serve as the setting for an entire campaign. It’s a common feature in old-school settings like Greyhawk, and even the Forgotten Realms, where Undermountain fills the post admirably. The outstanding Grognardia blog has me thinking on this subject a little bit.
I’m working on an old-school setting alongside Ytherra, called the Kingdoms of Seoland. This will be very thinly developed, as befits that kind of setting, essentially complete in a map and maybe 4 pages of gazetteer-style information and a list of suggested character names. And lots of dungeon sites. Verisimilitude is not a major priority, although I’m not a believer in the idea that it’s not important at all.
Now, Seoland has the traditional mix of old-school races that you’d expect. So along with the myriad Orc lairs and Undead-riddled ruined temples, there’s an abandoned Dwarven fortess called the Sparburg, inhabited first by the Dwarves, then by the Orcs, and currently by the Eleven, the chief lieutenants of some Lovecraftian Horror or other.
I don’t have a system for this yet (although I’m leaning toward using Castles & Crusades rather than ALAT or developing something specifically for it,) or a concrete plan to actually run it. It’s on the list of ’some day’ projects that I hope to get to.
Now, it occurs to me that a megadungeon serves a purpose even if it’s not going to be a primary arena of play – or even if the players will never set foot in the place – as an admirable source of legends and rumors. This got me to thinking about megadunegons on Ytherra, which is not at all an old-school setting, but which is very strong (I think) in color and history. So I ran down a short list of existing (i. e. with something written about them already,) sites that could serve in some kind of corresponding role.
The Antháve is a Dravánu fortress hewn into a massive chunk of glacially-deposited rock in the general vicinity of Dravá. It hasn’t yet been placed on the new map, although I have a fair idea where it’s going to be. It holds the Imperial Armories, is always manned by a full legion, and is honeycombed with tunnels housing weapons mundane and mighty. The fortress has never fallen, and in the War of the Circle of Ghámeron it was the last redoubt of the legendary Emperor Ánsesh I, when Dravá itself fell to a coalition of enemy nations.
Morú Váreneth is a major holy site of the faith of Deshéng, the Goddess of Death. There’s a major temple on the site, which is the destination of pilgrims from across the Imperium, and beyond. There’s also a labyrinthine series of underground levels, themselves among the most closely-held secrets of the Deshéngu, and at the bottom of these lies their deepest secret, one which would shake the foundations of both faith and Imperium were it revealed. Deep beneath the earth lives the Parliament in Gray.
There exists the remnant of an ancient installation atop Mount Gútha, in Arál Draván. The mountain is a climb formidable enough that only one man has reached the summit, and that tale has passed into legend. Such folktales speak of the place as a City of the Gods, now abandoned, but the learned priests of both Deshéng and Zerém know it to be a relic of a prehuman civilization. Who knows what may be found there?
The city of Thal, in the Selurean Kingdoms, was inhabited even in deep antiquity – possibly before the arrival of humanity on Ytherra. It was a stronghold of the Sorcerer-Kings called the Coercers, and was razed upon their demise, but it’s highly probable that extensive old warrens lie beneath the modern city, which is an independent state ruled by the Captains of Thal, a council of merchant princes. Sewer workers in Thal have an unusually high mortality rate…
Then there’s the so-called Tower of Jet in the Southern Ocean. It’s rather far off the beaten track from the explored world, but tales of it made their way as far north as Mánthezar and a famed Dravánu loremaster once tried to plumb its secrets. It was never built as an inhabitable structure, but rather as a locus of magical power by beings whose presence on Ytherra predates even the old races. The legends tell of unimaginable horrors that dwell within, monstrous things beyond mortal comprehension. And even the Gods – even the Five – won’t go near the place.
Most of these weren’t intended for dungeon-delving per se, but all could be employed in that capacity with only a light repurposing, if that. I don’t know that I would use them for that, but… Thal was intended as an adventuring hub in the first place; it’s a major trade port, a rival in that regard even to Dravá, and more open to foreigners from a hundred lands than any Dravánu city. The Selureans consider it more a city of outlanders than of their own culture, and there’s a modicum of truth in that. Although the catacombs beneath it weren’t envisioned as a ‘megadunegon’ exactly, they were intended as the primary venue for dungeon-crawling on Ytherra, if such a thing should be desired. So while I hadn’t though about the place that way, that’s really what it is.
