I started Dungeon23 a little early. Dungeon23 is a room-a-day ttrpg megadungeon writing project. The premise so far is that there’s a floating chunk of mountain I’m calling “the Clod” that houses the megadungeon. I’m not attached to the name, but the etymology of “cloud” is related to “clod,” as anglo myth imagines clouds as floating rocks where you might, for example, encounter a giant after climbing a beanstalk.
Room 1 28Dec2022 A dozen mythril braids anchored the Clod to the valley. One mythril braid anchors it today. Most are either scavenged (mythril is valuable) or their anchors in the valley have broken in the intervening years. One way to get to The Clod is to climb 600 feet on the surviving cable and then to scramble from there to the vines and odd perches. This involves at least one reasonably difficult check, whose primary dangers can be avoided with a climbing kit.
Room 2 29Dec2022 When the wind catches it, the Clod collides with the side of a mountain. Where it connects, both the Clod and the mountain are worn smooth. This has exposed a mining tunnel in the base of the Clod. Entrepeneurial sorts have dug foxholes into the side of the mountain, which offer an element of safety (being in one during a collision does modest thunder damage, preferable to instant death.) From the highest foxhole, one can leap into the mine tunnel. The darkness, tendency of moisture to freeze, smoothness of the contact surfaces, and angle of the slope renders the space between foxholes difficult terrain.
Room 3 30Dec2022 On the north face of the Clod, a conspicuously large hallway large enough for a gargantuan creature is visible. This is accessible to flying creatures, or to characters making the lengthy climb from the western cable to the hallway. Inside is a thick basalt door, and a series of levers and a button set in the wall, and the long-ruined remains of a camp site. The wall containing the levers has been partially opened, exposing the mechanism which has itself fallen into decay. Repairing the mechanism or finding a bypass requires an appropriate skill check. Blood inside the mechanism indicates the previous party attempted such a thing before being fatally attacked, though no bodies are visible.
Room 4 31Dec2022 The top of the Clod has copses of evergreen trees growing in irregular spots upon an eroded slab brick surface, and a gilded obelisk covered in draconic boasts. A dozen perytons exist up here, living off the wild goats, bears, deer, and other wildlife. Perytons, by their nature, take a special interest in humanoid travelers, and attack at night. At dusk they will harass humanoids with dropped stones, pulls and shoves with hooked sticks, and occasional attacks. They maintain smaller nests on nearby peaks and ridges, out to two days out, but return to the Clod regularly. Their continued harassment prevents restful sleep, and locals know to avoid this valley. Once a prey is deemed suitably vulnerable, they will commit to a fight to the death.
The golden obelisk proclaims the Clod as the property of Gozpoditakel, a dragon that boasts of their most valued hoard: the chiefs and nobles they hold for literal kings' ransoms. A history check against the names, or the obvious age of the space, indicates that the dragon seems to be gone. There is probably a direct way from this perch to the "hoard" itself, but it's not obvious.
Room 5 01Dec2023 Mt. Dlagan is to the southwest of the Clod, and it's peak sits about 400 feet higher than the apex of the Clod. 200 feet below the apex, observing the Clod, is a carefully obscured shelter. It houses two fraternal twin dwarven adventurers - Grake and Yurrow Ironboot. They are the hired guides of the party that failed to repair the door in the north hallway. They have a spell scroll of Fly which neither can use. Their deftness with mountaincraft is how they survive, but they don't have a clear plan out of the valley entirely. They have the skill to lasso a peryton, but they don't have the nerve or people to try the gambit. They may attempt to sign their location to players with a hand mirror at a distance.
Room 6 02Dec2023 A now closed entrance, covered in snow and moss, appear on the south side of the Clod. Once used as an exit for detritus from the mine, it has been closed with a round copper plug that has tarnished green over the years. A reasonably high passive perception score will notice a roughly circular patch of green-stained snow against the moss and rock. Climbing from the western cable, flying, or gliding from a higher point can access the spot, and clearing the snow reveals a five-foot threshold safe for standing. The plug has a fist-sized hole in the center and numerous matching holes near its circumference. Inset in the leftmost hole is a pin. Removing the pin and setting it into the center allows the plug to roll sideways, opening the space.
Room 7 04Dec2023 Sitting a bit north of the Clod's current location in the Ka'ahli Valley is an abandoned dwarven mining camp. What remains of it would require an organized excavation, but some features are visible and potentially useful. An earth and stonework ridge, once used for water diversion, surrounds the camp and sits three and a half feet tall. A large freestanding domed furnace can provide emergency shelter from the elements. Inside the furnace are lead pellets (suitable for use as sling bullets), bronze molds, bowls made from crushed bonemeal, and a short flat adamantine bar with a bifurcated hook on one end, and a hole in the other. Once used to fish material out of the furnace, the bar can now be used as an improvised grappling hook or as an adamantine sickle that does piercing damage.
