Southland Adventure: Stone Grave-Afterward/Design Notes

STONE GRAVE

A Fantasy Core and D&D 5^th Edition Southland Adventure

© Jerry Harris 2015

Published here as Open Game Content. 

(This link will take you to the Fantasy Core Playtest Rules.)

Southland Index

Stone Grave Index

Afterward

Let’s see, the Characters should now be in the possession of a large, but somewhat hard to transport treasure trove and maybe some information for further adventures.  Now, all they have to do is figure out how to get it out of Stone Grave.  The possible permutations for further adventures will be left in your hands. 

In the meantime, the undead giant spiders and their zombies may have taken over the Work Level.  The Grimlocks may have made a decision to try and hold the level as well and may want to go further.  The Humanoids may have allied again and acquired some magic to combat the Gargoyles.  They’ll be coming in force.  What if a Humanoid shaman attempts to create some undead troops in Stone Grave and inadvertently raises the spirits of the multitude of ancient dead miners into Spectres and Wraiths?  Lastly, certainly if one group of adventurers found this place, you can bet they won’t be the last and it’s unlikely that they’re coming to help.

Design Notes

Lord, what a cluster-f*** this project was.  Unfortunately, it probably shows.  It all started years ago with this unlikely to be original idea of “What if somebody put a mega-dungeon inside Ayers Rock?”  “Wait,” you’re saying, “This adventure doesn’t take place inside Ayers Rock.”  Yeah, I know. 

From that germ of an idea, the entire Southland setting grew like an ugly patch of weeds over time.  Ironically, Ayers Rock got used for another idea, but nearby Mount Conner was an even better locale for a mega-dungeon. . . which still didn’t get made.  The Southland project became too big to attempt to put a massive dungeon into at that time.

But I still had the notes and the idea of putting a dungeon into a mesa-like mountain.  In the course of working on Fantasy Ireland, I came upon Keeper Hill, which completely fit the bill.  I added a whole background story about an underground Dwarf settlement destroyed by Elvish necromantic magic, with some Humanoid inhabitants/squatters added.  However, the Ireland setting didn’t have anything to do with raiding dungeons and killing non-humans indiscriminately for their loot.  That kind of stuff would start an inter-species war there.  It had to be something different.  Then I had this thought: What about putting a murder mystery inside a dungeon?       

Two fruitless years later, I discovered that wasn’t a good idea by virtue of never being able to make it work.  Oh sure, it might work for you and your players and your NPC’s in your long-running sandbox campaign, but doing it cold turned into a creative death march.  Frighteningly, I still have the notes for this idea.  I also now have the maps.  It could still regurgitate into my creative life.

The only good thing about that rabbit hole was that I stat’ed out all the monsters and rough drafted maps in the process of going nowhere.  I had to finish it somehow, since most of the damn work was already done.  Or as Arthur C. Clarke wrote in his journal about working on 2001: A Space Odyssey, “Now have everything, except plot.” Finally, I ended up back where I began and put the thing back in the Southland.  Much of the encounters and monsters stayed the same, but now they were simply there to be massacred. 

Eventually, I figured out I was doing a martial version of Tomb of Horrors.  I’m not sure how this sucker is going to play out other than potentially very lethally for the Characters if they aren’t played with some brains.  This adventure should get frustrating given the lack of replenishment (and likely any rest) and treasure, but with plenty of monsters.  There are several places where some helpful circumstances can be used to keep the Characters from being annihilated, but it’s only a stay of execution without some clever play.         

Oh, if you could have seen the original plans for this place.  Nine levels.  Birdmen roosting in the open air amphitheater on top.  Half-flooded crypt at the bottom.  Place was stuffed full of undead.  I don’t even have the notes for it anymore.  Many of the features are in this version, but scaled down or changed dramatically.  For example, the Work Level was originally a giant storage area with one un-killable monster relentlessly tracking and toying with the party, who would presumably be running around desperately looking for an exit.  Well, that’s the way these things often go when they spend too much time baking in the oven.

Enjoy.