Lapidary Ossuary Megadungeon (Level One — Topaz)

EDIT: after finally posting this after two months of sitting on the 90% completed map and key, I've decided I hate it and I'm going to rework the whole Megadungeon from the start. For months I was brainstorming specific encounters or room contents and ended up just mashing them all together. I'm dissatisfied. I'll leave this post here because nobody is looking at it anyways, and I'll maybe start a new series where I document my process of making the whole dungeon. 

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I am finally posting the map and key to the first level of my eponymous megadungeon, the Lapidary Ossuary. The megadungeon is themed off gems and burial sites—I'm trying to jam in cultural gemstone themes for each level, and cram every possible human burial method into the ossuary as a whole. 

The first level is Topaz—with themes of Opulence, the Sun, Charisma. 

There are three entrances to this level, all found on the craggy hilltop outside of whatever small town you like. Because of these entrances, this is the most accessible level. Each entrance is only a couple hundred meters away from each other. Two are sealed by trapped doors, but one has been smashed open recently, exposing the Lapidary Ossuary to the outside world to a greater degree than it has been before. 

When I eventually run this dungeon, I will use the rumour tables found in my original post. I may expand these as I key more of the dungeon. Right now they're based on the notes I have for theming each level. 

Level One of the Lapidary Ossuary — Topaz.

I made this map using Adobe Illustrator. I decided to use a simple point-crawl type map since I was having trouble fitting all the rooms together in a way that satisfied me when I was using a graph-paper styling. For this megadungeon I believe that the room contents are the star anyways, and I don't really care about the corridors between rooms. The whole point is that the dungeon is the enormous necropolis of a fallen empire, full of bones and bodies, warped over time by the potent magicks of the ancient empire and their burial rituals. It is a mythic underworld and it don't make no sense. There is a total of 3000sp worth of treasure, enough to get a party from level one to level two, assuming 1sp=1xp and you're using 2000xp as the level threshold. (I also let party members share treasure for XP so finding one silver piece means everyone gets one experience point). 

Dungeon Key: Level One — Topaz

1. SMASHED ENTRYWAY. Stone door, smashed open. Scattered debris. 

2. ANTECHAMBER. Stone pedestals. See-saw pit trap. Secret door East. 

3. TOOL SHED. Iron tool rack (pickaxes, chains, trowels). Three Spinerel, swinging on the racks (3HP, claws d6, MOR 8, shatter upon death dealing 1 damage). Stone door East. 

4. PEASANT OSSUARY. Stone shelves of peasant bones. Cold campfire. Stone door North (stuck). Stone door East (stuck). 

5. SLAVE OSSUARY. Stone shelves of slave bones. Stone door East (trapped with ceiling rubble). Secret door North (spinerel shavings). 

6. BRICK PILES. Piles of bricks. Stone door West (stuck). Stone door East (stuck). 

7. MOSAIC STAIRS. Mosaic depicting the great deeds of Emperor Ekaf Enam. Three Spinerel picking at the mosaic stones (3HP, claws d6, MOR 8, shatter upon death dealing 1 damage). Stone door West (stuck). Iron door East (locked). 

8. EMBALMING CHAMBER. Stone table, simple embalming tools, empty jars. Iron door West (locked). Iron door East (locked). Secret door South (streaks of brain fluid). 

9. TOPAZ ENTRYWAY. Large stone door (Glyph: Sunbeam). 

10. WARDEN STATUE. Black marble statue holding Emperor’s Gem (worth 85sp). 

11. GLASS FOYER. Glass floor (deep cone pit below). Stone door East, West, South (floor-shattering trap, sending standers into the deep cone pit). Secret door North.

12. GOLDEN SKULL DOOR. Ornate golden skull covers the entire doorway. Golden doorknob within the mouth. Bloody severed arm lies inside the mouth opening. 

13. GOLD SARCOPHAGUS GALLERY. Ten stone sarcophagi gilded with gold foil. 

14. SILVER SARCOPHAGUS GALLERY. Ten stone sarcophagi gilded with silver foil. 

15. IRON SARCOPHAGUS GALLERY. Ten stone sarcophagi banded with iron. One has an alms bowl at the base containing 15sp and Merchant Cords (any package tied with these cords stays fresh forever, worth 100sp). 

16. COPPER SARCOPHAGUS GALLERY. Five stone sarcophagi gilded with copper foil. Five smashed sarcophagi revealing five Gummy Zombies (5HP, claws d6, MOR 11, bladed weapons stick in gummy flesh). Each has topaz gem buried inside (5 x 20sp each). 

17. EMPEROR TOMB. Topaz-inlaid sarcophagus holding ancient emperor Ekaf Enam. Stone shelves along the walls with mosaic backings and treasure items. Hologram-generating topaz orb (800sp or wizard quest). Holo-Ekaf Enam (12HP, fists d6, MOR 11, commands his lions, Spell: Leap). Two Orange Lions (3HP, bite d8, MOR 10, very fast and huge). Copper bracelets (10sp each), chest full of 5000cp, 3 bottles of ancient perfume (3 x 10sp each), ten topaz gems arranged in a decorative wire frame (10 x 10sp each). Stone archways North, West, South. Secret door East (poison gas trap). 

18. MISTRESS TOMB. Sexy sarcophagus. Gold jewellery (75sp total), set of ceramic urns (50sp), Cornberry oil and sweetwater flask (glows when sitting still, 75sp).

19. RUSTY STAIRS. Rusty iron stairs. Iron door West, Iron door West. Secret door South (poison gas trap). 

20. NOBLE OSSUARY. Stone shelves with noble bones. Tripwires releasing bone darts from wall slots. Stone archway South. Stone door West (locked). Stone door East (stuck). Stone door North (locked). 

21. LADY OSSUARY. Stone shelves with noble Lady bones—exaggerated gender presentation with dresses and carved ivory “wigs” (5 x 30sp each). Slurping up some gold jewelry (worth 75sp) in the corner is the Giant Golden Worm (10HP, bite d8, MOR 10, non-gold metal weapons cannot penetrate its skin). Stone door South (locked). Stone door West. Stone door East. 

22. CHILD OSSUARY. Stone shelves with little baby bones. A little animated child skeleton is sitting up on its shelf, crying for its mummy. Stone door East. Stone door West. 

23. IDOL. Gold and copper statuette of an ibex god on a huge stone pedestal (worth 100sp). Entire room is a spiked pit trap triggered by touching the idol. Stone door East. Stone door West. 

24. CHANDELIER. Dusty crystal chandelier suspended from the ceiling illuminating an iron chest with 150sp inside. Stone door East. Stone door West. 

25. SOLDIER OSSUARY. Stone shelves with soldier bones stacked alongside spears. Two eyeless ghouls (6HP, claws d6, MOR 10, paralysis on hit, save STR each turn to break out) are licking femurs in the corner. Beneath some bones lays a silver longsword, etched with wolfsbane (versatile d6/d8, Enhanced[1d12] against werewolves, wolves, dogs, canine sorcerers, etc.; worth 500sp). 

26. SPINEREL NEST. Smell of dust and ozone. Little nests made of rock fragments, each with a light dusting of purple crystal dust. Sparkling beneath one pile is a handful of blue spinel gems (5 x 40sp each). 

27. SPINEREL HOLE. A thin deep hole scratched into the floor. Smell of dust and ozone, light purple crystal dusting around. 

28. CRUMBLY CAVERN. Back half of the room has collapsed: a red glow is coming from a wide crack in the floor. You can crawl down to the level here.

Stay tuned for Level Two — Ruby... Might take me another couple months. Who knows.