So, here we have the only dungeon I ever made for 4th Edition. It was designed for a single player running a couple of low-level characters. Don't remember too much about it other than it involved the Shadar-Kai and sewers. Its fairly linear in that it ultimately goes in one direction, but there are multiple choices on the way there -- wherever "there" is, as you see, I never finished it and I believe we only got as far as the second page.
Once upon a time, some friends and I explored the sewers under a Detroit suburb. Some of the architecture I saw down there, I included on these maps (drawn some 15 years later.)* Being the main drainage lines and the height of summer, we were basically walking through large concrete pipes with a bit of surprisingly clear water. Summer was really the only time you could safely explore. We never once saw, "sewage," or much debris of any kind other than the occasional planks of wood. One night, we actually came out through a manhole cover on someone's front lawn. Our individual exits had to be timed perfectly due to steady traffic. We were miles away from the entrance.....and the car. The walk back on the streets is a whole 'nother story.....
*The entrance room on page 1 has a passage that starts 12 ft. up a slippery wall. We experienced a chamber that had something like this. The wall was slightly sloped and slick with a trickle of water. Our first time down, we couldn't climb it. The next time, thanks to a home-made grappling hook, we made it up (I believe it only took us 2 throws.) And after all that effort, that higher passage didn't amount to much (obviously we missed the secret door!) The main double-passage that links page 1 to page 2, is modeled directly after the main double-passage we followed for about a mile before branching off and exploring miles of smaller side passages that we often had to duck-walk through. I'm still in pretty good shape, but no way could I do that now.
We wore rubber boots & gloves. Flashlights were essential, with spare batteries just in case. The darkness was oppressive. Had something happened to our light sources, we'd have been far beyond screwed.....
Been busy working on my next module, spent most of March just working on the map. It is ....different.
Game on.
We did something similar to this as young teenagers. The creepiest part was having to duck walk under a section of ceiling covered with creepy camel crickets (we called them spider crickets).
ReplyDeleteThat would be creepy indeed. We were lucky in that we never encountered any of the filth that is normally associated with sewers, almost no bugs, no animals, no sewage, no strange smells even. Probably because it was a newer suburb.
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