I stalled on my in progress no pressure megadungeon project, partially because I’ve been busy, partially because I wrote my Megadungeon as an Overworld post and I want to try that out. I’ve been trying to figure out what a theme for a betwixt could be, and I’ve found a theme: “Theseus’ labyrinth crossed with sun-bull cultists” so I’ve started refining the procedure set out there and coalescing some of the posts I mentioned there into one place. This is the practicalities of designing an overworld-like megadungeon.

• Where is the town? Is it at the surface, or in the dungeon?
• Why is my megadungeon hostile to visitors?
• Why visit the megadungeon if it’s hostile to you?
• What’s the common, recognisable sub-dungeon entrance?

Introducing Labyrinthine Mythras

Labyrinthine Mythras is a giant, underground maze built by the chained imagination of a broken god to trap an undying beast, the Mythras. The inconsistencies of the gods’ mind caused their glitshen in the labyrinth. This bull-headed beast stalks the labyrinth for survival and for pleasure, but slips past the glitshen. Over the centuries, it became common for criminals to be thrown into the labyrinth as punishment for their crimes. Many of these folk built sanctuaries in these glitshen, walled off homes within the labyrinth that are protected from the Mythra; they are not always friendly.

The labyrinth is all yellow stone brickwork and ionian arches, crumbling from age, vaulted to the height of the Mythras. Glitshen are recognisable from the queer mist that seeps from the portal, and obscures the view of what lies behind.

The town of Yundun stands above the labyrinth, a town built upon the ruins of a city built by giants, full of crumbling towers and aqueducts repurposed by clever minds. Canny hawkers sell the labyrinth as an attraction, and nobility travel in trains for leagues to throw their into the pit.

Why enter the labyrinth: 

1. You made an enemy of Baron Wilhelm von Troomph, and were thrown there to rot.
2. You stole from Baron Wilhelm von Troomph, and were caught. To repay him, you must venture into the labyrinth to recover the Ruby of Unincantible Order, or face death.
3. The greatest thief in all the land, moments from capture, leapt into the labyrinth with his greatest prize: The Crown of Verdant Grace (as well of a large sack of other treasures). If it is returned to Queen Astraia’s hands, your reward will be land and title.
4. Your dearest younger brother was thrown into the labyrinth despite his innocence. He must be rescued!
5. The great hero Thessalys, one fought the Mythras to a standstill. Your vow is to do the same, after claiming Thessalys’ sword which he left implanted in a stone in the labyrinth’s depths.
6. The Mythras can be killed, and is the key to immortal life. But the answer to how to kill it is buried deep in the labyrinth as well.

The Whole Labyrinth

Henceforth then, the betwixt is renamed labyrinth, and the sub-levels are renamed glitshen in this megadungeon.

1. 2d6 x 100 rooms. Add a second town if larger than 300 x 1d4 rooms.
2. 7-item labyrinth encounter table, 2d4, number 2-8, rarest is 1.
3. Definitions:
   • Scenes are unique, non-hostile one-note puzzles or encounters. 
   • Lairs are unique, hostile encounters.
   • Utilities are hidden merchants or sages. 
   • Empty rooms in a labyrinth are typically scenes of carnage, just empty or signs of a traveler. as per the type table below.

Individual rooms in the labyrinth 

1. For type (d12): 1-2. Glitshen entrance; 3. Hidden Utility; 4-5. Lair; 6-7. Scene; 8. Scene of carnage (empty); 9. Signs of a traveller (empty), 10-12. Just empty.
2. For connections (d12): 1. Stuck door; 2. Locked door; 3. Secret door; 4-7. Portal; 8-11. short hall; 12. long hall.
3. Every 4 rooms, for subsequent elevation change (d12): 1. Increase (hidden); 2. Increase; 4-10. Remain the same; 10-11. Decrease; 12. Decrease (hidden).

Thoughts

I rolled a 700 room labyrinth, potentially with a town (which makes sense to be roughly half way). Now, this seems really intimidating, of course! 700 rooms???!!! PLUS glitshen???!!! Let’s math for a moment to rationalise.

40% of those 700 will be empty (292), and 17% of those will be cut for glitshen (117). That leaves us with a much more manageable goal of 291 populated labyrinth rooms. I’m going to place that town whenever it makes sense after about room 250 (probably to replace a gitshen).

The bigger challenge are the glitshen, which are absolutely huge in number. If I’m getting my mathematics right, the 117 rooms cut for glitshen will be replaced with 2 glitshen each. This makes me reconsider glitshen size, or at least, glitshen detail. Accordingly I’ve made a revision here: 1-2 is not necessarily a new glitshen, but rather a glitshen entrance, connecting with the glitshen criteria of multiple entrances, and also potentially reducing glitshen load. by up to half.

Contents of a glitshen:

1. Entrance description
2. Unique visual or sensory theme and ecosystem 
3. Number of rooms in sub-dungeon (2d6): 2. Trick or trap, perhaps a utility or scene 3. 5 rooms; 4. 10 rooms; 5. 15rooms 6. 20 rooms 7. 25 rooms 8. 30 rooms; 9. 35 rooms; 10. 40 rooms; 10. 45 rooms; 11. 50 rooms; 12. Trick or trap, perhaps a lair.
4. Room type (d20): 1-3. monster with treasure, 4-6. monster, 7. trap with treasure, 8-9. trap, 10-12. special, 13. hidden treasure, 14-18 empty, 18-20. Combine 2 rolls.
5. Connections: 1. 1 entrance; 2-5 2 connections to different levels; 6. 3 connections to different levels.
6. 1d2 factions, with a monster punnett each.
7. 7-item unique glitshen encounter table. 2d4+8, number 9-16, rarest is 16.
8. It’s own independent little story or drama

I reduced the room numbers in the glitshen from the first post, basically because of the mathematics earlier, but still want them to be proper stand-alone dungeons on the outsides. They should, however, be predictably 20-30 rooms, 40% of the time. That’s still huge!

Encounters

1-in-6 encounters can’t communicate. 3-in-6 have a combat (or escape) strategy. 3-in-6 need a trick to defeat them. Look at the last 5 encounters: If they’re all similar (same faction, species, approach) make the one weird.

That Random Encounter Table

So, the random encounter table from a few weeks ago has changed. Now we have a bit more detail: When we’re in liminal areas, we roll 2d8, when we’re in labyrinthine areas, we roll 2d4, and when we’re in glitshen, we roll 2d4+8. The latter + is just so they marry up easily, but here’s the idea:

The right column suggestions are inspired by Martin’s excellent encounter table. This is a bit neater than my earlier idea, simply because there’s a curve on the liminal spaces table here, and there’s a bit more space in 7 items each to make the encounters more detailed rather than have sub-tables. Recurring travellers are characters that the players may meet over and over again, and will probably be unique to any given campaign. Roaming hunters are deadly characters that I’ll make a list of, I think. Across 291 rooms, I think it would make sense for the labyrinth to evolve to some degree as well, which means I may iterate on the labyrinth encounter table.

Overall Sit-down Procedure

1. Generate Labyrinth (until we roll a Sub-dungeon)
2. Generate Glitshen
3. Repeat

Concluding thoughts

This really only leaves me with one concern, based on the theming of my dungeon: What do scenes and lairs mean in the Labyrinthine Mythras? Well, to support lairs, I’d be inclined to say that the Mythras will retreat when injured (even the powerful don’t like pain), and so lairs have something to block it away (small entrance) or traps to drive it away). And to support scenes, I’d say we have a combination of encounters with travellers, and also come up with a series of  blessings of the broken god — things like teleportation portals, healing pools, resurrection points, and shrines that contain riddles and quests that lead deeper into the labyrinth.

The rest, I’ll write on my own, as my new no-pressure megadungeon. I may tweak this procedure, of course. Maybe, one day, you’ll see the Labyrinthine Mythras, but I’m not going to rush this one. I’ll hack this up into the minimum necessary document for me to keep up on the screen so I can write a little bit each day, and then start listening to Pandora’s Jar again to get my Greek-themed inspiration going.

Idle Cartulary

PS. I drew from a LOT of other peoples ideas here. Marcia B’s bite-sized dungeons, Yora’s similar ideas, Warren’s punnet monsters, Martin’s encounter tables. I didn’t refer back to anything them directly, but look them up!

Playful Void is a production of Idle Cartulary. If you liked this article, please consider liking, sharing, and subscribing to the Idle Digest Newsletter. If you want to support Idle Cartulary continuing to provide Bathtub Reviews, I Read Reviews, and Dungeon Regular, please consider a one-off donation or becoming a regular supporter of Idle Cartulary on Ko-fi.