Dungeon23: Temple of the Snake Cult - Level 3

This map is released under terms of the  CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

 Area Links:

    Area A (Rooms 1-7)
    Area B (Rooms 8-14)
    Area C (Rooms 15-21)
    Area D (Rooms 22-28)

 

 Wandering Monster Table (2d6)

2 - 1d6 baern-men escorting 1d3 hooded, snake-man Emissaries

3 - an ochre jelly spawn from Room 25

4 - a pack of hungry ghouls (2d6)

5 - patches of yellow mold along the floor and walls (2d6)

6 - 8d6 oor-men with pieces of amniotic sac still hanging from them

7 - 12d8 kobb-men, fresh from the vats and largely defenseless (1-3 on 1d6), or giant rats (4-5 on 1d6)

8 - 12d6 mewling, half-blind, and hungry gobb-men (1-3 on 1d6,) or a swarm of giant centipedes. (4-5 on 1d6)

9 - a patrol of 2d6 baern-men

10 - 1d4 hedge witches (from Room 19); 3-in-6 chance that their leader Atrea is with them

11 - a wraith spawned from a previous victim of the High Priest (see Rooms 26-28)

12 - 1d3 harpies (see Room 21) with an escort of 1d6 baern-men

 

Commentary

Completion of the third level marks a major milestone as it ends the "basic" level portion of the campaign.  I've learned a lot during this exercise over the past few months, and hindsight being 20/20, there's a few things I would adjust if I were to run this at my home table (a desireable, near future possibility.)  For example, the number of rooms in each level being an even 28 bothers me, but at least it leaves some space for bonus rooms (as sub-levels.)  The amount of treasure being enough for your standard party is also questionable, and there is a distinct lack of special or new magic items.  But I'll leave these for future Weregrognard to worry about.

 

Moving Forward to "Expert"

As outlined in my first post, I'd like my Dungeon23 project to include the full B/X fantasy campaign experience.  Therefore, I am taking a break from the tentpole dungeon to detail a home settlement and a wilderness sandbox over the next two months.  This will leave exactly seven months to complete a 10-level dungeon by the end of the year.  Stay tuned as the Temple will move on from its original inspirational material to borrow from other personal "Appendix N" sources (this merits its own post.)

Time to put up or shut up on the OGL

When I started this blog, the OSR, third party publishers and fans of D&D were in a state of crisis as Wizards of the Coast (WotC) announced the short-sighted decision of de-authorizing the Open Game License (OGL.) 

Because of this uncertainty, I've been necessarily vague with specific game stats for Dungeon23 .  I'm old enough to remember "T$R" and their attempts to reign in fan sites and any creations based on their properties.

However, since WotC seems to have walked their decision back (albeit with no clear and specific action) and threw the olive branch of placing the 5e SRD under a Creative Commons (CC) license.  It's time for me to make a decision of whether to risk using OGL content or the Creative Commons.  On one hand, using the OGL opens a lot of great content to steal...err...borrow from better creators than I, plus I can firmly plant a flag with a specific OGL ruleset such as Swords & Wizardry or Old School Essentials.  On the other hand, the CC license seems a safer way to go.  I feel I must decide soon if I want to monetize this blog and receive some remuneration for my labors (something Mrs. Weregrognard has been asking about since I've been devoting a substantial amount of time and effort to it.)