The Tarasceen bat is found in the belfries, cupolas, and bell towers of the city and the castle. The bats are notable for their bluish-gray fur and their ability to mimic sounds, up to and including human voices. They make suitable familiars for magic users, and at least one noble house has the bat as part of its heraldry.
This ioun stone resembles a stylized rose blossom, and it sheds a faint red glow when activated. The function of the stone draws monsters to it, increasing the user's random encounter rate. Roses are featured in the heraldry and devices of noble houses and craftsmen ventures that seek out danger and violence.
3. Nagond Zorn
Demon Generals are powerful foes, and Nagond Zorn certainly is a formidable one. This dungeon wight happens to be possession of a fallen Lord's Staff, and accordingly has stolen the power of the staff for his own end. With the power of the staff and his own wightish magic, Nagond has doubled in size and seems more trollish than wightish, and is afflicted with cancerous growths, a permanent drool, and madness burning in his small eyes.
Special - Zorn can manipulate the elements of the Gygaxian Gyre as if he were a powerful Dungeon Mage, including summoning monsters, and conjuring traps and magic spells from the stuff of the dungeon itself.
Forces - a cadre of wights that have flocked to his chaotic banner. They slaver for a chance to challenge the mouth of the Gyre so they can break into the bottom of the castle and lay waste to the human defenders, loot their treasures, devour all their food, and sate their urges and desires in an orgy of terror.
Holdings - A warren deep in the dungeon.
Loot Drop - a Lord's Staff, Demon jade coins, dragonbrass coins, dungeon gems
The Candlesnuffer is an amenable chap, a bit thin, a bit hungry looking, and certainly disreputable. His role is as a dungeon guide, being a member of the Lamplighter Guild, and leads less experienced adventurers into the dungeon, showing them how to get through the mouth of the Gyre, and into the dungeon proper. Where he demonstrates his being a Bad Apple, on occasion he will lead a party into a dangerous situation and then at the critical moment, he covers his lamp, snuffs the torch, or even casts a darkness spell. When the traps are done and the monsters have finished tearing at the corpses, he loots their bodies and then does what he needs to to hide the bodies. The castle officials at the Quay above the Gyre consider him something of a jinx, considering how lucky he is to have survived so many TPKs.
Rossol was literally born in the Gygaxian Gyre, his mother being pregnant and challenging the dungeon to find a magic potion she needed to save her life, and the life of her unborn son. She found the potion, and her band of hirelings almost made it out before she went into labor. The party cleric delivered the child and healed them both with magic and potion. She was forced to rest for almost a week within the dungeon, and subsisted on the charity of other adventurers who were coming and going from the Gyre, until she was strong enough to make the climb herself. Twenty years later Rossol, now calling himself Gyreson is a dungeon delver for hire, with his speciality being search and rescue jobs. He wears leather armor, and carries a pair of short swords he uses to great effect. Being born in the dungeon has left most of the monsters in the dungeon indifferent to him, and unless he attacks them, they ignore him. He has since learned Wightish, and is known to the denizens of the Gyre.
Lerah is an unlikely thrall of evil, considering her pretty face, crooked smile, and bright eyes. Until recently she was a prostitute in the Guild of the Lily, and was accorded little to no status. After a wealthy client severely beat her, breaking bones in her face and jaw, gifting her with her now signature crooked smile, she was expelled from the Guild for conduct unbecoming a member, and was tossed in the gutter. Filed with pain, loathing, and despair, she limped to a Devouring Deep and threw herself in, expecting a quick and mostly painless death being sucked down into the mire. Instead she found her body healed, but not restored, and granted a dark vitality. She is a freelancer working in the city, and an agent of the darker forces of the Gyre, encouraging the bold and foolish to rush into the dungeon, following bad leads, to their demise.
7. Gygaxian Red
Gygaxian Red is a red wine found in cellars deep in the Gyre. The wine commands a healthy price on the surface, enough that recovering a regular liter bottle can put a hero up and in rest for a month, and finding a rare 25 liter sovereign cask is easily a year's income for an adventurer, or enough for a commoner to retire comfortably. The wine is notable for its strength, and the infusion of vitality that comes with it (minor to modest boost to stamina/endurance).
This beer is brewed by the Guild of Adventurers-Upon-Return, and is well known for either being the best beer ever made, or being just absolute shite. It is a double IPA style beer with punchy hops and a high alcohol content. For those who like strong bitter beers, it is considered amazing, a strong counterpoint to the earthy malty bread-like stouts favored by dwarves, and the ethereal and incredibly expensive wines favored by elves.
The Reflection of Youth is a moon pool deep in the Gyre, well away from the main path. Those who look into it see their reflection as they were in the prime of their youth and vigor. Drinking the water offers no benefit, nor does swimming in it. What does do something is if the person tries to swim to the bottom of the moon pool, and it is very deep, and crystal clear. As they approach the bottom they will see a silvery surface approaching them, and their reflection in it is their most aged and decrepit face. Should they push through the silver barrier, they emerge from the pool wearing their young body. This can only be done once, trying again will return all their accumulated age.
10. Lord's Cheese
Lord's cheese is made from minotaur's milk. This milk is considered a valuable commodity but the minotaurs rarely make the trek to visit Terrasquestone, nor do they enjoy the city. They do have good relations with the Lords, and in honor of this, they craft cheese from their unconsumed milk, and age it in the caverns and cellars of their mountain glade homes. This cheese has a deep, rich flavor, and the Lords and nobles of the city pay a heady price for it. While the minotaurs find it a bit strange and have no interest in the cheese, they do like the gold and treasures it brings them. There is such a level of commodity and conspicuous consumption around it, that certain minotaur families are treated like bottles of wine in regards to the quality of their cheeses, ranging from what clan made the cheese down to what minotaur produced the milk.
11. Were-Worm
Khagalad the Ravenous is a strange man, a pot-bellied brute with a bottomless appetite. Most people avoid him as he radiates a strange energy that many find offputting, plus he has no concept of personal hygiene. He is also one of the few denizens of the city that routinely goes into the Gyre alone, or out to the Devouring Deeps. When the moon rises full, he shudders and turns into a thirty foot long purple worm. He tries to do this in the dungeon, where he can glut himself devouring wights and other dungeon monsters. When he cant, he will leave the walls of the city to thrash and rip and seek out as much flesh as he can consume before the sun rises. More than once he's been found covered in blood, in a field of mauled livestock remnants.
He is also infamous for having the most massive and horrific bowel movements in the city.
The handy main weapon of any dungeon explorer, a Tarasceen longsword is made of Tarasceen steel, and likely inset with a dungeon gem in the crossguard or hilt. The most common stone used is the virulent pink elgechal. The crossguards and pommel are usually made of dragonbrass, and the weapon is typically a +1 to +3 magic sword.
Terrasquestone isn't especially well known for its horses or the quality of its cavalry. They do have horses, but they are draft horses and more suited to pulling loads than carrying riders, plus it is impossible for a horse to go into the dungeon, considering the choke points in the Gyre. The main users of the indigenous horses are woodcutters, stonemasons, and merchants.
Loran is a mage or pretends to be to sell potions, manuscripts, tomes, grimoires, familiar finding services, and lifestyle consultation for wealthy people who want to understand the essence and how to work it. He claims to be a mentor to Lords, friends with the High Lord, and to have plumbed the very depths of the Gygaxian Gyre. He is indeed a sorcerer, and he has a very basic understanding of essence and essence manipulation, as well as access to a printing press where he makes his shill and sales materials. He's never been in the dungeon, but has a cadre of wage mages who do, and bring him trinkets and stories to sell to the gullible nobles who have no intention of ever stepping foot into the Gyre.
The Princess of Rust Monsters is an aspiring Lord, and to that end, she has sought out an element and law to emulate in her magic, and in her manipulation of essence. She has found fascination in the art of acids, oxidation, and corrosion, to the point that she can flex her aura and cause non-magical metal to visibly rust and in short order, fall apart. Magical metals can resist, as can magical alloys, but resistance is not immunity. The side effect of her aura is that she constantly corrodes all metal near her, meaning all her furniture must be free of nails, and she cannot have metal in her corset, or in her weapons. She favors a long ivory staff shaped from dragon bone.
16. Dungeon Mime
The Dungeon Mime is an entertainer and a one-man show. His power is that of Blue Magic, allowing him to copy the magical abilities and innate magical powers of the monsters he's encountered and the powers he has survived. He makes games of transforming into an obvious treasure chest and then springing out mimic style, but with flowers, or a squirt of water. He cannot speak, the horrors that he has seen as stolen his voice and broken his courage.
17. Franaglynn of Sirin's Pointe
Franaglynn is a prostitute and half-Wight. Born to a human mother, she was abandoned to the maw of the Gyre, and a wight-mother came and accepted the child. She was raised in the Gyre itself and then returned almost to the surface. There are semi-settled places deeper in the Gyre where some enterprising individuals set up camp or shop, and Franaglynn has a one-woman brothel. In exchange for a heavily gouged price, she offers an adventurer a draught of strong liquor and a turn of the hourglass in her little stall. Aside from grunting and thrusting, she can leverage healing magic, dungeon lore, rumors, and as the opportunity presents itself, as an assassin or thief in the dark.
18. The Dour One
Courtiers as a dime a dozen in Terrasquestone, the children, nieces and nephews, cousins, and extended family of the Lords, the nobles, and all the high functionaries of the Council. The Dour One is different, his face is defined by a terrible scar that turned his left eye into a pucker and he walks with a mild limp. He has braved the Gyre, fought wights, and has even crossed blades with the Champions of the Dungeon, one leaving him with his facial scar, but healing him and taking him prisoner for a week before she magically delivered him to the base of the helical entrance of the gyre. He is quiet and reserved and knows what it is to pay the iron price for things, rather than the shining and easy gold price.
19. Herald of the Brilliant Shadow
The Herald of Brilliant Shadow is a potent wightish necromancer and is something of a secret horror of dungeon divers. The Herald is clad in silvered armor, and surrounded by a lambent flame, which is fairly effective for destroying infravision, darksight, and magics that deal with seeing through darkness and shadow. As a necromancer, the Herald will send a host of undead to clash with heroes and then will illuminate themselves, causing massive blindness and confusion in the previously lightless dungeon. If fought and defeated, the Herald is revealed to be an attractive woman and is one of the Dungeon's lesser champions.
The Mushroom Monger is a peasant who pays the hefty toll to descend into the Gyre a few times a year, but only has eyes for one prize, the giant mushrooms that grow near the domain of the Wights. After gathering spores, he is quick to return home so he can spread the spores on prepared beds of piss-wet hay, horse and other sourced manures, and then wait for his treasures to root and grow. He has thus far been lucky that he's only exported mundane dungeon fungus and hasn't brought up some semi-sentient mushroom-men, or a fungus like cordyceps, or something that is fatal. He has brought back a number of unique specimens, and some wonder about his mental health.
Everyone like a good drink, especially people in a tough spot. The Venture Capitalist has had the barmy idea of opening a tavern inside the Gyre. He doesn't have much more than an oversized pack, a plank, and sundry supplies to pour a few drinks before his liquid goods are spent. He has been robbed multiple times, and has survived a few dungeon reprisals where the Dungeon sensed him trying to chisel a bar counter out of dungeon stone and send things to deal with him. He can sometimes be encountered in the middle regions of the dungeon, often ranting.
Pools that restore life, restore youth, mana, but fuck me sideways with an ogre knob if there isn't a pool or fountain here of sparkling gin, sweet wine, or foamy ale, ye bastard dungeon!
22. The Cartographer
The Cartographer wants to make a map of the Gygaxian Gyre, the Keep, and even the city of Terrasquestone. He is affected by the Amnesia, but the dungeon has not altered his maps and notes, and is coyly enjoying the man lose his mind as the very earth changes and his maps are inexplicably wrong.
23. The Betrayer
The Betrayer has not been tried by a judge or a jury, but has been found guilty of betraying his own band of adventurers to not just escape disaster with his life, but in a deliberate fashion. He has no cell, but he is known as a Judas Goat and is refused return to the surface, and aid from others, and even the dungeon has become aware of his villainy. Rather than ending it, the Betrayer has been allowed to live and forced to survive in absolute squalor and basement, mostly for the entertainment of the core itself. The Betrayer isn't aware of this, but he has already died several times, but the dungeon smiles and wont let him die.
24. The Dungeon Goon
The Dungeon Goon is a dungeon Wight, wearing a black cloak and armed with a short sword, buckler, and small crossbow. Not very bright, a tad on the cowardly side, but eager to please the Great Spirit of the Dungeon. Some heroes are put off by how many dungeon goons are female.
Most guardsmen of Terrasquestone are devoted to their duty, their families, and service to the Lords. The Weekend Diver is a Guardsman who has made several dives into the Gyre, and unlike his peers, he has tested himself in dungeon combat, and to their envy and chagrin, he has emerged with a few pieces of loot that have not just made him financially comfortable, but better equipped than they are. Most notably, he carries a Tarasceen halberd and a Scroll of Wife Summoning, but he's afraid to use the later.
26. The Braggard
The Braggard is the sort of man you don't want to meet in a bar. He's got sour breath, has been drinking not just too much, but for too long as well. He's looking for an audience, someone to bully, or someone to impress, and a wet behind the ears kid looking to make his first jaunt into the Gyre is his favorite. He harangues, threatens, and generally shows off scars and tells the hapless audience that if they buy him a drink he'll tell them what happened, and if they're smart enough to listen, they might just make it out alive to run home to their mamma's with their pissy britches.
27. Cornelius Coil
Cornelius is one of the most sought after and busiest merchants in Terrasquestone. The quarrelsome old man and his workshop packed with Dickensian urchins, orphans, and misbegotten whore's sons turn out of the most valuable items in the city, rope. There is no entering or leaving the Gyre without a few hundred feet of good stout rope.
28. The Mad Musician
The Mad Musician plays a large viol (oversized Violin) with a manic fury, and many consider the noisome music he violates their ears with to be either the greatest to ever touch strings with a bow, or so mad as needing to be put down. He plays with shaking fervor, and claims that his music is the only thing that keeps the monsters in the dark at bay.
29. The Deep Knight
The Deep Knight is a haunted man. Despite his arms, armor, and martial prowess, he died in the dungeon. He was also resurrected in the dungeon and to his exquisite and profound horror, he cannot leave the dungeon now. He belongs to it, though it doesnt communicate with him, only keeps him from leaving, and should he follow a band into battle, he invariably leads them to their deaths, and his own. And then he wakes again, rising from a tomb to shudder and weep at the horror he suffers. He was indeed a great knight, and he did actually slay one of the Dungeon's champions, permanently, and the Dungeon took this personally.
30. Senator Nude
Senator (or Lord if we're being proper] Nude is a slightly older woman who is proud and matronly in her posture and demeanor, and attempts to invoke the powers of some of the more daring and open High Lords of the past by slipping off the top of her robes when speaking before the council. She has found more than a few of the Lords have a hard time debating her with her tits out, and the more commonfolk are often shocked into silence.
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? Responses (2)
This is really enjoyable and must have taken a long time to make.
Probably about 3 hours across two days, maybe 4 beers
