The Entrance to the Omega Bunker

The little town of Rad, and The Entrance to The Omega Bunker

 Rad is a village of 100-200 people, mostly nuclear families. It earned its name after many generations of farming the local radish-like root crop that was originally bred to remove radiation from contaminated soil. The root also happens to concentrate and store chaotic magic in its cellular structure, although the unimaginative farmers of Rad don’t know it. Some of the other more enterprising and weird inhabitants do, though. Born “Radishers” (for thus they call themselves) often have low-level mental mutations and magic-using abilities. A few are detailed below.  (ed's note: Sorry - lost track of this part but maybe later)

 Rad is situated on the rim of a vast hole in the ground, some 50 meters wide and many hundreds of meters deep. The soil and earthy crust of the area covers the edges of the hole, upon which all manner of strange flora and fauna teem and reproduce. Five meters below the rim, the earthen crust gives way to solid hyper-iridium walls covered with greebles and conduits and wires and sensors. Below that, a grated, meter-wide gantry clings to the circumference of the pit and spirals down at a steep angle. About halfway down the length of the pit, the gantry stops at a very solid-looking access hatch, complete with a formidable hatch-operating wheel. It is rusted, but with some lubricant, it will give way and provide access to the dungeon level within, but not before the party is accosted by 1d12 Stirges. All of the walls within are 8’ high, and except where noted, are made of slick molded aluminum. Imagine a dreary windowless office building, but more durable. If needed, bathrooms exist and might be a secure site for a long or short rest. Amazingly, electricity is available as is running water. Damage to the facility and infrastructure may negatively impact this.

 No one in Rad knows much about the facility below. Every so often a visitor to the town will take an interest and disappear within it but the villagers have developed a distinct lack of interest in the hole and its contents. They might be hired as guides and hirelings, but residents would probably not represent capable fighters – limited to torchbearers and porters. Capable men-at-arms would come from outside the immediate area

Please note, I have not provided a map for this area, only dungeon entries, which were mostly generated randomly and then I brushed them up with my brain and tried to tie them together semi-coherently

1. An abandoned storage area, containing shelves of various unusable junk – printer parts, obsolete tablet computers with cracked screens, empty ball point pens, coffee-stained neckties etc. There is also an Insane Cyberbrain that exists on minimal power tucked behind the other gizmos. It needs a Vocoder unit to speak and some sensors to receive input in order for it to be interacted with. These may be scavenged from other robots, or the whole thing might be installed in a robot chassis provided one is available. Determine its personality at random, but it’s been left to itself for a long time. It won’t remember its name or anything about the dungeon but it will provide moral support and encouragement and may make a fun PC or NPC if supplied with a body.
2. The party will encounter a Ghoul named Larry – the local janitor - here. He is practically immortal and hungry for flesh, but will respond well to rations or slightly less enthusiastically if offered other foods. He will try to make friends and lure the party to nearby traps. He is at odds with the Wererats in room 12.
3. This room is devoid of interesting features.
4. This average-sized room includes a steamy Rejuventation Pool - drinking or bathing in it will Increase Gravity in the room, causing all occupants' physical saves, skill checks, and initiative to be at disadvantage since everyone counts as encumbered. Entering the pool will remove one level of Exhaustion.
5. The room has a laser tripwire-activated shocking effect on the steel grate flooring, forcing a DC 15 Dexterity save or 1d6 electrical damage to the whole party. It may be avoided by stepping over the lasers which are at human knee-height. They are not readily detectible unless the lights are out in the room.
6. There is a Giant Shocker Lizard and a switch relay in this room. The panel of switches controls the security door in the north wall. The switches must be activated by switching them all in the up position, which will signal a bell, and then switching them all to the down position which will open the door. Any other combination will activate the shocking floor mechanism which damages all occupants (not the lizard!) for 1d6 electrical.
7. This room is devoid of interesting features.
8. Graffiti here says Remember: 3 Up Then 3 Down in fluorescent green spray paint. (see room 6 above).
9. There is a maggot-ridden body of a Cleric, holding a small bunch of wolfsbane. Its studded leather armor is intact. It has been gnawed on by Larry the Ghoul in room 2, but he didn’t finish because the body is slowly becoming green slime.
10. The room has 6 patches of green slime. One patch will hold a functional laser pistol that can be salvaged and cleaned.
11. This room is devoid of interesting features.
12. There is a group of 3 Wererats, engaged in a complex religious ritual. They serve Orcus and are praying to him for guidance. They will feign friendship and turn on the party when the party has taken significant damage or losses.
13. This room is devoid of interesting features.
14. The room has clumps of edible purple mold.
15. There are two “thrones” (fancy executive chairs) here - disturbing them in any way activates a Clay Golem. It is actually composed of plasticine modeling clay.
16. The party can encounter a sentient Worg, here.
17. There is a Infectious Constrictor Snake draped sleeping around a stylized iron maiden. Inside, clutched by a dusty skeleton , there is a Scroll of Ward against Lycanthropes.
18. This room is devoid of interesting features.
19. Mostly empty and clean, this room smells of rotten flesh.
20. This is a food-supply store room, with d6 edible rations and d10 aluminum cans of potable water. There are also some glossy magazines of various topics (e.g. “Skimmers Today” and “Protein Enthusiasts’ Digest”)
21. The room is coated with thick spider webs on all surfaces. Small spiders within may vocally object to the destruction of the webs, but they are only creepy nuisances. It will take 1d6 turns to remove the webs physically, or they may be lit on fire. When the webs are cleared away the skeletal body of a robed magic-user clutching a book will be discovered. The book contains 1d3 1^st level and 1 2^nd level Wizard spells. If the book has sustained fire damage, it will only hold “Nystul’s Magic Aura”.
22. This room has a Bottled City on a pedestal. The bottle is guarded by 2 Vampire Spawns. Touching or gazing into the bottle necessitates a DC 15 Wisdom save, or the entire party will be transported to a small, gloomy, vampire-plagued village for what seems like a day, but will only be 2 turns in reality.
23. A Thoqqua here wears a heat-proof iridium pendant, worth 700 gold coins. The creature’s melted slag burrow will lead down to a random room on the next dungeon level.
24. This large gallery is actually a Hallway of Gates – there are 1d10 active portals to other adventures or dungeon levels intermixed with the 20 doors. Non-active gate-doors open into very brightly lit closets.
25. This room is bare.
26. There are 25 hyper-iridium ingots here, stored in 5 military-style aluminum gear crates. They are all trapped with poisoned needles in the handles – if they are examined first, then the needle mechanism will be evident, and they can be disarmed easily by removing the needles. Not checking first will cause the first person (and any other careless handlers) to be pricked and take the Poisoned condition.
27. The fluorescent tube lights in this warehouse-sized room flicker on and off above a long stretch of office cubicles, complete with desks, paperclips, office supplies, and condescending motivational posters. There is also a mostly-empty Candwich vending machine. It contains 3 common Candwiches (PBJ/BBQ Pulled Pork equal chance) and 1 expired rare Candwich (make something cool up). Smashing the machine open will provide 1d6 gold coins. Each Candwich costs 2 gold pieces if bought the usual way.
28. This average-sized manager’s office includes a stately and obscenely carved wooden “desk” which is really an Altar To Orcus. Donating money to the donation plate on top causes the dot-matrix printer in the altar’s base to print out a detailed paper map of this dungeon level.
29. This room has a Matter Transmittal Pad that moves a user to the last place they long-rested that wasn’t in the dungeon. It’s a one-way trip.
30. There are 950 GP here, stored in a sealed aluminum sarcophagus. The treasure is trapped with contact poison on the coins. The lid of the sarcophagus is off, and skeletal bodies of adventurers are littered around it, holding handfuls of coins. Wine, floor polish, detergent, or some other weak solvent will remove the contact poison, but water won’t.

 

Random Encounters:

1. Mi-Go Assistant Manager Squad (1d4+2) These will harangue PCs about timeliness, efficiency, billable hours, etc. If the PCs do not wear ties or show other signs of employment, the Mi-Go will shoot them with an HR-Indoctrination Ray. Make a Wisdom Save DC 15 - failure indicates that the PC adds "Office Worker" (1-3 on a d6) or "Facilities Maintenance" (4-6 on the d6) to their background, and also adds a Temporary Insanity Condition to follow facility rules and procedures and request time off in the appropriate manner, etc. etc.

2. Morlock Office Workers (1d4) These are standing around gossiping at the nearest source of drinkable water (healthy or otherwise). If the PCs show signs of employment, they will welcome 'new hires' and commit acts of hazing on them "Deliver this McGuffin to Sector 4, new guy!"

3. Facilities Maintenance Skeletons (1d3) Obviously engaged in simple repairs and upkeep, these mindlessly attack with oversized wrenches, mops, plungers if they are prevented from accomplishing their current task. Often use chunky floor buffers, leaky pressure washers, and low-intensity flame throwers as appropriate.  

4. Section Manager Zombies (1d3) Clipboards in hand, they toddle mindlessly through hallways and seem enraged that no-one is where they ought to be. Only the taste of fresh brains will ease their emotional pains

5. Paperwork Dragon (1 only, reroll if defeated) This beast wanders the halls of the complex, accumulating forms, documents, records, and the occasional spell scroll to add to its mass. Counts as a Young Black Dragon - the breath weapon is a high-velocity gout of stinging ink and shredded paper that is both caustic and sticky. Particularly vulnerable to fire, it will flee from open flames and fire-like spell effects, but will stalk the party at a distance hoping to outlast their fiery resources. If the party flees, the next random encounter will also be this monster and it will automatically have surprise.

6. A lone Mongrelman Office Clerk and their cart of documents - clearly in a hurry and also evidently as mystified by the layout of the dungeon as the party is, this Mongrelperson is a temp and thus not protected by company policies from harassment by its tenured coworkers. It will give up documents (possibly a spell scroll, Ancient Stone Tablet, or low-level spellbook) if the PC identifies itself as the rightful recipient. The Mongrelperson has no inclination to check PC identities in this matter, and indeed corporate policy does not require it to do so. Will hilariously agree to be taken on as a henchman/hireling but aside from its innate ability to mimic voices this NPC is fairly useless. He/she/it can be encountered more than once 

 

 

Happy Farming Upgrade Dungeon

I've been playing Stardew Valley on my kid's Switch for the past few weeks. Let's be clear: I'm not new to SV - in fact I think I got into it when it was pretty new, but I gave it up after I put Stardew Extended on my computer and modded it up so my kid could play with anime portraits. I had beat it once before straight (i.e. no mods) and then after that I modded it up in order to see all the interesting cut scenes and secrets and such.

On the Switch, you can't mod so everything's got to be on the up-and-up. Every larger inventory bag, every house upgrade, every skill increase and heart event has to be earned. I'm used to playing this way from the C64 and many DOS games from back in the day, but earning my way through all the possible upgrades in Stardew Valley - even many of the 'late game" features made me do a lot of thinking and planning and strategizing and in some cases referring to the wikis out there!

I dreamt up an upgrade-path campaign! Start with the DnD5e Basic rules - the freebie document one. Everybody can choose to be a human or a halfling or maybe an animal person or a clockwork person/robot to start with. Go on an adventure in the dungeon and bring back some loot. THEN you can apply the GP to the village/setting, and for that you get bountiful XPs! If you're more into trad stuff (LAME!) then you can also get XP for dealing death to monsters etc. but you get a multiplier for XP spent on the village and villagers.

Want to play a druid? Upgrade the Old Witch's Hut - 200 GP (for which you receive 300 XP)

Want to play a cleric of some other domain besides Life/Healing? Pay for a little shrine, which can be upgraded to a chapel, to a temple, to a cathedral, etc...

Seems to me that it ought to have caps on level so as to encourage the development of variety and investments/purchases for the village/town/etc.. Maybe cap it at level 5 to start with, and those PCs go on to be managed and not necessarily USED at game time to explore dungeons. This'd give folks stuff to do with their PCs during downtime. This kinda meshes well with my old (unused) idea of a stable of tradeable characters usable by the whole group of players.

So your cute little piggy people are totally motivated to get into the dungeon and bring back gold coins, so that they can buy the parts to repair the water pump and improve the wells of the town, but also now they got elected pro-tempore mayor! OH NO!

Anyways, more later. I just found the games "Iron Valley" and "Cozy Village" on itch

People tell me that "The Nightmares Beneath" and "Errant" have good systems for managing this sort of thing but I havent followed up yet

Peace be upon you!