08 October 2022

d8 Moving Dungeons (GLoGtober 1)

Taking a prompt from the list on GLoGtober '22: Under New Management we discuss "Moving Dungeons"

1. The dungeon worm; is actually a type of extra-planar fungus, the tunnels are the root structure that open and close as it progresses, moving through terrain at a slow walk. The body is lodged in the ethereal and it constantly drifts on some unseeable tides. Dwellers, treasures and traps are mostly organic, the ecosystem that travels with the dungeon worm and scavenges off the things it encounters - lots of slimes, oozes and similar

2. The pelt of the god-beast - dungeon is entirely between the skin and matted pelt of an enormous shambling monster. Beast is alive, typically non-hostile, but the very large bugs that lair in its filthy fur are dangerous. The only treasures to be had here are harvesting parts of the god-beast or its parasites

3. The drifting dungeon - a floating mass upon the ocean, an unmoored island, moving with the currents. Should be considered from the view of the merfolk and other aquatics who dwell beneath - the underside is settled, the deepest levels are the most benign and well trafficed, getting more dangerous and unused as you progress up until you get to the protruding upper level where the deadliest danger dwells

4. The frost jarls funeral barge - the partially burned pyre of a frost giant jarl, the flames extinguished by storm before they consumed either him or the ship. The pyre-ship was large and ostentasious even for a giant, the snuffing of the funeral flame viewed as a curse on his hubris. Now it is a haunted ship, the cabins packed with treasures and the unquiet shades of slaves killed to accompany the jarl to ysgard. From a small-folks point of view the rooms and passages of this place thread between leaning treasures, all of it precious but unstable.

5. The great brass jörmungandr - a rogue dwarven boring engine, intended to mine more, deeper, faster. Something went wrong in the propulsion system, something the obsessive chief engineer would not discuss and now the crew is dead or mutated beyond recognition, the internals warped and twisted. The boring engine has ground its way out of the mountain and grinds its way across the countryside. The filled hoppers of its ore processing sections are filled with precious metals but mutants, rogue constructs and mechanical hazards threaten any who venture within but

6. The moon lords palace - a great fey palace made of shadows cast by the light of the moon through an intricate set of carved windows. The windows stand on a precipice, the palace appearing only on certain times of the year, elements appearing and dissappearing as the moon traverses the sky. The treasures are legendary but the building dissolves behind you as the moon moves, and woe betide those curse with a cloudly night that blocks the moon beams and sends intruders plummeting. Time is your foe.

7. The tumbling hive - a giagantic tree, bored through with beetle tunnels, has been occupied by goblins who are using it as a base to raid settlements around a great lake. The internals are chaos as the tree slowly rotates, submerging and exposing different part of the tunnels and all the residents are in constant motion, dragging belongings around and looking for places to sleep. The raiding has been good but the goblins are getting more sleep deprived and disturbed as their home continues to roll.

8. The room swarm - a mad wizards experiment with molluscs has created this set of dungeon rooms borne by large snails that migrate around, keeping close to one another. Getting from room to room can be as easy as stepping through matched up doorways or require hazardous leaps from the back of one snail-like room bearer to another. Falling between these things is a dreadful time. In all other manner the contents and layout are typical 'beneath the barons castle' chic except that the rooms shuffle themselves around constantly and their layout is random.

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