Dungeon 24: Underground canal

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes (7 with room descriptions)

There hasn’t been an update for some while now, as life and work got in the way during summer. My Dungeon 24 is still alive though and I will post new parts of it when possible. We’re about six months beind the schedule, which should be fine as long as I change the pace to three rooms per day instead of one.

Last time we explored an abandoned temple of some forgotten pastoral cult. There was a breach in one of the alcoves with the sarcophagi of the priests opening into a natural cavern of some sort leading north. The other end of the cavern opens into a room in a style different than the small temple complex left behind, more similar to the upper level. Potentially deadly surprises await in both the natural cave and this maintenance cabinet of sorts.

Behind the cabinet a spacious corridor opens, consisting for the most part of a water canal. The place seems to be some sort of access hub, with a ladder leading both up (II/59) and down, stairs for canal access, several doors and corridors. There is a bridge spanning the waterway that seems to be fortified by makeshift barricades. The canal itself continues a long way in both directions, with the current slowly moving westwards.

South of the bridge there is a door opening into a short corridor with three more doors. There is an elevator lobby with a gaping pit where the elevator should land (the elevator being stuck one level above), infested by slugs from below. A strange room with a pool of disgusting water and similarly disgusting tubs and vats is behind the door across from the elevator room. Draining the pool into the canal reveals the remains of several spiky creatures, apparently long dead.

The last room on this side of the canal is locked. Opening the door requires the key or significant skill with mechanical locks. Behind the door is a relatively well equipped laboratory with plenty of alchemical apparatus, glassware and ceramics. Specimens spread the tables hint at a naturalist inclination of the occupant of this room.

Rooms

7. Narrow natural cavern with high ceiling, both ends dug through by clawed limbs, heaps of rubble line the walls
   • E: One of the rubble heaps is a lurking rock slime, might attack loners or stragglers
8. Small maintenance room, in SW corner a hole leading to natural cavern III/7
   • decrepit furniture – round table with 2 chairs in SE corner, several shelves and supply crates
   • E: one of the crates hides a sleeping juvenile otyugh – it is not immediately hostile but will defend itself when disturbed, running away through broken door to the north if things get ugly
   • T: 10-foot pole with a hook on one end in one corner; acid-resistant cloak under the otyugh
9. Access and maintenance section of the underground canal
   • ladder leading up (II/59) & down
   • pump for the fountain above (II/58)
   • stairs leading into the canal
   • the canal is around 20 ft. deep, water is about quarter depth (5 ft.) and murky, odd stones, pieces of construction wood and other refuse stick out here and there from the slow but steady westward stream
10. Bridge over the canal with barricades placed on both landings, alternate sides
    • T: Behind the barricade on the N side a half-full oil lantern can be found
11. Elevator room
    • control panel is broken, the elevator itself is stuck one level above, blocking the shaft upward
    • the shaft downwards leads one level down after 30 ft.
    • counter in NE corner, behind a shelf with remains of stamps and ink bottles
    • the whole room is slimed over
    • E: at any time 1d4 large and 1d10 small slugs are crawling all over the room, entering from below, not hostile
    • T: 2 usable intact stamps and a full ink bottle on the shelf
12. Large room with a pool and several vats and tubs of varying sizes
    • pool connected to the canal by a pipe, there is a lock mechanism operated by a wheel – needs a bit of oil but operable
    • the pool is 10 ft. deep, half-filled with stinking soupy water, clumps of mold floating on the surface
    • when the lock is opened the pool is drained into the canal and the remains of 6 cave urchins appear, all dead for some time
    • the tubs and vats contain mostly disgusting fluids of greenish or yellowish tint, only one contains a skeleton of a small humanoid covered in strange bite or claw marks all over the bones
13. Locked (DC 35) laboratory, mostly intact and possibly still in use, with oil lamps ready to be lighted around the room
    • counters around most of the room, 3 large tables in the center
    • on one table a dissected slug, one other occupied by a large tentacle
    • floor grill in the middle of the room leads down one level to the sump

This is it for the southern side of the canal. Next update will look behind some of the doors that can be seen across the waterway. I’m keeping the descriptions quite vague for now, but there should be a picture slowly coming together. After all this is done, I will compile everything together with more explanations and a lot detailed descriptions.

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