Dungeon 23 week 2 - Nowhere Market

Welcome back to the second installment of my Dungeon 23 challenge. Last week, we covered the funnel adventure that serves to trap our doomed adventurers in the Deep. This week, we'll look at the community of Trapped that has sprung up just outside the steps of the False Priory, which can serve as a base of operations for the party as they delve into the dungeon around them and try to find a way home.

Since this megadungeon has an element of being trapped within it, I knew early on that I'd want a "home base" sort of place where the party can retreat to and rest between adventures. In fact, I want a few of these peppered around the dungeon, but this is the first. A community of people, trapped in the dungeon the same way that the party is, surviving on scrap and endless lentils grown by the crime druid. Sure.

However, it isn't Swords & Sorcery if the party isn't attacked by Minions of the Evil Ruler™ on their first entry to a marketplace, so this is also an opportunity to introduce the main "opposition" of this first part of the dungeon - Fune, the King in Basalt (that's Fune pronounced like "Fume", not like "Dune"). At this point, all I know about Fune is that he's a despot, he's found a way to animate the very stones of this place into golems, and whatever he's up to, it involves harassing the party with increasingly tough golem-themed encounters. He lives in the western half of the dungeon (not yet shown), past the Deepcrossing, and will be one of the ways to motivate the party to action.

In fact, a lot of this adventure is about meeting some NPCs and forces that can provide direction to the adventure. I'm a big fan of player-driven adventure, and especially in a megadungeon, I want to avoid the feeling that there's a "correct" path they should be finding, and instead that they should explore what they want when they want to. Nevertheless, I've run enough open-world campaigns to know that a completely blank slate can be paralyzing rather than empowering, leaving the table with no sense of direction and no reason to go see what's over there. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a masterclass in what I'm hoping to achieve here: in it, after you finish the "tutorial" level, the game updates with "New Quest: Defeat Ganon", pointing you at the end goal and saying "go get there however you want". BUT, it also then immediately goes "Also you could go check out this village here if you want, you know, might be a good place to start. Up to you, though." I'm trying to do something similar here.  Instead of saying "You're trapped in this dungeon, what do you do?", I want to say: "You're trapped in this dungeon with no way home. Find a way out. Also, here's a pushy despot that regularly roughs up the nice people who just gave you a home and some lentils. Oh and the local crime boss is looking for new recruits to go find her something. And honestly if you want to just explore around a bit, there's a couple shopkeeps that will pay well for interesting things you find."

On the subject of shopkeeps, I've also got this short list started. I'll likely add to it as the need arises while the rest of the areas get fleshed out, but for now:

Nowhere Market Shops

Djara’s Scrapyard

One of the larger stalls in the Market, Djara’s sells all manner of found objects from throughout the Deep. The proprietrum is a small, scraggly creature with features largely concealed by a baggy, hooded robe. Insofar as the Market has an “adventuring shoppe”, this is it - weapons, climbing gear, lanterns, and more can be found here in various states of disrepair, or can be cobbled together from the offerings. Djara is also likely to pay a commission on anything useful brought back from a delve, and may even request certain forays themselves.

The Endless Lentil

Brathlywynn Droughtspear, an old Dwarf, runs the best bakery in town, which is not saying much for a dungeon dwelling whose only staple is lentils. Still, she has a knack for turning out lentil pies, lentil loaves, and even the rare lentil cake (it’s not great). Brathly is always looking for edible forage from the Deeps, anything to break the monotony of the Endless Lentil.

Potion Store

Mo, the town alchemist, is a young human, intensely quiet, and who strongly prefers the company of his potions to dealing with anyone else in the Market. Nevertheless, he was persuaded by the residents to start selling his wares in a Potion Store after his accumulation of tinctures showed no sign of slowing down (“Why would I call it anything else? If I call it something else, I’ll have to explain to people what it is. Everyone who wants potions will come to the Potion Store, and everyone who doesn’t won’t). Mo mostly ignores shoppers, going through the sales script only when someone is ready to buy something, but will take an immediate shine to anyone who brings him a rare, solvable material.

In all, we've got a little urban encounter set right outside the first adventure, where the party can get in a market brawl, establish a home, and then be approached by a thieves guild-type character and offered some underhanded work. Hopefully, that'll be enough to give the players something to point their swords and and say "we want to check that out."