The Dragon of Dungeon
Here’s the D&D setting that I came up with while waiting to fall asleep the other night.
The first thing you need to know about it is that there are no monsters in this world, but all the other D&D “pieces” (wizards, fighters, elves, +1 swords, etc.) are in place.
The city-state of Dungeon is a metropolis built upon a mostly-subterranean fortress created during darker times when people needed protection from the outside world. Those times are now past, and the people are able to live freely upon the surface again. However, in those dangerous times, power was consolidated and centralized within the subterranean bastion–it is still the primary storehouse of goods and treasure, and the location of the prison, the garrison of the region’s large military forces, and the palace of the ruler.
Thus, the city was named for the fortress, and is simply called Dungeon.
The ruler of Dungeon, even when it was only a fortress, has always taken the title the Dragon. The Dragon is both military commander and absolute ruler of the city. The Dragon always has two lieutenants, always female (the Dragon’s gender varies, but thanks to various potions and magic, dragons are so long-lived that there have only been a few), and always spellcasters.
The first of these lieutenants, the Medusa, commands the Dragon’s elite peacekeeping force, the Basilisks. She and her troops are always concealed in hideous and terrifying masks. In times when the city itself is under attack, the Basilisks call upon the help of another elite unit, the Manticores, who wield a variety of unique (and devastating) ranged weapons.
The Dragon’s other lieutenant takes the title the Lamia, and she commands the Dragon’s secret police and spies, called the Stalkers. They have a reputation of being so good at what they do that most people believe them to be invisible. The people of Dungeon fear being taken in the night by the Stalkers and thrown into a secret location, known in whispers as the Mind Flayer, for interrogation at the hands of the Beholder (from which, no one returns). The Beholder sees all.
Both lieutenants have equal authority over the rowdy rabble that the makes up most of the Dragon’s military which he uses to hold sway over the surrounding lands. These non-elite troops are simply called the Other Ranks. The slang term “ork” is often used derogatorily, but the orks have claimed it as their own.
The people of Dungeon are kept safe by this large military, but supporting it has been onerous. Although the city has its upper class, most of the citizens are poor and toil throughout their lives just to survive. The poorest of the poor, who are without actual jobs, are referred to as the carrion crawlers for obvious and horrific reasons. Others not quite so downtrodden have to face the threat and danger of the city’s three prominent thieves’ guilds, who call themselves the Goblins, the Kobolds, and the Bugbears. The fact that the guilds can exist at all in a place with such powerful peacekeepers suggests to some that they are in fact paying off the authorities, perhaps giving money even to the Dragon himself.
In the city, retired soldiers who are now old men (and thus few in number, because life is dangerous in and around Dungeon) gather together to whisper secrets. Although dismissed as “owlbears” by most, these men are actually wise and have seen much. A few say that a savior with the power to overthrow the Dragon lies imprisoned in the prison below Dungeon, particuarly watched over by the Medusa. This mysterious figure–if she is even real–is referred to as Catoblepas. It is said to even look upon her is punishable by death.
In such a setting, do the PCs fight against the Dragon, and attempt to undermine his rule? Do they attempt to plunder the subterranean portion of the dungeon? Or do they work for the system, hoping to attain their own unique ranks amid the hierarchy–it is said that titles such as Wyvern, Golem, Efreet, and others have been used in the past.
Anything’s possible in Dungeon.
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Nice! Could be a fun alternate setting for a lot of games…maybe even a few sessions of our group’s Numenera playtest. Thanks for the inspiration.
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Hmmm… I’m thinking this would make a good background/campaign setting for GAMMA WORLD.
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With just a tweak here and there I could see this making its way into a session or two of Numenera.
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Once again, with just one page, Monte Cook shows why he is smarter than me. Rubbing the serial number off this right now and hiding with my jewels.
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This sounds really cool and a nice twist on the standard idea of monsters. I could see doing a whole campaign like this.
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An interesting setting. I don’t know if I’d run it with D&D though; I’ve found intrigue-based campaigns tricky to run with D&D. Check out BareBones Fantasy; that’s what I’d use for this.
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Hmm.. the fact that some others also saw a potential Numenéra setting here is proof of Numenéra’s rich potential (and our desire to fit everything we can just for the sake of imagination…).
I loved this setting and I think I know what my players would do… partner with one of the Thieves’ Guilds and see what they can work out from there…
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BRILLIANT. This is bookmarked and will be my next Pathfinder setting.
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Don’t you just love inspiration? I have had somewhat similar settings used as pocket dimensions. Those of you who remember Q1 know what I mean. It is exciting and refreshing to have a location with a slightly different feel, different rules, different philosophy to let your players enter and explore anew. Fun description Mr.Cook. Thanks
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Thank you Monte. Copy pasted for further editing. I (also) can easily see how PC’s could stumble upon “Dungeon” in a particularly hostile region of the 9th World where the surface is anything but safe.
Cheers.
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That was a long wait to get to sleep! Interesting scenario – reminds me a bit of City of Ember. I would want to develop a few additional details. First, why does the Dragon keep the “savior” imprisoned rather than simply killing the “savior”. An alternative might be the Dragon is unaware of this “savior” but the Owlbears are. Perhaps the Owlbears were prescient enough to orchestrate a device or mechanism in case the Dragon became a problem. Second, what is the process of Dragon succession? Is it hereditary? Does the Lamia and Medusa duke it out? Perhaps the citizens or the Owlbears elect the next Dragon? This would be important detail since even if the current Dragon could be defeated we would want to know whether there would be a new Dragon thereafter and if so would we just be exchanging one problem for another? The question of Dragon succession might influence the “savior’s” details and the final solution. Good stuff!
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_Do_ (not “Does”) the Lamia and Medusa duke it out?
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pretty cool monte
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That’s great Monte!
I haven’t run a game in years (although having just recently discovered Numenera, I’m thinking really hard about getting back in), but I still come up with game concepts every so often. One I had recently I really liked, but since I’m not sure if time will permit me to run it I’ll post it here and maybe someone can get some inspiration out of it and have fun with it.
The idea was basically a take on a region or an area transported in time to another time period, similar to works like Farnham’s Freehold if you’ve ever read it, or a Land of the Lost kind of adventure. It would have the PCs in a good sized town or small city; my thought was around 900-1000 inhabitants in the city plus maybe 40-50 small farmholds around town and maybe a small village or two. The city is home to a powerful wizards that hires the PCs to raid a nearby dungeon, to start the game off with a bit of adventure. Their aim is to acquire a specific artifact the wizard is looking for. After successfully completing the run in the first adventure and enjoying their pay at the local tavern, everyone in the city is shocked and knocked unconcious. When they awake, the air feels different, a bit hotter and stuffier, etc. Upon researching they find that the artifact was the final component in a spell that the wizard was attempting to cast, to send him back in time, but he made a mistake with the spell, and it instead sent out a shockwave that transported the entire city and the entire region millions of years into the past.
From there you can go numerous directions. I wanted the PCs to be decently powerful, approximately the equivalent of Level 5-7 in D&D terms, so the city would look to them for guidance and a source of strength. They can then decide what they want to do. Maybe the technology of the time is not as good, so there is no real metalworking in the area. They PCs may need to help organizing some way of gathering resources so they can stay equipped with quality weapons and armor. Maybe the outliying villages and farms, not protected by the walls of the city, are now subject to attacks from indiginous dinosaurs. Maybe they encounter a Lizardman empire, and the local mayor of the city is not up to the challenge, requiring the PCs to organize the city’s defenses to ensure everyone’s survival. Maybe they Wizard died in the screw up of his spell, adn they go off in search of things that the Wizard left clues behind to help them find a way home. Those were all the ways I thought you could go with an adventure like this.
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I just wanted to say that I love the idea outlined here and would love to see some more of it fleshed out (that would be a mod I would buy).
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