When I went off to college (many, many years ago), 1st Edition AD&D was still in print, but rumbles of a 2nd edition were heard in the pages of DRAGON Magazine. I remember filling out survey cards and sending them in for what I would like to see in a 2nd edition of the rules. That summer before college I set upon creating a new campaign world to use from that point forward. I originally started with a map of Antarctica as the basis for my campaign map, but quickly rejected the idea. I then decided to build the world from a small-scale map outwards, increasing the size of the campaign world as I needed it. When my two friends (my only players at the time) started playing in the world, named Thuin, I had a wilderness map, a basic idea of a regional map (basically where all the races originated), and only a concept of what I wanted to run as my first adventure. Taking cues from Gygax on creating a mega-dungeon that would be the focus of the campaign, I started drawing the maps during my first semester in college, and keying them into a red spiral notebook. We tentatively started the campaign that semester, playing in dorm rooms, using characters ported from our previous Greyhawk adventures in the town of Fax on the Wild Coast. We had destroyed Greyhawk that previous summer in a catastrophic battle between gods, demons, and devils, and ported all the PCs from our joint campaigns into individual campaigns run by their respective DMs. We all took turns DMing to allow everyone a chance to play. My friend Nick created a world he dubbed Primordia (which would be the focus of the majority of our gaming throughout college), my friend Steve took the Forgotten Realms as his own (which he had started running as 1st edition AD&D and later converted), and finally I had my Thuin campaign.
The backstory to the campaign was very weak. Essentially, the party was lost in the wilderness, having entered the world through a planar gate of temporary duration. They had to survive in a sub-arctic forest environment surrounded by tall mountains. They barely made it to the only sign of civilization they could find, a small town along a wilderness road. They obtained rooms in the Geitmyolk Inn and made it their base of operations. The town they had entered was called Malbork, and it would remain their home throughout the rest of the campaign.
They soon learned of kobolds raiding along the southern road, interfering with the trade between Malbork and Poznan, a larger community to the south. [I had acquired a new World Atlas before heading off to college and made a list of names to use for geographical locations - so if any of these names sound vaguely familiar, it's because they were real names of real places on maps of Europe. I even called the region the Stuttgard Forest. Then again, it was for my own personal use, so who cared, right?] The party (2 players) consisted of a ranger and a druid - perfect for a forest environment! They headed off to take on the kobolds, being 3rd level adventurers by this time (they had started their careers in Greyhawk, remember?). They eventually found a path leading off the main road and followed it to a large mound of earth in a forest clearing. Kobolds were camped outside the entrance of this mound which was a large tree stump and a tunnel dug beneath the roots. They were cooking something (or someone) in a pot. The kobolds were easily slain and the party entered the mound. Within they found that the kobolds were being enslaved by orcs who had come and invaded the mound looking for the "Way Below." In the center of the mound, in a dirt cave further excavated by the orcs, they found a stone block surrounded by statues of a warrior, rogue, wizard, and priest. Behind the rogue statue they discovered a secret door and a stairway leading down. Before they could descend though, they fought off several orcs, more kobolds, some wolves, and an ogre guard! Injured and out of resources, the party fled the scene after marking it on their map. They were chased down by kobolds riding armored boars and forced to fight for their lives before being able to return to the road. They managed to survive, but only barely. They fought their way back to Malbork and spent some time recovering from their wounds and setting up a base. If they would continue, they needed to bolster their ranks.
At this point we located the local gaming club on the other campus. "Realms of Fantasy" was a small group of gamers huddled in a basement room that stank of body odor, pizza scraps, and cigarette smoke. We were not impressed and decided it wasn't for us. We decided to continue playing games in the dorms, and later moved into a classroom in one of the lecture halls. At this time we met others who were also looking for a game - enter Dave, Michael and Bruce. We started them off in Nick's Primordia campaign and found that most of them were a good fit for the adventure. One played a few times then bowed out due to other obligations. Bruce decided he also wanted to try my campaign, so I let him create a character. This was my first mistake in the long line of mistakes I would make with this campaign. We were just learning the new AD&D 2nd edition rules which came out during the first semester of college. We were now in the second half of the year and still learning the ropes of campus life. Around the time of my second run in Thuin I was dealing with the death of a high school friend, a move to another dorm room to escape the lunatics we roomed with during the first semester, and adjusting to a heavier course load. I eventually caved when Bruce showed up with a 1st level drow ranger which he was adamant about playing. With a heavy sigh, I allowed the character into the campaign and started him off with a solo run to escape the underworld and flee to the "safety" of the sunlit world. He apparently had a lot of fun and we continued playing both campaigns after that.
The party was now three players strong and they entered the dungeons below the mound. They were not prepared for what was to come. The dungeon was a test - a trial of ascension created to test the abilities of future emperors of an ancient fallen empire. As such, the Lady of Mysteries, Xaal, instructed her chief prophet (then named the "Dungeon Master," and later the "Riddlemaster") to create the test and maintain it. Thus, the place was literally stocked by the priests of Xaal and these same priests inhabited the dungeon to maintain the traps, tricks, and monster populations. When the empire fell, this out of the way location was forgotten, but the priests continued to maintain the dungeon. After several years they became self-sufficient and the entrance was later buried during a season of heavy snows and mudslides. Cut off from the surface, the dungeon continued to grow and expand, using natural caves and other features to blend into the the dungeon. The kobolds, goblins, and hobgoblins gathered to inhabit the spaces of the upper dungeons began to war with each other over resources. The dead were raised as undead and placed in certain areas of the dungeon as further tests. The priests held sway over the northern section of the first level and had access to all the levels of the dungeon through a secret elevator room guarded by a sentient door that only obeyed the priests of Xaal. It was an interesting concept of dungeon ecology, borrowed from parts of WGR1 Greyhawk Ruins. On the second level, the threats increased, but since the creation of the dungeon, those living in the dungeon had gone mad or had become paranoid. The place was, therefore, considered to be most dangerous since one had no idea how the inhabitants would react. There was a cabal of illusionists on the 2nd level who were charged with maintaining many of the magical tricks and spells of trickery used in the test. Most had turned evil over the years, and their descendants continued the traditions of their art. Naturally, inbreeding and madness led to a very unstable group of individuals (but fun to role-play). The dungeon was invaded from below by monsters, other humanoids, and eventually dark elves. The kobolds, being the weakest, mined their own tunnels into the rock surrounding the dungeon's first level, making bolt holes and escape tunnels to flee from the larger creatures. These tiny accessways eventually permeated the entire level and the kobolds created a life of stealing and hiding, eventually burrowing their way to the surface and freedom. But the surface was a harsh environment, filled with large monsters, wild animals and cold winters, so the kobolds continued to keep their lair in the dungeon. These crafty creatures eventually split into two tribes - a dungeon tribe and a surface tribe - and because of differences in their lifestyle, the burrowed tunnel was sealed and forgotten. So the kobolds in the mound forgot about their brethren below until the coming of the orcs. An ancient green dragon had taken the nearby forested hills as it's territory and destroyed the nearby orc lairs when the orcs refused to pay tribute to the dragon. With their chieftain slain, the surviving orcs fled with their witchdoctor into the forest to the south. Led by visions of the dungeon (implanted by Xaal), the orcs invaded the kobold mound and unearthed the ancient entrance to the dungeon. Leaving some of their tribesmen on the surface to keep the kobolds in line and guard their rear, the orcs descended into the dungeon. However, the magical tricks and traps were still being maintained by the surviving clerics of Xaal, and when the last orc stepped off the stairs, the entire stairway slowly descended into the ground to become a blind corridor and the stone secret door above closed and latched (it was a one-way secret door entrance).
The concept of the dungeon was as a trial, a test of worthiness. One would have to survive the experience, testing the initiates' intelligence, wisdom, bravery, leadership, strength, endurance, and agility. Only those who could solve the riddle of the Dungeon Master were deemed worthy to rule the ancient empire. So, the dungeon itself was a trap, meant to lure monsters and heroes inside. In order to escape, you had to "solve" the dungeon. Unfortunately, in the modern age, there was no empire anymore and the entrance had been lost for so very long that it was mostly forgotten. When the orcs stirred up the kobolds, those kobolds that fled into the forest became troublesome to others who eventually came to explore. Many others made it into the dungeon only to find themselves trapped there. So it was with the orcs who were only looking for a new place to call a home. These orc invaders would become a theme for the dungeon, allowing me to show how dynamic the dungeon was. With the priests of Xaal trying to get everything balanced again, they would allow heroes to enter the dungeon to eliminate some of the invaders and get things "back to normal." Xaal needed new monsters to freshen the populations, and this in turn brought new heroes to explore the dungeon.
What the players didn't know was that Xaal had plans for them as well. Her prophet, the Dungeon Master (later the Riddlemaster), was the original prophet of the empire of Parthavia. He was present at the coronation of the last emperor, but was mortally wounded before the ceremony could be completed (this act was what caused the downfall of the empire). His injured form was placed in stasis and hidden in the depths of one of the trial dungeons he had overseen along with one of the Artifacts of Ascencion (a crown, rod, and orb of might) devoted to Neutrality. This was the new goal of the dungeon - for Xaal wanted to see the humans united in one mighty empire once more. So Xaal charged the priests to guard the form of the Dungeon Master in his eternal slumber until someone came along to solve the dungeon and prove worthy of leading men. The new circumstances of the dungeon made it impossible for any true heir of the throne to be found, but all humans were considered to be sons and daughters of the empire, regardless of how different they had become since the fall of that ancient civilization. Even half-elves or half-orcs could be considered. Since my group had a human and a half-elf, I figured it would be cool for them to find an artifact, then use clues to locate the other two artifacts, and try and start their own empire in the north.
But first they had to survive the Trial of the Riddlemaster! So here's the complete map of the first dungeon level (it's already been explored by the original party to the extent that it could be, and I'll probably never get to use it again):
The northern portions of the level (areas 20-35) were held by the priests of Xaal (originally called clerics of the Dungeon Master) who would help monsters and characters alike, were True Neutral in alignment, and kept the dungeon in balance as best they could. The numerous statues were placed by the clerics as a warning of what would lie ahead, and also as a grim memorial to those who died here. There were basilisks living in the caves below and the statues were their unfortunate victims who made it past the first two levels of the dungeon and would be honored here eternally! The entrance area near the central stairs and the rooms to the east were inhabited by orcs left behind to guard the entrance. Goblins lived in the rooms to the northeast while primitive hobgoblins (norkers) lived in the southeast. The kobold lair (filled with centuries of accumulated junk from the other areas) was in area 83 and the various tunnels surrounding and permeating the dungeon level. The stairs to the second level were in the southwest and the only way to get them open was by locating a key in the red prism room of the north that opened the chamber of the Fire Key in area 64. That Fire Key was used to enter the second level secret door from area 63.
The first level had a lot of hidden surprises as well. There was a fat ogre with his twin half-ogre sons, a few survivors of a recent adventuring party that entered here a few weeks ago, and a pool guarded by a water weird that held a fortune in gemstones. The pool chamber in the northeast granted visions to those who drank of the waters, giving hints of what to expect in the coming dungeon levels. I tried to make the level as dynamic as possible, showing that this place was its own ecosystem that existed with or without the players. Over the years of adventuring within, the Balance Stones (which powered many of the magical tricks and traps on this level) were stolen, thus rendering the stairs inert and preventing many of the clues from being accessed (it even turned off the elevator room accessway for the priests!). Drow had surfaced from a lower level seeking a new route to the surface, thus becoming the latest dungeon invaders.
Feel free to use this map in whatever games you play (as long as it isn't published). The map is of my own design and belongs only to me. But if you're looking for an interesting and unique map for a week's amusement, feel free to use this one. I realize I may never again run my campaign, so someone should be able to get some use out of this map!
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