Ancient Dungeons

The Megadungeon of Koskatep, created by me using a lot of canon and fan material and ideas, was published in THRESHOLD Magazine from issue #1 to #15. It is an extensive ruins of 13 levels dug inside a hill in the northwestern wild territory of Karameikos, on the upper course of the Achelos river^¹. Basically I worked on Koskatep for the first four years of THRESHOLD Magazine, and now it’s more than six years since I’ve finished it. So in this issue dedicated to Dungeons!, prompted by Allan’s suggestion, it makes sense to return a bit to Koskatep. However, as I think Koskatep is complete as it is, in this article I’ll rather use its levels as blueprints and inspiration for other dungeons of the world of Mystara. The main characteristic of Koskatep in fact is that it is a bit like the real world ruins of Troy, i.e. a series of levels which correspond to different centuries of occupation, and different people who inhabited the ancient temple city. So in this article I’ll start from the bottom of Koskatep to illustrate how its levels could be used to populate other ruins of the same eras.

Ruins of Ancient Times (5,000+ years old)

The deepest level of Koskatep, Ixashira, the Dream of Fire, is an ancient temple of Ixion that predates time itself, inhabited by sollux, hutaakans and other different people who were able to reach it over the centuries, to guard an incredibly old and powerful secret of the sun-god church. As inspiration I basically used the biblical garden of Paradise and for the map the temple of Karnak in Egypt, as the place was supposed to be a pre-Azcan temple later modified by Azcans and Nithians. Dungeons so old yet not discovered or only partially explored should be protected by ancient magic and located in very remote areas. Probably some strong magical protection should also be present to explain why the place has not yet been discovered after some millenia. PCs should probably know nothing of these times apart from vague legends, so any discovery of such ancient civilizations should come as a big surprise for them. Government and local powers would have strong reasons to try to get hold of any ancient treasure or magic found.

From the Vaults and other inspirations

The History section^² in the Vaults of Pandius has several articles dealing with those prehistoric times of Mystaran history before the canon era, mostly outlined in the Gazetteers and in the Hollow World boxed set. I wrote several myself, such as 99,9999985% Mystara history and several articles for THRESHOLD Magazine, notably in issues #5, 11,12, 17 and 20, dealing respectively with the ancient histories of Davania, Thyatis and Alphatia, the Known World, Western Brun, and Skothar^³. The ruins of ancient times could well be inhabited by all kinds of equally ancient creatures, now lost and maybe forgotten on the surface of Mystara. The glaurants, which appear in GAZ8: “The Five Shires”, could be a good example of such creatures. THRESHOLD Magazine issue #14, which was dedicated to the Shadowdeep, the underworld of Mystara, contains several other examples of ancient creatures which could populate remote dungeons and temples. Lhommar and Y’hog^⁴ by Geoff Gander are the most famous ancient civilizations of prehistoric times created by a fan, but in canon Mystaran products other races are implied to have had civilizations predating the known history, such as fairies, giants, dragons, beastmen and brutemen, chameleon men, tortles, lupins, rakasta, and more. Sci-fi and fantasy fiction have infinite examples of Lost Worlds, ancient forgotten races, and similar tropes^⁵.

Maps

Any very old real world ruin could fit with this timeline, for example the sites of ancient Egypt, Turkey, Middle East in general, and megalithic structures of Europe.

Blackmoorian Ruins (BC 4,000–3,000)

Koskatep level 12 in THRESHOLD Magazine issue #14 is dedicated to Koskatepetl, The Wasted City. It was the Azcan city destroyed by its own priests when the Azcan Emperor of the time tried to get hold of the forbidden Dream of Fire, the secret of Ixion described in level 13. The whole of level 12 is contaminated by the Wasting, or Radiance poisoning, a side effect of the failure of Blackmoorian technomagic devices which were common before the Great Rain of Fire. The above level 11, Kalasah the Black Heart, is instead inhabited by beastmen hidden here by Hel, trying to get access to level 13. Both levels have inhabitants and objects dating back to Blackmoorian times. This means technomagic devices and strange machines, living statues and all kinds of dinosaurs or ancient mammals could be present in ruins of this time. I used the real world site of Teotihuacan as the basis for the ruins of Koskatepetl and real world caves for the beastmen level. The existence of Blackmoor could, in modern Mystara, just be an ancient story, as the stories of the Deluge in the real world. However it is quite probable that governments and several powerful individuals (such as Prince Jaggar in GAZ3: “The Principalities of Glantri”) do know more about Blackmoor and will be very interested in acquiring any technomagic device found. Most Immortals do not view favorably the idea that ancient Blackmoorian secrets are re-discovered, so they could intervene, through agents or even directly in extreme cases, to prevent the spreading of such knowledge.

From the Vaults and other inspirations

Blackmoor was created around BC 4,000 on the continent of Skothar^⁶ and soon freed itself from the Empire of Thonia, discovered the remains of the Beagle spaceship, and defeated the Afridhi invaders, all events described in the DA series^⁷ of adventures. In the following millenia Blackmoor became more and more powerful, expanding across all the world and developing powerful technomagic devices, which later will be the origin of the Radiance in Glantri and the Chamber of the Stars in the City of the Stars of the Shadow Elves. A mysterious cataclysm later named The Great Rain of Fire destroyed Blackmoor and its technomagic, and plunged the world into a dark age for several centuries. The Vaults of Pandius has a whole section dedicated to Blackmoorian times and several articles in THRESHOLD Magazine described it in even more detail^⁸.

Maps

Some real world ruins and sites could be used for the main cultures of Mystara at the time of Blackmoor. Mesoamerican and South American sites are perfect for the Oltecs and the Azcans, which at the time dominated a vast area of southern Brun and parts of Davania. Middle Eastern sites could be used for the regions of Alphatia, Bellissaria, Esterhold, and nearby lands at the time not yet colonized by the Alphatians. African historical sites could be used for the Tanagoro of southern Skothar. Megalithic sites could instead be appropriate for the Neathar humans of central and northern Brun and probably also for giants and fairies. For the elven and halfling cities of Davania good examples could probably be found in many old and current D&D products. For Blackmoorian cities and sites instead, given they had advanced technomagic, modern sites maps could work best.

Dark Ages Ruins (BC 2,900–1,700)

The levels of Koskatep from 10 to 7 were inspired by the work of Chimpman about 2300 BC Mystara^⁹ and several ideas by RobJN from Thorn’s Chronicle^¹⁰. Chimpman imagined a Known World dominated by Taymora (whose ruins now under the waves canonically appear in PC3: “The Sea People”), Mogreth (a nation of lizardmen where is now Ylaruam before Nithia), The Shimmering Lands (home of the dwarves who will become the Modrigswerg of the Northern Reaches), Grondheim (a nation of fairies and giants occupying most of the central Known World), and Intua (ancestors of the Atruaghin), and I used his ideas extensively in Koskatep, as the place after the beastmen’s defeat was occupied first by Intua and then by Grondheim, Mogreth, and finally Taymora. Some years before the Second Cataclysm of BC 1700, which canonically created the Broken Lands and sunk Taymora, due to the explosion of another Blackmoorian device, Koskatep was destroyed by the priests of Nyx themselves to prevent the place from falling into the hands of Thanatos. These levels are Koskatep level 10: Intitepetl, Gem of the Sun; Level 9: Krystallac, Crystal Heart; Level 8: Mokrath, Serpent Eye; Level 7: Signs of the Universe. Those levels are mostly inhabited by undead, many of them intelligent, who go back to those times, but obviously similar ruins around the Known World could also contain any kind of monster who managed to find the ruins and use them as its lair. Ruins so ancient are also likely to contain powerful magical secrets, and therefore intelligent and powerful monsters such as dragons and beholders could have good reasons to search and inhabit them. It’s likely PCs know almost nothing of these times or have only some imprecise stories.

From the Vaults and other inspirations

The Vaults and The Piazza offer plenty of material written by Chimpman about this time, as indicated in the links of Note 8. There are many other articles on Taymoran ruins in the Vaults^¹¹ and I wrote one myself in THRESHOLD Magazine issue #3^¹². Issues #5, 11,12, 17, 20 and 30 have many articles about the past of Davania, Thyatis and Alphatia, the Known World, Western Brun, Skothar and Bellissaria also dealing with these times. Even if the Second Cataclysm was exclusive to the Known World, the great humanoid migration which started in Brun before BC 1,700 eventually invaded other continents too, even if the farthest regions were reached only centuries later.

Maps

For these levels I used maps of the ancient sites of the Middle East, Egypt, and Crete. Archeology sites fortunately have plenty of them and it’s not difficult to find one suitable for the ruins of these Mystaran centuries.

Classical Ruins (BC 1,600–1)

I’d call ‘Classical’ the time of Nithia and Milenia, which also saw the arrival of the Alphatians and the spreading of humanoid races. In Koskatep this time corresponds to Levels 6 to 3, which are Shadows of Kundrak; Dark secrets of Ieronyx; Karrast, Dwarven Gold; and Ranesh, a City of Four Peoples; when the ruins were occupied first by dark fairies, then by followers of Nyx, hutaakans, red orcs, dwarves, gnolls, and ogres. The region, like the whole Known World, was rather unstable at the time, with new people replacing the previous occupants of an area in relatively short times. PCs however should know a bit more about these times at least as cultural or national legends, such as the Song of Halav in Karameikos, which dates back to 2,000 years before the canon present time. That’s not strange at all if you look at the real world’s history. Now we are used to a society which evolves fast and everything around us is very different from just 30 years ago, but it was not so in previous times. For example in medieval culture the Roman Empire was still considered the recent past and indeed European dynasties like the Habsburg presented themselves as its heirs up to the First World War.

From the Vaults and other inspirations

Beside Koskatep THRESHOLD Magazine featured another idea for a possible megadungeon in the Five Shires: Loktal’s Vault^¹³, a reference to to the Glittering Realm of Loktal Ironshield, the dwarven king who ruled briefly over hin lands and fell in BC 912, mentioned in GAZ8: “The Five Shires”, and could also be connected to the solo canon adventure XS2: “Thunderdelve Mountain”^¹⁴. As the history of the times is quite confused and left vague in canon products, it is always possible to place sites of ancient dwarven, elven, humanoid, or any other race’s cities almost everywhere. Nithians at the time spread across a vast area from Bellissaria to the Savage Coast and left outposts and temples which will be quite mysterious for the PCs as the true origin of such places couldn’t be easily understood due to the Spell of Oblivion with which the Immortals cursed that civilization when it became corrupt and dangerous. Other examples of cities dating back to this time or even earlier are Oenkmar in GAZ10: “The Orcs of Thar” and Tuma which appears in the module B8: “Journey to the Rock”^¹⁵ but there are many others^¹⁶. So Mystara fans could have lots of possibilities to create more megadungeons for our favorite campaign world.

Maps

As Nithia is clearly inspired by ancient Egypt and Milenia by ancient Greece I mostly used plans of Egyptian and Grecian cities for these levels of Koskatep. As both civilizations have an impressive number of locations there are plenty of city and temple maps from which to choose.

Image: Dungeon!
Caption: The Misadventures of Valcinius the Uncanny, original digital drawing by Senarch

http://pandius.com/Dungeon1_Senarch.png

The ‘Modern’ Era (AC 0–1,000)

Levels 1 and 2 of Koskatep, the Upper Ruins and Kotesh, city of the Ogre King, were described in THRESHOLD Magazine issues #2 to #4. The ruins at the time were actually occupied by Traladaran soldiers and priests of Ixion, until they were defeated by a powerful vampire and follower of Thanatos, The Last One, who destroyed them. After this and in the last 7+ centuries the ruins have remained officially abandoned and empty, but actually the powerful vampire still rules them, trying to get access to the lower levels to reach the ancient secrets left by the churches of Nyx and Ixion. In the megadungeon these are actually the only levels with a living ecology, as lower levels are typically not inhabited by creatures coming from the surface, but only by undead and some other special creatures. PCs could have a vague knowledge of the region and its history, even if now the location of Koskatep should be in the middle of a territory inhabited by orcs and ogres^¹⁷.

From the Vaults and other inspirations

Taking a good look at the Gazetteers of any other canon or fan source about a specific area it’s always a good idea to develop consistent dungeons inspired by the history of a region. In Karameikos there are many examples in modules and adventures, which often use Hutaakan or Traldar ruins^¹⁸. In the Five Shires, as we have seen above, orcish and dwarven ruins could fit very well, but also elven ones from the times of the Gentle Folk elves. In Thyatis the best resource to build ‘historical’ dungeons is likely the work done by Giulio Caroletti in THRESHOLD Magazine issues #11 to #13^¹⁹. For Alphatia and colonies there is the huge work done by Bruce Heard in his blog^²⁰ and also two issues of THRESHOLD^²¹. Ylaruam already has plenty of dungeon material in its Gazetteer (Barimoor and the remnants of Nithia) plus one of the best Mystaran dungeons (B4: “The Lost City”). Historical dungeons in Darokin could be related to the time of the Darokinian kings, which was developed with great detail by fans in the Vaults, but also just under the nation lie the tunnels of humanoids and shadow elves^²². The same applies for Alfheim, the Broken Lands, and Glantri. Alfheim was a grassland before the elves grew their forest, so it may be harder to find old ruins there, if not maybe ancient half-buried mounds built by centaurs, humanoids, or humans. The Broken Lands and southern Glantri could contain ruins of Blackmoor (or a colony of^²³) and of the original Aengmor, destroyed in the BC 1,700 cataclysm. Wendar, Denagoth and beyond are covered by the GazF series^²⁴ which contains a lot of info about the history of the area. In the Northern Reaches and Heldann, ruins could belong to the old Antalians, giants, or the Modrigswerg dwarves. For Norwold there are three issues of THRESHOLD Magazine, including a very detailed history by Simone Neri^²⁵. Going west, from the Atruaghin lands to the Savage Coast, Oltec and Azcan ruins will always be appropriate, but the best histories of all the lands beyond the Known World can probably be found in the Gazetteers by Omnibius^²⁶. Most of them are in Italian only, but probably with an online translator English speakers can manage to read them. Omnibius did a great work for many regions of Mystara, integrating existing canon and fan material with his own ideas into detailed histories of each region.

Maps

For these levels of Koskatep I used some rough plans of ancient Mediterranean ruins, but for the more ‘recent’ ruins medieval cities and temples could be more appropriate, or just ‘classical’ dungeons as the ones which appear in the B series of modules.

1The location can be seen in this map: Kingdom of Karameikos - Traladara 1020 AC, 3.2 miles per hex drawn by the author and available at the Vaults of Pandius, while the series of Koskatep articles was in THRESHOLD Magazine issues #1 to #15 here in the Vaults Threshold: The Mystara Magazine

2Here it is in the Vaults History (pandius.com)

4Refer to “Y’hog – The Blackest Port in the West” by Geoff Gander from THRESHOLD Magazine #5 Y’hog – The Blackest Port in the West (pandius.com) and “Erkalion – The Dusk of an Empire” from THRESHOLD Magazine #12 Erkalion – The Dusk of an Empire (pandius.com) and previous articles in the Vaults.

6According to the Hollow World boxed set, but the DA series and several Gazetteers seem instead to imply it was where the Known World is now. I addressed this contradiction in “New Blackmoor, 3050 BC: The Known World before the Great Rain of Fire” in THRESHOLD Magazine #2 New Blackmoor, 3050 BC (pandius.com).

8Here Blackmoor, including also the Returned Blackmoor series by Doc Necrotic in THRESHOLD and many more articles.

10See the list of works by Robert Nuttman, Jr. under his entry in the Vaults of Pandius

11See the Taymora section in the Vaults Mystaran Geography (pandius.com)

13In THRESHOLD Magazine #16 and #17 and also here Adventures and Campaign Ideas (pandius.com)

16Check this thread on The Piazza Huge Dungeons in Mystara - The Piazza for a rather extensive list.

18Check for example “Campaigning in Karameikos” by the author from THRESHOLD Magazine issue #22 http://pandius.com/Threshold_22.pdf#25 also in html here Campaigning in Karameikos (pandius.com)

24A great work by JTR listed here in the Vaults: JTR (pandius.com)