Nobody poops in a Table Top RPG. Our characters eat and drink – in some games that’s how you heal – and we need to pay some attention to where the next meal is coming from. We have to think about what we’re wearing, at least in terms of armour. But we never need to care about where and when we poop.
Of course, we don’t really need to roleplay our bathroom breaks. I just found it odd the other day, when I was adding bathrooms to my mega dungeon, that I don’t remember the last time I saw a toilet on a battle map.
It’s not how I expected to break ground with my map making. But it does help to make the ‘dungeon’ feel like the clans can live and survive here, as well as allowing the party to have a toilet break without trekking all the way back to a bush outside…
The Tungsten Line
The clan that occupies this layer, operating the remaining machines of ‘Project Calefact’ (described in my previous post) are even more insular, and even more fanatical than Principles in the layer above.
They actually have very little memory or record of the original Project; they know the name and purpose, but they do not know what the Calefactors actually were or how to produce them. What they do believe, most deeply, is that it is their duty to keep the machines running. Specifically, the conveyor belts and the construction tools attached to them.
Over time, all auxiliary machinery has been recycled. Most of the droid workforce has been ‘sacrificed’ too. In fact, sacrifice is very literal. Thanks to the randomly selected word-of-the-week being ‘sacrifice’, all machinery that must be cannibalised is cracked open over an altar to a machine god (the name of which I’ve yet to decide – the pantheon’s being invented when I’m a few more layers deep).
Intruders will have a harder time negotiating with the Tungsten Line clan. If they respect the machines, bring new hardware from the layer above, or agree to work to help to complete the current project, they might get through without incurring the wrath of the ‘upgraded’ Lead Engineers and the various powerful mech ‘sentries’ roaming the halls.
If any of the party are mechanical in nature, or accompanied by constructs, they may have to keep their distance. The Tungsten Line are always looking for spare parts.
Week 7 – 49 rooms complete
The rooms for week 7 look like this:
43. Fire Station
– Most of the fire and rescue equipment has been repurposed or scrapped; only the three large water containers remain, used as the main storage for the clan’s drinking water.
– 1d4 Tungsten Line Engineers and 1d4 noncombatants watch over and maintain the containers.
44. Fire station office
– The office of the fire and rescue team is now occupied by two leading engineers of the Tungsten Line
– These ‘Augmented Engineers’ attack unknown outsiders on site, attempting to incapacitate and drag them to the ‘Engineer General’.
45. Fire Station Garage
– Only one of the original fire engines is still in operation
– 5 off the bays are repurposed as sleeping quarters
– 1d4+2 Engineers and 1d4 combatants dwell here
46. Strongroom
– Various precious metals and ‘ancient’ artefacts are stored here.
– A droid is incarcerated here. They are next to be sacrificed at the altar in 11. If free, the droid will run and hide elsewhere. If the party it’s already aggressive with the clan, then the droid might be persuaded to assist.
47. Dormitories
– Bunk beds, washrooms
– Weapon racks, storage lockers and equipment crates
– 1d4 Engineers and 1 ‘service droid’ occupy each room
48. Garage
– Arriving vehicles were repaired and refuelled here
– Most equipment has been ripped out and recycled
– Two Engineers man a barricade with a turret, facing the W door. (The Principles of Plenty know the correct greeting to give before entering)
49. Hazardous Storage
– Access to this secure lockup was lost decades ago
-Anyone who spends extended time outside this sealed chamber begins to feel dizzy and sickly
– Random containers left outside the storage. The contents are all irradiated
– 20% chance that they activated Copper Sentry is encountered here
In Summary
At this point, I have the outline of this layer mapped out. In the next week, I build out the main production rooms of this layer. The fact that ‘Solitude’ is the word of the week seemed at odds with my ideas at first, until I realised that a room filled with the sound of a grinding, aging machinery would be a very solitary place to work. If the party use their heads, they could sneak through these rooms without every being heard.
Thank You For Reading
Here‘s where to you can read about my dungeon from the start!
Please support this blog, if you can x
Gamer Peak 