Old Owl Well
In the hills south of Conyberry is a strange location known as Old Owl Well. Within the grounds of a ruined keep, an ancient well continues to pipe water from nearly five miles below the surface, producing 20 gallons of water a day.
Originally a Netherese outpost, it was built at the direction of one of its archmages ostensibly to spy on the elves of Illefarn. In truth, beneath the site lay a large supply of arcane gems known as chardalyns secured with an ancient vault from the time of the sarrukh and the serpent kingdom of Isstosseffifil.
Captive deepspawn guarded the vault and disgorged a multitude of beasts – principally owlbears – but, at great miltary cost, the Netherese destroyed these guardian creatures and the deepspawn that produced them.
The chardalyns secured, the outpost was named Quesseer and it became a trademeet for Netherese expatriates, Illuskan seafarers, Ice Hunter tribes, Illefarni elves and the isolated shield dwarf clans of fallen Haunghdannar.
It was later abandoned when Illusk (the ancient name for Luskan) fell to a great orc horde but the elaborate well remained, as did the owlbears that contributed to its vernacular name.
The underground caverns from which the well’s water is drawn contain more vaults of the sarrukh but it is also likely that these too are guarded by deepspawn and other creatures.
(Source: Lost Empires of Faerûn, page 107)
The Netherese seeking to restore Xinlenal have sent a small detachment of explorers to this site. Their records mention the chardalyns of old and Clariburnus believes these might be useful for restoring the flying city’s mythallar. However, not wanting to attract attention from the small clans of wood elves in the area, the Netherese come in small groups and their principal outpost is below ground.
Tomb tappers have been modified to serve as living mining engines to seek out chardalyns. However, they often disappear; it seems the legacy of the serpentine Creator races still guards the secrets beneath Old Owl Well.
Ideas for the Megadungeon
In my head I am seeing this as a combination of Caverns of Thracia, The Shattered Circle and Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth.
I can see a civilisation of minotaurs who were once mightier than those more common today - although occasionally a greathorn minotaur will be born who commands sorcerous powers.
The Immortal King from Caverns of Thracia has a hidden sepulchre that is difficult to find. He is a minotaur who used ancient sarrukh magic to give himself various reptilian features including dragon-like wings before becoming a lich. (I also like the idea of including the Pool of Watery Wonders from Caverns of Thracia but I may use that in another megadungeon idea I am currently tinkering with.)
The six doors to enter a hidden sanctum as described in the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth also exist here. In this case, the hidden sanctum holds a slumbering undead sarrukh per the illustration at the top of this post.
The web city of the chitine from The Shattered Circle definitely belongs here: I expect that they have simply settled here opportunistically and perhaps are at war with the minotaurs. The entire underground section of The Shattered Circle could probably be used wholesale as the first few levels of this megadungeon as it already has a reptilian theme.
Like Caverns of Thracia - and even the more recent Rappan Athuk - I want this dungeon to have multiple entrances to multiple levels. As I want to run my Neverwinter: The Year of the Ageless One campaign as a fairly Old School sandbox at times, the ability to enter a megadungeon, find and kill things and then take their stuff seems to be an important thing to include. And who wants to go back and re-explore somewhere they have been before?
Plot?
Nahhh.
This seems to me to be more like a traditional megadungeon. While rooting out the Netherese and stopping them from getting their hands on chardalyns could provide something of a plot, the simple fact is that this seems like an Old School megadungeon that is simply waiting to be explored.
It would be an interesting exercise to combine the maps from the three adventures I have mentioned - Caverns of Thracia, Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth and The Shattered Circle - and simply fill in the dungeon a few rooms at a time whenever I have some time to fill.
Another option would be to instead run a conversion of 1E's Cult of the Reptile god with the Old Owl Well megadungeon filling the role of Explitica Defilus's lair from that adventure (this would be a separate section with its own connection to the surface plus a connection to the sarrukh's secret sanctum).
Another option would be to instead run a conversion of 1E's Cult of the Reptile god with the Old Owl Well megadungeon filling the role of Explitica Defilus's lair from that adventure (this would be a separate section with its own connection to the surface plus a connection to the sarrukh's secret sanctum).
Monsters & NPCs
The Chitine
- Chitine
- Choldrith
- Giant spiders
The Minotaurs
- Minotaurs
- Feral minotaurs
- Greathorn minotaur sorcerers
The Netherese
- Netherese soldiers
- Veserab mounts
- Uthgardt Grey Wolf werewolves (these are guides and guards)
The Scaled Ones
- Guardian naga trying to stop the secrets of the sarrukh being discovered (as in, these are Lawful Good creatures trying to ensure that the evil of the sarrukh is not unleashed)
- Sarrukh lich
- Troglodytes
- Water naga wanderers
- Iron cobra guardians
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