Starter Set Sandbox 2 - Old Owl Well

What Comes After Lost Mine of Phandelver?

When I first saw the regional map that accompanies the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure in the 5E Starter Set, I thought about how much I enjoyed researching that area for my own Neverwinter games set on the same map - albeit with different locations - and how there was a lot of extant Realmslore that could possibly be used by a 5E DM to expand the campaign beyond Lost Mine of Phandelver.

My first post in this series was about Icespire Peak which, regardless of the ruleset you use, is suited for higher level adventurers than those going through or that have completed Lost Mine of Phandelver. This post, however, is the first of (hopefully) many that provide options for adventures after Lost Mine or, indeed, alternative quests during the course of Lost Mine.

Realmslore

Before I cover the other Realmslore relating to the Old Owl Well, I should mention that the Old Owl Well is a location within the Lost Mine adventure. However, in contrast to my forthcoming ideas about turning this site into a megadungeon, in Lost Mine it's reduced to a single encounter that doesn't even warrant a map!

Also, if you have read or run Lost Mine and are wondering what ancient empire is alluded to in the description of this site, you're about to get your answer. 

Old Owl Well was first mentioned, as far as I can tell, in 2E's The North boxed set published in 1996. It was noted as being the old water source within three days' ride and thus a site where various factions, including orcs, vied for control. But it was more fully covered in 3.5E's wonderful Lost Empires of Faerûn which stated:

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.

When I read this, I cannot help but picture a Caverns of Thracia-like megadungeon that begins with a surface ruin controlled by orcs or bandits, proceeds deeper into ancient dungeons with a serpentine motif, and then ends with undead sarrukh liches that remind you of the Immortal King from Caverns of Thracia. Oh, and let's not forget the presence of owlbears... and wyverns from Wyvern Tor nearby.

I suppose a few explanations are in order at this point. 

A chardalyn is a blue gem that could hold a single spell. They were introduced in 2E and I think they also appeared in 3.xE but there was no conversion in 4E. 5E could probably just use the 2E rule (they hold a single spell and can be crushed to use once).

Caverns of Thracia was a legendary adventure published by Judges Guild for the OD&D rules but subsequently converted by Necromancer Games for 3E. It was so unlike the TSR adventures of the time because some real thought had gone into the maps and the story of the dungeon. The maps are really worth mentioning. There were levels and hidden sub-levels and there were multiple connections between levels. The first level, for example, had three separate entrances from above. Similarly, it had at least eight separate connections to the levels beneath it. It's not wonder the author, Paul Jacquays, went on to become a rather significant computer game designer including contributing levels to the Halo franchise.

As for the sarrukh, they are the über-yuan-ti or, perhaps more accurately, the ur-serpentfolk. They were the creator race responsible for, inter alia, the creation of the yuan-ti. In fact, the Netherese archmage who directed Netherese exploration of this site was himself a disguised sarrukh (this is Arthindol - aka the Terraseer - who is mentioned on page 29 in Lost Mine).

Building the Megadungeon

Firstly, I think Old Owl Well has the potential as a site that can be explored immediately after the conclusion of Lost Mine of Phandelver but, of course, that means taking the idea of the encounter with the Red Wizard Hamun Kost on page 29 and really expanding it.

In fact, Hamun Kost is charged with keeping people away because the Thayans are now actively mining the chardalyns. That means at least two things:

1. There is a very obvious adventure hook: mining means miners and, when the Red Wizards are involved, that means slavers are active in the area. When the PCs investigate the slavers, the trail ultimately leads to the Old Owl Well. And that could be quite interesting if they have already encounter Hamun Kost and got along well with him....
2. That also means that the first level can be made up of mines. Story-wise that means evil slave overseers to beat up and slaves to free and map-wise it means that there are lots and lots and lots of maps to steal rather than having to create your own. One recommendation inspired by Caverns of Thracia: make sure the mine level has multiple connections with the rest of the megadungeon, including to at least one secret sub-level (maybe an old Netherese temple or magic laboratory?).

PC Levels

And I should also mention at this point that I am thinking of these ideas in the context of taking a level 5 party and providing them with enough adventuring opportunities that they could reach level 10 if they simply continued exploring the megadungeon. For a lot of groups that's probably too long. For others it might be perfect.

Inspiration

At the risk of repeating things I have already posted about this site in a post I made in 2012, I think a megadungeon based on this location should be a mash-up of the aforementioned Caverns of Thracia, 1E's Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, and 2E's underrated but simply outstanding The Shattered Circle. 

Stealing from Caverns of Thracia

One of the hidden sub-levels of Caverns of Thracia contains a fearsome lich-like undead creature described as follows:

However, sitting on a pedestal at the east end of the room is what appears to be a giant, mummified, dessicated cross between a gargoyle and a lizard man. If it stood, the creature would be 10' tall with huge, parchment-like bat wings springing from its scaly but withered back.

Oh yes, the Old Owl Well megadungeon must have the Immortal King (although a wingless version as per the picture at the start of this post would probably be better in that an illustration actually exists). In fact, I think of this as the final encounter and not necessarily a combat encounter. Of course, if attacked, it will fight back but perhaps it wants to know of the surface world? Perhaps it simply wants to return to its undead state? But, for some groups, few things would be more satisfying that defeating this horror from a past age.

I should also note that the backstory of the Caverns of Thracia also includes this idea of an advanced progenitor reptilian race consistent with the Old Owl Well's official lore. That's one of the reasons I thought of drawing on Caverns for inspiration for an Old Owl Well megadungeon. And, as is the case with Caverns, I like the idea that a group of minotaurs and other beastfolk were enslaved by the reptilian creator race but eventually overthrew them. What if remnants of this advanced minotaur civilisation still exist beneath Old Owl Well?

In short, I would definitely steal the advanced minotaurs from Caverns and use them in Old Owl Well and also include evidence in the form of bas-reliefs and other primitive forms of art for the rebellion by the beastfolk that saw the sarrukh's power broken. (I should also note that there is a minotaur civilisation noted as once existing beneath northern Faerûn in the area of the northern Underdark known as the Labyrinth. Sections of the Labyrinth are reasonably close to Old Owl Well.)

Stealing from Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth

This is one of the adventures written by Gary Gygax of which there are surprisingly few. Despite including it here, I am actually not a big fan of the adventure because it lacks any sort of coherency or design logic but I think the maps can be used here and I like the teleport puzzle that gives access to the final chamber which, in this case, seems like a suitable challenge before encountering the Old Owl Well's version of the Immortal King (see above).

The upper level map includes a significant amount of water which is important for this adventure because the Old Owl Well is, of course, a well. And as the well is supposed to draw from a deep water sources, having this upper level of the Lost Caverns serve as the penultimate level of the megadungeon makes sense. It also means that a clever but crazy party might find their way down to this lower level when the PCs are not quite ready level-wise. But that's OK.

The lower level map includes six separate doors that lead to a final sanctum. However, each door is liked to a teleport trap that sends the PCs to another part of the map and the final sanctum cannot actually be entered until all six teleport traps are triggered. I rather like that because the players have to be determined to finish the adventure - and, for me at least, this final sanctum of an undead sarrukh as mentioned above, is the final encounter of the megadungeon - and both puzzle out what is happening and deal with the frustrations of it in order to earn their final reward. For new players, that's probably a good lesson to learn.

I suppose the idea of magical weirdness also makes sense in this part of Old Owl Well. After all, the sarrukh were potent arcanists so some old-school strangeness would not be out of place. These two levels of the dungeon are the place where the DM can truly go wild, and yet have a reason for doing so.

Stealing from The Shattered Circle

As I explained in another post, this is one of my favourite adventures of all time. The backstory is nearly perfect. There is an underlying logic. The maps are truly outstanding (here and here). And, in the context of creating an Old Owl Well megadungeon, my recommendation would be to steal the entire adventure, even the chitine web city. (If that doesn't make sense, please read my earlier post for an explanation.)

Frankly, I think plagiarising this adventure basically gives you the bulk of the megadungeon. Some parts can be expanded, and additional encounters (such as drow nobles hunting chitine for sport) included, but, in the main, I would simply make this the levels immediately after the chardalyn mines.

Conclusion

I think there's a rough outline of a megadungeon here, that really requires one of the three adventures I have mentioned - The Shattered Circle - to properly flesh out, but I have posted enough of the maps on this blog that, even without the named adventures, there is probably enough here to at least put a map of six or so levels together.

And what are those six levels?

Firstly, I am not counting a surface level map. A simple ruin with a well in the centre would suffice. 

The first underground level is the chardalyn mine. Any mine map would do - even, for example, a real world salt mine - and then just add in links to the second underground level. This is the Red Wizard level.

The second, third, and fourth underground levels are from The Shattered Circle: Upper Zone, web city, and Lower Zone, respectively. These levels are a mixture of minotaurs, chitine, and undead yuan-ti.

And, finally, the fifth and sixth underground levels are from Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. These levels are a mixture of undead, strange magic, and unusual constructs from another age and may also include the sepulchres of several mummified sarrukh beyond the Immortal King protected by the teleport trap.

For DMs of 4E and earlier rulesets, it should be easy enough to turn these ideas into a megadungeon, even if 4E DMs, in particular, will need to reduce the levels of existing 4E monsters if they want to have the adventure suit PCs of levels 5-10.

For DMs of 5E, the lack of a Monster Manual and Dungeon Master's Guide until September and November, respectively, makes this a bit more difficult task. After all, there is only so much reskinning of monsters you can do. That said, it might be possible to run the first level now - follow the trail of the slavers, infiltrate the mines, free the slaves, slay the bad guys - using the stat blocks from Dead in Thay and maybe have the PCs return later when they discover a yuan-ti relic that would allow them access to the deeper levels. Also, the slavers idea could be expanded whereby the ruins of Leilon is the base of the slaving operation and the PCs may decide to cut of the serpent's head, so to speak, by heading there next. (I'll post some ideas on this when I get to my post about Leilon.)

Anyway, the basic point is that, if you're running Lost Mine and itching to run a megadungeon next, there are lots of ideas to make Old Owl Well into that megadungeon. If you use any of this, please do let me know in the comments.