The First Delve

It's time to start keying something. If you don't start you can never end.

The dungeon assumes rules for fall damage. In the final product we'll have some, in the meantimes use the ones you're more comfortable with (I suggest [1d6 + pg level x 10' fallen] HP of damage). The caverns are hard to describe, they're chaotic, oppressive, twisting. Not all of them, some of them. Make your players feel crushed by the weight of the stone above them, there's no air, no light, no humanity.

Inside the caves there's a dungeon. It has been made by a group of pale, blind, humanoids. They don't have a name, no one knew they existed, why would they have one. They called themselves "vehina", roughly translated to "multiples" in their language. They built stuff for the god of the deep, the sun, the heat. The one that is now set free by the tentacles. He was in slumber, now he's waking up. This first secion of the caves doesn't have any corpses, the next ones will. The Vehina fell into a deep coma when the heat disappeared. Now they're waking up again, slowly. Give your players 5 days. Make them encounter the bodies, make them belive they're dead. Then awaken them.

The descent is possible using ropes, grappling hooks, pitons and whatever the players can find. Going down the main tunnels is possible using the tentacles but going too deep is impossible because of the heat. Falling is a possibility, so is combat. For every 10 minutes of climbing roll 1d6 for a random encounter. Insects, birds, flying creatures, they all lurk in the dark.

Area 0 - This pit is 1 mile deep, climbing it is in itself a challenge. On the walls there are corals, rock formations, veins. They smell of dust and dimly glow in a purple light. Whenever one is touched it pulsates, and glows a bit stronger propagating the glow to the nearby formations. Hidden between those corals there are Deep Moths, they camouflage, look like the veins, wait patiently. They drink blood, and are scared of flames. If they see someone climbing down they'll attack, especially if no light is carried.

Area 1 - A giant room, it's wet and there are puddles on the ground. Every 3 hours it gets flooded because of an underground river, then the water dissipates trough the cracks. Reaching Area 2 is easy, there's a ladder (iron, rusted, 40ft.), reaching the other two not so much. When flooded the water level reaches Area 3.

Area 2 - Metal crates of glowing rocks. They're closed but warm to the touch. The rocks all contain a small portion of Vienerium, an element that when extracted and used to forge metal items makes them slightly resonate in the darkness and allows the user to gauge distances. An entire crate is needed to forge one sword like that.

Area 3 - A weird statue (black, elongated, 4 arms) of a creature. A slight hum continually comes from it. Next to the statue are offerings: one piece of yarn, a small glowing rock, a cube of white wood. If touched the statue speaks telephatically to whoever touched it. It asks for

If the next time the party comes here without fullfilling the request it will curse whoever touched you. If the request it's fullfilled the statue will answer any simple question. This can be done once a week.

Area 4 - This area is magically protected and no water can flow inside. 8 statues are lined on the walls (humanoid, gray, without faces). A trapdoor is on the floor, on the wall opposite to the door there's a writing: "Blessed thee who are blind to the truth". It's not written in a specific language and it appears in the tongue of whoever is reading it. The trapdoor is closed and will remain so until everyone in the room closes their eyes. If everyone does so then it simply vanishes out of existance. There's a 100 ft. drop beneath it. It can be forced but in doing so all the statues will animate and attack.

Area 5 - This room isn't easy to reach, it shouldn't be. It's the key to "completing the dungeon" and as such it will be described later.