Megadungeon Musings

I’m musing on a MegaDungeon. I have been having spots of inspiration and am trying to weld them into a cohesive whole. I figured I’d post them onto the blog on the off chance that someone will read them and either:

1. Tell me they’re great ideas (thus boosting my enthusiasm)
2. Make suggestions how to improve them (as above, also providing me more ideas)
3. Tell me they suck (thus saving me from using them :))

So, some initial thoughts:

I want the dungeon to harbour, at its heart, a dragon. Or at least the myth of a dragon, to give me wiggle room. I want the dragon to represent epic, untold power.

The core of the dungeon is a fortress and a prison. The dragon was imprisoned millennia ago by the most powerful heroes of the age and they commanded a fortress be raised above its lair – where it was imprisoned.
The dragons lair was in a cave deep in a chasm (or ravine, or box canyon, I haven’t yet committed) and the fortress was built large enough that it rose above the chasm walls, or expanded out of its entrance (kinda like Helms Deep perhaps).

I want the fortress to have been expanded and expanded, in all directions, over centuries but with deteriorating quality. So the oldest places are sturdy well worked stone (Dwarf-craft?) whilst other areas are inferior – shanty-town warrens for example.

In many places the crafted areas will give way to carved (natural?) tunnels leading into the sides of the chasm – an opportunity for different environs perhaps.

The fortress was wracked by earthquake or some other natural disaster long after it was completed (and perhaps after its purpose had been forgotten) and was probably abandoned by the descendents of the original inhabitants. Others have now taken up residence and continued to build on the works already there (Hence shanty warrens and other inferior construction).

A stable community of, at least Neutral, inhabitants now resides either there or somewhere close by – providing a base of operations, access to healing, henchmen and expertise.

Some trigger event causes Adventurers, Warbands, Noble Militias, Hordes and Crusades to begin flocking to the dungeon (For some, the knowledge that there’s a captive dragon will be enough to stir interest – releasing it for the bad guys, keeping it captive/slaying it for the good guys. For others there’s the old promise of loot. Is that enough?)

I like the idea that there’s an element of Deathtrap Dungeon to the place. Some of it, by no means all, has been constructed with the very deliberate intention of keeping a very big, very powerful (and presumably very unwilling) beast in captivity – so there will be mechanisms to prevent it from escaping under its own steam and for preventing unauthorised external parties from getting to it to release it. Therefore, opportunity for lots of traps – simple and elaborate.

Because it’s grown so large over thousands(?) of years, there’s the opportunity for many different denizens to be present. Many of the monstrous humanoids, demi-humans, vermin, beasts and creatures found in ‘trad’ D&D may be appropriate.

Am I biting off more than I can chew...