The Depths of Nhalgorath - Level 1 (Patreon)

Beneath Coruvon are some sewers (necessary to keep the swamp from overwhelming the city), and among those sewers is this dungeon – the Depths of Nalgorath. The name came from an inscription found in the stoneworks in the lowest levels of the sewers that predate the modern city of Coruvon – the inscription is large and ornate, spanning 12 feet of stone, and reads simply “Nalgorath Below”. Clearly, this was part of a larger piece, as this block of stone is broken off from another construction and built into the walls in the lower sewers. No one has found the start or end of this stone missive.

Common stories follow that Nalgoroth was an ancient engineer-king from before the time of the serpent empires. These tales claim that the lowest levels of the Depths are his original works and probably conceal his tomb somewhere within or below them. A few levels above this, in the lowest of the river caves, there is a wall of enormous stone faces – and the dwarven tales from their occupation of the city before the fall of Kuln suggests that one of these is not merely a representation of Nalgoroth, but is the petrified head of the builder himself (which would make him the size of a titan).

Nowadays, the only people who go down here are sewer workers (and they won’t without guards) and the thieves of the Gutter Crown Guild. Neither is eager to have adventurers explore the place, as they would prefer that whatever creatures live in the lower depths never be disturbed to interrupt their business.

The main access point to the sewer level of the Depths is the stairwell at “A” which leads down from a manhole between the Lowtown City Works building and the House of Orange Flowers. However, there are many ways to get here from within the sewer system (the accesses at G, H, and I) or a lost maintenance tunnel at F. “B” is the stairwell down from the back room of the Bent Coin, a small gambling den with mediocre ale that is controlled by the Gutter Crown. “E” is the basement of a manor house that burned down and was replaced by a cheap hostel now. The stairs were boarded over, leaving no easy access to this basement without prying up the floorboards. Beyond the basement is a secret wine cellar with a secret door into the Depths.

The majority of this level is just sewers. The shaft at K has a grate above it in the ceiling too, and the mid-street open air sewer above drains through that grate and down through this one and deeper into the complex. There used to be similar road grates over the L shafts, but those were cobbled over years ago, and the grates below have been neglected (and several ropes are still attached to the rusted-out grate edges leading down into the depths). The shaft at J is a major overflow point for the sewer system so that if it gets backed up, the excess water flows down that shaft instead of backing up the whole system.

The Gutter Crown leaves two people monitoring the main entrance at the “A” manhole. Old Brenner “Three Nails” is an elderly sewer worker who is still officially employed by the city but spends his days sitting behind the Lowtown City Works drinking. He’s not actually a drunk, but puts on the act so no one asks him to do any work. He jangles a ring of ancient keys that are not matched to any known locks. At night, Sella Voss sits on one of the balconies of the House of Orange Flowers where she acts as the house seamstress. She uses specific pieces of cloth left on the balcony railing to indicate what she has seen to the guild.

Each of the shafts at L, K, and J lead down deeper into the depths – the J shaft ends on level 4 where it is joined by the water flow from the K shaft before pouring even deeper into the facilities. The L shafts end on Level 3 where they join the K shaft.

All other access ways to the lower levels are via the stairs at C under the tavern, or the stairs at D, which the sewer workers use when it is necessary to go below this level.

This is the first of twelve maps of this dungeon. The first eight are done, and the remaining four are in progress. I’ll be releasing four of these each month to complete the set in 3 months.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 9,600 x 9,600 pixels (32 x 32 squares) in size. To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 100 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 200 pixels (for the suggested 10′ squares that this is designed around) – so resizing it to either 3,200 x 3,200 or 6,400 x 6,400 pixels in size, respectively.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2026/11/06/the-depths-of-nalgorath/