[Hero] Dungeon Pack #1: Underground Cistern (Patreon)

Hail heroes!

For our Hero-tier patrons, we have a special new style of art and maps this year! We are excited to introduce this set, the Underground Cistern, a dungeon map set with 34 variations!

This map set has been hand embellished by Magenta, and it features a massive trap mechanism that covers two maps.

The dungeon's entrance starts with the Underground Aqueduct, a large chamber with bridges and walkways that cut through several chambers of flowing water. Below the kingdom's capital, fresh water filters through several settling pools to remove impurities, and this massive chamber shows several of these pools as they flow from one outflow to another. The chamber is open enough that someone within the back walkways would be able to see anywhere else around the chamber, with the only cover being a floor-to-ceiling pillar of carved rock in the northwest corner.

Access to the Cistern Control chamber can be had through any of the exits from the Aqueduct, where the control mechanism makes itself immediately apparent. The moving locks that control the transport pipes and settling pools has access through the center of this room, yet the room itself holds several variants and surprises. One idea we incorporated into the design of this room was to include the very obvious control valve, but also play with the idea that the statues and lit braziers themselves are part of a magical control for the cistern.

Perhaps the interplay between the flames, valves, and statues can be a part of a riddle, trap, puzzle, or encounter within the chamber! When I ran this for my home game, I certainly played into the encounter aspect, and our party of raiding pirates fought through a patrol of town watch through the dungeon. In the cistern, our pirates ended up encountering something surprising: a grim vision of tides of blood!

This is also our bloodiest map yet, far surpassing the delicious depths of the Black Sepulcher set. Gushing from the walls are torrents of blood, seeping from trickling valves to surprise any adventurer caught below. The doors also come with portals!

Variants

Normal

Whirlpool

Bloody

Braziers Lit/Unlit

Eldritch Portals

Fiery Portals

Dimensions

Underground Aqueduct: 39x30

Cistern Control: 25x25