[Custom dungeon] Team Dungeon [DM PC] [Collective work]

[beowuuf]

Version: alpha
Platform: DM PC
Author: Michael Hutton (a.ka. Beowuuf), Ian Clark, LMB, Benjamin Räuchle (a.k.a Amber or sucinum), Benjamin Prieu (a.k.a Zyx)
Date published: 2003, June 12
Date last updated: 2003, June 12

Story:
Gordo entered the Rogues' Gallery attached to the Theives' Guild. The tiny town outside had become a shadow of itself since the Swamp Queen had awoken and infested the area, but some liked the protection of the Slimes. The town still did some business, still had some of its old attractions. You just had to be on your guard a little more. Infact the leading wily merchant had paid to have his store moved to another sub-dimension by a Wizard of Baldor. Quite clever really.
There was still a town council, and they still punished the guilty. The mages trapped the worst offenders in perpetual stasis in the mirros of the Rogues' Gallery for show. Or that was the story. The unlucky champions who went after the Swamp Queen (which was foolish...if they did kill her they would have her entire bood after them) were also hosted in the gallery, in a more respectful way. If suffering fatal wounds, they were frozen to preserve them until the priests could invoke a cure. So the story went.
In reality, it was an ideal repository of raw talent that had found bad luck, whether thieves or fallen heroes.
Those unlucky enough to be caught or wounded weren't neccessaryily without skills, and the thieves guild was one for making sure it had as much as it could get. Only a few mages and thieves knew this truth...including Gordo now.
He wandered around the hall, seeing the signs of a few guild tests for initiates here and there permeating even into this area. Any skilled thieved loved to try his hand at the basics again for reassurance, but he had a job to do and moved on. After checking the other exit into the town was clear, he came back and started to examine each mirror in turn.


The Spiral was one guild test that was put in the open in the town, and rumoured to be only completable by the most skilled thief. It only lead down into the sewers anyway, but the chalenge was the thing. So the rumour went . Once again, reality was much differnt. The Spiral was security to protect a secret few knew existed. Fewer still knew the actual secret itself, and only one person knew the whole truth of it. Gordo.
Most didn't know the town was built upon an ancient city. It had been large. It had been beautiful. It had had a secret. Below it's own streets, it's own sewers, it's own dark dungeons where mages worked their secret work, a source of power had been found. At first the mages and priests tried to tap it, harness it. But it was an ancient power, to much for any mortal to weild. They set security to ensure the lower echelons of their orders could not pass, and turned away from it. But the secret could not remain so. Others outside the city learned of its existence, and from then on the city was under attack contantly from the power hungry. The city crumbled piece by piece, until all that was now left were those remains in the sewers, inhabited only by the fungus..and maybe other things. It would be a brave man to roam there lest he wake the dead too...
In the last days of the city, when a powerful agressor was ready to take it and its secret, the mages cast one final spell, turning to the infinity of the Amber Realm to bind the way down forever. This proved true, and time, the unlitmate protection, eroded the fate and secret of the city from memory. Except to those few.
But Gando had always been curious, and now he knew more than all the rest. He found a legend that, at the time the ice was melted by the Power Gem, areas of great power ignited, to burn with a constant flame. The High Lords fought over them, to use them for evil or extinguish them by means long lost now to protect the world.

Gando had discovered that someone, obviously with great power already, was drawing more from this area for some diabolical means. His pleas with the council to investigate had been seen as a large trick by the ambitious Gordo. So he was alone.
He had to go beyond the spiral. Beneath the ancient sewers. Somehow pass the Amber Realm.
For below it all were three quests to prove worth.
Three corridors to show the way.
The way to the Great Flame.


So Gando examined each mirror in turn, looking for the champions to help complete this quest. A quest to discover the power and evil using it, to defeat this evil, and quench the secret forever. A quest that was so important it might save the world. A quest so important that not even his death at the hands of the council's assassins could stop him from completeing it. Hovering in the air, drawing on the shadows for form, Gordo gathered his life energies to himself and reached out a spectral hand to the first mirror...

Notes:
We've been working on a dungeon with several designers for what seems years. Heck, I think it IS years!
As it seems unfinishable, some of us are planing to release as it. This way you can play it, test it, and if you dare, complete it, as there is still room for one or two levels. And the ending is not implemented (though we have some ideas about it).

Current designers are: Amber, Beowuuf, Ian, LMB and some Gfx of Cowsmanaut.

For those interested in designing a level, there are some auxiliary docs to help you. Just ask Zyx. If one of the original designers owns a more recent version, then feel free to upload it here!

Instructions:
The graphics.dat is meant to replace the original graphics.dat in the data folder of the PC DM game, so make a backup of the original graphics.dat first.

Known bugs:
This was an experiment, and has at least 3 known bugs:
- the fountain gfx may cause some rare glitches or freeze up.
- same for the dragon
- there is a piece of wall from an old texture still visible, 3 tiles ahead and 2 tiles on the side.

Several gfx were not adapted in order to fit to the textures, and the side view of the walls should be more proheminent.
Having said that, I hope you will find a new flavour to your favorite game and some pleasant surprises.

Download:
Download this dungeon from this Shared OneDrive (in the 'Custom Dungeons' folder)