A Big Mistake: Random Dungeons, and a note on dungeons in general

Nirrum knows how to scry and teleport

I, On the other hand, know Ctrl+F, Ctrl+N and Shift+Home/end. 

For whatever reason, your party has begun heading underground or into a walled area that they're unlikely to try to tunnel through. You want it to be interesting so you hop onto Donjon, Find the appropriate generator after an hour of mucking around with some others, and you set it up to more or less do the biggest, most labyrinthine, most secretive, obstructive, and monster-filled cavern your players have ever laid eyes on. You have made a mistake, and it's going to suck. 

Great Dungeon Dai-Chungus and its immortal weakness

In game design, one pure truth rings out like a sickening bell. Players hate going slow. Or Rather, players hate when their actions don't reveal new information. It's the reason the water levels in so many games are reviled. I see the door, let me get to it without having to look at the same barely shifting screen for a minute. In map design, this means something different, If each room looks the same, then there's no reason to think about each room. When you get stuck in the fugue of "did that do anything? No?" it really sucks. Thirty Azers and fire salamanders later, you've got nothing to show for it except a bunch of brass and spears.  The big map thus shows its flaw. It's not actually big. Not conceptually anyway. Your players have already figured out this dungeon, they already know more or less every challenge that faces them, so suddenly, every locked door is the same locked door. Didn't I unlock this already? Oh good, another trap.The shape and import of the dungeon inside of the player's mind is homogenizing, and maddening as it does.

On Dungeon Size

There isn't actually an answer to how big a dungeon should be. I've been in dungeons for literal months, and felt fine. Similarly, I've run dungeons that ran less than a session that my players were 130% done with when they emerged.The lore was there, the traps and theme all had reasons, but even then, It sucked. So what gives? As mentioned in my previous post on Map Size, a good designer can do a lot with a little. A bad designer does little with a lot. The amount of prep time, care and consideration that you put into your dungeons matters more than how big they are or what's in them. A friend of mine, who hit their stride as a designer right away says "Two sessions maximum" and seems to lean between 6-10 rooms at a maximum. The largest dungeon I've ever made that was fun was the temple of the world spirit that had about 13 and some change for hallways and secrets. The most Notorious dungeon ever, the tomb of horrors is pushing 30 and it's modern counterpart, the tomb of annihilation, has more than that in the first three floors. There isn't a real maximum number provided your players know what they're getting into, but I'm going to go with my friend on this one, keep it short

On Dungeon Content

I've talked before about keeping verisimilitude, that things are places for reasons. A dungeon should really be no different. Why have puzzles when you can have traps? Why bother having a "solution" to any of the puzzles if you want to keep something out? Acererak, everyone's favourite saturday morning cartoon villain lich kept the power of the people who died in his traps, trying to figure out his puzzles, so it suited his purposes to have them. The worst dungeon I've ever run had a similar excuse. It was the honor of each hobgoblin to die while building a room to make their artifact-house that much more confusing (and unfun). A dungeon's content, in my minor experience with them should be a series of rapid-succession, high-damage encounters that can be done in four sessions at maximum,  or,  to be a bit more broad, it shouldn't last much longer than an hour in-game time (of actually doing. And remember, Never use riddles.

The Dungeon has a long an interesting history, but conceptually it runs into what is in retrospect an obvious weakness. Gamers hate going slow. A puzzle is an obfuscation of the path forward, and confusion is such a thing as well. These things have their place in designing a dungeon, but only when they're not expected. Traps on the other hand, traps make dungeons worth it. They're fast and they happen because of carelessness. Crank up the lethality and status effects on those.

Narratively speaking, there are two types of dungeon that I have found work. Ones that the party chooses to go to, such as the old tomb of horrors, or ones that they have to go to, such as the tomb of annihilation. In both cases, the party has a goal. In the first case, there's a good chance that doing research about their location will reveal details about it's layout (either a floorplan or a description written by someone who was there when the location was being built or in use). In the second case, there's a good chance that it will be quick, as their goal should be straightforward and exclusive.

I never did understand why the tomb of annihilation wasn't approached by a romanesque army, literally carving a pathway through chult in a straight line, Cutting down all trees in their path and retreating into formation if they're attacked by any of the jungle's denizens. I just feel that a party of 100 would have an easier time. Upon entering the tomb, a ready supply of clerics and paladins would be a massive asset that you can rotate regularly. One guy's job could easily just be Gentle Repose.

This context changes a bit for Videogames, where the solving of the puzzle comes with tangible and immediate reward, but even then, the Ocarina of time water temple, one of the best designed puzzles in the game is infamous for its slow progression. Puzzles are great but if they're too hard,  that obvious pathway forward becomes a very pretty wall. A wall of frustration and incompetence. I relieve my players in letting them know that Picks, chisels, and shovels are things that exist.

A final admonishment

The end of this is to tell you that random dungeons, especially big ones are not ideal in any situation I've encountered them in. Aside from laziness, they serve nothing to the players narratively and are frequently paired with the reduction of choice. It's a perfect storm of boring, frequently linear (two unknown paths does not constitute a choice), time-consuming and narratively pointless.

Vorbet neshta'u'lo
-Nirrum the mad

The Fear of God: Fierce, Fair, Fpowergaming and its Fplace in your Ftoolbox

Nirrum's most powerful attack involves recursive time

 

My most powerful attack on the other hand,  

So! Your group of localized adventuring forces has hit upon a positive feedback loop or a Powerful combo, and have become a bit much to deal with if you're being fair. But you have an edge that even they don't get access to. Unimaginably well trained harmonies in other things they're going to face. As a designer, a true mark of integrity and fairness is using only the tools that your audience can interact with as well to build encounters and tension against them. You of course, get to cheat in being so fair that they'll probably not even notice how fair you're being. So fair.

The secret is being a god.

The jist of this post is that, as is expected of most designers, you're going to throw more than one challenge at your players. This is taken so much for granted that they won't notice that the reason your ever-so-fair lethal challenges against them are so well-constructed is that you have so gods damned many opportunities. In most cases, their build and team is static, in some cases, less so, but it is still dependent on the co-ordination of multiple people. As a designer, your "party" on the other side of the encounter gets to cycle out literally every encounter.  Your narrow "loss" is arguably the ideal tension for an encounter (depending on your plots).

What this means is that you have the opportunity to come up with and exploit every character combination, that the system you're using would allow them to do as well.

Teamwork makes the Dream work

I don't like saying no to my groups. My driving question is "why not?" and the answer is never "the story would suffer." As touched on in my post on balance, they can't really do anything that I can't fix, and if they do something I like, I can take it. I can specifically make a team that functions on the mechanic that I like, especially because they are disposable. I believe it's the mark of a good actor that they find a way to boost the mechanics of their teammates, and concordantly, I believe that this is an idea that a designer should use when building challenges against their intended.

Consider the following, in 5e, One of my players managed to pull a staggering 999 damage in a single turn, with three turns prep.  Explosive, single-target ANNIHILATION. Rules as written, he could kill a warship with a pin. His bane? Two shootyboyes on horses. Battlemaster fighters in 5e  can grant eachother advantage to hit, and sharpshooter longbowmen do a lot of damage from very far away. Any feature, regardless of source, that applies to other party members for the benefit of the party should  be considered, provided action economy can be preserved. There's nothing quite as aggravating to a wargamer as using an action to make someone's attack better, when you could have just attacked and done more damage than you boosted, but if you can dole out your buffs, grant superior positioning and shield your team  all while achieving your objective directly? You're doing a good job. I like Battlemaster fighters the most for this, especially when fighting against parties of players. Enemies that move together and remove their opponent's control are enemies that are worth planning against.

Bards Stack

Anyone who ever went to a party knows that one guy who always brings a guitar. Where I live, just about everyone plays an instrument or two, so one time when we were camping, we ended up with two guitars, an improvised set of drums, a melodica, an ocarina, and just about everyone with a free mouth was singing or drinking. It was fantastic. Bards, it turns out, stack. One of the biggest pitfalls in planning battles and wargaming is underestimating the efficacy of redundancy. if something was good once, ask yourself, what would it be like if it was twice as powerful, if you had twice as many chances, or twice as much effect. That's the effect of having two of those things. The idea of building up synergy isn't excluded to the players, but they sacrifice versatility, a sacrifice that you don't need to make. As a designer, whether you're working with premade tools or making your own, always consider the option of five of any one thing in a row. Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, Thief, Ranger? Weaksauce Party. Five Different Paladins? Unstoppable sauce. Who cares about springing traps when most of the time they don't even hit you and when they do, they do inconsequential amounts of damage in comparison to your ensemble of divine healing powers?  What  force of politics could hope to stop five bards who have a political agenda? Five barbarians walk into a bar. Who is walking out?

One of the examples I've used is this Team from the Danzuishanese military

The Eight-Spears General Loka Mastani(ENFP)(Two Hundred Hearts)(Fighter 13 Battlemaster)

A Punchy Green General Who's Never Alone

Age: 50
Hieght: 6'9
Weight:300

Loka is an effective fighter. There's no denying she is already a threat. What Makes Loka terrifying are the Seven other Dragonborn she will always have with her. She has hand-chosen these warfriends and they work with seamless teamwork, Using their battlemaster tactics to reposition and reallocate their resources. The eight spears of Danzuishan have always had a place in the military, and indeed were the first example of the ideology of The Echoing Immortality, but it has remained more of a badge. This particular batch of fighters isn't as effective as the others individually, but their teamwork is unrivalled. The crew all use dwarven plate and have spears that function as swords of wounding. The designs on their armor are striking Blue streaks over polished steel, with Loka's armor having gold trim. She finds people fantastic so long as they don't impede her, and has had more than one fight with the other spears because of this, but their brawling has served to strengthen their bonds.

• Temuza Lituja (Red, Fighter 11 battlemaster, Two Hundred Hearts)
• Manbalu Maheer (Brass, Fighter 11 battlemaster, Two Hundred Hearts)
• Cor Meum (Gold, Fighter 11 battlemaster, Two Hundred Hearts)
• Munani Oramakandra (Silver, Fighter 11 battlemaster, Two Hundred Hearts)
• Tempi Oramakandra (Silver, Fighter 11 battlemaster, Two Hundred Hearts)
• Katkame "Chief" Pamchar (Copper, Fighter 11 battlemaster, Two Hundred Hearts)
• Heze Morveni (White, Fighter 11 battlemaster, Two Hundred Hearts)

These guys use one of the Battlemaster feats to move each other around so they can maintain formation and harry their targets, working their way through them like mercury through aluminium. Who needs healing when your enemy is dead?

The blood of the Covenant is thicker than the water of the womb

Your position as the master of ceremonies to the game means that, as mentioned in previous posts, no person stands a chance against you. Though Damage hoses, supertanks, and those pesky talky-types might throw a wrench in your plans. Building teams to specifically target that player makes it easy to allow other, less-broken players to have fun in saving their problem solver from your devious trap. No matter what they do, you can have better synergies by tailoring those synergies to the situation.

Mishlia Pinralysraha Ra'u
-Nirrum

On Map size

Nirrum lives on a continent that you can cross on foot in under a year

I, On the other hand, live in a country that takes two years to cross and we don't even have dragons

This is my map, presently. It's missing a couple of settlements that have been added since, and while it does what I need it to do, It's not quite big enough for what I imagine.

Varomar on Snarl and my vision

That's it, the sole terrestrial continent on Snarl. Varomar as seen here is presented as about three miles per pixel. Just over two pixels for maximum view distance. As some astute fellows of culture may have noticed, this is actually just a re-textured Dwarf Fortress Map. The original map could be crossed in, eh, about a week. As a Lore Bard, I couldn't stand to feel so confined so I made it larger. Much, Much larger. My friend and I added extra features, a volcano where there wasn't one, entire empires and histories. Now, I've run into a problem. There's only one desert and it's largely quartz and salt. There's no real canyons. There's only two jungles and they're disconnected, there's only one major mountain range and some very minor ones, there's no Other continent, there's not enough room here to do the things I want to do. This map is a good size for a starter run in dungeons and dragons or any similar tabletop. Hell, this is a good style for most sandbox games on the table or no. What it isn't, is big enough for my plots. Why isn't it big enough? It's not big enough because my players can't take over the Mediterranean analogue without then going more or less uncontested because there's a total of...three... ish, other countries that matter. That's not enough. I want these people to get to their high level powers and still have challenges such as other empires in the shapes of Rome, Mongolia, Modern america, an overly aggressive version of transpacific  pre-modern Polynesia, and still have places to conquer.   I want a Portugal analogue, the deep left-fielder of the trading world until they rounded the horn of Africa. I want political shifts coming out of the woodwork because the only thing that stops a level 20 wizard from being relevant is too many requests to be relevant.  People who read this blog might understand that I DM for keeps. In a general design sense, this might be unfeasible. Games like Civilization, where tides of alliances constantly shift somewhat work, but combining this with an RPG, an adventure game, or any title might be cumbersome. In the case of tabletop, the abundance of such general prep work means I'll never have to prep again when I'm done.

Positive, Negative feedback loops and the Mu-loop in RPGs

The context for your worldview as a run-of-the-mill daywalking peasant or adventurer is simple: Survive, flourish if possible, enjoy yourself when you can. Importantly excluded from this context are the things you can't really reasonably control. Don't get raided by dragons, don't fund extremist cults in other countries, don't enter into a ill-foreseen resource deal with a neighbour with one of the most well written contracts in legal history and a 65-year unbreakable term span. Even if you do have a say in these things, it's unlikely that you'll be able to predict their outcomes anyway. Turns out, we can't predict the future at all. Patrick Rothsfuss, author of the Kingkiller chronicle, (a delightful quadrilogy of three at present), describes the concepts of Intrinsic and extrinsic power in his second book. Most normal people only have two options, the strength of their arm or the strength that people are willing to use for them. Politicians of all kinds, the smart ones at least, realize that their power is of the latter kind. Most Kings are unaware of the problems that so frequently plague civil engineering, they just have someone willing to know for them. Adventurers, protagonists, agonists, bands, gangs, and most denizens of the non-material planes might fall in the former category, and this is dangerous.

Adventuring often comes with a positive feedback loop. The more powerful you are, the easier it is to overcome challenges. This tends to blindside local politicians who aren't used to single individuals that can threaten entire armies. In terms of power politics, this is bad. We do this to grant power to ourselves in our daily lives, frequently to avoid the fact that we have about as much intrinsic (personal) power as we can gain and without some massive networking, financing and in many cases corruption, this is about as far as we can get with Extrinsic (borrowed) power. As game designers, we fight this problem with increasingly large problems.  We create a negative feedback loop, where getting more powerful means more difficult challenges. Blue shells in Mario Kart, unconquerable bureaucracy in less corrupt government, Dragons. If either of these get too far out of control it becomes an automatic loss with no hope of recovery, on one hand for the players, on the other hand for the designer, and in both cases, the game.

Is that even realistic though? So many adventures are designed well to simply mask the linear or slightly curved progression, such that it's hard to tell if you've gotten better. Some adventures go out of their way to signpost their progression by throwing the same low-level challenge at you repeatedly just to make it clear that you're not insignificant anymore. In my games, my players have died to cold, shallow rivers, while taking on sandstone gods as an optional laugh. The dissonance and whiplash are staggering. They have walked into places with things that were beyond their powerscale, and in many cases, lived. Their Intrinsic power frequently matches the world and even punches well above its weight when it comes to dealing with problems. For this, I have developed my games to include mu-loop challenges. Named for Douglas Hofstadter's meta-defining philosophy heh, this Mu feedback-loop revolves around the idea that all of the challenges you face around one level are (while not confined to that level) challenges that are dependent on what you can do in that context. Most designers in tabletop will end up moving to this system anyway. When a player gets too powerful, they then have to start dealing with problems that were already there, always there, but out of their tier, out of their purview. "The Enemy" switches from goblins and orcs to the machinations of their handler, the plots of their country, then the machinations of their mastermind. These problems were always there (or at least we imply), and if the audience knows this, then we have a Mu-feedback loop. Every time they stop to step back to look and recontextualize the problem, the new problem is equally obvious, but a distinctly different problem. Mu-Feedback Loop Design in this context is simply stacking problems on top of each-other in such a way that in all contexts, the problem being addressed is simultaneously a step in the right direction but also not enough.

The big thing is, that in order to do this, I'm going to need huge amounts of context, and for that, I need a bigger map.

What size is big enough?

An important thing to remember is that, frequently, as a DM, you're not getting paid, you prepare what you can and what you need to to have a good time. Don't be some asshole madman who expects to require a fully rationalized map, economy, society, and political structure to have a good time. One of the best DMs I have ever had started a 12 hour session with a single piece of paper describing everything he needed for Skalmirthon, a document which is somewhere around six times the size, restaurants excluded. Compared to another great DM, who has accurate positions on the entire populations of his exquisitely mapped and prepared towns. It might be a bit easier for him, as it is set largely in England, but the efficiency of preparation is a sign of a great Designer. 

For video games, your players are going to explore every aspect of the map, so minimizing the amount of thought and effort it takes into building each area is important. Some of the greatest games ever have been developed with Design by Subtraction as a core philosophy. To design is art, and art is expression by abstraction. To design, thus, is to communicate. To Express. As all communication must find a balance between context and abstraction, it must therefore be done as succinctly as possible.

Your map should be no bigger than you want your story to be, and express nothing that you do not need. Can you tell that I have lofty ambitions? 

The Purpose of a Map

I believe that the purpose of a map is to be the stage upon which your players play. I've been in plays before, as sound design, as an actor. The stage is so small. So confining, and the edges so visible. A stage too small might force constraints against the tone of a play, and force the designer to get extremely creative with their space. A stage too large, and it will be hard to see either side of it. So why do I want a multi-continent, Multi-civilization, planet-spanning empire? Dal 20va Manapiral Ra'a, Jaraha.  Mostly unwarranted hype aside, I know a few of my weaknesses, and I find myself struggling to challenge players at certain points in their adventures. I'm good at building civilizations and making them do things, so I hide behind my lack of creativity by making the world more real and more full.  Ultimately, there will always be something to do in my world. That is the reason behind mu-feedback loop design, the reason 

There are better ways to tell a story than how I do it.

That said, I can always only focus on a small area, and when doing my session prep, that's what I'll do.

Another way to think of a map is a way to set tone. A mountain presents an obstacle, their tops barren and inhospitable; their slopes problematic to traverse and occupied by dangerous creatures; their bases awash in cold water, presenting an obvious path, to the detriment of those who take it unwary of the danger that waits there. Similarly, a desert is nearly synonymous with thirst and want, a forest with mystery, a swamp with difficulty, and plains with exposure.  A small map like my current one can set this tone once. A larger map will allow you to set the tone again and again, each time with the players getting better at it, until it becomes a non-issue, a memory or a brief backdrop against which they set their actions, perhaps, a home.

In Conclusion

The way I look at a map and how I look at adventuring are more or less one and the same. Your map should be as big as your adventure, and while it is the mark of a skillful writer to do a lot with a little, you can probably tell from the length of my blog posts that I could use a bit more skill in that regard. To make up for that, I make sure I have a lot to use, so that no one can tell. And after all, In fiction, if no one can tell that you're cheating while writing, is there any difference from having done it right?


As a sidenote, I have found often that cluttered, detailed things are far more appealing than clean and simple things. In every Ghibli/Miyazaki scene, for example, you can expect to find at least three, usually four focal points. In the most beautiful art, I have found pleasure in exploring the space and being rewarded for looking closely, maybe that's why I want a big map, to fill it with so many tiny things

Mishlia, Pewdiepie Alo'u
 -Dal Ganhihizhuh, Kaolok, Manazhuh, Nirrum 

Out-of-Game skills and How they impact your game

Nirrum can be assumed to succeed all his skill checks

I, on the other hand, can be assumed to fail all my saves. We both have Jack of all Trades though.

So you've decided to design a game or a story for your friends or for a project of your own. You decide to set it up one day after you get home from whatever it is you do. In designing the course of one section you realize something. "Wait, those cliffs should be Marble, not Basalt." or "Wait, I can flesh out this menu and make it look more real" or "Now hold on, these trees wouldn't be good for building these houses." Even more frequently, a question will come up in the design process, whether at a table in the middle of play or at a desk fiddling around in any modelling app, that you just know the answer to. "What's inside this toolshed?" or "did they even have pizza in this time (turns out, pizza as we know it today kinda started in 1891, but it was december of 1890 in our campaign)." 
Surprise surprise, you've spent more than an hour bothering to learn something and now you know it. If it took more than a year to learn, you might even be an expert. Got a degree, even a doctorate? Well shit, whatever you're designing is going to end up asking a question of an expert and 👏👏, that's something you qualify for. 

The Inevitability of intersection

Unless your area of expertise is in an unskilled field where none of your questions have a "why" to follow the basic answer, You're going to find that at some point, what you do, no matter how far removed, is going to come up. I did Computer Systems and Networking and run a high fantasy 5e campaign where computers don't exist yet. Useless right? Well it turns out that the concept of policy and protocol is extremely relevant outside of computers, especially when there's a race of diabolic end-users that act on written contract only. It also turns out that I can probably break modrons with reliable ease.

My brother is a historian? Obviously useful right? Double that expectation, because being a historian means having a lot of answers to a lot of questions.

Bringing your skill into your game is, at least in my eyes, one of the better things you can do as a person who is designing one. The pedagogy upon which your skill and field are built are indicative of a real world with problems that need to be solved according to their context. When building a world with a degree of verisimilitude, it should come as no surprise that your minor in women's studies and major in art history are actually extremely relevant and good groundings for in-world interactions. I recommend against pulling an agenda, as it becomes obvious quickly and tiring for your players. I'll talk about that further down. There are ultimately two categories of skill that interact with the game in different ways.

Indirect-Experience Skills

It's hard as a geologist to show your players the canyon you're imagining, the color stone you're imagining, the landscape that dictates the tone that you're trying to convey. At best, you can show them a picture but unless you've got that same setting in your backyard, your iron-rich post-glacial conglomerate highlands are going to be exclusively theatre of the mind. Your political structure, cultural philosophy, and tax bracket-ratios are only ever going to come up if you

 a) push your audience to them (probably don't do that) 

or

 b) Your players either ask or discover them organically through their adventure (Very fulfilling)

Build your world as a world to the best of your ability. Remember that nothing is perfect, everything is mutable, and don't be disappointed if they don't ask, it was there for them to discover and they're making their own journey.

Direct-Experience Skills

This one is harder to do, but more immersive. Cooking, Drawing, Composing, and other things that you can allow your witnesses to experience outside of the theatre of the mind are all fantastic inclusions. Don't force people to experience what they don't want to experience and don't hide things in food, 'cept maybe food coloring for poison, and your  assemblage will love you. Probably. Make sure to check for allergies if you're doing food in particular.

Bringing these expertises into the game allow one to prove the world, and allow the players to briefly become their characters. This only tends to work in tabletop games or in merchandise for other forms of game, and is thus limited, but unique inclusions of amminiculi bolster the experience as a whole

Shared Experience

A gaming group is made of multiple people, and indeed, exist in a context with multiple people. Including those other people in the delivery of Direct or Indirect experiences is an easy option. If someone knows how to cook ask infrequently, politely, and without entitlement if they would like to help you by cooking a dish that would work as an aid for the story. The same can be true of any skill that a player has. You are not entitled to their skill, but should they choose to share it with you, then you have many new ways to develop a fondness for the experience that you are curating, that is, the game world. Fan works, for those whose audience might lie outside the immediate actors, are a valid part of the experience and should be cherished. Those who are willing and able to contribute without being obstructive are encouraged to do so, and reaching out to find and ask those people is encouraged as well. 

All of this post is simply a reminder that you are not the only one in this experience, and that we have many ways to supplement those experiences. If you have a skill that adds to the world, use it. If you know someone who is willing to use theirs to do the same, it is a good idea.

Shor hiar L'A rau

-Dal Kaolok Nirrum, Archbard of the college of lore

Rewarding exploration

Nirrum sends his Hikaorahi to find books and lore for the library.

I, on the other hand, send my players to discover thinly veiled Discworld references

Most people know the feeling of being told "no" in one way or another, to have the game maker's face just metaphorically appear as a wall in game, obstructing the path forward or not letting the actor do what they, by most accounts, should be able to do. But one thing that lets down players nearly as much is exploring and finding nothing. For this post, I'm going to go through a few scenarios and talk about the sort of rewards a player could be rewarded with without unbalancing your game with extra items or EXP.

Food & food locations.

People are so much more pliable when they find food, especially familiar food, yet exotic food. In knowing what your biome and ecology looks like, you end up having a rare opportunity to tell your rangers and foraging folk what they find. In Drakenhearth, climbing a tree, can reward you with a few fruits, digging with vegetables, and hunting with exotic meats:

  Giant Beetles 

Boalisks

Monstrous Crayfish 

Quipper and other fish

Papaya, tamarind, wild (and thus shitty) banana, Taro, and various vegetables

but food needn't come from the wild. The audience has a tendency to bond with any character with a name that holds narrative salience. Our desire to pack bond and to do so with the most desirable individuals means that the back-alley ramen shop owner who said hello is leagues more desirable than <default restaurant owner>. He's special, he's theirs, He is the ramen maker, there is no need for another in their eyes. It's worth noting that this is especially powerful when you don't seem to have planned this, the candid, honest, and surprised answers of the Victim NPC are what endears them to the players. Let them have it, it's an easy reward and a good hook for later.

Hard Resources 

When your players catch on to the idea that they can decide to do things with stuff, they're going to be pleased. This is again, where knowing what your world is made of really comes in handy. If you have an idea of what sort of minerals and trees you can find in any given area (hint: google "Minerals of <place that looks like the place I'm imagining>" and "Trees of <zone>", then you'll be able to tell them, either mentioning it in passing or giving them an answer when they ask. Your players want to have trees to build with, to craft with. They'll make a note and either will come back later to get it or make something with immediate benefit now, like a hardy spear shaft or a replacement shield. The same is true for minerals. Iron and gold are obvious boons, but Granite and marble are similarly excellent finds! If you know what's in an area just look up "uses of <thing>" and you'll be able to find some interesting finds, like this Asbestos stuff! Jewels are a different source of obvious value that one can find if you just know how to look. If a player is looking for something specific, look up online where it is found and then put it in the place in your world that is the most likely to have that! Don't ignore your player's expertise if they are looking for something! Add  it to the world and reward the player for having taken that path in real life by making their experience gain more verisimilitude.

Pets

This one can get a bit dangerous, but as mentioned, humans have incredibly strong pack-bonding instincts. We exist majorly in a social capacity. Because of the advantage of social behaviour, humans have evolved to pack-bond with just about anything that we can even slightly anthropomorphize. One example I heard about included a dented pack of colored markers. This gets particularly strong with animals that come with benefits. Dragons as an extreme example. While dragons, as sapients that are not spectacularly social, would be difficult to convince of anything that doesn't directly and assuredly benefit them, other animals are much more pliable. Social creatures like gricks, wolves, lions, and ants (provided you can smell right), become easier to access and work with if you are able to establish yourself in their social order. Such animals might not listen often and with some of them, if you aren't at the top of the social order, they might expect you to listen to them.  Be aware of what it is like to keep such an animal as a pet before you allow your players to say it is "tame" or if they breed it "Domesticated."

Pets might seem like they change the balance of the game but it is important to note that no amount of non-magical bribing will stop most natural creatures from being skittish, driven to survive, and unlikely to take an arrow to save you. Being raised from a young age might help this, but to fight instincts requires a few generations. On top of that, it's just an excuse for you, the designer, to throw bigger challenges at them.

Plot hooks for later!

If you're in a place where civilization has left it's mark, that mark can easily be a plot hook. A letter, a key, an eye in a jar that always looks at the one non-magical party member. Of course they won't leave it there, a party will never leave anything behind provided they have the time to take it with them. Showing a stampeding herd move down a valley, the dust on the horizon of an army on the move, a book titled "10 tricks to tame the tarrasque" that's tossed into a trashbin, a series of  blowdarts in varied states of rust throughout the grass in what looks like a great campsite are all great things to let them find, but only let them find it if they look!

Information and Knowledge

Hinting at what is to come is a great tool for a Game Maestro. It doesn't work every time, hell it'll probably barely work half the time, but the moment your player picks up on something, you'll feel great. Learning that the monks use waterwheels to power their traps tells your  to prepare ways of making ice or stopping the water. Learning that the super lich has buried deep into the mountain tells them to take a lot of rations with them. Knowledge that informs their decisions is a great thing to hide in the environments that they go through. Stumbling on knowledge on accident can also be a really good tool to encourage that exploration. It tells players that paying attention to the world is something that they can benefit from, and then rewarding them when they go looking is a good way to hook them on your world.

Next up I'll be talking about making your game into your game with your own skills

Jaraha Ganhihi'u'ab, Falioru Kuke'a'ab

-Nirrum the Mad, Archbard of the College of Lore

Effective Ecology

Nirrum despises stirges and thinks them a blight on the world

I, on the other hand, really just hate mosquitoes.

An Effective Ecology is not hard to make, but can really make a lot of common questions really easy to answer. You don't need to be out in a natural setting to have an ecology either. I believe Jeff Goldblum has something to say on that. Putting together an effective basic ecological model is one of the simplest things that I do when I build a civilization, and for you it can be an easy tool to not only make your world seem more real, but to introduce natural complications into your environments.

One Simple Trick: Biologists hate me!

Understandably, an actual ecological model is complex, by definition it is as complex as the civilization posts I've put up but also for each species and their relationships between each other and then some. But thanks to Tolkien's desire for his fictional world to look a lot like ours, Most settings just have an earth-like ecology. This gives us carte blanche to cheat the system by just adding on top of it. The nature of most enemies that we need to include is that they are aggressive. In this same token, many of them will be aggressive carnivores or territorial herbivores, the sort of things that have stat blocks.

Ultimately, you just need pick a bunch of climate-suitable or at least creatures altered to suit that climate and then ask "what do they eat when adventurers aren't around?"

For a more fulfilled eco-blurb, you'll need to ask a few more.

EcoForumla

Because this is just sand in the sandbox, you shouldn't spend too much time on this. Answers should be rapid-fire and simple, though if something is important or interesting,

1) What is the biome like? There is a lot that can be said on this but in general, look up what you can about the specific area you want to imagine. Clay deserts, salt desert, sandy desert. Look up the country or region that resembles your internal image, Qatar, Bangladesh, Montana, the scablands, the isle of Skye, Hickman's Harbour.
2) What lives here? This part is mostly geared toward plants. If you looked up the area, the region, or the biome, then you should be able to get a decent list of plants that describe the terrain. If the plants include tall trees, be sure to see if they're any good for building.

3) What do the animals eat? You could go for a detailed list here, but really, you're only going to see three or four types of animals that matter, and you only need to think about them by bracket. They should also be in the right proportions

• Small insectivores, scavengers, and seed-eaters (squirrels, rats, lizards, pigeons)
• Small predators that eat those things
• Larger herbivores (they eat the big plants)
• Larger carnivores
• Maybe some fancy birds

4) What are the exceptional creatures? This is where you add in the rare monster. This is where the magical world interacts with the mundane when no one is looking. Dragons eat whatever meat is available, Manticores might stalk anything that moves, Trolls might hide under bridges waiting for goats to pass by.

Really, that's it

Once you have a grasp on these things, you can flesh out your environment quickly, usually in a single paragraph, making cool notes and talking about how it affects your local culture.

 The Gannaga river is well known for its multitude of fish, especially flashpike and Danzuishanese vined lake trout, the latter of which is the symbol of the Maze-hunters, the former of which is a great prank to play on newcomers, as when its skin is pierced, the fish emits a bright and startling flash of light, even after being cooked. It can do this two or three times depending on the size. Gannaga river dolphins have evolved blind to avoid this, as flashpike is their preferred meal.

Nirrum's Note:It is suspected that dolphins arrived on the plane as a result of a terrible war among their people. I am told by the sea elves that I occasionally meet through Durkala Shek that the river dolphins are the sort of goblins of the dolphin world, (Doblins, if you will) while the offshore dolphins are far more sophisticated, though indeed, sadistic.

The region around Danzuishan is subtropical, of mild humidity and of interesting trees. Oak in particular seems to thrive around here, as does willow. The forest has many herbs and some wild potatoes. But is comparatively sparse in edible vegetation compared to the rest of the plane, though it is thick with game, in particular boar, hare, and further south, feral goat. Smaller elephants than those found further east on the grass road also wander the forest. Large Rhinoceros are probably the most dangerous herbivore, owing to their propensity to attack campfires, and thus, camps. All sorts of predators feast on the creatures here, from tigers to phase spiders, to Manticores & Wyverns.  

Kao Wita'u'ab dalke?

-Nirrum

Example Puzzle Dungeon: Temple of the World Spirit

Nirrum has written volumes on the nature of this spirit

I, on the other hand, have written only a few paragraphs, despite having invented it.

When played a Shaman back in Dungeons and Dragons 4e, the only figurine we had for my spirit summon was a Translucent orange lego scorpion. It was the world-speaker spirit. When I started writing for my own campaign, I decided to include this as a force in my own world. Rather, I made it THE force of my own world. disconnected from the gods and the creators, this was the plane's magical immune system, built to contain a terrible eldritch force underneath a well-crafted but ultimately physical shape.

I wanted to introduce this spirit in an effective way, to tell the players why it wasn't active in helping them. I made it antagonize a yuan-ti settlement, made it force them to build this puzzle dungeon specifically so it could attempt to communicate to the players. I made it with the intent of proving that this creature, powerful though it was, was not capable of filling its function without help.

You'll need this, to begin

Temple of the World Spirit

 The entrance to the world spirit's temple is at the top. A huge bronze bell needs to ring to unlock the path inward. Underneath the bell is signs of a fire being lit such as a blackened bowl-shaped depression, some ashes and unburned wood. A small campfire burning for ten minutes will prepare the bell, allowing to be rung while it is still hot, the bell must be heated evenly, so one cast of heat metal won't be able to emulate the effects, though two sustained casts would. The bell rings for an unnaturally long time before anything happens. Quite suddenly, the central square block, containing the bell and the fire both drop downward, some parts of the block stopping earlier than others, making a narrow staircase that descends 100 feet before stopping. Ten Minutes later, the entrance resets back to normal.

Dm's Note: As an added bonus, the players have actually just crossed over into the Feywild. If you want to do some time-warp shenanigans, whether to catch them up with another group or delay them until another group catches up, this is a great place for some timeline changes. Torches that aren't part of the dungeon emit green fire and a low-pitched hum

The Purpose of the dungeon is for the world-spirit to communicate with the party the importance of safeguarding the bones against their destruction, thus, the world's destruction and the Freeing of Teruna. Thus The theme of this dungeons is Broken Prisons. The world spirit itself is trying to communicate its intent with them. This entire place was done with spirit magic. Creatures that die here find themselves in the Xanaran's at the end of the dungeon a few minutes later and are ushered into the stinger-opening without triggering the end scene.

This dungeon does not reset in any way, it was intended for the people who are now entering it. If they get clever and start breaking shit. Let'em. If they tunnel out of the dungeon, they're in feywild. Good luck with that.

DUNGEON STYLE

The dungeon is in the shape of a Scorpion with a Snakelike tail as if it were standing on a Dodecahedron (a d12). The tail is of a narratively infinite length but eventually pierces the hall of concept where it comes into contact with the claw Trochanters
The Dungeon's Colors are black, pale green, Gold, and pale pink.

It smells unnotable unless otherwise noted. The shadows are soft and the light is diffuse, unless otherwise noted. Sound echoes hard but poorly, the acoustics are terrible.

The walls and ceiling qualify as rather cheap but still striking semi-precious gems. The Doors are of magical quality and are immutable

The dungeon has black doors inlaid with gold filigree in the shape of a poem in abyssal, describing how the world-speaker should stay out of the way of the yuan-ti. The words are charged with magic that prevent the door from being damaged while it is in the feywild. The doors are large and their frames are hexagonal. They have no hinges but a handle on one side allows the door to be opened by rolling it sideways. Opening doors requires an action with a DC 11 Strength(Athletics) check. The doors are well-balanced but are mechanically Driven to close. Keeping them open for more than one round causes the DC to increase by 5 for every round that passes up to a maximum of 30, If the door is held open past this point, it breaks and remains open. Undoing the Door's Magic requires two checks, a DC23 arcana check to learn how to pause the magic and a DC15 Sleight of Hand to scratch the appropriate lines. The doors feel glassy with obvious changes in texture where the writing is.

DM's Note: The Doors close with enough force to bend steel and crush many forms of rock, but even that has its limits
Nirrum's Note: I can't help but notice that it is only the doors with these protections... I've got a few dwarves in mind for this dungeon

The Dungeon has Green Serpentine (Of course) Walls, with snakes in relief. The walls seem to smell of blood, or copper but none is present. The walls are nearly a meter thick at least. (but not indestructible if someone takes a pick to it, go to 20 if they escape). The walls feel glassy in all places where the carving has been finished, though occasional imperfections in the material will create a void or a small rough spot
The Dungeon is lit by wall mounted sconces of magical light. This light is sunlight. The sconces are shaped like Snakes which are trying to eat the source of the light.

The floors are pink Rhodonite. They are polished to Reflective. Below them is some extremely plastic but curiously mixed igneous bedrock, except where noted.

The ceilings are also rhodonite are are the same thickness as the walls unless otherwise noted and tend to be 15ft high, though the polish is far less clean

1) Antechamber

The first room of the world-speaker's temple only depicts a mural of The World Speaker . There is a door to the north(2), and unopenable doors to east(6), and west(9). The way the party came in is a large pit that seals with a square pillar in two minutes. The pillar slides upward, taking the bell with it. The pillar is rough, worn smooth in some places by imperfect setting, but largely it remains made of the same granite the rest of the outside of the temple is.

2) Hall of Concept

The hall of concept has four doors, North(9), East(3), West(6), and South(1).
A large, slightly curved Spike hangs from the ceiling, extremely close inspection reveals a tiny hole in the tip. The ceiling is a dome that is 50ft high at its peak, where the curved spike hangs.
This room is actually Unfinished. The walls are partially uncarved and a table sits near the North Door. The room is a dome that is 80ft wide

On the table is a small contraption. When a pin with a ring is pulled off of the contraption. The cheap string it was holding rises as a brass counterweight drops, pushing on a lever. There are two such pins and pulling on the second one lowers a second counterweight which pushes another lever, causing a tiny facsimile of a door to open on the contraption. The model can be picked up and interacted with but it is completely mundane.

Next to the table is a crate of dull chisels, awls, and punches. Next to that are eight broken hammer hafts. In front of the table is the skeleton of a Yuan-ti pureblood. A tarnished dagger is on the ground nearby, the first half of the dagger is rusted.
The North Door(9) is unopenable, though it has a handle that would indicate that it can be opened. Two sconces flank the door making that part of the room exceptionally bright. The Door only opens when both have gone out
The East(3) and West Doors(6) are both open

Dm's Note: This pureblood died when another yuan-ti assassinated her. The Pureblood had intimate knowledge about the dungeon

When the players re-enter the room after releasing both pins, sliding down from the ceiling above the north door is a cage suspended by two thick chains. Inside there is a Devourer (Volos138). It Breaks out and Chases the players and attempts to kill them. That said, if they try the now darkened North Door (9) it will open.

3) Left Trochanter and Femur

This room is decorated with a mosaic mural detailing the Timeline of the plane up to the cooling of the aegis and the return of life to the surface, and starts with the presence of Pelor. The beginning of this room is a round section that is closed off with bars. Normal steel bars. (They've got an AC of 15 and 20hp each). They are spaced 1 inch apart. The next 30ft is a long and flat section which contains most of the mural. There is a trap in the long section. A pressure plate near the middle which drops a 10x10x5 cage on whoever triggers it. The pressure plate does not take up the whole hallway, There is three feet on either side to allow people past. The person must make a DC17 dexterity saving throw or be trapped within the cage, if the creature caught in the cage is taller than 5ft, it takes 2d10 bludgeoning damage as well. The cage requires a DC 18 Strength check to lift. The door at the end of the hallway leads to room (4), the left patella

Dm's Note: Choose your own trapped square but choose it before they enter the room, it is a DC 16 investigation to spot the pressure plate but it requires thieves' tools to deactivate without force

4) Left Patella

This room is 30ft long, 10ft wide and Magically Darkened. The entire room is also covered in poisonous spikes which have poisonous barbs on them. The barbs are stationary but it is a DC17 dexterity saving
throw to not be punctured and a DC15 Constitution save to not be poisoned once you get poked by either a barb or a full spike.The spikes do 1d6 damage, the Barbs do 1 damage, and the poison does 1d10 damage and the creature is poisoned for one hour. There is a 2ft wide s-shaped Crawlway that a creature can crawl or crouch along with ease if it is able to avoid the spikes. At 10ft, 20ft and 25ft, the are barbed rods going across the hallway that stop creatures from standing that have the same effect as the barbs in the rest of the room.

Dm's Note: Devil's sight, a cane or staff or something to detect the danger with or even a 4th level cast of Dispel magic will remove most of this challenge. That's OK, there's more coming. Remember that Dexterity is body control, while strength is force output.

5) The Left Claw

The door to the left claw(6) from the Antechamber (1) is locked. It lacks a handle from that side.This room can only be entered from room (5). The Door to the Antechamber is one-way and only is able to be opened from this side and then, only after the Pin is pulled out.

The Room Is in the shape of an emperor scorpion's claw. Entering the room, one sees a hallway that is mostly straight and thin to their right. The hallway's left wall is jagged and approximately 60ft long. To the right there is a larger chamber, 65ft long, which has statues of an azer, a storm giant, a human wizard and a Tree. The Tree is notably a real tree with exceptionally white bark. Its roots extend through the podium base and out into the bedrock beyond and strangely seem to get thicker the further they are followed. The statues are placed in irregularly sized alcoves on the right wall of this hallway. The right wall is deeply curved. although the hallway ends rather narrowly, like the opposite hall. At the end of this pincer, there is a Bottle on a pedestal which should be identifiable as a potion of healing. In the deepest part of the curve, upon a small dais, there is a Pin made of Granite that is chained to a large Steel circle in the ceiling.

The pin is attached to a Vrock (mm64) via a 5ft chain that it cannot escape. The Vrock is extremely hostile. Removing the pin causes the steel circle to extremely rapidly ascend 20ft, revealing a hole in the ceiling through which 8 quasits(mm63) climb out, while also Freeing the Vrock to move around.

Dm's Note: This should go without saying, but it is an easier fight if they kill the vrock before taking up the pin. Punish them if they try to free it first. Focus down the kind-hearted, attack them first. The Vrock cannot get out itself. Magic. The demons just want to kill something, they don't care if they die.

Passing through the door at the end of this hall brings the players back to the antechamber(1), A sconce next to the north door In the hall of concept(2) has gone dark

6) Right Trochanter and Femur

This room is decorated with a mosaic mural detailing the Timeline of the plane during its creation and the sealing of the life-eating demon and ends with the presence of Pelor. The beginning of this room is a round section that is closed off with bars. Normal steel bars. (They've got an AC of 15 and 20hp each). They are spaced 1 inch apart. Similar bars drop down around the door handle six seconds after the door closes, preventing it from opening. A black pudding drops down upon the party. A DC 18 perception check on entering the room can spot the trap before it is sprung. The Black pudding takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage upon falling. The longer part of the hallway is 30ft long. Four Tripwires along the hallway trigger poisoned dart traps. It takes a DC15 perception check to spot either the holes or the tripwires. The resulting DC15 investigation check is made with advantage to figure out the trap, disarming it is not spectacularly hard. The darts attack with +8 to hit and do 1d4 piercing damage and a creature that takes that damage must make a DC 15 constitution saving throw or take 2d10 poison damage and be subject to the poisoned condition for 1 hour. The darts have a wide bladed top, thin center, and flights made of individual feather barbs.

Out of the image of a black and slim monster, a dart fires toward you!

The image, in question looks as a Wasp or stirge with sixteen eyes, a large stinger, an abdomen that appears to have two large holes in it such that it resembles a strange forearm, and a vaguely humanoid skull

Out of the image of a white tree whose roots spread across the mural, Another dart!!

The Trees roots run through the entire mural and in fact, seem to spread across the floor.

Out of the image of a pile of bones in the vague outline of a monster, A dart!!!

The Same monster as before

A dart fires from the image of the hand of Pelor!

The God of the sun looks smug

7) Right Patella

This room is 30ft along and 10ft wide and Magically Darkened room. Creatures with Darkvision of at least 90ft can see in this room as if it were dim light but creatures with darkvision of only 60ft cannot. Creatures with 120ft of darkvision can see as if they would in nonmagical darkness. The door at the end of the room leads to room(8)
Two shadow demons Attack

ROLL INITIATIVE, THE DARKNESS ITSELF SEEMS TO ATTACK

8) The Right Claw

Identical in shape to the left claw(4). The Door to the right claw(8) is only openable from The Right Patella(6). The Door to the Antechamber is one-way and only is able to be opened from this side and then, only after the Pin is pulled out.

The Room Is in the shape of an emperor scorpion's claw. Entering the room, one sees a hallway that is mostly straight and thin to their right. The hallway's left wall is jagged and approximately 60ft long. To the right there is a larger chamber, 65ft long, which has statues of the party, in intricate detail. Members of the party that are cursed, magical in origin, of a different plane, or have a spooky destiny might be made out of a different type and quality of stone. The statues are placed in irregularly sized alcoves on the right wall of this hallway. The right wall is deeply curved. Although the hallway ends rather narrowly, like the opposite hall. At the end of this pincer, there is a Bottle on a pedestal which should be identifiable as a potion of healing. In the deepest part of the curve, upon a small dais, there is a Pin made of Granite that is chained to a large Steel circle in the ceiling.

Touching the pin causes a magical chain to spring from it and attach itself to the creature that touched it unless they succeed on a DC18 Dexterity saving throw. If they fail, they are trapped in a magical chain that prevents them from using magic themselves, and drained of the strength to lift the pin. the chain shortens to 5ft long. The Pin does not react to ranged attacks. The pin can only contain one creature at a time and will alternate between multiple creatures if they try to push it at once. It takes a DC15 athletics check or 30 damage to lift the pin out of its hole. The steel circle in the ceiling slides up to shower dead bugs down on anyone below it. Anyone chained to the pin takes 2d6 bludgeoning damage as they are yanked up. When the chain stops sliding up, 10ft later, the person is released

Dm's Note: It was a poorly-thought-out trap. The Bugs had been deadly rot grubs when they were alive, but it turns out air and food are really essential for them. If the party does this claw first, then they will know to look at what might come out of the disk, If they do the left claw first, then the tension release from this humorous moment should be a good laugh and opportunity for role-play. I like this design duality. Get those who get hit by the bugs to roll a DC15 wisdom save or be frightened for one minute. Had this been two hundred years ago, they could have died.

Passing through the door at the end of this hall brings the players back to the antechamber(1), A sconce next to the north door In the hall of concept(2) has gone dark.

9) Prosoma

This squarish room contains Ten doors. One in the north(18), one in the south(2) and Four on Either side, east and west. For Brevity, these rooms are done in pairs. At one end of this room, Four blocks seem to be casting wall of force, preventing access to the next chamber to the north, the wall is pressed up against the blocks, teleportation inside the barrier is not possible. The Doors on the left are all locked.

10,14) Pair 1 - Petty Greed

Behind the first door is a large staircase which turns into a slide with a single twist, leading into the puzzle room. The slides are climbable but take a DC 10 Athletics check

The Monster chosen will be in a cage. The Cage is well made, but it seems to be holding down a chain on a pin, very similar to the ones in the claws. The Pin is welded into the cage. The Cage is bolted into the floor (with large hex bolts) and has a smaller cage in the middle, showing what appears to be 5 gold resting on the floor of the room, beneath the floor of the cage, The cage covers the passage forward. The bars are all half cut-through and a hacksaw is on the floor next to a Yuan-ti Malison skeleton which has a large serpentine rock buried in its skull. The room is a Pentagon with each side being 25ft long. There are other parts of other broken cages scattered around the room. The exit travels back up a set of stairs and then down a slide to the Prosoma(9) again.

Dm's Note: The catch here is simple. You can't progress Forward without dealing with the caged monster. But there are many easy and creative solutions to not have to deal with it! Not Dealing with it is actually the point and preferred answer. The chain, the bolts, wall of force, any of those good things! Heck, Even blasting it to bits while it's still in the cage is a great option. Free cage! but how will they get that gold? Oho

Upon completing pair one, Regardless of how the chain was released, one of the stones will have cracked along its length and the paired door will be unlocked. At the top of the stairs behind the normally locked door in this pair, is a bag of beans on a small shelf built into the wall

11,15) Pair 2 - Fear

The first door in this pair leads to a hallway that stretches evenly for a bit before turning around and into a staircase that leads downward in a somewhat shallow slope.

Here, in yet another pentagonal room, The party finds a pile of lumber (palm), another metal pin with a chain leading up to the ceiling, and some carpenter's tools. Upon touching the pin, a creature must make a D13 dexterity saving throw or be hit by a grey ooze (mm 243). The ooze follows players around the room and indeed, will follow them out of it if they don't figure out how to deal with it. This particular ooze will regenerate 10hp at the start of each round. The ooze seems less amorphous than others of its kind, and can't squeeze through any openings smaller than 2 inches at all. This pin is covered in runes similar to the doorway, A dc 13 Arcana check is enough to tell that the chain and pin are not immune to corrosion. Remember, Grey oozes can eat through metal but not wood. Do not be surprised if they capture the grey ooze

The door in this room will not open until the chain is dealt with.

Upon completing pair two, Regardless of how the chain was released, one of the stones will have cracked along its length and the paired door will be unlocked. At the top of the flight of stairs on the other side, before the party reaches the normally locked door is a set of Mithril scale armor, sized for a medium sized humanoid,

12,16) Pair 3 - Impending threats

Behind the first door here is a stairway down that doubles back on itself before becoming a short hallway which opens into a Strange set of catwalks. Upon Entering the room, the party sees more grey oozes being released from holes in the walls. They fall onto the catwalks and then The door on the other side of the room is not locked. In the center of the catwalks is a cage and behind that, The pin, which is behind held in place by a simple rod. The Cage contains a Nabassu (Mordenkainen's 135) which eyes the party hungrily. The cage is suspended above a room below which contains another Nabassu which appears to be Unconscious. The chains which suspend the cage are under attack by the grey oozes. It takes a grey ooze two turns to eat through a chain. Chains have 15hp and 18ac and a Damage threshold of 4. If the oozes succeed, the cage falls and the nabassu escapes, taking no falling damage

If they fail to stop the grey oozes from chewing through the chains, then they will fight two nabassu in the next pair. If they attack the nabassu on the floor below in any way, it attacks back, see below for special details.

The door on the other side leads up a similar staircase, and inset into the wall at the landing where the stairs switch back, is an immovable rod.

13,17)Pair 4 - Potential threats
The entrance way to this room is a very steep slide which twists once before reaching the bottom.

Part of the room described in pair 3(12), if they visit this one before pair 3(12), then twelve seconds in, a cage drops, releasing the nabassu from pair 3 (12) into the room, shortly followed by catwalks that the grey oozes begin to eat through 18 seconds in, and eventually, the grey oozes themselves.

There is a pin in this part of the room as well, but the Nabassu carefully watches it to make sure that it stays put. If the pin gets released, the nabassu gets imprisoned in a spherical wall of force one round later. If the second Nabassu is in the room, it will attempt to free the first by putting the pin back in. The pin's state is linked to the wall that stops progress into the tail (19)
The door on the other side is a long ladder which extends for short while before reaching another landing where another ladder points the other way. On this small landing there is a rope of entanglement

18) SECRET ROOMS -

by Using an action to make a DC 19 Investigation check in the Prosoma(9), the party can find two tiles side by side that can be lifted, each revealing a Different Secret entrance. One contains A Frost Brand Rapier (Pappenheimer hilt), and the other a cloak of Arachnida but instead of being able to cast web on the last ability, you can cast "ray of sickness". You also seem to glow bright cyan when in purple light while attuned to the cloak.

19) Mesosoma and tail

Having released all four barriers on the entrance, the way forward opens. The Party now stands on a precipice overlooking a vast and unfamiliar forest of Many-hued trees. To their right, the sun is just beginning to set. In front of them is a large barge. which sits on a deep and winding river around them. In fact, the whole temple behind them seems to sit in the middle of this river. Exploration of the outside of the temple reveals it as the shape of the world-spirit, whose legs are buried far underground. On the barge is a Spring Eladrin (Mordenkainen's 196) who hums quietly to himself.

"Welcome to the feywild! I've been waiting for you! I'm to be your boatelf!"
If the party has somehow avoided the dungeon such as by tunneling out without doing the paired rooms, the elf says "Oh dear, I don't think it'll be happy with that" and disappears without guiding them at all.

The Elf says his name is Elendaril Yuliran. He is friendly but will dive into the river and disappear if attacked. He is patient but excited. He acts as if something wondrous is about to happen and he's here to watch. He will always try to answer the party's questions and will attempt as best he can to help them get to the idea that the world spirit 1) is bad at communicating, 2) wants help keeping something locked up

"The World Spirit Sent me! Did you get their message?"

He explains that the spirit is in need of assistance and wouldn't mind some help. He tells them to hop on, as he can't stay much longer.

"All aboard! Yes all of you, and if you find any fey, don't accept any gifts from them, They'll want a favour later"
"Oh no! No no no, Keep your weapons out!" He says cheerfully if the party relaxes around him, "You'll probably need those"

The barge moves at 50ft a round

He explains that the spirit can't communicate in the normal way (poor thing), it's not made for it. Talking would just make it easier to corrupt. It communicates with magic in a rather clumsy way.

"Builds entire dungeons centuries in advance, schedules appointments with demons, Creates interplanar gateways and launches horrible challenges at people because it's literally incapable of processing a simple hello I need some help", says the elf, "Bonkers, really."

The elf is willing to interpret the dungeon if the players haven't figured it out but will only talk if they ask him

"Sounds like a lot of things you either had to avoid freeing or deal with afterward. Maybe it wants to keep something trapped?"

The elf will talk about each room, as they sail down the river, in this case, he will prompt them with "So Tell me about the temple!"

1)"Ah, I heard the bell when you folks came in"
2)"The spike in the ceiling is actually at the end of this river, but we'll get there eventually" "That demon sounds terrifying"
3) "Being imprisoned sucks! I imagine it took you no time at all to get through boring old metal bars."
4) "Like I said, It's not very good at communicating. You got through it though! Maybe that's the message!"
5) "Actions have consequences I guess? Look before you leap? Deal with one problem before you get more? Don't have a room full of demons if you don't have to?"
6) "Being trapped in a cage with a monster is bad! Not gonna take long before you or the monster wants out of that relationship" "The mural talks about how the plane was made, maybe it was important context?"
7) "You beat Two Demons... in the dark? I have a feeling it knew you could do it though"
8) "It's always a puzzle. The traps you've been through all seem to have been... well... beatable. You made it through them all and they were all ways to stop you"
9) "I forget if it was me or my three-times great grandfather who set up those runes. Wouldn't be able to tell you how it's done though. I guess it would have to be my grandfather.... Maybe it was my grandmother, I'm not certain, Time is messy here"
10) "Did you get the gold after? A demon is a demon but five gold is five gold. That's...over a hundred ales or 25 gallons of it at the local Xanaran's." "Of course there's a Xanaran's here. If I walked on the surface of the moon and didn't find a Xanaran's, I'd consider reality broken and the gods crazy. Not saying that those aren't true, but you get what I'm saying, There's always a Xanaran's"
11) "Ugh, Always with the Oozes, I hate oozes. I hope you managed to trap it or something"
12&13) "Nasty. I'm seeing a theme here though. Prisons are things you want to get out of but are kinda built to keep things in. If I was to bet, that's what the spirit is asking you. Keep something locked up because it's trying to get out. I wouldn't know though"
18) "HUH. REALLY?"

At some point, the elf will tell everyone to get on board if any are not, The smooth rapids and Dragontrees are coming up "And you don't want to be lost in this place! Filled with nasty things like Meenlocks and banderhobbs and Volos. And then the dragontrees, they're always so... BREATHY"
Dragon trees are trees which have similar abilities to Dragonbreath. They can understand (but not speak) Draconic but they are largely a belligerent and territorial bunch of plants that will not only duel with each other but frequently fire their weapons at anything that moves in their vicinity that they don't like, so communication was never an option. They are not fruiting currently and getting a sapling would be exceedingly dangerous

If everyone is on the boat he mentions the current picking up and says

"and you don't want to miss the main event"

And then A Marilith (mm61) launches from the forest onto the boat and the boats' pace moves to 120ft a round. All creatures in contact with the boat must make a DC13 dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone before initiative is rolled. A critical success here might see someone launched airborne in a favorable direction, A critical failure won't knock a creature off the barge, but might do 1 bludgeoning damage. Creatures that have proficiency with water vehicles make this save with advantage.

The ensuing encounter has some interesting twists. The Demon won't attack the Boatelf and the boatelf will only steer the barge down the river. The barge is 30ft long and wide, but has plenty of room to maneuver down the river. Every round, on Initiative count 20, The boatelf will call an element and a side or location. Roll a D6 and consult the list to determine which element Dragontree attacks the boat and where. The DC to avoid being caught in each will always be 14. Each Thing the boatelf calls will happen on Initiative 20 of the next round. So the players (and demon) have time to react.
Place [or side if fire or lightning is rolled]

1)Port-bow (front left) - [bow side (front)]
2)Starboard-bow (front right) - [Starboard (right)]
3) Port-Stern (back left) - [Port (left)]
4)Starboard-stern (back right) - [Stern (back)]
5) Center [Fire reaches to the middle, roll a d4 and consult above to see where it comes from, Lightning hits everyone!]
6) Roll again but the result deals 1d6 more damage!

Type

1)Acid splashes in a 15ft radius in one of the corners of the boat or the middle.
2)Lightning Shoots in a straight line across the boat, usually just one the sides.
3)Fire roasts the edge of the boat, or possibly reaches in toward the middle. Lighting flammable objects on fire
4) Cold leaves a 15ft area of the boat as difficult terrain as it freezes the water that's sloshed up. Creatures that move more than 5 feet across one of these slippery patches must make the save to avoid being prone afterward!
5) Poisonous clouds with a 15ft radius are shot swiftly at the boat but can't keep up. Make a constitution saving throw if you are hit by this or be poisoned for one minute as well as taking damage!
6) RAPIDS instead of a dragontree, Make the save to avoid being knocked prone, no other damage.

If a creature fails to save against the initial attack, they take 3d6 Damage
Copper Dragontree ahead! Looks like it's acid! Watch out on corner of the Port bow!

If you wish to call out the color of the tree as well as or rather than the element, use the Dragonborn subtype chart (PhB. 34) as a quick reference,

Falling off the boat means a creature is swept up in the current and must make a DC14 strength saving throw or take 1d6 bludgeoning damage on shallow rocks when they fall in and at the start of their turns until they get out. The creature then falls behind the barge, losing 5ft a turn. It takes a DC14 athletics check to swim up to half a character's swim speed toward the boat in these rapids, the boatelf will help anyone get back on. Tossing a rope off the side makes this a DC10 to get back. If someone helps pull a character back on, then no check is needed.

IF THEY ATTACK THE BOATELF, the party must make a dc 14 dexterity save to avoid being knocked prone every round as the boat bumps riverside. While prone, they make their save against fire and lightning with advantage and don't need to roll against rapids.The boat also slows to 55ft a round, A character swept up in the rapids needs to make the same DC to avoid pulling ahead of the boat. Poisonous clouds also last a full round in this scenario and lightly obscure the area they're in. Starting your turn or entering this space means you need to make another save!
A creature proficient in water vehicles can make an Athletics(Dexterity) check as an action with a DC of 12 on each of their turns to avoid this

At the end of the encounter, the barge bumps up a few times against the side of the river before coming around a bend where there is a pond with a few other boats made of folded leaves. The boats are docked at a Xanaran's. Barstomun Strongbeard, The Dwarf, is behind the counter, as usual but most of the glasses he has are shot glasses for the fairies that seem to be the sole patrons.

Ah good, adventurers. Do you want anything before you head on? Says Barstomun
I'll have a smidge of hot chocolate if you have any! Says the Boatelf if present.

Barstomun grants a 25% discount to all non-fey, including elves. He tells them that when they're ready to leave, to move the Wooden disc in the floor. Behind this disc seems to be a slide that curves out of sight.
Taking the slide brings the players back to the Hall of concept (2) through the stinger which enlarges to accommodate them.

Here the avatar of the world spirit awaits to reward them.
I'm giving these guys some magical tattoos, but now's the time to grant them a boon of some kind, some sort of Power ranger superpower
I'm also leaving behind some homebrew treasure:

Separation Beads

Whip, rare, Requires Attunement

This set of green translucent prayer beads reaches out to attack those you deem unworthy. The weapon has 6 charges, regaining 1d4+2 daily at dawn. When you go to make an attack, you can spend one charge to extend the reach of this weapon by 10ft for the attack. If you hit, the target makes a strength save versus your attack roll, becoming grappled on a save. The target can use its action to attempt to free itself by making a strength save versus the original attack roll.