WHAT IS FLOW CONTROL?? (AND WHY SHOULD I CARE?)

(i kind of already know what it is, i'm not completely against it but i'm just sort of generally ambivalent and prefer to minimise it. I think on the whole I prefer an adventure with high possible interconnections and less-managed ones)

DESCRIBE THE SITUATION PATRICK

I've been talking with an internet friend about this adventure concept, a big house or mansion, full of strange artefacts. The artefacts are all potentially dangerous, potentially useful, dangerous to leave alone but also dangerous to interact with, like a fantasy S.C.P. essentially.

Talking about stuff like numbers of rooms and relative labrynthyness of the mansion, we disagreed, revealing likely intuitive differences in assumptions in adventure design.

My intuitive assumption was to - since it’s a house, to have a very open plan with immediate (in theory) access to most of the rooms, or at least, you need to explore to find them and then investigate, but there are relatively few locked doors or hard blocks sopping you from exploring most of the house, the difficulty being in investigating and understanding the collection and dealing with the rituals and mysteries of the house. Largely a very 'open' concept, in which you can go in any direction and where the difficulty increases as you interact with more things, largely as a consequence of you interacting with them.

We haven't got deep into this yet but my friend hasn't responded yet, but if I were to guess I would guess they were imagining a more... 'dungeonly'? experience? With more locked doors, more things and areas hidden away, a more controlled experience in which you were more certain to encounter or deal with this thing and then that thing e.t.c. with more 'difficulty walls'(?)

That’s my guess anyway.

SO WHATS YOUR PROBLEM WITH FLOW CONTROL ANYWAY?

It’s not like I *hate* it, in fact I think it’s necessary. I try to arrange my encounters so there is likely to be some kind of rhythm  between types of things, I try to loop and pierce dungeons somewhat, I try to build up (to a degree) to the really weird shit, (at least after MotBM). And truly, every dungeon is by its very nature as a literalised flowchart, an exercise of a kind in flow control. (Though this need not be the case as much for more naturalistic settings).

But at the same time something in me pushes strongly against it.

most dungeon design is a complex synthesis between 'game-ish' and diegetic elements, treating the adventure purely as a game, or seeing it as in inhabited world, you can make good adventures from either polarity of course and like I wouldn't mind (or don't think I would mind as I don't really play computer games) if I were playing a Nintendo game, being channelled around a long and encountering a series of interconnected boutique situations, but the moment I feel even the hint of those walls close in around me in an adventure I basically shit myself with resentment.

(Which brings up the complex question of is it bad because the walls are there or is it bad because I can sense the walls and actually I have been happy with a wide range of experiences which were actually very controlled but just so well controlled that I either didn’t sense it or didn't care).

Largely I am much happier with a sense of freedom, even if it leads to a less pleasant experience

at least, that’s the story I tell myself about who I am, a 3rd party analysis might get a different response. I am much much much happier re-interpreting a problem rather than "finding" the planned solution to one

SO CAN YOU BRING THIS DOWN TO A QUESTION OR SOMETHING

It's a difficult thing to shape a query to but I would like to PROBE the blog readers for a deeper awareness of the polarity between these modes of thought. I couldn't really shape a strong defence or pro-statement for the more-flow-control side of the argument, too wrapped up in my own responses, 

BUT

I would like to hear from YOU PEOPLE

Specifically play or design experiences, games you yourself have been in and specific times where you yourself have thought thoughts equivalent to;

"There's too much flow control here."

and/or

"There's not enough flow control here."

what were the circumstances when you noticed this? 

Did you think it was a feature or a bug (did the adventure writer fail to attain their own goals or were their goals just different to yours?). 

What differentiates the two situations in your mind? (When would you think "Ah, more flow control would be good here in this situation", or the opposite.

The Poem Dungeons Revealed

 Honestly I kinda forgot you guys existed.

Richard Tennant Cooper

(thanks to Monster Brains)

But behold! Some people actually responded to my post, and literally everyone who did a dungeon managed to produce something closer to my stated intent than I did.

(And thanks of course to Dyson Logos, whose map was the basis of the challenge.)

I shall link them in the order of their comments.

(No, as of 04.03.2021 they are still coming in so I will link them in reverse order so the newest one is always at the top.

Ablution

By Matthew Schmeer of RenderedPress. Our boy did an actual poem! And it looks like if you read it to the end and took notes it might even be near playable!

Shelter 15

An adventure for Death is the New Pink (now on sale) or Into the Odd. Vagabundork (Chaos Magick-User) from the blog Chaos Magic User brings us our second (I think) nuclear bunker quasi cold-war interpretation. This one with a slightly different political slant than the last;

"The booklet “The March of the Pigs”. It takes 1 day to read. Once per adventure, you can create 1d4+1 Molotov bombs using improvised materials (1d6 damage per roud to all inside the area; one extra point of damage to cops, sheriffs, soldiers, politicians and other enemies of freedom)."

THE TOMB OF BENDAN FAZIER 

The oldest of the Old-School, JB from BX Blackrazor bestows upon us this. Terse, minimal, classical materials. Do you need a lot of fancy bullshit to run an adventure? This dungeon says NO.

The Tower of the Red Dome

That's not what its actually called (I don't think it has a title), but your boi James Maliszewski of the blog Grognardia, has produced an ultra-minimal dungeon for the famous, and by many, considered quite difficult to access, world of Tékumel. He applied himself to the challenge of describing every element in no more than three lines.

The Undercellars

A lovely gothic and highly playable dungeon by Joseph Manola of 'Against the Wicked City'.

Not just the only creator brave enough to put a sex-cult in his dungeon but also an excellent 'forensic' dungeon (you can re-build the final events of the doomed cult) which rewards historical investigation, an elegant balance of investigatory and deceptive alternate methods with trad dungeon bashing and also something which, with ne or two tweaks, could be easily integrated into anything from a historical setting to a classic D&D world. Also an excellent example of clarity, brevity and prioritisation in text description making something very playable.

Terpsichorean Sodality of the Bird People

Brought to us by long-time commenter Solomon VK from World-Building and Wool-Gathering. 

"Monedulus Alleline, a man with the head of a jackdaw, paces nervously.. If surprised he will jump. He may be reciting prayers. He will give a cold welcome to newcomers. He is deeply worried about the coming rites, and dreads Vansittart's proposed alterations."

Nice.

Degenerates Art

We got another long one boys, this one from Louis Morris. 

"Please find attached my attempt at the Dungeon Poem Challenge. Not only is it much too late, I've also managed to ignore pretty much every element of the briefing except the map and possibly the word 'art' in 'artpunk'. That means it's comically long, not especially poetic, and probably not very functional either; it's meant to be system-agnostic, though it only really makes sense in a setting that's close to 20th/21st-century Earth. Given all this, you should obviously feel no obligation to mention it on the blog, though if you did want to put a link in a small addendum to the last post then that would be fine by me. I enjoyed making it anyhow!"

Don't worry Louis, ignoring pretty much all the instructions of the challenge is the norm here.

Likelihood of this being Kent in disguise? I'd say 1 in 6.

All 5's and 7's

Dan Sumpton of Peakrill actually did a poem! Its all haiku!

The Vulnerary House

Nick of Daayan Songs Translated brings us The Vulnerary House in both blog post and PDF form.

"- Who else? 1-a noblewoman begs her son to come with her. His gaze is unfocused. 2-a pregnant wife kneels at the feet of an old man who tousles her hair, gentle, yet absent 3-A boy hands an enthusiastically fashioned, yet crudely painted toy boat to a distant seeming man. The man weighs it momentarily, before pressing it back in the boy’s hands . 4-A woman, expressionless, head shaven, kisses a crying infant. She gifts the wailing swaddling to an old woman who nods and leaves, cooing to the child."

Party Cove

Your boy Peter Webb didn't use the right map but sent me this and I'm putting it up because I like him.

SkyChasm

Holy fucking fuck. Her Christmas Knight, the guy who writes extended comments on my blog longer than the posts themselves, brings us a precis of the ideas from some kind of epic Jack Vance/Gene Wolfe collaboration. Heaving with concepts and blistering on the boundary of glorious but terrifying near-unplayability (or is it?) this truly fucks the frame of the concept of 'Artpunk', whatever the fuck that currently means. 

The Great Ghoul Market

From your boy right here. Massively overwritten. Arguably not that artpunk. Did I even do an encounter table? Kinda. At least its a PDF. Patrick should try to remember his own concept next time.

The Court of Hell

Enthusiastic Skeleton Boys brings us 'The Court of Hell'. Down to two pages! Original concept! An image post and some actual illustrations! Another good contender.

The Song of Snow and Sun

Zzarchov! Our Lost God King turns in his mist-wreathed bed of tattered finery and from his battle-scarred fingers drifts 'The Song of Snow and Sun'. Its two dungeons in one! He did a PDF! He put a song in it!

“for any peasant girl,
lonely in the mortal world
Take the twilight ship to elsewhere
for any noble boy,
born and raised a castellan
take the twilight ship to elsewhere
the bard amidst the burning hall
the smell of wine, the siren’s call
a devilish grin, to rule the night
they march on and on, and on, and on”

The winner? Possibly.....

(I will not be announcing a winner but you can pick one yourselves if you like.)

Generic Laboratory

From 'Coins and Scrolls'. Finally you have a chance to join the Skerples train.

The Manteion

'I Don't Remember that Move brings us MASKS! You know its artpunk if there are needless masks. "skinless pink things like cave salamanders stir in the oily water. They attack if you try to help him." As true today as it was yesterday.

A Peer Beyond the Alchemical Aleph Null 

From the blog 'Foreign Planets' a dark-alchemy inspired dungeon in two versions. A 'Light' version for easy usability and a 'Dark' version for maximum pretension.

Clavicarcerum of the Scribe Jamesus

From the blog 'Whose Measure God Could Not Take, the Magma-Marred Clavicarcerum of the Scribe Jamesus. Ahh I remember when I could crank out mysterious stuff. Feels like a long time ago. He even has ferric snail in his.

Ice Troll Moon Abbey 

From the blog Lapidary Ossuary. A classic one-page dungeon.

If you want to read some dungeons, read through, and if you like something, talk about it here or somewhere else. (Also people can keep submitting....)

The Glass Dungeon

The Glass Dungeon is a huge plug of clear volcanic glass sitting in the corpse of an eroded mountain like a gem set in an old corroded ring.

If you can imagine a lump of igneous rock from the heart of an ancient volcano, then the volcano gradually eroding over time, leaving the much-tougher stone standing almost proud with only a small slope of soil and scree around it.

This would be a lot like the stone which Edinburgh castle rests on.

Then imagine that, instead of hard igneous rock, the stone is volcanic glass. This would be like a mountain or hill of glass sitting on the surface of the earth, its sides and top washed clear, with buttresses of soil and stone running up its sides to about half way, or two thirds of the way up.

The glass isn't completely, perfectly clear, but you can see the colour of the sky through it and light catches and rebounds it inside like a prism. The sunrise turns it gold at dawn, the last red light of sunset stains the whole thing crimson while the sky is nearly dark. The full moon gives it a silver glow. Lightning makes it flash.

Let’s say this is near the north pole, or this is a world with a highly active magnetic field so the glass mountain would reflect the aurora borealis. The light of the aurora moves around inside it.

In the night, even when its overcast, you can see dull red glows moving about inside, reflecting and refracting from the glass walls. This is because the glass is riddled with tunnels and rooms.

The only way into these tunnels is from the top. You have to climb the glass mountain. There are steps carved spiralling round the sides. Once you are up there you can gain entry and walk down the glass steps into the glass tunnels.

It's difficult to be exact about what rooms and corridors are where when they are distant as the glass warps things and a corridor is just an empty transparent space in a transparent block, but you can see all of the immediate corridors and rooms.

You can look down through all the levels of the dungeon and see every solid thing. When there is daylight, aurora light, strong moonlight or lightning then you can see all the way down. When it’s dark, any living thing that needs light to see lights lamps and you can see all these little pools of light moving around in the rooms and corridors.

There is a spring of water running up through cracks in the glass, coming out the top as a fountain and then running back down through channels. This provides sustenance and takes away waste, but it also means that some things that look like walls are actually stable, continual falls of water, you might think you are looking at someone through a wall of glass until they suddenly jump through it.

The sound of the rushing water runs through the whole complex, making it difficult to hear people calling out or moving around.

You can see a huge room full of treasure, you can see all the furniture, all the doors, and you can see all the living things. There's a bunch of Knights in shining armour who are hard to spot because their metal reflects the light so much. A bunch of Orcs carrying flaming torches which stain the ceilings with soot. A bunch of quite-attractive nuns and some tall figures who are almost invisible because they are draped in shimmering crystal veils.

And right at the bottom you can see the Crystal Dragon who's dungeon this is, curled in a glass cavern by a clear, flat pool of mercury which acts as a huge mirror. The mercury re-reflects everything again from below, increasing the lighting effect.

And all of these groups can see each other and can see you. You can see them seeing you and see them seeing each other.

The curious and interesting thing about the idea of a Glass Dungeon is that it destroys or inverts exploration and replaces it with observation and interpretation. The idea here is something like a huge game of Pac-Man.

You can already see pretty much everything (you think) in the dungeon. Once you get used to the distortions it’s hard to get lost. You know where everything *is*, you just don't know what it *means*.

Whereas, in a normal dungeon, you explore and explore and explore just to put together scraps of knowledge and situational awareness and usually, when you encounter something, they are paratactic encounters, happening one after another like a string of pearls, generally separate, and if the dungeon reacts to you as a gestalt, it does so slowly and often ineffectively, in the glass dungeon you get a deep strategic overview of what’s going on, maybe before you even go inside.

It's very hard for anything to sneak up on you, or for you to sneak up on anything else, so your decisions are more like the player of a strategy board game than like a normal dungeoneer. You move to maximise advantage, to force other factions to reveal their nature and intentions and to make sure when an encounter takes place it happens on your own terms.

This is why I kept the number of factions and encounters minimal, the DM has to keep track of *all* of them *at the same time* and each time the PC's do something the rest will respond in their own unique way.

The only way to play this one out would be to have the map right there, and tokens for the moving elements and to update them each exploration term or whenever the PC's made a move.

Because of this as well, the glass dungeon should be a relatively *small* dungeon. It’s good to have multiple interconnecting levels as this adds strategic depth but if you have a shitload of rooms then the DM is going to go nuts.

It also helps if you can fit everything on the same page. THIS map by Dyson Logos might be a good possibility.

(Edit - it was THIS one by Christian Kessler that I was thinking of.)

And it helps if things aren't what they seem, so there are layers of revelation that you can't expose just by looking at something.

So my idea for factions would be like this;

Orcs - These are frightened Doppelgangers who have assumed Orc form as those are the scariest things they can think of.

Knights - These are Orcs who have clad themselves in bright, shining armour which they polish constantly. They have done this as the reflective qualities of the armour combined with the bright, refractive light of the dungeon, means that if they are still, they are very hard to see. Almost invisible.

Veiled Figures - These are Gnolls who have made curtains and cloaks of shimmering crystal and fragments of glass for a similar reason to the Orcs. They can be seen easily only when they are still, when they move, the shifting light of the glittering reflective shrouds makes them virtually invisible.

Nuns - Labradorite Were-Wolves (which Cedric just invented and you should go and look through that link because it’s a great image (EDIT ok Cedric just took that post down for unknown reasons sooo.. just imagine the really cool idea he had(EDIT AGAIN they are back! He is a complicated guy so look while you can)))) and their change is triggered by the Aurora when it shines through the glass.

The treasure room is a hive of mimics.

The Crystal Dragon rests on the remains of a defeated Crystal army, stacked like a mountain in its pool of mercury. If you defeat it and go full-Aspergers on the crystal pile you might be able to re-assemble a crystal golem of your own, but you will need every piece and it might have some crazy old primordial-war programming of its own.

As well as that you can throw in treasures from Chris's excellent post HERE  The singing crystal spear, crystal gnome, giant crystal skull, crystal helm and crystal cage are favourites.

The Crystal Dragon is protected by an army of crystal golems, like the terracotta army, but, of course, you can't really see while they are still as they are transparent. When they break they go off like a prismatic ray grenade. Maybe it keeps them under the surface of the river that runs through its lair in a clear, cold stream, they would be almost impossible to detect under the shimmering surface, then they surge upward on command, their shapes highlighted by the water running down their sides.

The Dopple/Orcs are trying to escape the Dungeon or reach the ‘Nuns’ but are avoiding everything else out of fear, whilst acting as if they might be incredibly dangerous.

The Orcs/Knights are trying to reach the DoppelOrcs so they can team up and then rob the Dragon.

The Gnoll/Veils are trying to kill the DoppelOrcs because they think they are the real Orcs and are considering hunting the ‘Nuns’ while avoiding the ‘Knights’, whom they fear.

The Labradorite Were-Wolf/Hot Nuns are trying to reach the 'Knights' to persuade them to help but are acting scared of the 'Orcs'. (In reality, they could probably kill the fuck out of any of these factions but want to preserve the secret of their true nature so they can use it to get close to the Crystal dragon and assassinate it, then steal the pieces of the Crystal army and re-assemble them for some nefarious purpose. They will be exposed when the next aurora shines, but this will also heal them of any damage and give them regeneration while it is active, making them even more dangerous.)

The Crystal Dragon is watching all this with the greatest possible amusement. As well as its army of Crystal Golems it has Glass Golem assassins waiting for anyone who proves to be a danger. These are almost completely invisible in the Dungeon, shaped like spooky cloaked elves with jagged glass assassin knives. They are full of nerve gas so even if one is smashed it kills anything nearby.

Turkish Rug Adventure Design Idea

I know a5 is good for use at the table and a4 is good for images and certain kinds of information design and harder to flip through at the table.

Has anyone ever done a3 or a2 for use *as* the table, or at least laid over the table?

The adventure would be arranged in a kind of compass fashion and so that parts could a obscured and the whole thing not lost, like a naturalistic adventure

Depending on where people sat they would get an immediate access (a better view) of certain parts of it. (You might suggest that if people like playing a certain way they sit in certain place or compass point)

The thing could be a map, a literal battle map, or a number of them, to include specific densely arranged tactical challenges

It could also e an image, or a series of them, like a stained glass window and it could be a design, like a J.H. Williams page, like a mega-glyph or a Turkish rug, and so much info that no-one person could use it. you would need to have a group with everyone looking into different parts and thinking and acting together. 

The adventure would, could, be emergent from the people sitting down and the places they sit and how they react as they move through it

Data arrange in a kind of spiral, compass moving round

Sold as an artefact.

Maybe when something happens in the adventure the people playing have to move seats and re-integrate what they know and see in an interesting way?

Anyone ever done/seen this?

this post is less good

If you are reading this and thinking ‘where is this guy going with this?’ Well he doesn’t know. Fair warning if you read on.

Now, I have been reading a book about memory systems in oral traditions and for some reason I want to talk about it. Because it feels like it relates.

Ballads and epic poems in oral traditions are designed to survive in the memory. When you really start looking at them it seems that everything about them is designed to survive in the memory. They are like deadly fucking machines for that one particular purpose.

We are not used to thinking about it this way because when we think about old stories and contrast them with new stories they often seem a bit shit. Long, winding, repetitive, direct, conservative, uninventive, literal, using the same symbols and a lot like each other.

And at the things we think stories do, we are right. But old stories are not designed to do those things. At least that is not their main intent. They are honed to live inside the substrate of the human mind in a world empty of writing or machines, and at that, they are hyper-evolved cultural technology.

David C. Rubin argues that one of the main ways these oral stories do this is with the use of layered constraints.

He uses constraints to mean the things about a recollection that limit the things that can be thought of. They are of multiple types. There are big stage-setting constraints that decide the type of tale that will be told. We call these genre and theme.

There are structural constraints. Now these are interesting. They are about the arrangement of words. Of rhyme, word length, syllable stress, word-sound. Line length, line rhythm, end stresses. All the stuff you find in poetry. These provide the grid or layout of the things that will be said. The words coming out of your mouth have to fit into the pattern so this limits the kinds of words you can say.

(Rhythm is so important, if you read people strings of random numbers, regular caesuras between number groups raise recall a great deal, even with no internal meaning, regular pauses allow the mind to organise information. I hate talking on the phone and I hate talking on the mobile phone because the lag is different by a quarter of a second and you feel like an idiot.)

The most important kind of constraint used is visual, spatial imagery with people performing sequential actions. Making people learn information of this kind really locks memory onto place.

I don’t thinks of Rubin’s constraints with the word he gave me. I think of them as activators.

I imagine a network of pale golden light. A living three dimensional neuronal web. This is the opening genre, the basic culture that underlies the song. It probably wouldn’t be like that because it might not be a network of neurons. Each activator might be a different type of work within the mind. But it’s a nice image. They all interact.

Then with each new constraint I imagine a different network springing into existence. They cross at places and where this happens the glow intensifies. The ideas in the song create one kind of network, the visual, actual description engages another, the rhythmic word-pattern another, then finally the immediate serial word relationships spring into place. Where all the networks cross, at the point of greatest activation there is a compounded golden point of fire. That is your word. The only word that could be in that place.

As word leads to word that golden point migrates, the networks shift and drag the point of activation along, word to word to word. It has to be serial and it has to move. It can’t just be a steady state like a memorised list. If has to be a process and you recall each individual thing in its place, which itself forms part of the queue or referent for the next particular thing.

There are lots of ways in which epics and ballads are not like D&D, but here’s a few similarities.

- Obsessed with spatial information.

- With people transiting through particular spaces in sequence.

- With concrete visual imagery.

- People taking sequential actions (for action 5 to happen, actions 1 to 4 must have happened.)

- They are made from conservative parts. (There is a Zak line somewhere I half remember about Vornheim having to be made of pieces people already understand because when you explain stuff to players you have to use the stuff already in their heads as referents*) Maybe you can have conservative parts in a novel structure, or a conservative structure with novel parts but rarely both at the same time.

- They are often, in some sense, performed, and performed in groups. (When we play together we are performing for each other a little bit I think)

- Meaning and structure are usually (usually, broooooadly) coherent to each other. (i.e oral poems don’t use enjambment. Each line is a discrete chunk of meaning, each rhythmic unit is usually a discrete chunk of meaning. Each stanza is about one thing. Ideas don’t spill over onto the next line. They go in tidy sequence. D&D is not always like this. It doesn’t have to be. But it likes that format. Each dungeon room a separate chunk. Meaning, Time and Space mapping directly onto each other in the dungeon map. Each dungeon a separate thing.

I suppose that I have often thought that memory and creation are hacks or repurposing of each other. Like two crazed scientists fighting for control of the same machine.

It was thinking about constraints that did it. If oral memory ignites and manages these layered networks to ensure stability of recall, are we using similar layered constraints to do something different with the same technology? Like we use genre and theme too. And concrete visual imagery, we add dice and classes and numbers. But it’s still a way of ensuring that particular things happen.

When we play are we trying to snatch something out of the air? We don’t know what it is but we know its shape. It’s not like finding something we’ve had before. It’s a kind of active living experiment to make.. something.

(The men who discovered Neon, and Phosphor (very separate people) both found out they had done it when something in the lab started to glow with its own light. A light no-one had ever seen before. Those must be the best elements to discover. They guys who isolated the Rare Earths just got more brown gloop, I kind of feel a bit shit for them.)

Well that’s it. I warned you at the beginning.

*D&D is such a strange tangle of conservatism and invention. You have the power to create anything, but if you can’t fit it into the fantasy world archetype that everyone is familiar with then it often doesn’t go anywhere. Like with oral epics, when anything is misremembered or changed by chance, it is changed to be more like what people already expect. Like there is a kind of cultural gravity pulling everything gradually back towards the centre.

Walter, Werner and MANPAC

Everyone is doing it. So I will too.

It almost, almost makes sense. 

So Walter White and his gang took over an ancient dungeon/monestary using evil Meth that eats your soul.

His gang possessed the bodies of the soul-eaten monks. They got busy drugging up the monks cute pet mini-potimuses and driving them feral. They also terrified the native Australopithecus.

But! The monks (whose souls were not eaten, becuase they work for MANPAC and he vomited them right back into reality) have taken over old suits of armour and are fighting back.

Walter White needs Werner Herzog to complete his plans to develop evil drugs from pure Art but Werner Herzog is being sought by murderous artists (for obvious reasons). Walter is also obsessed with that cute girl you knew from school.

1 Stairs to surface/next level 

2  Carrera marble golem of the virgin-It is a foot tall & eerily beautiful. It is harmless. If unmolested, it will continue to roam the halls.

3 Fragments of a dazzling human teeth mosaic, very damaged, are here--a landscape with only a pair of white legs ending in hooves are visible so far.

Pieces of the mosaic can be found throughout the dungeon, and will fuse to the wall if placed on the mosaic.

The true form of the mosaic is of Beaowulf of the decayed empire of the millitant opium dreamers on a horse--and assembling it will create a work of art worth PC level x 1000gp, however it is possible to construct false forms by accident or design.

Existing mosaic+humanoid upper body = a demon. The god of evil narwhales in 76 will begin calling anyone present to it. Save vs spell.

Existing mosaic+missing front horse legs+human upper body = centaur. Each round, violent madness will be inflicted on whichever party member rolls the lowest on a d20 until they leave the room.

Missing pieces are in rooms 19, 87, 50

4 This moaning Australopithecus is intelligent & can speak but does not show it because it fears magnesium fire It seeks the golden nose in room 21

5 Dead moaning Australopithecus

6 Monster in 7 can be heard from here

7 Murderous living orrery It is too large to leave the room.

8 Three posessed monks s looking for Werner Herzog

9 Echoing corridor

10 Statue of MANPAC --vandalized. d6 dead posessed monks s with a drugged up micro-potumus here dead in the center of the triangle, apparently dragged from 25. The triangle will slowly devour them over the course of an hour, at which point the statue will come to life and seek out the the god of evil narwhales in room 75. 

11 living painting of a mass-killer inside a bell that is a tornado of living mercury 

12 Nonfunctional bell that is a tornado of living mercury 

13 -Junk everywhere, vial of carbolic acid quasar beams

14 As soon as the PCs enter this room their genitals fold into inacessable pocket dimension.

A wizard will recognize the effect as a product of a special curse that can be removed on the request of a specific living master (the blind wizard with implanted beholder eyes )

15 Kitchen. Pots, pans, the usual. There is a brick oven & a  small pantry closet. A halfling could fit in it.

16 This room is full of the eyes of strange monsters that the

blind wizard with implanted beholder eyes has collected.

The columns here look weak and can be destroyed with 30 pts of damage. The ceiling will cave in.

17 2 identical statues. One made of dust one made of gold human teeth.

18 There is a mandolin here worth 2500gp. Playing it for the first time will cause monster in room 7 to break out and crash through the rooms, collapsing the ceilings until it gets to the player.

19 Library. Full of riddle forming pyroxene crystals

-humanoid upper body mosaic pieces from the mosaic in room 3

20 Hall. 11 small portrait paintings. One of each of different brain-eating Aye-Aye's. They are worth d20 x 100gp to collectors with unusual tastes

21 Paladin of MANPAC fighting posessed monks in desperate battle

A golden nose. Worth 600gp.

22 Empty cells.

23 Old dining room. Three paintings here: each eight feet wide, worth 2000 gp each. 

24 WC

25 Dying Priest of MANPAC, just finished pulling foes to room 10.

MANPAC, eater of ghosts

drugged up micro-potumus

Blind wizard with implanted beholder eyes. It is disguised as a whispering tagolin and will observe the PCs.

26  A Chatty intelligent wolf is here--it obeys the blind wizard with implanted beholder eyes. The chatty intelligent wolf has (as always) hidden a key to room 67 in  broken flailsnail shell-wardrobe

27 There is a cursed cloak of hummingbird skins. Any creature inspecting it will be afflicted by a desire to eat your own fingers for 1d4 rounds. 

28 Channel of carbolic acid from south ends in a pool here

29 Channel down center of hallway filled with carbolic acid a vampire-chewed apple core is floating in it.

30 Empty

31-Secret door activated by mechanism in room 85

32-Secret door activated by mechanism in room 85

33 Pool of carbolic acid

34 Dead murderous artist carrying diary, contains biographical details of Walter White including his birthday

35  Grey touched with gold like the sky before dawn crystal formation. Anything grey touched with gold like the sky before dawn that touches it will begin to vibrate unnaturally--the object will then reflect magic for one hour and then explode.

36 Walking into this room lowers steel bars where the green O's are and releases monster in 37.

37 Half-ton carniverous starfish in cage.

38 Walter White's bedroom.

the one who knocks

If Walter White is not in this room the (ordinary) doors will be locked.  Secret door: behind a cuttlefish-lamp--a thin crack will be visible. Room contains a make-up table (no mirror, of course), a canopy bed hung with velvet, (d12 x 100) gp worth of other trinkets. The bed, painting, Walter White 's wardrobe, & the table are each worth (d12 x 100) gp. There is a Ming Vase, (the insects on it come alive and bite you) under the bed containing 600 gp & locket with a small painting of Walter White

39  Switch raises and lowers bars in rms 36-38

40 Child's bedroom. Belongs to Walter White's daughter. Her remaining toys ( surprisingly dangerous chemistry set ) are here.

41 Cute squishy toy that grows poisoned spikes dropped by door.

42  Stone walls carved into the shape of your mum screaming with her eyes hanging out

43 Animated empty suits of rusty broken plate

44 Mothering female Liche in cage. Sibling of Walter White Gone mad long ago. She may aid the PCs if they convince her they can help her escape the dungeon. She hates Walter White & will make any deal to be reunited with her, but again, will turn on anyone aware of her existence immediately afterward.

45 Anything made of dust placed on the altar will be transformed into gold human teeth.

Any screams and shouts in the circle or crossing it will be transformed into earbleeding fear.

46 Texts sacred to religion of MANPAC

47 Puzzle room: scrimshawer, sword sharpener and habidasherer are sacred to this religion. A magic mask asks 3 questions only members of those professions, respectively, would know. Wrong answers = power word hug and it emits a the screaming of an eveiscerated pig.

48 Statue of a creature of screams and shouts . An Archpriest of MANPAC is here. (PC level x 1000 gp worth of gold flake on statue.)

49 Murals depicting Beaowulf and betrayal by Wiglaf the thane

50 Tombs. d6 Priests of MANPAC

Fragment of mosaic in room 3 showing horse head and humanoid lower body in a saddle.

51 Tombs. Vial: Substance repels rodent

52 Tomb of Beaowulf

53 Mouldering skeleton of hero's traitorous ally, palladium medal of protection from steel 

54 d6 animated empty suits of rusty broken plate guarding sacrifice chamber. They have keys to the cage in room 55. 

55 Cute squishy toy that grows poisoned spikes

Apparently a that cute girl you knew from school in a cage. Is actually a golem of tractomorphic rubik's cubes . It is looking for the moaning Australopithecus because it betrayed her.

56 Prayer room, distinctive to MANPAC

57 Prayer room, distinctive to MANPAC 

58 2 dead animated empty suits of rusty broken plate

59 2 destroyed animated empty suits of rusty broken plate --one muttering "The murderous artist , the murderous artist " shattered manacles on the floor.

60 2 animated empty suits of rusty broken plate  guarding the entrance to room 61

61  chest of easily portable gems being examined by 3 animated empty suits of rusty broken plate.

Room is full of jars of aqua viatie

62 Giant Collecting scarab beetle. A pile of its eggs obscure the door to the north. Two riddle forming pyroxene crystals containing secret of your characters true parentage are hidden under the pile.

63 Full of arrowheads and caltrops collected by a giant Collecting scarab beetle 

64 Well, rusty water.

Dead adventurers. Burned spellbook. Partially accurate formula for LOTFP Summon spell remains. Failed int check indicates LOTFP Summon spell at + d20 levels

65 Door to north opens easily, door to east seems old and stuck.

66 Hungry lazy giant octopus room.  Chatty intelligent wolf throws organic waste into this room.. The~hungry lazy giant octopus covers the entire room, including the wall, obscuring the locked, unpickable secret door there. 

6 - Friendly giant rabbit. It knows all about the blind wizard with implanted beholder eyes, which is why the blind wizard with implanted beholder eyes has had chatty intelligent wolves wall it up in a secret chamber. blind wizard with implanted beholder eyes keeps it alive ~lonlieness

68 Murals, int check to read, glyphs and pictograms seem to refer to gold human teeth and earbleeding fear sonic power

69- Empty or stairs to surface/next level

70 Quiet room.

71 Prison Contains d10+10 victims of Walter White. A variety of sentient species are represented as well as a few celebrated & high-level missing persons.

72 Door is large, impressive and locked. Picking is at half chance.

73 Throne room of King/Queen of the long dead decayed empire of the millitant opium dreamers .

74  Refined Heroin guarded by soft rain of petals that make you scream yourself to death 

75 The god of evil narwhales It has been trapped here by a mystic seal on the secret door by the blind wizard with implanted beholder eyes and seeks revenge.

76 Clearly a room once built by the decayed empire of the millitant opium dreamers.

77 Contains various instruments of Death Dreams Of Unholy Saints

78 Disused prayer rooms of Unholy Saints. Walter White was having experiments conducted until capture of Werner Herzog made them unnecessary.

Murderous artist assassin seeking Werner Herzog

murderous artist

79 Disused prayer rooms of Unholy Saints d4 scavenging tarantulas

80 Disused prayer rooms of Unholy Saints Blood, remains of scavenging tarantulas

81 d8 scavenging tarantulas

82 Statue of MANPAC

83 d10 animated empty suits of rusty broken plate plus giant orchidman

84 Walter White ,Jesse and d4 dumb thugs, broken salt shaker full of explosive white crystals. Huge painting of that cute girl you knew from school conceals secret door. 

85 Cage containing mechanical model of universe, rotating planets into proper position for the day opens secret door in room 31, rotating them onto Walter White 's birthday opens secret door in room 32

86  Pool of carbolic acid

87 Werner Herzog just escaped, hiding from the assassin in room 78.

"i do not hate the jungeon, i love the jungeon. but i love it against my better judgement"

-missing front horse legs from mosaic in room 

88 Walls carved with scenes dedicated to MANPAC depicting members of the following professions: scrimshawer, sword sharpener, habidasherer--all kneeling

Careful inspection reveals that carving is not wholly original and the figures have been repurposed. There is a monster with a huge mouth where the secret door to 73-76 is.