Building the Underworld with His Majesty the Worm
Welcome back! This is the second post in a series of exercises in world- and dungeonbuilding using the procedures described by Josh McCrowell in His Majesty the Worm.
Last time we built the city of Eldheim, the home base of our fictional adventuring guild. Today, we have to go deeper, as we will begin building the Underworld, a megadungeon beneath the city.
What is a megadungeon?
Simply put, a megadungeon is a single location large enough to support a campaign. It doesn’t necessarily have to be, but often is, a dungeon (or rather, several connected smaller dungeons) with its own inhabitants or factions that the player characters will repeatedly visit over the course of the campaign; making friends and enemies in the process while exploring the place.
Recent popular examples in adventure- and elfgame circles are Miranda Elkins’ Nightwick Abbey, Gradient Descent for Mothership, or the ambitious Halls of Arden Vul.
I myself have neither run nor played a megadungeon (yet), but if you want to hear more from people who have, consider giving the podcast Into
the Megadungeon a listen.
So, let’s get started with building our own megadungeon!
How to build a dungeon with tarot cards
As with the city above, the dungeons below are built using tarot cards. Instead of drawing from the minor arcana deck, this time we’re using the juicy major arcana deck.
This procedure covers 5 steps, the first two of which we’ll cover in this article, because that’s what I did by myself before starting to write out the process in blog post form. They cover the broad strokes of setting a theme, and choosing how many areas and levels the underworld contains and what their sub-themes are.
1. Choosing an origin
First, we’ll choose the origins of our underworld. This will be its theme, something we can always come back to for ideas, when we get to more granular details for individual rooms for example. Note that specific sub-areas or sub-dungeons might have their own sub-theme, but having a “grand theme” so to speak, can be used to wrap everything together more coherently.
We can of course choose every theme we might think of, but since we’re following the procedures in the book, I’ll stick to the examples given therein. It provides seven different underworld origins, from “Hell itself” to “a series of stolen cities, each piled on each”, with origin-specific questions that can be used to flesh out that first idea.
Since we’ve established a theme of “fear of magic” when building Eldheim, I found the following origin quite fitting: “Is it a heaven usurped by ancient sorcerers? What repercussions did their intrusion cause for the cycle of death and rebirth?”
In addition to the worldbuilding we did when creating the city of Eldheim, this origin provides us with a series of new facts about our setting and follow-up questions to think about:
There was a group of ancient sorcerers. Are they still alive today? Are they the (sole) cause of Eldheims fear of magic?
They usurped the location from a third party who felt safe here. Who were they and what remnants did they leave behind? Do some of them still live in parts of the underworld?
There is a cycle of death and rebirth. How does it work normally? Are there creatures except from this rule?
The sorcerers’ intrusion changed the cycle of death and rebirth. How does it work different now? Was it a local or a global change? Can it be fixed, and if so, with what consequences?
I can think of a number of possible answers right now, but let’s leave them open for now and see if we can get more context in the course of our procedure. These are questions we can come back to, when thinking about dungeon denizens, traps, or treasure.
2. Generating the underworld layout
On this step, we start drawing cards from the major arcana deck. Josh recommends drawing a minimum of three cards, with five being a good starting point. Each card represents its own sub-dungeon, so we generate a general layout and a cross-section of the underworld this way.
I originally started out with drawing five cards (IV, VI, VIII, XIX, XXI) but ended up drawing three more (VII, XIV, XV) because I couldn’t come up with a satisfying layout and their values were too far apart for reasonable connections.
Start with the lowest value as the main entrance (VI). If card values from I to V are present, they are on the same level as the main entrance and provide secondary entrances. I had none.
Place the card with the highest value somewhere below the first (XXI). This is the deepest level.
Place the other cards somewhere between. Note that there is no system here to how exactly lay out the cards. Go wild.
Based on their number and their position in the layout, we then determine connections between the sub-dungeons and levels: cards physically next to each other are connected, as are cards with a sequential value, and with values evenly divisible by another.
With these, I came up with a layout like this:
Based on the connection rules, we know that:
- IV is connected to VI (physically) and VIII (divisible)
- VI is connected to IV (physically) and VII (sequentially)
- VII is connected to VI (sequentially), VIII (sequentially) and XIV (divisible)
- VIII is connected to IV (divisible) and XIX (physically)
- XIV is connected to VII (divisible) and XV (sequentially)
- XV is connected to XIV (sequentially) and XIX (physically)
- XIX is connected to VIII (physically), XV (physically) and XXI (physically)
- XXI is connected to XIX (physically)
So, what are these major arcana cards about? As written above, each card represents a single dungeon. Each comes with a short description and an example map. The book also provides us with details for possible sensory sensations, structures, denizens and monsters, and the levels’ unique dungeon lord.
Each of these dungeons is provided with a map by Dyson Logos, whose maps I usually use for my games.
We’ll get to that in detail when we start writing the room keys in Step 3 of the procedure.
Here’s what we’re going to work with:
IV - The Emperor: The Inverted Castle
The main entrance to the Underworld.
Dripping down like a stalactite, the Inverted Castle hangs in the middle of a great cavern.
Nice. A giant cavern beneath the city and in it an upside-down castle? I love it. It reminds me of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, where you finish exploring the castle only to discover there is an upside-down mirror image of it opening up for you. Our group also played the Trophy Gold incursion The Rime Palace in our Eberron game last year, and we had much fun. I love that kind of location.
Let’s see what details it provides us with:
It’s described as a tomb for the Worms’ draconic children, with Escher-esque hallways.
This sounds like we could have some fun with non-euclidean geometry, with rooms bigger or smaller than they seem and a generally difficult to map place. Maybe some rooms are even moving?
Example inhabitants are Imps, Orcs, Sphinxes, Scorpion Men and Mummified Dragons. Maybe the ancient sorcerers were actually some kind of dragons?
Every dungeon comes with a designated “Dungeon Lord”, a special kind of creature that could be used as its own faction, boss monster, NPC or what have you. This dungeon’s lord is “The Beastmaster”, which could be a yet-living dragon sorcerer itself, or indicate that the dragons were in fact not the ancient sorcerers, but their minions instead.
VI - The Lovers: The Pits
A dungeon level connecting the Inverted Castle to deeper parts of the dungeon.
If you think that the Underworld is merely the home of death, you are mistaken. It is teeming with life.
This one is a fairly expansive labyrinth of tunnels and caves, populated by tons of rats and worse things.
Example inhabitants are Ratmen, Goblins, and Meat Slimes. I like the sound of that.
The Dungeon Lord of this level is the Rat King.
As it is a connecting level, it might make sense to also have a secret exit to the city in here somewhere. Maybe it leads up to the Shrine of Teeth, the defunct healing district.
VII - The Chariot: Belly of the Beast
The second level of the Underworld begins here.
The primordial world serpent Apep long gnawed upon the roots of the Underworld until he choked on the sins of the living and died.
The maybe literal carcass of the world serpent leads even deeper, like a spiral descending into the earth. Our layout conveniently supports this, as the dungeon from card XIV is located directly beneath this one.
Example inhabitants are Melancholic Imps, Skeleton Jellies and “various Stomach Prisoners”.
The Dungeon Lord is the Still-Beating Heart which could be an alias for a rogue alchemist or the literal heart of the world serpent.
VIII - Justice: The Drowned Wedding
Note that my card says Strength, not Justice. Apparently the card value of VIII or XI is switched depending on the tarot deck you’re using. The alternative here would have been XI - Strength: Sepulcher of Titans. Based on the card position and location name, with the river The Grey flowing above, keeping the Drowned Wedding made more sense to me.
Everybody agrees that the wood elf princess Titikamook and the Finfolk King were lovers.
Underground elven ruins, half submerged and now populated by ghosts. This sounds like Dark Souls’ New Londo to me. Maybe this level could provide a secondary entrance, provided one can breathe underwater.
Example inhabitants are Brine Imps (There are a lot if Imps in here, maybe former sorcerer familiars?), Walrus Men, Land Whales, and Banshees.
The Dungeon Lord here is the aforementioned Finfolk King. What happened to his queen? Were either the Finfolk or Woodelves the former inhabitants of the Underworld?
XIV - Temperance: The Menagerie of Singular Creatures
Directly below the Belly of the Beast lies a peculiar set of rooms.
The sphinxes whisper of a time before there were multitudinous species - droves of oxen, murmurations of starlings, schools of fish, prides of lions. Before that, there was only His Majesty the Worm.
A series of chambers, each unique in their appearance and contents. This might be the most difficult dungeon floor to key. Or the most fun.
Example inhabitants are not given. Is this place truly as lifeless as it seems?
The Dungeon Lord here is the Unicorn. Is it an escaped experiment or an actual unicorn, maybe the last of its kind? Or simply an impostor, driven mad by loneliness?
XV - The Devil: The Hellmarkt
Hidden deep within the earth lies a marketplace like no other.
The Hellmarkt sits at a crossroads between the Underworld and the far realms, where spirits dwell.
This one is a giant bazaar, where mortal races stick out like a sore thumb. Sounds like a great place for gathering information, shady contracts and monkey’s paw bargains.
Example inhabitants are Elf Cloneslugs, Angels, Devils and Dream Fairies.
The Dungeon Lord here are the Curators. What are the terms and conditions in this marketplace? Maybe the guild needs to watch out not to find themselves be bargained for as yet another curiosity.
XIX - The Sun: The White Gardens
Connecting the Hellmarkt and the Drowned Wedding lies an vast underground network of caverns filled with bioluminescent fungi and mushrooms.
In the sunless reaches, light has taken on strange forms. Bizarre breeds of mushrooms have learned to shed illuminations as white and cold as the stars.
Reminds me of Hollow Knight’s Fungal Wastes area. With the connection to the Drowned Wedding above, it might be a cool opportunity to add more verticality to the dungeon.
Example inhabitants are Fungoids, Dire Crabs and Spore Zombies.
The Dungeon Lord here is the Fruiting Mother. Maybe every fungus and mushroom here is part of one giant colony. It may very well be the biggest and oldest organism of this world.
XXI - The World: The Undertomb
The last of our dungeon levels, the very deepest point beneath Eldheim.
At the center of the Underworld is the Undertomb. At the center of the Undertomb is the Well of Souls, the font of all life and death.
Yes, I really drew this card. The worm willed it so. Huge caverns. Cyclopean architecture. Eternal Darkness. This might be the place you need to reach to bring your beloved back to life or become a god. But at what price?
Example inhabitants are Ogre Spiders, Lost Adventurers undergoing Apotheosis, Disassembling Angels, and more Dragons.
The Dungeon Lord here is His Majesty - THE WORM.
Closing thoughts
This is the big picture of our Underworld. It might look something like this:
There’s a whole lot of different areas and themes and every level seems unique in its own way, so I’m positive it won’t be boring to explore.
Some cards surprised me - I love the idea of a hidden bazaar for extradimensional creatures or the way the layout reinforces the maps provided in the book - while some might be subject to change, especially the Menagerie of Singular Creatures. It seems somewhat out of place, yet it could be used to reinforce the ancient sorcerers experiments. I’ll need to think about that one for a bit.
Next up is writing the room keys for each level. This is the end of what I prepared beforehand, so it might be a while until the next article in this series is done. But I’m excited enough to at least start the mapping process, maybe I’ll even see it through.
See you next time! =)