Megadungeon
Pulled from the depths of my dungeon to be put into your #Dungeon23 I present a way to link all your Dungeon 23’s areas as well as probably double the number of rooms in a Dm’s hands if desired. The general setup for the use of the throat is: this is an elevator system with the ability to summon a variety of rooms originally in order to make travel using the elevator interesting or enjoyable to their many guests.
Adding the Dragons Throat into a particular dungeon could cause a mapmaker nightmares. The important details are to decide where to place the central shaft and either add the door to a room or add a simple room if needed.
From there, pieces of a dungeon complex should be added from any sources desired. Given the length of time this central shaft has been in place it is possible a water level or sand/gas area could be opened to the danger of the elevator operators.
The Elevator when going to a level of a dungeon Automatically lines up with the door not a cardinal direction, allowing a DM as much positioning flexibility as possible. The shaft is also much deeper than most other parts of the dungeon to allow for additional room storage, at least 300 and allowing for geothermal energy use. (so I can complete Dungeon 23 myself with the rooms)
For my own campaign I used the following room to introduce the main elevator at the top of a mountain. I use a 5 letter number combination to easily track and reference rooms. All the Elevator rooms will follow a similar code of the elevator having a letter combination of EL (for ELevator) + a 3 digit number. Using this system a GM may easily add hundreds of additional rooms if desired.
THT01 Throat of the Dragon. Most characters have to climb up to this dark space across the broken face of the dragon now fallen to more like look of a lizard. Upon adding light to the room it is shown to be cloaked in fine marble of a pinkish hue with flecks of gold in it stunningly assembled to make the interior of the Dragons mouth. A single candle makes the entire Cavern glow warmly and rosily as if extremely inviting while more illumination exposes a deeper reflective beauty. Anyone trying to hide in Shadows here has a -5 penalty unless they have fabrics designed to match.
Characters pausing to look out of the throat to admire the panoramic view can see any relevant signs of habitation from the mountain including (what ever base the characters hail from, in my case: The Keep they came from).
At the back of the 30x30x30 room (originally 70’ long) is a flat wall except for the main door like depression and two panels. There is a small panel within 6 feet of the door frame at ground level and a large panel 25 feet up from the floor.
This area unlike the rest of the dungeon Is well-maintained and cared for especially considering that it is as close as it is to the Fallen entryway theoretically weather should get in here but there are several permanent unseen servants performing simple maintenance.
This is an elevator system wherein the elevator can be made as entertaining as possible for the dragons many guests. Over time this system of course has somewhat corrupted and fallen into disrepair leaving the characters more with a problem to solve than an actual easily used system.
Both panels can be operated by an Oil well weapon this item should be placed somewhere the players can find it before they get to the panels, unless a research and item acquisition plotline is to be used. By this point if the party has not figured out how the Oil Well weapons work as tools in this dungeon they may need to have a special Side Event run by the GM wherein they can get a hold of one of these if not more in order for the party to properly handle this part of the exploratory mission. If they don't have one the DM can choose to have the system be randomized where it's part of the flexible balances system enabling the characters to interact with the entire system in a random fashion rather than relying upon controls and experimentation at this point. This second option may make later encounter events tougher.
Perceptive characters will note the first lower control slot but not the one slot for Staves to be used by The Dragon unless specifically searching for one up high. The purpose behind two control sections in all of these kinds of rooms is for allowing the dragon to operate the system he needs but still wants to have operations controllable by servants. More posts will follow this introduction as time allows.