Dave got on Skype with Jim from California, the first of our $250 “Dungeon Builder” backers, so we could talk about his ideas for the adventure site he’s helping us develop for Primeval Thule. (We’ve had other dungeon backers since then, and we’ll be contacting them, too. Jim was just first.)

The conversation started with lots of active listening. Jim described what he liked about his favorite old-school adventures and monsters and what he saw as the highlights of the swords and sorcery genre. Based on that, Dave described some Thule-specific monsters and organizations that carry a lot of the thematic/symbolic flavor Jim was looking for.

After a lot of “What about this? Well, what about this?” back-and-forth, here’s what we came up with. It’s enough for us Sasquatches to start on, and we’ll circle back around and talk with Jim (and all our dungeon builder backers) throughout the design process.

Here’s what we’ve got based on our Skype conversation:

Jim wants his adventure site to be an old-school underground dungeon: Stalton’s Demise. (Stalton is an old character of Jim’s.) Formerly a dwarven ore mine, Stalton’s Demise has something—something old and powerful and malign—in the deepest mine shaft. Stalton and his clan of prospectors awoke something buried deep within the earth, and the mines have swallowed them whole.

This dovetails nicely with a key way that the dwarves of Thule interact with the rest of the world: dwarves have access to metals and alloys that are unknown to the rest of the world. The Lovecraftian risks of digging deeply are one reason why only the dwarves have this stuff.

But there’s also a problem. “Hey, Jim, that’s great, but it’s Moria,” we said. “How can we show people something they haven’t seen before here? How can we Thule it up?” Jim agreed, and together we added some Thulean flavor.

After the dweller in the mine shaft consumed the dwarves, it reached out with its not-exactly-a-mind and compelled beastmen from a nearby jungle valley to descend into the mine…not to be consumed, but to serve. Now the beastmen practice a strange, primitive religion in their underground warrens—except for a few beastmen that understand, if dimly, that something malevolent is twisting the rest of the tribe.

Could the PCs find common cause (however temporarily) with the uncorrupted beastmen? What is the something in the bottom of the mine? What’s in there, other than beastmen? What draws the PCs there in the first place?

All good questions. After some more design and development, we’ll have the answers.

Oh, and one last thing: Jim promises “no mine carts”—too modern-feeling.

Kal Zimari Dwarf