#dungeon23 Days 85-109: Harsh Fragment and Subsurface Refuge Complex N43A, Level 1

Time for another #dungeon23 post. This sums up two locales: a large moon fragment and the first floor of a subsurface refuge complex. 

I’ve fallen behind in posting these, but not on scribbling a little bit every day… or catching up for the days I miss. Today’s post covers two locales: the large moon chunk called Harsh Fragment, which I built during days 85-96, and “Subsurface Refuge Complex N43A, Level 1,” which I worked on from days 97–109 (April 19th). 

First, the Harsh Fragment.

This is the hollow moon’s interior surface containing a swamp, some hills and mountains, grassland, but also some exotic stuff like an atmosphere generator gone haywire, a hot springs with toxic water, a fungal forest and a crystal maze, as well as a dead streambed. There are smaller fragments attached to the large one by cabling and other durable subsurface infrastructure, including one containing what looks like a city wreathed in flames. This fragment, I expect, will be harsh going for characters, but will be necessary to cross at some point in order to reach some other destination. It’s a fragment of hazards and impleasant surprises, but with some value in exploring for those who’re smart and strategic enough to tough it out. 

Next, I mapped out the first floor of a subsurface refuge complex.

Is it the only floor? I’m not sure: maybe I’ll come back to it, but the way I see it this level is deep into the crust, and probably most of the way down toward the interior, robot-riddled halfway level. That is to say, there may or may not be an obvious way down, but there is at least a hatch connecting it down to the subsurface. On the other hand, all I need to do is add an elevator if inspiration strikes at some point later this year and I decide to add a second level to the structure. 

One more thing: this is a particularized structure—there’s a collapsed section of one hallway, for example—but in some ways I intend it as a schematic: there should be multiple identical examples of this specific facility build across multiple moon fragments, each particularized in its own way. I think a random table with several particularizing details might be the way to implement such a thing, but I’ll design that later, I think. In my head, I can’t help but think of the cards provided for ships on the old Spelljammer boxed set: one side a colored map, and the other side, a random table for specific hazards or particularities at specific locations marked on the color map. Too bad such boxed sets with colored cards are expensive to produce! (They almost bankrupted TSR, didn’t they? That’s what I’ve heard.)