Actual Dungeon Design

With Issue 2 being the first to feature an actual dungeon level (Level 1 is in layouts/waiting for one more article to complete), I've decided to put to pap... blog a few overview features to remember when designing each level.

In no particular order:

The dungeon is an ecology, not a series of encounters:
That means the dungeon, especially if a group lives there, needs to have everything a habitat would have; sleeping quarters, bathrooms, a place to eat, etc. Obviously these things might be different then "friendly races" standards because of the unique ecology of the race that inhabits it, but it should all be there. Some rooms may be empty, some not particularly thrilling (storage with no secret doors or coins), but all should make sense.
This also means that when stocking a dungeon, stock it to make sense, not always balanced. There may be "tougher" monsters in higher levels, players should know when to run, but only if it makes sense. You could put an 8HD Green Dragon on Level 2 but why wouldn't that dragon take out the inhabitants of that level and take over? So he can't be there. Look to place monsters that make sense within the dungeon you're making, not the "balance of the game."

Each level should stand alone, yet connect to the whole:
I've mentioned this before. Each level should be able to be played as a stand alone dungeon if that were someone's desire. Each level should have a goal, an "end boss" to beat, and a sense of accomplishment once finished. However, there should also be elements that connect each level to the mega-dungeons overall plot, an item here, a few clues there, etc. If run alone, these items, clues would, in essence, never be "solved," but many stand alone dungeons (especially earlier editions) had elements that really only the DM knew about because of reading the Backstory.
Because of this rule, each level should have several "set pieces," areas more exciting then the hallway with a few orcs or the prison cells with the torturer. There should be something that the players talk about after the game is over, whether by architectural design that makes for a memorable (and not just "I stand in front of him and swing my sword) combat round, a fiendish puzzle that was solved with player skill, or a reoccurring NPC that causes nothing but trouble for the PCs and finally gets his later in the dungeon.
Again, because each level stands alone, there should be a reason to be in there besides trying to get to the next level. Each should have a plot hook designed to make the PCs (assuming they're proper heroes) want to explore the dungeon and reach the endgame, instead of bypassing it quickly to get to the next level or just killing/exploring everything to level up.

Each level should allow a party of four to, potentially, level up
When stocking the dungeon, each level should have enough treasure and enemies to let an average party of 4 characters to level up. I chose 4 because, while older dungeons tend to talk about parties 6-8, 4 seems closer to the group size now a days. This is an easy formula to figure out. Take the average XP it takes from all the classes in LL to go from the current level of the dungeon to the next level and multiply by 4. So, for instance, if I was designing level 3, I'd take the difference from level 3 to 4 for each class and average them (about 4107 XP) then multiply that by 4 (16428) and then make sure there's enough monsters and treasure to hit that mark. Note, don't include random enocounters or monsters that are purposely supposed to be avoided. You also may want to add a little bit more, to cover the fact that a party may not find every hidden treasure cache or decide to fight every monster that they wander into. The game self balances with classes that have more powers at lower levels (slower leveling charts) and larger parties (they may not level, but their higher numbers make for ease of play.)
Also, remember when adding monsters to not just account for HD, but also No. Enc. An encounter of a creatures HD is balanced with the average of the No. Enc. A single 1 HD monster is not a balanced fight against a 1st level party (unless it's No. Enc. is 1-1).

Remember the 5 senses
Since we're using the 5 senses system to describe the dungeon, when creating it, think in all 5 senses. What do you hear in the room, what does it smell like, does anything have a unique texture? Remember to think of things a certain race (or class) may know that others don't, certain underground structures for dwarves, flora of fey origins for elves, the skill level of a locksmith to construct a particularly locked door for a thief, etc. Don't just rely on sight based descriptions when designing a room, think of how you, yourself, would perceive an area, with all 5 senses.

Issue 2

 Yes, it's been quiet here, a combination of a bad sinus infection on my end and the fact that we're between writing and publication on the first issue's end meant that there wasn't much to put down here on the blog.

But, finally I've got something to update on; Issue 2!

Now, why am I talking Issue 2 when the first issue isn't finished? Well, if the publication is to stay monthly, we'll need to have articles written in advance so we can begin edits and layouts in a much more time restricted manner then the first issue. If there are (roughly) only 30 days between each release, we can't take our time with the writing/art/edits/etc. So, while most articles on Issue 1 are tackled and are now just being edited, laid out, and drawn for, it's time to get writing on Issue 2.

Below is a work-in-progress table of contents for Issue 2:


Player's Section

God of Neutrality - Like the previous God of Law article, it discusses the Valadian's main church for this god.
Mini-Gazetteer: Ashencor - Detailing the hub town for the Mega-Dungeon
Organizations: The Ashen Blades of Kelias - The first article about one of the famed Fighter's Schools in Valador.
X - Still one article slot open to be used.


DM's Section
Mega-Dungeon Level 1: X - The first level of the Mega-Dungeon, name left out to avoid spoilers
Secret Societies: X - Detailing the background of a DM's-knowledge-only group.


Both sections may be one more article each, depending on length of the previous ones. As a monthly, I obviously don't want to try to put out 128 page supplements especially with a small writing staff working during their free time, but I don't want to due little 16 page things either.


Well, enough about the future, back to some layouts!

The Dungeon Grows

Opening up the MegaDungeon itself up to a committee was one of the greatest things I've done in relation to this project. Once my gaming group got a hold of the initial idea and concept that ties the whole thing together they took it to places I probably never would have thought of myself.
Before I knew it, we had the initial ideas of each level planned out and already some of the more fantastical levels are getting brainstormed like crazy. With that done, I can now focus on the two DM articles for issue 1, the Dungeon Overview and Backtstory. The backstory I already knew, though with the added levels and what's in them, I can update the timeline to reflect things that occur there. The overview will be much easier now that we actually know what's in every level.

A little more writing and then that's all she wrote for Issue 1, things are coming together and I like it.

An Odd Quiet...

We're at this point in which all the old material is going through edits and no new material is being written. As a blog dedicated to the creation process of this publication, there is just not that much fun stuff to talk about. Still, some updates are in order.

Had my first art consultation, as it was, wherein a friend of mine read over a few of the demi-human articles and has begun sketching some drawings. Hopefully they'll be ready to go around layout time. Meanwhile, the articles are going through their first round of edits, big shout out to Chester for fixing all my mistakes. I tend to write fast when inspiration strikes and grammar and spelling don't always agree with first writing.

Meanwhile, I opened up the entire dungeon to my "writing staff" (i.e. group of players) to help throw some ideas out there, as this has turned more into something being made by a group then something being run by me. Once I gave them the basic premise of the whole megadungeon, they were certainly inspired and some great ideas immediately began to show up. Once we get each level codified I'll be able to write up the Dungeon Overview section and get that ready to publish on the DM side of things.

Things are coming together, and I like it! Also, quick shout out to all my fellow DM's, ST's, Ref's, GM's and whathaveyou's! Today is GM's Day, a day to celebrate those tireless bastards that keep games running and our imagination's filled with colorful tales of fancy. I mostly run games, but have been honored enough to be a player in some very entertaining games. I want to give a big thank you to everyone who's been brave enough to step behind the screen and nice enough to invite me to take a seat at their table.

5 Senses Room Descriptions

Boxed text in adventures are a bit of a mixed bag for me. On one hand, they're classic, which I know doesn't make something good, but it makes it stick in your mind. On the other hand, it's hard to convey a room properly with boxed text for every group out there. Some people may just want to play to kill things, so the players are drifting off as your describe the smell in the air and paintings on the walls. Others are trying to map every detail and anything left out of boxed text will mess them up. Other times, boxed text comes off as ridiculous, as several sentences describe the craggy walls, dripping water, and odd smells and end with "and a huge minotaur stands in the center of the room!" as if that wasn't the important first detail...

Many adventures that do away with box texts (especially more modern ones) give the DM little description of the room save for what can kill a PC or be killed by a PC and expect the map to handle the killing space (what the rest of the room looks like, who cares? As long as I know where I can stand when I hit things with my axe). Others might give a sparse description, but leave out details PCs may want to know about.

For our room descriptions I've come up with something I've tentatively called the "5 Senses" model, where in each location will be described using the 5 senses. Each sense entry won't be boxed text, it will be up to the DM to decide what to reveal and what not to reveal based on what the PCs are doing. Special provisions for the Demi-Humans and their special senses would also be included, such as describing the room by sight if only using infravision or things noticeable about the architecture to a dwarf.

Sight would concern itself mostly with the room size and locations of exits, I feel a good description of dimensions and ways in/out are important for mappers, as well as all the other descriptions most often found in traditional boxed text; unusual features on the walls, the materials/look of the walls themselves, large pools of water, paintings, etc. etc. As mentioned above, it would also include anything that may appear special via infravision, or perhaps an elf would notice that the room is dessigned in an elven style.

Sound would be useful not only for flavor, but the go-to entry for those adventurers smart enough to remember to listen at a door.

Smell and Taste don't often come up in room descriptions but I feel they are something that can really help set the scene. They are strong senses we use in real life that are oft neglected when describing something (be it a novel, dungeon, or even recounting a memory), but when are used often provoke an instant response from those listening to the description. Taste, as you may imagine, wouldn't come up too often, unless the adventurers go about licking the walls, however sometimes odors are so overpowering they have a "taste" to them, as to rooms and places that are overly stuffy, old, dusty, etc.

Touch/Feel is another thing often neglected, but can be important, be it the feel of soft ground under the adventures feet or the cold draft the chills the skin the second the door is open. It can even be used to describe the feel of the walls as adventurers run their hands over it looking for secret doors.

These don't only apply for the room of course, things in the room can get that treatment too, from inhabitants (the look of the monster is that much more memorable when coupled with its smell and sound) to items the adventurers investigate (the rusty squeal of an old suit of armor being moved, the smell of the odd liquid in the beaker on the table).

These won't be written to be read aloud, but rather, they'll be descriptive and thorough, with this system the DM can use as much or as little as he wants, depending on his players. He may stop at just the basic room description by sight for players who want to move along to the killing, or leave out parts the party hasn't discovered yet because they haven't fully walked into a room or the light hasn't hit that one corner with the weird pool of liquid (even though they can still hear and smell it). Also, each detail that only a certain race would sense/know about will be distinctly called out so that the DM's can adjust to what the party consist of.

For now, it's just an interesting concept, I'll put it into practice on the revised write-up of the first level of the dungeon and run it by my group for their thoughts on how well it works or if it's too much or not enough. Stay tuned.

More Updates

Have begun work on the DM side of Issue 1, hopefully with some other stuff out of the way, the freelance article on the god of law will be showing up soon.

Starting to think about a ToC for Issue 2, have a few ideas, will put into a more concrete idea later. My articles for Issue 1 will be going off to be read by several people to act as editors, you can't edit your own work, it just never works out.

I may have an artist, I wasn't really looking for one, but sometimes things fall into your lap, which is always a good thing.

Finally, I have an idea on a "5 Senses" approach to describing rooms in a dungeon, I'll elaborate more in another post tomorrow when I have the idea better hammered out.

Progress Report

Everything for the first issue on the Player's Side of things has been written, save for the God article which should be showing up soon.

On the DM's side of thing, the two articles explaining the rough backstory of the dungeon as well as a overview of what's on each level so DM's can begin building subplots and such is being roughly put together. Later this week I'm having a good friend and fellow gaming conspirator listen to a few of my ideas and act as a sounding board. He always tends to enhance my level of devious plans and provide some of his own that blend in perfectly with my ideas.

With any luck, those should be written soon afterward and I'll start editing and laying out the articles, all the while getting things ready to be written for Issue 2 so we can try to maintain a monthly release.

Regional Overview

The Telstara Region of the Valadian Empire is so named because of the port city of Telstara, the largest and most important city within many miles. Situated on the coast of the Mære Ocean, Telstara is an important trade city with many Imports and Exports leaving its docks nearly every hour of every day.

To the north, the great Ellengæst Peaks rise majestically along the city's horizon. Once pocketed with several dwarven strongholds, they were abandoned as the dwarf populations dwindled in the face of their mysterious curse. Now, many people of the Empire have begun to explore the strongholds, seeking out lost treasures and veins of precious metals. Forge's Claim is the first mining town to grow around such a claim, but are more are sure to follow. These mountains are surrounded by the Hebban Highlands, a hilly region left relatively undeveloped in the west. It is here that several tribes of monstrous races call home and occasionally head out to prey on the good peoples of the Empire.


To the east and west, two great forests stretch on for miles, much of which has been unexplored. The woods grow thick and dark the deeper one travels within and rumors of fae, elves, and far worse keep most people out and dissuade the establishment of any towns on the forests' edge. Lone woodsmen or small groups may establish a few camps along their borders, but the last long term settlement attempted to be established was razed to the ground soon after completion by large group of halflings. It was here the people of the region learned that those halflings left abandoned to the woods have banded together and formed some semblance of a community. Many cursed with halfling births now killed their child quickly, but there are still those that cannot bring themselves to such actions and continue to leave their deformed children along the wood's edge, hoping they'll taken in by those that live in the woods. Thus, the halfling bands continue to grow.

Two great rivers, along with their branches, wind their way though much of the grasslands of the region, providing many nutrients as well as irrigation opportunities to the land. This, along with the temperate climate and ample rainfall coming off the ocean, means there is a great amount of agricultural development around the city. Vast farmlands, dotted by occasional farmhouses, water mills, and barns and stables can be seen for miles around the city itself. While the occasional several storm coming off the ocean and being trapped in the region by the mountains may wreck havoc on the farms, the people are hardy and swiftly rebuild and carry on their lives, making the region very prosperous. Telstara is mostly self sustaining and relies on few imports, meaning it prospers from the taxes of the amount of goods coming out of and into the city that they don't need themselves.

The importance of the city as a trade port meant the Empire commissioned a great road, the Telstara Run, to connect Telstara to the rest of the Empire in the north. This two wagon wide, cobble stone paved road is well maintained and patrolled, making it one of the safest and smoothest roads in the Empire. Fort Renault sits in a hilly region of the road, flanked by treacherous, mountainous terrain to the west and a tangled swath of forest to the east making it highly defensible. From here, riders head out along the road to keep it clear of highwaymen, ravenous beasts, and monstrous creatures. It is also the only viable land route into Telstara for trade caravans, giving the soldiers an opportunity to check traders for illegal cargo as well as impose a tax for passing through the fort, much to the chagrin of traders and the joy of Imperial coffers.

The only other places of note in the region is Ashencor and the Tel'ur'Rath. Ashencor a small village situated on the banks of the Nædre River and nestled in a valley between two hills. Generations ago this was a sacred site, a monastic order built a monastery atop one of the hills that has long since been abandoned. The village continues to live on however, offering a good resting point for those traveling the Run, and sitting in the shadow of the old abandoned monastery. The ruins of an ancient fortress, Tel'ur'Rath sits along the southern edge of the Grénian Forest. Much of it has been explored by Imperial scholars, though their are rumors that there are entrances to areas beneath the ruins not yet discovered. The name comes from a bastardization of the elven words for Old Tower, after the scholars noted much of the architectural design is similar to that of the elves. Those elves who have seen the ruins say that, while their are similarities, the actual design and fading decorative work is not truly elven design but something different.

Magic-User

The ability to wield arcane magic is a powerful one. Unlike those blessed with divine abilities, magic-users gain their power through study, routine, and sheer force of will. Magic is not a mysterious force to them, but instead a tool used to shape and mold the world, like a blacksmith uses a hammer to forge metal. While a magic-user may not fully understand the powers he wields, his ability to wield them show a great amount of tenacity, will, and intelligence.


Arcane magic is often looked up with suspicion and fear, those who study the art often do so in secret. Unlike the guilds dedicated to teaching fighters and delvers or the great temples where clerics train, magic-users do their study in secret. The amount of focus and training involved means that most magic-uers are taught individually, conducting private lessons away from prying eyes. Rumors persist, however, of great cabals or magic-users teaching groups of students in hidden places far from civilization. Common folk speak of these places in secret, in fear of a great army of spell-casters intent on ruling the world through magical power. Most magic-users are not power hungry however, but are instead inquisitive, seeking to discover the deeper meaning to magic and its place in life.

Magic-users are usually not welcome among the common folk. The powers of their abilities and the mystery in which that power comes from is the exact opposite of the religious qualities of divine magic. To most people, magic-users are trafficking with dark creatures, manipulating powers that were not made for them, or simply too powerful to be trusted. Most magic-users avoid civilized places whenever possible and when they must travel there, they do little to reveal their abilities. Even those that travel with other adventurers will hide themselves in plain site, often pretending to be a hireling or guide for the party so not to bring down unjust paranoia and prejudice against the group.

Why They Adventure: Because there is no unified teaching for magic-users, nor, seemingly any limit to their power, much of the secrets of arcane casting has been lost to time. There was a point in history when magic wasn’t so feared and many ruins that dot the landscape are rumored to contain magical secrets. Many magic-users travel among more physically hardy adventurers to seek out these places and new avenues of study. Magic-users are often inquisitive as well, the ability to manipulate magic and power beyond the physical realm requires such a mind and dungeons, with their many secrets and hidden threats often offer a challenge to such minds.

Role-Playing Tips: Magic-users wield a great deal of power, of which few fully understand. Most magic-users seek to understand why however, meaning they are inquisitive and often curious to a fault. Most magic-users are taught that magic is a powerful force and not to be used lightly, indeed, the fact that most magic-users cannot handle the ability the power to cast more then a few spells a day, means most respect the power they have and do not waste it. Magic-users are also feared by most common folk and though they are no match for a caster, especially one among an adventuring party, eventually numbers always win out and a whole town turned against a magic-user can make it a very unpleasant stay. Often other adventurers do not fully trust a magic-user either, either due to growing up among the same tales the common folk have or because of the magic-user’s lack of understanding their abilities, as opposed to the understanding the other classes have on their unique gifts. This mistrust often means that magic-users are withdrawn and quiet, either trying to avoid attention, or dealing with the emotional weight of having a world against them.

Languages of Valador: Monster Languages

Monster Languages

The Valadian Empire considers any race that is not dwarf or elf as a "monster," decreeing they should be eliminated on sight. Though some places may be more accepting of halflings, or a shopkeeper may have a goblin slave, they are still always considered nothing more then monsters. However, many of these "monsters" have cultures and societies of their own and with them, a development of language. While most Valadians and their allies would have no use for learning such languages, many adventurers study and learn these tongues, as they are more likely to run into such creatures out in the wilderness and dark places they explore.

Fey: Fey is the basis of the Elven tongue, so much so that those that speak Elven can often understand the basic concept of something spoken in Fey. However, while the elves codified and shorten the language to more effectively communicate with the shorter lived races, Fey have had no need for that. Fey remains a lyrical, floating, long language, beings that live forever have no need to speak in clipped phrases and sentences. Ask a fey how it is feeling and it may be an hour before she finishes her answer, explaining each nuance in her feelings, allowing each word to resonant and carry on the wind. Fey are also ever changing, like nature herself, they are always changing and their words change with them. Words change in tone and strength, flow and length, making the language hard to pin down accurately. Unlike the pure Chaos tongue, however, words generally maintain the same ideal, meaning that when one learns the root of a word, they cause usually adapt to any changes after hearing it a few times. Still, the length of the language and its massive vocabulary so depending on pitch, tone, and cadence makes Fey one of the least learned languages, often requires decades to master even the simplest structure.

Goblin: While goblins are scattered into numerous tribes throughout Valador and their languages has hundreds of dialects, it does come from a common root. Goblin has a distinctive rhyming quality, with many of their words ending in vowel sounds and a short range of consonant, mostly hard sounds. Many words in Goblin also features swallowed sounds and clicks of the tongue and emphasis is given to certain words and commands by repeating a word twice. Goblins have a very simple vocabulary and because of this, they often steal words from other languages to identify things they don't often come into contact with. These words tend to still take on a Goblin sound however as goblins often inject vowels to separate syllables in their borrowed words, particularly "u" sounds. While dialects vary, it is often in terms of borrowed words, making each dialect easy to figure out if one knows the root and what other races exist around them. Goblin is one of the most often learned "monster tongues" because of the simplicity and large number of goblins found in Valador.

Gnoll: The Gnoll tongue is, unsurprisingly, mixed with a many canine traits; yips, howls, growls, even posture, showing of teeth and rising of hair factor into the gnoll language. Gnolls, being a slaver and raider race, have a lot of words used to describe people and items taken from others, words based on their worth, usefulness, and selling price. Conversely, gnolls have few words for working and creating things themselves. Art, as a whole, is a foreign concept to gnolls and they have few descriptive words in their vocabulary besides base emotions and primal urges. Gnoll is a particularly hard language to learn, for it is much like learning the language of a wolf or dog. While figuring out the intent of a word is simple, the need to be expressive in body and fur dynamics as well as vocal sounds makes it difficult to discern the actual words. Gnoll is only learned on a very simplistic level by those races that bother to try it, as some concepts, phrases, and words are simply impossible do to without a thick coat of fur. Most of the Valadian Empire and their allies would rather kill a gnoll then trying to talk to it anyway.

Orc: Orc is a deep, harsh, guttural language, punctuated with growls and fierce delivery. Much of their words relate to killing, death, and the glory of bloodshed. While this is not unexpected given the orc's nature, what does surprise scholars is how much the language resembles early human tongue. Not quite Valadian and not exactly what was used by humans before, Orc certainly shares some common ancestry with these languages. For many scholars this poses a question if orcs also share a common ancestry with humans, something hard to determine with a lack of written or coherent oral history of the orcs. However, the similarities makes this an one of the easier tongues to learn by many humans. Along with Goblin, this is the most common of the "monster tongues" learned by adventurers.

Project Update

So, MegaDungeon Monthly is in full swing, and things are coming together for Issue 1 as I speak. I don't have an ETA on it yet, I'm going to wait until we not only have all the articles for it done, but also several more in order to be prepared for a monthly release schedule.

Here, however, is the proposed ToC of the first issue:
Player's Section:
Classes in Valador: Looking at the Labyrinth Lord classes and how they fit into the world of Valador (Finished)
Languages of Valador: Giving a brief overview of the potential starter languages the PCs have (2/3 Finished)
Faiths of Valador, The Church of Law: Name subject to change, being written by my good friend Sean
Valador, The Telstara Region: A brief overview (and wilderness map) of the area surrounding the megadungeon

DM's Section:
Campaign Background: What happened in the past to make the dungeon what it is in the present
Campaign Overview: A synopsis of the levels and what's to expect.

As you can see, Issue 1 is sorta a preview issue, getting people ready to play without providing the actual dungeon to play in. Issue 2 would see the first level of the dungeon as well as several more player focused articles to help bring Valador to life.

Faiths of Valador: The Three Alignment Gods

The Valadian Empire's official religion is built around three primary deities, higher powers representing Law, Neutrality, and Chaos. It is the only recognized religion in the Empire and as it expands, it looks to abolish or absorb other religions into their own. In terms of other information... well I don't have it yet.

In a show of true cooperative world building, the full look at these gods and the religious practice built around them is actually being left up to some of my players. It shall eventually be turned into an article for our first published work. It's just exciting to see others working on this as well and I just wanted to share that.

Languages of Valador: Common Languages

The three most prolific races of Valador, the humans, elves, and dwarves, have each developed their own unique tongue. The languages are very indicative of the races that created them and their development was done with little influence from the others. Because of this, each language is very distinct and separate from one another.

The Common Tongue of the Valadian Empire: Often referred to Valadian or simply Common, this is the language of Valador's most dominant species, the humans. Valadian formed from the various tribal dialects of early human cultures and much of that is still reflected in the language today. Valadian is a very harsh and guttural language, with short, sharp words and an aggressive sound. Due to human's penchant for wanting to quantify things, Common has many words in its vocabulary, creating a new word for each new thing discovered, instead of simply identifying it with previous descriptive words. This process confuses the other major races, which often dissuades them from using the language unless absolutely necessary.

Elvish: Elvish is a derivative of the Fey language, brought over with the elves when came from "beyond the horizon." Like the Fey tongue, it is a flowing almost song-like language, developed to allow words to easily flow into each other and be carried lightly on the wind. However, over the years, the elves formed the language into their own, creating something distinct from that of the Fey. Because of their interactions with the races in Valador, Elvish has become much more truncated then its Fey origin, ideals that may have taken hours to express in Fey now only take several minutes in Elvish. Still, the language tends to be very long winded and the need for properly controlling the pitch and tone of one's voice in order to speak it correctly means that only those from other races with much patience can ever master even conversational levels of Elvish. This make Elvish the least spoken of the three common languages, something that suits the elves perfectly.

Dwarvish: Once considered a closed language, spoken only by the dwarves, Dwarvish has begun to spread beyond its native speakers as they've begun to interact with the rest of the world. Dwarvish is a simple language, with direct and straight phrasing, devoid of metaphor and complex structure. The language would be considered beautiful if not for the manner in which it is spoken. Like all things they do, dwarves speak loudly and with great passion, speaking even simple instructions with pride. It is not proper form to speak Dwarvish softly and the concept of whispering is lost to them. Many scholars of other races who learn the language are often embarrassed to speak it due to its boisterous inflection.

Languages of Valador: Alignment Languages

Each branch of the official religion of Valador has its own language to recite lecture and prepare scrolls and scripture, the languages of the gods themselves. It is rumored that the languages were rooted from a common theological tongue, formed centuries ago by the earliest unified human religion. Today, the three main faiths of the Valadian Empire each have their own distinct tongue and despite their shared ancestry, the languages today are so far removed from one another that a person able to speak one cannot understand another. This is particularly frustrating for adventuring clerics who, upon discovering an ancient spell scroll long forgotten, are dismayed to find it written in a holy language they are not familiar with. Because of this, many clerics learn alignment languages that are not of their faith. Alignment languages are taught by the church to only those of faith or of learned men of great renown (and great wealth). Not everyone of a particular alignment knows how to speak an alignment language and no non-human would ever be taught that language of the Valadian Empire's gods.

Lawful: A complex and wordy language, Lawful uses a vast array of words to convey and thought or action as detailed as possible while trying to do so in a very ordered fashion. Lawful is not a flowery language, but instead one that pieces together many words to create new words, mashing together adjective and nouns to create a single many syllable word to describe something as detailed as possible. Many scholars and burgeoning engineers learn Lawful in order to express detailed history, theories, and instructions. Lawful is the most widely learned of the alignment languages for those not within the clergy.

Neutral: Neutral is the most succinct of the three alignment languages and also contains the smallest vocabulary. Neutral conveys thoughts quickly, with small simple words that are devoid of personal feelings of a situation or object. Neutral has no words to describe personal feelings, instead relying on words that state absolute fact without bias. Because of this, Neutral is sometimes used in larger cities for the creation and documentation of laws, so that misinterpretation can be avoided.

Chaos: Chaos is ever evolving and changing, it is a language with little stable form. It is impossible to convey the rules of the Chaos language, for there is none. The language is fluid, a flowery language with complex rules for conjugation can shift into a curt monosyllabic language devoid of inflection within a few decades. Words change their meaning, drop out of the language entirely, or shift their pronunciation within a few years, making it a very hard language to master. Because of this, very little of the language is preserved in written form, and those items that are, can take a skilled Chaos linguistic many months to decipher. It is said that many Thieves' Cants, used by many thieving guilds throughout the land, were developed from Chaos.

Hiatus Brings Inspiration

Well an interesting series of real life events has taken a good hold of my time these last few weeks. In the end, it all lead to very good things and was well worth any distance from the internet world and my projects that came from it (and really, there's some awesome stuff out there that's not the internet... I know, I didn't believe it either).

However, I didn't lose all interest in my Megadungeon, in fact, I came up with a few solid ideas while I was away.

The most important? I've decided to take all the collective work that I've been developing for the MegaDungeon to be run and put it together into .pdfs to share with the world!

Inspired by reading through one of Paizo's Adventure Paths, each release would be broken into two files, the Player's Section and DM's section. The DM's section would mostly contain a particular level or subsection of the Megadungeon as well as any DM only type articles, new monsters, background of villainous organizations, the truth behind an ancient mystery. The Player's section, meanwhile, would stick with things more useful for player's trying to develop their characters, articles about the various religions of the world, a nearby town described in detail, an article about dwarven holidays, etc.

I would like to see them published once every month, though the first one would not see print until after a few levels of the Megadungeon was run through by my players (free playtesting!) and would hopefully stay behind them as we went on. This also gives me time to back log several articles (especially as topics come up in play) so I'm not scrambling to come up with articles and authors last minute.

Hopefully I'll get some of my group in one the writing as they'll be contributing to the world building as I set out to do when I first started. We'll see if I can "force" them to be creative.