Sunday 23 February 2014

One Page Dungeon Entry: Forbidden Steam Tunnels of Emesh Yuu

Hey, I got my One Page Dungeon Contest entry out of the way early this year.

When Random Wizard made public a map of the infamous Michigan State steam tunnels -- implicated in the sad case of James Dallas Egbert, later fictionalized in the novel and TV movie Mazes and Monsters -- I had my raw material, and my inspiration. The dungeon map reconstructs them circa 1980.

Click to enlarge; edited from first post.
Mazes and Monsters provided the adventure hook (inverted in the fantasy world), a couple of the encounters, and the name of the dread Ack Oga. Jack Chick's Dark Dungeons, of course, makes its appearance, and I fit in a few very quick and obscure references to other works of the 1980's moral panic. The colorful mascots of the Big Ten athletic conference fit right in. Telecanter, as usual, provided a couple of bases for the silhouettes.

Remember, it's not satanic if they're not called demons and devils! (I always liked Knights of the Dinner Table's take-off on that - "we'll call them ne'er-do-wells.")

7 comments:

  1. Better recheck, I think you mixed up the silhouettes of the hawkeyes and buckeyes. (Buckeyes are nuts)

    http://castletriskelion.blogspot.com/

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    1. Oh, whoops, I guess I've got 2 months to fix that. Thanks! I know buckeyes are nuts but giving the monster a "buck" head works out better, I think :)

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  2. yeah, otherwise it is hard to make a monster out of them

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  3. I see you've also included Brian Boru from John Coyne's "Hobgoblin," my favorite work of the dungeon-scare genre.

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    1. Bingo! Couldn't really make him 21st level though!

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  4. I've been getting a lot out of your blog since I discovered it late last year. I really like this one page dungeon and it inspired to to submit my own this year. Keep up the good work.

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  5. Hah! Hail Satan & good luck in the contest!

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