Normally when you play D100 Dungeon, you enter into these single-use nowhere dungeons that represent a kind of combined possibility state of a number of largely symbolic rooms/places. It is perhaps an irony that a game that has a d100 table of weapons that rarely differentiate more than a couple of points — a maul vs a morning star is mostly a matter of one taking a bit more to repair — has a lot of rooms and spaces where only a few have any real distinguishing marks. This has improved as the books have gone on but in the base set experiences — essentially what was played in the first episode of this arc — mostly only the Green/Geographic rooms have true character. Blue depends on the quest. Red brings a guaranteed fight.

For the rest, it is effectively a d100 table of how many exits and if those exits have doors.

While contemplating this, and wanting this to be a fairly Doug-style playthrough, I thought a fun twist might be to have all the Training quests be handled as adventures in a single dungeon. One where each run continues to build up an ever-increasing map. In that first adventure, Larsson found a door he could not open — or, more precisely, he did not try and open though his STR is high enough he likely would have succeeded. Why not use that as the spark for the next session? He wants to find out what is behind that door.

He is an out-of-sorts villager in a large family that has greatly moved past their sea-invader roots. He goes to a cave at his cousin Dale's bequest and finds a secret door. After that, he finds a door that requires a special lever to open. He finds ratmen, at least, in the hidden portion of the cave. To him, this is adventure.

Rather than create another story-meaningless dungeon to carry out Dungeon Training Quest 2, we'll start with him getting past the door and tie it into the plot. Along the way, we'll introduce another cousin and keep building up the family tree.

Dungeon Training 2.

Encounter Modifier: -30. Success: +50GP. Failure = -1/2GP.

Mission: Enter the dungeon and loot three weapons from monsters there.

Larsson the Maudlin, Quest 2: Arming Tyren by Going Past the Door

Tyren's Bargain

After returning to Fairhope and helping Dale to have a successful Shandreer Festival — Daisy was happy but Dale still has some work to do to woo her fully — Larsson found himself obsessed by the door he found in the fountain room. Why would a cave have a secret passage? And, why would entering that passage lead to a sealed door. Surely something is behind that door. The Mauds of Old would have chopped that door down and robbed the place blind. Or died trying. Screaming about honor and the glory of battle.

As the tourists sailed down the River Akat and Fairhope and Sweetwash Bay returned to the sleepy normalcy, Larsson turned to his cousin Tyren Maud. The Fairhope Blacksmith and the one closest to holding the old ways. Tyren forges equipment particularly sharp and particularly sturdy. Adventurers traveling around on Phillia sometimes consider it worth the trip just to suit up. Tyren's equipment gets sent to Goldenbrook and shipped up Eos to Humb. Tyren might be far from a warrior but he knows what a warrior might need.

And thus, Larsson did approach his cousin and made a deal: if Tyren could give him a piece of equipment to help him get past a door found in the cave, then any good weapons found could be given to Tyren as payment. Or well, sold to Tyren to fix up and make like new again.

It was a soft bargain, and Larsson knew it. It was unlikely that any weapons found would be superior to his cousin. He mostly just hoped that Tyren would sense his need. Tyren did. A special crowbar with a cross handle that would apply a large amount of force was forged. The deal was struck.

The next day, Larsson headed back up the river to once again dive into those strange caves.

Mushrooms and Mosquitos

Standing in front of the door, he brought forth Tyren's invention and wedged it and pulled hard. The metal snapped — surprising since Tyren's craftsmanship is top notch and a testament to how strong the door was designed — but the door creaked open. Pulling out his large axe, Larsson stepped through.

The same strange glowing liquid dripped here but without a fountain to capture it has spread over the floor and from it many large and varied mushrooms were growing. Remembering the non-effect the last time he had come drunk of the liquid, Larsson thought about eating the mushrooms. However, after a few seconds of thinking it through, he decides against it. A door on the far wall is his only way forward. This time, though, the door is unlocked. Good, saves him a trip back to Fairhope.

The liquid pooled up in the previous room has dripped into a couple of holes in the floor and strange things are moving around in there. Wiggling and twisting. As he steps back, his warrior spirit tested by a sense of disgust, he hears a loud sharp buzzing sound. From cracks in the wall a number of large mosquitos fly out. He swings his axe around and tries to prevent them from stabbing him with their proboscises. He manages to cut deep into the back of one and then sweep and chop through another as he feels a hard bite his right arm. He finishes them off and then without thinking splashes that odd water on the wound to help wash out some of the poison before his arm can swell. It oddly seems to work. What's more, in the bottom of that pool he notices a glint of silver and reaches down into the giant mosquito larvae and retrieve. It is a fairly nice silver holy symbol he does not recognize. He pockets that, cuts the head off one of the large mosquitos to add to Dale's odd selection of soups, and goes through the door.

Oozes and Hobgoblins

The next room is some sort of storage room full of barrels. He does not want to spend too long — nor does he fully trust what strange things that they might contain — but at least the room is relatively dry compared to ichor soaked previous chambers. He picks a couple of barrels at random and pops them open. One contains very moldy corn, no doubt stolen from the back of a merchant caravan. The other contains cloth. Poking delicately into it, he hears a metallic sound. Pulling the cloth out, he has found a maul. The heavy hammer has some wear but should fit Tyren's requirements.

Past this is another room for storage. Shelves covered in cobwebs and dust line the walls. Unfortunately, the floor is covered in a slime that rises up and slithers towards Larsson. As it splashes against his legs, he can feel the acidic ooze burn into his flesh. He sweeps around several times with his axe until whatever strange lifeforce animated the slime gives up. As it melts back into more pools of that strange glowing water, he sees a different of glint. Gold. A few gold pieces, possibly from a previous victim, are on the floor and well polished. He picks those up.

He then searches through the shelves and cupboards. A mostly fruitless task until he sees marks on the floor suggesting one can be slid out and possibly has been used as such recently. He pulls it back and behind it is a hole in the wall. Inside that is something wrapped in cloth. Pulling the cloth open, he finds a morning star. Another weapon suitable for Tyren.

The room has an open door up to the north but first he examines the door to the east. It refused to open at first but is nowhere near as sturdy as the one that closed off these strange chambers to begin with. With heavy pull, the door snaps out of its frame and Larsson has a way forward.

Which is how he found himself face to face with three hobgoblins. The hobs are just as surprised as Larsson to see him there. Before they can attack, he runs forward and starts swinging. The hobs scatter and he missed wildly. One gets a swing in with a claymore that could have taken Larsson's head off. Thanks to his helmet, though, it was a glancing blow.

After a few more exchanges of blows — a fight that Larsson goes on to dominate — the hobgoblins are dead. He snags the claymore that was used against him and adds it to the tally. Before turning around to leave, Larsson searches the rubble and debris the hobgoblins were standing in. There he finds a scroll. Larsson is very much so not well equipped to cast spells, but still it should bring some value to sell one day.

Back to Fairhope

Returning to town, he sells the maul and the morning star to Tyren for a fair price — along with the holy symbol — and sells the mosquito head to Dale with no questions ask. From cousin Tyren, he purchases a Faud to wrap around his waist. More armor is best now that he has been a few fights.

He heads over to his mom's tavern to grab some food and rest up his injuries.

Already, he'd like to go back and explore some more.

To see my playthrough notes (via Google Drive): Quest 2: Dungeon Training 2. Played on April 5, 2025.

The map so far looks like this [made in GIMP]:

A map showing all the rooms played so far.

I realized while writing this up that I played the quest slightly wrong. The weapons that count towards the goal are meant to be "looted from monsters" and not just found. That's ok, mostly. It did make the adventure shorter than expected (only five rooms this time around) which does eat in a bit to the kind of rolls and exploits that can help to better improve a character.

Still, it is not like it matters too much. The Dungeon Training quests are kind of like an extended randomizer. The first time or two you play, they act a bit as tutorial. After that, they are largely about helping to improve a character by way of giving more opportunities to get gear, increase stats/skills, and generally getting a hang of the character's abilities.

One of the later books — Book 4 or Book 8, I forget — actually has a quick table to simulate you getting past the five training quests in a few rolls.

Oh, just as a note: to make the behind-the-door section feel a bit different than the caves, the idea is that stuff in the "dungeon" portion will be using the Mapping Alternative (MA) rooms and Encounter Alternative (EA) encounters. Stuff in the caves will use the more default M and E tables.

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