Culture Clash

The party has come to an entrance guarded by a flesh golem and two young remorhaz, with a band of kobolds deeper inside the complex. This entrance is a "working entrance" used by the lesser creatures and servants. The dungeon complex itself is a hybrid of two merged interests. There is the original dungeon setup that stretched below the fortress, and an added region of excavated tunnels.

This sketch is an initial attempt at a working dungeon map. As I see it, the tunnels were dug and inhabited by the kobolds. The original cellars and dungeons have been taken by the cultists. They understand the point of the fortress above as a defensive position, and have kept one corner of the fortress in good repair and guarded. They also understand that their secretive plans need to be kept discreet, so they have left most of the fortress in ruins, and stay out of view.

The cultists are human, and yet they have many kobold allies. Again, I think the kobolds stick to the rough tunnels as a matter of preference, and the humans stick to the rooms closest to the stairs up into the fortress ruins. This leaves the middle section largely unoccupied. That means natural encounters, like spiders and oozes, as well as shadowy lurker types preying on isolated kobolds and humans that wander through. My guess is that these slip in and out through the tunnels past the kobolds. As natural and individual predators, they probably don't trigger the command defense instructions given to the flesh golem, so it leaves them be.

It would be easy enough to have a secret door, or small natural passage, or collapse in the roof that would allow them to access the dark passages also. That makes an interesting point. The kobolds don't need light sources with their darkvision, so their tunnels are mostly dark. When the kobolds move, they use torches for extra light, and in the occupied rooms there are generally fires that give off light.

The humans like to keep their rooms well lit, however, they are careful about the light. There are wall sconces installed with torches that can be lit when occupied. The room with the stairwell actually has a sconce with continual flame cast on it. The sconce is mechanically connected to the doorway above so that when it is opened, the sconce is covered. This way, the room is brightly lit when the door is closed, and in complete darkness when it is open.

It is necessary still to flesh out the human cultists, both in number and in character. I also think the no man's land in the middle of the complex should be well guarded with traps and tricks to confuse and disable anyone unfamiliar with the defenses. I'm not sure what to do yet. I think the next thing to do is get a handle on the humans.