Bridge War! (Adventure Location)

Inspired by the history of Milwaukee, this is a small adventure location with competing factions and easy connections to other underground lairs. It is also a dungeon with a river in it, to satisfy Loch's prompt for Glaugust 2025 and win my full participation badge.

The Situation

The dungeon, such as it is, is the intersection of two nameless underground rivers shortly before they feed into the Terrible Lakes. It is divided into three wards— the goblin town of Nilbog, the deep dwarf company of Hoheim, and the serpentfolk complex of Slither's Point. Each, wanting to control trade along the dungeon rivers and achieve prominence over the others, has spread rumors against the others, set their tunnels at odd angles, and eventually made bridges spanning those odd angles to direct the flow of foot traffic. After sabotage of two bridges, the wards are tense, and war is ready to leap up and set the forces against each other.

The contents of the dungeon proper should be pretty easy to adapt to your game world, but if you want to run this as a one-shot, it might help to define a bit of a situation on the surface. Something like…

The country here is pleasant, with many rivers running through marshes, woods, and open land to a massive freshwater lake. The main inhabitants are the Pkékejewen Tribe, several hundred people in distributed settlements of matt-covered dome homes or wooden longhouses, occupied with hunting Gygaxian monsters, botany, and supporting a lodge of pyromancer-researchers. If they ever establish trade with Hoheim, the steady supply of worked goods would dramatically increase their military potential.

Three days to the south is the great city-state of Chipotamia, whose symbol is the bull, the overbroad pauldron, and the secret sign of every thief's brotherhood. Its fugitives and outlaws use Pkékejewen backlands to conceal their hideouts and smuggling routes, which the emir increasingly blames on the tribe. If he ever learns of the dungeon wards, he will try to bankroll Slither's Point to push out the goblins who make a haven for crime.

Five days north along the river is Agaamishkode, recently called the Ashen Lands after half the thousand-mile-wide forest was burned. Ruled by dryads and peoples by ensorceled lumberjacks, rangers, and elves. Valuing fecundity in their servants, the verdigarchs would aid the growth of Nilbog if they could.

Two days to the west are the wood pillars marking the beginning of the other lands of the Kenupik Alliance, of which Pkékejewen is a junior member. Five other tribes guarantee their independence against the north and south, and when their bands walk together they paint scales on their shields and fangs on their arrows. 

2d6 Underground River Encounters

2 The wizard Lesekeme, always looking to buy human bodies at a bargain. Paddles his own solitary gondola. 9 HD.

3 2d6 Kuo-Toa Pilgrims. They argue with the serpentfolk and try to sell you medallions of the "Sea Mother", a humanoid figure with lobster claws they worship. See D2: Shrine of the Kuo-Toa.

4 4d4 Kobolds of Korm Basin on a scavenged barge. They trade scavenged goods and rumors about the tomb of the Sandlanders, and may hire out mercenaries to help them defeat "the Svarts of the Green Star". See White Dwarf #9's The Lichway.

5 3d4 Deep Dwarves here to interface with Hoheim. Ride in a water-crawler, a device halfway between a buggy, a bugge, and a submarine.

6 6d6 Goblin Merchants on pontoons, refreshing the wares of the stalls at the wharf and buoying Nilbog spirits with patriotic slogans.

7 3d6 Human Smugglers on silent rafts. D4 specialty: counterfeit goods, stolen goods, slaves, cursed and evil objects.

8 2d6 Troglodyte Corsairs on a ramshackle lifeboat. Fleeing their gang in the Incandescent Grottoes after the death of their beloved Boss Trog.

9 2d6 Serpentfolk Pilgrims on a snake-prowed ship. They argue with Kuo-Toa, pray in the temple, and worship the Great Egg.

10 1d2 Big Crayfish (stats as giant crab)

11 3d4 Fungusjack Dwarves on over-engineered stone rafts. Sell goods carved from giant mushrooms. Hate the deep dwarves out of classic Gygaxian animus. See Dungeon of the Undermoon.

12 The dragon Appetite (stats as green dragon), a mud-grey, smug swindler who loves to boast about his marks and meals as he passes through.

 Area Key

The dungeon  lingers under a wooded stretch of the much more mundane Firefly River. It can be accessed from the surface by the underside of a bridge (area 11), a brick factory (area 14), or a hole in a gulley (area 18).

The rivers here flow briskly southeast, 10-15 feet deep and have a vaulted ceiling that comes to a peak 15 feet above the surface. Bridges leave 10 feet of clearance. 

1. Western Bridge. Barricaded by the serpentfolk in solidarity with Hoheim. Takes one man-hour to disassemble, but 1-in-6 chance per turn of 8 goblins showing up to gank you and a separate 1-in-6 chance per turn of 4 serpentfolk showing up to throw firebombs at you.

2. Eastern Bridge. Open and clear. 

3. Fallen Bridge. Destroyed by Hoheim sabotage, but there is enough wreckage to potentially scrabble across (2-in-6 chance of dumping you into the current-swift water, save vs death if you're wearing heavy armor). The Nilbog bank opens directly to the home of Kill-Burn, the hobgoblin mayor, while the Hoheim bank has a cannon pointed directly at it.

If the wreckage is carefully searched, the remains of a deep dwarf can be found, still clutching a +1 star-nosed warhammer and a stick of waterlogged dynamite.

4. Nuisance Bridge. Despised by Nilbog, defended by Hoheim. The struts and supports have been weakened by a barge crash paid for by Nilbog, making it sway when any weight is put upon it. 1-in-6 chance of crashing apart when crossed (1d6 damage, save vs death if you're wearing heavy armor).

5. Docks. Uneven wharf for ships to dock, with a ramp allowing easy ascent from the river. A dozen goblin porters and three merchants selling standard dungeon equipment and several oddities. Any Underground River Encounters will stop here to trade.

6. North bridge. Tense standoff. A goblin brute squad of 8, led by Kill-Burn's brother hobgoblin Swill, guards it against a team of 6 deep dwarves waiting for them to leave so they can steal supports of the bridge to repair Nuisance Bridge (area 4).

7. Warren. Rough-hewn hallway with many small goblin burrows branching off. 2-in-6 chance per turn of encountering 1d4! goblins. The community is broken up into "pads" of 1d6 that include roommates, partners, and siblings. Children are raised in common and avoid outsiders.

By night, the warren comes alive with communal activity— washing clothes, preparing food, chasing children around, exc. The deep dwarf trader Agnar Oversen hangs out here, as he doesn't want to be seen as a turncoat by the dwarves of Hoheim. Here, he can be induced to offer gossip he has heard on the other side.

 But sike! He is a spy sent by Hoheim to mislead and confuse. He is eager to report that the dwarves plan to sabotage a goblin dam several miles up the western river in order to spread out their forces.

8. Kill-Burn's Chamber. Home of the mayor of Nilbog, the hobgoblin Kill-Burn— tall, pumpkin-orange, with a gallant tailed coat of chain and barbed flail, he is martial-stern and gold-grasping, ever thinking of how he can achieve prominence over Hoheim and Slither's Point. After the river-facing wall was blown apart by a dungeon catapult, he dragged in the goblin's shrine to Saint Rosetti so none of the denizens will dare attack here. The room is furnished in helter-skelter fashion, with a pile of cushions, a hanging portrait of a Chipotamian merchant, and old shipping records. 

The portrait has a small artist's signature: Aflatun, Summer 1451. Behind the portrait is hidden a small alcove concealing a safe with a combination lock. If 1-4-5-1 is entered, it reveals its contents: 2,500 gold coins, a Belt of Levitation, a little vial of powder, and an apatropaic pearl on a string cord. 

9. Fortune Teller. Their door advertised with a weeping eye, this is the home of Ever-Woe, a goblin sage and seer. The room is decorated with rocks and semiprecious mineraloids, and they wear stone necklaces and earrings that dangle near the floor, with one eye that seems like a smokey quartz. Boasting perfect knowledge of all things on or below the earth, they will answer questions for a fee.

Remote viewing: Ever-Woe can consult a grid of moss agate to peer at a location the PCs specify, learning about three of the following (d4): 1. a random encounter, 2. a notable personage, 3. a landmark, or 4. an oddity. This viewing costs 400 gold coins, but if they view an especially dangerous area (i.e. the most suitable PC level is more than 1), the cost is multiplied by the "intended" PC level.

Dowsing: Ever-Woe knows of a fat untapped vein of gold to the north that they can reveal for 10,000 gold coins. Digging down to it would be a project for dozens of people, and the DM is required to make it into a cool adventure, but the amount of gold in the vein can yield 100,000 coins.

Identifying magic items: as however you normally do that.

10. Temple. Single, singularly empty chamber ever since Kill-Burn moved the shrine-figure of Saint Rosetti to his own chamber. Here lingers the shaved troll priestess God-Grime, mother to the troll guarding the bridge. Her neutrality to the squabbling of the wards is represented by her hands being sewn together in prayer (-3 to hit, 1d2 damage, bit attack unaffected). She can explain the doctrines and deeds of Saint Rosetti; how she donned antennae and chitinous armor and devoured the worked metal of men, and how she fresses still at the core of the earth, softening its heart.

11. Troll Bridge. On the surface, a wide wooden bridge across the Firefly River is infested by a shaggy-haired troll named Bother-All. He accepts a gold coin per head to cross the bridge, or if asked will give a riddle instead of a fee. "We have caps but no head, we fall without ever having climbed, and if lucky we become a new home for our kind. What are we called?" The answer is "acorns".

Under the northern end of the bridge, a tunnel leads down into the earth. The troll's bachelor pad, with a sleeping pallet, soggy tapestry of a knight fighting a dragon, and crate full of beer, 600 gold, and old newspapers he is using to learn to read. The tunnel continues down into Nilbog.

12. Hall of Statues. Row after row of nearly identical stone bureaucrats. Despite seeming flat, the hall feels oddly uneven to the foot. -2 to fighting for non-dwarves.

Those with stonecunning do not get the penalty to attack, and can actually pick out incredible variation in the statues, including a hidden panel in the side of one, containing a cache of small gems worth 2000 gold.

13. Courtyard. Here the three wards meet to attempt to resolve their dispute. A square, no-fun fountain with a statue of a frowning bureaucrat dribbles water sedately. Ten deep dwarves dutifully guard the dungeon's treasury, openly bragging about how they will use it for punitive measures once they dominate all three wards enough to vote to award themselves the funds. There is a 1-in-6 chance per turn that a goblin nabob and serpentine priestess are here to argue with the guards and deadlock votes for policy proposals. 

The treasury's iron door is shut with a mechanism that seems simple but requires a dwarf's stonecunning or an hour of futzing to unlock. Within the treasury is 4,000 gold coins, unfashionable cube diamond earrings worth 200 gold, a wand of Water to Beer (works on water in someone's stomach, 12 charges), a scroll of Hart's Red Store (summons a furnished 600 square foot wood house with a basement and, if on a river, a water mill. Lasts 10 hours), and a mayflower salve (heals for 1d4 damage, three doses)

14. Brick Mill. On the surface, a remote brick factory powered by a mill on the Firefly River. However, the foreman, a refugee from a failed uprising against the verdigarchs of the Ashen Lands, has made a pact with the deep dwarves to conceal the entrance to their ward in the basement of the factory in exchange for protection if the mill is ever attacked. The well-formed staircase down is guarded by a squad of six deep dwarves with cream-colored brick hammers. They may escort a party down into Hoheim if they think it will drive business or make their ward look good compared to Nilbog.

15. Barracks. Here deep dwarves are stowed in boxes when not in use, with 1d4+1 always on guard. A food-dwarf, Ole Risesen, cures dungeon fish in potash lye. A carefully capped hole leads down into the underdark.

If the cap is opened, a grue (stats as henway, giant) immediately climbs up to devour the inhabitants.

16. Circular Chamber: Wet, with irregular ripples in the wall and odd, whispery echoes at every sound. The deep dwarves constructed this chamber so that they could be nourished and replenished, despite their proximity to the surface. A wide chair sits at the center of the chamber. If someone meditates in this chamber, they feel undwarfen features drained from them (d4): 1. lose 1 Dex and gain 1 Con, 2. lose the ability to interpret art but detect object value at a glance, 3. lose 1 Cha but get 25% more efficient work hours, 4. gain stonecunning (a sense of architecture tricks, exc.) but beard grows 1 foot longer and if your beard is two feet or more in length, save vs becoming an NPC dwarf.

17. Snake Temple. Constant sibilant songs, fireside orgies, and doctrinal duels. Twelve serpentfolk are always active, six more in side rooms sleeping or engaging in aftercare. The sanctum of the priestess Karina they dare not disturb.

Within the sanctum, Karina feigns meditation, trying to figure out how to get out of this mess. After a series of humorous miscommunications, she accidentally started a cult she now has no way out of, and lives in constant fear of being found out and has too many evil instincts to seek compassionate forgiveness. Directing the serpentfolk of Slither's Point to act as a counterbalance between the two other wards seems to her like the only way to avoid being overrun. She has received as gifts 650 gold coins, a tobacco pipe of Slither on Water (3 charges), a bottle of whiskey horrifically poisoned (stinks of krait venom, save vs death) which she hasn't tried yet because she hates whiskey, and a scroll of Confirmation (makes someone a senator for 1 hour, with all that implies and a big sash that says "senator"). Any amount of these treasures she may trade away if she sees gain in it.

18. Snecret Tunnel. Hidden behind a false boulder, the tunnel runs up the surface to a root-covered hole in a gulley. Whenever it rains, the whole ward floods. Serpentfolk periodically head up to the surface or hunt or scare away children by breaking up their stick forts or pretending to be drunk settlers and heckling them.

19. Hatchery. On a plinth, surrounded by four fires in a chamber whose every inch is carved with devotional images is an egg-shaped rock that Karina told the other serpentfolk was an angel dinosaur egg. The plinth has been trapped with a pressure plate, and if removed, the floor will fall apart, dropping everyone in the room into a vat of goo after just a couple of seconds.

The egg: by contrived coincidence, the egg is neither a dinosaur egg nor a simple rock. It is a geode containing Ryba Biskupia, a funny-looking fish man with a crumpled cap who will grant three wishes with the following provisos: that to kill, he must bring back someone else of his choice back to life and vice-versa, that he cannot force anyone to fall in love; and that if a wish is made to increase someone's most vital attributes directly, rather than turning them into a giant or a big brain or something, the best he can do is a +3 competence bonus that doesn't stack with later wishes. 

Resolving the Bridge War!

By allying with a faction and driving out their rivals room-by-room in standard dungeon fashion, the party can conquer the dungeon wards. This module is a little cash-poor, so it might be appropriate for the victor to make a few cash gifts on the next couple return visits as they more fully capture trade. Alternatively, the party may broker a truce between the factions, in which case they should be awarded commemorative medallions and a discount on services offered in the wards.

It is also possible that the party may cause other forces to get involved in the Bridge War!, either by negotiating alliances or simply making outside forces aware of it. If a surface faction like Pkékejewen or Chipotamia backs Nilbog, it will be enough to finally win Kill-Burn dominance. If a surface faction backs Hoheim, then Slither's Point will switch sides to keep the balance, and it will require a steep escalation from Hoheim's patrons or another faction's aid to win the Bridge War! without a party-led attack. It would take the same amount of intervention to get victory for the serpentfolk, but in the process it's likely that Karina is unmasked, loses her nerve, or otherwise breaks up the snake cultists, leaving their surface patrons to administrate the dungeon directly. In any case where a surface faction wins the Bridge War!, they would reward the party for any service rendered on behalf of the dungeon ward.