March Entry: Wrong Turn Cellar

[Midgardsormr]

The premise I am working with is that the original cellar was much smaller than the existing dungeon and was simply storage for a small roadhouse. Some nefarious party or individual converted the roadhouse to their own purposes and turned the cellar into a place to house unfortunate victims prior to finding other cruel purposes for them. The rest of the dungeon was expanded over the years to accommodate other activities. I think I'll build it outward chronologically to see if I can make sense of it.

Here's the original cellar with floor texture and spiderweb. It still needs the rest of the objects described: cage, manacles, and doors. The other items are movable and will therefore not appear on the map. At the rate I am going, I won't finish this map by the time the challenge deadline is up, but at least I am learning quite a bit in the attempt!

Once again, the thumbnail is bizarre, but the actual png is fine.

[alucard339]

look cool,
continue the good work,
Alu.

[Midgardsormr]

Thanks, Alu. Here's this morning's update.

Thanks go to r-kellig, Greytale, Dragonwolf, and Digger of the Dundjinni forums for the bones, cage, chains, and stairs, respectively.

I think all I have left to do in this first room are the doors, and perhaps some lighting effects. Critiques are welcome, by the way!

Hmmm... looks like I forgot to turn off the grid. It hasn't been rasterized yet, so it doesn't scale down with the rest of the map.

[Midgardsormr]

The cellar is finished, doors and all. I have begun work on Room #3, which was the next area to be excavated. Initially, the inhabitants bored through the east wall of the cellar and began hollowing out Room 3 in search of tree roots. More specifically, the fungus that grows on the tree roots, which has magical properties. They used slave labor for the excavation. The slaves were imprisoned, tortured, and brainwashed in the cellar, then thrown into the excavation to burrow looking for roots and fungi.

The search for roots justifies the U-turn and circular corridors--the "walls" there are actually densely-packed root systems from which the fungus can be harvested.

This will be the last detail shot of the cellar, unless someone offers a criticism that I feel compelled to use.