The Under-City of Norukar

Here's a preview of the adventure I'm writing. It takes place in the city of Norukar, and part of the adventure involves a dungeon crawl into the Under-City.

The surface streets of Norukar are used by pedestrians, the elevated mono-rail, and the electric carriages and coaches of the freemen. Slaves are forbidden to travel on the streets without escort. 

The Under-City of Norukar is a complex warren of subterranean chambers, tunnels, and galleries located beneath the streets and buildings of Norukar. The Under-City was built over five thousand years ago during the age of the Sdara Vatra. The inhabited sections of the Under-City reach hundreds of meters below the surface though the true extents have never been fully explored or mapped.

The  Under-City is stratified into various levels, each characterized by a different use or purpose.

Level one lies just below the streets, nearest the surface. Level one contains covered roadways used for freight and transport. There is also a network of underground monorails, passages, and slidewalks used by the slaves.

Level two contains living quarters for the hundreds of thousands of municipal slave-workers that belong to Queen Chador. The slave-workers maintain the city’s infrastructure. They operate the boilers and steam distribution system that heats all the towers, build and maintain the byzantine network of water and sewage pipes, and maintain the city’s electro-car street system, mono-rails, and the broadcast power network. The luckiest slaves get to work above-ground in the sun. Most never leave the access corridors of the towers. Many never even go above level one.

Level three is where the boilers and associated steam pipes are located. These giant machines are composed of massive pressure chambers heated by industrial elements powered by the city’s broadcast power system. The water is boiled into steam and distributed throughout the towers above. The boilers and distribution system require constant maintenance and are tended by an army of slave workers.

On level four, one can find the city's water distribution system, storm-water drainage system, and sewage systems. Level four is characterized by a maze of pipes of various sizes as well as massive pumping stations powered by broadcast energy. The system is prone to frequent bursting and ruptures. Runaway slaves often tap into these water pipes. Level four is also frequented by mutant creatures who venture up from the lower levels.

Humans rarely venture into level five or below. The deep levels are home to the rat-like Roshu as well as degenerate albino cannibals, smugglers, groups of runaway slaves desperately trying to survive in the dark, and gigantic mutated creatures called teraxes. Teraxes come in many shapes and sizes and may include giant albino spiders, giant man-eating crocodillians, massive caustic amoebas, humongous beetles and their nauseating larvae, great serpents, and may more. 

Within the deepest levels, one might also find an ancient intact treasure chamber of the Sdara Vatra, filled with artifacts and wonders. 

The map above represents parts of Levels 3, 4, and 5 of the Under-City that are accessible from the boiler and steam distribution system located on Level 3 underneath Harken Tower.

Entrance (top left corner): the entrance to this area of level three has been sealed off on the order of Count Garl, owner of Tower Harken, though no personnel were placed to guard the locked door.

The Third Stratum: Boilers

1.      Boiler Room

2.      Boiler Control Room

3.      Boiler Room

a.       Trapped Freight Lift

4.      Abandoned Store Room

a.       Giant Spiders

5.      Pump Room

a.       Swarm of Carnivorous Bats

6.      Reservoirs

a.       Stairs collapse

7.      Flooded Boiler Room

a.       Giant Jelly Blob

8.      Secret Freight Lift

The Fourth Stratum: Sewers

9.      Collection Pool

a.       Kolops Larvae

10.  Primary Drainage Tunnel

11.  Catch-Basin

a.       Giant Sewer Octopus

12.  Drainage Tunnel

a.       Albino Alligators

13.  Access Hatch

a.       Cult Guards

14.  Corridors

The Fifth Stratum, Part One: Roshu Warrens

15.  Outer Guard Room

a.       Six Roshu Guards and Three Giant Cockroaches

16.  Main Hall

a.       Dozens of Roshu

17.  Slave Pens

a.       Four Roshu Overseers

18.  Roshu Queen

a.       Queen and twelve royal guards

19.  Vault

20.  Temple to Rash

a.       Roshu priestess and four acolytes

The Fifth Stratum, Part Two: Temple of Anaka

21.  Guard Chamber

a.       Four temple guards

22.  Antechamber

23.  Temple of Anaka

a.       Mutoran Serpent

24.  Acolyte’s Chambers

a.       Twelve Acolytes

25.  The High Priest’s Chambers

26.  Preparation Room

27.  Slave Pens

a.       Seven Sacrifices