Madrek’s Descent

This map was drawn as a set-piece for a climactic encounter where the PCs either rush for the ending while being pursued, or their enemies are the ones rushing while the PCs pursue them (in my game, it ended up being the enemies that were in pursuit of the very pro-active party). The Descent itself is a remnant of an earlier civilization and it thrums with magical energies (in reality, it thrums because it sits above a major power plant and controls the energy output to the underground terraforming engines which are central to why the underdark is so livable in my setting). The space where this occurs is known as Madrek’s descent (Madrek being the local administrator of the terraforming consortium who set up these units in the ancient past, who’s name appears on the dedication plate near the entrance to the understructure).

The end-game was to summon a potent demon named C’Tas (the Computerized Terraforming Autonomous System’s holographic interface) to warm up (or cool off, depending on who’s side wins) the inland sea to the north that hosts a massive selection of eggs along the muddy bottom - eggs that will hatch into shapeshifting malevolent creatures that the world already know as doppelgangers and mimics, but connected by a vast hivemind intelligence. The distributed intelligence is already awakening, but the eggs cannot hatch without the water temperature being increased by five degrees - well within the abilities of C’Tas. On the other hand, if the temperature is dropped 2 degrees, the distributed intelligence will return to torpor, and 6 degrees will result in the freezing and eventual death of the eggs.

The structure descends from the entrances on the south side to the lowest chamber in the centre top of the map. This lowest chamber with the three pillars and massive stone plinths is the ritual summoning space needed to bring forth the demon C’Tas and it was here that the party was negotiating with the demon when their enemies rushed to the edge of the upper tier to try to stop them (having to fight their way through the party’s rear-guard team of fighters and mercenaries who were trying to hold that higher ground against the servants of the distributed intellect.)