Tags
Dungeon, Dungeons & Dragons, Fantasy, Labyrinth Lord, Maps, OSR, RPG
Far too many of my dungeons are easy to access. So why have they lain unplundered all these ages? The Sunken Maw is a bit trickier to get into than most. A nearly straight vertical drop leads to underground stone construction just above the water table. Rope and climbing gear will be the order of the day for lower-level groups, whereas the entry will be a lot easier (and thus less frightening) to those who come equipped with the magic of levitation or means of flight.
The Sunken Maw
To complicate the matter, of course, we have nearby ruins which may contain untold horrors (who may be waiting when you come up from the maw) and a harpy nest has been established just inside the entrance of the maw, with a narrow path along the edge of the maw to allow pedestrian access to the stinking nest of foul birds.
But it’s the structures below that will of course draw the attention of adventurers in the first place. Originally built by elven sorcerers with imprisoned demons to transport them up and down the maw itself, the structure’s name has been lost to the ages, but it still contains eldritch magics that were once common to the Kale empire thousands of years ago.
The Sunken Maw is free for your personal use thanks to Jesse Thomas Alford, Jess Valentin, Milton Murphy and other Patrons like you who support the Dodecahedron through Patreon. If you want more maps like these, or find the existing ones helpful and worth the price of a cup of coffee, why not check out the Dodecahedron Patreon Campaign?
Dyson's Dodecahedron 
Thanks for a good looking and perfectly-sized map! Doing both above and side view makes a 3d dungeon layout a lot easier to use!
This is truly awesome.
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My first thought about that upper cave was making the map something that gets a two stage visit. Perhaps having the PCs do something up there that comes across as a little side quest, only to later have some clue point back to it as the doorway to the main dungeon.
Hiding the main dungeon could either rely on the players working from the fact that they really have rescued the victim, killed the monsters and taken their stuff. A better concealment might involve linking the shaft to the sea and either making the doors watertight or adding a slope up to them.
Using the tides could also add urgency to the delve: You have a finite time before the water comes back up, trapping you behind the nigh impossible to open doors, (you didn’t wedge them open did you?), until the tide goes back out.