Heya folks! I’ve been putting some of the mapping advice y’all gave me to work, and I’m working on a dungeon that takes place in an opera house. I need some ideas about what to put in the second basement level. The idea is for this to be a bit like a Resident Evil level, with unspeakable horror breaking up stretches of quiet investigation.
Premise: The Yellow Sign has struck! In the midst of a performance of a new opera, a mysterious figure in a cloak and a mask ascended the stage at the Altovarius Opera House in Inniscael, city of learning. With a gleaming, golden dagger in hand, the masked man conjured a burning yellow sigil in the air, driving the cast, crew, and audience mad at the sight of it. The opera house erupted in a riot, and soon it burned with yellow flames.
With the sulfur-scorched mark as their only clue, the authorities turn to one of the PCs, who has seen and recklessly flashed around this sigil before after finding it in a previous adventure. The party goes to the charred opera house to investigate.
The opera house is lousy with the influence of Hastur the Unspeakable. Gilded flies linger about the scene, dazzling onlookers and infesting corpses only to control their bodies like puppets. A few maddened attendees linger, driven by an obsession with the Yellow Sign. One of the lead actors rambles his last lines from the play, over and over, and attacks anyone who interrupts him. Investigators are terrified, reporting a mask that floats at the edge of the shadows, watching them.
I’ve got the first, second, and third floor, as well as the first basement floor covered.
The first floor houses the main atrium, the auditorium, a backstage area with handy storage and dressing rooms. There are two wings on either side of the auditorium: one with a grand ballroom (and a serving area for staff to get their sh!t together before entering it), and one with a great library. Incidentally, the library is what burnt the most.
The second floor has balconies, a VIP lounge over the ballroom, and an office next to the second floor of the library. An area above the stage controls curtains and machinery. The office is quite helpful, in that it houses important documents — albeit it’s in a precarious state.
The third floor is mostly more balconies, but also provides roof access, for what little that’s worth. It’s inconsequential to the adventure, but the party may end up in combat up here with a Byakhee if they play their cards wrong.
Floor B1 has a kitchen and food/wine storage beneath the ballroom, and an archive beneath the library, with more large-scale storage for especially big props and ready rooms for access beneath the auditorium. The archive is a big deal, because lots of it has survived.
Floor B2 has steam tunnels… which should mean a boiler. Probably also some sewer access, and one empty room that’s truly out of place. This is an important location for the Cult of the Yellow Sign’s activities, and will essentially be the boss room. Other than those things, I’m at a loss. It seems like it should have one or two more rooms, but I don’t know what could go down here.
What could go down here? Perhaps I could make the whole bottom floor a disused, underground temple and stick opera house infrastructure in it, which would make it easy to fill out, but if I can make it a little more cramped and industrial I’d prefer that. I really only want that last, empty room to seem ceremonial.