Stonehell Progress Report

It's been two weeks since I last spoke about the Stonehell compilation project, but these occasional reports keep me honest and on track with the job, and helps remind folks that this will see the light of day in the somewhat near future.

Level Five has been completed. I put the finishing touches on section 5D this week and I'm very happy with the end result. I managed to introduce a new race of monsters which will play a larger role in the second half of the dungeon. I hope this last quadrant reads the way I intended, which is to be something like the encounter with the Drow at the end of G3. One series of adventures has concluded and now a new threat waits to be overcome.

I about 95% certain that the surface level, which is the only piece of brand new material that needs to be done for the compilation, is going to be three sections. Not quite as populated or compact as the dungeon itself but still allowing for a little bit of exploration before descending into the dungeon proper. I might start in on the maps for this section over the weekend but, at the moment, I'm planning on relaxing over the long weekend as much as I can. The One Page Dungeon contest is officially over and the final deluge of entries is poised to land in my inbox. I want to put that to bed before I venture back into the stony hell.

I remain very excited about the dungeon. In looking over the completed maps, it's hard to believe that this all started with a single 300' x 300' section of dungeon way back at the beginning of the year. Stonehell has certainly developed a personality of its own as it's grown, which is primarily the reason that I'm going back and sanding off the overly rough edges. I can't even imagine what the whole dungeon is going to look like once levels six-ten are finished. I might have to revisit the dungeon in a decade and revise it yet again for the special 10th anniversary release. But let's ignite that span when we arrive at it.