#Dungeon23 Slush Pile: The Star's Prison

I too am jumping on the #Dungeon23 bandwagon. It seems like a fun and manageable way to do a large project, and I hope that having so many others do it simultaneously I'll stay motivated for longer. 

Though I don't want to plan too far ahead I do want to settle on a strong theme, some setting, something of a vague history of the dungeon, and collect a bunch of ideas I think would be fun. For this I am stealing the slush pile format, which I learned about through Dan of the throne of salt blog, but has been used to great effect by others as well.

#DUNGEON23 IDEAS:

1. A juvenile Star has run away from the sky and fallen to earth. The Moon, their guardian, strikes a deal with the King who's lands the Star has fallen in, to imprison the Star until they has come to their senses. 
2. Horace Hardevuist believes himself to be the rightful heir of the king that imprisoned the Star. He has a venerable trove of knowledge on the history of 'his family' and learned through it of the presence of the Star. He wishes to free them so he can make a wish and restore 'the land which should be his'.  
3. The town of Last Ditch is build on the ruins of the King's capital by fortune seekers which flooded to the Star's Prison as Horace spread word of the star's wish, hidden in its depths. After the first wave of desperate adventurers never returned, leaving behind many an orphan, the Star Rush died down a bit. Now only Horace and others who are truly desperate come to Last Ditch to delve into the Star's Prison. 
4. Richy's Little Helpers run around Last Ditch, snatching purses and stealing anything they can get their grummy little hands on. They've taken residence in an abandoned part of the top floor of the Star's Prison, where they pretend at being Judges in the abandoned courts and stash away their stolen treasures. 
5. Richy Plukkeroos is rumored to be the first one to be orphaned by the Star's Prison. She despises those who delve it and actively hinders attempted delves. Her company of orphans, the result of unsuccesful delves and the war, are fiercely loyal to her and her cause.
   
6. Not all who come to Last Ditch have the skills and heart to lead expeditions, but are still suffering economic desperation. Often called Hirelings, these sods used sell their services to the highest bidder, often Horace, to risk their lives for a meager salery. However, free Hirelings such as these are currently hard to come by. 
7. Gen Kriekenboom loves two things: Strong gin drunk in good company and sticking it to rich assholes. To facilitate both these loves, Gen started the Collective Association of Hired Hands. The CAHH ensures good pay and working conditions for torchbearers, treasure haulers and trap testers. It also made delving the Star's Prison impossible to fund for any but the absurdly wealthy, giving Horace a practical monopoly and the time he needs to slowely chip away at the Prison's defences. 
8. Huran Dwaaslicht trades in experience, literally. "If you don't have time to learn the sword, just give me a memory of almost meeting certaind death by falling from a great height and I've got 12 years of dueling experience right here in this bottle. I'll keep it to the side, just for you. Who'd be interested in a memory like that? Oh you wouldn't believe what some of my regulars are interested in."
   
9. The Star's Prison was build in the crater created by the Star's ungraceful decend to earth. Three stories above ground saw everyday use while the Kingdom expanded under the Moon's blessing. Nine stories below ground where only seen by high ranking guards and the workers that build them. 
10. Once they entered massive gates which locked air tight, the accused would only experience fresh air and daylight in the open air courts of the top floor, as even the above ground parts of the prison are without windows or balconies.
    
11. Earlier occupants, from before Horace's time, closed the grates that drain the water out of the Star's Crater. Now, the crater has flooded, cutting off access to the main entrance on the ground floor. Strong swimmers and those with boats can make their way to the top floor and enter from the roof in any of the open courts. 
12. A stream flows from the stair that once led into the Stars Crator past overgrown abandoned toll houses. It is joined by smaller streams to form the main water source that Last Ditch is build around.
13. On the ground floor (Level 3 is counting from the top down) is the dreaded administration: an endless archive of forms and court documentation. This is where the families of the deceased could attempt appeal, though few maintained their sanity as they got imprisoned in a maze-like bureaucratic nightmare. Set on saving their loved ones from the cruel punishments the Prison inflicts upon its occupants, their spirits still haunt these halls. 
14. Above (Level 2), endless small prison cells as well as cruel 'preparation rooms' occupied by animated torture devices are now home to strange creatures from the surrounding forests. Richy has stricly forbidden her Little Helpers from going down their from the stands of top floor, to the court arena's down below. 
15. Giant frogs occupy part of the top level. Pestered by the kids, they dislike humans and actively fight them off to protect their turf. They like to sunbathe, but only close to the water or an indoor entrance, as they get hunted by giant predator birds.
    
16. One of the stands of an open court is the roosting place of these giant predator birds. They do not like it when anything comes close and attack anything that walks the stands on (Level 1), and most things that cross the court arena (Level 2). Despite Richy's orders, some of the orphans come here to steal eggs on a dare. 
17. To keep a place like this running, you need drains to dispose of blood and waste, suffisticated heating systems to heat torture irons, kitchens to feed the gaurds and the royal prisoners, and maintain the airflow. Directly beneath the surface (Level 4), all of this was once run like clockwork by animatronic helpers. Even the slightest cog in the works could jam the entire system. Ruin has done much worse. 
18. From here (Level 4) you can open the grates and drain the Crater and open the mechanical doors on the ground floor (Level 3). This will almost compltely dry up Last Ditch's water supply as the water is redirected into the Sewers. 
19. "Star's Prison has but one weakness. It's outer wall is solid rock, the outside of the crater a sheer surface but for a small culvert in space, which is little more than a drain." Waste, scum, trash and outcasts are thrown into the Sewers: a long, winding area which deposits its filth secretly some ways away from the crater. (Level 5, with secret entrance)
20. Mutant filth people, descendants of those considered degenerate, weak and unworthy by the prude King, have a small town in the Sewers. They vary greatly in size, number of limbs and amount of hair (or scales). Resourceful by necessity, most are compassionate (which as allowed them to thrive for so long) and outcasts from Last Ditch are taken in regularly. Various forms of hedonism are the dominant cultures: passed down from their 'degenerate' ancestors, or developed as coping for living in a giant sewer.
    
21. Golden halls, decorated with brocades, porcelains and crystal once imprisoned conquered monarchs and their courts (Level 6). When the Kingdom fell, they were entombed with their riches, which they cursed with their dying breaths. 
22. A guard system that bars and grants access to people based on whether or not they are wearing a crown. Maybe an immortal guardbaboon, maybe magical doors. Basically a simple puzzle with crowns for the Golden Halls. 
23. Isolation cells for the most dangerous/aggresive inmates (Level 7). Some of these are no longer in their cells. 
24. Repository of Unjudged Bodies and the Post Mortem Sentencing Department (Level 8). Based on that one pope. 
25. Crimes against humanity (Level 9). A plant where Gods get sealed into containers to be used as magic. Often gods of things that killed a bunch of people like diseases, huricains, rivers that flooded, large fires, etc.
    
26. At first only genuinely dangerous Gods were imprisoned. However, the utility of the magic they were turned into created a large demand for similar magics, and thus a large demand for criminalized Gods. The imprisonment of Gods on this scale caused the collapse of the Kingdom (either through a curse from the Moon, or ecological collapse, or both, or neither. Haven't worked this out yet). 
27. Magic is like Mauseritter, but instead of living spirits they are Gods, in the sense I describe them here (TL;DR: domains are physical, e.g. 'a river', or 'rotting flesh', or 'all the moonlight touches'; Gods want to expand their domain, i.e. make the world more like them; the bigger their domain the more, power they have). 
28. The King, fearing to be deposed despite his immortality, imprisoned not only people and gods, but even ideas and technologies, hiding them away so they could not be used against him. (Level 10)
29. To gaurd the Star, the King used the Moon's power to bind the worst criminals throughout the history of his Kingdom. They live out their sentences, suspended in time. Unable to die until their time has been served, some attempt to escape, others lose their minds, but most entertain themselves with morbid games (Level 11). 
30. A gilded cage, filled with magical splendor to circumvent the need for entertainers, cooks, and servants, the Star is bored out of their mind as they spend their time in seemingly endless solitude. (Level 12)
31. The Star's chambers are filled with classic fairytale magic items, such as the Wishing Table from Grimm's fairytales. 
32. When the Kingdom fell, animals could no longer live in those lands for a 1000 moons. In that time, plants evolved to fill that ecological niche, creating animated plants. 
33. One such species became intelligent and sapient. As plants do not require any other food than the light of the sun and nutrient rich water, most of these plant people focussed on higher pursuits of craftsmanship, art, science and philosophy. Some have taken an interest in the return of humans and animals to the fallen Kingdom, by either studying them as we would a new species of animals or living among them. Other see them as a significant threat to be combated, and yet others merely as a minor pest to be kept under surveillance, lest it gets out of hand like invasive species tend to do.

None of this is set in stone. If and how these ideas will make it into the dungeon propper time will tell.