Monastery:
"The limed-over skeleton of the abbot is in the pool of water... If the remains are disturbed in any way, a cylindrical object will be noticed, the thing being dislodged from where it lay by the skeleton, and the current of the stream carrying it south at 6" speed. To retrieve it, a character must be in the stream and score "to hit" as if it were AC 4 in order to catch it. It is a watertight ivory tube with a bone map of the whole level inside."Moathouse:
"in the water on a ledge is a platinum pin set with a ruby (2,000 g.p. value) and a bone tube. The pin is under a skull (human) and the the tube under some bones. Unless searchers use their hands, their is a 50% chance that either or both treasures will slip off the ledge and be lost below. The tube is water-tight and contains a scroll of magic user spells (push, stinking cloud, fly)"
Sure, one's an MU scroll and one's a map, but c'mon, two watertight scroll tubes hidden amidst bones with a chance of dislodging and losing said item to the PC's eternal dismay?! It should be noted that in monastery, the moving scroll tube has only about 10-20' of stream to go before it flows through the outlet tunnel at the south end of the room and is lost forever.
Also of note: the ruby pin under the human skull, though much more valuable, is somewhat reminiscent of the garnet in the goblin skull in room 1 of the Sample Dungeon. Red gemstones hidden in skulls; what would Freud say about that?
To be sure, this is not jaw-dropping evidence that these two dungeons are derived from a similar progenitor. But, given the vast amount of other forensic evidence, it certainly enhances the argument.
Another good find! And a nice follow-up to your series. I hope at some point you put it all together in one document.
ReplyDeleteI concur, on both points :D
ReplyDeleteAllan.
Me three! Thanks for this interesting article!
ReplyDeleteThanks fellow Hommlet junkies. I'd need to feel pretty confident that I've uncovered everything Gygax has to offer on the topic before I put together such a compendium. I fear that it'd feel like shutting a door. Maybe I need to look at B2 some more...
ReplyDeleteI went and looked over the two rooms in question last night and noticed two other small details in common. In each case, the area is described as being a natural area that was enlarged.
ReplyDeleteSample Dungeon: "This natural cavern was roughly worked to enlarge it".
T1: "When the dungeons were dug a natural pool of water was found, and as it was considerably below floor leve, the area was dug lower and the entrance to the pool enlarged".
Also, the Sample Dungeon ends by mentioning the pool has some blind and white cave crayfish. I guess one of them grew larger in T1.
@Z.A.: !!! Holy Craptastic!!! That makes everything a lot more meaningful. I'm gonna' have to edit my post to include this new info.
ReplyDelete