Trial of the Beggar King: A Thieves Guild Initiation Dungeon for DCC

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This is my first custom adventure for DCC posted in TaleSpire, a huge shoutout to Tranquility for their High Hall Catacombs map, which served as the base for this dungeon.  Please give them a like if you enjoy this project!!!

You’ve been given a letter from the Beggar King’s Thieves Guild in recognition of your accomplishments, they have not gone unnoticed by them.  The letter mentions a trial to recover a relic of a dead god within a nearby ancient catacomb filled with traps and other unknown obstacles .  You won’t be the only one there however, and you’ll have to compete with these others to complete your initiation into the guild.  You are told that killing eachother is off limits, but non lethal incapacitation, stealing and general trickery are allowed, even working together has its merits but each thief must return with a relic to be considered into the guild’s ranks.  However, not all is as it seems, for another guild has given letters to any thieves of chaotic alignment inviting them to their assassin’s guild.  The catch? Kill one of your fellow initiates without anyone else knowing, and you’re in.

This dungeon for 2-4 1st level thieves serves as a sort of playground for players to learn and test out their abilities, as they are the most important class in DCC to bring into a dungeon, so I thought why not make a dungeon specifically for them!  Filled to the brim with traps, secret doors, and treasures just waiting to be discovered, but players have a few other challenges in their way: A demon trapped inside the dungeon stalks with a darkness spell no torch can light, a Gorgon hibernates at another end of the dungeon, Geased into guarding their section of the dungeon, and even two of the five NPC initiates are actively trying to kill the PCs to get into an assassin’s guild.

Inside you’ll find GM notes scattered all over the dungeon giving stats to DC checks and items etc, but many traps are unlabeled for GMs to make their own judgement calls in the moment or as prep. There are also notes at the very beginning of the map that briefly go over how the NPCs will approach the dungeon or interact with the PCs during the trial.  Hide volumes are used extensively in this not only to reveal the dungeon room by room, but to also reveal the traps like pressure plates, pit falls, tripwire, and secret doors.  Be sure to play around with them first so you know what to do when you play for real!

You’ll want to set your campaign up for stats in this order: STR, AGI, STA, PER, LUCK, INT, AC, XP
Check out Tranquility’s original High Hall Catacombs here
Changes I’ve made to the original map include: An exterior on the surface that serves as the start of the map.  An additional entryway room under the hatch above ground. Inclusion of additional detail in rooms like rubble, dirt and random items.  Extensive hide volume work for each room to smoothly reveal itself.  Addition of secret doors, pit falls, traps in general.

Be sure to use the GM overlay view to see the dungeon, since it starts off as hidden!