Hey, I figured since we don’t currently have much lined up in terms of dungeon content, I would have a go at designing a new concept revamp of Sorrows Embrace that includes tweaked bosses and hopefully some new ones. I wanted to have some cool throwbacks to forgotten lore about the stone summit dwarves.
This is a WIP for a design portfolio I’m working on but I wanted to collaborate with the dungeon community and hopefully get some cool feedback and criticism.
Sorrows Embrace Hard Mode – Fully Explorable
Lore
Sorrows embrace was originally inhabited by the stone summit dwarves as their main base of operation although currently it is filled with Dredge and Inquest.
The dungeon is centred around an Inquest Necromancer who has ties with Tazza.
With Tazza’s absence the Inquest Necromancer has risen to rule over and enslave the dredge currently inhabiting Sorrows Embrace.
Under the Inquest Necromancer’s ruling he has ordered all the dredge on an endeavour to recover all of the stone summit relics they can. Aside from corpses of the fallen stone summit, they unearth an ancient dwarven tome that allegedly sheds light on forgotten methods used to raise the dead (minion master throwback) as well as control the living. The Inquest Necromancer believes with this knowledge he can enslave the elder dragons.
As more and more Inquest flock to SE to support this cause, the dredge are held under lock and key although some have escaped. The escaped dredge, few may they be, search for help to rescue their brethren. They come upon a Priory patrol who take this new information as a serious threat. The information is passed on to all race figureheads and that’s where the players come in.
With aid from the priory you are to infiltrate Sorrows Embrace, clean out the inquest, recover the tome, set the dredge free and be back in time for tea.
Dungeon Design
The design of this dungeon is supposed to be a throwback to Urgoz’s Warren as well as the original Sorrows Furnace which were completely explorable and not so much linear paths.
The dungeon can be cleared in any order bar a few bosses which require items dropped from previous bosses to advance, for example explosives to blow open a passage or a key to open doors. Refer to the map attachment that shows an idea of the locations of bosses as well as other things.
The dungeon would have a new Stone Summit inspired armour set that is available to purchase by having every boss have a chance at dropping an armour token (head/shoulders/chest/gloves/pants/boots). These tokens would be traded for skins via a vendor inside the dungeon. The drop rate is not super low but should be around one token each run (bear in mind the token type is random). Two random tokens could be thrown into the Mystic Forge along with craft-able components (e.g chest plate + chest liner) to gain the skin you want (chest skin in this example).
Map Explanation
Start – Obviously the entrance to the dungeon
Red- Boss Location
Green – NPC/Poi Location (These would either be NPCs that if you rescue would join your party or points of interest like the explosives mentioned earlier.
Orange – There’s only one of these and this relates to the direction in which you want to begin.
Everything Explained
Orange – A
Like I have mentioned there is only one of these.
The concept I have here is that upon entering SE you are greeted with a gigantic Asuran wall like structure that has forcefield entrances which will only allow you to pass through if you have the correct credentials. (There could be space for a mini-game here like the hacking in fallout 3). Moving on, it seems that you cannot enter. Luckily for you, the Priory have been working on a dolyak mounted cannon that has been brought along with the entourage of priory scholars. The only problem is that the cannon only has one charge and you can only blow a hole in one side of the wall. Which side you choose will open up the way (which side doesn’t matter but it adds variety of starting at a different boss).
Thats all I have time to post today folks, this is a WIP and any ideas you have are more than welcome! Lets hear those awesome boss encounters!
