Graxworm Town (Patreon)

The main entrance into the Graxworm megadungeon is not at the base of the mountain, but the top. The Graxworm is a massive dead dragon of mythic scale, fully miles long and large enough to contain a town in the mouth. Creatures have set up here to “mine” the massive corpse for its valuable materials – leather, scales, ichor, tendons, and more. Practically every bit has some value to someone, and in the long term the expectation is that nothing will remain, not even the massive bones.

Today’s map is an overview of Graxworm Town itself – an almost “normal” feeling hive of scum and villainy set up in the mouth of the dead dragon. The town proper is broken into two halves. The crowded market town just inside the teeth that includes inns, taverns, general goods stores, and shops selling some of the lesser products of the massive Graxworm corpse-industrial complex as well as the residential structures needed to support these endeavours. The back of the mouth is a much less crowded space with fewer, larger homes, a few semi-isolated compounds, as well as the towering court building of the Seneschal who is responsible for keeping this town in some semblance of order.

The two sections are separated by a heavy crenellated wall with a mighty tower set in it known as the Panopticon because it grants good views over the whole town on each side of the wall, while sitting directly above the open market that thrives here.

Several points of interest are documented in the town key on the right side of the map. 10 & 11 are stairs built into the rear teeth that lead up to the eye sockets above – one of which has been converted into an open air church, the other into an observatory & orrery. The eye sockets in turn lead up to the brain of the massive corpse, which is used as the council chambers for important meetings by the ruling elite of the various factions.

The smuggler’s home is a large estate of an important importer/exporter of dragon-mined goods to bring in riches to keep the corpse-industrial complex running and producing armaments. But as a master smuggler, the owner isn’t actually loyal to the Graxworm factions, and also has tunnels that can be used to smuggle people in and out of the city and to the throat region of the dungeons – helpful for adventurers that are no longer welcome through the gates.

The Graxworm Megadungeon was proposed to me by Gallant Knight Games – a dungeon set within the corpse of a dragon some seven miles in length. If I were to map out the whole thing we’d be looking at a good 100+ maps, so instead we’ll be focusing on points of interest as a sort of “point crawl” megadungeon setting. We’ll be posting a few maps in the set every month for… well… quite some time!

https://dysonlogos.blog/2024/03/27/graxworm-map-2-graxworm-gate/