[All Patrons] Neverending Dungeon 4 - The Rootmaze (Level 7) - Completed

May 8th Update: Section Complete

The Neverending Dungeon is a living megadungeon that grows every Friday as it expands layer by layer into the dark. The first part (link below) is free, as is any works-in-progress. The rest require a DMDave Patreon paid membership.

The Neverending Dungeon has stood in brooding silence for longer than memory, its threshold yawning like the grave of a god. Those who have entered seeking plunder or renown have not returned, and the few broken souls who staggered back spoke only in fragments—of corridors that shift, of traps devised with hateful genius, of presences that watch without breath or mercy. Some claim it was wrought as a proving ground for tyrants; others that it is the scar left by a ritual too vast to contain. Whatever its origin, it does not forgive error, nor does it reward hesitation. Now you stand before its lightless descent, drawn by greed, pride, desperation, or fate. Know this: the dungeon is deeper than reason, wider than fear, and it has no end—only consequences.

The Rootmaze

West of Khuldraz-Thane, where stone gives way to strangled earth, lies Varnak’s Labyrinth—a place not carved, but grown. Its first reaches, now called the Rootmaze, were uncovered when the dark dwarves broke through a vein of hollowed bedrock and found themselves beneath a choking canopy of petrified roots and living wood. These passages twist without pattern, splitting and rejoining like veins in a diseased heart, their walls damp, fibrous, and faintly pulsing with unseen life.

Varnak, the delver for whom the labyrinth is named, was among the first to descend into this tangled expanse. He did not return unchanged—if he returned at all. What records remain speak of paths that moved, of tunnels that closed behind them, and of whispers carried through the roots like breath through lungs.

The dwarves named the denizens of this place the Deep Things Below. They are not beasts, nor kin to any known creature of stone or surface. They slither, burrow, and bloom from the dark soil—forms of chitin, flesh, and something else entirely. Some wear the shapes of things half-remembered; others defy shape altogether. All are alien. All are hungry. And in the Rootmaze, they are never far.

Creative Team

Writing and Design DMDave

Interior Artwork Rick Hershey, Nacho Lazaro, Dean Spencer, Public Domain

Additional Support Aubrey Moore

Additional Entries

Use the links below to access additional installments of The Neverending Dungeon.

The Shattered Gate of Khuldraz-Thane (Levels 1 to 4)

The Gloamforges (Levels 4 to 5) - Paywall

The Grimdelve (Levels 6 to 7) - Paywall