I have a 13 room dungeon

It contains 4 kuo toa, 10 bullywugs and 9 bandits… it’s supposed to be for lvl 1-2 players, is that too much?

The People of the Tanaroan Peninsula

History and Cosmology:

The people of Tanaroa have lived on the Isle of Dread since the beginning of time, at least according to their own creation myths. These myths speak of giants who carved existence itself from primordial chaos and of great ancestors who guided them during times of cataclysm when the ocean nearly swallowed the world. They can trace their lineage back through countless generations on the Isle, but the exact point where history becomes myth is indistinct. There are remnants of a precursor civilization, ruins that lie all but swallowed by the jungle, but the purpose of those ruins and who might have built them are unknown.

To the Tanaroan people, the world is divided into four main parts. There is the Sky and the Sea, the Earth, and The Other World (sometimes referred to as the “World Below” or “World Beyond”). Each of these are interconnected and are represented by a Totem and its cardinal direction. The Sea Turtle is in the East, and represents the Sea. The Elk is in the South, and represents the Earth. The Hawk is in the West, and represents the Sky. The Tiger is in the North, and represents the Other World. (It should be noted that the tigers of the mainland are unknown to the Tanaroan, and what is called a “tiger” on the Isle of Dread is often referred to elsewhere as the “sabre-toother tiger” or “smilodon”.)

These are the four main totems of the Tanaroan people, but they are not the only ones. The Hawk and the Sea Turtle are the most important, and all seven villages have these clans among their number. The Village of Tanaroa in the north have Elk and Tiger as well, but other villages across the peninsula sometimes have other clans that are of particular significance to them. The Village of Mora for example does not have an Elk Clan and instead has an Ape Clan as its guardian of the South. Likewise, the Village of Usi does not have a Tiger Clan, and its North guardian is taken by the Shark. Generally speaking, these alternate clans fulfill the same role in their cosmology. The North and West Clans are protectors and hunters, while the South and East Clans are more concerned with hearth and home.

The cosmology of Tanaroa is a spiritual ecosystem. When a Tanaroan dies, their soul is carried to the Great Mountain, whose peak touches the Sky. There, the soul becomes a star in the night. A falling star is understood to be the soul of an ancestor returning from the Sky to the Sea. A soul that falls into the Sea is carried by the Sea Turtle back to be reborn into the people of Tanaroa. Souls that are not claimed by the Turtle or are stolen by another entity often become trapped between the worlds, which is their explanation for all manner of fell or accursed creatures.

Perhaps the most telling part of their language is that which is unspoken. While all Tanaroans are members of a clan devoted to a totem, there exists a separate entity in their society. This is the Cult of the Walking Dead (or Living Dead, or Unliving, depending on the translation). The Cult pulls members from all clans but membership is secret, and even the members themselves are rarely aware of who else among them belong as ceremonies are performed in elaborate costumes and masks. The exception to this is the Zombie Master, a position of influence similar to a head shaman. Each village has but one Zombie Master, but cult membership is usually around 10% of the total population of the clan.

The Great Wall:

There is no better example of the remnants of a more advanced civilization than the Great Wall that forms the border of the Tanaroan Peninsula with the Isle of Dread, as it is a massive wall two miles in length that is constructed of giant stones far beyond what could feasibly be moved by men. The Great Wall is a central focus of Tanaroan culture as it is what separates their world from what they believe is the World Beyond.. Warriors from each village man the wall for a period of at least a year, sometimes more. This means that men and women from the other six villages will come to the village of Tanaroa to perform their term of service, standing guard against the dangers of the Isle of Dread. Tribute is paid by each of the villages to provide for these warriors, in both food and weaponry. Defending the Great Wall is considered a sacred duty, and shirking it is one of the most shameful taboos the Tanaroans have. Which villages will provide how many warriors and how much tribute is negotiated at village festivals years in advance. Warriors who die while defending the Wall are considered to be among the most honored of the dead, and their village is often paid tribute by the other six villages.

The only thing that takes the Tanaroans beyond the wall as a group is the gathering of tar from the tar pits. It takes a working party two or three days to get to the tar pits, and while they travel on trails that have been marked and cleared by previous expeditions, the journey takes them through jungles and swamps so navigation is never certain. Usually these working parties are made up of thirty to forty warriors and laborers, and the tar that they bring back are used for boat-building and the waterproofing of their communal huts. The tar is also refined with animal fat into a highly flammable mixture that is either put into clay pots to be thrown or applied as a coating to the arrowheads and spear tips of warriors who defend the walls.

To the Tanaroans, what lies beyond their Great Wall is a part of the World Beyond. To them, the wildlands of the island represent a border between their world and what other cultures tend to refer to as the “underworld”. To the Tanaroans, this is a nonsensical phrase as they consider the only thing under them to be the ocean and a succession of giant turtles. Their afterlife is the Sky above them. While few living Tanaroans have ever laid eyes on the Great Mountain, it is understood by them as the bridge from the Earth to the Sky.

Tanaroan Necromancy, aka The Cult of the Walking Dead:

While the Tanaoraon people have many of the same taboos other societies have, the practice of Necromancy is one they do not share. The Zombie Master is a figure that is viewed with both fear and respect, but they are not considered villains. Indeed, the Zombie Master and the Cult of the Walking Dead are understood to be a necessary component to the safety of the villages and of the Tanaroan way of life. Because they believe that the souls of the dead are taken to the Sky, they do not see the reanimation of corpses to be a desecration of the person, but merely a way for the motral form to continue to be of use to its village.

Not all Tanaroans are reanimated soon after they die. Usually it is just the males of at least adult age, except in times of great need. These unliving automatons are used for unskilled or dangerous labor, and in defense of the village. Tanaroans who are not animated are buried in the graveyards of their respective clans. The Zombie Master and the Cult of the Walking Dead will dig up and animate bodies as necessary, often during ceremonies. As such, bodies are buried not with personal momentos (as the Tanaroan shun personal property) but rather with tools and weapons that they will use when animated. The Zombie Master is the ultimate authority on the creation of zombies.

The acceptance of zombies (however reluctant) does not extend to other types of undead. Zombie Masters rarely create skeletons, again only doing so in times of great need. Other types of undead (particularly intelligent undead) are considered abominations and are the result of souls being improperly returned to earth. While a Zombie Master might be able to exert some control over such an undead, this would not be considered a servant of the village and would be driven off or destroyed.

Rulership and Social Structures:

Each village is governed by a Matriarch (or “Great Grand Mother”) who is usually the oldest woman in the village. Subordinate to her but still an important figure in his own right is the War Leader (sometimes referred to as a Chief or King). This is generally the most esteemed male warrior in the village. Outsiders to the Tanaroan often mistake the King for the ruler of the village as that is usually the most obvious position of authority and the one that deals with outside threats, but the War Leader defers to the Matriarch in almost all matters that aren’t an immediate danger to the village.

The War Leader and the Matriarch will each be of one of the four totemic clans of any given village, but their authority and responsibility is to the village as a whole. The Zombie Master will have once been a member of a clan, but will have renounced their link to a totem in order to take the mantle. Thus the Matriarch, War Leader, and Zombie Master are considered the ultimate authority within their own sphere of influence, as the responsibilities of one rarely overlap with the other two.

The leader of each clan is usually the oldest woman, who is then known as the Grand Mother. The four clan leaders make up the Council of Grand Mothers, who advise the Matriarch and act as advocates for their clan as necessary. Each Grand Mother is in turn advised by a group of women from their clan, who are known as the Council of Mothers, or Clan Mothers. (The title of Mother is an honorific and applies to any adult woman, regardless of whether or not she has borne children.) Most conflicts within a clan are handled internally by the Council of Mothers, but if they cannot be or if the conflict is between two or more clans, they will be handled by the Council of Grand Mothers or the Matriarch herself.

Some conflicts do not get brought to the attention of the Clan Mothers, and are dealt with instead by the Zombie Master. It is not known if a wronged party petitions for the Cult of the Walking Dead to intervene or if the Zombie Master learns of transgressions through other means, however if a Zombie Master calls out for justice during a ceremony, it is exceedingly rare for them to be challenged. The Zombie Master is considered to speak for the dead and to communicate with spirits, and in those matters their judgment is beyond reproach.

Open conflicts between the villages are rare, as most issues are settled by a negotiation between the Council of Grand Mothers that is presided over jointly by the Matriarchs. When this meeting, known as a Convocation, is not successful in resolving the dispute the Matriarchs of the involved villages can ask for mediation by the Matriarch of another village. If this mediation is not satisfactory to both parties, other Matriarchs are consulted until either a solution is agreed upon or a stalemate is achieved. Stalemates are often broken by a system of challenges between the villages that are in dispute. One such popular challenge played by warriors is known as Chun’key, in which spears are thrown at a rolling disk in an attempt to get them through a hole carved at the center. Another game is known as Pokatok, which is played with a hard rubber ball called a Tok and has several variations in which players cannot touch the ball with their hands or feet and can only use their elbows, knees, chest and head to propel the ball. Some versions allow the players to use a Pok stick, which is a curved rod of rattan or similar wood, sometimes with a leather cup to catch and sling the Tok. Usually, points are scored by getting the Tok into a zone protected by the other team, or through a hole in a stone disk that is either being rolled or is suspended from a pole or tree branch. Trials of combat are also used, as these usually aren’t any more violent than the games themselves. Athletic trials such as footraces or swimming contests tend to be popular methods of solving smaller disputes involving fewer individuals.

Challenges often become impromptu festivals in their own right, with multiple villages attending and feasts being held to accompany the games. It is not unusual for villages or clans to bring tribute to wager against the outcome of the game, or for those wagers to become the source of the feasts provided at the festivals.

Tanaroan Society and Culture:

Membership in a clan follows the matriarchal bloodline; children are of the same totemic clan as their mother. Fathers are often of a different clan than their children, however the clan structure supersedes the family structure, and since the Tanaroan shun long term unions fatherhood is not always known. Each clan lives in their own communal homes, and so children of a particular clan are raised by the men and women of that clan. Family trees are often complicated and sprawling diagrams that are meticulously kept track of by the Clan Mothers and by the individuals within a clan. It is not unusual for a Tanaroan to be able to name his or her maternal ancestors for at least five generations, and be able to list over a hundred other prominent relatives by name, clan and village.

This concept is exemplified in the layout of the villages themselves. Each village has four graveyards, one for each totem, laid out in that totem’s cardinal direction. The clan then builds their huts around that graveyard. This forms the outer limit of the village, usually marked by an earthen wall with wood palisades. Within that ring are the plots where each clan grows food or tends to animals. This area is known simply as The Gardens. At the center of the village is a mound or earthen pyramid where all village business is conducted. This is also where the villagers congregate for festivals and celebrations, of which the Tanaroan have many.

The festivals of the Tanaroans generally commemorate some historical or mythological event. Some of these are observed by all of the villages, some are specific to a particular village, and some are significant to individual clans. Most festivals are held on dates of significance by the celestial calendar, which is tracked by the Grand Mother of the Hawk Clan of each village. As the Isle of Dread does not have much seasonal variation in its climate, the constellations are the only reliable method of tracking time. The Tanaroan star calendar is a complicated living document but tends to be accurate, particularly with regards to planetary alignment and other celestial bodies like comets. (Each of these are understood to be souls of the ancestors, and are often named after mytho-historical Tanaroans of note.)

One notable celebration of the Tanaroan peninsula is known as “The Feast of Agamemnon,” and corresponds roughly to a festival of the new year. It is a grand feast in which the village prepares far too much food so that if the mythical ancestor Agamemnon returns with his army they will be amply fed. If Agamemnon does not return (and he hasn’t yet), the remains of the feast are carried and left in the jungle in the hopes that malicious spirits and other tricksters will take them and spare the village from any misfortune.

Another festival is the Tanaroan Day of the Dead. On this day at dawn the children cover themselves in ash and soot so that they resemble zombies, and they shamble mindlessly about the village going from hut to hut where adults will have a small task for them to complete before they are given a gift of food or a simple trinket. The “zombie” children then congregate at the central pyramid at sundown, where a ceremony performed by the Zombie Master will “put them to rest” and allow them rejoin the world of the living.

Each village has a number of festivals that are unique to them, often to venerate a particular ancestor that either lived there or whose descendants founded it. It is not unusual for neighboring villages to send envoys to attend. For example, the Village of Panitube has the Festival of the Sea Mother (also translated as “The Under the Sea Dance”), which is significant to the Sea Turtle Clan. Sea Turtle Clan members from other villages will often attend this festival in lieu of holding one of their own in their home village.

Generally speaking, a Tanaroan is judged by the value they provide to their clan and their village. Someone who takes more than their share or who is lazy may be shunned or derided, but it is unlikely they will face outright punishment. Exile is the ultimate punishment for a Tanaroan and is reserved for only the most serious of crimes. A Tanaroan who is to be exiled will often choose death and reanimation instead of being cast out of their village or sent North “beyond the wall”. However, a Tanaroan may sometimes choose a form of self-exile as their punishment and go beyond the wall for a period of time, often returning with something that can be used as restitution for their crime (should they return at all). A Tanaroan who has gone “beyond the wall” (whether as a punishment or as part of clan business or a personal quest) and has come back is considered in higher esteem than those who haven’t. Those who do not return are said to have “made their way into the Sky.”

The Tanaroans have only a basic concept of personal property or ownership. Anything beyond what a single person could carry is considered to belong to the clan or to the village as a whole. A Tanaroan who is greedy is said to have “too few hands” or “small hands,” meaning that they try to claim ownership of more than they can hold.

The Tanaroan have no metallurgy to speak of. They neither mine nor refine ore or work metal beyond basic applications. Metal is not rare among them though, but what they have has been acquired through infrequent contact with sailors and traders who have visited the island. Metal weapons are highly prized, both steel and bronze, and become heirlooms to be passed down through the generations. Broken weapons are often repurposed, with a broken sword becoming a dagger or a spear head, or perhaps arrowheads, and then eventually incorporated into jewelry. Metal tools are also highly prized, but metal armor beyond a helm or shield is usually repurposed rather than worn.

The Tanaroan are proficient if primitive woodworkers. Virtually everything used in daily life is crafted at least partially from wood, with embellishments of bone, coral, or stone. The jungle of the peninsula provides a variety of different woods and the Tanaroan are adept at choosing the right ones for the various applications. The Tanaroan build small boats that are not capable of voyages on the open ocean, but are fine for navigating the calmer waters around the peninsula on the leeward side of the Isle. These are usually made from teak and are of both solid and composite construction, with war canoes being made from a single large tree that has been hollowed out and the smaller craft being constructed of lashed and fitted planks.

Tanaroan Language

The language spoken by the Tanaroans is a variant tongue of the Common language found elsewhere, indicating a link to a shared past. While there are differences in grammar and some linguistic shift is evident, basic concepts can be communicated fairly easily between the Tanaroans and visitors to the island. More complex concepts, as well as metaphorical language is typically where mistranslations occur.

This is reflected in the idioms of the Tanaroan dialect. To say that someone’s luck has “gone South” is to remark they have been very fortunate indeed, while saying that someone has “Northern luck” implies that they bring grave occurrences upon themselves or those around them. To “look North” is to deeply consider the consequences of one’s actions, while to “look South” or “keep a Southward eye” means to remain optimistic. To “gaze West” is to recognize and reflect on the sacrifices of the ancestors who have gone before, while to “look East” is to ponder the health and well-being of the young and of future generations. When it is said that someone cannot look East it is understood that they do not consider the consequences of their actions, whereas saying someone is blind to the West means that they are ungrateful or spoiled and do not show proper reverence for their elders.