Karak Zul: A Dwarven Mega Dungeon for 5e and 5.5e

The Book

Karak Zul: Ash and Iron is a high-level campaign set in Karak Zul, a long-lost dwarven kingdom. It is an homage to Tolkien’s Mines of Moria, and a tribute to the players, Dungeon Masters, and artists who have always been fascinated by dwarven kingdoms, their history, and the worlds built around them.

Characters begin play at 14th level and progress to 20th, culminating in a showdown deep within the Abyss. But Karak Zul is more than a dungeon filled with monsters and treasure. It is also a worldbuilding exercise where players discover the history of a once-powerful dwarven kingdom, reclaim its lost halls, and help rebuild a homeland occupied for a thousand years. The choices they make along the way will determine what kind of kingdom rises from the ruins.

The dungeon has twenty major levels, from the surface citadel to the mines below. Between them lies a city built for fifteen ancient dwarven clans, with markets, breweries, foundries, libraries, temples, royal crypts, and the farms that once fed an entire dwarven nation. 

This campaign book is being developed for fifth-edition fantasy roleplaying, with the 5e (2014) and 5.5 (2024) rules as its intended baseline. It is an independent project from my company, NiStar Entertainment.

A Kingdom Worth Taking Back

A thousand years ago, the dwarves of Karak Zul brought calamity upon themselves by opening an extradimensional gate beneath their mountain. The fire lords came through, the kingdom fell, its treasury was plundered, and many of its people were carried away in chains to the City of Brass. 

Their descendants haven't forgotten.

Of course, the place hasn't sat empty for a thousand years. Orcs hold the approaches and dwell beneath the mountain. Other factions trade and fight in the old halls, while giants, dragons, aberrations, and demons have found places to settle. A demon lord governs them all and seeks to unleash this army of corruption and evil onto the material plane. Karak Zul currently serves as his fortress. In this way, the fight for Karak Zul is ultimately a fight to save the world.

This campaign book is being developed for fifth-edition fantasy roleplaying, with the 5e (2014) and 5.5 (2024) rules as its intended baseline. It is an independent project from my company, NiStar Entertainment.

The book features 20 unique dungeon levels (including an underground mega city), hundreds of rooms, dozens of customized items, and many encounters. It is anticipated to be at least 200 pages long, with room for DMs to homebrew and expand on various sections. Bizarre creatures live within, and feuding factions compete for dominance above and below the various levels. Mysterious NPCs offer help, conceal their motives, and may betray the party. 

To ensure we keep things deadly, the stubborn dwarven defences haven't become any friendlier over the last millennium, and some are more dangerous due to age and disrepair. 

The history of this old dwarven homeland is also important because the party must learn it to bypass ancient guardians and solve difficult puzzles.  As the 20 levels are uncovered, they tell a compelling story and show how the whole place fits together.

Quality Matters: Bringing Karak Zul to Life

I've always felt a good adventure needs more than good writing. The artwork, maps, layout, and overall presentation matter as much as the writing. Karak Zul is a huge undertaking, and if I'm asking people to spend their hard-earned cash on this project, I want to make sure they get something really worth owning. It should look, sound, and feel like the classic adventures we grew up with, but with the production quality you would expect from a modern publication.

That's why I have assembled an amazing team of award-winning artists, cartographers, and designers to help bring Karak Zul to life. Chet Minton is doing the front-and-back cover art, Glynn Seal is doing the cartography and layout, and Joey Decil is doing the black-and-white interior illustrations. Each brings their own style and plenty of experience to the project, and I couldn’t be happier to have them on board.

You’ll see examples of their work throughout this campaign. These are not placeholders or ideas of what we will make. These are a taste of the standard we are striving toward. And importantly, what you are seeing here is the floor of our creative ambitions, not the ceiling. As the project progresses, I plan to build on that foundation by commissioning more artwork and expanding the visual presentation. This will make Karak Zul the sort of megadungeon that you will want to keep on your shelf long after the campaign is over.

I don’t want to just put out another adventure. My goal is to create something that can sit comfortably alongside the great D&D modules of the past, but also stand on its own merits. It requires time, money, and talented people.

The Trouble Starts Before You Even Enter the Dungeon

To make Karak Zul truly challenging and unique, I designed it as a self-contained ecosystem where players start gameplay fighting for their lives. Players reach Karak Zul by boat across a tumultuous sea. The characters must then climb a steep, perilous cliff, and cross foothills choked with intelligent and predatory vegetation. The entire area is saturated in poisonous pollen. 

Meanwhile, Orc burn crews and fire trolls battle the vegetation and try to clear a path from the dungeon entrance with oil, fire, and wagons of explosives. 

Check out the sample below for a taste of what Karak Zul will offer your players at the table. Karak Zul is deadly, dynamic, and intentional. Its inhabitants have their own ambitions, react to intruders, and give players plenty of reasons to think before drawing a weapon. Every encounter has a place in the dungeon, and even veteran players will need sharp thinking and good roleplaying to survive:

Book Sample

By the time the party gets near the citadel of Karak Zul, the road is buried in smoke. The party can sneak past, get involved, or try to talk to or deceive creatures they expected to fight. 

Assuming the party makes it to the Citadel Gate at the top of a great stone ramp, they face significant opposition. Well-organized orcs and ogres hold this place, armed with projectiles ranging from catapults to spears and arrows.   Getting through it gives the expedition a foothold. 

Critically, securing the top level of the dungeon gives the dwarves somewhere to bring their people and begin conquering it. However, the orcs tried to burn their way through the vegetation for a reason, and leaving it unaddressed may let the vegetation overtake the Citadel Gate. An expedition has a long way to go:

Getting Things Working Again

I wanted this to feel like somewhere dwarves actually lived. A city under a mountain needs food and water. Its workshops need supplies, its garrison needs weapons, and somebody has to keep the lifts working. The maps gave me a starting point.

A repaired lift can bring reinforcements down. A guarded road lets traders get through. Clear a foundry and the dwarves might be able to make weapons in their own halls again. Each job gives the party something worth holding onto, and a reason to come back. 

As more dwarves return, the place starts to change. A hall the party barely survived might become a watch post or a smithy. Later, families could live there. That's the part I like about this campaign: coming back through somewhere dangerous and seeing what the expedition has built. Of course, new adversaries may see the campaign as a way to move into newly vacant areas.

The current occupants of Karak Zul don't all get along. They want territory, relics, access to the deeper halls, or simply a place where nobody else can push them around. Some have been here for generations. The party members and returning clans won't find anyone pleased to see them. Many of these monster groups and individuals have their own agendas the party can use to role-play the adventure. The idea is to keep a market of options open for play, while letting players play on the rivalries and alliances of certain groups or creatures. Players can certainly try to fight their way through everything. I suspect most groups will look for another option before long.

A Look Through All 20 Levels

At its peak, each of Karak Zul's levels helped keep the kingdom alive. To preserve the campaign's character and history, I started by designing the dungeon as it appeared when it was the Dwarven homeland. Here's a look at each one, with the current map draft below it. Below are descriptions of each level, along with some samples of the maps we have created. 

Level 1: The Citadel Gate

A ring of towers and battlements guards the surface entrance, with stables, a great hall, and a long ramp leading up to the gate. Orcs hold the fortress now. Getting inside is the expedition's first real fight, and holding it gives the returning dwarves a place to bring their people and supplies.

Level 2: The Guard Bastions

Barracks, training halls and a war room sit behind the outer defences. Concealed watch passages let the old garrison move unseen, while a teleportation hall connects the fortress to the kingdom below. The endless staircase and its ancient wardens remain. Winning the gate doesn't mean the way down is safe.

Level 3: The Trade Halls

The approach runs through a trapped passage into a huge commercial esplanade. Merchants, moneychangers, artisans, and tavern keepers did business here. Trade still draws people here, though the clientele has changed considerably. The two plans show the approach and the wider trading complex.

Level 4: The Upper Foundries

Metalworking vaults, conveyors, and lava controls fill the upper industrial halls. These workshops were connected to the routes that carried materials through the mountain. Clearing them gives the expedition more places to sleep. If the dwarves can understand and repair the machinery, they can start making things here again.

Level 5: The Clan City

This is the place the exiles most want to see. A great central esplanade opens onto the holdings of fifteen clans, with homes, markets, temples, monuments and council chambers built around it. T Retaking it means a great deal to the dispossessed dwarven clans, whose spiritual goal is to return after a thousand years away.

 Level 6: The Brewing Level

Two enormous breweries and a colosseum take up much of this floor. Oath halls, stores, training areas, and an infirmary also fill the space. It says something about the dwarves that they found room for all this beneath a mountain. The place has plenty of space for a celebration, once someone deals with whoever or whatever lives there.

Level 7: Steam and Purification Vaults

Twin engineering installations filter water, collect condensation and distribute steam. Much of the kingdom depended on work done here. The party might come looking for a route deeper into the mountain and leave with a much more immediate problem: how to get clean water to the people already following them inside.

Level 8: The Lore Level

The library, archives, index rooms, and chronicles hold what remains of Karak Zul's written memory. Old reigns, inventions, clan disputes, and forgotten work can all matter to the expedition. A name copied out of a record here may explain a seal somewhere else. For once, carrying a book out of the dungeon could be worth the trouble.

Level 9: The Hall of Binding

Arcane chambers surround sigils, altars, magestone repositories, and the records of old binding work. The dwarves used this place to contain powers that needed to be kept in check. Restoring any of it takes care, especially when the expedition doesn't yet understand what the machinery held or why it was shut down.

Level 10: The Submerged Sanctum

Ceremonial baths, pools, and ritual chambers lie beyond trapped corridors. This was once a place to cleanse and reflect, away from the noise of the workshops and city. Corrupted water has changed it. The old protections still guard the sanctum, along with whatever has made a home among the pools.

Level 11: The Clerical Chambers

Sacred halls, shrines, the Soul-Forge, and extensive clan burial chambers preserve the kingdom's religious life. Almost every stone has a place in somebody's history. Returning dwarves have reasons to come here that have nothing to do with treasure, and the expedition must decide how much risk it will take to give them that chance.

Level 12: The Foundry Level

Geothermal engines, magma regulators, cooling cisterns, and an immense smelting complex make this one of Karak Zul's industrial hearts. Heat and water kept the works running, and after centuries of neglect, both can be dangerous. Reopening the foundry would change what the clans can build. It would also put a very valuable floor back into contention.

Level 13: The Assembly Levels

Here the dwarves carved, fitted, tested, and activated their war constructs. Intake rooms and fitting chambers lead into testing vaults and activation machinery. Some of it still works. Working out which machinery is safe to touch could take a while. Some of it may be worth leaving exactly where it is.

Level 14: The Treasure Vaults

Coin, bullion, gems, and precious metals sit behind the kingdom's old security. Storage halls lead toward deeper vaults and an artifact hall. Plenty of creatures in Karak Zul would want a share, including those helping the expedition. 

Level 15: The Hall of Elders

A council dais, voting halls, old decrees and records of the royal line stand at the centre of dwarven government. Taking this floor back raises an awkward question: who speaks for the kingdom now? The records might settle a dispute. They might also give several rival claimants enough evidence to keep it going.

Level 16: The Crypts

Funerary halls and great royal burial chambers hold generations of Karak Zul's dead. Their names and monuments are part of the kingdom the clans have come to reclaim. Getting through the crypts safely is one concern. Persuading the expedition to respect what it finds here may be another.

Level 17: The Royal Level

The royal promenade leads to private quarters, servants' chambers, guard posts, and rooms used by the rulers' arcanists and clerics. Concealed escape routes wind around the inhabited halls. These are the places where the last rulers lived, worked, and made decisions as the kingdom fell. Some of those decisions still have consequences.

Level 18: The Jail

Four prison quadrants connect to a central security hub, with cell blocks, interrogation rooms, and processing areas. Karak Zul had its own reasons to lock people away before the invasion. The floor's layout makes that history difficult to ignore, and its present occupants may have found their own uses for the cells.

Level 19: The Agricultural Level

Mushroom crops, algae beds, fish pools and livestock chambers once fed an underground population. Water purification links the growing areas to the rest of the kingdom. It isn't the floor most adventurers would put on a treasure map, but the returning clans will need it if they are going to stay. You can't feed a city on recovered gold.

Level 20: The Mines

Cart rails, steam-powered transport, repair workshops, and miners' quarters open onto sprawling branches of old workings. The map reaches beyond the main shaft into the places that made Karak Zul wealthy. Down here, near the deepest excavations, the Rootgate and the Demon Lord's plans draw the expedition toward the danger beneath the kingdom.

Choose Your Expedition

The same adventure is at the heart of all three rewards. Choose the PDF, add the printed book, or take the Archive's companion files along as well. All three tiers receive the first two digital stretch goals if they unlock. The Lichseed Trilogy bonus belongs to the High King's Archive if its goal unlocks. All prices are in Canadian dollars. Physical shipping is separate. Every tier includes the complete adventure PDF and its architectural maps.

Rewards

The Delver: Digital Adventure (CA$39)

The complete Karak Zul: Ash and Iron adventure as a PDF, with its dungeon maps and mountain cross-section. Includes: one adventure PDF and the digital stretch goals available to this tier when unlocked. No physical items or shipping.

The Ironbeard: Printed Adventure + PDF (CA$89)

One printed copy of Karak Zul: Ash and Iron, with the adventure PDF, dungeon maps and mountain cross-section. Includes: one printed adventure book, its PDF and the digital stretch goals available to this tier when unlocked. Physical shipping is separate.

The High King's Archive: Adventure Collection (CA$149)

The printed adventure and its PDF, plus three separate companion PDFs: a GM reference, printable player handouts and a player-facing map collection. The CA$60 step-up from Ironbeard adds tools to keep by your side and records to put in players' hands. Includes: one printed adventure book; one adventure PDF; one GM reference PDF covering level summaries, routes, factions, restoration objectives and royal clues; one printable handout PDF with selected records, inscriptions and seals; one player-facing map-collection PDF with numbered keys and secret information removed; and eligible digital stretch goals when unlocked. The companions are downloads you may print for your table. Physical shipping is separate.

Compare the Rewards

Stretch Goals

Funding goal reached: The Dwarven Smith

Once we reach our funding goal, we'll include flipbook art of a dwarven smith hammering on an anvil in the bottom-right corner of each page of the adventure book. Each illustration will show the next stage of the movement, bringing the smith to life as you flip through the pages.

CA$5,000 beyond the goal: Heirs of the Fifteen Clans

Six pregenerated adventurers with ties to Karak Zul, each supplied in 2014 5E and 2024 5E versions. That's six characters, each with two rules builds, ready for the adventure's starting level, with backgrounds and a reason to join the expedition. Included for Delver, Ironbeard, and High King's Archive backers when unlocked. Digital PDFs only.

CA$10,000 beyond the goal: The Expedition Pack

A small kit to keep the table moving: eight portrait tokens as PNG files, eight matching printable initiative cards, and four fillable sheets for session notes, the expedition roster, route records, and treasure. The portrait pieces use selected artwork already prepared for the project. Included for Delver, Ironbeard, and High King's Archive backers when unlocked. These are files to use or print yourself; no VTT software module or printed accessories are included.

CA$20,000 beyond the goal: The High King's Library

The High King's Archive gains digital copies of The Lichseed Trilogy in both 5E and Shadowdark: Isle of the Sunken Mage, Corpse in the Void, and The Root Beyond Worlds. Three adventures in two systems, supplied as six editions of PDFs. This bonus is for High King's Archive backers when unlocked. Delver and Ironbeard backers can upgrade to that reward to receive it. It uses the existing editions, with no new system conversion, printed books, or VTT module included.

Where the Work Stands

There is still work to do. The map layouts and much of the story and history are in place. We still need to complete the full room keys, rules checks, editing, and final production. We are currently playtesting this adventure in our home group and have also run sections of the mega dungeon at conventions such as Gary Con, Gamehole Con, and Gen Con. 

The campaign will fund the completion and production of the adventure. I'll post a progress update at least once a month during production, even when the news is simply that work is continuing. 

I'm Yoav Niv. I run Nistar Entertainment and created The Lichseed Trilogy. I've always liked the big dungeons, especially the ones where you can tell somebody built the place for a reason. You can see my earlier project, The Lichseed Trilogy for D&D 5 and 5.5 on BackerKit, and The Lichseed Trilogy for Shadowdark RPG on Kickstarter.

When I began to build Karak Zul, I kept thinking about the dwarves who survived the fall. Those who were chained and taken away, never to return to their homeland. If they came back in a thousand years, what would their descendants find? What would remain of their civilization, and what would it take to make the mountain home again?

I went to Karak Zul like I was really building up a dwarven kingdom. I thought of its history, its people, their beliefs and ideals, how they governed themselves, how they worshipped, worked, fought, and lived. I wanted it to make sense, the place. The great halls, the mines, the temples, the breweries, the fortifications, all had a purpose long before the monsters moved in. I also spent a lot of time getting advice from people who have been in this industry a lot longer than I have. I am so grateful for their generosity, encouragement, and willingness to share what they've learned over the years. They've made this a much better project with their advice.

I never wanted Karak Zul to be a monster hotel with a creature in every room waiting to be killed. This is a living, changing, and sometimes very unfriendly place. The inhabitants have their own ambitions, fight over turf, form alliances, and react to the players' actions. Things happen in the mountain whether the party is involved or not. Some of those things will help them; some will make their lives considerably worse.

Most of all, I want players to feel like they're exploring the ruins of an actual civilization, and maybeultimately helping to restore it. I want them to remember the first time they fought through the gates, what they found beyond, and the terrible things they had to overcome. Perhaps many sessions later, they will come back to those very halls and find that someone has put a hearth in, fixed a door, and started to make it a home again.

That is what Karak Zul is all about.