D&D Adventure: The Crypt of Nondeskrypt

Ahoy, adventurers! The kingdom of Nondeskrypt needs you! It was recently discovered that a lich has made its lair in a long forgotten royal crypt, and it needs to be defeated before it can unleash its army of undead minions upon the land! Be wary of the crypt's old traps, as well as any new addition the necromancy master might have added! The undead are no the only thing to fear in these walls.

This set was initially submitted in the recent DND challenge, but this is an updated and improved version.

This set is made of 2947 Lego pieces, including technic pieces to link the various parts together and support bricks beneath the rooms' floors.

There are five parts to this dungeon, which can be freely removed and rearranged:

-the Moutain Entrance, with some forest, a small pond, a few hidden caves, and a door mechanism;

-the Trapped Hallway, filled with torches, a skeleton in pieces which can be reassembled and armed with additional blades, and of course the namesake trap, blades that are meant to fall on intruders with an articulated arm to adjust the angle of each one to also allow slashing to the side;

-the Pit Room, previously a hallway in the last version, with a swarm of white spiders and their webs, the webs can be used both to block an adventurer's path or be lowered to become bridges to and fro the central platform, there is also a snake guarding a diamond beneath a vine;

-the Golem Room, with a key placed between bones and of course the golem, the golem can be removed from its spot in the center of the room, the waist can turn and the arms are articulated at the elbows and wrists;

-the Treasure Room, with a central elevated removable throne above a secret cache holding the sacred weapons of the kingdom and the Hero's Skeleton also accesible via a door at the back, the throne is made to be able to hold the Royal Skeleton, a regular minifigure, and the Lich, there are also piles of treasure to the side, a large open area to fit an epic showdown against hordes of skeletons warriors or a dragon-riding lich, as well as pillars in the back and a total of 8 statues with articulated arms.

This set also includes 4 (5 if you include the golem) brickbuilt monsters:

-the Minotaur Skeleton, intended to roam the outside of the dungeon and look out for any nosy adventurer;

-the Headless Centaur, intended to guard the Trapped Hallway to run down anyone who might make it past its blades;

-the Bone Naga, intended to wrap around a lot of things, looking out for enemies to crush in its bony coils;

-the Dragonbone Golem, intended to guard the Treasure Room and serve as the Lich's mount, this pale copy of a true dragon's skeleton is still a deadly foe.

This set features 4 adventurers:

-the Sorcerer, a wise yet extravagant expert in magic drawing incredible power from his bloodline;

-the Paladin, a powerful and loyal warrior that can stand against most foes;

-the Demi-Goblin Rogue, a thief with a heart of gold who is very talented when it comes to dealing with traps;

-the Elf Ranger, a gentle soul that few can hope to rival when it comes to archery.

This set features 4 (7 if you count the Slasher Skeleton, the Royal Skeleton and the Hero's Skeleton) unique villainous minifigures:

-the Ghost, the spirit of a grave robber who fell to the crypt's traps long ago, now serving the Lich to ensure only they may acces its treasures;

-the Zombie Adventurer, a bard who tried to handle the threat of the Lich on his own and failed;

-the Haunted Armor, a silent and experienced fighter born from the lingering regrets of a knight;

-the Lich, a necromancer of immense power that defied death by turning themself into a monster rejected by nature, tethered to the mortal plane by the phylactery that serves as its staff.

The set also features 4 Skeleton Warriors, equipped with a helmet, a blade, and a shield.

There are also a handful of additional critters, a rat, a bat, an owl, 6 white spiders, a blue cobra, a red, black, and green snakes popping their heads out of the walls (which makes a total of five snakes with the five colors of the five heads of Tiamat, the evil dragon goddess), and quite a few more details and easter eggs hidden here and there.

Although I've sadly never had the opportunity to play Dungeons and Dragons myself, I still respect and appreciate this pillar of pop culture, and what better way to represent and honor it than a dungeon ending in a dragon fight, all in a classic undead setting? With vague yet universal lore for this kind of thing, I do hope I caugth a fragment of what makes D&D so great.

I wanted to make a set that would please both collectors and players - something that would be nice to have sitting on a shelf, as well as something fun to play with, with halls that minifigures could actually travel and fight in. The dungeon may be too big to fully fit on a shelf, but you can break it apart and expose each room on its own, with a nice little scene.

It's a big set, and I have no doubt a better and more experienced builder would have found dozens of ways of shrinking the piece count, but I'm happy with the final result, and will do my best to keep size in mind for my next project.

I know some were frustrated by the selection of finalists for the D&D challenge, well, I hope some of you will be happy enough with my work to support it.

Keep on creating, folks, be it with bricks or character sheets.