Balrog Avenue

There are many things I rib Peter Jackson about, but the scene with the Balrog in Moria is beyond reproach. From a cinematography perspective, from a story perspective, it just doesn't get much better than this.

But I want to roll back a few seconds of film. All the Orcs have the party surrounded and they are about to kill everyone when..... the Balrog's footsteps become heard. All the Orcs run like hell.

Hold that thought for a moment.

I hate the ideas that I have seen in megadungeons in that there are these byzantine labyrinths of rooms such that it undermines the realism of the location. Who lives in such a place? Who could? Traps and locked doors all over the place.

So I have been doodling away when I am uninspired to write on a giant megadungeon. Even when I have writer's block, I can still manage to draw in Photoshop. It is a 24x32 inch poster of doom, divided into six 8.5x11 pages if you want conventional print. And was thinking today over lunch about how well my avenues concept worked out. I have been operating under the assumption that the whole complex was created by some race a long time ago. Before Dwarvens, even. And that it was like a giant city, with broad avenues all around to move about, and buildings (clusters of connected rooms).

Which brings us back to the Balrog.

One thing I have always liked about Moria is that it is, for the most part, extremely open and functional. There is a lot of space, very few confining corridors. As you would expect an actual city to be, right? I want my dungeon to be function like that. So that there is the potential for a group of 1st level adventurers to see a few trolls hauling ass past them down the hallway. Nothing to make your blood run cold like watching monsters that would be tough for you to kill running past you in fear of something even bigger.

I want there to be that creeping feeling like something is watching you from down the darkened hallway, waiting for the right moment to strike. I want to be able to have a section inhabited by a group of humanoids that make raids out into the world above, but then come back to their homes. Like an evil city of sorts, with no government and little chittering beings hiding in the dark waiting to prey on one another.

I assume this is not a unique thought that I cooked up, surely someone else has done this prior.

Anyone else have thoughts on this matter?