Gnome Biodomes in Chagrinspire

The gnomes of Chagrinspire built 5 biodomes in between levels to study how miserable and horrible nature can be to impress on young gnomes the great purpose of unmaking the universe in the cause of peace. Kind of like the Carnival of Monsters story in 70s Dr Who.

Thuvia a atar people alien the party adopted wants to hijack a gnome moon craft to try and get home.

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Possibly these might be semi abandoned or forgotten. There might be other domes of foreign lands or various species of humanoids to study. 

Dome 1 Primordial Vault, with rocky land and sea, with giant invertebrates and armoured fish
Dome 2 Fungoid Vault, forest with giant bugs, lizards and amphibians
Dome 3 Saurian Vault, with thick jungle and ferocious dinosaurs that all attack outsiders
Dome 4 Lunar Vault, a grey cratered moon landscape habitat of captive moon creatures
Dome 5 Future Vault, wasteland with a lake of sentient flesh simulating the future 

Each vault has 5 huge airlocks, one huge for machines and vehicles and others are for teams of work crews and students. 

There are observation galleries with windows in the upper levels.

Once inside, illusions cover doors, observation windows and any other fittings.
Some gnomes observe with crystal spheres.

You might kindly add some service hatches, but illusion-covered and knock spells are required to open. If visible, they are shiny metal hexagonal plates requiring a special tool to open.

The doors will have an armoured storage locker with a gnome inside who distributes expedition gear, weapons and clothing. A barred window and hopper protect the gnome. They also open the doors and offer tips. They are usually bored and might let anyone inside. They also have small and large body bags.

d12 Common Expedition Gear
1 Air mask or 1in6 are full germ proof body suit with air filter
2 Camouflage explorer suit
3 Goad to irritate monsters for a show, pole with a hook and spike
4 Rope and grappling hook
5 Diving suit (bronze helmet, wax leather suit and airtank)
6 Ration kit

7 Monster food (as bait or distraction)

8 Flashlight

9 Sample jars and a butterfly net

10 Traps for various-sized critters

11 Inflatable raft and oars

12 Cigarette packs with collectable cards

Why are we here?
Gnomes might throw in captives and watch them be devoured by monsters as a teaching opportunity.

Something might be lost inside or a gnome gone native with information

Players might stumble across an entry while exploring or on the run

Players might book on a prepaid tour in the underground city 

Gnome agents might deliver a teleportation or gate trapped item and let victims think they are visiting the real original biome location. Gnomes will study their reactions.

d12 Service Areas Encounters
1 Gnome mechanics in overalls with tool boxes
2 Gnome wizard scholars observing a project

3 Gnome teacher and a d6+6 youths

4 Gnome guide and a d6+6 tourists from underland

5 Gnome eco techs with a golem cage trolley with a creature inside

6 Gnome gardeners with a golem trolley with plants, fungi or slime vat 

7 Gnome hunters with adorable pith helmets, safari suits and huge guns

8 Gnome administrators inspecting vault protocols

9 Gnome exterminator crew sweeping for escaped critters

10 Gnome anarchists here to smash stuff and release monsters

11 Escaped creature on the loose from a vault

12 Black sphere death squad gnomes with at least one trained flesh golems

d12 Service Areas Sections
1 Meeting room or lecture theatre
2 Museum explaining the exhibit history
3 Lab to study, clone, grow and dissect monsters
4 Emergency automaton kill squad barracks for escapes or rescues
5 Planning office with maps of a dome and planning workers
6 Observation room looking into a dome, often with a telescope
7 Garage for earth-moving golem vehicles and tiny tanks (WW1 Renault style)
8 Records library of filed reports and research papers
9 Technician barracks with a cafeteria and games room
10 Tourist cafeteria and gift shop
11 Crionc storage with monster food, corpses and spare monsters

12 Plant room for maintaining the dome environment 

d12 Dome Events
1 Weather event, usually rain or fog or storm
2 Illusion generators stutter briefly

3 New monsters added

4 Party of gnomes from the service area visit

5 Announcement sounds a warning, visitors to leave dome for a test

6 Alarm of a dome breach, visitors to the cafeteria to await safe signals

7 Gnomes with clairvoyance or crystal ball spy on intruders

8 Witness inhabitants fighting roll 2 encounters

10 Planar distortion, dome area seems far bigger and taps into the source of the biome 

11 Creatures all made sentient speaking beings for educational purposes

12 Time fields accelerate evolution before your eyes. No visitors during time warps

Dome 1 Primordial Vault
Simulating the early age with misty air, a central sea and a rocky coast with simple plants. This is the age where armoured giant dumb fish ruled waters over invertebrates (worms and arthropods). The invertibrates invaded the land and then a splinter sect of fish crawled on land the first amphibians. The air here requires an air mask or the higher CO2 makes normal people fatigue faster, possibly pass out and eventually die if they remain here. The air is thick and soupy.

The lesson here is how inhospitable life is and how change just makes everlasting conflict. Its popular for fishing.

d12 Primordial Encounters

1 Giant isopod

2 Giant armoured fish

3 Giant scorpion (land or marine)

4 Giant lobster

5 Giant crab

6 Huge octopus or squid or nautilus

7 Giant dragonfly

8 Giant salamander

9 Giant centipede

10 Giant mudskipper pack

11 Giant mosquito (or larvae in water)

12 Tribal fish or slamander folk or both fighting

Dome 2 Fungoid Vault

Simulates the age of darkness and underland fungi forests crawling with invertibrates, amphibians and reptiles. Many exotic and even ambulant dangerous fungus. It is dimly lit by luminous fungus and misty with a scent of spores. It is warm and damp with smell of spores. 

The lesson here is how life even in the adversity of mostly horrible struggle. Mostly gnomes like it to remember their youthful undeland frolics. Special magic fungus here is also good for various uses and handy for medicine and other uses. 

d12 Fungal Encounters

1 Giant beetles
2 Giant worm or centipede
3 Giant cave crickets
4 SHrieking fungus
5 Killer ambulant fungus
6 Mushroom folk or smaller shroomlings
7 Insect folk or smaller insectlings

8 Giant lizard
9 Giant amphibian (toad, frog, salamander, caecillian)
10 Slime or ooze monster
11 Slime folk
12 Faerie d4 1=Sprites 2=brownies 3=goblins 4=willow the whisp

Dome 3 Saurian Vault
Moist jungle and swamp with giant ferns and crawling with prehistoric reptiles, synapsids and giant amphibians. Very hot with lots of bogs and a small volcanic vent. Lots of caves and lairs are around. Roaring and battling monster sounds are common.

The lesson here is life is brutal and constant terror. Gnome elites like to hunt dinosaurs.

d12 Saurian Encounters

1 Dimetradon
2 Huge raptors
3 Allosaurus
4 Plesiosaur

5 Pteradactyl
6 Brontosaurus

7 Triceratops

8 Ankylosaurus

9 Stegasaurus

10 Hadrosaurus 

11 Iguanadon

12 Giant salamander or frogs

Dome 4 Lunar Vault
Grey dusty rocky, and cratered wasteland with smoking volcanic vents. Strange crystals grow from the ground in places, and there are mysterious ruins. It is cold, and the air is thin. Some people vulnerable to high altitude sickness might die here as pink foam fills the lungs and out of the mouth, choking the victims. A diving suit or medicine might help. Giant mushrooms, puffballs and strange red or blue plants struggle to grow in the powdery, exhausted moon soil.

The lesson here is that even in inhospitable conditions, awful life struggles to pointlessly survive. Also used for lunar expedition training.

d12 Lunar Encounters

1 Giant bacteria or slime
2 Giant slugs or snails 1in6 are carrying nomad  homes on backs (see 12)

3 Blue or red carnivorous plants or fungus

4 Ferocious moon dinosaur, giant lizard or synapsid

5 Gibbering amorphous shoggoth

6 Giant moon toad or salamander

7 Ferocious purple moon apes

8 Blue giant moon spiders or scorpions

9 Giant moths or caterpillars (not as huge as actual lunar ones)

10 Crystal animals

11 Alien creature d4 1=migo 2=chrinoid old one 3=conical great race 4=amorphous toadlike moon beasts (sadistic alien wizards) 

12 Tribal moon folk, these peoples will be convinced they are inhd6 1=selinite insect folk 2=grey gnomes 3=moon elves 4=star folk 5=crystal folk 6=mushroom folkabitants or castaways on the moon

Dome 5 Future Vault
Blated rocky ground with pools of slime. The centre is a semi-transparent lake of orange slime. If approached, humanoids will form and walk out and offer you to join them forever in the slime pool the ultimate destiny of all life in the future. They may share some wisdom and are unaware they are in a simulation. If rejected, the sad creatures will look at their infantile ancestors and walk towards them to embrace them in the pool of life. 

This is to teach the ultimate futility of life and progress to make nullification or reality seem like a mercy. Occasionally, some bad students are thrown in the pool for bad grades as a lesson to others. A few gnomes believe the pool has some uses or research value and most get assimilated.

There are no non-asimilated life forms to encounter. A few slime people might form from a pool to welcome you to the future.