Environs of the Megadungeon: Inspiration from Denali Wilderness

Maybe it is a little inspiration from the Song of Ice & Fire, maybe it is the overly long winter I just experienced, but I want the megadungeon and its environs set in a colder land than you would find in most quasi-European settings. This does not mean that the players would be constantly trekking through snow and ice. Witness Denali Wilderness, a national park located in the interior of Alaska.

Below the treeline you have scenes like this:



and the park is centred around the highest peak in North America Denali (Mount McKinley):



although, in the upper reaches you would have glaciers and ice fields like Ruth Glacier



The environs around the megadungeon will be at the very edge of civilization. The land is bountiful in its resources, but also untamed. It is that very untamed nature that draws adventurers. Legends of ancient civilizations to the north have been a staple of myth for hundreds if not thousands of years. The barrier between this world and others seems to be thinner here, and correspondingly magic is at times more powerful, although not always as the caster would foresee. Recently gold has been found in the streams and rivers and more people have begun to head north.

There are outposts of civilization, with prospectors and fur traders doing brisk business to feed the ever present hunger of the decadent empire to the south. But this is also the end of the road, and one of the few places to escape the reach of imperial justice. You may run into someone in the wilderness, but are they merely making their living or are they trying to avoid a bounty that has been placed upon their head?