Wizards, dungeons, etc

Hiya,
A little late to this party, with things going to layout and all, but I had a thought about the whole building a dungeon thing, which some people have thought a little strange.
Consider that we have rules for things like “sinkholes of evil”… what if there was a similar effect being created or exploited by these underground complexes? Something like a sinkhole but arcane? Wizards could either scout them, or build lures for magical creature that caused them to build up over time. They could be attuned to different types of magic, giving research or spellcasting bonuses.
Maybe an idea for the future?

That’s a wickedly cool idea.

Kinda like Regios or Auras in Ars Magica (see: http://www.quantal.demon.co.uk/saga/ooc/glossary.html for definitions).
I second this, awesome idea given how Alex has described Sinkholes of Evil (especially the original many tiered versions you described Alex, I thought your concepts were fantastic, if complex as you said).
I’d assume Alex, that you’d tie it to your Auran campaign background? Would it be possible in doing so, to also provide a framework for different ‘options’? So, in one campaign it could be due to a high concentration of Azoth particles in the environment, and in another it could be because the Plane of Magic and Prime Material Plane are touching, and so on.

‘They could be attuned to different types of magic, giving research or spellcasting bonuses.’
It’s a good idea but I’d want to keep some unpredictability and increasing risk in creating and developing such an area.

I find this to be (potentially) a very interesting avenue of design. The idea DrPete mentions reminds me of a thread on RPG.net from a few years ago where the idea of dungeons as living, growing organisms (that spawn monsters!) was discussed. I still like that idea a lot.
(There was also some discussion of dungeons slowly growing around powerful magical items or tombs of powerful individuals. It’s certainly a convenient way of explaining why powerful artifacts or crypts seem to be found in monster-infested dungeons – the dungeons are created by them!)