Eyes of the Stone Thief (2014) takes the idea of high concept megadungeons and launches it into the stratosphere. Most dungeons are hostile environments, but passive ones. Really, their dangers threaten player characters because of the forward movement of those players characters, their own initiative and desire to explore. Players trip traps,  encounter inhabitants, and ultimately have themselves to blame for any injuries and deaths they suffer. Stone Thief isn’t content to react to players. Instead, the book wonders what a dungeons would be like if it was actively hostile.

In the game 13th Age, the dungeon is made more plausible by presenting them as living things — they can move around, they can eat, they have intelligence. The Stone Thief is the oldest, cleverest and most malevolent of its kind. It offers what perhaps the epitome of the various answers to the question, “What is a dungeon?” Answer: A thing that eats adventurers. 

And many other things as well! The illogic of the dungeon space, that so often combines disparate environments in close, baffling proximity, is here explained by how the Stone Thief feeds: namely, by consuming buildings, landmarks and other structures, which it then incorporates in some manner into its interior space. This goes for creatures and people, too. When it surfaces, the Stone Thief unfolds, creating a new arrangements of places and monsters each time. When it dives, it contracts, flattening spaces, putting residents in stasis and destroying intruders.

Again, just an astounding concept. Reading through the book is one delight after another. The art is great throughout, though there is no clear credit and I am not really familiar with anyone other than Russ Nicholson. Herwin Wielink’s cartography is the real star, though, imbuing the idea of dungeons spaces as living anatomy a real vividness.