Carrion Lake

Introduction
For all practical purposes, everyone and everything that dies in the Dungeon one day ends up in Carrion Lake. The term is of course a misnomer, as this swirling chasm of decay is far too large to be considered a ‘lake’ (much more akin to an ocean), and as well, the typical definition of a lake requires freshwater. The Carrion Lake does not contain single a drop of pure water.

Formation
Some unknown thousands of years ago, far, far below the Dungeon Branches, there was once a hollow cavity in the sheer rock so expansive as to be easily as large as the Dungeon itself. As the nadir of the Dungeon (excluding some twisting tunnels of the Grinder Dwarves which may snake their way beneath), it is inevitable that any liquid spilled on the upper levels will slowly drain through cracks and crevices, consumed by one creature and spilled again elsewhere, until eventually it lands in the dread Lake, drop by drop.

Before the Lake was filled, this sepulchral chamber echoed with endless throngs of gibbering Ooms, which are now all but banished to dark corners on the upper levels of the Dungeon.

Appearance
At first, in the purest dark recesses below even the Dungeon, one might mistake Carrion Lake for simply an enormous underground body of water. When the light of a torch is shone upon its surface, its true form is revealed.

The liquid of Carrion Lake is a bubbling, seething, fermenting sludge roughly the consistency of quicksand. Countless generations of blood, faeces, brain matter, and everything else which spills from the guts of the leaving congeals here in a hot, noxious stew. Pieces of flesh and sometimes even full organs bob to the surface, where they will float until rot breaks them down to the consistency of sludge. The bed of Carrion Lake (currently ~350m below the surface, though this level will continue to rise with years of ongoing death and bloodshed) is a mountain of bones and metal scrap nearly as deep as the Lake itself.

For any creature with a sense of taste or smell, coming within 100m of Carrion Lake is extremely difficult, resulting almost immediately in a feverish sickness. Approaching 10m is more often than not fatal to anything without a magical or mechanical means or air filtration. To swim in the caustic sludge of the Lake - apart from being an indescribably horrific experience - would result in the vomiting of all one’s stomach and intestinal contents, followed by the melting of skin and muscle, and shortly thereafter an excruciating and unquiet death.

On the ‘shore’, a light-pink froth forms when the Lake becomes disturbed, along with huge bubbles of flammable gas. Inhaling either results in the infection of one’s blood with a plethora of different diseases.

Societal Impact
Despite the many, many grisly ways to die while in proximity to Carrion Like, there are still Denizens desperate enough to live and depend on it. Existence in the Dungeon pushes many beings to extremes they would have never considered before. See Red-Netters and Bloated Maw.

“To the Lake with you!” and “smells of the bloody pit!” are common insults among Denizens.