Story and key.

I watched "The Hobbit," and the thing that really stood out to me were the locations. I wanted to live in Bag End, wanted to move to Dale, wanted to visit Erebor, and wanted to run a game with Goblintown. Goblintown seemed like a perfect 4e setup; combat driven by terrain, with terrain features that can aid or hamper player characters.

(Yeah, I know most gamers think all the books should be burned and sealed by Space Marines attached to the Adeptes Gigantoshoulderpadus, but work with me here, I like 4e. The other "work with me" is yeah, it's a dungeon on graph paper in 2012, high-school-style.)

But how do you map that?

Here's my idea for a similar goblin or orc warren built into a big natural cavern and built around two large, central stone crags;

* LIGHT GRAY indicates the cavern floor
* BLUE indicates the lowest tier of platforms and scaffolding, about 30-60' from the cavern floor.
* YELLOW indicates the middle tier of platforms and bridges, about 61-90' from the cavern floor.
*RED areas are the highest tier of platforms, about 91'-120' from the cavern floor. The roof is a further 30-50' or so above that.

*DARK GRAY symbols indicate a change in elevation. Squares are crude elevators, anything from a bucket on a pulley to a big platform to a rickety cage. Circles indicate theoretically usable ladders. Arrows indicate that the bridges and platforms go down a level - there are no stairs here.

*GREEN/DARK RED areas are where one platform overlaps another. In areas like this, players might intentionally destroy the floor to get to the next level down - or that's where they'll land if the floor gives way.

* X marks places with just random bits of gunk player characters might be able to use to their advantage - anything from barrels to sturdy poles with skulls on 'em to ropes that swashbuckling types - or goblin opposition - could use to swing across.

* SPECIFIC KEYED AREAS are;
1. The Front Gate. This place is heavily, heavily patrolled by goblins. Out of all five routes in and out of the cavern, this is the least survivable for PCs slowly running out of spells and hit points.

2. The Clink. Natural caves fitted with clunky, poorly constructed doors, and rickety cages dangling from chains, containing a batch of prisoners that PCs might be able to free - and recruit.

3. Madame Goblintine. Here's where the goblins dispose of anyone who displeases their King (or Queen). Basically it's a guillotine made with the finest goblin aesthetics - so it can fit anything from a pixie to an ogre, and is equipped with a variety of spiked rollers and huge hammers as well as the usual gigantic blade. A number of bodies are staked here and some of them - former knights, wizards and so on - might still have gear that PCs might use in a pinch.

4. Goblin King's Throne. The big guy or lady him/herself. If there's a boss fight in this dungeon, that's where it's going to happen.

5. Cage Lift. The little goblin scribe zipping away on his chair was one of my favorite parts of the entire setting, so of course I had to use it here!

6. Ye Olde Alchemiste's Laboratory. Perched on a crag and surrounded by scaffolding, here's where the brainest in goblin talent labor to make useful things like probably non-toxic potions, and explosives. PCs who make their way to this point might be able to equip themselves with the very finest in goblin rocket technology. Wha-boom.