The Blades of Gixa is a wet dungeon.

It's a theme I started to notice around the time I was first drawing the third level, the Elvish-Frog Grottoes (& the Luminous Undersea). The first level, the Ancient Baths, has water running through it of course, but I think it was really the Grottoes that cemented water & wetness as major themes I would carry not just throughout the dungeon, but also into the overworld above.

This is, in its own way, a Dying Earth-style setting, a diluvian world drowning under endless rain and rising tides. But even as the water poses a dire threat, it remains essential to all life, even deep underground.

The idea of an underground sea excited me, but I didn't want it to just be pitch-black and terrifying — this is only level 3 of 12, after all, and there's plenty of space to ramp up the tension & horror. So, reminded of camping on PNW beaches & dancing in glowing waves at night, I infused this undersea with bioluminescent plankton, giving much of the level an ethereal blue-green glow. There are still threats here, of course, dangerous creatures and warring factions, but after making the 2nd level (a claustrophobic crypt filled with undead), a more beautiful & open setting seemed called for.

Here's a video all about it, on YouTube and ad-free on Paradiso (available for free members, must be signed in):

And some shots of the level: