Whomst amongst us has not been stumped for ideas for a dungeon beforeth? Never fear, for this list is here.
D20
This Dungeon Was Originally...
1
A dwarven colony-mine, until they unearthed something so wonderful it tempted them away from the surface forever.
2
The temple to a placid deity. Over time that deity fell
out of favour among the people, and its temple was abandoned to the
ravages of time.
3
The hideout and tunnels of a gang of smugglers. The
smugglers were hunted down and hanged to the last man some time ago, and
their hideout was all but forgotten by lawful folk.
4
A prison for sensitive political captives. It was
written off after a violent escape attempt escalated to the murder of
all the guards.
5
The sprawling mausoleum of an old noble family. A
squabble between siblings saw the mausoleum desecrated, and it was
sealed to prevent the return of their vengeful ancestors.
6
A giant tree. It was felled to feed civilization’s hunger for lumber. Rot and worms have eaten warrens into its roots and stump.
7
A castle built on murky foundations. It’s now half-sunk into the muck and the bizarre structures that laid in the muck.
8
The barrow-mound complex of an ancient mass sacrifice.
9
A sewer system. The city Is was made for is now gone, but the sewer remains.
10
The buried mechanisms of some great enigmatic machine.
11
A natural cave system.
12
An unnatural cave system.
13
The gauntlet of ritual tests of a mystery cult.
14
The petrified body of a burrowing beast.
15
A crashed flying craft from somewhere that’s not here.
16
The inverted tower of a witch, built to observe the “dark astrology” of theoretical stars deep beneath the surface.
17
A trash midden that outlasted the cultures which used it.
18
The zoo of an underworld emperor.
19
The passage of a sapient slime dissolving its way through the earth to its promised land.
20
A maze made by a lost people.
D20
But Now It’s Used...
1
As the breeding ground for new and terrible strains of fungi by a clandestine biowarfare project.
2
To host a festival for fairies, wherein they kidnap
interesting mortals and make them dance/fight/write endless treatises on
the impermanence of soap/etc.
3
For the debauched gatherings of a demonic cult.
4
As the home base of a bandit clan. Their leader nurses an unwholesome secret.
5
For a meeting place between a government in exile and
the chthonic civilization they’re petitioning for support in a
counter-coup.
6
As the monastery-manufactory of a rogue theologian and
their heterodox order of knights. They’re trying to make sinless humans,
as well as artificial angels.
7
As the lair of a dragon and its sycophantic clutch of lesser reptilians.
8
As shelter by a malformed race of artificial warriors.
9
By an unhinged wizard who set up an experiment to refract themself across parallel times and spaces throughout the dungeon.
10
As the site of a monstrous lek.
11
As an asylum for victims of a mutagenic disease.
12
By a sociopathic scholar to contain cruel sociological studies.
13
As a cyst of unreality by incomprehensible creatures from outside the universe.
14
As a crèche for insectoid things metamorphosing into their divergent adult forms and their parasitically-controlled nurses.
15
As the court of a madman who thinks himself a king, and his eccentric, often inhuman bunch of gentry.
16
As the eruption point of a band of volcanic beings and their alien ecosystem.
17
As a literally and figuratively underground exotic fighting arena by the fabulously wealthy.
18
By a cartel cultivating fantastic drugs. The sources of
the drugs are monsters in their own right, and/or the drugs make
monsters.
19
As the deathbed of a runt of a primordial titan. As it
falls apart from a wasting sickness, its fallen pieces become new
dungeon features. New races of monster and mortal are spawned from the
vermin fattened on its flesh.
20
As the home of a lonely lich who never quite manages to find or make satisfactory companions.
D20
This Dungeon’s Design...
1
Is radial. A central hub with several spokes branching off from it.
2
Is modular. The layout of one section could be extrapolated to others.
3
Is vaguely pictographic.
4
Is partially flooded, with water or something else.
5
Curls back upon itself.
6
Contains many secret chambers and passages.
7
Seems to change when you look away.
8
Incorporates spaces fit for large gatherings, or large battles.
9
Has been altered to nigh-unrecognizability by its new inhabitants.
10
Intentionally or not contains several excellent spots for ambushes.
11
Doesn’t seem conducive to human use.
12
Veers wildly between architectural/geological styles.
13
Is helpfully and/or misleadingly described by graffiti on its walls. Graffiti may not be in language you understand.
14
Spirals down and in from its main entrance.
15
Is said to have been mapped by an explorer who died recently, under mysterious circumstances.
16
Is surprisingly simple.
17
Enables easy passage between its various sections.
18
Links somewhere to an even larger dungeon, which may or may not be related to its origin or current usage.
19
Makes it easy to get lost in.
20
Is compact and cramped.
D20
Dungeon Complications:
1
A rival adventuring party is hot on your heels
2
There’s a portal to another world in the dungeon’s depths, which even its inhabitants fear.
3
Another adventuring party got here before you. Now they’re all either dead, mad, or gone native.
4
The land it’s on is technically owned by some skeevy noble, who will attempt to take a cut of the treasure.
5
Haunted by the ghosts of its original inhabitants.
6
It’s under siege by a mercenary force.
7
The dungeon’s unstable. Explosions and other shocks will cause sections to collapse.
8
The entire dungeon is an elaborate omni-sensory
hallucination projected into the minds of those nearby by a crystalline
cognito-hazardous lifeform.
9
Some of the treasure within is not what it seems, for better or for worse. Probably worse.
10
The dungeon’s current inhabitants are getting ready to evacuate due to a disaster they’ve precipitated within it.
11
The dungeon’s current inhabitants have disguised themselves as something else.
12
Some scouts sent out from the dungeon return right as you’re leaving.
13
The dungeon’s inhabitants are aligned with a larger faction, who won’t take kindly to your delving.
14
Something is growing beneath the dungeon. Blood spilled within will feed it, maybe even rouse it.
15
Temporal faults in it lead back and forth from the time it was originally used to the present.
16
It’s in an especially hard-to-reach location.
17
A terrified merchant is hiding somewhere within. The
rest of their caravan was slaughtered while they were charting a new
trade route that led them near the dungeon. A source of goods, if you
can find them, and a staunch ally if returned to civilization unharmed.
18
The inhabitants know you’re coming.
19
The entrance you use collapses after your enter the dungeon.
20
The dungeon’s inhabitants are riven between several feuding factions.
D20
Treasures Rumoured To Be In The Dungeon Include...
1
An automatic maestro. All of the talent and none of the licentiousness of a real bard.
2
A lineage ledger which proves the claim of a significant noble house to be false.
3
A previously unknown philosophical work by an acclaimed, long-dead thinker.
4
An egg of a monster which will imprint on the first person it sees after it hatches as its master.
5
The dowry-gold of a mythic queen. Brings ruin to the receiver when given as a gift.
6
A gem which glows brighter and hotter the deeper underground it is.
7
The knucklebones of an oracle. Can be cast to glean vague hints of the near future.
8
A hose and backpack-tank full of sovereign glue. Can spray accurately up to 30 feet, inaccurately about twice as far.
9
An intelligent magical sword that wants to destroy all other swords so it can ascend as the Platonic example of its kind.
10
A grimoire/cookbook which once belonged to the feast-witch Grimalka. Holds recipes for magical meals.
11
A fragment of a larger artifact, containing a fraction
of its power. While you hold it you can sense the other fragments out
there, and their holders can sense you.
12
A fine porcelain jar full of peach-of-immortality jam. A
single spoonful could extend its eater’s life by decades. Reacts
explosively with the undead and the impure.
13
A spool of rope that can extend indefinitely and be taught to do tricks and tie itself in knots.
14
A coffer full of mummified hands that act like
landmines. If someone walks over one while it’s buried, the hand will
drag them under, potentially entombing them alive.
15
A djinn imprisoned in an iron flask.
16
A cask of perfectly aged dragon’s blood. Drinkers are
granted the ability to speak to animals and peerless talent in poetry
while they’re intoxicated by it.
17
A crystal brazier burning with rustfire, which consumes metal rather than conventional flammables.
18
The ashes of a martyr, supposedly able to force forgiveness for any crime or insult if eaten.
19
A stick of incense, the abundant smoke of which can be
shaped into solid objects by the focused thought of its bearer while it
burns down.
20
A combined globe and orrery, not completely accurate,
but close enough that it may reveal some places and features unknown to
others.
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