Wednesday, March 20, 2019

D20x5 Dungeon Markets

Had to remake this one because blogger's a fucking mess.



Generator generator here: http://meanderingbanter.blogspot.com/2018/10/automatic-list-to-html-translator-v2.html

D20 Where is this dungeon market?
1 On the shore of an underground lake. Translucent crabs scuttle up the sands and are speared by snack vendors to be fried up.
2 In the crystalline interior of an enormous geode.
3 In the caldera of a mostly-extinct volcano, its remaining lava pumped throughout the market for heat and lighting. Try not to stand too close to the pipes when they break.
4 In the confounding tunnels of a catacomb, navigated more by recognizing distinctive bones than any spatial awareness.
5 In an abandoned dwarven courtyard, adorned with geometric trees carved from the stone.
6 In the rusted hulk of a drill-machine.
7 In the vaulted ribcage of some leviathanic fossil.
8 At the bottom of a god’s sacrificial pit, though the god has since died of overfeeding and the ensuing ichor-clot.
9 In the cavity left by the explosion of a subterranean torpedo from a long-forgotten war. Shards of its shrapnel stick out still from its walls and floor, hung with awnings and banners.
10 A great vault, so heavy it sunk from its basement and into the earth.
11 A crossroads of old, cold lava tubes.
12 A moist and moldy cistern.
13 In a crater left by an angel who fell from heaven, its carbonized feathers littering the floor.
14 In a bunker built to withstand an apocalypse that ravaged the surface long ago.
15 Among the rotting roots left from a felled giant tree, atop the caps of equally giant mushrooms feasting on its decay.
16 In a fairy-mound salted with iron shavings to scare off its prior inhabitants.
17 In a spacious sewer complex still reeking of ancient filth, the only legacy left of the city it once serviced.
18 In a hollow carved from the rock by the dragon whose hoard it once held. The scraps of that hoard overlooked when the dragon moved on funded the founding of the market.
19 Surrounding a cluster of volcanic vents which spout nutritious slime and treasures from hidden depths, and are regular enough to keep time by.
20 Spread across giant cobwebs bridging a crevasse, shacks and platforms tangled among the strands.
D20 Who might you run into in this dungeon market?
1 A famous svartalf torture-artist performing a live show, turning lines of fan after adoring fan into her pieces.
2 Tommyknockers gambling with the gold they stole out of a human mine.
3 An earth elemental envoy from deep in the crust, seeking the leader of the place so that they may demand tribute.
4 Giggling goblin reverse-pickpockets who’ll try to sneak venomous vermin into your bag.
5 A prospector hawking parts of his firstborn for tips on valuable ore veins.
6 Dero couriers who’ll implant subconscious messages into people on their surface with tectonic vibrato-senders for a fair fee.
7 Ghost-monks on their way to pay homage to the King of Blue Lotus Hell.
8 A mole-man bounty hunter snuffling out quarries and contracts.
9 Cicada-folk at play, enjoying their long childhood before brief and deadly maturation.
10 The blinded and crippled last surviving knight of a crusade launched to rescue the unfairly damned.
11 An Agarthan noble in exile, forced to peddle their precious heirlooms to survive.
12 A family of eyeless albinos eager to hear stories of the sunlit world above. The youngest even wants to go there themself.
13 A fungus-man who’s having trouble with comprehending commerce.
14 A talking skeleton raising funds for a nicer tomb.
15 A wizard who got stuck here after a failed teleportation.
16 A tourist vampire enjoying their visit to a place beyond the dreadful sun.
17 An orc mercenary working as a merchant’s bodyguard, desperate for a more exciting assignment.
18 A raider offloading booty pillaged from a surface settlement.
19 An adventurer who’s gone native.
20 A pile of psychically-linked maggots with a gestalt mind of everyone whose corpse it’s devoured. A great source of wisdom and meaningless babble both.
D20 What goods might you find in this dungeon market?
1 Oracular chthonic fumes, bottled and ready to inhale.
2 Primordial phantasms from the dreams of sleeping titans, mined right out of their skulls.
3 A choir-in-a-box powered by screaming souls siphoned from perdition.
4 Volatile fuel rods, looted from containment sites hundreds of meters underground.
5 Thin blades of incredibly hard yet brittle adamant.
6 A brass ring dug out from the sands smothering Iram of the Pillars. Its wearer can command the invisible spirit bound to it, or so its seller says.
7 A breathing apparatus which will allow surface-dwellers to survive even in the stale and lifeless airs of the depths.
8 A rope of live muscle fibers. Feed it by washing it with broth every now and then, and you can train it to slither, climb, and tie itself.
9 Grenades made from echoes trapped and amplified in delicate, intricate shells. Shatter them to release a sonic detonation.
10 Maps of the dungeon drawn by cartographers with more discerning senses than sight. Hard to read, but can reveal secret locations.
11 A starved little bird in a cage, which when released will always fly on a path towards the surface.
12 A lamp loaded with troll-oil. Refuels itself, but if extinguished will regenerate into a full, furious troll.
13 Saddled horse-slugs, well-suited to sliming around testy dungeon terrain.
14 Lead dwarf-shot, which multiplies it’s own weight many times over when embedded in an enemy’s body.
15 A suit of armour mechanized with gears and springs to provide a burst of strength if wound up first.
16 A chunk of amber with something that can be seen vaguely sealed within. Crack it open to release (1d6): 1, a dinosaur; 2, a swarm of oversized mosquitos; 3, an armed band of Neanderthals; 4, a bolt of lightning; 5, an ancient astronaut; 6, a shoggoth.
17 A mercury-alloy multitool that can transform into any simple handheld tool with concentration, which consequently makes it a poor weapon.
18 A key that matches a lock somewhere else in the dungeon.
19 A dowsing rod with an aurumagnetic tip that’s attracted towards nearby concentrations of gold.
20 Chemical flares which blind the sensitive eyes of chthonic life, but shine comfortably for sun-adapted eyes.
D20 What danger might lurk in this dungeon market?
1 A troupe of jesters amuses crowds, but assassins hide among them, motley garb covering poisoned knives and garrottes. They’ll target anyone who poses a threat to their master deeper in the dungeon.
2 Conmen selling fake potions that’ll turn your face inside-out instead of healing you, or cause you to flash brightly instead of turning invisible, or whatever else.
3 Slavers who’ll try to trick you into debt so they can seize you as repayment.
4 Diseases that its inhabitants have become accustomed to, but which your fragile surface immune system might have trouble with.
5 Friendly stray worm-things who only want to snuggle up, but unfortunately exude stone-melting acid.
6 Mimics posing as merchants who’ll try to sell you their disguised spawn.
7 Unstable substrate, it might collapse any day now.
8 Cursed goods making the rounds like hot potatoes. Locals know how to spot them and would be fine letting an outsider take the hit from them.
9 Potions and other consumables sold here are mixed with addictive narcotics, to keep customers coming back.
10 Bandits sizing up marks to stalk and rob once they leave the market.
11 An outrageously possessive collector of antiquities and oddities who’s got their eyes on whatever you’re looking to buy.
12 Demonic merchants who’ll try to get you to offer your soul (or at least parts of it) as payment for their infernal baubles.
13 Patches of living darkness that eat light and warmth, which only those who’ve spent some time in the market have learned the secret to scaring away.
14 Spies operating for surface authorities, who might report you for consorting with the enemies of all mankind.
15 Getting caught up in the inter-merchant feuds.
16 One of the things you buy turning out to be a tsukogami with a sentient, disgruntled spirit.
17 Items laden with dungeon essence might influence you to sleepwalk deeper within it.
18 The vanguard of a rival faction signalling an all-out invasion of the place.
19 Undercooked meals causing food poisoning. Given how poisonous the food tends to be down here, that could be very bad.
20 Hyperspatial overlap with a goblin market letting the nauseating ruffians in, or leaving you stranded in their otherworld. More and stranger goods will be on offer at least.
D20 How is peace kept in this dungeon market?
1 All who enter through the main entrance are made to swear an oath upon a runed stone to inflict no injury on anyone else who’s also sworn upon the stone.
2 Buff ogre bouncers who take a cut off every transaction, sometimes literally.
3 The knowledge that any spilled blood might seep down and attract vicious beasts from below.
4 The oread who inhabits its stones is mighty and abhors violence.
5 It is not. It only appears to be so because those within it have fought to a stalemate.
6 The merchants bribe potential troublemakers so as not to scare off customers.
7 Impartial, unnuanced guard-golems.
8 The market’s near a path to the underworld, and murdered inhabitants would know the way to return and haunt their killer. Visitors might not enjoy the same.
9 A troglodyte mafia running a protection racket.
10 Presenting a unified front is the only way to fend off would-be conquerors from elsewhere in the dungeon.
11 The elder they all respect becomes disappointed if they fight.
12 Common membership in a dungeon merchants’ guild.
13 It’s not, and only appears to be so because anomalous radiation exposure has rendered them all psychic so they fight in the mental realm.
14 The last merchant to attack another exploded and nobody is sure why, or willing to see if it’ll happen again.
15 A broken dero dirt-loom is broadcasting peaceful thoughts.
16 There’s a betting pool on who can go the longest without snapping, and it’s gotten quite large.
17 The market is hosting a chapter of pacifist martial artists who’ll toss out anyone who gets violent while they’re here.
18 Its inhabitants are bound by a strict code of honour which prohibits violence outside the context of ritualistic duels, as well as the refusal of a challenge to such a duel.
19 A gas leak’s left them all paranoid and certain the others have countermeasures in place to take vengeance should they be harmed.
20 They take great pride in their ridiculous, expensive outfits and are loathe to get anyone’s blood on them.

3 comments:

  1. Hi! I absolutely adore your work. I take inspiration for both my original WIPs andamy campaign. If you wouldn't mind a few suggestions,
    1) The contents of a fantastical (Grotesque/Glamorous?) Garden
    2) I forget if you've done pantheons of gods?
    3) The contents of a Mournful/Miserable Museum
    4) A batch of Cursed Candy
    5) The circumstances of an Appalling Apocalypse

    I hope these might inspire!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the suggestions, I'll see if I can stir up the ol' brainpan with them.

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