Continuing down to the next room on the right has a strange glow coming from it.
The glow comes from a room full of glowing mushrooms, at least 40 to 50.
Among the mushrooms are glowing Shriekers.
There are 15 of them and they are indistinguishable from the other mushrooms in the room. Once they start shrieking (see your Basic-era rules), it will become nearly impossible to tell them apart. Each attack on a mushroom only has a 1 in 6 chance of being a shrieker.
Down from Room #21 is another room.
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| Free Art Assets - Grey Gnome Games - Jason Glover |
Game Masters can add some random bits here if they like. The idea is that those room has not been used in over a century save for various random monsters.
Moving down from Room #20 there is another room on the right (all rooms in this hallway are on the right).
Entering the room, there is a huge pile of gold and treasure with the bones of a dragon on top.
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| Jason Glover - Free Art Assets |
When the first character touches the treasure or dragon there is a loud roar (Illusion) and all the lights and torches used go out (darkness spell). Once the characters get the lights on they will find that the treasure and the character who touched it are gone!
The dragon and the treasure was a programmed illusion. The character who touched it has been hit with a Sleep spell and then turned invisible. If the character makes the Sleep save then the invisibility will not go into effect.
Otherwise, there is no treasure in this room.
Moving on down from the glowing portal in Room #19 there is another door to the right of the party.
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| Jason Glover - Free Art Assets |
This room is empty save for the bodies of what are believed to be other adventurers. Their weapons are gone but a care search will find a Potion of Heroism and a Potion of Healing (1d6+1). (Finding these is worth 50 xp to the party).
Likewise, their valuables such as coins are gone.
Making another right, we come up on encounter area #19. To your immediate left is an opening to a small room.
In Room 19 there is a glowing portal. From the portal 1d4+2 Goblins are coming through. These goblins look similar to the previous ones.
The portal opens from a nighttime world with several moons in the sky. Other goblins can be seen in the distance. The portal is one-way, Goblins can come into this world, but they cannot go back.
Let the characters explore the portal as much as they like, but there is no way to go through it.
Turning right (for now) the PCs enter encounter area #18. The hallway is the same stone as before, but it is somehow darker. The hall is 20 feet wide and extends some 60 feet into deepening darkness.
Standing in the hall, seemingly waiting for the PCs is a small group of goblins.
The goblins are not waiting, but they are not surprised either. They have come up from the lower rooms to investigate the noise. There 1d4+4 goblins here. They are all 1-1 HD (4 hp each, or 1d6). They have shortswords, short bows, and wear leather armor.
If combat goes against them after the first round, one will flee down the hall to bring back reinforcements that arrive in 2d4 turns.
Past the last two rooms, the grand hall splits left and right.
There is a grand statue of the Vampire Queen. Inspection will reveal that the statue is made of newer material than the surrounding walls.
Notes: Things should start picking up.
I have seen lots of great maps online for others, and I thought maybe I could share mine. ;)
This room is identical to Room 15 across the hall.
This includes a similar specter with the same warning. Though this ghost seems angrier. If the ghost is touched or attacked, it will become a bloody specter and attack. This is a true undead.
Bloody Spectre. AC 7. HD 3 (13 hp). Att# 1. Chilling touch 1d6. Special: Silver or magic is required to hit. Turned as a Ghoul (3 HD). No treasure.
Note: If the PCs encounter Room 16 before Room 15, then swap the contents so that this is always encountered after the first specter.
Up from Room #13 is another room of similar shape and size.
Within the room appears to be the glowing specter of a young woman. Her form wavers back and forth.
She warns the PCs from going further into the crypts and to turn back now.
The specter is not undead but an illusion.
Across from Room #13 is another room.
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| Free Art Assets - Grey Gnome Games - Jason Glover |
Up from Room 11 is a room covered in bones.
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| Virgil Finlay |
Skeletons equal to the number in the party plus retainers rise up from the ground and attack. They are undead and can be turned.
There are no usable weapons, but 25 cp can be found among them.
This room has a faint glow, and there is the smell of roasted meats.
In this space, there is a stone room but also a forest scene of glowing nearly transparent trees as far as the eye can see. Characters can only walk the 20 feet by 20 feet of the room. In the center of the grows a large tree laden with fruits.
The fruits are oval-shaped and look like mangoes. The fruits taste like roasted meat. Characters can eat them with no problems, they are fine if a little bland. They disappear once removed from this room.
Across from Room 10 is a similarly configured room.
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| Photo by Pixabay from Pexels |
A secret door in the floor reveals a sack of 150 GP. The coins are ancient and unknown to the PCs.
Up from Room #8 and across from Room #9 is Room #10.
It appears to be of the same dimensions as the previous rooms 5 through 9.
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| Virgil Finlay |
Once the room is entered, a group of semi-human Phantoms appears.
The Phantoms can not attack, but a failed saving throw vs. Spells will cause anyone to run out of the room in fear. Once out of the room the fear effect dissipates.
They have 1-1 HD and 1 hp. Magic weapons are required to hit. There are 10 and their AC is 9.
The phantoms can be Turned by a cleric. A bless or dispel evil spell will also destroy them. The entire group is effected by these magics.
This appears to be another empty room.
Magic using characters feel a greater unease here.
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| Image by kues1 on Freepik |
A detect magic or similar magic will reveal a small hand-sized portal at about 3 ft off the ground near the middle of the room. Sticking any mundane item through will cause it to disappear as if stuck into a hole. Pulling it out will have it reappear with no damage.
If a character puts a hand or arm through the will feel warm breezes (like a summer's day). They can pull their hand out again with no problems.
If the characters keep doing this then the 5th time a hand moves through the portal, something will grab it. A combined strength score of 25 is needed to pull the character free.
The character in question will have a bruise on their wrist from whatever grabbed them.
Across the grand hall from room 7.
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| Image by kjpargeter on Freepik |
This room is also empty.
I figure many of these rooms on level 1 will be empty. As the magic gets greater, there will be more and more encounters.
Level 1, Room 6: Giant Rats
Ten feet ahead from the bottom of the stairs (across from Room 5), there is another small room (inset 5 feet, 20 x 20 feet, no door, same as Room 5).
Inside this room are two giant rats.
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| The Dictionnaire Infernal, 1863 |
They are hungry and will attack on sight. They are already aware of the party (their hearing is keen) and cannot be surprised.
Their treasure consists of a few copper cups (1d4+2) they have found worth 1d6 CP each.
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For monster stats, I will defer to whatever game you are using with this, though giant rats have the least amount of differences of all the monsters in all editions of D&D.
The notion here is to ease the players (and characters) into this dungeon and figure out why something is where it is. Rats are easy. They are everywhere.
Level 1, Room 5: Empty Room
Ten feet ahead and to the right, there is an open doorway.
It is difficult to say what this room was for. It is now completely empty. The carvings on the walls appear dwarvish, but they are too worn and too old to determine what they say. Some have even been scratched out.
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| Photo by Francisco Ortiz from Pexels |
Careful inspection of the dwarven runes by anyone that can speak dwarven will reveal it is a protection sigil. But protection from what is not clear.
At this point any magic using characters (magic-users, elves, gnomes, witches, warlocks, bards) should make a save vs. Spells. Success means they feel fine. A fail means they have a growing sense of unease.
Level 1, Room 4: Secret Doors
To either side (left or right) at the foot of the stairs are two secret doors. These are the guard rooms for when this area was for students. They had normally been kept open, and the guards more relaxed. Now centuries later, they are disused.
The rooms are empty save for normal-sized spiders and rats. Any treasure has long since been looted.
