Tables

Bedeviled Dungeons

Draw or find a map. Around 10 rooms is enough for one night's session.

What is the dungeon? (d12 + d12)

d12 Adjective Noun
1 Slaughter pit
2 Death church
3 Night temple
4 Hadean tunnels
5 Hell crypt
6 Plague grave
7 Sin fort
8 Doom ziggurat
9 Dark den
10 Murder maze
11 Torture house
12 Slave waste

Status (d6)

1–2 Still active. 3–6 Inactive, because (d4):

  1. The place was invaded.
  2. Everything ended in disaster.
  3. It was no longer needed.
  4. A Misery was fulfilled — roll on the Misery Table (p. 10).

Imminent Danger (d10) — what state is it in?

  1. Is slowly flooding with (d4): 1–2 oil / 3–4 water.
  2. Berserkers are appearing.
  3. Is about to collapse.
  4. Senses are being distorted.
  5. Underworld emissions of poisonous spores.
  6. A hunted cult intends it to be their new hideout.
  7. A terrible, dormant curse about to be unleashed.
  8. Fire is spreading from the deepest chamber.
  9. The gate will shut and seal, and not open again until seven days have passed.
  10. A lethal mechanism is about to activate.

Who lives there? (d12)

  1. Animated suits of armor battling goblins.
  2. Nechrubel-worshipping lich with a skeletal court.
  3. Heretic cult lead by a possessed 11-year old.
  4. A vengeful cabal of undead porcelain dolls. (Lady Porcelain)
  5. Desperate thieves guild dying slowly of cholera.
  6. A meaty mass of slime, larvae and spider legs.
  7. Wickheads running from foreboding darkness.
  8. A Bark-Witch and her root-children.
  9. Four-legged pale gremlins stinking of dirt.
  10. Tergol's escaped experiment.
  11. Disease spreading ochre-beetles.
  12. Dissident courtiers dedicated to the occult.

Distinctive Feature (d12) — what did they leave?

  1. Portal to the land of the dead, soon ready.
  2. Lab where corpses are assembled into golems.
  3. Black prism which twists all Powers.
  4. 300 emaciated, mutilated prisoners.
  5. Blind hermit, firmly rooted in the ground, spreading his vile corruption.
  6. Bony remains of the Basilisk's spawn.
  7. Obelisk that separates body and soul.
  8. Rooms move around the dungeon's centre.
  9. High ceilings, whispers in the upper dark.
  10. Artwork affecting the surroundings.
  11. Ensnaring, intelligent plants.
  12. Giant pools of boiling tar.

Room details (d4 × d6) — (partial in plaintext)

d4=1

  1. Inscriptions, the motifs are (d6): Vomit-inducing / Terrifying / Hypnotic / Childish / Teleportation causing / Ugly and pointless
  2. Bloodied beds
  3. Flooded
  4. Leaning
  5. Stinks
  6. Fire damage

d4=2

  1. Obvious traps
  2. Full of blood
  3. Torture chamber
  4. Sooty walls
  5. Freezing draft
  6. Creaking doors

d4=3

  1. Compact darkness
  2. Locked sarcophagi
  3. Shelves with (d4): 1–2 obscure literature / 3–4 rotting food
  4. Abyssal pits
  5. Mirrors everywhere
  6. Ungodly yet exquisite chandeliers

d4=4

  1. Utterly silent
  2. Full of debris
  3. Sacrificial altar (d4): 1–2 cracked / 3–4 fresh blood
  4. Remains of a throne
  5. Smoke-filled
  6. Bonfire in the center
Gaps / Expansion Notes

"Bark-Witch and her root-children" (Who 8), "four-legged pale gremlins" (Who 9), the blind rooted hermit (Feature 5), the corpse-golem lab (Feature 2), the obelisk that separates body and soul (Feature 7), and the rooms-that-move dungeon (Feature 8) are vivid, named-once-and-never-again ideas — perfect seeds for expansion modules.