Designed to house the dead, crypts and catacombs often include many religious features as well as decorations dealing with death and the afterlife.
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It seems adventurers are always poking about in dusty, seemingly abandoned crypts. Often, the lairs of the blasphemous undead or the repository of forgotten treasures such places draw adventurers like moths to a candle. But not all areas of a crypt are stuffed full of undead and treasure.
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A lich’s lair is a terrible and dangerous place. Few adventurers are brave enough to explore a lich’s lair (and fewer still are powerful enough to survive the experience). Such a place should be memorable and flavoursome; this is not an average, run-of-the-mill dungeon. Strange—and perhaps deadly—sights and sounds should be the norm.
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Whether lurking unseen in the urban jungle or stalking the wilderness or ancient ruins, medusa are a terror to any that befall their stony gaze. Worshipped with adoration by some their cunning makes them truly terrifying enemies.
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Few dungeons have no features of note or interest, and the characters are likely not the first to explore its halls.
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A stone circle marks the confluence of ley lines in this bleak and broken place. Among the ancient runes and onyx pillars burn secret powers hidden by gods and men alike. But to the people of Y’taris, the stone circle is just a tourist destination for the rich. Every year, hundreds of spellcasters make the long pilgrimage to the stone circle high in the Broken Mountains. The villagers provide food, shelter, baubles and entertainment, all for exorbitant prices. Merchants bleed visitors of their gold, while pickpockets and scam artists take the rest. Y’taris is a nest of thieves. Anyone is welcome, until they run out of coin.
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Sometimes the characters emerge from the dungeon laden down with bags of coins, pouches stuffed with gems and jewels and even magic items! Other times, they emerge with items somewhat trickier to sell on…
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Ruined castles almost always have dungeons, burial vaults and cellars. Such locales are the favourite haunts of undead, necromancers and other foul things trying to hide from the sun’s harsh radiance. Heroes often explore such places, in search of gold and glory.
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Isolated coves, sheltered bays and sandy beaches pockmark the coast. Well known by travellers, mariners and fisherman alike such locales are often important local landmarks. In such places, smugglers can sneak ashore in the dead of night, fishermen can ply their trade and holy folk can meditate free from distractions.
Use this list, to add notable beaches, bays and other coastal features into your campaign.
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A black dragon’s lair is rarely nothing more than a dismal, sunken cave stuffed full of treasure. Black dragons are wily, cunning and in-tune with the surrounding environment. Their lairs reflect their intrinsic connection with the surrounding swamp or marsh.
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Much of a jungle’s landscape is unremarkable and mundane; however some features become local landmarks used as waymarkers in the jungle’s near-trackless depths or meeting places.
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Some adventures like Keep on the Borderlands or the Village of Hommlettare classics. Other adventures are somewhat less good. But what makes an adventure awesome?
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Most shipwrecks hold items of curiosity or value to treasure-hunting explorers. The sunken ship’s cargo is likely valuable (but bulky and difficult to raise form the deep); other treasures are far more portable.
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During their exploration of a sunken ship, the characters will encounter many minor features of note.
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Few dungeons have completely blank, featureless walls.
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Few dungeons have completely blank, featureless walls.
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Five years ago, the bandits won. They overwhelmed the village of Hornwall, killed its citizens and looted their treasures. Then, they settled down. The bandits of Hornwall now reside within the very defences meant to keep them out. They have given up the sword and taken up the ploughshare, exchanging a life of danger for one of safety. The villagers hide their secret well, but bodies keep appearing—floating in on the current, dug up by dogs and even emerging from the thawing winter snows. And the citizens who wish to return to the old ways are murdered in their sleep by their loved ones and business owners who wish to keep the past dead and buried. If passing travellers learn the truth, they have a choice. Forgive and forget? Or avenge the uncaring dead and leave Hornwall nothing but ashes.
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Wracked by disaster, Tigley is a village reborn. Standing on the fringes of the noisome Gnatmarsh, its folk make their living from the swamp and harvesting guano from the caves honeycombing the spire of rock upon which stands much of the village. But all is not peaceful in Tigley. The villagers’ burial rituals have attracted undead to certain nearby sunken ruins and goblins now lurk in the locality. In the village itself, influential figures vie for control of the local industries, a bully uses his influence to spread lies and cause trouble and the village priest hides a terrible secret. Once again, Tigley is a village teetering on the edge of disaster, but this time it is a disaster of the village’s own making.
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An evil fane should be so much more than a room featuring just a bloody altar (and some treasure). These are places of ineffable evil and as such deserve decent design time. But who has the time? Use these lists, to add depth and verisimilitude to the evil fanes in your campaign.
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Perhaps the single most pervasive feature of a dungeon is its near perpetual darkness. Darkness creates a serious disadvantage for surface dwellers exploring a dungeon and a great advantage for its denizens.
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