Secret Santicorn 2019: Three Funhouse Dungeon Rooms!

Howdy! This is my gift for one of our Secret Santicorn group members! He asked for a level-0 funhouse dungeon, which was challenging as I'm absolutely horrible with dungeons. That, combined with a lot of
stressful holiday stuff, made this particular gift extremely difficult for me. Thankfully, I at least was able to come up with three rooms that you could slap into any wacky dungeon. I hope y'all like it. Have a happy Yuletide!

Puzzle Room: "A Safe Place"


An opulent, large, cavernous room that has a gigantic safe on the rear wall, promising the unique treasure of the dungeon inside. The floor is wide and circular, and features small marks around the edge of a giant golden circle. 
The safe dial reads 1-30. The combination of the safe is hidden in a riddle posted in an adjacent room. The riddle reads: “As we near the end of the yearly cycle, our gods are just and mighty, and give us a gift for our devotion. Truly we are blessed with the present.”
The combination wheel is very large, and may require some creativity to correctly spin it. The combination is the current month and year in real time. If it was December 2019, the combination would be 12-20-19A wrong combination will result in noxious gas filling the room. The room will fill with gas in 1d6+1 minutes. A correct combination will cease all gas flow and open the safe with a thunderous roar and creak. Inside, there is a small room with a barely legible sign. If someone enters the small room to read the sign, a heavy safe falls from a crevice in the top of the room onto the character, dealing lethal damage, preferably with an Acme-style BONK effect. This safe opens immediately and has a note on the inside, reading “10-2-18”. This combination opens the real safe, which is hidden in the floor. To open it, the characters must stand on the marks around the edge of the circle on the floor, assuming zero is the mark nearest the gigantic safe. If the characters open this safe, they will be rewarded with the Safecrackers Toolbag. Safecrackers Toolbag: A pile of specialized equipment used in safecracking, owned by one of the most prolific thieves in history. Any roll made to open safes with this toolbag has advantage. It is worth 600 gold to the right buyer.

Trap Room: "The Smiling Skull"


A long, narrow hallway, lit only by torches every 10 or so feet on each wall. At the far end of the hall opposite the entrance is a large ceremonial altar, and a grinning black skull on top of it. When the player characters enter the hallway, the door behind them shuts after 10 seconds and is very difficult to open again.

When the door closes, a hoarse and gargling shriek is heard, before a shadowy form begins to manifest near the door. Along the hallway are a multitude of hidden pressure plates, tripwires, and magical sensors. Each has a 3/6 chance of triggering a trap if not discovered, and ⅙ if it is. These traps take the form of ethereal bear traps, sudden spears from the walls at knee level, and caltrop dispensers. These traps are designed to hold people in place and slow them down.

The entity at the entrance will slowly begin to walk towards the player characters. If it touches any living being, it will hold them in place and drain their life force, leaving a bloody, limp husk behind.

The entity is only banished when a character shatters the grinning skull on the altar. The character that shatters the skull is afflicted with a random curse or insanity of the DM’s choice.

The altar contains a random magical item and 20d10 gold in miscellaneous treasure.

"Treasure" Room: "The Face"

Use this in place of any false treasure room.

Inside this room is a small sealed casket, with many ancient writings on it. The room is wall-to-wall filled with writings, hieroglyphs, and paintings, all old enough to have been forgotten. A long-dessicated corpse leans against the casket. Investigating the writings determines them to be written haphazardly, with mistakes and inconsistencies between them. Multiple scrawlings and glyphs depicting two eyes and a mouth can be seen on both the casket and the walls.

Opening the sealed casket will have it be mostly empty for the exception of a red cloth. Underneath the cloth is a painting of a human face, eyeless and staring.

Anyone who sees the face for more than a quick look will become cursed. Until they undergo a memory wipe or seek out mental magic assistance, they begin to see the face everywhere. On books, in taverns, on cloaks and shields, even replacing symbols on flags and signs. 

Viewing the hallucinatory faces causes anxiety, nightmares, dread, and mental deterioration in the person viewing it. These symptoms worsen over time. Extended effects by the hazard may lead to senseless acts of violence, or in extreme cases even convincing others to view it as well.

Comments

  1. Excellent - thank you - great scenario ideas. Yeah, I was a bit vague on my request - so thanks for running with it!

    ReplyDelete

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