Dungeon Specials

[coffee]

We already have a thread on tricks and traps, but does anybody have any dungeon 'specials' they've come up with? I have two so far:

Fountain of Healing

Anyone drinking from this fountain immediately heals 1d6+1 points of damage. This fountain is useable but once per person per week. If a person drinks a second time during the same week, they must immediately save vs. poison (at +2) or be nauseated for 2-5 turns (-2 to hit, damage, and AC).

Room of Repose

Resting in this secure chamber for a mere 10 minutes removes all fatigue. Once the room is occupied and the door closed, nothing short of a wish will open it from the outside, so Magic-Users spending the night herein will be able to regain their spells (assuming they have their spellbooks with them). This room is useable only once per person per week; a second night spent herein will result in poor sleep and nightmares, with headache and fatigue following the entire next day.

The point with both of these is to give the players a break, but not let them abuse it.

Anybody else have anything they'd like to share?

[makofan]

Not at this moment - I'll be breaking them out for my online group

[evreaux]

I have tons of fountains in my dungeon, full of everything from the beneficial to the malign. Excellent old school flavor and loads of potential.

I like the Room of Repose. I have a similar area on my upper crypt level--a secret chapel of Law, consecrated by the body of a Lawful cleric who died there as the last survivor of his adventuring party, leaving his relics behind. Anyone of similar alignment can rest there and recuperate as if they were safe in an inn.

One I like is my room decorated with hourglasses. If the party enters, 24 hours pass outside the room. All will seem normal until they leave, at which point their torches/lanterns will immediately burn out, they will be wracked with hunger and thirst, and a wandering monster check is provoked.

[coffee]

Ooh! That's a good one!

[carjack]

One of mine has been the Fronbotzer, which is a series of beakers and glass tubes with a series of valves attached to it, all arrayed on a very impressive wall rack. Some of the beakers are filled with something that looks suspiciouly like blood, and others a silvery liquid. Turning the valves allows some of these fluids to mix to certian proportions in the different beakers. Eventually the whole apparatus will vibrate, glow and emanate high pitched whistles, which usually draws some sort of wandering creature.

What it does, I have no idea. The players in one of my games have referred to it as "the dreaded apparatus".

I've also had a ebony shaft, about a yard in diameter, that extends vertically through the dungeon complex. It has black spokes radiating from it at different heights and lengths. The players can tell when they are approaching it as it makes the whole complex rumble and vibrate.

Again, I have no idea what it's for or what it does. Nobody has come up with a good explanation yet. It does allow for a lot of wandering monster rolls, though, as they blow through turns experimenting with it.

[coffee]

Both sound like fun. Thanks! This is exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for.

[Deleted]

I really like all 5 of these ideas. I have variants of these I use as well, along with the Room of Uncertainty

When a PC enters this otherwise non-descript room, they must immediately save vs. spells or encounter anything from their own worst fear to an illusory landscape (DM imagination is encouraged). The affected PC may re-check after 24 hours, or after sustaining enough damage leaving them on the verge of death (1 hp IMC [0=DEAD]). I've had the whole party fail on this, & they actually died of dehydration & starvation after spending a great time at a tavern that never was--bar-fighting, carousing & eating fare that never existed). I use it wisely (& sparingly, of course ;D).

[coffee]

Cool, I like that. And I can see why you'd use that sparingly.

Yeah, PCs will, if given the chance, spend the entire alloted game time hanging out in the tavern.

(I figure on starting my first session with the players AT the dungeon entrance. That'll learn 'em!)

[bert]

An favourite of mine is the Hypercube, a simple cube shaped room with an exit on all sides and in roof and floor. Go west and you enter the same room from the east. Go north, enter from the south, exit up and come up through the floor, and so on. There is no way out unless you start doing clever things with Dimension Door and like magics.

I once constructed an entire mini -dungeon like this, the plot being that it was a Cubic Gate which had gone wrong and the PCs had to be miniaturised to go in and fix it. All kinds of space time distortion occured and wrong turns tended to dump you in peculiar sub-realms, including a city shaped like a moebius strip.

I was a big Michael Moorcock fan.

[crimhthanthegreat]

Great stuff here folks, I especially like the Room of Uncertainty. Heh!