In short: it's the lair of a wizard who specializes in experimenting on bugs, and needs to acquire more specimens. Add some loyal henchmen, some disloyal ones, a really dangerous magic item, and an outside force with a vendetta, and you've got the potential for this to go down a few different ways, most of them not good.
The map was generated by Donjon. The ant lion and water beetles are from The Tome of Horrors for Swords and Wizardry, the rest of the monsters I just made up stats for. The weird magic item was generated with the help of the magic item table from Esoteric Enterprises.
Room Key
1- This door is locked…but can be unlocked without a key from the outside. Skittering noises can be heard if you listen at the door.
Inside is a hideous goblin-insect hybrid– 5 HD, claw attack for d6 damage plus bit for d6 damage with an additional d4 acid damage. Completely mad and will charge out and attack indiscriminately if released. In the back of the room is a waterskin, full of wine laced with sleeping poison, and a gold bracelet worth 10 gp.
2- A big pit in the middle of the room. Inside is an Ant Lion- 8 HD, AC 17, bite 2d8, automatically grapples anyone bitten. Morale 8. Can move half as fast as a human, and burrow half again that fast. Too big to fit through the doors.
The pit is filled with skeletons of previous victims, and some minor random treasure including d100 silver.
3- The wizard’s sleeping quarters. Lightning trap on the door, does 3d6 damage to anyone who touches the doorknob with their bare hand. There is a hidden latch you’re supposed to use instead of the doorknob.
Contains fine clothes worth 30 gold, four novels worth 5 gold each, a wand of lightning bolt with 1d6 charges left, and a small chest with 2d100 gold and 3 rubies worth 50 gold each. Also a big mirror that can’t be easily moved, but is worth 100 gold.
4- Sleep spell trap. Big runes are inscribed on the ground. If anyone touches them, the trap goes off, casting sleep on everyone in the room beginning with the one who touched it. Put here by the wizard to defend against incursions from upstairs.
5- Doppleganger, disguised as a human adventure. Is in fact an adventurer. Came in here alone and got trapped in this room when the portcullis went down. Hasn’t found the secret door (it’s hidden on both sides) but might if there’s noise on the other side. Terrified and desperate to get out; will gladly join your party, but will run off at the first opportunity. Will try to keep his nature a secret; if he escapes on his own, likely to be encountered again.
6- Three treasure chests. One contains two random scrolls. One contains 3d100 silver. One is a mimic. The door to the room has a poison needle trap, inflicts 2d6 CON damage, save for half.
7- 4 giant water beetles. HD 3, AC 13, bite 1d8, morale 9. Recently wandered up from the level below, which is watery. This room is a pantry, but the beetles have ruined or eaten all the food.
8- Marvik the Entomancer, 8th level magic user. The guy in charge of this place. This is his laboratory. The laboratory is filled with test tubes, books on alchemy and entomology, and terrariums filled with various insects.
He is in need of new specimens– rare insects from the level below, and humanoid prisoners from either the level above or from the area west of this dungeon. If addressed with respect, will hire adventurers to acquire specimens; pay range should be in the hundreds of gold, and will be paid out of the treasure in his quarters. Not interested in the giant water beetles, but might be interested in larva.
Marvik possesses his spell book, a ring of poison resistance, and a staff that inflicts d10 non-lethal damage to insects in place of it’s normal damage. Spells are whatever makes sense for the system you’re using.
9- Pit trap on the square west of the western door. 2 half-orc mercenaries (hp 7, chainmail, axes d8, +1 to hit, morale 6). They have keys to every locked door in the northern half of the dungeon. They work for Marvik, but have become disaffected and begun talking about desertion– can be bribed away from him quite easily.
10- Axe trap on the door leading towards 8, triggered by a pressure plate on the other side of the door. Swings down and does 3d6 damage to anyone in the squares on either side of the door.
North door is locked. Signs of battle in this room- bloodstains, scratch marks. Subtle enough you’d have to look for them.
11- Emaciated dead half-orc body lying on the ground wearing chainmail. Nearby is a mask that looks like a face covered in boils.
Plaguebearer mask. When a sick person dies nearby (not necessarily of their illness) while the mask is being worn, the wearer gains the ability to inflict that sickness on one person with a touch (save vs poison to resist). If this ability is not used within a week, the wearer suffers from that illness themselves, no save allowed.
The mask cannot store more than one illness at a time, and cannot be removed when it has a stored illness. Diseases inflicted by the mask are treated as non-magical in nature after being inflicted, and are just as contagious as they normally would be.
The body is a guard who took the mask off an adventurer who was fed to the ant lion. He never figured out how the mask worked; the other guards are now afraid to touch it or his body.
Random Encounters
1- d4 giant ants (2 HD, bite d6)
2- Swarm of rats (2 HD, bite d4 against everyone in range)
3- Creepy insectile skittering noises
4- d4 half-orc guards. hp 7, chainmail, axes d8, +1 to hit, morale 7
5- Giant water beetle. HD 3, AC 13, bite 1d8, morale 9
6- d4 goblin scouts- 1 HD, short sword d6, morale 5, AC 12. Scouting for a reprisal raid against the wizard, and his guards, who have been kidnapping goblins to experiment on. If any of them escape the dungeon, ignore this result if it comes up again, and 3d10 goblins raid it the following day; 2d6+2 orcs help Marvik defend it.
Note: the goblin warrens can be either above or to the west, depending on which way the party enters from and whether you already established that the way they came from was a goblin warren.
Other note: Since this dungeon includes the potential for a large-scale combat at some point, familiarize yourself with these tools for treating squads of enemies as single units. The individual rooms could also be made more interesting by giving them each a feature from this table.
Other note: Since this dungeon includes the potential for a large-scale combat at some point, familiarize yourself with these tools for treating squads of enemies as single units. The individual rooms could also be made more interesting by giving them each a feature from this table.
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