One Page Dungeon - The Sunken Tomb
Challenge - Design a complete dungeon using one piece of paper.
It is designed to fit into a fantasy RPG adventure with magic and undead. Feel free to take this and add run it in your campaign or use it as a one-shot adventure.
The setup:
A sunken forgotten dungeon with perils and treasure to be had.
Possible adventure seed
This could be a random adventure could begin as the adventuring party travels along a path and runs across the beginning path ending in the river.
A GM could have had the party seeking out this as a ritual sight where someone lost something at the paths end.
The adventure begins.
Players come to the paths end. The path seems to end connecting to a river. The players look up and down the river. Towards the north the player sees a very thick overgrowth of trees with roots that grow into the water. To the south the river seems come across some rocks and appears to become dangerously rapid beyond.
A search check of the riverbank reveals a covered stone brick with runes across it. The runes are of ancient origin. A feint aura of necromancer magic seems to eminate from it. Greater Focus on the magic reveals that the necromancer magic is actually a small stone beneath the brick, the brick itself is part of a light magic spell.
Activating the stone activates some light runes to the north.
The river seems to be about 2 feet deep, and only a foot down from the paths edge. The current is very mild. There doesn’t seem to be any life in the river beyond the roots and plants along the riverbanks.
The runes seem to be the same kind of brick as before with light spell runes on it. As the players pass the stones roll for a chance that the players step on the stones. Or if any player specifically steps on them it triggers the root trap a little ways further north. Studying the bricks reveals beneath them another stone that is emanating the signal for the trap. Tinkering with the stone also activates the trap ahead.
The players continue north. The river opens into a dead end. Large thick roots grow into the river here. Beneath the water stone bricks line a larger stone in the center of the area. Small air bubbles seem to be coming from the smaller bricks.
An investigation check reveals that the larger stone is a door and seems to somehow need to be rolled away.
There is a secret door that can be found with a high investigate skill check.
As the players investigate if anyone damages the door it triggers the living root trap. If any player stepped on or damaged the light bricks earlier the root trap triggers during examination of the door.
Creature Attack: Root Trap - Moderate HP, Moderate Strength, Low AC.
The roots in the area come alive and start attacking the players. They will try and trip the players and knock them back down the river.
If the players are able to defeat the root trap the secret door becomes easier to find. Behind the door is a lever that rolls the stone door away to the opening below the brick circle.
Looking down into the large opening it opens into a large chamber. The water below looks to be about 20 feet down. The water below is crystal clear with dim lights shining underneath. Upon investigation, the pool seems to be about 15 feet deep. One could jump down and be okay or there are enough sturdy ropes for a player to tie off a rope and scale down.
The chamber below is very lit up. The light runes on the walls match the light runes the players came across above. A set of stairs rises out of the water and into the next room to the south.
The first room in the chamber is dark until the players step foot in it then it lights up with the same rules as before. The room is mostly empty. There are some ceremonial pots along the floor. There are two skeletons on the floor next to the wall on the south.
A moderate investigation skill check reveals a secret door to the south that seems to have been shut in a rush.
The door opens fairly easily. The small room seems to be a bit bigger than an outhouse. A small treasure chest sits in the room. And a body lays behind the treasure chest. A search reveals a dagger and a journal.
The journal describes a few adventures the former owner went on. The journal is quite detailed. The journal also contains songs, poetry, and stories that seem rather too fantastical. The last entry in the journal describes a little background of this tomb.
((This is a good spot for the GM to introduce some campaign direct elements about the background of this tomb))
The tomb appears to be the burial chamber of a cyclops. The cyclops was buried here under request of his clansmen. Apparently the cyclops fell in one of the great halls during a negotiation that went wrong. Because he died in the great hall it was required that the king bury him in a great tomb. The king commissioned his chamber to be built in this sunken chamber. It is said that it didn’t sit right with the other guests of the tomb that the new guy gets the biggest chamber. The journal tells stories researched of this tomb. “The dead stir in their slumber. A key in parchment unlocks the chest, beware the the key of gold unlocks his slumber.”
The journal continues about his party finding this tomb and exploring its depths. A rather not very good wizard decided to try and pull a random lever against the warnings of the rogue and the rest of the party. The journal describes the dead beginning to stir and rise.
The journal ends with a letter to a loved one saying goodbye. Describing how he held up in the secret room hoping to outlast the undead spell.
Two hallways head out one to the southeast the other to the southwest.
Room A -
The room to the southwest has two coffins to the east. There are a couple of skeletons mixed in with some dead adventurers. One adventurer in robes seems to have died with his hand in one of the coffins. A pedestal with a lever on it is towards the southwest.
The lever activates an undead trap where all the dead in the room come alive and start attacking the players.
Room B -
This room has coffins all around the outside walls. A hallway goes south and another goes to the southeast.
Room C -
This hallway has 2 coffins in it.
Room D -
This room has 3 coffins in it and a pedestal with a lever on it.
Pulling the lever spawns the coffins from this room and activates room C.
Room E -
The room has an exit to the south and an exit to the east. There is a gated hallway to the west. The archway to the gated hallway is decorated with runes. At its peak there is a decorative single eye. The gates are nearly impossible to unlock. They all seem to be a part of some greater mechanism. There are two altars each with piles of gold and food expertly preserved along the walls to the west and five coffins to the wall to the east.
Room F, Room G, and Room H are all similar.
This room has 6 coffins along the wall. On one of the walls, there is a pedestal with two levers. (GM decides which lever is the real one and which is the fake one) Pulling the right lever unlocks one of the gates in room E. The wrong lever activates the undead trap. The coffins open and undead skeletons come out to attack the party. If the party is strong enough other skeletons may rise throughout the rooms.
Room I is the gate room.
Once all 3 gates have been opened it activates a spike trap between the gates. Should be a low skill check to see the traps.
Room J
This room is grand, about 30 feet tall. There is a large coffin at the far west of the room. A very dusty treasure chest sits in the middle of the room. Rolls of parchment lay to one side of the treasure chest, the other side a ring of keys.
Both the keys, parchment, and chest detect as magic. The magic is ancient and it’s of the same type. The origin of the magic is unknown.
All the keys are copper except for one that is gold. The same kind of gold that is on the lock on the chest.
All of the parchment sheets show drawn copper keys. Except one is gold, the same kind of gold that is on the lock on the chest.
The same amount of keys is the number of parchments.
A high investigation of the chest reveals that there are two protrusions where a parchment could hang.
For the Gm - The key here is to hang the gold parchment in front of the lock to open it. Using the physical gold key to try and open it awakens the cyclops. There are 6 coffins around this room. A sub challenge could be that if the players activated all the wrong switches in rooms F G H the 6 coffins are already active and attack the players before they get to deal with the chest.
Once the players defeat the cyclops A doorway opens between two of the pillars in the room. It leads to the path that ends at the river.
It needs a bit of polish and more practice. What story would you come up with for the dungeon?