#next to a long lived magic user covered in runes and features from other monsters

[whump-galaxy]

Y’know, I really love when magic physically changes the person using it. Damage from overuse is great, but what about runes burning into their skin every time they use a new spell? Or their body physically morphing to match the kind of magic they’re using, like unicorn magic causing a horn to grow from their head. Even better if it’s permanent.

[gadgetgirl71]

Top Ten Tuesday 6 October 2020

Welcome to this weeks Top Ten Tuesday. Originally created by The Broke & The Bookish, which is now hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week it features a book or literary themed category. This weeks prompt is:

Book Covers with Autumn Colours/Vibes

Bitter Falls (Stillhouse Lake #4) by Rachel Caine

Synopsis:  She’s investigating a cold case no one else could—by going places no else would dare.

In spite of a harrowing past still haunting her, Gwen Proctor is trying to move forward. Until a new assignment gives her purpose: the cold-case disappearance of a young man in Tennessee. Three years missing, no clues. Just Ruth Landry, a tortured mother in limbo. Gwen understands what it’s like to worry about your children.

Gwen’s investigation unearths new suspects…and victims. As she follows each sinister lead, the implications of the mystery grow more disturbing. Because the closer Gwen gets, the closer she is to a threat that looms back home.

In a town that’s closed its ranks against Gwen; her partner, Sam; and her kids, there’s no bolder enemy than the Belldene family—paramilitary, criminal, powerful, and vengeful. As personal vendettas collide with Gwen’s investigation, she’s prepared to fight both battles. But is she prepared for the toll it could take on everyone she loves?

The Collection by G Edward Smith

Synopsis:  Flash Fiction and Short Stories that will confound, terrify, and leave you wondering what just happened. With twists and turns ready at every page to keep you guessing.

Reflect (Reclaim Trilogy #1) Jesse Booth & Joanna Reeder

Synopsis:  Their romance only lasted a short few months… but that was more than 100 years ago.

Ever since his fiancé, Gemma MacLugh, was killed at the hands of a dragon shifter, vampire Leif Villers has mourned his loss. Still, a part of him never gave up on her. He could hear her voice, feel her love even through the grave, relive her memories over and over until they were stripped from him.

Now Leif has discovered the final piece to bring her back from death’s clutches. He carried her brooch, never knowing it held the key to resurrecting his love.

Too bad it’s now in the hands of the formidable kraken shifter who nearly destroyed the Shifter Academy in the recent vampire/shifter war and then slithered away, never to be seen again.

Across time, powerful selkie Gemma MacLugh–a magic user who can shape-shift into a seal–should have a wonderful, comfortable existence at her home in New York in 1897. But jealous sisters target her with their cruelty, making life miserable. If not for her Grandmother and her best friend and fellow selkie, Frederick, things might have been truly unbearable.

But when a mermaid seer foretells her upcoming death and opportunity arises to leave her home and travel across the country to a boarding house in Washington, she takes it.

To get away from her cruel sisters.

To escape her destiny.

But is it luck or fate’s final joke when she meets a tall, dark and handsome man by the name of Leif Villers?

Their love will challenge time and death itself, but can Leif get Gemma back? Can Gemma truly escape her fate?

The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman

Synopsis:  Everyone has secrets, but some can change your life forever…

In the midst of the Second World War, Eva receives the devastating news that her husband is missing and presumed dead. Neither wife nor widow, she lives in a numb state of limbo until, in the heat of an English summer, she meets Bill, a black American GI. Despite their vastly different backgrounds, neither can deny the love that overcomes them in the frantic weeks that follow, when every day could be their last.

After Eva discovers she’s pregnant, Bill is shipped off to join the D-day fight, leaving her alone in a bigoted world. As her mixed-race daughter, Louisa, grows up, how far will Eva go to keep her safe and bury the past? And how far will Louisa go to uncover the truth?

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Synopsis:  The present novel “A Thousand Splendid Suns” is the author’s second novel that was published in 2007. It is primarily the story of two women, Mariam and Laila. Mariam happens to be an illegitimate child. She has to suffer from the stigma that surrounded her birth. Not only this, she has to endure abuse throughout her marriage. Laila, the other major character, is born a generation later. She has a privileged youth. Eventually, when their lives intersect, Laila’s fate also changes and she is compelled to accept a marriage proposal given by Mariam’s husband, Rasheed. It is a tale of displacement, attacks, beatings, torture, social injustice, and pitiable condition of women in the contemporary Afghan society.

River of Destiny by Barbara Erskine

Synopsis:  From the bestselling author of Time’s Legacy and Lady of Hay comes a thrilling new novel, River of Destiny, an epic story that spans Anglo Saxon Britain, Victorian Suffolk and the present day.

Perfect for fans of Kate Mosse’s Labyrinth.

An Anglo Saxon burial ground that must not be disturbed. A Victorian tragedy of forbidden love. And an ancient curse whose power grows ever stronger…

On the banks of the River Deben lies a set of barns dating back to the Anglo Saxons, and within their walls secrets have laid buried for centuries.

Zoe and Ken have just moved into one of the barns, ready to start a new life away from the hustle and bustle of the city. To the outside world they seem like an ordinary couple, but underneath they are growing ever more distant by the day. And the strange presence Zoe feels within their home, and the shapes she sees through the cloying mists on the river are getting harder to ignore.

Whilst farmers are ploughing the land surrounding them, human bones are found and when the police arrive it becomes clear that the remains are much older than first suspected… Are they linked to a Victorian tragedy the locals whisper about? And what should they make of the grassy mound which has remained untouched across many centuries, but has now been disturbed with seemingly devastating consequences?

The Conjuror’s Bird by Martin Davies

It seems a long time ago that Fitz and Gabby were together, with his work on extinct species about to make him world-famous. Now, it’s his career that is almost extinct. Suddenly, though, the beautiful Gabby reappears in his life. She wants his help in tracing the history of The Mysterious Bird of Ulieta, a creature once owned by the great 18th Century naturalist Joseph Banks. It soon becomes clear that Fitz is getting involved in something more complicated — and dangerous — than the search for a stuffed bird. To solve the puzzle, he must uncover the identity of the amazing woman Banks loved — a woman who has disappeared from history as effectively as the specimen he is hunting. A mixture of detection, romance and history.

The Lure of the Wolf (Shadowmen Series #1) by Jennifer St Giles

Mighty warriors sworn to protect humanity, the shape-shifters known as The Shadowmen move between two worlds. Now their dark leader has exiled himself from the spirit world, opening the door to the forces of chaos…and to the power of love.

Half wolf, half man, Aragon has abandoned his brethren to repay a debt of honor; he is sworn to kill a rogue Blood Hunter, though exacting revenge will doom him to a ghostly existence trapped between two worlds. But when a mortal woman unexpectedly calls him to her side, the heat of her soft flesh arouses a hunger in him that threatens to complicate his mission.

Dr. Annette Batista, a dedicated healer, is determined to find her missing sister. With the amulet found at the site of her sister’s disappearance, she unwittingly summons a shadowy warrior. She wonders if she can trust this powerful male named Aragon, who claims he can vanquish her sister’s captor — the very monster he’s vowed to destroy. Or is Annette blinded by her shocking passion for the most alluring, mysterious man she’s ever seen?

Divine by Blood by P C Cast

Synopsis:  Morrigan Christine Parker finds that turning 18 carries a heavy weight when you’re the only daughter of Rhiannon MacCallan, disgraced high priestess to the goddess Epona, in Cast’s down-home follow-up to 2006’s Divine by Choice. After Rhiannon betrayed Epona, the goddess bestowed her favor on Rhiannon’s look-alike, Shannon Parker. Rhiannon promised her allegiance to the evil god Pryderi, but recanted after Morrigan’s birth, giving the child over to Epona’s protection and the care of Shannon’s parents. Now Morrigan comes of age and learns more about her heritage from her adoptive grandparents and the wind-borne whispers of Pryderi and Epona. While visiting the Alabaster Caverns State Park and exploring her power over rocks and crystals, Morrigan is unexpectedly transported to the mystical realm of Partholon, where she must find Shannon and fulfill her destiny.

Forest Fire (The Legends of Regia #2) by Tenaya Jayne

Synopsis:  *Book 2 in The Legends of Regia series. Sequel to Forbidden Forest.* Banished to Earth. Hunted by the queen’s assassins. Forest must fight to find a way back to Regia. Lonely and brokenhearted, she waits for Syrus to break through her banishment. Syrus lives his days in anguish, trapped in a portal that goes nowhere. Separated by galaxies, Forest and Syrus’ spiritual connection strains to the breaking point.

As Regia’s civil war ravages the land and the balance of power tips, the world will learn it’s the Rune-dy pulling the strings. Forest must face the horrifying truth of her father’s identity and how her very existence is rooted in one of the Rune-dy’s darkest secrets.

Fighting to find her place in Regia’s new world order, Forest is desperate to keep her past hidden, while Leith threatens to taint her name forever. Forest must attain her freedom through retribution and wage war inside her very soul. Will she be able to accept the gift Syrus offers, or will one mistake separate them forever?

Until next Tuesday

#JustForFun, #Top Ten Tuesday, #TopTenTuesday, #TTT

[nerdarchy-blog]

In my last piece I wrote about one of the modules I wrote back in the Mesozoic era.  “After all our 12 year old minds, while imaginative, couldn’t spin a coherent narrative. I still have a dungeon I wrote back then called Torth. It’s… um… well, the Plan 9 of modules. Made no sense.” Within hours, the stalwart and suffering editor sent to me “I am curious about Torth! Although my opinion of Plan 9 is colored by Ed Wood, which I’ve seen several more times than the actual Plan 9 haha.” [NERDITOR’S NOTE: That’s me!] However, by that point the semester was concluding, work was piling up, and I couldn’t do it.  Now the semester is done (I earned 2 A’s and an A-) and here I am sitting on the couch writing about something I wrote some 40 plus years ago. Get off my lawn.

A mockup from the author for Torth: Castle of Evil. Pretty cool if you ask me! Check out the gallery at the end of the post for the creator’s original cover, maps and notes. [Art by Erol Otus]

Torth: Castle of Evil

I started this while I was still the Dungeon Master for my first module, B1: In Search of the Unknown. For those who don’t know this module it was the first Basic Box Set module even before B2: Keep on the Borderlands. While B2 had all the monsters filled in, B1 didn’t. What the writers did for this one was they’d describe the room and leave space for the DM to include Monster then Treasure. So this kid got to enter whatever monster they wished whether they made sense or not. In one room would be a couple of goblins while the next room over (a 20 ft. x 20 ft. no less) would have a red dragon. My player (the Dave I mentioned last column) didn’t care. Kick open the door, kill the monster, collect the treasure (never mind how much people could actually carry), do whatever was in the room (ooh, pools!) then repeat. Yes, that was Quasqueton, stronghold of Rogahn the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown!

I added a third level to Q, which featured an underground lake with an island on which were the barracks for all the off-duty monsters. There was a bugbear barracks, a room for vampires…you get the idea. That was me trying to figure out a reason for the monster placement.

After that it was Dave’s turn to DM and I played my first character, Apollo. We played almost every night. During study halls or after going home after gaming I started writing what I thought would be my magnum opus! It needed a name. One afternoon when we weren’t playing the Monkees were on TV. One of them was Peter Tork. I changed the name a little and so the module had a name: TORTH!

I started by drawing one third a map, wrote about the rooms, then more map and so on. Oh, this was great stuff! Killer! No character could possibly survive! Plot? What’s that? Dave also wrote some of the dungeon and I asked people who had no idea about the game for trap ideas as well. Torth eventually had three levels, two of which had giant underground lakes (one on top of the other??) with 200 total rooms and was finished on June 10, 1980. I even bought a report folder for it to make it more official and traced the umber hulk picture for the cover. I made the umber hulk the proper colors even though some of the umber hulks appearing in the module are orange. Don’t ask — I’m already embarrassed enough.

Eventually Dave and I learned that a new kid in the school, I’ll call him Rodney, also played D&D! Well, he wanted to learn anyway. He was and still is a goof ball and was enthusiastic about playing. As Dave and I were now experts at the game…hey stop laughing!  Ahem, experts at the game, we would teach him. And where would he learn? TORTH!

You can see this train wreck coming, can’t you?

Not being one to make things easy on himself, and with the new AD&D Player’s Handbook in hand he decided to create a 1st level half-elf fighter/cleric named Pantalian. I, with the brand spanking new Monster Manual, was determined to try all of these new monsters.

The adventurers needed a reason, no matter how flimsy, to enter this dungeon. I reproduce it here, word for word, misspellings and all. On the word for word stuff I’ll insert my comments in italics. Because.

CONTENT WARNING — rape

****************************************************** Many years ago, when orcs ruled the countryside, a magic user came.  He enslaved the orc tribe the green foot and made them build him a castle. The orcs were also forced to build new homes for poor people of the towns they destroyed. The castle was dug deep into the cliff side of a mountain. (So… it was a cave? A castle?)

This good magic user, ruled the countryside fairly the townspeople loved him dearly.

Many a cleric and Magic user came to him to study and for advise.

Soon Torth was getting old, and said he needed an heir. He adopted a boy by the name of Rascen. A few years later, the old wizard died, and left everything to Rascen.

Rascen, like his stepfather, was a good man. He trained to be a druid. (As one who lives in a fancy cave castle does.)

One day while holding the passover feast, the holy grail appeared. This brought pride to Rascen and his people. (Ummm.  Yeah.)

While holding Court a beautiful girl came and stated a powerful knight was disturbing her. Her name was Rachel. Rascen himself slew the knight, and fell in love. (Fell in love with whom? The knight?) Soon Rascen asked Rachael to be his wife. She consented.

A few years, later a son was born. They named him Carnan. He grew up to be a magic-user after his parents died. But Carnan was evil. Carnan ruled harshly until one night, the castle mysteriously caught fire. He was said to be killed, along with other evil clerics and magic users. (Ok, the cave castle caught fire. HOW???)

The townspeople lived in harmony. A knight named Maskoth was appointed mayor. He ruled fairly.

One night, Maskoth disappeared, only to be found the next day, totally insane. He was babbling something about Liches or other evil. He died a few years later of mummy rot disese. This was the first evil. (ooh — scary!)

A sage said there would be six evils on the town. No one believed him. Soon a mysterious beggar came to town. A few days later he killed the captain of the watch. This was the second evil. (Damn mysterious beggars!)

After that, a good cleric came to town, and was told of the two evils and went to the castle, never to be seen again. A month later, bones were found in the woods near the castle. On them was a holy symbol. Scholars doubt this carnage was the cleric, but the people knew it was. This was the third evil. (Scholars studied this???)

The month after the finding of the bones, ghouls, mummies, zombies, wights, wraiths and ghosts plagued the town for one week, killing many. This was the fourth evil. (Okay — this is a town. By this point, there can’t be many people left, and those who survive, why did they stay?)

One night later, a girl named Josephine disappeared. She was found the next day, brutally murdered and raped. This was fifth evil. Now the windows of the castle are scarlet, as if a fire was burning inside. (I was a screwed up kid going for shock value. Also, what windows? There are no windows in the cave castle!)

A few days later all the infants and old men were killed. Evil swept the town. The chapel was burned! The monastery pillaged! This was the final evil. (Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria! Oh wait.)

Now the sage stated that evil will kill us all if it is not removed, and that the source of the evil was the castle. “A fighting man would be needed” stated the sage. That night he died of mysterious causes. (As one does in these tales.)

One night a merchant was passing on a road that is near the castle. He claims he saw a hooded figure in a rear window looking, staring out. The figure was all white, had glowing eyes, and burnt, shabby clothing. (WHAT WINDOWS?) That was last night. Go now to the castle and defeat the evil inside.

(Yeah. Go. Defeat…whatever.)

*****************************************************

Pantalian and his NPCs died very quickly. He was reincarnated five times. He lasted longest as a troll. Then one day his character sheet vanished. Turns out someone we both knew tore it up and flushed it down the toilet. Rodney to this very day blames me for this and in revenge he and the other person destroyed my character’s painstakingly kept journal. However, I was not the culprit. Doesn’t matter, he still blames me.

How did Pantalian die so quickly? Well, here’s a few rooms, typed in exactly as scrawled back then, mistakes and all. The first room the characters will encounter after entering the castle would be room 17, which was a 20 ft. x 40 ft.

“The room is dingy. In the southeast corner is a 10 ft. circular iron cylinder. It has elvish runes on it and cannot be read except by the evil. They tell the history of evil. (That must’ve been small type!) When the door is closed, the lid pops open, orange smoke issues forth and 2 lemures pop out. 7 hp, 13 hp. 1 potion of flying, ring of skeleton, 900 sp.” (The ring would reduce the wearer to a skeleton instantly, no save, just dead.)

It was Pantalian and an NPC fighter. Lemures were devils with 3 HD and regeneration. Only blessed objects could kill them. Of course a brand new player wouldn’t know this, nor would they possess such an item. Or be aware of regeneration. So the lemures just kept coming and Rodney, being the jock type, wasn’t about to run away!

Splat!

He created a second character specifically to go in and drag Pantalian’s body out. He was then resurrected and the second character became an NPC, a half elf fighter/magic-user. Neither lasted long. I decided the player needed help. I know! A magic weapon! I gave a gnoll a longsword +5 Defender. And again, Pantalian fell. His NPCs, as he now kept several, managed to kill the gnoll and get the sword for him. It helped against the night hag in the next room. Seriously.

The true shame of Torth was the way it was designed. This was supposed to be the castle of a good wizard but the map is a jumbled mess. Nowdays if I were to make that map I’d say chaos magic twisted it into its current form. Back then I just figured that dungeon maps were supposed to be mazelike. The Ruins of Undermountain proved me right. Again, I was a kid and hadn’t any experience writing.

Since that time D&D writing improved vastly. Jennell Jaquays introduced the concept of sandboxing an adventure with her Judge’s Guild pieces. Narrative plots began having some depth. Maps began to usually make sense. Also the players, me included, became more experienced along with the game as it developed.

Torth’s ending had the Heart of Evil which had absolutely no reason for existing except as a McGuffin for the character to reach and destroy. Of course in a linear sense it was in the last possible place.

“194 — The Heart of Evil. On the heavy door is a tarnished plaque that says “The Heart of Evil.” (As the major quest targets always do.) If the leader of the party is good, the door only opens on a one (if hit by an evil person.) (Huh?) When the door is open, the outcropping is seen. The two sides emit an orange yellow glow. This is the heart of evil in the castle, placed here by Balzebul. (Why???) This outcropping pulses, for it is alive. AC -2 Hit Dice 5. 21 hp. If the “heart” is threatened, it will summon 5 manes or other devils. When somebody is killed in this room, the heart grows brighter (that is only if a good person is slain, if an evil thing is slain in this room, it dims) Good slain — it gains 1 hp. Evil slain — loses 1 hp. (Fair enough but why only one?) If there is an evil person is in this room during melee, there is a 75% chance that he or she will turn against the good in the party. (Before you ask, there were many rooms that changed the character’s alignment. And every 13-14 year old kid plays chaotic neutral, no matter what their declared alignment.) When the heart is killed, all evil in the castle dies and disintegrates. A cherubim comes to warn the adventurers to leave, for in 12 hours the castle will crumble into dust. (When heart dies the yellow orange glow leaves) (It doesn’t help or anything. It just comes in, makes its grand proclamation and leaves.) Also if the heart is threatened, it will generate an evil energy field. If a good character goes in, they lose 1-4 hp per round. (Oh, by the way, it has protection from good sort of.) 1000 exp for killing the heart.”

Hearts of Evil can be pretty innocuous looking!

  Sigh. When I wasn’t available to DM Dave would DM for me. Eventually, near the end of the first level a magical slide appeared taking whatever character Rodney was playing by that time directly to the island where the Heart of Evil was. No devils popped up but he had a major time beating on the thing before it died. And so ended the only time Torth was ever played, with over two thirds of it avoided.

Why write a column about this aside from the editor asking? I write a lot now between this, my monthly column at Transgender Forum, my blog and other things. Whatever a person creates, be it art of some kind, writing, song or whatever they leave a piece of themselves in it. That’s why no two artist’s works are alike or no two authors (not counting intentional style stealing.) Torth took me quite some time to write during a tumultuous time in my life.

It was around this time that my inner demons, which I later understood to be my misplaced gender identity, really began to plague me. Also around this time I started studying martial arts as I was tired of the beatings I received at the hands of bullies. Add to that I was a late bloomer and while all the other kids were hitting puberty, I wasn’t. I dreaded puberty as I knew it would make me exactly what U didn’t want to be: a man. All of this and more all swirled in my head. My only real escape then was gaming, especially D&D.

As I wrote above, when someone writes they bring part of themselves and that includes D&D adventures. I have since that time written over 100 D&D adventures for my players or for others to run. I haven’t read Torth since, well, 1980 or 81. I’ve kept it in my pile of D&D papers or with my modules since then and it’s moved with me many times. I started reading it for this piece and I had to stop. Yes, some of what’s written is Ed Wood bad or worse. That’s not what stopped me, nor was it the poor penmanship, as it was all written in longhand (in pencil!).

I stopped because what I read was a howl of anguish (cliché, I know) from a child who knew they were different, couldn’t understand how or why and whose life was changing and out of control. I was lashing out at whatever caused me pain. I can tell when Rodney started playing. Rodney was a goofball and is still a great friend but he was also a jock. He would become a champion wrestler, attend VMI and serve as an officer in the Army like all men in his family before him. He was everything I wasn’t. Unconsciously, I lashed out at him through the module. There were many times in Torth where the characters were magically transformed, just as I wished I could be.

So yes, Torth was a train wreck but so was I. In many ways I’m still that child struggling against all I am. However I now understand who I am and have the power to change what I don’t like. Rodney and I still play D&D every other weekend on Roll20, as he lives in Michigan. And he still brings up Torth every session. Other players live in Philly, Maine and one here in State College. They’re going through Keep on the Borderlands — my selection. It reminds me of a far more innocent time when gaming was just gaming, yet also a lifeline to other worlds. Sometimes an orc is just an orc after all.

Be well.

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Original cover for Torth: Castle of Evil

Grid map of the Castle of Evil dungeon

Dungeon Master’s notes for Torth: Castle of Evil

Torth Updated!

Step back in time with our resident old school D&D creator to explore Torth: Castle of Evil! (warts and all) #staynerdy In my last piece I wrote about one of the modules I wrote back in the Mesozoic era.  

[kayawagner]

100 Dungeon Descriptors Table

Nothing fancy today, just a list of dungeon descriptors, helpfully listed in d100 format. Oftentimes I find myself wanting to make a new dungeon or area and am short on ideas. This list is useful for inspiration, kickstarting design with an idea or two about which ideas can be formed. Alternately, you can pick one or two as overarching themes and then flavor smaller areas with another selection. Of course you may need to get creative if you end up with conflicting descriptors that make no sense together, but if it’s too bizarre you can always ignore the one you like least and/or roll again.

Here’s an example: We’ll go with an area with two random descriptors and three sub areas each with an additional descriptor of it’s own. Our rolls* are 9, 53 , 51, 14, 90. That gives us main traits of Icy and Rectangular rooms. So we have a start of an idea. Rectangular rooms is pretty standard dungeon stuff. Icy implies cold or ice creatures and a certain environment. Maybe this is high in the mountains, deep underground, a magical cold, or far to the north/south. We’ll decide later. Our three sub zones are Large scale, Geothermal, and Non-euclidean. Giant is easy. So we have a giants’ castle in the high mountains covered in frost and ice. Under the castle we’ve got a series of geothermically active caverns. We could go fire elemental here, but I like making the geothermal energy a power source for the giant’s castle better. So the castle has steam driven gates and other cool steam type devices, as well as few “ice giant engineers”, although no steam heat. In the caverns themselves, there are a few ice giant taskmasters (nearly naked because of the heat) and a bunch of slaves that maintain the steam pipes. Beyond the castle, carved into the mountain is a series of rooms with odd magical geometry. Let’s combine that with the ice to have sliding traps and block puzzles that rely on the non euclidean nature of the space, placed to protect some appropriate artifact. On advice of my test audience, we’ll also add some man sized blind penguins and ice-template gibbering mouthers to this area. That even gives us three adventure hooks: against the giants, free the slaves, capture the relic.

Wet: Moldy – damp, and mold grows everywhere

Wet: Flooded  – ankle to waist deep water everywhere

Wet: Underwater – entire place is underwater

Wet: Rotten – sodden, and everything is ruined, turning into mush

Dry: Crumbling – dry rot, crumbling stone

Dry: Dusty – a layer of dust and grit cover everything

Dry: Parched – dry air that makes you thirsty and uncomfortable

Dry: Dehydrating – moving air the pulls moisture away, full of mummified husks of small creatures, etc…

Cold: Icy – covered with a layer of ice, formations on walls and ceiling

Cold: Clammy – cold and damp air, works through your clothes

Cold: Glacial – biting cold, walls of ice

Cold: Crisp – cool but invigorating

Hot: Smoldering – piles of still warm ash, may have low oxygen levels

Hot: Steamy – geothermal vents, geysers, etc…

Hot: Magma – flows of magma (1500k about 3 times as hot as a campfire, 500k) in large rooms, heat may dissipate enough to approach, in small rooms maybe not

Hot: Warm – general warmer temperature

Live: Positive aura – depending on the strength, area may be covered in growth or items may animate or burst into frantic activity

Live: Swarming – filled with large swarms of vermin

Live: Live rock – dripping mineral water creates slow growing formations

Live: Genius loci – a spirit caretaker oversees the area

Dead: Bodies – corpses litter the area

Dead: Negative aura – may cause a feeling of illness or unease, bolster undead or even damage the living

Dead: Ruined – once worked the area is falling apart

Dead: Eerie – feelings of being watched, prickling of the skin, etc…

Vegetation: Overgrown/roots – plant growth and hanging roots block passages and cluster about the ground

Vegetation: Flowering – strange cave flowers grow or sprout from bushes or vines

Vegetation: Fungus/mold – large fungi or molds grow throughout the area

Vegetation: Gardens – carefully tended (once?) gardens dot the area

Natural: Solution caves – caves formed by minerals dissolving, often wet

Natural: Lava tubes – formed by magma flowing out of a space, stone is hard, rooms are tunnel like

Natural: Fracture caves – full of debris,  layers of rock collapse to form caves

Natural: Erosion caves – made by action of wind or water wearing down rock, may have strong winds or high tide

Manufactured: Hewn – crudely carved out of rock, surface still shows tool marks

Manufactured: Supported – soft stone supported by columns or beams

Manufactured: Rough Brick – simple stone bricks carved from rock shore up and finish walls

Manufactured: Advanced Brick – smaller, fancier, or simply better made stone bricks

Sounds: Whistling – sound of wind forced through tight passages or over odd formations

Sounds: Rumbling – perhaps an indication this area is unstable or of seismic activity

Sounds: Battle noises – inhabitants often get in noisy conflict

Sounds: Moaning – the wind? or something more sinister?

Smells: Decay – death, decomposition, mold

Smells: Dirt – the smell of earth and dirt

Smells: Chemicals – strange acrid brews, sickly sweet tangs, some kind of strange chemicals are on the air

Smells: Metal – the distinct smell and taste of metal, is this a metallurgists, a mine, or just an ore rich area?

Denizens: Beast – area is populated with animals, predators, scavengers etc…

Denizens: Lowlives – slimes, fungus monsters and insects

Denizens: Magical – elementals, undead, constructs and other unnatural things

Denizens: Humanoids – primitive or advanced humanoid tool users

Scale: Tight – small rooms, tight passages, crawling and squeezing through tunnels

Scale: Standard – normal room and passage scale

Scale: Large – larger passways, huge rooms, perhaps natural or built by giants

Scale: Mixed – a mix of scales, often natural but also a characteristic of an area inhabited by different sizes of creature

Shapes: Rectangles – standard square and rectangular rooms

Shapes: Ellipse – circles and ellipses

Shapes: Angled – angled rooms other than squares and rectangles, triangles, hexagons, unusual shapes…

Shapes: Natural – caves and natural passages

Maintenance: Maintained – the area is being maintained, passably clean and repairs are made

Maintenance: Expanding – the area is maintained and new areas are being built on the edges

Maintenance: Abandoned – no one is doing maintenance, most things still work but some don’t and wear is obvious

Maintenance: Collapsing – no one has done maintenance for a long time, few things work, most are broken, missing, or destroyed

Airy: Strong winds – winds howl through the rooms and halls, light items are blown away, doors may be flung open or characters pushed down

Airy: Cavernous – huge open caverns with vaulted ceilings

Airy: Chasms – deep chasms voids and pits

Airy: Open – one monstrous cavern with discrete areas within, sneak a little overland into your dungeon

Architecture: Monolithic – huge construction from large slabs of rock

Architecture: Sparse – clean unadorned construction

Architecture: Embellished – covered with engravings, runes, patterns, etc…

Architecture: Stylistic – an unusual or alien style

Obscured: Foggy – mists, steam or fog blanket the area

Obscured: Screened – webs, vines or other obstructions shroud the area

Obscured: Magic darkness – rooms or the entire area is covered in magical darkness

Obscured: Twisty – no special obstruction, just very few straight passages so vision only extends to the next bend

Size: Small – your classic 5 room dungeon

Size: Medium – larger complex, 5-15 rooms

Size: Large – larger yet, 20-50 rooms

Size: Extra large – sprawling multi-“zone” area

Unique: Architecture – contains a unique piece of architecture, statuary, or other landmark

Unique: Foe – contains a unique monster, NPC or the like

Unique: Magic effect – contains a special magic effect, either an aura over the whole area or a specific feature like a magical portal or pool

Unique: Treasure – has a special one of a kind treasure that may have its own backstory or associated quest

Danger: Hazards – venomous critters, naturally occurring rockfalls, pits or fire gouts

Danger: Traps – area is/was home to a trap builders and has many traps

Danger: Monsters – area full of deadly monsters

Danger: Curses – area holds curses or other magical dangers

Treasure: Coin and items – standard treasures

Treasure: Raw ore/gems – area has been or can be mined for raw ore and gems

Treasure: Art – area has art objects that can be looted as treasure

Treasure: Goods – not much in the way of treasure, but area has trade good that can be sold

Magic: Changing – shifting walls, moving rooms and other tricks

Magic: Non-euclidean – the area has a definite arrangement but its full of portals, bends in reality or other weirdness that make it difficult to map

Magic: Wild – magic in this area acts unpredictable

Magic: Null – magic in this area is suppressed or nullified

Crystal: Studded – walls are studded with raw crystal

Crystal: Monsters – monsters in this area are weird crystal versions or crystal themed monsters

Crystal: Walls – this area is carved from a massive crystal deposit, glass or obsidian

Crystal: Items – furniture, decorative items, tools, and weapons in this area are all made of crystals

Technology: Stone – denizens of this area use stone age technology

Technology: Bronze – foes in this area use bronze or another soft metal

Technology: Steel – this area has steel or another hard metal technology

Technology: Steam – this area features early steam tech

  *Using my Polyhero Wizard dice, because they’re what I have on hand. Now I can use the old “mad wizard” excuse when players look at me funny.

100 Dungeon Descriptors Table published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com