Nonmagical Mine Minidungeon

The Surface- a an obscure but impressive stone abbey lies near forested mountains. It is inhabited by clergy of a deeply religious nature.They do not speak, but have evocative gestures and if pressed, will write monosyllabic responses on slate chalkboards they wear around their necks and get visibly annoyed if they have to do this more than once per conversation. Out to lynch the man in the mines. Will hire mercenaries to take over if the players don't step up, but the mercenaries and monks are content to wait outside rather than risk the beast-haunted mine.

The situation- The head of a recently joined and recently deceased young nun, Goldie, has been stolen by a foreign musketeer. He was discovered halfway through, and fled with his prize into an abandoned and overgrown mine. The monks may show the headless body, and will make little effort to correct the obvious misunderstandings, though actual cause of death was a dagger to the heart, a suicide. Offer the magnificent steed of the musketeer(its stolen from a powerful lord actually, see the fiance mentioned in 6) as payment, and warn of wild beasts(a grimace with teeth bared and hands curled into claws, crouching down) and toxic gas within the mine (holding one's nose, then clutching one's throat)



Random Encounters (but not really)
1-Echoes of Noise like groaning chains, from 6
2-Wild Dogs, or just echoes of their barking if they haven't come to investigate
3-Foul smell preceding gust of bad air that will choke torches and men alike.
4-Collapse- only applicable if the players were mining or making a loud noise
5-Bat swarm flying confusedly about (night only)
6- Impatient but low-morale monks

1- The Overgrown Main Tunnel- roots from the forest above choke this tunnel, forcing one to chop through or proceed on all fours. Hidden by roots are side passages to 3 and 4.

2-Deep Shaft of black, sharp stone with ladder and one side covered in roots. Ladder is rotten and may break if climbed, roots are fragile and likewise, and ropes may be cut by the sharp stones if used to descend. It's perilous. Hidden behind the roots is an entrance to an old lava tube that leads to a bear cave in the mountains, where a huge bear slumbers.

3- Tunnel with sagging roof of earth, nearly collapsed. There are 3 sidepassages that lead to crossroads of mining.
a- root-choked walls are damp and strange creaking can be heard. One wall is thin enough to be broken through to 6 without much effort, though shovels and pickaxes are a must.
b- a support beam is all that prevents the middle of the tunnel 3 from collapsing. One must edge very carefully past this support beam (bonus if you take off packs and armor) as bumping it slightly will bring down the roof.
As for the actual intersection, there is a suspicious brick wall about the size of a door in contrast to the other paths of the T intersection.
Busting through the brick wall leads to a secret passage to the crypts of the Abbey, where the dead nun's body is kept. The passage itself comes out from the tomb of a past Abbot, though the tomb is empty.
c-another intersection. Walls are thin enough to break into 4.

4- Passage in reasonably good condition. Inexplicable steps ascending, then descending once the passage is clear of the secret tunnel in 3b. Ends in a thin, fragile brick wall that leads to the wild dog lair in 5 and the halls around 7.

5- Wild dogs have a den out in the fields dug in the side of a dry streambed, and it links to the mines. They view all the mines as being inside their den, so are more aggressive and territorial than one might expect. They only enter the mines if they hear loud noises like gunshots, collapses, or screaming.

6- A olive skinned man, Antonio, with hair like straw swings on a platform suspended by two chains over a chamber half-filled with water, with more chains and roots dangling from the ceiling, which could be brachiated across. He carries a rifle (or a crossbow if you don't have guns), a good two dozen shots, and is very skilled at swiftly reloading it. He also carries the severed head of Goldie(her hair is like molten gold and reaches the water which he hangs 4 feet above), and will shoot at lights he sees down the 6a hallway. He carries no light himself, and is suspended over the water a good 30 feet from shore, so reaching him or shooting back can be hard.


He claims to be the nun's lover who was thought dead at war, and furthermore that she never shared a faith with the monks and fled to the abbey to escape an arranged marriage. He is out for bloody revenge against her once fiance, who he blames for her death(though he blames the clergy of the abbey as well), and wishes to take her embalmed head across the sea back to her homeland for burial, a typical practice among his people. He has a platinum coin which he will offer as a bribe and claims to know how to break into the fiance's house for more ill-gotten loot like coins and fine horses.

He is irrationally protective of his lovers head and would die before parting with it.

There are 2 brick seals and a key at the bottom of this 10'deep pool, the key opening the secret chest in 11. Draining the water makes the key easy to find.

7-Locked rec room- where the miners of old would play dice and relax. Many old lanterns with no oil, pickaxes, shovels, buckets, and tables are rusting and rotting here. One corner is blocked off by a thin brick wall, behind which is 11.

8B- A sinkhole that the surface has not fallen into yet. Awful fumes of hundreds of years of guano rise from the depths, and bat swarms flitter about. The ramp built into the side has collapsed near the corner, and there is a corpse with the key to 11's chest lying on the far end.

The awful stench and fumes make flame gutter and sputter, and the bottom of the giant pit is meters deep in guano that swarms with flesheating insects (though not the sort that are a threat to live humans)


9- the three dams-two halls lead to water-leaking brick walls that keep the water in 6 held back. If broken, the water flows into 8b if possible, or will simply fill up the pit in 2 about 1/4 of the way if only dam 9a is broken.

11- The secret chamber where the iron strongbox lies, along with a list of names and who gets what share of the embezzled gold nuggets (4000GP worth). Clearly something went wrong, given the disparate key locations and abandonment of the mine...


Possible magical Complications that I left out because I wrote this for a nonmagical intro adventure contest by James Raggi but then forgot to submit it and then decided to salvage my halfassed notes for a blogpost.

The Abbot is a vampire who is exceedingly choosy about creating new spawn, and Goldie killed herself rather than become a vampire. Now the Abbot wants to retrieve the head, sew it back on, and revive Goldie via dark vampiric ichors

The bear is actually the 'missing abbot' from the secret tomb, who faked his own death and went to live as a mad druidic hermit for decades.

Goldie's head is alive and chatty for whatever reason. Maybe she's a dullahan and the clergy tried killing her when they discovered her heretical fey nature, maybe her fiance was a necromancer and can't die until she's properly married to him or maybe Antonio's the necromancer and he can't let go.

The bat-pit of 8b leads to a sinister poisonous lair of some dragon or other foul subterranean menace.

Design Goals- Secret walls that foreshadow later secrets, and also may encourage players to hack through thin walls on their own to bypass obstacles. Simple problem solving and monsters and social encounters that can be straightforward or complicated depending on how much the players engage. Meant to be an intro dungeon that can be finished in a single session, but has hooks to keep going from there.

Boulder Giant

The inspiration for this monster is not indiana jones' rolling boulder trap but actually me thinking bout lungfungus's cairn carriers and rolling around on my exercise ball for fun. Certainly not for exercise, I don't have the excess calories for that sort of tomfoolery.

Anyway, Boulder Giants or Boulgres are big humanoids who shape stone into smooth spheres with a diameter of roughly man-size. Then they fight adventurers with them. Look this ain't no culture and lore post, it's a gimmick monster.

So your Boulgs are 8-10 feet tall, the typical 4HD, AC 14 ogre stats sound about right. They can beat puny humies to death with their bare fists(d8 damage) but they much prefer to do shenanigans with their boulders, which do 1d20 damage on a direct crushing hit.

Boulgres are giants surpassing the height of 2 tall men. Probably 8HD and 16AC. Their boulders block off 5 foot squares and if they're behind one, you probably need a reach weapon to even have a chance to get past it. Their fists deal 1d12 and if something smaller than their boulder is crushed by a rolling or slammed boulder it  saves or dies (or takes 1d100 damage if an explicit damage value works better for whatever reason).

Boulgrests are 30+ feet and probably 12HD, AC 17 and their boulders are the size of a Boulgre. This is the sort of menace that can actually kill you with one finger and their boulders are 'save or get flattened' no damage required. They do 1d20 damage by default.

If they lose their boulder, they fail morale. That's just how it goes. On the plus side, being a giant mega-strong humanoid makes them pretty good at retrieving their boulder, wherever it may go.

YOGA BATTLE STANCES
Speak the Tell of their next action at the end of each round, so players may take action to avoid being crushed. Moves where the Boulg is using the boulder as a weapon always go last, but otherwise use normal initiative rules.

Basically, if a giant is making an attack roll, they do default unarmed damage even if they are swinging the boulder around. If a boulder is being used in such a way that it is crushing you against the ground, that's a save vs crushing. Most the crush attacks are telegraphed and will automatically miss if the player takes a turn simply getting out of the way, and the fast 'Drop' crushing attacks can't be spammed and the high stance variant could be interrupted by hitting the giant first.

That's actually a thigh intended to be connected to a calf, not a giant grey dong

 Low Stance-  the Boulg is resting their boulder on the ground.

50% to block ranged attacks if they can duck behind their boulder, but the boulders of the larger varieties are massive terrain that may prevent effective melee attacks from that direction as well. Low Stance is often used in hallways and to advance, using the boulder as cover (and potentially filling an entire hallway)

Roll Forward- They roll the boulder forward their movement, and god help anyone in their way. Save or d20 damage and crushed prone for the smallest spheres, save or be a dead pancake for the larger ones. Note that the players SHOULD have gotten a tell and been able to move out of the way so don't wuss out on the Save or be Squished.
Tell- The Boulg looks  straight ahead and braces itself against the floor, pushing the boulder slowly
Dragspin 90- They turn 90 degrees, rolling/dragging their ball to smash/crush anyone flanking them. Damage as Roll Forward.
Tell- The Boulg looks at (target) to its (left/right) and grasps the boulder tightly...
Rolling Tackle- leaping forward onto their boulder and rolling belly-first atop it. The boulder moves a distance equal to their height, crushing those who didn't move out of the way, and the boulg ends up prone with their feet atop or near their boulder, their body length added to the reach of their attack. Does damage as unarmed, and may allow them to grapple their target on a failed save, but if they aren't continuing combat in a ground grapple, it'll take em a round to get back up.
Tell- The boulg places their hands straight out atop their boulder and crouches, coiling up for a leap
Rolling Kick to Seated/180 low stance- As a half-range Rolling tackle, but they roll leg first and on their back rather than arms first on their stomach. No attempted grappling though, and they end sitting atop their ball or having turned 180 degrees and in low stance at the end of the motion.
Tell- the boulg kicks one leg onto their boulder, balancing on their side with 1 leg
Rolling Kick to Prone-As a full-range Rolling tackle, but they roll leg first and on their back rather than arms first on their stomach. Two blind kick attacks or a blind grapple attempt via scissor leg grapple tackle.Though inaccurate, they don't need a round to recover like the rolling tackle does.
Tell- the boulg clambers atop their boulder with both legs.
Rise to Mid Stance- Switch to mid stance, duh. No tell.

MID STANCE-The Boulg carries their boulder in front of them (or rarely, under each arm for Douboulgs)

A Boulg holding their boulder in front of them has an impenetrable sphere of stone blocking a good portion of their body. You can target their hands, feet, and head, but its not easy- they got AC 18 if you're attacking from the front. This mode is a bit more flexible than low stance and Boulgs will generally switch to it against enemies their own size or if fighting multiple foes.

Charge Forward- Deals regular unarmed damage to anyone caught in the line of their movespeed who gets hit. For small Boulgs, this is actually clobbering people with the boulder, but for larger ones, it's mainly trampling by feet.
Tell- The boulg bellows and begins to charge forward
Spin 180- Swing boulder in a wide arc for unarmed damage against anyone directly behind or in the wrong hemisphere of rotation (but NOT directly in front!), and change facing appropriately. Boulgrests have to stoop to do this against shrimpy adventurelets, and dropping prone is an easy way to avoid getting hit by this attack.
Tell-The boulg turns their legs 90 degrees and swings, bringing the boulder in a wide, slow arc at head level.
Drop to Low Stance- A swift move with no tell, they simply let the boulder fall on top of whoever is in front of them. This probably just smashes the toes for small ones, but is a save or squash when performed by the larger varieties.
Bowl- Heave the boulder rolling in any direction they please (range=twice height), dealing usual boulder effects.
Tell- The boulg turns to face (direction) and winds up the boulder preparing to send it rolling across the ground
Targeted Rolling Tackle/Kick- As Low stance, but they can roll in any direction.
Tell- the boulg turns and places their boulder down, then puts both hands/one leg/two legs atop the boulder.
Hoist High- Lifts boulder above head and go to High Stance.

High Stance- The Boulder is held above the head. The giant must save or drop back to low stance when damaged.

 Boulgs only go into high stance if they're pissed or showing off to other boulgs. This has the most mobility and the least defense, so when they assume this stance it is so they can chase down some annoying twerp in the back and squash them or take out a worthy foe with a worthy finishing blow.
Running Slam- The boulg runs and slams the boulder down on someone. Tracks and pursues, so just 'walking out of the way' is not sufficient to evade unless you can get far enough so that they can't reach you. Commonly targets pesky mages and archers.
Tell- The Boulgre eyes <target> evilly and begins picking up speed as it pursues them.
 Falling Tree- As Running slam, but the boulg falls stiffly, adding its height x1.5 to add that little extra distance if necessary. Those under the body take unarmed damage, those under the boulder take the usual ill effects. Ends prone and takes a round to get back to Low Stance.
Tell- The Boulgre eyes <target> evilly and begins picking up speed as it pursues them.
Trick Throw- The giant makes a hop and tosses the ball through the air to land atop an unlucky target within the move of the giant. This is generally reserved for if a running slam is impossible for whatever reason. Furthermore, the giant may choose whether the ball lands and craters, staying put, or if it rolls in a particular direction after landing.
Tell- The Boulgre eyes <target> evilly and readjusts its grip, spinning the boulder slightly.
Drop to Low Stance- A swift move with no tell, they simply let the boulder fall on top of someone near them- as opposed to the midstance version, they can let it drop behind or to one side. 1d20 for small ones, but is a save or squash when performed by the larger varieties.
Feint Stomp- A kick, followed by a Drop to Low Stance if the kick misses. Fighters recognize it as a feint.
Tell- Balancing on one foot, the boulgre rears back one leg for a kick, keeping the boulder ready.
Rest- Drops to mid stance and performs a move, but can renew High Stance for free at the end of the next turn if they so choose. 
Tell is as midstance move+ a big sigh

 TOP STANCE- save when taking damage or fall prone

Boulgres can roll around standing atop their boulders like trained circus performers at half speed. This is largely pointless for the smaller variants, but it may bring the larger variants entirely out of melee range as they roll around attempting to crush people, and can sometimes be helpful for reaching things in high places. It takes a round to turn 90 degrees.



Variants and situations
DOUBOULGS- Some show-offs carry a boulder of  1 size category smaller under each arm. This is just like a big bowling ball for the smallest variant though, so the point of having a giant rock as weapon would be lost and it isn't done.

SKULLBOULGS- Using giant skulls is pretty much the same thing, but spookier. Tombstones don't roll enough, but giant cremation pots could maybe work and spill out ashy skeletons.

GEODEBOULGS- So when they die, the geode cracks open and reveals LOADSAMONE

SNOWBOULGS- They can spend 1 round making snowballs that get bigger and bigger as they get rolled around, and are a lot more throw-happy.

KATAMARIBOULGS- Like snowboulgs but with sticky mud or tar and you save vs getting stuck to the ball and taken prisoner instead of crushed to death.

ATLAS- Isn't that just a way better name for these things?

PINCER MOVEMENT- So there's a T intersection in the dungeon, you walk through, and BAM! A heavy portcullis slides down behind you, and Boulgres start rolling huge boulders down each hallway towards you to squash you between 'em. Can use 1 hallway and 1 Boulgre, and pits, or fire, or whatever too.

CATCH-Multiple Boulgs that will position themselves then pass their boulders around. Could very well be some sort of sport that just so happens to be hazardous terrain for players to cross, or overelaborate attempts to confuse and squash adventurers.

GOLF- A puzzle 'boss fight' that involves the players trying to get a Boulg to dunk his ball in a pit trap or water hazard or something since a straight up fight would probably get them all murdered. Maybe the ball has something useful inside they want, like a legendary sword sticking out of it, or the 'Boulder' is like a giant hamsterball cage with a princess inside.

Anyway part of the reason I wanted to make this post was cuz
1- I wanted giants that feel weighty and ponderous and extremely lethal but can be outmaneuvered even by low level peeps.
2-I read a blog post about how hits from a monster should have a decent chance to merely scratch players and not be guaranteed average-high damage. So 1d20 damage rather than 3d8.
3- a bossfight that kills you dead if you just stand in one place trading blows, and instead encourages running around and punishing certain moves the giant makes.
4-Boss As Scene- with the giant stone ball, the bigger Boulgs bring their own scenery and complications that hopefully double down with the room furnishings they're in and triple down with relative positions of the players and give the battle a sense of spatial verisimilitude and presence rather than abstract number crunching in a blank white room.

Benthic Ur-Chimera Research Lab

THINGS THAT HAPPENED WHEN MY PLAYERS WENT THROUGH THIS MONTHS AGO
The players chopped at the phalanx slime and ultimately decided it was better to just hold it off by having someone with a polearm do a 'fighting retreat' so that everyone else could move around the top floor without getting cornered. That player ended up learning phalanx fighting-style from his efforts, allowing him to give his shield defense to adjacent allies or get an extra +1 AC if both he and the ally had shields and fought in formation. I forgot the  doors to 2 and 3 were locked and had the mimic chest run around at unarmored human speeds and dive down the central pit on the top floor to lure people into the Benthic Chimerae pool and generally be a goofy chase scene, though the pursuing elf getting eaten by the Chimera and managing to stab its eyeball before perishing alone was less goofy. The axe Grafter was a very popular item for the rest of the campaign, though obtaining it was awfully easy because I let a hafling get into the room when I had meant for shrinking down to itty-bitty size via Pachama's spells or potions or the polymorph pearl to be necessary to retrieve the mighty weapon. Pachama was put to Sleep and carried in a backpack of a player who then received the Ur-Chimerae's Blessing and fused with the carried Pachama and became a spider-halfling with a vestigial spider-wizard brain inside them that could cast spells. Pachama briefly took over the halfling's body later.

After the Ur-Chimera was slain (at great loss of PC life) only some of the treasure could be taken, and a sunken ship pulled by an Aboleth and crewed by its Skum minions showed up from the Undersea to investigate the ringing bell to repopulate the dungeon and haul off a lot of platinum before spider-halfling player came back to finish looting the place. The skeleton fighter player who accompanied the sneaky noncombatant for visit #2 held off a great many Skum single handedly in the chokepoint of the staircase, acting as a distraction. Skum attempting to kill him with burning oil ended up doing more damage to themselves than him. The thief chose to kill some Skum instead of sneak by and take loot bloodlessly, and questioned his own morality when he realized that his slaughter was unnecessary. The fighter fulfilled the required feat of daring, holding off 20+ enemies at a chokepoint, to receive training from Royal Guard Dnorr and was less conflicted.

Astral Pirates Raid Tomb of the Constellation King

Tomb of the So-Called Constellation King
Location- Atop a distant mountain that seems to vary in height by up to 100 feet day by day.

Rumours
1-The Constellation King sought to explore the sky, but died of old age and was buried atop his favorite stargazing hill.
2-There used to be giants in the mountains who ruled over the nearby human settlements, but they went into decline over the years and now they're gone. Granpa Henders used to play chess with one before he died.
3-There used to be a gem mine, but it was overrun by rock monsters and now nobody can find the entrance.
4-Strange lights have been seen in the night sky over the mountain, and people go missing those nights.
5-The ruins atop the mountain used to be an observatory built for people far larger than humans.
6-Flutes and drums can sometimes be heard as echoes. Those bold townsfolk who investigated are all missing.

Premise-Dungeon to be vertically traversed and spatially reshuffled to allow bypassing challenges and to provide scary moments where wandering monsters block off retreat to encourage leaping before looking down the nearest pit. I think the most interesting starting arrangement is Alpha Beta Gamma Epsilon Delta because that shows off deep multilayer pits immediately and lets the players build up a grudge towards the astral slavers before finding their ship.

Key Concepts- Each level has 3 rooms that let players change up the dungeon- Rotaters, which rotate the associated layer 90 degrees left or right, Elevators which move the associated layer up or down one position in the stack, and astral shunts which either activate or deactivate the existence of a different dungeon layer. The methodology varies, but the terminology is for easy reference. Holes at the bottom of the stack always lead to Alpha- if Alpha is at the bottom, they are just 10 foot deep pits.

There's some mention of where holes lead in the 'default' or likely configurations but this will quickly become useless as so you'll have to do a lot of peeking at cut-out printouts or stack images with transparency atop each other in a digital environment.

Wandering Encounters- Both common, and important to keep the place dangerous. I'd roll every exploration turn for a 1/6 chance,

every room, every hallway.
1-One Gem Bear (Sapphire, Onyx, or Emerald)
2- 2d20 Acid Slugs (creeping along the ceiling, more of a green slimish trap than an 'encounter')
3- 2d4 Astral Slavers (+2d6 if they've been alerted and are hunting a gembear or the players)
4-Astral Snoutmaw (trace a line to a random pit, that's the length of the snoutmaw)


Unattended items (like ropes to traverse the pits) have a 1/6 chance to be eaten by Acid Slugs, stolen by curious gem-bears, or looted by slavers.

The first image will show what glimpses of lower levels are visible

the second image has transparency in those white spots, allowing lower layers to show through.

Alpha- Staircase to surface via the arrow. Alpha (or whatever layer is on top) has a smooth, intact ceiling inset with fools gold to resemble the night sky.
A1-SHUNT A circular toom with a dry fountain the size of a christmas tree. Fun for climbing about. It is engraved 'Beta Shunt'
A circular valve at the top of the fountain can be undone, which shunts Beta if unscrewed and recalls beta when closed. Water will generally flow through the dungeon and down the nearest hole, and water offends gem bears.
A2-Flutes and sheet music. Playing it lulls Gem Bears to sleep sometimes. Corner of the room has a hole leading down to B1, or G1 if Beta is shunted.A Space Whalebone ocarina is here- it plays music only in a vacuum thanks to weird pressure valves.
 Either way, to cave-burrows of Gem Bears. Grunting snores can be heard below, and a few gemstones in the walls sparkle below.

A3- Basically just a crumbling ledge looking down onto... somewhere to go, depending on what's shunted. But barring rotations, leads to a lower level.

A4-ELEVATOR- Room- Pointy triangular pillars with torches on the pointy bits and a hole in the far side of the room. In the center, there is a triangular quartz prism on a pedestal which needs light from 4 sides to be shown on it. Spinning it on its pointy end and then shining the missing torchlight makes it go down, otherwise it will rest pointing up and that's the direction it will move Alpha.

A5-ROTATER Room- Lever in metal tracks set into the wall allow free rotation of Alpha, but have a 1/6 chance of breaking due to corrosion and acid-pitted crumbling stone. Most weapons with wooden hilts can be used as replacements but always break.

A6- Acid Slugs crawl the ceiling here. They are easily avoided if one looks straight up, but the hasty or unwary or the pushed may fall victim to them.

A7- Hole drops to B5 and continues to G1 assuming default configs. Astral Mancatcher defends narrow ledge past this pit, will use mancatcher to send the unwary plummeting to their doom.

A8- Astral Slaver Treasure. Crystal coffin with in-stasis adventurer nude save for golden rings worth 800 coins and will likely join party for revenge, inventory recovery, or as replacement for dead party members.

A9- Hole to B6 and all the way to Epsilon 5. Room itself has Acid Slugs happily eating abandoned ropes and unidentifiable scrap.

Beta-

B1- Sapphire Gem Bear Lair. Unless woken by water or something, there will be a sleeping one in each chamber, including the immediately visible one in the square room. If it awakens and roars, 3 more will burst through walls nigh instantly. Sapphire Bears return here with stolen goods/people and there are 3 mancatcher poles, probably the naked adventurer from A8's equipment, and bonus gems worth 2500coins. Encounters here are always bears coming from the rock.

B2-ROTATER Hole all the way down to epsilon 4 has destroyed half the Rotation mechanism. The other half functions but can only turn Beta Clockwise and makes a hideous, random-encounter check inducing screech.

B3-SHUNT. 6x6 Grid of square floor tiles. First tile in the room has a symbol of a Knight from Chess on it. Hopping from tile to tile must obey knight-pattern movement or the trap is triggered, and the tiles click slightly when landed on. Made complicated by Astral Slavers and Acid Slugs lurking on ceiling above choice tiles.  Astral slavers always look up before they leap to make sure they don't jump under an Acid Slug.

The Trap- 1 unoccupied tile for every occupied tile flips over, revealing clockwork Pawn that advances 1 tile at a time swinging a club at the 3 squares in front of it. Flips back under after hitting a wall.
The Astral Shunt- A lever on the bottom left of the room. Shunts Gamma, or recovers it. Lever also resets hidden 'knights tour' tickings, allowing it to be solved starting from the lever square.
The Super Secret Treasure- If a player legally hops to every square (or illegally manages it without triggering the trap somehow) the Shunt-tile flips over to reveal a chest with a Wondrous Chesspiece- essentially a summonable 4HD knight. Collect the whole set for a minichess army and do battle against a rival adventurer who assembled the other set. This sort of puzzle is Called a knight's tour.

B4- Huge stone coffin. Monolithic stone coffin that requires giant strength to open, but a Gem Bear could bust through. Small holes down. Coffin reads 'A knight who visits my 36 square acres, once each and once only, is worthy to seek my kingdom'
Giant tomb contains magic arms and armor sized for someone 20 feet tall and a 20 foot long dead king. Jewelry is huge copper crap worth its weight in weight of copper pieces.

B5- small hole to G1. Lesser tomb here are being looted by Astral Slavers. Tombs are for family pets- weird mummified dogs and cats with copper jewelry. Slavers disappointed, will take it out on you.

B6-ELEVATOR Sequence of 3 small circular rooms. First two rooms are linked like scales and will rapidly unbalance and make traversing rooms impossible unless weight is balanced. 5 foot hallway between the 'scale' rooms has a lever on the wall that could be pulled up or down and causes elevator movement, but only operates if scales are balanced. Also hole to E5 in furthest broken chamber.

GAMMA

G1-ELEVATOR Not a circular hallway around an enclosed room, but rather a big room with a contained church looking building.Avatar of Greed guards entrance and treasure hoard and Elevator device within the church, demands payment from every party member for Elevator Access. Can only be seduced, intimidated, or sweet-talked if every single party member contributes to the effort. Has 1HD but immune to damage, spells, etc unless successfully struck or affected by everyone in sight at once, and has Platemail. Strikes with the Claw of Greed, a 15-foot long glaive-pike fashioned from the claws of an ancient dragon that makes attacks against all targets, friend or foe, in range.Astral Slavers venerate the Avatar and it watches over a hoard of 15 mancatcher polearms, 5 suits of chain main, 10 masterwork boots, 5 frilly undergarments, 3 paintings of starscapes, 1500coins, a Potion of Mutation, a Potion of Healing, a Potion of Fire Elemental Form, a Potion of Animate Dead(feed it to a corpse) and a apprentice spellbook with a random spell. And some low-quality adventurers bound and gagged if you need some replacement PCs or more henchmen.

G2- ROTATION Lever is on wall-track that can be pushed around, but is over hole in floor and hard to reach.

G3-SHUNT Broken chess room. Every step spawns killer pawns. There is another wondrous chess piece under the Epsilon Shunt-Lever but force or thievery mechanical fiddling is required to get it.

G4- Small room with a big drum summons a random encounter to investigate the noise, but soothes Gem bears. Drum rattles- there's an Adamant coin inside that can be traded to dwarves(or whoever) for a big favor. They won't tell you what the coin means beyond that and refuse to listen to where you got it.Other Side room drops to Epsilon or even Delta.

G5- A sequence of urns in small catacomb-like chambers, and a fallen-out floor in the middle. Cremated ashes and black bone fragments in urns conceal blackened, twisted jewelry that isn't worth much but has weird enchantments.
Anklets of Upside Down Levitation- Levitates your feet, leaving the rest of you dangling awkwardly. Only goes strictly up and down. Will cut you if you walk in them due to their melted shape and they won't fit over clothes.

Tiara of Illusory Face- a twisted band of black metal that goes on your head and down to your shoulders. Makes your face look like a woman of exotic ethnicity who had a face that fit a giant's body and makes you look like a bobblehead.

Giant Marble Tooth Of Well-Done Meat- Tooth is the size of a thumb. Cooks meat it pierces.

Needle of Recording- Embroidering messages into fabric makes the fabric speak the message when squeezed, then unravel.

G6- Onyx Gembear Lair- As Sapphire Gembear Lair but with black gems.

EPSILON

E1-ROTATION Horseshoe ravine- A drop to lower levels shaped like a horseshoe. Rotation lever track very hard to get leverage and use due to lack of floor and position in the wall at the far end of the loop.

E2-SHUNT- Small Chapel- Has been robbed of everything but a silver candlestick by Astral Slavers with bags of silver loot (3000c worth)  Silver candlestick is a lever that shunts Alpha when pulled and unshunts it when lit.

E3-Very small room with a skeleton with a bell over its head. Skull inside is malformed and mutated, bell is a relic of chaos that does nothing but force a save vs mutation each day carried, and a save vs mutation in all who hear it if rung (it has no clapper currently but banging on it with a mace works) Scratching on wall spells out 'they came from the stars. I must change my body to go with them'

E4-Pit down, across pit will be Astral Slavers with ranged weaponry. Will fire if confronted, or whoop and run away hoping to flank PCs and capture them.

E5-ELEVATOR- Another spinning-crystal torch affair complete with pit and missing torch sconce, but the crystal prism is missing. Emerald Gem Bears got it.

E6-Emerald Gem Bear Lair. As other bear lairs but green and has a quartz prism for the E5 elevator.

E7-Collapsed Jail cells. Final one is intact, contains vampire contained in crystal coffin and adorned with finery. Has been conscious throughout entire imprisment and is insane and bloodthirsty but will recover self control if it eats someone. Can provide history of the small human servants such as himself who built this tomb/prison and how his experiments with necromancy caused him to be locked away. Can raise undead and prefers their company to that of the living.

E8- Astral research chamber- contains ancient diaries about duplicating and manipulating space. Useful for wizards looking to bend space. Pages somewhat scattered by bumbling gembears and marred by muddy paw prints.


DELTA- This isn't a dungeon layer, it's the astral slavers astral slaving ship, drifting between the layers of this space and allowing for deep dungeon raid without actually having to walk through dingy halls. The holes are more like escape tubes that the slavers crawl in and out of with their hauls.

"SSS Stelliferous Delta" (SSS stands for slaver star ship)
D1- Reactor Core- A throbbing heart of a star, shining with power. Sealed behind an iron door in a  great vault. Destroying/releasing it  makes most the Astral Slavers powers useless and breaks the ship. The heart sings, as stars do, and it will reform as a small star if rescued.

D2- Engineering- Tubes and chains run into and around the reactor vault. Breaking a tube will result in some form of fiery death, mutagenic star radiation, or clouds of steam.

D3- Piloting- A telescope looks out at the Astral Void and a ships wheel provides steering. The Captain is probably here. A map of the world is here, with various places of interest and how to align the astral ship with these places.

D4- Slave Stasis- A bunch of captured adventurers and mutants dangle from chains here, held aloft by ring piercings and in crystal coffins for viewing. They can be awoken and are grateful for rescue.

D5-Slave Guard- Astral Slaver set to guard the slaves in stasis. Isn't expecting trouble but has 3HD and two rolls on the slaver equipment chart so is a little tough.

D6- Captains quarters- An exotic pleasure slave manacled to the four poster bed. Astral sea-charts for treasures, good raiding targets, and logs of activity and profit. The captain will be ogling the slave here if he isn't at the wheel or yelling at lackeys.

The Pleasure Slave is a Magenta Shade, and is an incorporeal astral being with no particular form, but it can bend light to create magenta hued illusions and read minds. It gives +1 to all saves if you keep it around and feed it by experiencing nice feelings in its presence(it feeds on particular brain waves). It serves as translator and pornography for the tongueless captain, and totally isn't a fancily reskinned Ioun Stone. When not trying to get biological beings to get attached to it, it appears as a magenta square.

D7- Access tunnels lead to the ships exterior, which is in an astral void but shows the huge feathered wings that flap the ship around. You can also see the kilometer-long astral leviathan that is the source of the Snoutmaws. Cannonballs fired from the ship won't kill it but will piss it off. It looks like a jellyfish, more or less.

D8- Crew quarters. Apart from bedding and clothing, random trash can be looted from foot lockers.
https://creaturespotlight.blogspot.com/2015/05/50-random-mundane-items.html

D9- Armory and Storage- Forge and crates of all manner of garbage here, but also everything they've looted from the dungeon.10,000c worth of gems per player sounds about right, but it will take hours to separate it from the other junk.

D10- Gunner Ports- 2 Cannons with chairs, shot, and powder in alcoves. Cannon infused with space rending magic aimed at wall. The cannonballs fired will only exist properly after travelling 30 feet, bypassing the ships own walls.

NOTES ON ENCOUNTERS
Gem Bears
A thick-bodied quadruped made of earth and stone. It has a small gleaming gemstone in place of a head, and the way it moves reminds you of a bear, complete with how it rears up.
AC 16
HD-8 1d6/1d6, if hit by both attacks, save or be hugged. Hugged people get engulfed and buried in the earthern body of the bear. This is less harmful than being beaten to death but the bear will likely be upset if you manage to wiggle free (need to make 3 saves in a row to escape) and won't feed or water captives so escape must be attempted eventually.
They are about half as fast as a person.
Morale 8
Gem bears can burst through up to 5 feet of rock, earth, etc in a single action and surprise people 5/6 times when they do.

They are blind, but can feel the vibrations of people within 30 feet or so. They are covetous of hard things like armor and bones and engulf them to strengthen themselves, then trundle back to their lairs. People's skeletons count, unfortunately, but bears will spend a round engulfing loose objects of shield-size or larger and then will check morale to see if they bumble back to their lair. Gem bears of different colors do not cooperate and may even fight over choice things like suits of plate mail.
Their gems are worth 1d8x1d8x10 coins and they die instantly if the gem is shattered (an attack from a blunt weapon doing 8+ damage can accomplish this if specifically aimed for)
usually solitary when wandering, but sleep in groups of 1d6 in lairs, usually.


Acid Slugs- Looks like a half-melted banana that smells like your nostrils are on fire. They crawl along ceilings and drop onto things that they think are delicious, which is organic substances. Easily spotted if you're looking for them, if players run under them unwittingly assume they all land on people if they get surprise. Can leap 1' per round in sizzling, squelching leaps, but prefer not to.
No. Appearing- 2d20
1HP. Anything that isn't stone saves or is corroded and broken by acid upon touching an acid slug. Each turn a player has a slug(s) on them, they save with -1 per slug or have a random item destroyed (armor loses 1AC each time this happens) and then take 1d6 damage.
Acid slugs may ride Gem Bears around. The Gem Bears don't notice.

Astral Snoutmaw- A long, clear tube of ice-cold flesh leading back to the nearest hole down, where it leads to thin air and vanishes into nothing. Is the mouth of an astral beast that slips through the disjointed dimensional layers of the ruin as it tries to hoover up delicious terrestrial beings.
HD 6
AC 11
Morale 9
Upon hitting, it slurps up a random limb (1-arm 2-leg 3-head 4- both arms or legs) and then exerts vacuum pressure to suck people through the length of the tube. It gets +4 to hit once it has latched on, and swallows up more limbs in a gradual fashion if it continues to hit and suck the target through. It is cold enough that it deals 1d4 points of cold damage per round of exposure.
After 3 hits (or 2 lucky ones) targets have all limbs swallowed and will be moved along at 30 feet per round until they reach the breach point, past which they have been sucked into the chilly belly of the astral leviathan and are beyond normal means to rescue. They could use claws, daggers, and other already prepared short slashing weapons to attempt to cut themselves free from the tube before this happens.
Piercing damage reduces the vacuum pressure of the suction tube and causes whistling, honking noises as air is drawn through and reduces suction speed for by 1 foot per point.
Slashing damage can sever the tube entirely with a hit for 8+ damage (though the newly severed 'mouth' of the tube functions just as dangerously as the original) and otherwise acts as piercing damage for interrupting suction. Blunt damage is useless but if you get ahead of someone getting sucked down the tube, you could try squeezing the tube shut to stop their chilly demise.
Astral Snoutmaws will slurp up Acid Slugs and Astral Slavers if led to them, but have no interest in Gem bears, and vice versa.

Astral Slaver- Mutant slavers who sail the astral sea. They are looting/mining the gems of this place/kidnapping locals in preparation to sell them in an alien slave market. You can use Githyanki if you're into that. Or regular foreigners, honestly.

I should really buy a tablet or something, My pencil drawings are a lot less terrible than the crap i 'draw' with a mouse

HD 2, AC 13

Astral slavers come in groups of 2d4, and will flee if encountering superior forces... but will return in 2d6 exploration rounds with +2d6 slavers and subsequent slaver encounters will be these enhanced groups as they heighten security.

 Roll twice for weapons, and groups will be about 1/2 and 1/2. 6's indicate a particular badass leader dude independent of the usual split armaments of the party.
Weapon-
1- Mancatcher- A polearm with two half circles of inward facing spikes. If struck, the slaver can try to knock you prone, keep you at bay, and otherwise hassle you. Make a strength test or save to avoid this and wriggle free. They have no qualms about catching someone and then pushing them into a pit, dropping the mancatcher and letting gravity do the killing (though if the pit isn't deeper than 10 feet they can keep hold of it and make it real hard to escape said pit). Deals 1d4 damage each round until it's shaken off
2-Acid Slug Grenade- A glass flask with 1d3 acid slugs inside. Fails to break on a 1/6 chance when thrown, otherwise automatically sticks d3 acid slugs to the target on hit.
3- Triple Scimitars- 3 attacks at 1d8 each. Thanks, extra arm!
4-Starlight Pistol- Gunpowder mixed with powdered gems= the blackpowder laser gun. I stole this idea from another blog but can't find the source
 5- AC 16, gas mask, chain + Torch + 5 flasks of oil.
6- Roll twice, +1 HD and +1 attack per round. If you keep rolling 6's just add a mutation and +1 HD per 6.

Astral slavers flee from gem bears and return with 2d6 members to help harvest the gem. They just flee from Snoutmaws if possible, and  will catch acid slugs in glass jars.

Captain Evileye- Lost the mutation roulette. Probably being eyeballed for replacement by mutinous mutants who reckon they're tougher than he is.
4th level Mutant.
One of his eyes is a symbiote slime that will consume his body to survive if he dies. It can replace any eyeball.
Allergic to copper, sensitive skin breaks out in hives, which is why the pirates aren't looting it.
Dismal Genitals
Tongueless

Uses his Magenta Shade to aid communication with his crew, but when he doesn't feel like fetching it, is pretty good with roars and menacing poses. Keeps two loaded starlight pistols and is a skilled duelist- He can parry one melee attack against him each round, provided it is from a weapon-wielding man-sized opponent who isn't using a flail.

Once 30 astral slavers have been defeated and the captain is aware of this, the SSS Stelliferous Delta will sail away, deeming the dungeon too dangerous to continue looting.

The ship, if commandeered, will eventually be attacked by another star vessel of bounty hunters. Unless the players have gotten a bounty on their heads, the bounty hunters will leave them alone but will likely hijack or destroy the Stelliferous Delta if the players do not surrender it.

I HATE SHOPPING

Shopping for spikes takes up time as players count coins and manage inventories and count rations and haggle with innkeepers. Lists of items are invariably not going to contain whatever weird thing the player was looking for. Attempts to get players to do shopping between sessions has been a failure (as most attempts to get players to do anything between sessions will be). Selling every scrap of maybe-valuable furniture in an attempt to get more gold takes up time as well.

this is my hell

 So, in light of me chucking my old system, I want to address my old enemy of mundane shopping and tracking individual iron spikes. Note fantasy shopping can be pretty fun and including weird nonsense like Snake Cocaine or Tiger-Infused Giant-Forged Swords is entertaining. It's just the mundane bean counting I'm trying to kill.

Inventory slots can be filled with 'Adventuring Gear' for, I dunno, 30 coins each. This is assumed to be torches, iron spikes, blankets, sacks, food, sacks, chalk, 10 foot poles, ropes, lantern oil, cooking pots, small mirrors- just 'stuff' that is handy to have in a dungeon. Once you actually use gear as such, replace the generic 'Adventuring Gear' with what you actually used on your sheet (or cross it off if it was consumed.) This also means that players will have to get more creative on longer delves- at the beginning, they can say they have exactly what they need, but then deeper in, the amusing improvisation of 'how can we do X with only a wire, a mirror, and a sack of sausages' will still get some love.

Goals I hope this accomplishes- allows players to do typical dungeon problem solving without having to spend actual hours of actual peoples actual lives counting how many pieces of chalk they are pretending their pretend elf has.

I am also thinking about how to tie it to resource and time management. Eating food and light sources burning down as you search a room carefully and using a rope as a grappling hook all take away Adventuring Gear slots. I think the palpable effect of actually crossing off things from character sheets will actually give players a sense of urgency that secret wandering monster rolls just don't accomplish.
Also, one thing thieves could be good at is spending 'adventuring gear' to disable traps, bypass locked doors, find secret hidden things, etc not by percentile rolls, but by resource management. Thiefly stuff is often pretty abstract in resolution(which is why rolling to pick a lock rather than 'describing how you pick a lock' is a thing) so I don't think this is too 'gamey.' Hirelings carrying loads of 'Adventuring Gear' so the thief can demolish locked doors sounds like a feature, not a bug.
TANGENT WARNING

Thieves are for sequence-breaking. Thieves are for saying 'you know what, I'll pick the lock instead of recover the vault key from the neck of the guardian beast. Or steal the key from the guardian beast without ever waking it up. Or ignore the locked door entirely and climb up the outside of the tower and go in through a window.'  All in opposition to the 'proper' sequence of
>fight guardian beast
>climb tower
>fight princess
>retrieve tiara
 And I think that's great.
 END TANGENT

One form of shopping I found interesting is the 'Institutions' section of The Nightmares Underneath.
In part this is because institutions becoming prominent as money is spent on them is an easy way for players to affect the world, and also because those institutions offered interesting things to spend your money on- poisons, treasure maps, printed slander, animals of specific quality breeding, and so on. Attaching consequences to shopping beyond 'you lose 17c and gain 10 candles and a magnifying glass' is a really fun idea (though not one that bypasses my problem of many shopping sprees being lengthy exercises in tedium).

Another way to bypass shopping is if there is no 'generic' shopping. The players must use manticore tail spikes instead of iron ones, save giant spider webs for ropes and hammocks, and loot anything and everything they can, not because it is worth a few coppers in 'town' but because they can think of a creative use for a broken chair in regards to the environment. This requires both heavy environmental descriptors and a setting where civilization is absent, but I really like the idea and feel like it could help foster and reward creativity in a big way. I wonder if this sort of hardcore scavenging/survivalist play is what the Veins of the Earth was getting at. Similarly, that would make wandering merchant encounters pretty interesting if there was no default source of generic equipment.

Thoughts on my Nightmare Glog

After playtesting and getting neat ideas from other systems, I've decided my Nightmare Glog hack needs to burn in a dumpster fire

2/10

Failures
Having roll under stats was encouraging everyone to just rely on those skill and stat rolls. A classic character abilities overshadowing player skill situation, where rather than interact with the game world by, well, interacting with it, things got boiled down to rolls. Naturally some players already had 'player skill' and didn't succumb to this, but the mechanics need to actually inform gameplay or they need to be pitched. Similarly, using 'roll under stat' made stats actually pretty important- even MORE important than even 3.5, arguably. And stats are supposed to be a jumping off for conceptualizing your character, not the most important thing about 'em. Not to mention the whole 'how to roleplay mental stats without it meaning 'player skill must be gimped if you got a bad roll in character creation' As such I'm looking favorably at Maze Rats style stats.

Another thing I wanted to do was emphasize that rolling dice has consequences on failure as well as success, to prevent haphazard 'I sneak I search I speech' thrown out willy nilly, and that dice results stick until the situation changes. You don't roll to sneak past each guard, cuz that's called 'rolling to failure' and is a form of railroading, where the GM calls for rolls until you finally fail one. The opposite problem is 'Taking 20' where there's no consequence for failure or dilly dallying so rolls become pointless. Ideally, both are solved by the totally not butchered osr principle of 'rulings not rollings' and making time a resource. The powered-by-the-apocalypse style rolls I used in Monsterhearts where on 2d6, 0-6 makes things worse, 7-9 is mixed success, and 10+ is pure success was pretty nice and I might adopt it, but keep the d20 around for ease of stat conversion for attack rolls.


Character sheet wasn't simple enough. Skill slots, inventory slots, hp, ac, chosen traits, etc were numerous enough that it couldn't be edited onto blank online text document elegantly. Though I liked Notches, keeping track of them was also annoying (A player quickly found themselves keeping track of Notches for Fists, Daggers, Bow, Sword, and Torch in a handful of sessions) and the system encouraged fighting for the sake of fighting- especially fighting lots of weak foes. My tentative solution is to say that you only keep track of notches for ONE weapon class at a time, and to make it per HD slain rather than per enemy, and probably only for things with higher HD than you. Or maybe disregard the system and use my preferred 'secret technique' style of fighters learning cool stuff that I used in the BFRPG game. Probably that, yeah.

Too many class abilities that were too close to snoozeworthy mechanical bonuses and passive bonuses rather than abilities that made people say 'wow I can do THIS now?' Also, too forward-facing. Cavegirl mentioned using secret booklets to gradually introduce lore and character abilities and I think this could be great both to prevent character creation from being bogged down and to prevent players from obsessing over getting Cleave at level 3 and so roleplaying as a player wishing to upgrade their character rather than a character wishing to

Fighters did a bit too much damage with the 1d8 bonus auto damage from The Nightmares underneath. I think having them be the only class that gets bonuses to hit is sufficient, ala Lamentations of the Flame Princess.

One of the things I dislike most about D&D is 'scaling' and I think there was still too much of it going on. Ideally, I want players to genuinely not care if they are a few levels below another PC, and to definitely never view monsters as things that require level grinding to face. Dragons should be scary because they can smell metal and breathe fire and are hard to escape from and negotiate with, not because their maths are ten times bigger than your maths so you need to math yourself up x10 and then you can fight dragons fearlessly.

I also decided coins for XP is a great OSR idea that I just can't get to mesh up with how my games are set up with rotating character rosters. Player A comes to 5 sessions and obtains 5 oddball magic items but 0 coins, and player B goes on a solo to pick through an 'already looted' dungeon and finds a secret stash of platinum and can now gain 2 levels. Player A only has 2 hands and 1 action per round and limited creativity with those oddball items and really would just like to be level 3 because levels are a way progress is tracked and being knighted and having the favor of Duke Ekud and having a bunch of potions but still being level 1 cuz you didn't find gold in a hole rubs many the wrong way. Plus a lot of players seemed to like the 'alternate leveling systems' so a Maze Rat style where each session is worth 1xp, great success is 2xp, and success against odds thought overwhelming is 3xp would let play for the sake of play and pursuing player-set goals hold up, rather than mandatory loot-lust. Getting a fat pile of loot probably counts as great success so loot-lust is still viable, just not required.

tl;dr, I adopted the GLOG because I love its magic system, but should have thought about other things much more carefully before running away with 'em.

Bugborne Dungeon

I decided to turn the first layer of Bloodborne's Pthumerian Labyrinth into a dungeon. It also became bug-themed in the process of adapting it, probably because I was reading about Antlings

Room 1- Chamber of the Seals- Sealed iron vault doors lead to various secret dungeons of the Bugaboos, or back to a room in your mainline dungeon, or whatever.
Hallway- Engraved with designs depicting strange multilimbed folk digging ever deeper and occasionally rejoicing at the unearthing of some bizarre artifact or sleeping queen.

Room 2-  Leads to a protruding ledge overlooking the massive Room 3. Ladder descends 20 feet to floor of room 3 and room-ledge 7 and its iron portcullis can be seen directly across room 2. The torch-wielding beetle on the high ledge at the north of room 3 can also be seen, but the room is mostly cloaked in darkness due to its size.

Room 3 South- Large gravestones dot the earth floor of this semi-worked cavern. Roots dangle from above. In a corner, the discarded exoskeleton of a molted giant beetle lies. Its massive pincers can be broken off and used as greatswords that shatter on a rolled 1 (to hit OR damage).
Digging beneath the gravestones will unearth nothing but rotted giant beetle mandibles, which can be wielded as short swords -1 that infect those struck by them with gross diseases and shatter once a 1 is rolled for damage or to-hit. Anyone able to read the gravestones will find tidbits like 'Tchak, 360-400, Lineage Tchktchk" the dates being from hundreds of years ago.

Room 3 North- The gravestones are much the same as they were in the south. The ladder leads up to a platform with a torch-wielding beetle, and the base of the ladder is in a large puddle of oil. The beetle will drop the torch if wounded or presented with an opportunity to light someone up. It is a soulless guard and has no ability to speak or climb ladders. Up behind the torch-beetle on its platform, there is a passage east.

Something glints in the northeast corner of this room- Close inspection will find the light is glinting off two glass bottles that contain healing potions.
There is also a tunnel heading east at ground level.

• Guard Beetles- 1HD, 1d4 damage, AC 15
• Their bites rend armor- save or lose 1 AC from armor
• If they survive a hit they fly backwards, but also might fly forwards to knock someone off balance, buzzing wings in anticipation. Not true flight, just short leaps.
• They can make wide, telegraphed slashes to hit 2 people adjacent, one in front and one to one side, but cannot move and do this
• Dead ones can be strapped to ones arm and used as a shield, and their mandibles work as daggers
• No real sapience, unable to climb ladders.

Room 4- A high stone bridge supported by pillars of stone rising from a gently sloshing and deep pool of water crosses to a high exit east. There are also two tunnel exits that head south, one leading to the ground floor of room 3 and one with bloody splotches leading to room 6. The bridge is only wide enough for one person to cross at a time, and swinging bladed pendulums menace those who would cross or climb up from below.  The middle pendulum is stained with fresh blood.

The Bridge- Another guard beetle waits at the far end, hoping to charge into any would-be bridge crossers, disrupt their timing, and get them hit by the pendulums (which deal 1d12 damage and knock the unfortunate victim into the water below). A steady stream of guard beetles will march from the room beyond, being spawned by the Imperfect Queen, which complicate the bridge crossing. There will never be more than 3 at one time, but they will track the players by scent and follow them throughout the dungeon once their ire is drawn and the Queen commands them.

The Pool- Something glints in the sloshing water- this is the fiddle of the Hopper Knight in 6. Canny players will note this water should not be sloshing unless there is something making the waves, and that something is a giant 4HD leech (11AC, 13 in water) that will latch on and drain 1d6 STR each round and attempt to swallow juicy targets whole (anyone in a full suit of metal armor is definitely not juicy). Failing 3 STR checks to break the grapple means the leech has swallowed one whole and death by suffocation is inevitable for typical humans without outside rescue. Slaying the leech and searching it thoroughly will find a scabby, blood-red whetstone that can sharpen bladed weapons in a single round to deal +1 damage on their next attack, but wears them out quickly by making the blade too thin (sharpened weapons break on critical misses)

Room 5- Boudoir of the Imperfect Queen
Terrain- 6 pillars and staircases that lead up to a walkway between each other hallway up to their final destination of a high raised area of the room.
People- The Imperfect Queen lies in a sort of 'Draw me like one of your french girls' pose on the walkway, with 3 guard beetles attending her. She can spend 1d6 rounds birthing a new guard beetle, but can't create more than 3 at a time. She is no true queen, but a magically modified giant beetle created to ape the true Ant Queens. Still, she expects absolute deference and obedience from anything that doesn't want to become food for her 'colony.' Anyone slaying the Leech, Hopper Knight, and Big Beetle will be graciously allowed to loot the treasure chest at the far high end of this room, which contains a skeleton wearing a key (to 7) and 2000 coins.

The queen is an immobile noncombatant but can eat 20HP worth of damage before dying. Her death will also cause the remaining beetle guards to die. She is also an insane hybrid monster out to usurp True Ant Queens.

Room 6- Ancient wagons and their forgotten cargo mold here in a wet room.  The water has turned red and cloudy due to the dying Hopper Knight here. They came to destroy the Imperfect Queen but fell afoul of the pendulum-guard beetle combo and barely escaped the leech but ran out of strength here.

Looting the wagons will yield 6 sketchy mushrooms that have a random effect when eaten.
1-Healing. Looks like a shelf fungus crossed with a steak and tastes the same.
2-Restore a magic die or level 1 spell slot. Blue and pointy like a wizard hat. Tastes like lightning.
3- Ingester vomits. Vomit glows as torch. They will continue to vomit a little every few minutes for the next hour, leaving a trail of glowing splatters. Small, slimy, and faintly luminous.
4-Mutation- Purple with waving villi. Causes a random mutation.

The  Hopper Knight is basically this...

The Hopper Knight is conscious but will die in a few hours, or immediately if they exert themselves. They look like a giant grasshopper person, but might be a human wearing giant grasshopper bits and a black cloak as armor. Bringing them the head of the Imperfect Queen will let them die in peace and offer their armor and knightly title to whoever put down the Queen, and bringing them magical healing will allow them to fight another day as a level 3 figher. Their armor/exoskeleton is like plate that weighs next to nothing(but gives a -1 to reaction rolls from humans), and doubles the damage of flying kicks. They are terrible at saving money or food because their sense of justice consumes their common sense, but can play a mean fiddle in exchange for housing and would naturally assist against Big Beetle.

...combined with this

Speaking of, the Big Beetle can be seen clambering around above the iron grate in the ceiling here. A halfling or child with a rope could squeeze through and enter. Arrows will enrage it and cause it to chew through the bars in 1d10 rounds and descend to attack.


Room 7- Up a ladder to a ledge, a locked iron portcullis leads to the room of the Big Beetle. The key is in the coffin-chest in 5, though a thief could pick the lock. The portcullis is very heavy and it takes 2 people 2d4 rounds to lift, and it slams shut if not propped open with something capable of withstanding about 400 pounds of portcullis weight.


Room 8- The Big Beetle
The Big Beetle is the size of a wagon and too big to leave the room. It scuttles around atop a grating of iron bars (a child could slip between them), which has a lock and some chains and some hinges- the same key that opens the portcullis can open the grate and dump the beetle down to room 6, allowing unhindered access through the room.


But if the Big Beetle is fought (and it is ravenously hungry) do mention its gnashing pincers are clearly big and sharp enough to pinch a man in half no matter how much plate he may be wearing, and its shell gleams black and glossy, and despite its bulk it moves with skittering speed.
HD 8- But only has a +2 to hit
AC 17
Damage 1d12

The Big Beetle has several possible attacks that are well-telegraphed at the start of each round.
Armor Rending Chomp- The beetle's pincers extend wide and it tracks [target] with small adjustments as it readies its attack.
 A standard attack against someone in front of it. On a hit or miss, it damages the target's AC by 1- the shield or plate or whatever stopped the attack(or was useless), but was mangled and damaged either way.

Sweeping Blow- The beetle lowers its head and its antennae twitch towards (character to side)
Attacks anyone in melee in front and to that side in  a 90 degree arc. Those hit save or are knocked prone due to the unsure footing of the grating below.

Startled Flight- The shell opens and buzzing wings emerge....(Mention immediately upon trigger)
Whenever the beetle takes damage from 2 or more sources in one round or is frightened by a very loud noise or very bright light, it will fly backwards to the edge of the room next round (or fly forwards if its back was to a wall). This is its action for the next round, and is only a menace if someone would be squashed beneath its landing (treat as a regular attack)

Loot- If slain, each mandible of The Big Beetle can be used as greatswords, one having the Sweeping Blow ability and the other having the Armor-Rending ability. To use these abilities, the player must declare their move a round in advance and they cannot change positioning or move and attack, making the attacks easy to avoid by cautious enemies.

Room 9- Elevator Down- Does it go to a nest of the True Ant Queen, who hired the Hopper Knight as a mercenary to hunt down the Imperfect Queen? Or maybe it leads to more forgotten ruins and the True Queen is much further down.

I'm not sure if clicking on resized pictures gives you the original size so i included both until I can figure that out

Goals For this Very Short Dungeon
The buried beetle mandibles and the big shed exoskeleton hint that defeating a live beetle might also yield mighty weapons.

The key the Imperfect Queen guards allows bypassing the Big Beetle by dropping it out of its arena instead of facing it in dire battle. It's pretty dangerous for low level characters to just fight in the circular room, but dropping it and then exploiting its Startled Flight could drive it to fight the Leech or get whacked by Pendulums. The terrain is exploitable in general.

Weak Enemies that foreshadow Strong enemies-The Guard Beetles have the same moves as the Big Beetle, just on a smaller scale. Hopefully the players can learn from the 'small versions.'

The Leech is just an extra menace promising/guarding extra loot, and the Hopper Knight is a choice weighing guaranteed loots against spending healing consumables to have a maybe-helpful ally.

Speaking of loot, there's a fair bit of it, but it's easy-come easy-go disposable stuff or items which are cool for reasons beyond 'permanent power boost' I hope.

The Imperfect Queen is an antagonist that the players can destroy or work for for a reward, and demonstrates that just because something can talk, doesn't mean it's a rational, reasonable actor. Also she demonstrates the need for action and prioritizing targets- her summoned beetles will eventually wear down the party via wandering encounters.

Quick Ways to Restock This Very Short Dungeon
Have all slain enemies(and the buried and discarded exoskeleton) rise as undead. Vampire leech, ghost Hopper Rider, zombie beetles big and small, ghost beetles from the graves. Twin necromancers in the Boudoir and the Big Beetle room must be slain simultaneously or will return from death fully rejuvenated 1 round after 'death'

Alternately have funguses from the carts grow out of control. Cordyceps zombies as reanimation for previously slain foes an easy way to reuse slightly altered statblocks, or you could go full mushroom men.

No full restock, but have TWO Big Beetles in room 3 as a double-trouble bossfight in different terrain.

Mad Entomologist Biomancers show up to check on their pet project, the Imperfect Queen, are incensed to see she is dead, have set up laboratory to create vengeful monster

Chivalry-choked Comrades of the Hopper Knight come seeking news, have gotten the wrong idea about what occurred, big misunderstanding