Friday 18 October 2013

Gothic Dungeon Key A-Z


a blog i did on small monsters for zero to first level monsters
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/dungeon-dwellers-little-guys.html
a modern upgrade flatteringly using some of my critterz and more
http://aeonsnaugauries.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/low-life-encounter-table-version-1.html

This is dungeon key is a sequel to my redbrick key and is intended to be used with geomorphs i will
start working on soon. I will provide some brief descriptions. Less traps and areas for living than redbrick key.

d100 random room key
A 1-4 Artwork
5-6 B Solace
7-9 C Cell
10-12 D Scriptorium
13-14 E Execution
15-17 F Font or fountain
18-19 G Crematorium
20-30 H Crypt
31-35 I Library
36-41 J Cloister
42-43 K Curse
44-48 L Living Area
49-52 M Mortician
53-54 N Secret Entry
55-59 O Administration
60-64 P  Prayer room
65-67 Q Laboratory
68-69 R Reliquary
70-74 S Sarcophagi
75-77 T Torture Dungeon
78-79 U Throne Room
80-85 V Vault
86-90 W Workshop
91-92 X Treasury
93-95 Y Temple
96-00 Z Shrine

A Artwork
Significant artwork depicting a scene in church mythology, history or even abstract. Includes paintings, murals staturary, relief carving, stained glass, mozaics or caligraphic or hieroglyphic text. Many tell stories in comic book form. Magical ones may come to life gargoyles and types of golem the most obvious, sometimes from the architectural features.
1 Depiction of god with the first ancestors or or other important ancients
2 Depiction of god in act of creation
3 Depiction of god or saint in judgement
4 Depiction of god or saint or servants in battle, suffering or doing other mythic deeds
5 Depiction of pioneering churchman preaching to masses
6 Depiction of paradise for those who live prescribed life
7 Depiction of underworld warning to enemies
8 Depiction of holy teacher preaching to disciples or writing book or at prayer
9 Depiction of a great holy leader or king showing piety and devotion to faith
10 Depiction of god with all insignia and symbols of divinity like a sacred beast

B Solace
A quiet nook often isolated from other areas with benches, possibly scenic views, art or supreme minimalism. Intended for silence and prayer, perhaps chanting even music take place here.
1 Bare minimilism or abstract pattern to aid meditation
2 Bust of holy person or divinity
3 Statue of holy person or divinity
4 Holy scriptures or prayer or chant written on wall
5 Mural or painting
6 Pool or well in floor
7 Sound of quiet music or chanting
8 Pillows or prayer mats and other specialties of faith like grog
9 Multiple private prayer booths
10 Tiny shrine in small cell with line up outside

C Cell
A cell where prisoners or monks or clerics live, mostly spartan and bare except for palette and a potty. A prison cell will have lockable bars or manacles.
1 A tiny monk cell
2 A tiny cleric cell with holy scriptures or other religious trinkets
3 A holy master cell with pillows, carpets, scriptures and holy water and other things
4 A prison cell with manacles on a chain
5 A prison cell with manacles to hang prisoner on walls
6 A prison cell with just bars and lock
7 A prison cell with bizarre restraint like iron mask or stocks
8 Dark confined box  prisoner locked in
9 Cramped cage possibly wooden barely holding prisoner
10 Cell with slow torture device like weighed legs, wrack, iron maiden

D Scriptorium
A room where books are made and copied, documents are copied en mass. Often many books in process of being copied with many desks. Sometimes desks have chains for scribes and artists. Some are using clay with stylus tool, other use vellum or papyrus or paper.
1 Cheap knockoffs of common prayer and song books 
2 Cheap knockoffs of holy books for literate middle classes and poor clergy
3 Cheap scrolls for tourists and pilgrims
4 Commercial copy of common document like apocryphal adventures of saints
5 Copies of secular documents being made for donations
6 Internal church records and requisition forms
7 Documents detailing how to persecute and detect those deemed enemies by church zealots
8 Copies of holy books for nobles, rich, new churches and missions
9 Artworks and marginalia being added in more elaborate version of original copies
10 An important masterwork many volume work in production from notes from bards

E Execution or punishment block
A area for executions, punishment and sometimes the courtroom. Depending on importance and religion. Some literaly with, others with  or .
1 Chopping block with sword or axe
2 Flogging post with manacles
3 Yard where monks lie prostrate or kneel for hours
4 Stocks with torture pariphialia
5 Pit with bars exposed to above at floor level
6 Tiny cage suspended of ground
7 Hangman's gallows or guiliotine
8 Fire and stake
9 Live vivisection restraint block with manacles
10 In pit or cage possibly for creature

F Font or fountain
An ornamental fountain where holy water is made, blessing and ceremonies performed. Some more ornamental decor and water for pilgrims where they can receive a lesson from the artwork in the water vessel.
1 A simple well or pool in floor
2 A chalice or bowl on a plinth
3 A statue or bust with a fountain
4 A impressive artistic sculpture or relief of a scene
5 Thermally heated pool for bathing or laundry
6 A pool for a creature like fish or eels or lampreys
7 Drinking or bathing trough for horse or ritual animal
8 A grotto or cave with pool, favorite hangout for holy hermits
9 A pool for divination or communion rituals
10 A pool for healing or exorcisms or drowning witches

G Crematorium
A chamber where dead or funerary waste or sacrifices are burned. Often with a great furnace, flaming pit or even a huge brazier. Some faiths require a water source like a holy river or well to remove ashes. Others store urns wit remains.
1 A huge oven with metal door for whole coffins filled with fine ash
2 Large oven with plinth and ceremonial decor for public cremation
3 Bundles of wood often with a boat or bed ready to burn corpse in
4 Burning pit in the ground
5 Apparatus to desiccate body into mummy with slow cooking or sunlight or exposure
6 Acid pit, possibly 1d6, able to remove flesh in a month
7 Huge pit of ash plus roll d5 again
8 Sealed shelves in rock or wall with funerary urns inside plus roll d5 again
9 Stacks of funerary urns on shelves piled to ceiling plus roll d5 again
10 Stacks of burned bones in neat bundles or random stacks plus roll d5 again

H Crypt
A entrance to a sub level burial chamber full of sarcophagi or a single tomb. A large one will be a mausoleum or many connected crypts a catacomb. The dead may be in coffins, sarcophagi, burial urns or exposed and mummified. Usually churchmen, nobles and the rich only qualify.
1 Single sarcophagi in tomb
2 6+d6 sarcophagi in tomb
3 2d6+12 sarcophagi in tomb
4 2d20 coffins on plinths
5 4d20 coffins in stacks
6 2d20 Preserved heads or other body parts in containers
7 3d100 Funeral urns of cremated dead
8 5d20 Skeletons arranged in heap or artwork or in shelves
9 1d20+10 Mummified corpses clothed standing
10 2d20 bizarre preservation, pickled, smoked, dried, magic, frozen

I Library
A storehouse for books, often with special collections, archives, records of goods, state documents, church history or other works. Most have shelving for storing with a filing system. A library chamber has typically a d100 books, the more important ones chained and locked up.
1 Church doctrine for students of religion
2 Tedious church records on tithe and accounting
3 Records of monks and clergy lives
4 Records of mythology of religion and legendary heroes
5 Church religious commentary, debates and interpretation
6 Sciences & Arts: natural history, mathematics, astronomy, geology, literature, philosophy, poetry
7 History of land and all time since god was involved in creation
8 Journeys of saints, missionaries and crusaders past
9 Descriptions of blasphemy, evil and the underworld
10 Books about magic, wizardry, witchcraft, sorcery, divine magic

J Cloister
A large square area surrounded be pillars supporting a ceiling covered walkway around the outside. Most have grass or a garden inside ans possibly trees. The columns may also include a wall limiting access to the central area and the ground level might be lower than the floor level. Favorite places to meditate or study.
1 Open room with checker board or Mosaic floor
2 Grass possible dead or overgrown if abandoned
3 Mud, filth and excrement over bare earth or cobblestones, slippery and wet
4 Refined garden with water feature, trees and statuary and possibly a tiny grotto with a hermit
5 Hedge maze or elaborate statuary
6 Fruit trees and or berry bushes or food or medicinal garden
7 Fountain and large water feature, possibly fish
8 Sarcophagi or a tomb
9 Overgrown with trees like the wild
10 Dead and blasted trees, grass and empty ponds, possibly petrified

K Curse
This evil place is damned and usually sealed off or given warnings if clergy present.
1 Corporeal undead trapped in here and hostile
2 Non corporeal undead haunt this place
3 Spirit posses persons in here
4 Poltergeist
5 Doppelganger
6 Hostile gargoyles
7 Cursed relic contained here
8 Guarded by supernatural other worldly being
9 Servant of god appears to curse interlopers
10 Sacred place  or damned place either way it's not for mortals and equals a curse

L Living Area
A living room for clergy or monks or householders
1 A room for senior monk or priest
2 Important guest room for a bishop
3 Guest room for noble
4 Dormitory for lay members or acolytes
5 Shared room for lesser or student priests
6 Room for slaves, servants or newcomers seeking entry
7 Kitchens and dining area
8 Brewery or wine making facility or distillery
9 Hospital for treating ill and medical aid to churchmen
10 Recreational hall where clergy play games, sing, fight, exercise

M Morticians Morgue
An area where bodies are stored and prepared before burials
1 Embalming room with vats of flammable fluids and baths
2 A mumification room with bandage preparation and mummification apparatus
3 A room where organs are removed and placed in jars or urns
4 A morgue where bodies await burial or identification or some sacred time period
5 Anatomical laboratory where bodies (sometimes criminals) are cut up and documented
6 A parlour for intimate funerary ceremonies where family often view corpse
7 A room where slaves are killed or suicide to join master
8 A room where soliers are killed or suicide to join master
9 A room where animals and pets are killed to join master
10 A room where bodies get makeup, wigs, and dressed for public display with

N Secret Entry
Fear of live burial or escape routes or for maintenance or other purpose
1 Secret stair case to other level or surface
2 Secret hiding place for priest
3 Secret escape for condemned builders, architects and tomb workers
4 Hidden chamber of vice and depravity
5 Hidden prison or torture cell
6 Hidden treasure or relic or manuscript
7 Secret spy chamber to view other rooms
8 Secret maintenance tunnels for true believers to visit
9 Secret maintenance tunnels for corrupt builders to rob
10 Secret entry to ghoul tunnels or other monsters

O Administration
Where chapter houses or churches or state process bureaucratic paperwork
1 Counting house where money, goods or tithe information is worked on
2 Building office where architects, builders and others run constructions
3 Chapter house for religious organization
4 Where births, deaths, marriages are documented
5 Taxation or tithing office where collected goods are documented
6 Land office where records of land ownership and use recorded
7 Records of church admin, pilgrim efforts and donations
8 Meeting room for councils and committees
9 Court house for common public trials
10 Starchamber for secret trial mostly of internal matters of church

P Prayer room
Where the faithful prey is peace
1 Rows of benches in front of altar or artwork
2 Pillows or mats in rows or a circle
3 Private booths for individual private contemplation
4 Bells in high vaulted rooms with ropes to above
5 Room with cages of sacred or symbolic animals the cult use like pidgeons
6 Chamber with open area and massive gong on pedestal
7 Tiled mosaic walls and ceiling with artworks
8 Huge braziers or light shaft from window high above
9 Incense burners and long curtains
10 Mosaic maze like pattern pilgrims follow on floor

Q Laboratory
Many labs are found depending on type of structure. Some make materials for burial, others provide for staff. 
1 Brewery or wine press and cellar for staff or even for dead in ritual libations
2 Morticians lab brewing acid, embalming fluid and treatments for mummification bandages
3 A hospital wing with patients and an operating area
4 Alchemical laboratory with possibly some intact finished potions
5 Apothecary lab for conventional medicines and refined herbs
6 Architects lab with models and calculations
7 Natural history lab and collection of specimens
8 Collection of the nations cultural goods and curios
9 Poison or necromancy or collection of rival faiths goods and documents
10 Wizards lab

R Reliquary
Where saint body parts and relic items are stored, usually sanctified ground
1 Museum of life story with some trivial possible possessions
2 Magical saint body part in case on altar
3 Collection of objects which true pilgrims recognize the real object among them
4 Collection of saints possessions
5 Saints corpse in a glass coffin
6 Saintly relics sealed behind bars and rarely opened
7 Weapon or torture device or part thereof used to kill saint
8 Remains of shroud, coffin or tomb of ancient saint
9 Chest containing scriptures, if opened unleashes curse or monster 
10 Holy weapon of faith used to slay enemies

S Sarcophagi
A stone, brick slab containing a coffin or group of them in a chamber
1 A crude clay sarcophagus with cheap wooden coffin inside
2 A brick sarcophagus with wooden coffin inside
3 A crude carved stone sarcophagus with a bandaged corpse inside
4 A simple stone sarcophagus with good wooden coffin
5 A fine carved sarcophagus with text and scenes with lead lining and good coffin
6 Quality carved and or painted sarcophagus with painted wooden coffin
7 Carved sarcophagus with engraved art of occupant with lead lining and painted coffin
8 Carved relief art of occupant with double coffin and lead lining
9 Cheap sarcophagi with fake coffin and fake treasure
10 Plundered sarcophagi

T Torture Dungeon
A room for the torture of prisoners with torture equipment. Each room specializes in a type of feature torture
1 A flogging post with whips and chains
2 A frame with chains and a oven and branding irons brazier of coals
3 A wrack for stretching and manacles  for chaining prisoners on walls
4 Cages, many hanging from ceiling, stocks and chains
5 Iron maiden, iron boots, thumbscrews all slowly impale with spikes
6 Huge cauldron with hot oil or lead, wooden stakes with piles of wood
7 Saws to slowly cut open restrained bodies
8 Disemboweling tools, which to unravel innards
9 Wheel to break restrained prisoners limbs, foot and skull crushing devices
10 Chair with spikes, knee splitter, iron mask

U Throne Room
A room where important lords or officials meet audiences, often on a dais and often with escape route for leader
1 Wooden chair on dais
2 Large chair with curtains and banners
3 Large chair with fine carving and paintings
4 Large chair with metalwork and semi precious stones
5 Gilt over wooden great chair with carved figures of heroes and monsters
6 Huge stone throne chair with own steps
7 Dual thrones roll 1d6 for type
8 Group of Thrones of officials or council 2d6 roll 1d6 for type
9 Great throne with screens to prevent visitors gazing on the mighty one
10 Huge metal throne worth thousands but awkward and expensive with relief art

V Vault
A store room for goods, treasure, or other stuff
1 Preserved foodstuffs like cheese
2 Building and artisan raw materials
3 Religious paraphernalia for special occasions, costumes, palanquins, etc
4 Coffins, bodies or bones
5 Records, scrolls, ledgers, journals and other records
6 Storage of vehicles such as wagons, chariots, carts or boats
7 Wine or beer cellar and manufacturing equipment
8 Chamber filled with grain
9 Treasure of valuable grave or household luxuries
10 Treasure vault of coins and valuables

W Workshop
Room where building is maintained, artists work on decor an other craft and trades ply their craft fir use in the complex or the next life.
1 Sculptors workshop with half finished statues and blocks of stone
2 Painters workshop with half completed works
3 Woodworkers room with tools and collection of wood and half finished work
4 Stone mason with tools and gargoyles and half finished work
5 Architects workroomm with blueprints and models and calculation
6 Barrel, urn or ceramic containers being manufactured
7 Tannery with leather, cauldrons of wax, dye and chemicals
8 Weaving looms and spinning wheels with partly finished rugs and fabric
9 Coffin makers shop with tack of coffins
10 Blacksmith and metal workers with orge, ingots, bars and half finished tool and weapons

X Treasure
Store rooms for loot
1 Coins from commoners, thousands of coppers in coffers
2 Plates, urns and silverware from wealthy on display
3 Chests locked and trapped full of coins
4 Chests locked and trapped full of semi precocious stones
5 Illuminated manuscript with metal cover with semi precocious stones
6 Idols and statuettes on display of precious metal
7 Collection of valuable holy symbols on display with semi precocious stones
8 Chests of IOU notes from nobles possibly long gone
9 Collection of ceremonial stave's, rods and crowns covered in gold
10 Pile of fake loot with trap or curse or monster

Y Temple
Important holy places for ritual and prayer
1 Huge statue with valuable gem eyes, cursed or trapped
2 Great hall with altar and room for adherents to gather
3 Gods statues hold up the ceiling of great chamber
4 Ceiling has amazing work of art and many statues
5 Temple specializes in selling church services to rich or important persons
6 Temple for selecting and anointing royalty or church officials
7 Temple dedicated to knowledge and arts
8 On older temple sealed inside or under newer temple
9 Temple for specific sect, order or chapter of faith, possibly with own saint
10 Temple with collection of shrine to pantheon or saints or other planar entities

Z Shrine
Common minor holy sights
1 Semi precocious stones imbedded in sacred patterns on floor
2 Semi precocious stones imbedded in statue
3 Pillar or post with relief art and writing, possibly features of a god or beast
4 Shelf in wall with statuette
5 Bust or portrait art with text
6 Sacred fountain
7 Sacred tree or stone
8 Holy Obelisk with relief art
9 Sacred Pit or well
10 Magical Diagrams on floor or wall

1 comment:

  1. Great stuff! Makes me want to throw a crumbling manse or castle into my campaign right away!

    ReplyDelete

I love and welcome feedback but not spambots
Good feedback and suggestions inspire me to write more