6-Room Dungeon 6: Jungle Shrine

unauthorised public art by ELK

1 Redbrick
2 Goblin Mine
3 Gothic Tomb
4 Magic Mansion
5 Glacial Chasm
6 Jungle Shrine
7 Underland Cavern
8 Auldwood Grove
9 Sunken City
10 Desert Ruin
11 Eldritch Monolith
12 Hell Gate

When I rewrite all these in one compilation, I will update the random monster table is for minions and the static monsters for sub bosses in major rooms and bosses in the main rooms. Probably add gossip, mission, corridor variations and some other tables and info. Recommendations welcome.

Jungle Shrine
Since the age of Darkness fell in many parts of the world have remains of their ruins, servants and dead. The vast jungles of the far west and the warring east have many remnants of the age of monster kings. Many great stone statues with passages within, great tombs and plazas surrounded by temples and ziggurats can be found. Great earthworks like walls or gills under tumples are common. Sometimes, older temples or caves are buried underneath. Forbidden Island even has a colony of Shadelport, and the north sea wolves have had many temporary settlements. These allow adventurers of Exile Island and the Empire to invade and plunder, but it's awful work. Many of these places are populated by various tribal beast abhumans, orcs and humans who were servitors of the ancients. Rarely, some ancient remnant or shadow controls a complex. In some cases more recent civilisations emerged and have since fallen into apocalypse. It's quite common for several structures around a public square with possibly rival inhabitants. In the mysterious west their are large areas ruled by reptilians and apes. In the warring east vampire bat cults sacrifice thousands. Not all the tribal locals are cannibal demon cults; some descend from the rebels who overthrew them. Instead, they dont welcome invaders any more than their homegrown tyrants. They know disturbing these ruins is dangerous and plunderers can release horrible old gods. Some inhabitants, seemingly animals, might be bred to have instincts to protect the shrine. Canals, streams, pools and water will be common

d12 Jungle Shrine Decor

1 Moss on surfaces and slime pools
2 Rivulets or streams of flowing water, sometimes wearing through rocks
3 Stone head or relief carved faces, human or monster

4 Relief art with hundreds of interlocking humanoid figures

5 Pillars with ancient historic script and art

6 Overgrown with concealing flora like vines, roots or fungus

7 Wall murals or relief carvings depicting ancient rituals and monsters

8 Shrine or idol to some mysterious petty godling or spirit

9 Skulls in piles or plastered in walls and around doors

10 Sinkhole to surface or to lower level, possibly used by locals

11 Snakes, frogs, bats, scorpions or spiders or invertebrates crawling around

12 Pool, fountain or well, often ornamental and ceremonial

d12 Jungle Shrine Hazards
1 Poison dart traps
2 Nests or colony of a swarm of pests
3 Pendulum or pop out spike traps

4 Deadfall trap or loose rubble or a falling spiked log

5 Spiked pit traps or chasm, concealed or flimsy bridge

6 Holes for nipping monsters

7 Pit of lava with flimsy rock or rope bridge

8 Curse or spell trap

9 Flooded area, possibly polluted or inhabited  

10 Poison fumes, flammable gas or diseased miasma

11 Webs and spiders  

12 Mud, slippery and may hide things

d12 Jungle Shrine Encounters
1 Tribal warriors (orc, human or abhuman beast folk)

2 Goblinoid tribe worshipping the ruins

3 Demonic human cultists

4 Swarm of vermin

5 Giant snake or reptile or amphibian hunting

6 Jaguar or tigers

7 Giant bug or worm

8 Carnivorous apes or terror birds

9 Ancient wizard and minion

10 Zombies or skeletons

11 Lesser evil spirit or poltergeist

12 Lesser demon

d12 Jungle Shrine Static Monsters

1 Mummies or other undead in sarcophagi

2 Undead animals or monsters or a composite beast

3 Sphynx or Shedu

4 Manticores or Chimera

5 Lycanthropes (jaguar, tiger, frog, snake, ape, bat)

6 Living statues or gargoyles or golems

7 Naga or Couatl or Lamia

8 Ancient prehuman wizard

9 Giant worm, leech or lamprey with wizard levels and once human

10 Shoggoth or other gelatinous horror full of eyeballs and mouths

11 Dragon or other large reptilian monster

12 Lesser demon with cultists (tribal or civilised invaders)

d12 Entry Content 
1 Collapsed side of a temple or pyramid, gaping structural hole. Often overgrown and scattered with bones and mud. The partially exposed chamber within the hole has several doorways and would make a good lair for a jungle monster

2 Sinkhole into the ancient temple cave beneath the surface. The opening might be concealed under vegetation or visible. Usually, a 30-foot drop with a pool at the bottom. Either this was a temple cave carved from rock or a buried built temple. Rubble and damage will be under the opening and vines and roots might help you climb in. Bats, vermin swarms or giant bugs might dwell inside and tribes might use as a well. Calcium formations might form over features 

3 Cave with relief carvings and guardian stelae or statues. The images are sexual or fearsome monstrosities and ancient text. Guardian statues or a magic trap may repel intruders. 

4 Pool with submerged passages. Swimming is required to enter, but the best could run a rope through for unskilled landlubbers. Ancient carved stones and pillars are visible under clear waters. A dangerous aquatic monster may well dwell here

5 Shrine chamber on top of the pyramid. It may be open or still sealed with an altar inside and a statue of a demon or divinity. Magical traps or animated idols, likely.  Deeper passages or stairs down may be under stone slabs. 

6 Skull shrine built of skulls with stone and mortar. Often cursed and protected by undead or spells. Skull arches over various doors into the deep

7 Ruined temple overgrown and badly damaged, but with passages into the deep. Idols and carvings of forbidden rites for horrid gods. Angry tribal skirmishers protect it from defilers

8 Plundered tomb with excavated entrance and rubbish. Possibly a vicious gang of cultists seeking magic or foreign plunderers who just want treasure. Will aggressively defend or might make a deal. Might even force the party inside to make them face traps and monsters. Occasionally, ghouls are the robbers and are looking for corpses to eat

9 Cave lair of a monster with a nest and possibly eggs or young. Dinosaurs, dragons, giant apes or some other creature with doors partly covered in faeces and bones. The creature might be out hunting

10 Vegetation-shrouded cave or structure requiring removal and searching to find. Plants may be more dangerous; a colony of carnivorous or dangerous plants, possibly several types, planted as guardians. Entrances need to be hacked open

11 Small tribal village of native humans, orcs or beast folk abhumans. Their priest occupies the entryway and limits who may enter. The tribe are either a demon chaos cult or hateful of foreign invaders, awakening stuff humans were never meant to know

12 Under the corpse or skeleton of a colossal beast. Either a giant skeleton over caves or holes into the deep or a rotting corpse with passages through it infested with huge maggots and flies. Giant vermin may lurk here, stripping remains or some larger dinosaur or even a tribe 

d12 Subroom Content 
1 Skull storage or ossuary

2 Shrine or idol

3 Undead imprisoned or reserved

4 Urns or pottery

5 Vermin nest and broken pottery

6 Jewellery on a body might be cursed or undead

7 Vermin nest or more snakes

8 Shelves of scrolls or tablets

9 Mutilated corpse ritualistically tortured

10 Pool or well and possibly a creature lair

11 Sarcophagi for undead or sleeping ancient

12 Trap to imprison an evil spirit, maybe in an idol or sealed pot

d12 Major Room
1 Mousoleum chamber with burial niches, possibly sealed, may have a cadre of undead guards of a lesser type

2 Temple chamber with altar and a fierce alien idol. May be cursed or have a holy guardian spirit or construct. Might also have undead priests or tribal demon cult who still use it

3 Torture chamber with gruesome torture stations, cells, pits and gruesome remains of flayed and dismembered corpses. May be haunted or in use by cultists to please their sadistic gods

4 Monster Shrine with ornate art depictions of a species of monster and even a sunken pit for actual creatures, with a crude effort to make it pleasing to the beast. The creatures may still live here out of habit or cultists may care for them here. The monsters could also be mummified dead also

5 Observatory with either a dome with viewports of the sky or astrological charts on the ceiling. May be telescope, an astrolabe model of the cosmos, piles of records and a scrying chamber with an evil magic orb. Images depict the heavens, the planetary gods and the spirits of the stars, the sun and moon. Prophecies may be noted for some future that has become just the near future 

6 Flooded chamber sunken with visible broken statues and pillars on the bottom. Dangerous creatures may use it as a lair, and it requires a swim to reach the passages out

7 Bath house or sacred pool, likely lair of a creature or possibly undead or nature spirits. Beings in human form might try and lure adventurers in the pool, perhaps with treasure or claims of healing powers

8 Library with collapsed shelves of rotting hide scrolls and stone tablets. Vermin nests may lurk here, but also phantom spirits of librarians of old, possibly non-human, may protect the remains. Arcane and religious lore could be recovered here 

9 Puzzle Room with elaborate art or baited to lure in idiots and let those who solve the puzzle to pass. Failure often activates a trap or the room is a trap that seals and has a time-based peril. Lava, water, snakes, undead, crushing walls or roof, gas, spikes, etc. The room is designed to be passed by those with the right knowledge 

10 Death Pit Chamber with a huge pit with a limited or risky crossing. The pit has a peril such as poison stakes, snakes, lava or monsters. Its a bad place to be attacked while crossing 

11 Wizards Lab, where ancient wizards made magic and performed alchemy. Magical constructs, undead, oozes or modern explorers here for secrets. Remains of an apparatus, magical experiments and forbidden lore may be found 

12 Slave Pits where tormented captives were kept in locked pits. Many now hold skeletons or even the undead. Other remains are chained to walls or in hanging tiny cages. Cell pits may be dark or flooded or hold a horrible creature or experiments

d12 Feature Room
1 Ancient Vault with a huge sealed door weighing tons and trapped with magic. Inside will be a final guardian automaton, demon or undead. May require magic or a puzzle or multiple keys to open

2 Throne room with a raised area with an ornate throne with skull and demon motifs. Tribal abhumans, orcs or humans may use it or cultists. Monsters or undead may also be likely. Guard minions and possibly a dangerous pet

3 Ball court or combat arena. A sunken pit where bloody ritual sports or gladiators fight to death while the elite watch. Some prefer animal fights or just see monsters eat people. Wizards might also battle with spells or summoned creatures. The ruler will have their own balcony. Maybe a cursed remnant, an undead, a monster, tribal cultists or humanoids might still use it. Even civilised pirates might occupy this and run for blood sports. May even be a crowd to watch

4 Sacrificial pit chamber where victims are thrown into a terrible pit in ceremonies (or lowered in a cage or chains. Room for chanting cultists to see the victims screaming. The pit may have a monster, spikes, lava or be flooded with creatures swimming in it. All may be long dead and gone, leaving cursed undead or may have a living cult or tribe. Victims may be about to be killed. Treasures are also thrown into the pit 

5 Summoning pit where alien beings are drawn to the world and imprisoned or enslaved. May require rituals and paraphernalia. Magic circle symbols may trap otherworldly beings, even if summoners are long gone. Summoned beings or cultist summoners may be here or invading foreign wizards. Valuable goods or prisoners may be here to bargain with beings or pits of raw materials for elemental beings

6 Great mushroom chamber overgrown with giant fungus and slime. Glowing spores float in the air like mist. Fungal and slime creatures dwell here, but also giant vermin live among them. Other creatures may come here for rituals using the magic fungus. Undead here will be fungoids and not unholy or supernatural evil 

7 Vegetal chamber, possibly with cracks in the roof for light or magical lights. Plants and vines cover the chamber, and there will be some pools or flooded lower floor levels in places. Plants may be carnivorous or hostile, but may be infested with dangerous creatures like apes or snakes or killer frogs. Tribal people or cults might use the chamber as a sacred place. Dangers here will have protected treasures from thieves
8 Underworld gate, a literal ornate gate at the bottom of a slope or stairs. There may be vapours from the underworld here and ornate cult art. Some may be flooded with a wharf and an ornate funeral barge. Ancients used this for rituals and to communicate with the realms below. May link to volcanic caves and sinkholes in the area, and various wild creatures. May link to deeper prehuman civilisations of abhuman beast folk and their pets. Possibly used for ritual sacrifice or a ritual ordeal to breathe the fumes. Cults may be long gone and undead or active living tribal humans or abhumans

9 Crystal Chamber with exotic, huge crystals and trickling pools. There may be crystal beings or they might be a magical machine with some purpose like divination, spell storage or absorbing magic. Cultists or foreign wizards might come to steal or learn. Crystals might be carved into relief scenes or skulls or something else. Crystals might communicate thoughts or cause confusion.

10 Machine chamber with an ancient magic apparatus built with alien magic. Maybe seeming mechanical or glass or biological. Maybe for making monsters or magic items but it requires souls of gems to fuel. Ancient guardians might protect it or it might be self-aware. Foreign wizards or local cults will use it. A control altar studded in gems will have weird effects if meddled with

11 God Pit is a pit imprisoning a forgotten godling from beyond. It may be chained, under a holy rock, in a magic circle or trapped in an impotent form. The god may send dreams to lure rescuers here or other mental effects. There may be guardians to keep the god imprisoned such as constructs or a tribe of protectors. The god may also have a treasure, or its prison has tempting valuables that removing empower the prisoner 

12 Portal room is a stone archway in a ornate chamber. It may be broken or link to a far away temple, the ancient past or another plane.A guardian construct or planar being might dwell here and cults or foreign plunderers might be here too. Opening the portal risks beings from other side or a fast way to cross the world