6-Room Dungeon 10: Desert Ruin

I have post with more weird inn rooms ready...

Vote and comment below for next...
Other recommendations or requests are welcome

6-room Eldritch Monolith Dungeon
or
Hell Freezes Over - continue my hell series & expand my glacier stuff
or
The Great Dragonspawn Pits - where dragons breed and get ready for the apocalypse

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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

mapping your 6 room dungeon

Possibly useful
https://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2022/04/necropolis-of-yor.html

I recomend dont just do egytian desert stuff with this (but do that too) try ancient Mederteranean or Iraq or Hitites even India has desert regions.

Desert Ruin
In the south are remnants of ancient kingdoms now deserts. Pockets of the age of Exilon still survive in places, but mostly it is ruins. Locals often shun these places of their ancestors, and zealots will protect them. Others come to rob these places, and tomb-robbing families trace their lineage back to times when the ruins were built. Undead, elemental beings and strange desert spirits may control a complex as a home. Desert factions like bandits, cults or kingdoms might use as a base or to extract treasure.

d12 Desert Ruin Decor
1 Huge pillars carved as gods or beast-headed beings

2 Sarcophagi or burial nich, sealed or looted?

3 Ancient text on walls painted or carved

4 Relief wall art or mural of historic or mythical events

5 Ornate stone brazier or altar

6 Idols or statues of ancient gods or just huge stone heads

7 Sphynx, shedu or griffon statues in rows or built into corners or doorways 

8 Ornate archway gate with lions or other beast carvings 

9 Amphoras stacked, broken pottery in heaps or huge stone storage urns

10 Figurines of workers or soldiers, often with model buildings and dioramas of everyday life

11 Sand everywhere or broken masonry

12 Piles of desicated corpses from builders, thieves or drugged sacrifices 

d12 Desert Ruin Hazards
1 Vermin nests with bats, rats, bugs or snakes 

2 Scythe or pendulum trap triggered by the floor

3 Pits with ghouls or snakes or scorpions

4 Trapdoor-covered pits with spikes

5 Dart or spear launching traps with poison

6 Deadfall or spike traps

7 Cursed treasures

8 Hostile spirits in artworks

9 Diseased choking mummy dust

10 Poison gas released
11 Living statues or golem

12 Sleeping undead in sarcophagi

d12 Desert Ruin Encounters
1 Skeleton or zombie or spectral soldiers

2 Giant scorpions or scorpion-folk

3 Undead abhuman beast folk warriors

4 Swarm of undead severed hands or animated canopic jar organs

5 Tomb robbers, adventurers or cultists

6 Mummy seeking loot, or a nice sarcophagus or some bodily fluids

7 Bat or bird-winged flying snakes

8 Undead mummified sacred animals (lion, crocodile, hippo, bull)

9 Moaning spirit or wraith

10 Hungry ghouls

11 Cats, vultures or snakes, possibly undead
12 Sand elemental creatures

d12 Desert Ruin Static Encounters
1 Wingless griffons or crocodile-headed lions

2 Sphynx or lamia or shedu or chimaera

3 Sarcophagi with guardian mummies

4 Cultists having a ritual with a priest or wizard

5 Insectpoid beast folk with queen, guard and eggs

6 Undead lycanthrope in partial beast form with undead pets and beast folk minions

7 Giant hive with giant 

8 Centaurs or lion-centaur or scorion-centaur 

9 Beast-headed demons with magic weapons

10 Naga or coutl or hydra

11 Elemental genius spirit like a djinn or efreeti

12 Desert dragon

d12 Desert Ruin Entry
1 False tomb chamber with empty sarcophagi and dust, secret doors hide passages to the real complex. Bandits, undead or beast may rest here sometimes

2 Ancestral hall with carved pillars with names of ancestors and dynasties. A cult of tomb guardians camp here and kill robbers and looters or foreigners. The rest of the complex is hidden behind stone slabs

3 Hole dug by romb robbers into a deep complex, bypassing the long destroyed entrance. The robbers might be here or have been killed by tomb guardians

4 Shrine where people come to worship with idols and carvings of old gods. Secret doors go beyond 

5 Crumbling tomb long looted with scattered bones and mummy fragments. Ghouls, robbers, jackals or hyenas may dwell here. Stone slabs conceal the rest of the complex 

6 Someone was mining bricks in a pit and exposed an ancient chamber with secret doors. Some guardians may have killed them
7 Sand has moved overnight, exposing the entrance of an ancient buried complex, perhaps the top of a pyramid, temple or tomb. Inside, some desert monster might be exploring or a desert or monster faction. Passages hidden by wall carvings.

8 Great ornamental bronze doors, beyond is an ancient entry hall. There may be castleations or troops here to defend the door. Defenders might be undead with arrow slits and a cauldron of boiling oil. The chamber within has crates, amphora and military supplies

9 Enigma Door: a magical puzzle lock opens this door to an entry chamber. Another puzzle or teap must be solved and secret doors found to advance. Two living statues or golems may be here as guardians. Correct knowledge bypasses these perils
10 Vast stone structure has a broken opening with rubble where someone tried to dig in. Though a hole in the structure, there are more passages. Guards may protect the tomb or thieves might be digging in. Otherwise, something in the complex might have come out into the entrance

11 A mighty but worn statue of an ancient god or ruler, in the base is a chamber with a shrine. Passages below might be concealed. Hermits, undead, cults, beasts or graverobbers might be here

12 A cliff with huge relief carvings in several ancient languages and huge profile figures of gods and kings fighting enemies and building wonders. There are open caves in the base, perhaps used by beasts or hermits, but a magic-sealed stone door requires words or spells to reach an entry chamber. More spell-trapped or cursed doors access other areas. 

d12 Desert Ruin Subroom
1 Shelves with tablets or scrolls in urns, many ruined

2 Crypt with sarcophagi

3 Shelves of canopic jars

4 Stored luxury furniture of the ancients, some have harmless petty magic

5 Shrine with an idol and an incense burner

6 Chest of treasure, cursed or guarded by a spell

7 Rack of ancient weapons

8 Well with washbowl, polished metal mirror and cosmetics

9 Shelf of mummified pets or sacred beasts
10 Niche for spare undead guards

11 Spyhole into another room

12 Chamber to see and speak through a statue in another room

d12 Desert Ruin Main Room

1 Garden courtyard with attractive murals, gravel courtyards and sculptures of animals. Often a fountain, pond or artificial flowing stream (possibly magic) and some have magic lighting. If lit may have real plants or animals. May have automaton or undead gardeners or some magic creatures like a sphynx or shapeshifting djinn. Inhabitants could be hostile or welcome with luxurious feasts and turn water feature into wine. They might hang kebabs on skewers and roast chickens in the branches of sculpted trees. 

2 Luxury courtyard with murals, relief wall carvings, statues or Shedu or Sphynx or other Chimaera. Guards or a wandering encounter might be here or their could have beings from the artwork appear here. There will be some stone benches to and admire the artwork

3 Funeral barge room has a large open space displaying a spectacular funeral or temple barge with luxurious carvings and gold leaf decor. May be suspended in a pit or in pool with a walkway. May have treasure or artwork inside for the afterlife. Undead or spectral spirits may be crew or priests performing rites here 

4 Chariot room displays a wonderous gilded chariot with rack of javelins and a fine gilded bow and arrows. The room might have statues of soldiers (could be animated) or even mummy guards and crew. The horses may be a pile of bones but might reform or have spirit versions. A skeletal or spirit version of the chariot may arise here to defend the complex. Some have several chariots

5 Bathing hall with pools and fine silk curtains. Glistening brass platters and wine jugs and carpets decorate the room. Spirits or undead beings from a past harem might live here and other family members. They might have been interned in a structure and then returned here for the life they knew. Might also be bound planar beings in human form, trapped here 

6 Library hall with shelves of stone tablets and scroll cases. Relief writing and images will be carved in wall for religious study. Spirit, sphynx or genius may guard the room as librarians and repair damage. They may not let documents leave but will let you read or copy here

7 Drill hall, a large room with cobblestones and wall art of marching soldiers with plunder and prisoners. Undead soldiers often drill here

8 Mortuary shrine with sarcophagi, burial niches in walls and under the floor. A shrine with statues of ancient people praying to worship ancestors and the family of the complex. It may be possible to contact ancients. Art depicts the historic struggles of peoples and then the age of wonder they build

9 Museum Hall with scenes of cosmos and creatures aranged by ancient taxonomy. Pliths and racks display ancient weapons, uniforms, tablets, idols of exotic materials and giant amphora possibly magically sealed with grain and wine. Some of the statues here are magical golem guards

10 Mousoleum with hundreds of niches and many large sarcophagi of some ancient dynasty. Wall art depicts journeys to the underworld. Undead of various type guard the chamber and offended by theives or ghouls might use this as family room

11 Pit Chamber with a long room with murals and some statues. The floor has multiple pit traps, small ones randomly and several large trenches crossing the room and making crossings hard. May be concealed and repaired by spirits but some might be broken with a body inside. Spikes, water, animal swarms are common. Smaller ones are self sealing as you fall in and they might flood with water, sand or a swarm once your locked in. Often guardians might ignore these traps

12 Reliquary hall with chests on plinths and collections of canoptic jars, cremation urns, idols, carved border stones, pillar with laws or history incribed and other sacred objects. Likley cursed and guardian statues will protect

d12 Desert Ruin Feature Room

1 Throne room occupied by a mummy lord or lich and court of undead servants, pets and lovers. There will be piles of trasure here

2 Temple with huge statues of gods, carved text and wall art. An altar and sacred pool are on a plinth. Often protected by undead clergy or golems. Holy objects likley magical relics  

3 Royal crypt with a ornate gold sarcophogi in a larger stone coffin weiging tons. Will be four guardian statues, angels, elementals, mummies, griffons or other chimera protect the crypt. The coffin is also filled with gold items and the mummy will hold other relic items 

4 Hive chamber overgrown by colonial giant insects nest like termites, ants, wasps, bees, worms or mantises. Possibly could have insectoid beast abhumans. They will have hoarded valuables and possibly prisoners. Their might be some spirit being encouraging them like one of the swarm beast lords  

5 Treasure vault with huge doors requiring tons of strength and a huge bolt and lock. Magic wards and other guardians like golems or undead. Inside will be a fabulous treasure in piles with urns of coins

6 Pleasure tesseract a multidimensional space with esher like walkways and gravity polarised to local surfaces to you can walk up walls and onto ceilings. Statues and idols and flying guardians like demons, griffons, harpies or gargoyles guard the chamber. Different surfaces might have weird magic traps but also an impressive treasure or artwork. Artworks on walls may be entrances to subrooms or pocket dimensions where characters in the art live in a time loop. The room might be bigger than the tomb or following the walkways may loop you to other side of the same space like an old platform arcade game. Some art might be used to teleport vast distances into other desert deathtraps

7 Artefact vault where a great artifact is indide a huge cage requiring tons of muscle power to open. The object is a large relic possibly requiring four or more to carry. It will be guarded by spells and curses but and possibly mummies, sphynxes or demons

8 Arcane Engine a magical machine used by alchemists and wizards for some great purpose such as d4 1=put in an animal and human and a two beast abhumans come out (possibly make halfling size ones with settings) or traps elementals and kills them then used to restore spent spells 3=opens a portal to various locations 4=golem or undead maker. It is a threat to the world order but may require souls or gems or chanting cultists to work. It cant be moved and possibly gods dont like it or it accelerates global desertification. Creatures in dungeon might be made here 

9 Alchemy chamber with great vats, amphora of rare materials, workbenches and shelves. Some alchemical life like slimes or golems might guard or work here. Possibly, tomb inhabitants might come from vats and work benches here. Often stuffed animals and mummification supplies might be here with canoptic jars and mummified pets

10 Underworld gate here is a vast gate requiring tons of muscle to open. Beyond is a passage to the land of the dead. An avatar of an underworld gate is here to advise you or welcome you. It will explain the rules. It also keeps things in the underworld but the sealed doors work better. Often statues and spells guard the door also

11 Eldritch prison where some evil god or being is imprisoned in agony. They may be trapped in an object like a statue or sealed pit or chained in torment. May be tormented by lesser beings or snakes. Magical guards and spells will warn you away but the bound god offers absolute power, immortality and other fabulous prizes. Other evil beings like wizards or demons. The torture devices restraining the prisoner may be ornate and gold, perhaps in the form of a giant scorpion with claws and sting or several scorpions. 

12 The Arcane Pit with one or several great pit portals. Perhaps sacrifices were thrown in or beings summoned here. Some might have bars or stairs or individual locked doors. Used for planar travel or distance transport. Pits may fall into darkness or have an appearance suggesting a destination like flames, black tentacles, lake of slime with eyes