Dungeon: Troglodyte Cave

Okay. Really long post this time, to completely go over the first dungeon that I described in the Session One Outline. Again, this is the first post that I've done about a dungeon, so the formatting is not finalized. Also, the pictures came out a little weird, so I'll try to fix it if they are off-center. No promises though. Pictures this time are credit to...me! I made and painted this dungeon by hand using techniques I learned from watching theDMscraft on YouTube. All of it is made out of cardboard, and I think it came out really well, considering that I have no artistic talent whatsoever.

Theme: Introductory

Type: Cave

Challenges:

•                Combat

•                Skills

•                Traps

Adversaries:

•               Kobolds

•                Troglodytes

•                Ooze

Boss:

•                Large ooze

•                Troglodyte Cleric

Loot:

•                Gold and gems

•                Rudimentary weapons and armor, no value

•                Hidden stashes include small amounts of treasure

Goals:

•                Kill inhabitants of the cave

•                Destroy the ooze

Info:

            This is the first dungeon that my group will be delving into. It's meant as more of an introductory challenge, since they are all very new to the game. As such, I want to gauge their interests by throwing a lot of different things at them in very basic capacities. This dungeon includes a lot of different types of combat - elevation, cover, traps, and special abilities are all at play. There is one spellcaster that acts as a complement to the boss. There is also a skills challenge towards the end of the dungeon.

            Since I don't know what the players are expecting out of the game, this dungeon is built to have a little bit of everything. What they react positively to will occur more frequently in future sessions. If they don't like something, then it will not reappear in other dungeons or encounters.

            The cave has a mix of ranged and melee fighters. Kobolds serve to swarm the PCs in melee but die in one hit. The troglodytes have some small ranged capability but also tend to be melee bruisers. Their stench introduces the party to special abilities of monsters, without it being too terribly punishing.

            The addition of ooze serves to introduce the party to non-standard monster types. Ooze are highly underrated in my opinion, and it will make the party understand that D&D can be a weird place sometimes. The lore here is that the troglodytes are worshipping the ooze as a manifestation of their deity. Whether or not this comes into play further down the line remains to be seen, as it depends greatly on how receptive the players are to it.

Layout:

The dungeon is fairly small. Only a few rooms, and most of them are very basic. Each has one element that is different from the others, to show the party how dungeon tiles can be unique.

Entrance:

The entryway has an elevated platform with one archer on top of it. That archer is difficult to reach, and requires a Climb check for a PC to get up to him. There are also going to be a few kobolds in the room pestering the party, but they should be dispatched quickly.

Side Chamber:

This is adjacent to the entrance and has no other exits. The colored splotches are puddles of ooze, and provide the party with their first encounter of an ooze. It is easily dispatched. There is a hidden stash with a small amount of gold in here.

Corridor:

Just a basic corridor. The brown spaces in here are difficult terrain, which the archers on the other side use to delay the party.

Armory:

This room has a collection of clubs and rough leather that serves as armor. There are two troglodytes in here that are ready for battle. Once the PCs approach, the two of them immediately attack and try to surprise the party as they come for the archers in the corridor.

Prison:

This small room is a prison. The detached piece at the bottom is the actual cell, though it is empty. The red splotches here are meant to be blood, and the PCs can see dead bodies lying in them. Ooze also rises out of other colors and attacks. The purple ooze inside the cell has a human skeleton disintegrating inside of it.

Skills Challenge:

No picture for this one. After the corridor but before the boss, the PCs have a skills challenge. The room is filled with traps, and they have to navigate to the other side. This is a purely free-form challenge, whereupon I will let the players describe the traps and how they avoid them while getting to the other side. If they don’t bite the bait, then I will prompt them and ask how they get across. This can either go very well, or fail spectacularly.

If the PCs succeed, they get into the boss room undetected and get the advantage of a surprise round.

If the PCs fail, the troglodytes are alerted that they have survived up to this point, and the boss room will be more heavily defended.

Boss:

This is the final room. There are troglodytes standing on the altar sacrificing humans into the pit to the oozes. There is one cleric standing in the very center, summoning forth the large ooze that acts as the main boss. There is a large number of kobolds standing inside the room, ready to attack the party. If they managed to succeed at the skills challenge, they can enter the room and have a full round of surprise to attack the disorganized forces. If, however, they failed the skills challenge, then the kobolds will be arranged in a more defensive position to delay the PCs and there is no surprise round.

            The troglodytes sacrificing the humans take time. If the PCs can interrupt the ritual within 3 rounds, the humans are not sacrificed. If they kill a troglodyte about to sacrifice someone, that human escapes and is not present for the rest of the fight. After 3 rounds, the boss ooze emerges from the pit regardless of the interruption. He will have 5 less hit points for each troglodyte interrupted, including the main Cleric who is not sacrificing anyone.

The boss itself is mostly the combination of the cleric and the ooze. The ooze will actually engulf any kobolds on the way towards the party, and engages them in combat. The ooze is still fairly weak, but is a potent melee threat as it divides while attacked. The cleric is a minor spellcaster who casts Bless right at the start of the fight. After that, he has a Masterwork Morningstar and a Masterwork Chain Shirt which the party can loot once he is defeated, assuming he is not eaten by the ooze.

When the dungeon is cleared, there may be survivors. They will obviously be grateful. I would assign a small gold increase to the loot for each person saved, representing their gratitude when the PCs return as triumphant heroes. The loot consists only of gold and gems, as the troglodytes have nothing else of value. Most of their gear is just clubs and ruined leather.