The Dungeon Under the Mountain—Rooms & Encounters: Pillars of Salt (OGL) PDF

As you emerge through the salt-covered door, your eyes are assaulted by a disorienting contrast of glare and shadow. Like the cramped tunnels leading here, the room inside is limned with salt deposits that cover the walls, floor, and ceiling. Scattered throughout the small chamber, a half-dozen or so massive crystalline formations jut in threatening angles like frozen thorn bushes after a midwinter’s frost. Strangely, the room is lit by a score of poorly made tallow candles placed haphazardly atop various salt deposits. The room feels hot and dry, and moisture seems to be siphoning out of your flesh. As your eyes adjust to the bouncing light, they rest on several dark shadows inside some of the large crystals. As you peer closer, you see within them dried husks of humanoids so badly desiccated that you are unable to determine their original race. Their skins are pulled so tightly that they appear skeletal, though their postures and expressions are eerily preserved in an articulation of unimaginable pain.

Discover Pillars of Salt! (Room 10, Level 1)

The Dungeon Under the Mountain is a massive dungeon complex extending endlessly below the ground. In a remote past, ancient evil beings dwelled in the area. Now, the remaining mysterious evil beings have seized the dungeons and filled it with deadly traps and monsters. Also, many known villains have established their strongholds in the depths of the Dungeon Under the Mountain. Nobody knows why this dungeon is filled with danger, but nobody cares, since this dungeon is the most prized adventure ground of the world. However, be warned, adventurers: your life will be not easy here and dozens of self-appointed heroes have never returned from the Dungeon Under the Mountain! You Have Been Warned!

This is part of a series of products detailing the rooms in the massive Dungeon Under the Mountain environment; it can be adapted without effort to any existing dungeon. It includes miniatures-scale maps where appropriate.

This product has been designed to help busy referees in preparing dungeon adventures and encounters. Instead of wasting time scaling encounters and adapting them to your party, here you will find an encounter pre-scaled to three different levels of play (low, mid and high levels). At the beginning of the encounter text, you will find a big button. This button allows you to select the level you want to play, and changes the relevant portions of the text accordingly. Monsters will scale, DCs will change, traps and villain behaviors will change.

Beside each paragraph you will find a smaller button that allows you to change only the selected paragraph. Therefore, if you need stronger monsters in your low-level encounter, you can adjust them, leaving other sections configured for low levels. Likewise, if you want traps tougher, just click on the paragraph button and change the level of the trap paragraph. Blank spaces caused by differing text lengths will be filled with placeholder artwork, so the pages will still look good.

The smaller maps feature the "Rule the Dungeon" button. By clicking it, you can customize the map by opening or closing the doors, removing the furniture or removing the fill in the walls and more, depending on the room's layout.

This product takes advantage of PDF technology, joining old-fashioned style with the most advanced electronic features. In order to use this product you must use Adobe Reader 6 or later.

Written by Tim Hitchcock.