Hey there, brain has run dry on dungeon design just before finishing and I need an idea for one final room.
The dungeon is small-ish, the temporary lair of an evil cleric as she raises her undead army. It'll be tackled by a 2nd level party of 4 (Fighter, Paladin, Rogue, Wizard). Location-wise it's basically underneath a small cave, dug out mostly by a single worker.
So far I've got:
- A trained animal (well, fungal crawler) guard out front (in the naturally formed part of the cave).
- The (mongrelman) worker's room dug at ground level just inside the natural entrance of the cave.
- A trapdoor room below the cave (the artificial entrance to the dungeon).
- A central "crossroads" sort of room (currently inhabited by one of the cleric's allies.
- A "storage" room with 4 zombies in addition to mundane supplies branching off the crossroads room.
- A bedroom (the cleric's room) branching off the crossroads room, currently unnoccupied but with two hidden scrolls.
- Unknown room (the one I'm having problems with) branching off the crossroads room.
- Guard post (technically the bedroom of the cleric's most trusted ally, a hobgoblin), accessed through the unknown room.
- Inner sanctum, where the confrontation with the cleric and her newly-created ghoul minion will take place, accessed through a trapped door in the guardpost.
...So I've got enough intelligent allies/workers I think, and probably enough undead. I think the one trained monster is probably enough, I'm not sure I want more than one trap, and I've got two rooms for treasure (the bedroom and the sanctum, where the loot the cleric carries will be).
This room essentially just needs to be here for my layout to work, but I don't want to leave it empty. And it's a pretty well-trafficked room, so I don't think I can believably stick a prisoner or something in there.
Oh, and one further minor restriction is nothing chaotic. Her (temporary) ally in the crossroads room is an arbiter inevitable, and likely wouldn't agree to that.
compost: where zombies turn to skeletons?
escape tunnel: well hidden
The bathroom is most often the great outdoors just outside the cave for everyone in the dungeon except the cleric. She has a bedpan in her room which the mongrelman "employee" empties and washes each morning and evening.
The inner sanctum already fills the role of evil chapel/workshop for the most part, with general not-hands-on research being done at a desk in her bedroom.
Compost and escape tunnel are good ideas, but I don't think they fit in a room that's part of a path to the inner sanctum. Compost would be better as a side room, and the escape route would be better at the far back of the dungeon, not in the middle where anyone (like the PCs) who comes to invade will inadvertently block her path to it from the sanctum.
I do like of like the idea of a half-done monster though. Maybe she moved it out of the inner sanctum temporarily for a ritual, and was going to have it brought back in later.
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Why not just making it a small sitting room?
Cos even a EVIL Cleric have to have some creature comforts!
A small table, a couple of chairs or cushions and a small pantry off the side with drinks, titbits/finger food for guests.
You could decorate it with expensive wall hangings, silver tableware and maybe a couple of poisons in the pantry for "special" guests, disguised as bottles of fine wine.
Think of it as a waiting area that most offices have where the front desk is. Guests will wait there until the Cleric calls them forth into his/her Inner sanctum... for their... appointment... lol. :)
Why not just making it a small sitting room?
Cos even a EVIL Cleric have to have some creature comforts!A small table, a couple of chairs or cushions and a small pantry off the side with drinks, titbits/finger food for guests.
You could decorate it with expensive wall hangings, silver tableware and maybe a couple of poisons in the pantry for "special" guests, disguised as bottles of fine wine.
Think of it as a waiting area that most offices have where the front desk is. Guests will wait there until the Cleric calls them forth into his/her Inner sanctum... for their... appointment... lol. :)
Possibly my favourite idea so far. Most "guests" would be dead before even getting to the dungeon, but it's still nice to have a little comfortable place. This would probably make for a better-suited meeting area than either of the two bedrooms (too personal) or the sanctum or crossroads (no proper places to sit) too.
Yes, I think I'll go with a sitting room. Thanks for the suggestion. ^_^