Three Generic Minidungeons

I need to round out my hexcrawl with some dungeons to plunder, there's too many unmapped locations filled with hordes of high HD monsters. Dungeons are a style of play with far greater options for risk mitigation.

This post uses the "Generic Maps" in the Monster Overhaul. I haven't used any of its statblocks, because I don't know how well they map to OSE and I'm already referencing three different bestiaries.

1: BACHELORETTE'S BARBICAN

An abandoned outpost of the Dragon Cults. Recently reoccupied by a young wyrm, her cult of skinkmen and a hapless prince she snatched in a bridal kidnapping.

LOCAL ENCOUNTER: Cloudkiss flying overhead or a tribe of 5D4 Blue-Tongues leaving offerings.

OVERVIEW
Scale is 10ft per square. Doors are made from stone, secured with iron locks and have a tendency to screech when opened. Portcullises in H7 and H8 require inhuman strength to lift. 

Cloudkiss is either being pampered in H7 (25%), flying around the surrounding area (45%) or sleeping in H8 (30%). Prince Aeson is either locked in H3 (60%), eating with the Mesedi in H4 (35%) or trying to escape under the cover of darkness (5%).

Patrols of 2D4 Mesedi move around the dungeon. 2-in-6 chance of encounter per Turn. The Spectral Conclave is either arguing with itself in H5 (50%), or flying around the dungeon berating people for perceived failures (50%). 1-in-6 chance of encounter per Turn, on top of chance to encounter Mesedi.

DUNGEON KEY

H1: Flat courtyard of stone, 10ft above the wetland's waterline. Carved into a larger rock formation by dragon breath. Edge of platform drops into waist-deep swampwater. Several bark canoes are moored here, reeking of dead fish.

H2: Entry hall with 2D4 Mesedi on guard. Baskets of fish and fruit, offerings from nearby Blue-Tongue tribes. Doubledoors spring-loaded to open violently outwards (D10 DMG, Save vs Paralysis negates). Side door is locked and trapped with bouquet of poison grenades hidden in ceiling (10ft cloud, 5 DMG per round, Save vs Breath halves).

H3: Prison cell, barred from the outside. Interior is comfortable by human standards. Expensive inks and nice wine worth 185 GP. Prince Aeson kept captive here. 

H4: Blue-Tongue living quarters. Left is a kitchen with a +1 Cleaver of Purify Food and 1,660 GP in expensive spices and cuts of monstermeat. 2D4 Mesedi preparing food or eating.

Centre is a barracks, 1,420 GP and four poison grenades. 2D4 Mesedi cleaning equipment or sleeping. Levers on the wall control the danger room's difficulty.

Right is a danger room. Holes in the walls hide long spears. Step on a pressure plate in the room's centre and they attack as Dwarf 5. Difficulty is adjustable with levers in the barracks. If the Skinkmen know someone's coming, they crank it to its max: four attacks per round.

u/TheMrPilgrim

H5: Campaign room. If the Spectral Conclave (CC2) are here, they're armchair theorising about grand wars against the Serpentman Empire. Always in disagreement with one another, the ghosts demand passing adventurers weigh in on their military fantasies.

North is a crypt with the sarcophagi of four Dragi. 13,350 GP in grave goods, Potion of Invisibility, Potion of Control Human, Potion of Cure Disease, +1 Shield of Poison Resistance and scrolls of (massmorph, teleport, conjure elemental, detect magic (mu), levitate). Door isn't trapped in the traditional sense, but touching it immediately summons the Spectral Conclave.

H6: Defensive tunnel, used to flank besiegers. Secret doors of counterweighted stone provide access to H7 and H8. Cloudkiss can squeeze into the tunnel, but only in dire circumstances. The space is too narrow for her to turn around, leaving her defenceless and feeling very undignified.

H7: Weapons production. If Cloudkiss is present, so are 2D4 Mesedi hard at work grooming her, bottling smog into grenades and forging loose scales into war gear. Ten poison grenades and 1,500 GP in polished dragon scales (as Magical Pelt per Rules Post).

Doug Williams

H8: Treasure horde. Front is littered with bones of creatures Cloudkiss has devoured.

Back is the treasure pile that Cloudkiss sleeps on. 71,660 GP, Potion of Clairvoyance, seven +1 Arrows, +2 Shield of Featherfall, three +1 Javelins of Lightning, +1/+3 Sword of Mageslaying (+3 versus casters and to Saves vs Spells) and scrolls of (hold person, mirror image, shield, detect invisible, wizard eye).

The horde is trapped with a pressurised barrel of poisonous gas. Disturbing the pile causes it to burst (30ft cloud, 15 DMG per round, Save vs Breath halves).

CLOUDKISS
A Green Dragon (OSE) kicked out of the house by her father, the ancient tyrant Shining-Scales. Currently lairing in one of his old outposts after recruiting the local Blue-Tongues into her cult.

Cloudkiss is late to this "feudalism" thing, but got the ball rolling by kidnapping a prince. She's trying to convince Aeson to marry her, but gets flustered talking to attractive men. The dragonness has ordered her Blue-Tongues to assemble an especially large dowry for House Attis; an apology for attacking their castle and eating their peasants. 

The dragoness will release Aeson if promised marriage to a suitably powerful player character. She'll want a Cleric to bless the union, so it can't be annulled later. News of the wedding doesn't go down well with the Druid Mafia, who immediately send adventurers to assassinate the groom.

Saelrum

PRINCE AESON
Aeson's tenure as Crown Prince of House Attis hasn't been easy; born in an era where feudal lords play second fiddle to national governments, trading companies and religious corporations.

The prince was in the Bloody Marches trying to reign in the Druid Mafia, who are technically his tenants. Being kidnapped has let Rion and his goons have the run of his demense. Aeson is tempted to marry Cloudkiss, but worries it would give House Attis' rivals carte blanche to destroy them.

Stats as Knight 4 with a hidden +1/+3 Dagger of Nightbane (+3 versus creatures with infravision and renders wielder invisible to them). He's half-heartedly planning to use it in an escape attempt. 

THE SPECTRAL CONCLAVE
A gestalt of four dead dragon cultists from a bygone era. With the arrival of Cloudkiss, the ghosts spend their time belittling Blue-Tongues for being inferior to the Dragi, inventing pointless military hypotheticals and nagging the dragoness to rebuild her father's empire.

THE MESEDI
Unmarried Blue-Tongues (CC1 as Skinkmen) serving as royal guards. A cut above the rabble, max HP per HD. They wear +1 coats of plates (as chain), +1 shields and +1 spears cut from dragon scales. They carry two grenades each (10 foot cloud of gas, 5 DMG per round, Save vs Breath halves).

Mediocre morale, prefer to retreat and wear down foes with attrition warfare. This changes if fighting in direct defence of Cloudkiss, where they sell their lives dearly.

There's eighteen Mesedi. Due to a regime of microdosing, they're immune to Cloudkiss' smog. They fight by saturating the battlefield with gas grenades and then skewering survivors.

Warhammer Fantasy

2: WARTMEN'S WARSHIP

A coven of hags and a cult of Weretoads labour to get an ancient death ray fully operational.

LOCAL ENCOUNTER: D4 Weretoads and D4 Giant Toads, looking for travellers to snatch. Or the Hags on a giant Floating Disc pulled by Devil Frogs, blasting anything that moves with their Death Ray. 

OVERVIEW
Scale is 5ft to a square. W7 and 8 have chest-high water (and so does W6 once the door is opened).

Walls are 5-inch thick bronze plates engraved with non-functioning runes of floating disc, levitation, resist energy etc. etc. Doors are sheets of thin bronze with simple locks.

The Hags are either co-sleeping in W1 (40%) or off by themselves (60%). If the latter, Spinner will be preaching to the Wartmen in W3, Cutter will be playing with the Devil Toad in W2 and Brittle will be screwing around with the Death Ray in W4.

Lone Weretoads roam the boat, 2-in-6 chance of encounter per Turn. If not dispatched quickly, they ribbit loudly to raise the hue and cry.

DUNGEON KEY
W1: Captain's cabin converted into a Hag den. Door is trapped with a jar of eyeballs balanced on top, which polymorphs trespassers into Giant Toads if it shatters (Save vs Spells negates). The sisters co-sleep here, a habit their mother taught them to curtail their natural inclination for fratricide. The room is filled with alchemical reagents and glowing gemstones worth 14,580 GP.

W2: Poop deck occupied by a Devil Frog (CC2). One isn't enough to haul the Death Ray, so the Hags are working to make a second. The beast sleeps in a den of bracken and 7,250 GP in pelts.

W3: Nest of the Weretoads, partially flooded and full of their mutant tadpoles. 2D4 Weretoads and 2D4 Giant Toads (polymorphed humans). The spawning pools contain 1,400 GP in gemstones but it's a Save vs Poison to root through, else you contract lycanthropy.

W4: Broken elevator for raising the Death Ray onto the deck. The titular weapon does what it says on the tin, blasting a beam of entropy in a 500ft line (Save vs Death negates). It works by artificially aging its victims a few hundred years; great on biological targets, not so much for stone or metal. 

The ray is the size of an observatory telescope and must warm up for 5 rounds before firing. By default pointed at stairs from W8, but only manned and primed to fire if the alarm has been raised. 

W5: Larder full of dead bugs either hung from the ceiling or mushed into a paste inside barrels.

W6: Locked bronze door with a sign in Forktongue warning of curses. The Hags are ophidophones, so stopped the Wartmen opening the door. 

Inside is some Boots of Dancing, a Necklace of Strangulation, a Horn of Frothing and the cursed Lawful-aligned +2 Sword "Honour-Killing" (forces the wielder and those it strikes to Save vs Spells or commit suicide, if they've offended the sword's old-fashioned sensibilities).

W7: Cargo hold with hole in the hull. Four Bloodgills (CC1) lurk on the roof in cryptobiosis. The floor is littered with bear traps (D6 DMG, immobilises leg). A screaming victim is sure to awaken the sleeping monsters. Searching the flooded room finds 560 GP in gems.

W8: Surgery with a dentist chair made from barbed wire. This animate operating table (OSE as Giant Octopus immune to non-magical attacks) is currently restraining a Weretoad. The Hags told their minions not to touch the chair, so didn't help this Wartman after he failed to heed their warning. 

Casters can reprogram the chair to heal HP, cure mundane diseases or go on a vivisection rampage.

THE HAG COVEN
This trio of River Hags (Carcass 5) rule the Wartmen with an iron fist. They took power in a bloody coup, killing or exiling any Weretoads that opposed them. Under their leadership, the tribe is trying to carve out a new empire in the Bloody Marches. The Hags were collaborators of the Serpentmen and are eager to pick up where the snakes left off.

• Spinner, quiet, contemplative and cruel. Carries manskin scrolls she casts from (invisibility 10' radius x2, protection from normal missiles, remove curse (curse) x2, hold monster).

• Cutter, honest, violent and prefers melee over her gaze attack. Carries the Chaotic-aligned +1/+3 Spear "Manslaughter" (+3 versus humanoids, double damage versus humans, refuses to be wielded by a human but is easily lied to).

• Brittle, loud, brash and twitchy. Carries a Potion of Speed she abuses to spam polymorphs on multiple targets. Mans the Death Ray if the alarm is raised.

The coven's plan involves polymorphing travellers into Giant Toads. Once they've accumulated another 30 HD of victims, they'll perform a mass-sacrifice and make a second Devil Frog. This is all to haul the Death Ray out of the ruined warship. The trio haven't considered other options because when all you have is dark magic, everything looks like a blood sacrifice.

THE WARTMEN
A tribe of fourteen Weretoads (Carcass 5) suborned by the Hags. Only a handful are aboard the warship, most are roaming the Bloody Marches in search of food and sacrificial victims. They prefer to capture people by swallowing them whole and delivering them to the Hags for polymorphing.

The Wartmen don't use weapons or armour. They used to, but the Hags brainwashed them into being primitivist lunatics so they'd be easier to control.

THE GIANT TOADS
Actually polymorphed humanoids. Slaves used by the Wartmen for menial labour and as a source of tadpoles, which the Weretoads gleefully cannibalise. A casting of Remove Curse frees them. 

Roll a D10 for who they are:
1-6: Normal Human.
7-9: Random Adventurer of D3 Levels.
10: Random Adventurer of D4+2 Levels.

3: THAUMATURGY TRAPHOUSE

An underground drug lab spewing out bulk orders of potions and mutagenic pollution.

LOCAL ENCOUNTER: The Black Thorns picking up a shipment of potions (Treasure Type N x 2).

OVERVIEW
Scale is 10ft to a square. T1 and T4 is 30ft lower than the rest of the dungeon and filled with toxic smog (damage as Cloudkill). T6 is 10ft lower than the rest of the dungeon. Doors are lacquered wood and reinforced with airtight seals made from lycanthrope leather.

Patrols of D4 Meatheads roam T3, T5, T6 and T7, 2-in-6 chance of encounter per Turn. 

Knots of D6 Mutant Frogs roam T1 and T4, 2-in-6 chance of encounter per Turn.

There's a 10% chance the Black Thorns are picking up a delivery and a 75% chance Rion Bloodsmock is in T10 producing potions (reference Fort Southfur).

DUNGEON KEY
T1: Ventilation tunnel for releasing poisonous fumes generated by the lab. The Druids set up a pair of chromed steel grates to secure it, but they melted away months ago. 

T2: Vault door. Actually a Mimic (OSE Adv) with its brain pickled in Charm Monster. Opened with handprint reader (technically the Mimic's tongue) that's keyed to members of the Druid Mafia. Naturally a severed hand works just fine. 

Work crews of Orcs/Mutoids from the MEATCAMP leave sealed barrels of monster parts here for collection. The Meatheads don't bother to check the barrels for stowaways.

The Black Thorns stop by here to collect shipments of potions bound for the Gun & Rose. It's the only time the goon squad leaves Fort Southfur.

T3: Retractable bridge made from Floating Discs. Controlled by command word that changes weekly. Generally left active by the lazy guards.

T4: Nest of eleven Mutant Frogs (OSE Adv) that snuck into the lower dungeon through T1. Immune to the poisonous fumes. Any halfway-decent alchemist could distill their blood into a tincture that grants immunity to the Cloudkill smog.

T5: Guardroom with D6-1 Meatheads. Best air quality in the dungeon, which isn't saying much. Rion's goons sit on hammocks and stools, spending their time quaffing potions and gambling. Pot of 500 GP, plus Potions of Cure Serious Wounds, Enlarge and Haste. Door to T7 is unlocked.

T6: Waste disposal. Diffusers plumbed to extraction units in T7 divert poisonous smog into the lower dungeon. The Meatheads dump barrels of alchemical byproduct into the stream below.

T7: Reagent refinery. Sprawling warehouse/laboratory filled with equipment for extracting alchemical reagents from raw product. There's 60,050 GP in potion precursors and monster parts here, but it'd take hours to find, sort and transport it all. 

The refinery is staffed by Sixteen Zibblers (CC2), cutting, grinding, boiling, sifting and distilling. The poor insects were imported by the Mafia for use as cheap labour. Half the bugs work whilst the other curl up like armadillidiidae to sleep. The Zibblers ignore anyone entering the room, but will hide if a fight breaks out. 

T8: Vats filled with overpowered alchemical solution. Pipes pump the finished precursor into T10, where it's imbued with spells and refined into potions.

If one of the vats is damaged, roll a D3 to see what explodes out:
1: Quickslime (CC1).
2: Ochre Jelly (OSE).
3: Shambling Mound (OSE Adv).

D&D Fifth Edition

T9: Back office. Door is another Mimic (OSE Adv), but it's only keyed to the Black Thorns and Rion Bloodsmock. An oversized bonsai tree sits in a ceramic pot, mutated to extend the range of Pass Plant to over 30 miles. A matching specimen is inside the Gun & Rose.

T10: Potion lab. Precursor is piped from T8 and Rion uses his high-level magic to finalise the product. Thanks to the Zibblers' skill, the Druid can imbue Cleric, Illusionist and Magic User spells into the potions. Roll Treasure Type N x 5 to generate stock, with a bias towards popular brews like Cure Disease, Cure Light/Serious Wounds, Haste, Infravision etc.

If Rion is present and a fight breaks out in T7, he arrives in D3 rounds. Once the tide turns, the kingpin escapes by casting Pass Plant on the bonsai tree in T9. He soon returns with the Black Thorns and three patrols of Briarcoats on a forced march.

THE MEATHEADS
A gang of seven Briarcoat handpicked for their loyalty, strength and brutality. Hopelessly addicted to performance enhancing potions, but wouldn't have it any other way. This group of alchemical juicers is where Muscle Wizard, facetank of the Black Thorns, originated from.

Stats as 4HD Berserkers roided on Enlarge and Haste. Wear lycanthrope leather WIZMAT suits (as +2 Leather of Poison Resistance). Fight barehanded, but their fists deal D6 DMG (2D6 DMG with Enlarge). 

The gang's current leader, Buster Punches, wears a Belt of Champions that forces those he strikes to Save vs Paralysis or be disarmed, grappled, thrown, piledrivered, suplexed etc. etc.

Maren Nerei