The Quintessential Dungeon

  • Stats for the 2016 one-page dungeon by Will Doyle of Beholder Pie.
  • The original adventure doesn’t have stats, so this is less of a conversion and more of an aid for running the dungeon.
  • You can find player-facing maps of the dungeon here.

Well Entrance

Barroom

Rival adventurer. 4 HP, fists (1) or sword (2). Roll a few times on the Who Are You? tables for inspiration. As many as there are PCs.

Chess Board

5x5 grid as shown with three pieces on the three black spaces in the southern row: knights in each corner and a bishop in-between. Walk straight down the center to avoid attack.

  1. Chess knight. 12 HP, sword (2x2). Can only move in an L-shape, as a knight.
  2. Chess bishop. 8 HP, mace (2x2). Can only move diagonally, as a bishop.

Bottomless Pit

Kobold. 2 HP, spear (2) or crossbow (2). As many as there are PCs. (It doesn’t make sense to me that they would throw fire bombs and risk burning their sacred bridge, but you can give them 2 blast fire bombs if you want.)

Cellar Entrance

Garleb’s Kitchen

Bargle. 16 HP, magic missiles (3x2) or cone of lightning (4 stun blast). Other spells: virtually any you can think of (minor effects 3/day, major effects 2/day). Pays 100gp if you deal with the rats.

Rat Cellar

  1. Whiskers the Gnomish Wererat. 4 HP, dagger (2). Prefers to hide behind a barrel and let his swarm of rats do the work.
  2. Swarm of rats. 8 HP, biting (1 body). Resistant to non-blast attacks. Flee if Whiskers is killed.

Slime Sewer

Green slime. 1 HP, touch (1).

  • Limited movement (~1 foot per turn). Prefers to drop on targets from the ceiling.
  • Immune to all damage except fire or extreme cold.
  • On kill, you turn into more green slime.

Central Dungeon

Armor Room

If the players ask, explain that while armor is cosmetic in Ruins & Rogues, magic armor may still grant special abilities. (Of course, this armor certainly doesn’t!)

Feast Hall

Eating the food here acts as an instant good long rest. You can’t take the food out of this room or it turns to ash. For a random potion effect, use Skerples’s 1d1000 Mutations table for inspiration.

Mirror Room

Looking into your own eyes in the mirror causes your reflection to step out of the mirror and try to kill you. (Ignore the “reverses alignment” thing.)

  • Your reflection. Same HP as you, same weapons as you (2).

Cube Hall

Gelatinous cube. 16 HP, touch (3 body stun).

  • Limited movement (~15 feet per turn).
  • Transparent with a skeleton floating inside it; effectively disguised as a menacing undead.
  • On kill, the cube swallows you and dissolves your flesh, leaving only bone.

Deep Dungeon

Riddle Room

Suggested riddle: What has roads without carts, forests without trees, and cities without people? (Answer: a map.)

Water Gem Room

  1. Otyugh. 16 HP, tentacles (2x2). On kill, swallows you whole.
  2. Rug of smothering. 8 HP, smother (2).

Air Gem Room

Rust monsters don’t really make sense in Ruins & Rogues because it’s not a game about tracking armor and weapons, so we’ll use an Owlbear instead. Make sure to describe the owlbear and the air gem as clearly visible at the bottom of the pit; otherwise, the puzzle can get very confusing very fast.

  • Owlbear. 16 HP, claws (2x3). Dreadful, insane, easily enraged.

Troll Cave

The secret door opens if you pull on one of the stalagmites like a lever; make sure to describe a stalagmite seeming to give a bit if the players hide behind them. The waterfall to the south magically loops back around to the start of the river at the west end of the dungeon.

  1. Troll. 16 HP, club (3). Regenerates 2 HP per round unless caught on fire or dissolved by acid.
  2. Mimic. 12 HP, touch (3 body).
  3. Bungo Bladders. 5 HP, short sword (2).

Dragon’s Lair

Her modest hoard is worth 100gp.

  • Phoebe the Dragon. 32 HP, claws (2x3) or fire breath (6 heavy blast).

Statue Room

As written. The statue’s back may be too slippery to climb; climbing the front risks falling into the dish of fire.

Final Room

As written.

The Deck of Many Things

Declare how many cards you want to draw before you draw. Each time you draw from the Deck of Many Things, roll a d6.

On a 1-3, roll another d6 and find what happens below.

  1. Fool. You gain no XP at the end of this session (or, if level 4, you must retire) and you must draw again.
  2. Talons. You lose all your magic items.
  3. Ruin. You lose everything you own except magic items.
  4. Rogue. A friendly non-player character turns against you in secret.
  5. Flames. You gain the enmity of a devil who wants you to suffer.
  6. The Void. You go into a coma as your soul is trapped in an object guarded by powerful enemies.

On a 4-6, roll another d6 and find what you gain below.

  1. Jester. Advance to the next level or take two more draws.
  2. Knight. A knight in your service. 12 HP, sword (2).
  3. Key. A magic weapon. Roll with +1d6 when you attack.
  4. Gem. 50,000 gp in gems or jewelry.
  5. Throne. Rightful ownership of a small keep.
  6. The Fates. Avoid or erase one event as if it never happened. You can do this immediately or wait until any point before you die.