Zenopus

Note: Ghost of Saltmarsh (2019) identified “Portown” as Saltmarsh. The text below has not been updated.

Sample Dungeon

Holmes, J. Eric (1977, 1978) “Sample Dungeon”. Dungeons & Dragons: Basic Rules ©1977, 1978 TSR. 2nd Edition, November 1978

Background – 100 years ago the sorcerer Zenopus built a tower on the low hills overlooking Portown. The tower was close to the sea cliff west of the town and, appropriately, next door to the graveyard.

Rumor has it that the magician made extensive cellars and tunnels underneath the tower. The town is located on the ruins of a much older city of doubtful history and Zenopus was said to excavate in his cellars in search of ancient treasures.

Fifty years ago, on a cold wintry night, the wizard’s tower was suddenly engulfed in green flame. Several of his human servants escaped the holocaust, saying their master had been destroyed by some powerful force he had unleashed in the depths of the tower. Needless to say the tower stood vacant for a while after this, but then the neighbors and the night watchmen complained that ghostly blue lights appeared in the windows at night, that ghastly screams could be heard emanating from the tower at all hours, and goblin figures could be seen dancing on the tower roof in the moonlight. Finally the authorities had a catapult rolled through the streets of the town and the tower was battered to rubble. This stopped the hauntings but the townsfolk continue to shun the ruins. The entrance to the old dungeons can be easily located as a flight of broad stone steps leading down into darkness, but the few adventurous souls who have descended into crypts below the ruin have either reported only empty stone corridors or have failed to return at all.

Other magic-users have moved into the town but the site of the old tower remains abandoned. Whispered tales are told of fabulous treasure and unspeakable monsters in the underground passages below the hilltop, and the story tellers are always careful to point out that the reputed dungeons lie in close proximity to the foundations of the older, pre-human city, to the graveyard, and to the sea.

Portown is a small but busy city linking the caravan routes from the south to the merchant ships that dare the pirate-infested waters of the Northern Sea. Humans and non-humans from all over the globe meet here. At the Green Dragon Inn, the players of the game gather their characters for an assault on the fabulous passages beneath the ruined Wizard’s tower.

The Dungeon Master should read the background material above to the assembled players and then let them decide how they will proceed. Because of the nature of some of the traps in the dungeon, it is highly recommended that no one attempt it alone. If only one player is taking his or her character into the dungeon, the Dungeon Master should recommend employing one or more men-at-arms. These non-player characters can then be “rolled up” and hired out for a share of the treasure. The stairway from the surface leads twenty-five feet straight down and ends in the corridor marked START on the Dungeon Master’s map.

A – This is a large room, 120 ft. × 100 ft. There are doors in the east, west and the south wall. The room is furnished with rough tables and benches and as many beds as there are occupants. The occupants are goblins. There are at least three goblins. The Dungeon Master should increase the number of goblins if the party of adventurers is a large one—i.e., if more than three are in the party, have five goblins, more than five, seven or eight goblins, etc.

The goblins wear leather armor and carry swords and daggers. They can each take one 8-sided die of hits, minus one point, i.e. roll a regular hit die, subtract one—the result is the goblin’s hits. If one is rolled do not subtract. If half their number is killed, the other(s) will try to escape through one of the doors or surrender. If surrender is accepted the captured goblins will offer to lead the party to a treasure but will, in reality, try to guide them to one of the dangerous trap rooms and then run.

There are small wooden chests under each bed and several leather sacks hanging on pegs along the wall. Most of the sacks contain junk, dirty clothes, old bones, etc., but two contain coins, 500 silver pieces each. There are several cloaks hanging on pegs and in a pocket of one cloak there is a magical potion of growth in a glass vial. One of the chests contains an additional 2000 copper pieces but the chest is booby-trapped and an opening releases a cloud of sleep gas filling an area 6 × 6 × 6 feet. Anyone within this area who fails to make his saving throw against poison falls deeply asleep for a number of turns. The Dungeon Master determines the exact number of turns of unconsciousness by secret roll of a 6-sided die, subtracting a 1 if the character has a high constitution.

B – This is a 50 ft. × 50 ft. room with a north door and an open door at the south end. The four deep niches in the walls can be seen from the north doorway but they are covered with cobwebs and nothing can be seen within them. The room is totally dark and the floor is covered with an inch of undisturbed dust.

There are four skeletons in the niches. They do not attack unless someone advances over ten feet into the room, then they all rush out and attack until destroyed or turned away. A first level cleric must roll a 7 or more with two 6-sided dice to turn them and then make a second roll to see how many are turned away. If turned, they run out the door at the end of the room farthest from the cleric.

There is no treasure in this room.

C – C is an empty corridor. All corridors in this dungeon are 10 feet wide and 10 feet high. (The magic-user’s secret corridor (S to F) is 5 feet by 5 feet.) Remember that at the end of 3 turns a wandering monster might appear—corridors are likely places for this to happen.

D – An almost empty room with a 6 ft. tall stone statue in the center. There is a door in the middle of each wall, north, south, east and west. The statue is facing the door by which the party just entered. Doors to this room always open from the outside, but at the same time the statue will rotate on its base to face the opening door. Once it has been opened, the door starts to slowly shut, activated by a powerful spring in the hinges—it will stay open to allow the party to enter. The door opens outward into the corridor.

From inside the room all doors are firmly held shut except the one the statue is facing—that door can be easily opened. To open any door, then, the statue must be rotated on its base (it turns easily) until it faces the door. Then the door opens easily. Doors can not be forced open, they are held by the equivalent of a “wizard lock.”

E – Room E is always an empty room. The size of the rooms and the number of doors is variable, as shown on the Dungeon Master’s map.

F – This is a magic-user’s room. He is an evil thaumaturgist (fourth level) who has been trying to take over the dungeon level. The room is 50 ft. by 60 ft. There is a large door in the south wall and a smaller one in the north wall. The magic-user himself is standing behind a work table in the southwest corner. Near him is a second level fighting man whom he holds under a charm spell. Actually this man is one of the smugglers from the sea cave whose curiosity allowed him to wander too far into the underground.

The fighter is basically neutral but will attack fiercely on command from the magic-user. Armor class 5 (chainmail), he carries a magic +1 sword. He wears a jeweled belt (stolen) with rubies worth 1000 gold pieces.

S12 I10 W9 C13 D10 C12 Level 2, Hits 11

The thaumaturgist (4th level magic-user) knows six spells: read magic, charm person, magic missile, protection from good (he is lawful evil), wizard lock and web. He carries a scroll of levitation. When caught in this room he will (a) direct the fighter to attack, and (b) try to exit through the secret door behind him. While doing this there is a 50% chance that he will drop the magic scroll. If magic is thrown at him his saving throw is better than that of magic-users of the third level, add +1 to his saving throw score.

S9 I16 W9 C1O D11 C12 Level 4, Hits 9

If he can get out the door he will put a wizard lock on it and run up the stairs to his tower. The rest of room F is occupied by three stone statues of men. They are men turned to stone by the magic-user with a special wand which he has in his tower. He will use the wand on anybody entering his hideaway.

G – Gloomy. Piles of rocks and rubbish four feet high cover the floor. There is a door in the center of every wall except the north.

There are 2–8 giant rats in the room, but they are hiding in the shadows and not easily seen. An elf or a dwarf might spot them (on a roll of say 1 or 2 on a six-sided die). They will attack if the room is entered.

The rats are armor class 7 (leather), have 2 hit points each, and have a treasure. Concealed in a mass of old bones, chewed leather straps and bits of armor in its nest is a belt attached to which is a silver dagger (50 gold piece value) in a sheath and a bag containing 50 electrum pieces. It takes a turn of careful searching in the refuse to come up with these things.

H – A room 80 ft. × 50 ft., with doors in the north and south walls. There is a river running through the room, 50 ft. wide. It enters and exits through holes in the east and west wall with less than a foot of air space over the water. The channel is 10 feet deep and the current is swift. Anyone falling in will be swept away unless he has a strength of 15 or better. Men in metal armor will sink to the bottom if they fall in. They may be able to shed their armor (50% chance) in one turn and get to the surface. The current will deposit anyone swept away in room K at the end of a turn. Being dragged under the rock wall between rooms is dangerous. Anyone with a constitution of 12 or better will survive unhurt, others run a 50% chance of taking a die of damage from drowning.

The walls of room H are fitted granite blocks as is the ceiling 20 feet above. The Dungeon Master will have to evaluate the characters’ attempts to cross. The floor is also rock, 15 feet wide on each bank and the drop into the river is sheer.

I – Doors in the north, south and east walls give entrance to this room. In the center of the room is a bronze sundial on a low pedestal. Set into the stone of the west wall is a bronze mask, about the size of a manhole cover. The eyes and mouth are shut. Below the mask, in common language, is an inscription: “I’ll answer questions, one, no more. I never speak til it be four.”

The magic is activated by shining the light of a single torch, lantern, etc. on the sundial so the shadow of the gnomon falls on the Roman numeral IV. The bronze mask then opens its eyes and says “Speak, I’ll answer.” It will give a reasonable answer to any brief pertinent question and then say, “I’ve answered one, now go away. I will not speak again today.”

Since the shadow has to be held on IV, there is little chance of triggering the magic accidentally, even by walking around the sundial with a light.

J – A room 60 by 50 feet. The ceiling is out of sight in the darkness but there are large spider-webs in the corners. There are doors in the middle of all 4 walls.

An enormous spider lurks in the darkness of the roof, thirty-five feet above. He will drop on unwary adventurers. He is armor class 3 (plate mail), has 4+4 hit dice (21 hit points), and its bite causes 2–8 points of damage and is poisonous (−1 on saving throw dice because it is so strong).

If the party enters and does not see the spider, the monster will select a victim (by random number assignment of some sort) and try to drop on top of him.

If the spider makes its first hit it has dropped on the character and knocked him down. If it misses it lands beside the victim on the floor and the battle proceeds from there. If the spider gets a knock-down it is a surprise (naturally), and the spider gets the next blow. The character knocked down makes his first hit with a −2 off his roll, after that he hits normally. There is no treasure in this room, but a +1 dagger is imbedded in the spider’s body (evidently a souvenir from some previous battle); it can be found only if the beast is cut open.

K – A cavern, about 10 feet high, irregularly shaped, with the river running through it. There is a shallow beach where flotsam from the river is deposited. There is an exit to the west. The cave is completely dark, characters without lights or infravision will have to feel their way out.

L – Another cave with the river running through it. There is phosphorescent fungus growing on the rocks, so anyone can see without lights. There are east and west entrances on both sides of the river to the sandy beach. The river is only 3–4 feet deep at the center of the channel and can be forded.

There is a giant crab concealed under the sand on the south beach. It will attack anything that moves on either beach. It runs 60 feet in 1 turn, in armor class 3 (plate mail), and takes 2 hit dice (8 hit points). It strikes with its giant claws one at a time as fast as a man. doing 2–12 points of damage per hit.

M – A large sea cave with entrances to the north and south. There is a sandy beach, on which are drawn up two row-boats. The entrance to the sea is to the west about 500 feet. If it is day up above, the cave will be dimly illuminated by sunlight coming through the tunnel. If it is night, torches in the hands of the occupants will shed a dim glow.

The cave is used by smugglers and pirates. There are four pirates present now, sitting in one of the boats, talking. They are normal men (1 6-sided hit die), armor class 7, and are armed with cutlasses. (At the Dungeon Master’s discretion he may increase the number of pirates.) Each pirate carries 2–12 gold pieces in his purse (roll 2 6-sided dice). The pirates use the cave to hide treasure and there are chests in the first boat and a prisoner in the second boat. Every turn there is a 25% chance of another boatload of 2–5 pirates rowing in.

The prisoner is a girl, Lemunda the Lovely, whose father is a powerful lord in the city above. Lemunda is a good fighter in her own right and carries a concealed dagger in her girdle, but right now she is bound and gagged. She is lying in the bottom of the second boat, not the one occupied by the pirates. Her family would be very grateful to get her back.

Lemunda the Lovely

S10 I14 W12 C15 D12 C17 Level 2, Hit Dice 2

The treasure is in two chests in the first boat. One chest contains 2000 silver pieces, the other 1000 electrum pieces and 12 gems each worth 100 gold pieces.

Exit from the underground can be made by rowing out to the sea, although there is a possibility of meeting another boat coming in. There is a large octopus at the bottom of the sea cave, 3 hit dice (16 hit points), armor class 7 (leather), which will attack boats. The pirates always throw the monster a large fish or the body of one of their victims and so it does not attack their boats. If the octopus makes a “hit” with a tentacle it will not do any damage immediately but will pull the victim overboard and try to drown him. See H for more information about drowning; assume that all characters know how to swim. The octopus gets 6 attacks per melee round!

N – This large room—120 feet by 70 feet—is part of the catacombs of the city. The north wall has caved in and there are doors only at the east and west ends of the tomb. Ten stone sarcophagi are scattered about, four empty with the tops off. Six, however, are closed. If the adventurers open one, roll a die to see which they have chosen.

#1	contains only moldering bones but releases a cloud of noxious gas which renders unconscious anyone within 3 feet unless they make their saving throw against poison. Unconsciousness lasts 1 to 6 turns, depending on the Dungeon Master’s die roll.
#2	contains a partially clothed skeleton which holds a jeweled dagger in the bony hands folded across its chest. If the dagger is removed it will flash away into the air, turn and attack the one who touched it. It strikes as a 1 hit die monster and will continue to attack until it draws blood, doing 1 die of damage, or its intended victim runs from the room. It will then return to the coffin with its owner. The dancing dagger is hard to hit—armor class 3—and if hit it falls to the floor and remains motionless for 3 melee rounds and then takes up the attack again! Putting it back in the sarcophagus will stop the attacks of course.
#3	skeletal form wears rings and a coronet worth 300 gold pieces.
#4	skeletal form wears jewelry worth 900 gold pieces.
#5	animated skeleton (7 hit points), armor class 7, is armed with a curved scimitar. It will attack as soon as the lid is removed.
#6	skeletal form in chainmail holds a magic sword +1. Any warrior-type drawing it from the scabbard will feel the surge of magical power it gives.

When the party enters the room there is a 50% chance a giant rat will burst through the loose dirt at the north end of the room and attack. Armor class 7, 4 hit points. At the end of each turn or each 10 melee rounds there is another 50% chance that a rat will enter from the tunnels. The rats will not, however, leave room N except to go back to the tunnels.

The sarcophagus lids are heavy. Four or more men can lift them off, one man would have to slide the lid off, and this would take 1 turn. Thus it will take several turns to get them all open and the rats are pretty sure to show up.

P – This room is 50 by 80 feet and has doors in all four walls. It contains two ghouls and some smashed coffins. The ghouls are armor class 6, and if they score a hit they can paralyze their opponent (unless he is an elf). They can take 2 hit dice (11, 9 hit points respectively). The coffins contain, in addition to indescribable odds and ends, 50 platinum pieces and 5 gems each worth 10 gold pieces.

The east door leads to a short dirt tunnel which ends blindly under the cemetery.

RT – Rat tunnels. They are only 3 feet in diameter, round and dug through the soft earth of the cemetery. A man could crawl through them, but it should be hard for him to fight (a −2 from his attack die roll). A halfling or dwarf would be at no particular disadvantage. Every 100 feet there is a 50% chance of meeting a rat, every 200 feet a 50% chance of coming on 5 gold pieces. The tunnels form an endless maze and there is no end to the rats. The tunnels intersect the dungeons at the northernmost corridor and at room N. Rats are described under room N.

S – Spiral Staircase. The spiral staircase begins at floor level at the north wall and winds around up to the roof 25 feet above, making 1 full turn. The stair ends in a closed trap door in the ceiling, leading up to room S1.

The room contains a giant snake, armor class 6 (leather and shield), 2 hit dice (13 hit points), and moves 100 feet per turn.

There are two visible doors at ground level, north and south as well as the trap doors in the ceiling. There is a secret door under the stairs, opened by pressing a hidden catch.

S1 – Ground floor of the magician’s tower, entered through the trap door in the floor. There is a door to the north and a spiral stair leading up, just like the one in the room below, ending in a trap door in the ceiling. The door to the street outside and the trap in the ceiling are both open. There are a fireplace, cooking utensils and a few chairs. The room is unoccupied. The trap door above leads to room S2.

S2 – Just above S1 and shaped the same, also with a spiral stair leading to the roof, trap door closed. No doors, but narrow (2 foot wide), tall windows in each wall. This is the wizard’s study, and here he has his two giant volumes of magic spells, table, lamps, chemicals, skulls, loose pages of parchment, mystic designs on the floor, etc.

Against the south wall there is an ape in an iron cage. The key is in the lock of the cage door. The ape is 2 hit die and is armor class 7 (leather), and will attack as soon as he gets out—he hates the cage and has been waiting to get even. If the magic-user opens the cage there is a 25% chance the ape will attack him. If anyone else opens the cage, the ape will attack someone in the room and then try to escape through a window, down the side of the tower and off through the city streets.

The magic-user keeps his wand of petrifaction (turns flesh to stone if he makes a hit with it) hidden in a secret compartment of the table (only 5% chance of locating this compartment). Hidden among the undecipherable parchment notes on the table is a scroll which reverses the wand effect, but only for one person and only once.

The magic-user himself is described in room F. If he is not in room F he will be found here.

By the time the adventurers have worked their way through this, the Dungeon Master will probably have lots of ideas of his or her own to try out. Design your own dungeon or dig new passages and levels in this one. What lies in the (undiscovered) deeper levels where Zenopus met his doom? Do the pirates have other treasure troves hidden in the sea caves? What inhuman rites are practiced deep in the ghoul haunted passages beneath the graveyard? What are the townspeople going to do when they discover that our friends are tampering with Things Better Left Alone?

External links

• “Tower of Zenopus” (2008 Jan.) Dragonsfoot forums
• “A map of Holmes’ Portown” (2010 Mar.) Dragonsfoot forums
• “The Holmes Manuscript” (2013–2016) Zenopus Archives (BlogSpot)
  • “Zenopus Built a Tower” (2015–2016)
  • “The Occupants Are Goblins” (Rooms A–E)
  • “The Shadow on the Gnomon” (Rooms F–I)
  • “Will Drop on Unwary Adventurers” (Rooms J–M)
  • “The Dancing Dagger is Hard to Hit” (Room N)
  • “Indescribable Odds and Ends” (Room P)
  • “No End to the Rats” (Room RT)
  • “The Room Contains a Giant Snake” (Rooms S & S1)
  • “An Ape in an Iron Cage” (Room S2 & Coda)
• “The Sample Dungeon” Zenopus Archives (Google sites)