Dungeon23: Temple of the Snake Cult - Level 2

 

This map is created under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

 

Area Links

    Area A (Rooms 1-7)
    Area B (Rooms 8-14)
    Area C (Rooms 15-21)
    Area D (Rooms 22-28)

 

Wandering Monster Table (2d6)

2 - Thomgrir, Champion of the Cult! (see Room 7)
3 - 1d4+1 NPC adventurers fighting or fleeing from (if outnumbered) 1d6 Uppaz berserkers
4 - 2d6 gobb-men running afoul of a breakaway gray ooze from Room 25
5 - 1d4 shadows - victims and servants of Xor from Room 26
6 - War party of 4d6 oor-men
7 - 4d6 kobb-men scavengers (occurs once;) 3d20 giant rats thereafter
8 - 4d4 gobb-men auxiliaries working for the hobb-men
9 - 1d3 baern-men (50% chance they are working for the hobb-men)
10 - Hunting party of 1d6 hobb-men and 1d4 baern-men
11 - 1d6 hobb men fending off a mountain lion from Room 20
12 - 1d4 hedge witches (1st level magic users) searching for sorcerous secrets in the Temple.  They will feign friendliness, regardless of reaction, but have their own sinister agenda. 

Commentary

I had a lot of fun with this level.  As Level 1 of the Temple began to take shape, a narrative started forming in my mind of what I wanted to see in subsequent levels, so that I already had ideas for what some rooms would look like and contain.  I still relied in some random generation.  It keep things both interesting and entertaining rather than turning this whole project into a chore.

 

Part of this level is brought to you by...a robot!

True confessions time again.  After reading about people using ChatGPT, I got curious and decided to try it out to spur creativity for some rooms I got stuck on.  I have to report that I found it rather unsatisfying overall, with the notable exception of Room 18.  I combined some random rolls for dungeon litter, which I then typed into ChatGPT.  The result gave me the idea of turning it into a museum of sorts.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned an otherwise "empty" room into something more interesting, with the potential for future adventures to boot (what's  in the black box, and how do you survive a constant onslaught of cats?)

A winning combo?

 

Warning: TPK ahead

I suspect that the combination of the alarm and berserkers in Rooms 2-3 plus the trap and Champion in Room 7 might lead to the demise of many a group that challenge the Temple.  But hey!  That's Old School!

Deal with it

 

Are you using the Temple of the Snake Cult in your own campaign?  Let me know how it went in the comments!