Return to Moria: Millstone Doors

These are one of the defensive constructs that will be appearing in Moria:

Defensive doors consisting of a great circle of granite designed to roll in front of a narrow tunnel entrance. The entry is sunken so the stone is held vertically in a trough. It overlaps the frame of the door and can be wedged in place, making it nearly impossible to roll aside from the outside. From the interior it is quite easy to move.

A variant of this door features a narrow hole bored through the center of the stone, allowing a steel rod to be pushed through. One end of the rod features a "T" that unfolds flat against the stone's surface, the other end is held in place with a metal pin. This allows a bar to be fastened across the stone, held in place by the rod and the walls of the tunnel.

The locking version of this door is often used to create cul-de-sac style traps. The enemy is led into a large chamber with multiple looping corridors leading back to the entry area. The pursued party loops through the corridors, exits and seals the door, trapping the pursuers within. Water or poison gas can be used to kill the enemy, or they can simply be left to starve.

The Plunging Room

The Plunging Room is a 20 foot diameter circular room with stone floors, ceilings and walls. A series of iron pillars are spaced at four foot intervals around the outer edge of the room, and a circular arrangement of five similar pillars are arranged in a 10 foot diameter ring around the center of the room. In the center of the chamber a two foot diameter well is cut into the floor. There are two doors into the room, one opposite the other.

The entire room is suspended in a vertical shaft, held in place by massive counterweights. Anyone entering the central ring of pillars will trigger a release mechanism, allowing the entire room, floor, walls and ceiling a single unit, to slide down the iron pillars, cutting off retreat through the doors after a single round.

There are several possible variants of this room:

• It could be a simple elevator-style trap, splitting up the adventuring party unless they can find a means to raise the room back to the main level.
• Once lowered the room could provide access to additional doors out of the chamber, revealed by the gaps in the walls.
• The entire room could be suspended over a pool of water or oil, which rushes into the room through the central well when the room drops. Those within the room must find a means to escape before they drown or accidentally start a fire.
• The central well could actually be a means of egress, but only if the room is lowered, its weight opening a trap door beneath the well.
• The well could provide access to a creature or creatures that lurk below the room, waiting for the mechanism to deliver them fresh prey.

Once the room has dropped its full distance anyone left behind can cross the roof of the room to gain access to the door originally on the far side of the chamber.

Depending on the variant(s) chosen, the mechanism to raise the room could be a simple timed device or a mechanism hidden away elsewhere within the complex.

Five Features for the Dungeon

Today's post is going to be short and sweet. Dungeons are known for their tricks, traps and generally weird stuff. Here are five typical dungeon features, each with a twist:

• The Unpit - Pit traps are standard fare, but this one is a pit and a way forward. The victim falls on the spring loaded iron plate which opens to send them further into the right-hand branch of the pit (possibly occupied by zombified former victims of the fall. Should they survive they can struggle to rejoin their companions or explore the left hand branch, which leads who knows where.
• The Road to Nowhere - Teleportation is a common GM trick, but in this case it goes nowhere. Place a long straight corridor somewhere, then put two long-ish teleporters in the middle of the passage. The teleporters send the characters 100 feet back along the hall. The party might notice if their marching order is spread enough to not be transported all at once, but otherwise they could be walking for a long time.
• Amazing Maze - Most players figure out the "follow the left wall" trick for getting through a maze. It's fairly easy to build a maze where this trick doesn't work (and it gives you a reason to go vertical too). When you start drawing your maze, think of it as a room within a room and maintain a clear path (as twisty as you like) between the two. Place one entrance to the maze on the outer edge of the outer room, then place a stair, ladder or ramp in the center of the inner room. A party following either wall from either entrance will end up where they started without finding the second entrance.
• Take a Dip - Underground pools and streams are nothing new, many natural caves are formed by water action. Instead of treating a body of water as a feature, use it as a path to other areas of the dungeon. It takes real guts (or stupidity) for a character to brave a stream that vanishes down a hole or under a ledge.
• Tactical Advantage: Party - Giving the kobolds defensive fortifications is a common theme. Now reverse it. Place some good, empty defensive fortifications in your dungeon, then set up an encounter with a powerful foe somewhere nearby. Let your party use the fortifications to their advantage for once. To maintain suspension of disbelief a low intelligence but powerful foe is probably a good choice here.

Old School Dungeon Traps

A list of simple tricks and traps for an old school dungeon. I dug this list out of some really old notebooks I have sitting on my shelves. It probably dates from the late 70s, so very old school.

1. Pits: hidden, visible, or spiked filled with alligators, fire, acid, lava or water
2. Doors with swinging blades, crossbow traps, trip wires, ear seekers, poison needles, magical seals, exploding locks, contact poison, intelligent locks, dropping portcullises, acid jets
3. Rooms or corridors that fill with water, sand, or various gasses (poison, laughing, sleeping)
4. Stairs or floors that move, slide, or collapse
5. Projectile traps featuring crossbow bolts, poison darts, magic missiles, spikes, spears, or boulders
6. Teleportation panels
7. Life trapping mirrors
8. Moving panels and walls that seal corridors
9. Sliding and turning rooms
10. Trip cords and strangle wires
11. Poisonous food and drink
12. Dead end tunnels
13. Slides to creature dens
14. Reverse gravity areas
15. Crushing walls
16. Magic reversing fields
17. Blinding lights and impenetrable darkness
18. Geas rooms
19. Living furniture and fixtures
20. Slippery floors and stairs
21. Hypnotic rooms
22. Illusionary walls, floors, stairs or corridors
23. Pivoting walls that lock in place
24. Intelligent doors or chests that cast spells, ask riddles or seek bribes
25. Doors that randomly lead to different locations
26. Areas of blinding light, complete darkness, fog, terrible smells, or strange noises
27. Collapsing ceilings
28. Fake doors
29. Magical traps spraying webs, grease, poison or glue
30. Alarm traps drawing foes
31. Hidden or secret doors well above ground level
32. Magic negation areas
33. Triggered constructs
34. Tiny tunnels and passages with tiny inhabitants