Instant Caves What’s down the tunnel?

d20 Description
Caves can be mystical portals to worlds unknown, or simply a
route to the next combat. These tables let you create them 1 Fire beetles. Lots of fire beetles.
quickly and easily. Black damp, a poisonous gas. If you stay down here,
2
you risk exhaustion, short-term madness and death.
The entrance to the cave is:
3 A family of ogres in search of their missing pet.
d20 Description
4 Water. And it’s rising quickly.
1 A crevice in the mountainside.
5 Rusty mining cart rails, and some rotten wood.
2 Hidden behind a waterfall.
6 An old cave-in with a shovel sticking out of it.
3 Uncovered by a landslide.
7 Several swarms of bats.
4 Between elaborately-carved granite obelisks.
A high-ceilinged cathedral of stalactites and
5 An archway etched with runes. 8
stalagmites.
6 Discovered behind a basement wall. Mushrooms that release poisonous gas when
9
7 At the rear of an underground temple. touched.

8 At the rear of a tomb. 10 A forest of nonlethal fungi.

9 A hole in the ground. 11 Dusty machinery of unknown purpose.

10 Only visible at low tide. A blacksmith’s forge, unattended, yet a fire burns
12
within.
11 Halfway down a well.
A secret laboratory, where strange liquids bubble in
12 A secret door in the cellar. 13
glassware.
13 A mining adit. 14 A door with an elaborate (and probably arcane) lock.
14 An opening behind a bramble bush. 15 A portal to somewhere unknown.
15 A narrow walkway along a culvert. 16 A dead body.
16 A rock which slides open if you say a secret word. 17 Treasure guarded by a monster.
17 A bold dark opening in an otherwise sheer rock face. A goblin encampment celebrating the Festival of the
18
Nine Fires.
18 Open only in moonlight.
19 A strangely-glowing tree bearing a single, ripe fruit.
19 A forgotten subway line.
20 [roll twice]
20 At the bottom of a cenote.

Adjectives to describe the cavern's

interior:
d20 Description d20 Description
1 damp 11 debris-laden
2 musty 12 rusty
3 unwelcoming 13 dark
4 surprisingly fresh 14 gloomy
5 dusty 15 eerily quiet
6 earthy 16 acrid-smelling
7 slimy 17 echoing
8 old 18 decaying
9 new 19 fetid
10 well-traveled 20 [roll twice]

Instant Caves by Nicole Sparks

is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0CC. Visit
lovelymachine.com for more works by this author.