DUNGEON DRESSING: ENTRANCES 4.

The tidy dungeon entrance shows signs of recent

cleaning and maintenance.
5. Dense spider webs shroud the entrance.
Whether it be a cobweb-covered gate, a portcullis 6. Seven rotting humanoid heads are mounted on spears
adorned with a green iron devil's face or a ssure in in a semicircle before the entrance. All have been
the stony ground belching a sulphurous smoke, the roughly severed and are too decayed to recognise.
entrance to your dungeon sets the tone for the adventure. 7. A crudely painted blue door on the side of a monstrous
conifer provides a magical entrance to the dungeon.
SECRET ENTRANCES
Turning the shiny brass door knob reveals a blinding
aquamarine light. Travellers nd themselves in a new
1. A mighty tree grows out of this cave-like entrance, location, when the light clears.
obscuring the entrance shaft from sight. 8. A cart hitched to a donkey is parked near the entrance.
2. A rock or mudslide covers the doorway. Booty looted from the dungeon, including old doors,
3. A collapsed wagon lies across a trapdoor. torch sconces, old furniture and a large statue of a
4. A bare expanse of sand conceals a stone slab that serves smiling elven maiden swaddled in a shawl, lls the cart.
as a trapdoor. The goods can be sold for 60 gp.
5. The sunken entrance lies in a deep pool or lake. The 9. Splashes of different colours paint the area near the
entrance cavern is ooded, but the passages beyond entrance. Their purpose is not clear.
rise quickly to drier caverns. 10. A large branch, wilting but still green, lies in front of the
6. Guano or other lth covers the secret entrance. entrance. It could hide a hastily dug pit.
7. Innumerable thick strands of spider silk render this door 11. An open ten-foot-wide pit lies just inside the entrance.
nearly invisible. The pit is twenty feet deep, and iron spikes stud its
8. Canvas or burlap, cunningly painted to resemble the bottom. The pit holds no bodies, but brown stains
surrounds, stretches across the entrance. suggest someone fell into it at some point.
9. Access to the dungeon is on the side of an overgrown 12. A dented helmet with a blood-encrusted feather plume
ditch or moat, obscured by weeds. lies on the ground near the entrance.
10. A collapsed hut or outhouse hides the secret entrance. 13. A pair of torches ank the entrance. One burns with a
11. A narrow crack in a tumbled crag leads to a cave that magical cold ame, while the other is unlit. The ame for
intersects with the dungeon. the active torch is permanently extinguished if the torch
12. A large agstone or at rock serves as a trapdoor. It is is removed from its sconce.
cunningly weighted and can be opened easily. 14. A big red "X" is drawn on the oor near the entrance.
13. An abandoned house’s cellar opens into a long, dusty 15. Placed facing the entrance are hundreds of eyeballs of
and part-collapsed tunnel. all sizes and colours, oating in jars lled with a clear,
14. The dungeon is accessed through a cell or oubliette in a thick liquid. They do not radiate magic.
gaol or castle. 16. A trail of 27 silver coins, spaced evenly, leads into the
15. Walking widdershins in a circle of toadstools reveals a entrance. Ominous blood splatters are clearly visible
magic opening on a nearby knoll. along the path the coins take.
16. A large freestanding tomb conceals steep stairs leading 17. A copper coin with the number one crudely etched
down into the dungeon. upon it has been wedged into a crack, crevice or under a
17. A ruined shrine or folly conceals a narrow set of stairs. stone near the entrance.
18. Access to the dungeon is concealed within a huge clock. 18. Faint acrid smoke periodically wafts from the entrance. It
19. The secret entrance is hidden under a mural, itself is not enough to provide concealment. Whatever creates
containing clues to the nature of the complex. the smoke lurks close to the entrance.
20. A banner or tapestry covers the entrance, which is within 19. A reinforced wall of stone blocks stands across the
a busy hall or reception room. entrance. It looks new and out of place.
20. Three empty, dark glass bottles lie on the oor. They
smell of strong alcohol but are (sadly) empty.
M I N O R F E AT U R E S & D R E S S I N G

1. Large-sized, clawed footprints of some four-legged CREDIT

creature tracks in and out of the entrance.
2. The entrance has been overtaken by nature. Trees (or This is a short system-neutral extract from GM's Miscellany:
giant mushrooms, shrubs or other ora appropriate to Dungeon Dressing. The book is available in 5e, System
the climate) partially occlude entry. Neutral and Path nder 1 editions. The OSR edition will be
3. The entrance has been covered by an illusion making it available in early 2023.
appear as the surrounding landscape.
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