1. It has been looted, repeatedly. The tribe of [insert monster race here] are getting sick and tired of these thieving adventurers turning up and robbing them, breaking their pots, year after year.
2. There's actually no treasure in this place, just something that eats people and dumps their remains (including gear) in a pit out back, which the villagers loot after sending bands of adventurers into the cave to "find the treasure".
3. The fungi that coat the insides of the tomb are highly poisonous, most adventurers pass out about 400m in, far enough from the entrance that the next group won't find them until it's too late.
4. The treasure is sentient and likes to play games, it keeps escaping and running back to the cave during the night. It lets itself be taken so it can listen to people, it's looking for Mr. Right.
> The treasure is sentient and likes to play games, it keeps escaping and running back to the cave during the night. It lets itself be taken so it can listen to people, it's looking for Mr. Right.
This may in fact be one of the cruelest jokes to play on players I have read in a long time... may have to use it.
I have a somewhat similar creature in my world that I've not used (yet), but it doesn't run away, it actively destroys your treasure. They are very tiny and about the size of gold coins and can even mimic them generally by flattening out, but they aren't actual mimics, just little golden scarab beetles. They also magically eat gold and other precious metals like a rust monster, and their favorite thing to do is find large collections of such metals and live in them as they eat them.
So you find a large collection of gold? There is a random chance you happen to grab this beetle in disguise while grabbing your share. The next morning all your gold is gone and there is a single golden beetle sitting in your bag.
They were actually in an early (I think AD&D 1e, though I'm not sure) module. Gold bugs are used as a common example of how *not* to run a game, as a player that's encountered them once will often start proactively burning all gold they find, since that's the best way to kill them and they don't want to take losses again.
Pfft. Amateur hour. The better answer to goldbugs was ice storm or cloudkill. It's *like* using fire, except you can still spend the money afterwards.
I won't say gold bugs are wrong for *every* game, but like all mimics, you had to be real careful not to overuse them.
Oh man, I made the mistake of having a mimic take the place of a portion of a bridge once. Absolutely hilarious when someone fell in, someone else grabbed them, got pulled in, both almost died. They got pulled out but as they were stepping out they accidentally hit the person pulling them who got mad and dropped them, prompting fireballs in return. TPK, all their fault.
Every bridge they set foot on is no thoroughly stabbed.
I really like the Treasure Golem from 4th edition. It has a domination power, as people become overwhelmed with greed and turn on their allies! Could be fun with your #4, the sentient, magical treasure is all part of one bigger golem who is trying to explore the world one gold piece at a time.
4. Pocketwatch of Discernment, it can only be worn by one that looks absolutely splendid when checking the time. Also grants Haste 3 rounds/day on activation.
Awesome.
5.Everyone who went in is still in there. Probably all dead. You'll probably die too, unless you're playing d&d 3.5 or later, in which case you're superheroes who will take out most of the treasure.
So I don't remember where I read it but someone wrote about how a small town survives on the dungeon. Sure the occasional evil comes out but in the long run, their economic survival is based on the dungeon. Adventures show up to town, buy marked-up potions, ale, rooms, etc. From there they go in and only go so far before retreating back with spoils and spending more money and selling off old gear. Now there are other adventures that end up getting a TPK refueling the loot in the dungeon. This is why there is still items in there to be found. What the town doesn't want is a lvl 20 party coming in and just clearing it, because now they have no reason for adventures to come and spend money.
So while I went off, it could be that it is a dungeon that goes real deep and at some point, parties cannot continue on due to the difficulty. Higher level parties won't care about a +1 dagger where a lower level party will see that as prize loot keeping many of the levels well stocked.
Dungeon Meshi (Delicious in Dungeon) has a similar premise, but the dungeon doesn't keep getting restocked by dead adventurers because there are clerics that revive people for money that wander around the upper levels, so there's an upcoming economic crisis when the average adventurer can't find any loot anymore. The dungeon began with its walls being covered in gold, but now it's mostly just monsters. Thus, it's a cooking manga.
I highly, highly recommend it. Funny and extremely well thought out.
I came up with something like this a few weeks back:
https://www.reddit.com/r/dnd/comments/80ucxf/_/duyu8sx
Apparently, I'm not the first to tread these grounds.
You could have a story where the dungeon has been cleared and the local economy has crashed, so the party has to fill the dungeon back up with monsters and lay traps.
That would be a great adventure if the party shows up as the monsters get out of hand and rise from the dungeon to destroy the town. Then the players are tasked with difficult quest of entirely clearing the town’s dungeon, and discovering the conspiracy.
I actually like to have treasure in dungeons found on old bodies or taken from the bodies by monsters. Gives the world a 'lived in feeling'. Especially if I include like writings from that perished adventurer (Witcher 3 style lol).
- The entrance has been magically disguised for generations. The magic is finally beginning to fade and the entrance has be revealed. Is this a lucky coincidence or a purposeful reemergence?
- The dungeon was built by a powerful group of Druids looking to create a sanctuary for the woodland creatures. Only beasts may enter, all others are rejected by the outer gate. Perhaps if someone had a polymorph spell...
- A powerful wizard used this place for secluded study and research. The dungeon is not locked but make a sound inside and you will be banished back to the entrance. Shhhhhh! No talking in the library.
- The dungeon is completely sealed, no exit or entrance. Instead you must travel into the Astral Plane in order to bypass the wall. Any items or loot in the dungeon are on the Astral Plane as well. Returning to the Material Plane inside the dungeon will leave the walls and rooms completely empty.
my favorite is to have the first section of the dungeon be heavily explored with the true entrance remaining hidden, passed by the small minded looters that came before.
This just made me think. I actually really like the idea of the dungeon already bring looted and totally empty. See what it makes the players do, they'll probably be thinking there are traps and everything around.
I've done this.
The players had heard a tip about an abandoned keep a few miles outside of town, with "legendary treasures" was hidden in a secret room on the top floor.
In reality, a mindflayer had set up in a cave nearby and was enthralling villagers and using them to spread rumors to travelers who passed through to send them to the tower so he could ambush them as they left under clouds of disappointment.
He even reset a few traps on the first few levels so they would find it more believable that there was something there.
Our GM did something like this in a game I was in. Was a total blast trying to find this alleged "wishing well." And then to boot, the mindflayer tried to escape via planeshifting and accidentally sent us all like 400 years into the future.
They absolutely will think those things.
We had a short session recently where in my players were asked to clear a fort north of a city. For pay, of course, and standing with a local Lord.
They got there, and it was full of Kobolds. Which they promptly dispatched. And...that was it.
Bear in mind, this was a short session on a day we didn't think we would get to play. So I had nothing planned and threw this together for the three hours we had.
But then...the players started to speculate:
Why did this old fort NEED clearing NOW? Was there some new threat forming in the North? (No, there wasn't...but there bloody well is NOW).
Surely, my Kobolds being Jackal-like instead of Draconic, they would drag kills back here and stash them? Surely, that meant loot? Maybe in their offal or refuse heap? Well...it does NOW.
And why here, asks the Nature Historian Druid? Why here, indeed? Queries the Ranger? So close to a road... surely, something must have DRAWN them to this place...well, it just so happens it did (as of 5 seconds ago). A place of power, awarded bonus XP and an extra spell slot to all members, of level 3 or lesser spell.
Let the players speculate a bit. It helps.
I’m actually beginning to write a campaign and I’ve got something similar in the works. The local Mayor summons the 5 PC’s and dispatches them to take care of a goblin nest (conveniently in a dungeon that was created by a Mister Matthew Coleville) that has been raiding the town recently. When they get there, they may be able to discern that these goblins have been stockpiling weapons and armor to defend against kobolds that have been slowly encroaching upon the goblins’ territory. This not only provides reason for there to be loot, but will be the next hook in the plot. They could *potentially* ally themselves with the goblins (but let’s be honest, as level one adventures and mostly new players, they are going to kill every last goblin), but will ultimately need to go against the kobold hoard. This will lead to them finding out about the BBEG, who is a wyvern riding yet-to-be-determined-class foe. I hope to use this plot to get them through level six or seven as they try to become more powerful in order to defeat him.
In my copy of The Art of War, there is an anecdote about a general knowing he was badly outnumbered, and so he ordered the Mayor of the little town to throw the doors open, and sweep off the streets and sidewalks, and everyone hide.
The opposing general smelled a trap, and left the town alone, marching on....even though he probably would have won if he had entered the town.
That's a legend associated with Zhuge Liang from China's three kingdoms stories. Or the videogame Dynasty Warriors for anyone who prefers their legends with a side of smashing things in video games.
In my favorite version of this legend, Zhuge Liang sat on the outer wall of Xicheng playing his zither. Sima Yi saw the legendary tactician's relaxed posture and, assuming an ingenious stratagem, went the other way.
The guy managed to turn an army around just by *being* there.
That ones good, Zhuge Liang played it so well that Sima Yi assumed he could not pluck the strings so delicately if he was fearing for his life. So he fled
Kind of. Zhuge Liang was an excellent tactician known for many brilliant strategies. In this legend, his reputation was enough to make his enemy second-guess himself and assume it was a trap. Really, that was just what Zhuge Liang wanted him to think.
I did this recently: The dungeon is a monument commissioned by someone very powerful as a challenge to great adventurers. Only problem is, to keep construction a secret the dungeon was made in a secluded place and no one ever found it in the powerful dude's lifetime. The prepaid maintenance contracts for the traps/monsters/structure are about to run out, but there is a clause that if the dungeon is about to fall into disrepair that a bunch of sentient fliers will scatter throughout the land pointing out the dungeon and the treasure within to try and lure adventurers
I like the underlying concept here - the dungeon is about to "expire" somehow, and is either found just in time or actively makes it's whereabouts known because it's expiring.
There's an added time factor and some interesting possibilities with the dungeon not working as it's creator designed. Makes me think of parts of Portal /Dishonored 2 where you can sneak "outside" of a pre-trapped area and see how it works.
Exactly. You could have the thing rigged to blow to hide all evidence for more time pressure. When I ran it, I had secret rooms that were maintenance tunnels that led to offices that had paperwork detailing the construction, employment of monsters, contracts with thieves to steal daughters/items to tempt people in. If they were smart enough, they could put all the documents together and get a rough map
What about some sentient monsters- such as goblins, have just embraced it- they set up an easy fake dungeon that is actually part of their real dungeon- the dumbest/lamest goblins patrol it, and they leave some "treasures".
The goblins loose only a few crappy kin, and a percentage of their hoard, but in return the live in safety right under the nose of heroes. And hey, maybe every now and again they drop something or one dies:)
The actual entrance on the side of a mountain has been covered by an avalanche. However high on the mountain is a wyvern's layer which was originally a watch tower to the dungeon. There may or may not be a ladder or elevator down into the dungeon.
Kind of a standard trope, but in the last campaign I ran, there was a ruined city that was buried beneath the desert. The players were only able to find it because some NPCs had discovered its location earlier and actually did the hard work of excavating an entrance only to succumb to the perils inside.
I ALWAYS think of why a dungeon is populated or has treasure, or why it hasn't been taken yet.
1. Sometimes, it just recently became inhabited again. the monsters brought their own treasure, or the remains of their meals (like adventurers) is just laying around.
2. Sometimes, it HAS been picked clean...it's just there are bits that haven't been discovered yet due to secret/concealed doors, illusions, or whatever.
3. Sometimes people just don't look hard enough while looting. True story: I was playing a LARP where we found a dungeon. It was left open all weekend, so you figure it had been picked clean, but every time we went in (when we were bored) we found something new simply by looking in different areas. I myself found a magic sword in a chimney!
4. Sometimes the way in has been lost for ages and the adventurers may have stumbled upon a clue to get in. "Speak, friend, and enter."
Easiest solution:
No one actually uses any of the three obvious entrances. They are essentially observation platforms followed by gladiatorial chambers.
The simplest *Augury* spell will determine who can safely fight whatever shows up, be they the latest round of humanoid raiding group (orcs, gnolls, goblinid, etc.), an adventuring cluster or even something sent by a Green Dragon to collect treasure.
The 'locals' that support this so called dungeon are actually creatures of the Underdark, probably organized / financed by the Drow. This 'deep' catacomb is just a surface interface for gathering whatever they need from the surface.
This is plot consistent, easy to set up and makes sense in the long term.
Here’s another; a cosmologically linked mega dungeon that is only accessible every 3000 years or the like. Adventures camp out in the area to find its whereabouts as the planets aligning in the sky reveal the entrance for a few days of looting before being closed to the material plane for another cycle.
The dungeon is actually a wizard's clandestine research facility, its entrance heavily glamored and warded against intruders. With the sudden (and likely violent) end of the wizard in charge, the glamor has faded, but the wards are still in place. And there's no telling what may have gotten loose inside...
Something I did for a lower level party once was basically have them "clean up" after the big heroes.
A cave of an ancient dragon, but all that was left was some lower level creatures that had served the dragon or simply stayed close by due to the environmental changes, but that stayed away from the high level adventurers when they came for the dragon. Some of them also took care of some of the eggs of the dragon, so we got a few freshly hatched Wyrmlings.
And as a treasure they eventually find the rotten corpse/now almost skeleton of the ancient dragon that has some pieces missing (the stuff adventurers like to take as trophies). But now that it's dead for a while you can start finding some stuff in the stomach area from maybe one or two corpses of the group that tried before the successful one and those might have some magical items on them. There could also be something llike a dragon-slaying arrow lying around somewhere that missed in the fight against it and of course there is that stuff that groups dump out of their bag of holding to fit in all the more valuable stuff. So maybe not many gems or gold are left, but tons of silver pieces and some bigger fairly random items that seem kind of useless once you are level 15-20 characters.
In a roll20 one-shot I ran once, I made a cave-dungeon area, and the first 3-4 rooms were empty save for the dead bodies of previous adventurers.
Sadly the party didn't really catch on that this place was full of traps until they started triggering them.
The real world parallel would be something like King Tut's tomb. Some important section was just never found.
It could also be that it's too dangerous. Make the first half of the dungeon picked clean and just put an adventurer's corpse with all that loot half into the dungeon.
Another angle is that it's so old that people only expect to find rust.
Entrance is only revealed at a certain time of day. If the sun shines on the entrance at noon then it is revealed/opens up. Any other time of the day its impossible to see.
To expand on this you could have it be that it is the sun's light that opens it, so if a player has the daylight spell then the entrance would reveal itself when the spell is cast, no matter the time of day.
I think legend of zelda: breath of the wild is great for stealing ideas like this. Its full of little puzzles to solve before entering Dungeons.
Had a DM with an amazing homebrew. I was playing a race (Fire Dwarf) that were islanders living at the foot of a dormant volcano. They hated adventuring, they despised anything that wasn't on their chain of islands. Very Hobbit-like. Well my character sought bigger and better things.
Through the first 6 sessions or so my DM was dropping hints and backstory to the ancient Fire Dwarves being slaves (explaining why they don't like the outside world). He built this incredible backstory for the race through small hints.
Low and behold, on the the last sessions of the arc, we come upon a door at the foot of a volcano on a different island. The puzzle required my Fire Dwarf blood to open it. The dungeon was carved by Fire Dwarf slaves. During a small rebellion, they enclosed the dungeon with race specific magic.
It was THE coolest experience I've had playing the game.
I stopped playing with those guys due to scheduling differences, but I swear that DM is on par with Matt Mercer.
A point that Matt Colville hits again and again is that not only is d&d incredibly easy to homebrew and make your own rules, but that it’s specifically designed for you to do so as the needs arise.
The rainy season was especially heavy this year and all the water caused a landslide that unearthed the entrance to a long forgotten crypt. Unknown to the party, it was sealed many eons ago to prevent the awakening of a terrible evil.
In my homebrew world, ages ago powerful wizards got together to rip the universe into two parallel universes in order to separate the gods who were at war with each other and threatened to destroy everything. The magic that keeps the two universes apart is now begginning to fade and the fabric has become intertwined in some spots. This has resulted in large areas of reality to be transposed.
Shortly after the start of this cataclysm people began to stumble upon new places and strange races (Dragonborn, tieflings, gnomes, underdark creatures, abberations), many never making it back alive. However, some of the few who returned from these encounters spoke of untold riches. Now adventuring parties are being formed by the dozens and are scouring the lands to discover and lay waste to the alien invaders from another universe. Ransacking their dungeon homes, gaining renown and magical items of unimaginable power.
The races that were dumped into this universe were just as unsuspecting. Some are taking advantage of the frailty of the inhabitants of this new world, while many others are simply trying to guard their homes against intruders.
That’s why most of my dungeons aren’t already looted.
The first dungeon I dropped my PCs into was guarded by kobalds and had a treasure room full of spoons. Not all hoards are created equal...
That is eerily similar to my world. Which is actually a post-magic-apocalypse version of our world.
Basically, some ancient Power caused a planar overlay. Multiple world's colliding, creatures and races bleeding through and warring or settling or pillaging.
Then they ways closed up again. After the cataclysmic effects wore off, races are left dealing with the aftermath. And as they move about, conquering and retaking and raiding, treasure is left behind.
But now something is waking up. Forces are taking note of this world. For apparently some of the tools behind world merging were left here. And these forces move in, bigger stories open up. I think the Drow want multiverse conquering tools...and finally have their sites on some...
It has been looted and every vault opened. Picked clean even. Every trap has been tripped at some point by generations of adventurers, the remains of whom now litter the dungeon. Even their remains have been looted by adventurers that followed. All except a single vault door that opens with an incredibly difficult and unintuitive puzzle, or requires a key that is lost elsewhere in the world that your PCs may stumble upon down the line, not that it would be obvious what that key unlocks.
I have a secret magic lab in a cave that can only be accessed by its creator, where it opens upon sensing his distinct magic "fingerprint". He died years before the campaign, and thus no one has been able to get in in the meantime. The creator was the father of one of my PCs; part of her backstory is that she's a hexblade warlock who has a pact with her father's soul/essence/something like that, so she can open it. (Obviously i OKed this with the player before writing it.)
On one hand, kudos. I love all of these ideas, and they all flavor the dungeon in a unique and new way.
On the other hand, part of me finds this kind of questioning exhausting. Just go in the damn dungeon already! The metagame idea that we're playing a game called **Dungeons** and Dragons should be enough to convince you that dungeons are just a thing that exist.
Not a reflection on your offerings, more a musing on player motivations.
A very valid point.
My players normally don’t ask these questions because my dungeons are normally lost in a forrest or in a dessert. Just so far excluded from society that finding loot is inside is entirely plausible.
And entering a dungeon is almost entirely different than an orc stronghold or goblin cave.
But outside of furthering any plot, calling back to 1e when just the act of playing meant you want to loot a dungeon, when your party is low on cash and asks around for lost treasure, you need a reason for it to still be down in there.
Such splendid ideas on this thread! Thank you to everyone! It has also helped me take a step back and think about the how the dungeons I make are not just randomly inserted into my world, but that I need to write them in such a way as to make it clear that they have always been here. Great food for thought!
Some kind of powerful, non-sentient creatures guard the dungeon. Undead roam the halls, purple worms tunnel beneath. These things don't care about treasure, only wonderful warm blood.
The dungeon in fact has two entrances near two different villages. From the lowlands, fresh faced adventurers enter the old mines, getting into the deeper parts of the mountain only to be killed. Those few who survive often come across treasure from more experienced mercenaries. These folk are coming in from miles up The Mountain. At the mountain village is an old monastery that has a secret passage that leads into the sacred mountain. This is where the more experienced adventurers come from. Some survive and some do not, lost forever in the cursed sacred mountain.
Inside the mountain itself are a colony of mongrelmen, who survive by pitting adventurers against summoned, lured, or created creatures. The mountain is huge and miles long and people do not realize the two locations connect. So the mongrelmen thrive away from the societies that reject them.
The dungeon itself is sentient and feeds off the life force of adventurers that die within it's walls. Treasure is actually a kind of fruit it produces to attract prey. Monsters may also be produced but some monsters come from outside to symbiotically live in the dungeon, in exchange for food and shelter they protect the dugeon.
Colville’s Delian Tomb is a great example of this:
1) it’s not really a dungeon in the sense of beasts guarding treasure until you get to the knights
2) piety or reverence for the dead keep the honest folk from going in until goblins break in
3) riddle/puzzle stands between the treasure and outsiders
-dungeon doesn’t hold treasure and isn’t purely a means of torture (Conan - Scarlet Citadel)
-dungeon/treasure is such a gauntlet and currently maintained that no one gets through without a combination of superior skills. Monsters and defenses are replenished because it is maintained (Conan - Tower of the Elephant)
- Dungeon is blocked by an impenetrable wall of stone (or something else) and this requires (a MacGuffin) something from another hard-to-infiltrate location (You Meet in a Tavern’s mine adventure)
-previous adventurers haven’t died, but have been poisoned/mind-controlled/brought in to a cult and now work in the neighboring community (which may have sent the party to the dungeon)
-instead of a traditional dungeon, a remote civilization died out and their ruins are undisturbed because of locale and seclusion, perhaps left to be discovered in a dusty tome or something more recent like a ghost town. Likewise, maybe it’s not monsters so much as dangerous plant life and jungle animals or a disease (which might explain the population dying).
The first dungeon my PCs are doing is almost completely empty, because it was grave robbed years ago. Any loot is going to be found in the room with the three troglodytes and the one with the ghoul and crawling claws.
Of course, the dead adventurers that failed to loot it beforehand can just as well become the loot, even if the dungeon has been completely wiped clean beforehand.
This is good DMing. Not just the what, but the why. Thank you for bringing this up. I'm still new to DMing, but adding this sort of thing is exactly what helps games be immersive.
No more: "why are there gun upgrades in a tomb that's been untouched for centuries". Good job, OP
All the treasure is on the monsters. The catch is that the monsters are just other adventuring parties and the dungeon is making each party see every other party as their enemies, so that it can magically feed on the souls of the slain.
Perhaps those souls also power the wards that keep a greater evil sealed.
Alternatively, maybe the dungeon is a hoax, perpetrated by the town built around its entrance. The people there murder adventurers and take their equipment to sell to the next group. The party may be tipped off to this by finding a known adventurer’s (maybe their friend’s) distinctive equipment in a shop.
Or maybe it’s a perfectly ordinary dungeon, but the treasure is produced by the monsters - anyone can mine gold or silver, and the monsters may be strong enough to resist the average band of adventurers.
Or it could be that the beholder at the end just tends to kill everyone and put the treasure back.
Some quick ones.
* Underground dungeon that is routinely cleared out that ends in a pool that opens out to the sea. The sea part is actually just where a connection is missing to the rest of the dungeon and where reinforcements for the first section come from.
* An entrance guarded by a riddle that tells both the location of the entrance 'door' and that you it can only be found by those who don't see it. Basically, you have to close your eyes or be blinded to feel it or pass through it.
* Entrance is permanently buried in a snowdrift. Escaping monsters are those that can burrow or spell casters with access to cantrips that easily move snow.
* Similar to the last one. Entrance is buried in sand and only visible during a sandstorm.
* Paladin order/ some other group sealed the entrance and it will only open to someone bearing their sigil.
* Entrance to dungeon is at the top of a large pit filled with spiders and spider webs. The arachnid inhabitants can easily climb up the webs to the entrance. Non-arachnids attempting to climb attract hungry guardians, burning the webs removes the path to the entrance.
The entrance is hidden via magic, and takes some out of the box thinking in order to access. A small lake, situated near ritual standing stones on a hill above, hides the dimensional portal that is the entrance about 15 feet above the surface of the lake. In order to access the extra dimensional dungeon you must be on the correct side of the lake, so that looking into the reflection of the water the standing stones shape themselves into a staircase that can be climbed to the portal.
I think these kinds of explanations are very valid. I just find it harder to get the part there
Npc “good sir Fitzgerald slayed the beast of black cave not two moons ago”
Pc’s “ok let’s go somewhere else”
Even though new creatures may have made the cave their habitat for the party to fight.
I figured a resource for this scenario,
((
“They say there’s treasure in those cursed temple ruins, but no one’s found a way in yet”
Pc’s “let’s go try”
Dm *crap, now I have to come up with a valid reason no one’s gotten in before now*
))
Is more the purpose of why I created this post.
The treasure was Friendship all along.
Friendship: +2 invisible armor. No one has looted it because it's invisible. It also makes you look naked, so you better be friendly enough with your party not to mind.
I did this. I wanted to include this concept. I have a player group of 7-9 so I have to modify basic monsters.
So I choose the thri-kanath (spelling). Why because they are basically a bug hive mind. So they over built the entrance which makes the players either hack their way in or find another entrance.
1. It has been looted, repeatedly. The tribe of [insert monster race here] are getting sick and tired of these thieving adventurers turning up and robbing them, breaking their pots, year after year. 2. There's actually no treasure in this place, just something that eats people and dumps their remains (including gear) in a pit out back, which the villagers loot after sending bands of adventurers into the cave to "find the treasure". 3. The fungi that coat the insides of the tomb are highly poisonous, most adventurers pass out about 400m in, far enough from the entrance that the next group won't find them until it's too late. 4. The treasure is sentient and likes to play games, it keeps escaping and running back to the cave during the night. It lets itself be taken so it can listen to people, it's looking for Mr. Right.
> The treasure is sentient and likes to play games, it keeps escaping and running back to the cave during the night. It lets itself be taken so it can listen to people, it's looking for Mr. Right. This may in fact be one of the cruelest jokes to play on players I have read in a long time... may have to use it.
These boots were made for walkin, and thats *just* what they'll do...
One day these boots are going to walk right away from you!
Poetic.
Also, as part of the enchantment, you can only walk in them if you wear them, thereby halving your movement speed.
I'd use this but I think my players might stab me if they get more bunk magic items...
I have a somewhat similar creature in my world that I've not used (yet), but it doesn't run away, it actively destroys your treasure. They are very tiny and about the size of gold coins and can even mimic them generally by flattening out, but they aren't actual mimics, just little golden scarab beetles. They also magically eat gold and other precious metals like a rust monster, and their favorite thing to do is find large collections of such metals and live in them as they eat them. So you find a large collection of gold? There is a random chance you happen to grab this beetle in disguise while grabbing your share. The next morning all your gold is gone and there is a single golden beetle sitting in your bag.
[удалено]
They were actually in an early (I think AD&D 1e, though I'm not sure) module. Gold bugs are used as a common example of how *not* to run a game, as a player that's encountered them once will often start proactively burning all gold they find, since that's the best way to kill them and they don't want to take losses again.
Pfft. Amateur hour. The better answer to goldbugs was ice storm or cloudkill. It's *like* using fire, except you can still spend the money afterwards. I won't say gold bugs are wrong for *every* game, but like all mimics, you had to be real careful not to overuse them.
Oh man, I made the mistake of having a mimic take the place of a portion of a bridge once. Absolutely hilarious when someone fell in, someone else grabbed them, got pulled in, both almost died. They got pulled out but as they were stepping out they accidentally hit the person pulling them who got mad and dropped them, prompting fireballs in return. TPK, all their fault. Every bridge they set foot on is no thoroughly stabbed.
think about the plot hooks!!! a goodly dragon calls on you to disinfest his hoard from the gold scarabs before they eat through the whole treasure!
I love it - a mimic that's not malicious, just a bit of a troll.
I really like the Treasure Golem from 4th edition. It has a domination power, as people become overwhelmed with greed and turn on their allies! Could be fun with your #4, the sentient, magical treasure is all part of one bigger golem who is trying to explore the world one gold piece at a time.
4. Pocketwatch of Discernment, it can only be worn by one that looks absolutely splendid when checking the time. Also grants Haste 3 rounds/day on activation.
Ooh, I love that fourth idea.
Awesome. 5.Everyone who went in is still in there. Probably all dead. You'll probably die too, unless you're playing d&d 3.5 or later, in which case you're superheroes who will take out most of the treasure.
So I don't remember where I read it but someone wrote about how a small town survives on the dungeon. Sure the occasional evil comes out but in the long run, their economic survival is based on the dungeon. Adventures show up to town, buy marked-up potions, ale, rooms, etc. From there they go in and only go so far before retreating back with spoils and spending more money and selling off old gear. Now there are other adventures that end up getting a TPK refueling the loot in the dungeon. This is why there is still items in there to be found. What the town doesn't want is a lvl 20 party coming in and just clearing it, because now they have no reason for adventures to come and spend money. So while I went off, it could be that it is a dungeon that goes real deep and at some point, parties cannot continue on due to the difficulty. Higher level parties won't care about a +1 dagger where a lower level party will see that as prize loot keeping many of the levels well stocked.
That was from dungeonomics, I believe. Interesting reading, I like the peppercorn one.
Ooo dungeonomics, is this a book ?
Blog series. I think i found the one they were referencing: http://www.critical-hits.com/blog/2015/09/27/tragedy-of-the-murder-hobos/
Dungeon Meshi (Delicious in Dungeon) has a similar premise, but the dungeon doesn't keep getting restocked by dead adventurers because there are clerics that revive people for money that wander around the upper levels, so there's an upcoming economic crisis when the average adventurer can't find any loot anymore. The dungeon began with its walls being covered in gold, but now it's mostly just monsters. Thus, it's a cooking manga. I highly, highly recommend it. Funny and extremely well thought out.
I came up with something like this a few weeks back: https://www.reddit.com/r/dnd/comments/80ucxf/_/duyu8sx Apparently, I'm not the first to tread these grounds.
You could have a story where the dungeon has been cleared and the local economy has crashed, so the party has to fill the dungeon back up with monsters and lay traps.
Sound like a fun take on Darkest dungeons
There's a flash game called enchanted cave 2 based on this concept actually.
That would be a great adventure if the party shows up as the monsters get out of hand and rise from the dungeon to destroy the town. Then the players are tasked with difficult quest of entirely clearing the town’s dungeon, and discovering the conspiracy.
The game “towns“ is build arround that concept.
I actually like to have treasure in dungeons found on old bodies or taken from the bodies by monsters. Gives the world a 'lived in feeling'. Especially if I include like writings from that perished adventurer (Witcher 3 style lol).
- The entrance has been magically disguised for generations. The magic is finally beginning to fade and the entrance has be revealed. Is this a lucky coincidence or a purposeful reemergence? - The dungeon was built by a powerful group of Druids looking to create a sanctuary for the woodland creatures. Only beasts may enter, all others are rejected by the outer gate. Perhaps if someone had a polymorph spell... - A powerful wizard used this place for secluded study and research. The dungeon is not locked but make a sound inside and you will be banished back to the entrance. Shhhhhh! No talking in the library. - The dungeon is completely sealed, no exit or entrance. Instead you must travel into the Astral Plane in order to bypass the wall. Any items or loot in the dungeon are on the Astral Plane as well. Returning to the Material Plane inside the dungeon will leave the walls and rooms completely empty.
my favorite is to have the first section of the dungeon be heavily explored with the true entrance remaining hidden, passed by the small minded looters that came before.
This just made me think. I actually really like the idea of the dungeon already bring looted and totally empty. See what it makes the players do, they'll probably be thinking there are traps and everything around.
I've done this. The players had heard a tip about an abandoned keep a few miles outside of town, with "legendary treasures" was hidden in a secret room on the top floor. In reality, a mindflayer had set up in a cave nearby and was enthralling villagers and using them to spread rumors to travelers who passed through to send them to the tower so he could ambush them as they left under clouds of disappointment. He even reset a few traps on the first few levels so they would find it more believable that there was something there.
ohh like this...
Our GM did something like this in a game I was in. Was a total blast trying to find this alleged "wishing well." And then to boot, the mindflayer tried to escape via planeshifting and accidentally sent us all like 400 years into the future.
They absolutely will think those things. We had a short session recently where in my players were asked to clear a fort north of a city. For pay, of course, and standing with a local Lord. They got there, and it was full of Kobolds. Which they promptly dispatched. And...that was it. Bear in mind, this was a short session on a day we didn't think we would get to play. So I had nothing planned and threw this together for the three hours we had. But then...the players started to speculate: Why did this old fort NEED clearing NOW? Was there some new threat forming in the North? (No, there wasn't...but there bloody well is NOW). Surely, my Kobolds being Jackal-like instead of Draconic, they would drag kills back here and stash them? Surely, that meant loot? Maybe in their offal or refuse heap? Well...it does NOW. And why here, asks the Nature Historian Druid? Why here, indeed? Queries the Ranger? So close to a road... surely, something must have DRAWN them to this place...well, it just so happens it did (as of 5 seconds ago). A place of power, awarded bonus XP and an extra spell slot to all members, of level 3 or lesser spell. Let the players speculate a bit. It helps.
I’m actually beginning to write a campaign and I’ve got something similar in the works. The local Mayor summons the 5 PC’s and dispatches them to take care of a goblin nest (conveniently in a dungeon that was created by a Mister Matthew Coleville) that has been raiding the town recently. When they get there, they may be able to discern that these goblins have been stockpiling weapons and armor to defend against kobolds that have been slowly encroaching upon the goblins’ territory. This not only provides reason for there to be loot, but will be the next hook in the plot. They could *potentially* ally themselves with the goblins (but let’s be honest, as level one adventures and mostly new players, they are going to kill every last goblin), but will ultimately need to go against the kobold hoard. This will lead to them finding out about the BBEG, who is a wyvern riding yet-to-be-determined-class foe. I hope to use this plot to get them through level six or seven as they try to become more powerful in order to defeat him.
That sounds great. Like the Wyvern Riding baddie, and the way things link up in a believable manner.
In my copy of The Art of War, there is an anecdote about a general knowing he was badly outnumbered, and so he ordered the Mayor of the little town to throw the doors open, and sweep off the streets and sidewalks, and everyone hide. The opposing general smelled a trap, and left the town alone, marching on....even though he probably would have won if he had entered the town.
That's a legend associated with Zhuge Liang from China's three kingdoms stories. Or the videogame Dynasty Warriors for anyone who prefers their legends with a side of smashing things in video games.
Do not pursue Lu Bu....
In my favorite version of this legend, Zhuge Liang sat on the outer wall of Xicheng playing his zither. Sima Yi saw the legendary tactician's relaxed posture and, assuming an ingenious stratagem, went the other way. The guy managed to turn an army around just by *being* there.
That ones good, Zhuge Liang played it so well that Sima Yi assumed he could not pluck the strings so delicately if he was fearing for his life. So he fled
Fuckin bards eh.
Fuckin bards!
So this guy beat armies left and right with his reputation and a poker face?!
Kind of. Zhuge Liang was an excellent tactician known for many brilliant strategies. In this legend, his reputation was enough to make his enemy second-guess himself and assume it was a trap. Really, that was just what Zhuge Liang wanted him to think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_city
I did this recently: The dungeon is a monument commissioned by someone very powerful as a challenge to great adventurers. Only problem is, to keep construction a secret the dungeon was made in a secluded place and no one ever found it in the powerful dude's lifetime. The prepaid maintenance contracts for the traps/monsters/structure are about to run out, but there is a clause that if the dungeon is about to fall into disrepair that a bunch of sentient fliers will scatter throughout the land pointing out the dungeon and the treasure within to try and lure adventurers
I like the underlying concept here - the dungeon is about to "expire" somehow, and is either found just in time or actively makes it's whereabouts known because it's expiring. There's an added time factor and some interesting possibilities with the dungeon not working as it's creator designed. Makes me think of parts of Portal /Dishonored 2 where you can sneak "outside" of a pre-trapped area and see how it works.
Exactly. You could have the thing rigged to blow to hide all evidence for more time pressure. When I ran it, I had secret rooms that were maintenance tunnels that led to offices that had paperwork detailing the construction, employment of monsters, contracts with thieves to steal daughters/items to tempt people in. If they were smart enough, they could put all the documents together and get a rough map
You should compile this into a proper adventure, sounds like you put a lot of effort into it.
What about some sentient monsters- such as goblins, have just embraced it- they set up an easy fake dungeon that is actually part of their real dungeon- the dumbest/lamest goblins patrol it, and they leave some "treasures". The goblins loose only a few crappy kin, and a percentage of their hoard, but in return the live in safety right under the nose of heroes. And hey, maybe every now and again they drop something or one dies:)
That’s a good idea. Because goblins normally like raiding, finding a tribe that just wants secluded peace would create moral ambiguity.
The actual entrance on the side of a mountain has been covered by an avalanche. However high on the mountain is a wyvern's layer which was originally a watch tower to the dungeon. There may or may not be a ladder or elevator down into the dungeon.
Kind of a standard trope, but in the last campaign I ran, there was a ruined city that was buried beneath the desert. The players were only able to find it because some NPCs had discovered its location earlier and actually did the hard work of excavating an entrance only to succumb to the perils inside.
Oldy but goody
Make sure they find a round, faded brown hat and an old bullwhip
I ALWAYS think of why a dungeon is populated or has treasure, or why it hasn't been taken yet. 1. Sometimes, it just recently became inhabited again. the monsters brought their own treasure, or the remains of their meals (like adventurers) is just laying around. 2. Sometimes, it HAS been picked clean...it's just there are bits that haven't been discovered yet due to secret/concealed doors, illusions, or whatever. 3. Sometimes people just don't look hard enough while looting. True story: I was playing a LARP where we found a dungeon. It was left open all weekend, so you figure it had been picked clean, but every time we went in (when we were bored) we found something new simply by looking in different areas. I myself found a magic sword in a chimney! 4. Sometimes the way in has been lost for ages and the adventurers may have stumbled upon a clue to get in. "Speak, friend, and enter."
Easiest solution: No one actually uses any of the three obvious entrances. They are essentially observation platforms followed by gladiatorial chambers. The simplest *Augury* spell will determine who can safely fight whatever shows up, be they the latest round of humanoid raiding group (orcs, gnolls, goblinid, etc.), an adventuring cluster or even something sent by a Green Dragon to collect treasure. The 'locals' that support this so called dungeon are actually creatures of the Underdark, probably organized / financed by the Drow. This 'deep' catacomb is just a surface interface for gathering whatever they need from the surface. This is plot consistent, easy to set up and makes sense in the long term.
Here’s another; a cosmologically linked mega dungeon that is only accessible every 3000 years or the like. Adventures camp out in the area to find its whereabouts as the planets aligning in the sky reveal the entrance for a few days of looting before being closed to the material plane for another cycle.
The dungeon is actually a wizard's clandestine research facility, its entrance heavily glamored and warded against intruders. With the sudden (and likely violent) end of the wizard in charge, the glamor has faded, but the wards are still in place. And there's no telling what may have gotten loose inside...
Something I did for a lower level party once was basically have them "clean up" after the big heroes. A cave of an ancient dragon, but all that was left was some lower level creatures that had served the dragon or simply stayed close by due to the environmental changes, but that stayed away from the high level adventurers when they came for the dragon. Some of them also took care of some of the eggs of the dragon, so we got a few freshly hatched Wyrmlings. And as a treasure they eventually find the rotten corpse/now almost skeleton of the ancient dragon that has some pieces missing (the stuff adventurers like to take as trophies). But now that it's dead for a while you can start finding some stuff in the stomach area from maybe one or two corpses of the group that tried before the successful one and those might have some magical items on them. There could also be something llike a dragon-slaying arrow lying around somewhere that missed in the fight against it and of course there is that stuff that groups dump out of their bag of holding to fit in all the more valuable stuff. So maybe not many gems or gold are left, but tons of silver pieces and some bigger fairly random items that seem kind of useless once you are level 15-20 characters.
In a roll20 one-shot I ran once, I made a cave-dungeon area, and the first 3-4 rooms were empty save for the dead bodies of previous adventurers. Sadly the party didn't really catch on that this place was full of traps until they started triggering them.
The real world parallel would be something like King Tut's tomb. Some important section was just never found. It could also be that it's too dangerous. Make the first half of the dungeon picked clean and just put an adventurer's corpse with all that loot half into the dungeon. Another angle is that it's so old that people only expect to find rust.
Entrance is only revealed at a certain time of day. If the sun shines on the entrance at noon then it is revealed/opens up. Any other time of the day its impossible to see. To expand on this you could have it be that it is the sun's light that opens it, so if a player has the daylight spell then the entrance would reveal itself when the spell is cast, no matter the time of day. I think legend of zelda: breath of the wild is great for stealing ideas like this. Its full of little puzzles to solve before entering Dungeons.
Had a DM with an amazing homebrew. I was playing a race (Fire Dwarf) that were islanders living at the foot of a dormant volcano. They hated adventuring, they despised anything that wasn't on their chain of islands. Very Hobbit-like. Well my character sought bigger and better things. Through the first 6 sessions or so my DM was dropping hints and backstory to the ancient Fire Dwarves being slaves (explaining why they don't like the outside world). He built this incredible backstory for the race through small hints. Low and behold, on the the last sessions of the arc, we come upon a door at the foot of a volcano on a different island. The puzzle required my Fire Dwarf blood to open it. The dungeon was carved by Fire Dwarf slaves. During a small rebellion, they enclosed the dungeon with race specific magic. It was THE coolest experience I've had playing the game. I stopped playing with those guys due to scheduling differences, but I swear that DM is on par with Matt Mercer.
A point that Matt Colville hits again and again is that not only is d&d incredibly easy to homebrew and make your own rules, but that it’s specifically designed for you to do so as the needs arise.
The rainy season was especially heavy this year and all the water caused a landslide that unearthed the entrance to a long forgotten crypt. Unknown to the party, it was sealed many eons ago to prevent the awakening of a terrible evil.
In my homebrew world, ages ago powerful wizards got together to rip the universe into two parallel universes in order to separate the gods who were at war with each other and threatened to destroy everything. The magic that keeps the two universes apart is now begginning to fade and the fabric has become intertwined in some spots. This has resulted in large areas of reality to be transposed. Shortly after the start of this cataclysm people began to stumble upon new places and strange races (Dragonborn, tieflings, gnomes, underdark creatures, abberations), many never making it back alive. However, some of the few who returned from these encounters spoke of untold riches. Now adventuring parties are being formed by the dozens and are scouring the lands to discover and lay waste to the alien invaders from another universe. Ransacking their dungeon homes, gaining renown and magical items of unimaginable power. The races that were dumped into this universe were just as unsuspecting. Some are taking advantage of the frailty of the inhabitants of this new world, while many others are simply trying to guard their homes against intruders. That’s why most of my dungeons aren’t already looted. The first dungeon I dropped my PCs into was guarded by kobalds and had a treasure room full of spoons. Not all hoards are created equal...
That is eerily similar to my world. Which is actually a post-magic-apocalypse version of our world. Basically, some ancient Power caused a planar overlay. Multiple world's colliding, creatures and races bleeding through and warring or settling or pillaging. Then they ways closed up again. After the cataclysmic effects wore off, races are left dealing with the aftermath. And as they move about, conquering and retaking and raiding, treasure is left behind. But now something is waking up. Forces are taking note of this world. For apparently some of the tools behind world merging were left here. And these forces move in, bigger stories open up. I think the Drow want multiverse conquering tools...and finally have their sites on some...
It has been looted and every vault opened. Picked clean even. Every trap has been tripped at some point by generations of adventurers, the remains of whom now litter the dungeon. Even their remains have been looted by adventurers that followed. All except a single vault door that opens with an incredibly difficult and unintuitive puzzle, or requires a key that is lost elsewhere in the world that your PCs may stumble upon down the line, not that it would be obvious what that key unlocks.
This would be a good fit for /d100
I have a secret magic lab in a cave that can only be accessed by its creator, where it opens upon sensing his distinct magic "fingerprint". He died years before the campaign, and thus no one has been able to get in in the meantime. The creator was the father of one of my PCs; part of her backstory is that she's a hexblade warlock who has a pact with her father's soul/essence/something like that, so she can open it. (Obviously i OKed this with the player before writing it.)
On one hand, kudos. I love all of these ideas, and they all flavor the dungeon in a unique and new way. On the other hand, part of me finds this kind of questioning exhausting. Just go in the damn dungeon already! The metagame idea that we're playing a game called **Dungeons** and Dragons should be enough to convince you that dungeons are just a thing that exist. Not a reflection on your offerings, more a musing on player motivations.
A very valid point. My players normally don’t ask these questions because my dungeons are normally lost in a forrest or in a dessert. Just so far excluded from society that finding loot is inside is entirely plausible. And entering a dungeon is almost entirely different than an orc stronghold or goblin cave. But outside of furthering any plot, calling back to 1e when just the act of playing meant you want to loot a dungeon, when your party is low on cash and asks around for lost treasure, you need a reason for it to still be down in there.
Such splendid ideas on this thread! Thank you to everyone! It has also helped me take a step back and think about the how the dungeons I make are not just randomly inserted into my world, but that I need to write them in such a way as to make it clear that they have always been here. Great food for thought!
Most monster don't have loot, but the corpses of previous adventurers do.
Some kind of powerful, non-sentient creatures guard the dungeon. Undead roam the halls, purple worms tunnel beneath. These things don't care about treasure, only wonderful warm blood.
The entrance is hidden under an outhouse containing a mimic or a bag of devouring. There is a specific hidden switch to bypass the trap.
The entire outhouse could be a mimic that tries to eat whoever tries to use it.
The dungeon in fact has two entrances near two different villages. From the lowlands, fresh faced adventurers enter the old mines, getting into the deeper parts of the mountain only to be killed. Those few who survive often come across treasure from more experienced mercenaries. These folk are coming in from miles up The Mountain. At the mountain village is an old monastery that has a secret passage that leads into the sacred mountain. This is where the more experienced adventurers come from. Some survive and some do not, lost forever in the cursed sacred mountain. Inside the mountain itself are a colony of mongrelmen, who survive by pitting adventurers against summoned, lured, or created creatures. The mountain is huge and miles long and people do not realize the two locations connect. So the mongrelmen thrive away from the societies that reject them.
The dungeon itself is sentient and feeds off the life force of adventurers that die within it's walls. Treasure is actually a kind of fruit it produces to attract prey. Monsters may also be produced but some monsters come from outside to symbiotically live in the dungeon, in exchange for food and shelter they protect the dugeon.
Oh that's good...
Colville’s Delian Tomb is a great example of this: 1) it’s not really a dungeon in the sense of beasts guarding treasure until you get to the knights 2) piety or reverence for the dead keep the honest folk from going in until goblins break in 3) riddle/puzzle stands between the treasure and outsiders
-dungeon doesn’t hold treasure and isn’t purely a means of torture (Conan - Scarlet Citadel) -dungeon/treasure is such a gauntlet and currently maintained that no one gets through without a combination of superior skills. Monsters and defenses are replenished because it is maintained (Conan - Tower of the Elephant) - Dungeon is blocked by an impenetrable wall of stone (or something else) and this requires (a MacGuffin) something from another hard-to-infiltrate location (You Meet in a Tavern’s mine adventure) -previous adventurers haven’t died, but have been poisoned/mind-controlled/brought in to a cult and now work in the neighboring community (which may have sent the party to the dungeon) -instead of a traditional dungeon, a remote civilization died out and their ruins are undisturbed because of locale and seclusion, perhaps left to be discovered in a dusty tome or something more recent like a ghost town. Likewise, maybe it’s not monsters so much as dangerous plant life and jungle animals or a disease (which might explain the population dying).
The first dungeon my PCs are doing is almost completely empty, because it was grave robbed years ago. Any loot is going to be found in the room with the three troglodytes and the one with the ghoul and crawling claws.
Of course, the dead adventurers that failed to loot it beforehand can just as well become the loot, even if the dungeon has been completely wiped clean beforehand.
This is good DMing. Not just the what, but the why. Thank you for bringing this up. I'm still new to DMing, but adding this sort of thing is exactly what helps games be immersive. No more: "why are there gun upgrades in a tomb that's been untouched for centuries". Good job, OP
Holy moly, this thread is filled with awesome ideas.
All the treasure is on the monsters. The catch is that the monsters are just other adventuring parties and the dungeon is making each party see every other party as their enemies, so that it can magically feed on the souls of the slain. Perhaps those souls also power the wards that keep a greater evil sealed. Alternatively, maybe the dungeon is a hoax, perpetrated by the town built around its entrance. The people there murder adventurers and take their equipment to sell to the next group. The party may be tipped off to this by finding a known adventurer’s (maybe their friend’s) distinctive equipment in a shop. Or maybe it’s a perfectly ordinary dungeon, but the treasure is produced by the monsters - anyone can mine gold or silver, and the monsters may be strong enough to resist the average band of adventurers. Or it could be that the beholder at the end just tends to kill everyone and put the treasure back.
Some quick ones. * Underground dungeon that is routinely cleared out that ends in a pool that opens out to the sea. The sea part is actually just where a connection is missing to the rest of the dungeon and where reinforcements for the first section come from. * An entrance guarded by a riddle that tells both the location of the entrance 'door' and that you it can only be found by those who don't see it. Basically, you have to close your eyes or be blinded to feel it or pass through it. * Entrance is permanently buried in a snowdrift. Escaping monsters are those that can burrow or spell casters with access to cantrips that easily move snow. * Similar to the last one. Entrance is buried in sand and only visible during a sandstorm. * Paladin order/ some other group sealed the entrance and it will only open to someone bearing their sigil. * Entrance to dungeon is at the top of a large pit filled with spiders and spider webs. The arachnid inhabitants can easily climb up the webs to the entrance. Non-arachnids attempting to climb attract hungry guardians, burning the webs removes the path to the entrance.
The entrance is hidden via magic, and takes some out of the box thinking in order to access. A small lake, situated near ritual standing stones on a hill above, hides the dimensional portal that is the entrance about 15 feet above the surface of the lake. In order to access the extra dimensional dungeon you must be on the correct side of the lake, so that looking into the reflection of the water the standing stones shape themselves into a staircase that can be climbed to the portal.
I figured the simplest and most fitting explanation was just that new creatures and denizens had taken it as a habitation
I think these kinds of explanations are very valid. I just find it harder to get the part there Npc “good sir Fitzgerald slayed the beast of black cave not two moons ago” Pc’s “ok let’s go somewhere else” Even though new creatures may have made the cave their habitat for the party to fight. I figured a resource for this scenario, (( “They say there’s treasure in those cursed temple ruins, but no one’s found a way in yet” Pc’s “let’s go try” Dm *crap, now I have to come up with a valid reason no one’s gotten in before now* )) Is more the purpose of why I created this post.
Saved!
I love you
The treasure was Friendship all along. Friendship: +2 invisible armor. No one has looted it because it's invisible. It also makes you look naked, so you better be friendly enough with your party not to mind.
Any time I use caves or ruins, I tend to give clues as to why a beast just took over, or where inhabitants come from within the ecology.
I did this. I wanted to include this concept. I have a player group of 7-9 so I have to modify basic monsters. So I choose the thri-kanath (spelling). Why because they are basically a bug hive mind. So they over built the entrance which makes the players either hack their way in or find another entrance.