Dungeon Dressing: Double Doors
Double doors almost always guard areas of great importance. Often throne rooms, subterranean chapels, crypts housing the remains of important personages and similarly important locations lie beyond. Thus, such dungeon features are often well-built, sturdy and ornately decorated.
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Major Features
The carving of a great, lidless eye surrounded by grasping tentacles decorate the wall above and around the doors.
The doors are banded and sealed with silver.
The doors are sealed with red wax. Dust covers them (and the floor in front of them).
One of the doors has a small door built within it; it can open independently. Medium or larger creatures must squeeze through the door.
A continual flame above the doors illuminates the surrounding area.
A heavy crimson curtain obscures the doors.
The doors are crafted from darkwood.
The doors are crafted of alternating planks of light and dark wood.
The doors’ wood is highly polished and extremely smooth to the touch.
The top and bottom of each door can open independently of the other in the same fashion as a stable door. One of the doors has a large mirror affixed to it.
Iron bands—forged to represent swords—decorate the doors (and could form part of a trap).
Intricate religious carvings surround the doors.
The doors stand atop a short flight of low, worn shallow steps.
The statues of two mail-clad warriors flank the doors.
A devil’s (or demon’s) leering face is carved into the doors and is picked out in silver.
A portcullis protects the doors. A winch in the area beyond raises and lowers the portcullis.
Many small nails are hammered into the doors. The nails form the heraldic device of the dungeon’s master.
Narrow glass windows flank the doors. They have shutters, but these are opened when the room beyond is in use.
The double doors are recessed into an archway. Murder holes pierce the ceiling above and in front of the doors.
The doors are of stone. They have nested hinges and open both in and out.
Minor Features & Dressing
A wooden stave is hammered into the ground between two flagstones. Atop it, a decomposing head sightlessly stares at the doors.
The doors’ lock has been removed. Characters can easily peer through the resulting hole.
The stone around the doors’ hinges is chipped; someone has tried to pry them out with a chisel.
The fiery scorch marks of an obviously magical explosion mar the door.
A broken crowbar lies on the floor; its tip remains wedged between the doors.
The door is locked, and the key remains in the lock (but on the other side of the door).
An open pit dominates the floor in front of the door. It is filled with trash and rubbish.
A small hole has been smashed into one of the doors at a human’s head height.
The doors are a loose fit—a large crack between the two has been stuffed with rags.
One door is open a crack, allowing a character to look through easily.
The door is old and battered; the lock is broken and falls out of the door if touched.
Several pieces of old paper have been nailed onto the door. The paper is old and yellowed and bears lists of slain foes (along with the cause of their death).
The doors have been ripped from their hinges. They now rest horizontally in the doorway and form a barricade about 5 ft. high.
The doors have been poorly whitewashed. Atop the whitewash has been painted a crude heraldic device.
Dripping water has stained the doors.
About six-foot off the ground, small holes stud both doors. They once held gems but are now empty.
Torch sconces line the walls on either side of the doors. All have burnt-out torch stubs within.
A darkness spell—cast on the door’s outer face—affects the area. The darkness does not penetrate the chamber beyond the doors.
A magic mouth spell affects the doors. When a character touches the door, the spell intones in a deep voice, “Go back. Your doom awaits within.”
An open book—the journal of an explorer—lies open on the floor near the door. The open pages bear a partially finished sketch of the doors.
Credit
This is a short system-neutral extract from GM’s Miscellany: Dungeon Dressing. The book is available in 5e, System Neutral and Pathfinder 1 editions. The OSR edition will be available in early 2023.
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