Dungeon Dressing: Entrances
Whether it be a cobweb-covered gate, a portcullis adorned with a green iron devil's face or a fissure in the stony ground belching a sulphurous smoke, the entrance to your dungeon sets the tone for the adventure.
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Secret Entrances
A mighty tree grows out of this cave-like entrance, obscuring the entrance shaft from sight.
A rock or mudslide covers the doorway.
A collapsed wagon lies across a trapdoor.
A bare expanse of sand conceals a stone slab that serves as a trapdoor.
The sunken entrance lies in a deep pool or lake. The entrance cavern is flooded, but the passages beyond rise quickly to drier caverns.
Guano or other filth covers the secret entrance.
Innumerable thick strands of spider silk render this door nearly invisible.
Canvas or burlap, cunningly painted to resemble the surrounds, stretches across the entrance.
Access to the dungeon is on the side of an overgrown ditch or moat, obscured by weeds.
A collapsed hut or outhouse hides the secret entrance.
A narrow crack in a tumbled crag leads to a cave that intersects with the dungeon.
A large flagstone or flat rock serves as a trapdoor. It is cunningly weighted and can be opened easily.
An abandoned house’s cellar opens into a long, dusty and part-collapsed tunnel.
The dungeon is accessed through a cell or oubliette in a gaol or castle.
Walking widdershins in a circle of toadstools reveals a magic opening on a nearby knoll.
A large freestanding tomb conceals steep stairs leading down into the dungeon.
A ruined shrine or folly conceals a narrow set of stairs.
Access to the dungeon is concealed within a huge clock.
The secret entrance is hidden under a mural, itself containing clues to the nature of the complex.
A banner or tapestry covers the entrance, which is within a busy hall or reception room.
Minor Features & Dressing
Large-sized, clawed footprints of some four-legged creature tracks in and out of the entrance.
The entrance has been overtaken by nature. Trees (or giant mushrooms, shrubs or other flora appropriate to the climate) partially occlude entry.
The entrance has been covered by an illusion making it appear as the surrounding landscape.
The tidy dungeon entrance shows signs of recent cleaning and maintenance.
Dense spider webs shroud the entrance.
Seven rotting humanoid heads are mounted on spears in a semicircle before the entrance. All have been roughly severed and are too decayed to recognise.
A crudely painted blue door on the side of a monstrous conifer provides a magical entrance to the dungeon. Turning the shiny brass door knob reveals a blinding aquamarine light. Travellers find themselves in a new location, when the light clears.
A cart hitched to a donkey is parked near the entrance. Booty looted from the dungeon, including old doors, torch sconces, old furniture and a large statue of a smiling elven maiden swaddled in a shawl, fills the cart. The goods can be sold for 60 gp.
Splashes of different colours paint the area near the entrance. Their purpose is not clear.
A large branch, wilting but still green, lies in front of the entrance. It could hide a hastily dug pit.
An open ten-foot-wide pit lies just inside the entrance. The pit is twenty feet deep, and iron spikes stud its bottom. The pit holds no bodies, but brown stains suggest someone fell into it at some point.
A dented helmet with a blood-encrusted feather plume lies on the ground near the entrance.
A pair of torches flank the entrance. One burns with a magical cold flame, while the other is unlit. The flame for the active torch is permanently extinguished if the torch is removed from its sconce.
A big red “X” is drawn on the floor near the entrance.
Placed facing the entrance are hundreds of eyeballs of all sizes and colours, floating in jars filled with a clear, thick liquid. They do not radiate magic.
A trail of 27 silver coins, spaced evenly, leads into the entrance. Ominous blood splatters are clearly visible along the path the coins take.
A copper coin with the number one crudely etched upon it has been wedged into a crack, crevice or under a stone near the entrance.
Faint acrid smoke periodically wafts from the entrance. It is not enough to provide concealment. Whatever creates the smoke lurks close to the entrance.
A reinforced wall of stone blocks stands across the entrance. It looks new and out of place.
Three empty, dark glass bottles lie on the floor. They smell of strong alcohol but are (sadly) empty.
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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