Microdungeon: The Chamber of the Nautilus

A "microdungeon" is a really small adventure that should take any group about an hour. This is written for Lamentations of the Flame Princess, but it should work easily with any historical fantasy or fantasy game. I wrote this as something to take my mind off of my larger project and to refresh my creative energy. 

from Wonderlane on flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/5691813463

This is not really a challenge or a delve. The goal with this dungeon, "Chamber of the Nautilus", is to establish an atmosphere. The feeling I'm going for in this is coastal isolation: a sort of forlorn loneliness that one gets when walking across an empty coastline. You can drop this into any coastal hex or use it as the hook to a larger adventure. 

Italicized text is useful to set the scene for either you or your players. Read as much of it as you want. This is the thematic information: sight, touch, taste, feeling and other description. 

All other rules text is in normal font. 

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The entire coastline is quiet, save for the rhythmic lull of the waves. The sand beneath your feet is still damp, shaded by the salt-slicked cliff walls. A brisk coastal wind nips at your skin. It smells of fresh vegetation and the rich tang of rotting fish. 

The coastline where this adventure takes place floods entirely when the high tide comes in, which is about every four hours. If the players are in the Halls of Polished Stone (2) or the Center of the Nautilus (6) when this happens, they will be trapped in the tides. The furthest bit of land is a good swim away. Any players setting camp for the night will have to do so above the cliffs, which can be accessed by walking around an upper path not shown on the map. 

Scale-wise, everything is close enough together that you can wing dimensions. For reference, the Center of the Nautilus (at the very middle of the spiral) is about 5 feet by 5.

1. Driftwood Piles

The driftwood piles cycle with every high tide. They always look like they form some sort of pattern, but whatever pattern they do form is impossible to discern. No other part of the beach has driftwood. 

At night, the players can hear the sound of seals barking from the coast. If they approach the noise, they no longer hear it. 

Ten feet underneath the piles are exactly thirty-six seal skeletons, piled into a mass grave. Disturbing the seal skeletons stops the noises and the driftwood from appearing. 

2. Halls of Polished Stone

After eons of water rushing in and out of this cave, the walls have degraded to smooth masonic perfection. Inside, fossils dot the walls of various ancient sea creatures. They are not anything familiar - they appear insectoid and alien. 

If one stands in this cave for more than 10 minutes, they begin to hear the sounds of deep whalesong. The songs sound like they could be understood, if only they were listened to longer. After listening for over an hour, anyone in the cave will start to make out words. They resonate deeply, and sound almost like whalesong. 

This is what they say:

koovúra yúruk kámvuunupahitih.

The language is ancient and cannot be understood except by magic. It says, "Let it all flow downstream". The words are repeated every minute. 

One particular skeleton is larger than all the rest. It looks like a large humanoid with the skull and "tail" of a whale - it looks like a mermaid, just much larger. The skeleton arcs around the ceiling of the cave and curls down one of the pillars in a frozen swimming motion. Disturbing or mining it will bring dreams of a strange whale-man-giant-mermaid flopping on a moonlit beach. The dreams appear only once, and then disappear. 

3. Nautilus Shell Door

A gigantic nautilus shell pokes out of the side of the cliff. Players looking closely will notice this detail, but otherwise it just appears like the side of a cliff with a strange smooth stone outcropping. Walking within this cave reveals a clay seal, about as big as a door and preventing anyone from walking further into the shell.

The clay seal has carvings on it: all of them graffiti. They are written in an ancient version of the language spoken in the region, and due to their age do not degrade with the constant tides. This is what they say:

"Konstanz + Aka" 

"Aurelius defecated here today."

"Koz was here."

"Hello mother."

The bottom one is scrawled more haphazardly than the others.

"Cannot walk. Whale man? (this word is almost illegible) followed me. Town nearby. Goodbye."

Digging here reveals a skeleton, cradled in the bottom curve of the shell. It has twelve ancient gold coins, remnants of some leather journal that has long since degraded, and a silver family crest. Delivering it to a local family might be worthwhile, but selling it is just as useful; it goes for about 50sp. 

The clay seal is not enchanted or locked. A good hefty whack with a sword or similarly forceful item will break it open. The inside of the seal is actually carved intricately with an intense pattern, and is completely smooth unlike the front. The pattern cannot be recreated, however, as the clay splits into too many pieces to reasonably reconstruct.

 If someone could, the pattern would still be indecipherable: staring at it for more than a minute causes one to become lost in its winding patterns. They cannot move or take actions until they are no longer fixated on the pattern. 

The inside of the shell is smooth and lacks any sand or foreign influence: anyone inside walks directly on the curvature of the nautilus shell. It is about seven feet high, and five feet wide. 

4. I keyed the map incorrectly, so this is only here for cohesion. 

5. Whale Skeleton

 A gigantic whale skeleton peeks out of the sand here. The bones are sunbleached and somehow still moist. Bits of flesh cling to the underside of the skeleton, and continue to cling forever. The skull is hollowed out slightly, and a small altar hides inside of it: there are bowls for ritual oil, and incense holders made of carved bone. The center of the altar holds an art item worth 200sp in clear view. 

Taking it does nothing. The skeleton is completely mundane, and definitely not enchanted or cursed in any way. 

6. Center of the Nautilus

At the very center of the nautilus, there is a minuscule crack in the shell. From it trickles a small amount of inky black water. It is unbelievably salty, and collects in a small pool which somehow never fills up or drains. Harvesting it causes the flow to stop indefinitely after a gallon has been drawn. 

Drinking any amount of the water causes nightmarish hallucinations that persist for 1d4 hours: the character is convinced that they are drowning or that they are being hunted by some terrible beast that they cannot see. 

The Center of the Nautilus is where you should place any sort of interesting adventure hook or item for the party.